Last week we went to the grocery store and noticed that they had started putting out supplies for the Rhinoceros beetles. We figured it was only a matter of time before the beetles themselves showed up. That prediction turned out to be true, later in the week they showed up in the stores. Of course Liam was adamant that he needed some. We complied and picked up a pair at the Takanezawa Kanseki. The first picture is Liam holding the smaller female beetle.
This is the larger male beetle.
Here is a close up of the female for comparison sake.
The beetles eat jelly. Not regular jelly but beetle jelly. It comes in small containers and you peel the top off and place them in the cage to feed them. Late one night we found out that the beetles have wings. Liam took the top off and the female tried to fly out. Fortunately her wings were too big for the cage and they hit the sides. That prevented her from flying out. The female beetle also pees a stream of urine when she is disturbed. It sounds like when you wash the car on the jet stream setting of the garden hose. I am not sure how long they live, but so far we have made it one week.
When I was in the family mart I found an Oreo green tea candy bar. I had to give it a try. Not sure how to describe the flavor. I liked it, but both children said it tasted strange.
Finally on Sunday we signed up for rice planting with the Takanezawa community center. The weather was very nice, almost 80. We met at the community center and then drove to a field. One of the local farmers allowed us to use a small field for the activity. This year I missed a lot of prep work on the fields. I will have to get pictures next year. Anyway, after the prep work the fields are flooded with water. That is were we started.
Next we were shown how they do things today. Years ago the rice was planted completely by hand. Especially after doing it in person I can say this would be long and hard work. Now days they have a rice planter.
In general it is a pretty small tractor. Especially when compared to the American tractors. All of the components were designed to just be enough, some of them were almost toylike. I think maybe it is to keep the weight down to prevent it from sinking into the mud. The rice plant seedlings are planted in trays. The position and density looks very well controlled. I did not get to see that step so I am not sure how it is done.
The seedlings are scooped out of the growing trays with a plastic sheet and then loaded into the tractor. About 12 trays of the rice plants fit in the planter at a time and 6 more are held up front in reserve.
When the tractor is loaded it is driven into the rice field. A marker for the next row is dropped (it is the little orange wheel) and the machine starts down the field. The tray on the back of the tractor cycles back and forth as the planter grabs the rice seedlings and sticks them into the mud. The farmer was able to plant the majority of the field in a very short time. He allowed the children to drive the tractor, if it weren't for that I think he would have had the majority done in probably 20-30 minutes. All this explanation is best summed up by just watching the video below.
Liam concentrating while driving the tractor.
Colleen was on the young side so she just took a ride..
After the mechanical demonstration a farmer showed us how to plant manual style. The manual method is still required to clean up the areas the tractor can't reach. First you take part of the tray of rice starts. Then you grab 2-3 seedlings and finally push them into the mud with your index, middle, and thumb. Planting one is pretty easy. The real difficulty is not stepping where you are planting and making straight lines. If you happen to step where you are planting the mud pushes away and there is nothing to push the plant into. Then you have to push the mud around with your hands in order to plant.
The children jumped in and got muddy.
The soil is very rich. Liam even made a mud ball out of it. Thankfully it did not make it into the car. Not sure were it ended up.
This picture just proves I did get in and get muddy. Kate also helped, but she took most of the pictures so as a result she is not in many. Once you get in and get dirty you can't touch the camera again until you clean up.
Another thing I have been surprised by is the shear number of frogs around the rice fields. The children spent a good part of the day catching frogs. I don't know the final tally but they caught tons. Recently I have been riding a longer route to and from work. The route I am taking goes through some of the rice fields. At night the sound of the frogs can be deafening. I will try to get some video of it, maybe next week. As we were planting the tadpoles were swimming all around in the water. I am thinking that the frogs help control the mosquito population a little.
The picture below is the finished product. These rows were planted by the tractor. They are pretty straight and consistent.
This row was done by hand. You can see the huge difference in both straightness and consistency. Of course with practice everyone would improve.
On the farm they also had baby ducklings on hand to entertain the children. At the end it was offered up for us to take some home to take care of for 20 days. Thankfully we dodged a bullet on that and were able to reject them. Maybe next year after we have been here longer and we are more comfortable.
Colleen double fisting ducklings.
After the planting was finished and everyone cleaned up we were served onigiri. The onigiri was made from the same type of rice that was grown in the same field by volunteers last year. There were 4 different flavor options. All were very good. I think I ate 5 of them. In the end there were leftovers and they were wrapped up and given to everyone to take home.
Here is Kate with Nadine and Amy enjoying mothers day out in nature.
No comments:
Post a Comment