Step One: used the brush cutter to slash down all the weeds growing around the paddy. Mostly just for aesthetics, but also to make sure there were no snakes hiding out on the banks.
Step Two: Used my kuwa (a Japanese hoe) to stir up the bottom and loosen the paddy. Also it was to chop up some of the field horsetail that thrives where I built the paddy. After chopping and loosening, I was able to use the rake and take out a lot of the root systems. At least I hope so...
Step Three: We all took our shoes off and got into the paddy. Inside, I stretched a nylon string attached to two stakes across the paddy. This was our planting line. I broke off pieces of the rice seedlings and handed them to the kids, and we started to plant. Every 15cm we planted three or four blade bunches. The paddy soil was mostly sand, so it was hard to push the seedlings in, but we managed.
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| Bunches of 3-4 rice seedlings at 15cm spacing. |
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| The middle child loves planting |
At about the halfway point, the youngest got too bored to continue, so we decided to leave off there for the time being. Later, when I went out to take the goats up to the house, I finished the job.
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| Finished! You can see the flat of seedlings in the corner on the paddy bank. |
Found this blog by accident today and couldn't help myself from checking it out... You seem to live a very interesting life. I've always loved Japan and wanted to visit and/or live there at one point in my life. Do you grow most of your own food?
ReplyDeleteWeeellll.... I want to grow most of my own food, but things don't always work out that way. Between the wild boars, escaped goats, crows, and lack of time, I am lucky to grow one percent of our food. But I hope that I can scale that up drastically once the kids get a bit older.
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