By the time late September and early October arrived, the village of Gaijiatun once again faced a peak period of frantic harvesting.
The millet was ripe, and if not harvested in time, the grains inside would fall to the ground, beyond retrieval, and the flocks of sparrows eagerly waiting nearby meant no one wanted their year's hard work to be taken advantage of by those creatures.
So, the whole village rolled up their sleeves and got to work with heightened effort, gathering not only the millet but also soybeans, broomcorn millet, and other assorted grain, followed by rice and sweet potatoes.
By the time all these crops had been gathered into the granary, it was already mid-October.
