My Corner of Japan

Shipping Container House

2012-02-02T00:20:00.000+09:00

While this really has nothing to do with me or homesteading, I saw an interesting house near the beach today. It is made of two 40 foot shipping containers. The owner cut the sides off of them using a hand-held disc grinder and several dozen discs! Then he pushed them together and welded them tight. He cut the windows and doors the same way. And the best part is that he said that he could pay for it out of his savings, so no debt.

Shipping Container House

It got me thinking of all the cool ways that you could stack shipping containers to build a house.

The Overhang

The Breezeway

Year of the Dragon

2012-02-01T23:55:00.000+09:00

Enter the Dragon!

Like most of you, I water my bottom field with a hose siphoning creek water from the bamboo grove above my rice paddy.... wait a minute, I suppose I should have said "Unlike"... but I digress.
I have discovered that when the temperature drops to -8C, even running water freezes in the hose.
But while it is getting there, it makes some pretty cool ice sculptures!

Operation Inoshishi: Permaculture Wild Boars Update

2012-01-18T23:53:00.000+09:00

Well, it has been about one month since I began Operation Inoshishi. And I can say it has been a partial success.

Before

After

As you can see ( or maybe you can't, it is not the best shot ever taken...) the boars dug up two of the six holes. So I guess Operation Inoshishi runs at a 33% success rate.
On a side note, during the past month, the boars have also dug up several square kilometers of non-garden area, and uprooted two 4 year old apple trees.
I hate wild boars.

Seed Exchange Party!

2012-01-11T00:06:00.000+09:00

Well, if you are going to be in Takahagi, Ibaraki next month on the 19th, swing by the first "Northern Ibaraki Seed Exchange Party"

I finally did it, I got off my behind and organized a seed exchange. It was remarkably simple. I just made a quick and dirty website at Google sites, made a few dozen flyers, and started passing them out to people, and making little flags out of them and sticking them into people's gardens! Now we just have to see if anyone shows up....

If you would like to participate from afar, send me some seeds you would like to trade, and a very generalized request list, I will see what I can do!

Ice Sculpture

2012-01-06T15:50:00.001+09:00

The ice from the goat's water bucket. Just thought it looked pretty.

The Testening

2012-01-05T15:48:00.001+09:00

I finally did it. I tested the solar parabolic cooker.
However, there are some problems- it is cold outside! Five degrees, and some clouds scudding the sky. But, I figured that I should get it done.

Outside temp was 5 degrees C.

Water temperature before starting was 12 degrees

Step 1: Prepare the target. I took a 350ml can from the recycling pile and spray-painted it matte black.
Step 2: Aiming the mirror. I have two strings running in an "X" over the top of the parabola. When the shadow X hits the small X I made on the base, it is focused.
Step 3. I filled the can with water and measured the temp- twelve degrees. Then I took some string and tied it to the ring-tab. Finally I suspended it from a 1x4 just above the "X" on the baseplate.

Can in place and ready to heat.

Step 4. I made a spreadsheet to record the data and began to measure.

You can see the can shadow over the target.

There were a few clouds in the sky.

Over the course of an hour, the temperature of the 350ml of water in the can did manage to rise to 45 degrees C. Perhaps more constant vigilance in aiming could have improved that. I did have to end the experiment early. The original plan was to continue until a stable temperature was reached for 30 minutes.

Observations:

The parabola is not very sturdy. It flops around and sags, causing a very soft focus I think.
You really cannot use it in windy conditions. It will blow it around and the wind will steal heat from your target. perhaps insulating the can inside a clear glass jar would improve efficiency.
Winter is not a good time for outdoor solar cooking in this thing. The sun is so low, that it is hard to suspend your target in the focal point, due to the angle. And the cold air also steals a lot of heat.
It is fun to experiment.

So, any geeky types out there who can help me understand my data from the spreadsheet?

Also, any tips or hints, or requests for other data?

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T21:34:00.000+09:00

On Dec. 16, I wrote about my buckwheat harvest and how I planned to make "Toshi Koshi Soba" for New Years Eve.
So we did it! We made "Go-Wari Soba." Which means that it is half buckwheat and half wheat flour (the gluten holds it together).
If you want to try it, you need:

Ingredients
150g Buckwheat flour
150g Wheat flour
129g water between 20-25 degrees C.

Start with 150g each buckwheat flour and wheat flour.
Measure the water into two cups- 90g in one, 39 in the other.

Sift the flours together

Now you have 300g of flour ready to go

My helpers drizzle 90g of water while stirring with chopsticks.
Then mix it with your fingers to make it grainy.
Add the 39g of water a little at a time as you continue to mix it.
When the grains get bigger, stop adding water and make a ball.

Kneading the dough 100 times

Cover the dough and let it rest while you flour your rolling surface and get out the rolling pin.
In Japan, most serious foodies have a soba kit, with a big rolling pin and board.
I am not a foodie, I'm an eater. I use my table and a regular sized pin.

Press the dough flat with your palms.

Begin rolling the dough out. You are aiming for a rectangle.
After two or three times, roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and rotate it 90 degrees.
Then unroll it again, and continue. This should give you a relatively square piece.

When it is about 1mm thick, flour 1/2 of the sheet, and fold it in half.
It helps if you roll the sheet onto the rolling pin one last time before you fold it,
otherwise it will stretch and stick to your table surface.

Fold it in half again, (now it is four layers thick) and put it on a cutting board.
Use another cutting board as a ruler and cut the noodles about 1mm thick.
If you cut, and bump the ruler with the side of your knife, you can get a good rhythm going.

The noodles, cut and ready to boil.

Put a BIG kettle on the stove and get it boiling.

Now you need to make the soup. I didn't take pictures of it, but it is so easy.

Ingredients:

6 cups of dashi-broth (made from dried bonito flakes, or "Katsuobushi". Look in an Asian Grocery. Most people use prepared granular bullion)

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp of mirin

1 tsp of sugar

1 skinless chicken breast cut in bite sized pieces.

Dump it all in a pot and boil it until the chicken is done.

By now the big kettle should be boiling.

You will need a large bowl, with a smaller colander inside it, and a steady stream of cold water into the bowl.

Divide the noodles in four (I like to put them into the four bowls that we will use to eat with), and get ready, because this part moves fast.

1. Drop 1/4 the noodles into the boiling water, and stir it a few times to make sure the noodles don't stick to each other.

2. When the noodles float to the top and the boiling resumes, count to 15, scoop the noodles out, and put them into the colander. Rinse them lightly, drain, and transfer them to the bowl you will eat out of. (try one noodle to see if it is done to your preference, you can then adjust the time)

3. Repeat steps one and two for the other 3 bowls.

4. Ladle some of the soup into the bowls over the noodles, maybe sprinkle some green onions and tenkasu on top, and dig in. After finishing the noodles, put a ladle of the water used to boil the noodles into your bowl and drink it dry.

A bit thick and thin, but delicious!
(We didn't have any green onion)

Radiation Test- Passed!

2011-12-28T22:37:00.000+09:00

I went to city hall with a liter of water from our well, and we passed the test!

Clean Water

Less than 30 Bq/kg of Cs-137, Cs-134, I-131, and K-40 were present in our well water.

Whew, that is a load off our minds.

Sometime after the New Year our friend will come and measure around the house and gardens with a handheld geiger counter. Then I will feel even safer (I hope).

Dried Persimmon Taste Test

2011-12-21T17:00:00.001+09:00

Hoshi-Gaki or Dried Persimmon

The Persimmons I dried this year are nearing completion- So on Saturday, the kids and I decided to have a nice little snack and some genmai-cha (green tea with toasted brown rice). It was a very Japanese morning snack. Quite lovely. The persimmon had a leathery skin- kind of like a fruit leather, but the inside was very sticky and sweet. It tasted a lot like a rather juicy date. And the contrast with the bitter green tea.... fabulous!

I think this will be a Saturday tradition as long as they hold out.

That is a healthy snack.

Red Zinger = Brilliant Yellow Fertilizer

2011-12-20T17:00:00.010+09:00

I think most of my readers know I use diluted urine as fertilizer. Well recently I have been drinking enormous amounts of Celestial Seasoning's Red Zinger tea. I love that stuff. Well, I don't know if it is just me, but Holy Moley that is some brilliant yellow! Looks like I have been drinking highlighter pen ink!

If you really want to see what color it is, I am almost ashamed to admit I actually took a picture of it before diluting it.

Operation Inoshishi: Permaculture Wild Boars

2011-12-19T16:30:00.000+09:00

Random Boar Damage- this was a nicely sculpted slope.

While doing some year-end cleaning of the bedroom, I came across Gaia's Garden, by Toby Hemmingway again. I do love that book- it really got me interested in Permaculture when I read it 7 years ago. Anyway, I browsed through it and re-read the passage about the "quail tractor" he made by moving a bird feeder around to where he wanted to plant the next year. The quail would come to the feeder, and scratch and peck under the feeder to get the loose grains. By doing so they also fertilized and ate most of the weed seeds, leaving a nice bare area to plant flowers or some vegetables in.
I have decided that since the wild boars are coming to my garden anyway, I can try and get some use out of them. They come in and root around randomly- Maybe I can pursuade them to work a specific area?

This will be my new paddy next year

Phase 1. I dug six 30cm deep holes (one foot) with a posthole digger- about one meter apart. The area is going to be next year's rice paddy- I need to get all the roots and stuff out of the way, but it is a beast trying to dig them out.

Phase 2. I took the kitchen food scraps out and put them into the holes, and scattered just a little around them.

Ummm.... slops... Come and get 'em!

The idea is that the boars will smell the delicious scraps, not be able to reach them, and then root around to dig them out of their fairly deep holes. I have no idea if this will work, but if you can't beat them, use them I say.

Which brings us to Phase 3. If they do decide to help out, after I get enough use out of them, I will have my friend trap them. Steal my sweet potatoes, taro, carrots, and fall potatoes- I'll show you! Muhahahahaha!!! (Besides, with the fewer hunters since the nuclear accident, we need to thin out their numbers. The populations more than double each year without thinning....)

Liebster Award!

2011-12-17T00:12:00.003+09:00

A few days ago, my blog friend Dan RM gave me a Liebster award and some wonderful PR on his blog, Circle of the Sun. I was very happy!

If you don't know what a Liebster award is (I know I didn't until a few days ago), here is a little copy-paste from a past recipient:

The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. ‘Liebster’ is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. What a gift to be awarded with such kindness! Now for the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all – have fun!

So I want to say a big "Thank you!" to Dan, and nominate my five picks. (I really wanted to nominate Walden Effect, but I am sure that any blog that well written will have way more than 200 subscribers.) In no particular order:

1. El Diario de Kurikindi. A Japanese woman living with her family in Ecuador- The permaculture-natural agriculture learning center Kurikindi. The blog is in Japanese, but recently online translators are getting better and better. From Solar dryers to humanure toilets (Ah, a fellow humanure composter!)

2. Woodhenge Self Reliance Campus. If you ever need to build something from scrap- or make a working submersible pump out of two boxes of spaghetti, an altoids tin, and four pieces of juicy-fruit gum (just kidding, you need a bit more than that) this is the place to come. This guy can do anything.

3. Keith C. Blackmore. A good friend and great indie writer. Kids books, fantasy, and what can I say- Zombie horror stories- I love them! The character he introduced in his short story collection "Cauldron Gristle" is now the feature of a new book- "Mountain Man." I love indie authors and their affordable books.

4. Baba Capra. Lots of humor and recipes from an opinionated but obviously wonderful person.

5. The Year Of Mud. Ziggy built a house out of dirt on an ecovillage in Missouri. Tons of information about building with cob, reciprocal roofs, and general natural building of all kinds. I love this place. Especially the step by step building of the cob house- with all the learning curve mistakes documented as well. If you ever dreamed of living in a hobbit house- this blog can help you build it.

There you have it- my five picks. Check them out.

Buckwheat Harvest 2011

2011-12-16T23:17:00.001+09:00

This year, I grew some buckwheat in the garden. I think it was a success. I ended up with one kilo of unhulled buckwheat. Not too shabby.

Buckwheat sheaves drying in early November

Growing buckwheat is quite easy. After planting it on August 15, I only weeded once, and thinned the stand at the same time. After that, it just grew (with a few waterings of diluted urine of course). And man, did it grow! After the weeding, it went to canopy in just a few days and shaded out most of what was below it. Then came the long flowering period, with lots and lots of bees. And by October 30, it was ready to harvest (But I was busy for a few days and finally got to it on November 2.)

To harvest the buckwheat, you just need a hand sickle and some long straw, or string.
1. Grab a handful of stalks near the base, and cut them with the sickle. Quite a few of them will break off, buckwheat stems are very brittle.
2. When you have a generous handful, take a few long straws and wrap them around the base twice, twist them two or three times, and tuck it under the band.
3. When you finish binding, stack the sheaves stems down along a fence, or drape them over the top rail.
4. After a week to ten days, they should be dry enough to thresh.

For the buckwheat I grew here, I threshed it by hand. It is not so hard- just grab a bundle and cut/untie the band. Then close your gloved fist around a few stalks at the base and pull it through your fist. The seeds will pop off onto the tarp you have of course laid on your threshing floor. Continue for longer than you thought it would take, and you have a bundle of buckwheat stems, and a lot of seeds and trash on the tarp. If you have a few sunny days coming up, dry the buckwheat and chaff for a few days, but you can winnow them right away if needed.

You need moving air to winnow effectively. If there is no wind, you can use a fan. I placed a cardboard box in the middle of the tarp, just below my fan. Then I slowly sprinkled handfuls of seeds and chaff. The trash mostly blew away, and I had a box full of fairly clean seed. So I did it again, and again.
Finally, I had one kilogram of buckwheat. I have a plan to make a hopefully more effective winnower from some cardboard boxes- look forward to that project next year.

I finally spread the seeds thinly in a shallow cardboard tray and have them drying indoors. I stir them occasionally. The plan is to make soba noodles for the traditional "Toshi Koshi Soba" on Dec. 31. The tradition comes from how busy the Japanese housewives are making "Osechi" (a special New Years boxed lunch) for the extended family at year end. The housewives prefer to make something easy and quick on New Year's Eve. It is bad luck to not eat all the noodles, so don't make too many.

The buckwheat patch is now resting until spring (I forgot to order cover crop seeds). What do you think I should put in there next? We went from: weedy pasture-potatoes-buckwheat-fallow- ????

Season's First Hard Frost

2011-12-10T07:55:00.000+09:00

Well, it is official. After one or two very light patchy frosts, a hard frost has descended upon us. All the paulownia leaves fell off the tree to make a carpet of enormous leaves below it. Yesterday it still had a full crown of green, this morning I watched the leaves drop off seemingly by light pressure as the sun's rays hit it.

-4 C ! (-4x9=-36/5=-7.2+32=24.8 F)

The carpet of pawlownia leaves

The Nasturtiums are maybe down for the count this time.

Persimmon Season

2011-12-08T22:00:00.000+09:00

Well, it is the tail end of the persimmon drying season. A friend had some drying under the eaves of his house. Since this year my trees had about 5 fruit, he gave me a shopping bag full. Some were apple hard, others were just bags of pulp.
I peeled the hard ones and hung them to dry, and I scooped out the pulp and pureed it for the soft ones.
So I will be making persimmon bread again today.
Man, I love persimmons!

Late November Broccoli

2011-12-07T22:49:00.000+09:00

Found this beauty in the garden the day before Thanksgiving, and didn't get around to posting it.

I love Broccoli!

Actually, I am amazed the wild boars didn't eat it. They seem to know everything else that I like...

Kabosu and Sudachi and Uses

2011-12-06T22:20:00.002+09:00

A mikan (satsuma) as big as a large orange...

I love citrus. Maybe more than the average person. I have 14 satsuma trees, a yuzu, a kabosu, a sudachi, and three kumquats. I just can't get enough! Of course, the satsuma are all pretty young, and have yet to come into bearing. There was one on the tree this year. I watched as the solitary fruit got bigger and bigger- it was the size of a navel orange! Then the goats escaped.... Papa was not happy that day....

But where was I? Oh yeah, my kabosu and sudachi trees were planted a year earlier than the satsumas, so they have come into bearing. And boy, did they ever!

Kabosu

Kabosu closeup

My kabosu was covered in fruit. I have been picking and using it since September, and there are still fruits on it. Most of the use is pretty simple- making Kabosu-ade, squeezing it into soda water, or making margaritas. We used some on some fish too. Wonderful stuff, this Kabosu. Usually they are used when still green, but the cooler fall weather turned them orange. Still taste the same.

Sudachi

The other tree that is bearing as well is the Sudachi. A sudachi is like a lemon I think. It has a nice, thick peel that you can use for zest, or you can boil it down with some sugar to make candied Sudachi. That was so good. My simple take on the recipe? Quarter the fruit, peel and all. Cut 5mm slices. Weigh it. Add that weight of sugar and the fruit into a pot with 100ml of water. Boil it down until it is ambrosia.

Sudachi also work well in soda water or any cocktail that would use a lemon or lime. Like the kabosu, they are traditionally used green.

What do you think? Any ideas on how to use up this bounty?

Solar Parabolic Cooker Part 1: The Makening

2011-12-05T22:00:00.000+09:00

(yes, I know "makening" isn't a word. But I couldn't resist)

I have always been fascinated by solar energy. So one day I was browsing around Solar Cooking.org's website, and when I took a look at my scrap pile, I realized that I had enough to make a very nice solar parabolic cooker.

The plan I chose was the 12 sided Parvati cooker because I love parabolic dishes.
I converted the measurements into metric and doubled all of them. Then I cut out the template from some cardboard.
After weighing the pros and cons of cardboard, I decided to build the cooker out of foil covered 1.2mm veneer plywood, of which I had a nice stash of. You could probably salvage some cheap veneer siding from houses that are going to be demolished. You don't need to go and buy it.
So, I traced the shapes onto the plywood and cut them out with a utility knife. Since I was using plywood which won't bend so well, I cut out each segment. It took a few passes, but it was a clean cut.
After cutting out all the pieces, I had 12 each of the large, medium, and small.
I thinned out some regular woodglue with water and brushed it onto the pieces and covered them with aluminum foil.

The outer panels ready for foil

Joining the middle panels with black fabric tape

After they dried for a few days, I began to piece them together with fabric tape.

The curve took shape as I joined them together.

After joining, the first part of the parabola took shape

Then I attached the largest pieces one at a time. When the final piece was completed, it was much sturdier.
Last, I cut a disk of plywood the size of the base, covered the center with foil, and glued it to the bottom. Now it was quite sturdy.

And then I waited for sun. And waited, and am still waiting. Stay tuned for part 2- "The Testening" and part 3, "The Cookening."

Fixing The Maul

2011-12-04T22:00:00.001+09:00

The head came off the maul the other day. Thought I should fix it.

I cut down the top of the handle about 3cm. Then I used a plane to shave off some wood so the head would fit.

After getting it on, I used the small wedge and drove it in with my hammer.

It still sticks up a bit, but not too much.

It worked fine when I tested it.

Estimating Wood Needs

2011-12-03T21:31:00.002+09:00

Since we started heating with wood, I have never known how much wood we burn in a year. I am always splitting more, and never have time to count cords. So I came up with a way to estimate how much wood I need in a year. And then, lo and behold, my favorite blog "Walden Effect" had a post on their wood supply.

So I thought I would share my method. This works with any kind of wood, I burn mostly cedar and cypress (gasp!). Because all wood has the same energy per kilogram. It just takes more pieces and chimney cleaning to burn softwoods.

Step 1. About how many days will you use your woodstove? It doesn't have to be exact, but it is better to over than under estimate. Here we usually burn from mid-November to mid-April. So 5 months. 5x30 is 150 days.
Like I said, this is not rocket science.
Step 2. How much wood do you use every day on average? An easy way to figure that out is to fill your woodbox/rack in the morning, and count how many pieces of wood are in it. The next morning at about the same time, count again and subtract. We burn an average of 30 pieces of wood per day. The more days that you count it, the more accurate your estimate will become. Multiply your number by the heating days. In my case: 150 days x 30 pieces = 4500 pieces of wood. But who wants to count to 4500 when you are splitting? Not me.
Step 3. Go to your woodpile and count how many splits are in a square foot of face on your woodpile. (Yes, that is right, Mr. Metric says count in feet. The numbers are easier to imagine in this case) We average about 15 splits (I split quite small, since I procrastinate so badly- they need to dry faster than other people's wood). With 32 square feet of face on a cord, that comes to 480 per tier. If you cut to 16 inch lengths (three tiers/cord), that is 1440 pieces per cord. If you cut to 12 inches like me (four tiers/cord), that is 1920.
Step 4. Divide your needs by the pieces/cord. For my case 4500 pieces/1920 pieces = 2.34375 cords. Let's round up and say two and a half cords.

Or you can just use my handy dandy Wood Needs Calculator.

So, now I should get out there splitting, 'cause I only have 1.5 cords split and stacked!

I Hate Wild Boars

2011-11-18T00:45:00.001+09:00

It all started about a week ago.
The dog started barking like mad. I thought, maybe it is just a cat or something, and went back to reading my book. But the barking continued, so I went out to check. When I got down to the dog, I heard something very very large moving away from my taro patch. Oh no... I thought. The full moon shone down on a pig about the size of a small house, waddling away from my beloved elephant ears patch... Speaking of them, WHY COULDN'T I SEE THEIR USUAL 150CM HIGH SHAPES?!!?!?!?!? I let the dog loose and he chased a pig four times his size into the bamboo.

The Taro Boar Disaster Aftermath

I hate boars.

The next day I harvested, or should I say salvaged the last 10Kg or so. I suppose 10% is better than none... It doesn't feel like it when you look at though... Then I took the dog for a walk down past the bottom garden. WHERE WERE MY FALL POTATOES??????

I hate boars.

Then I noticed that the net fence I lent our friend who is gardening on a little patch by ours...I thought:
WHERE WERE HER SWEET POTATOES?
and also
HOW MUCH CAN ONE BOAR EAT IN A NIGHT?????!??!?!? Whew, I guess he only ate about 1/5 or so. I felt a stab of jealousy that she still had at least some crop. Then I felt bad that I was jealous. I am a complicated kind of guy.

Boars love sweet potatoes.

I hate boars.

I was able to reduce some of the damage by tying up Mocha the wonder dog near the garden. He is a heck of a good mutt. He got some extra special food and a longer than usual walk.

His head isn't really that big. Otherwise he would fall over all the time.

Fava Beans and more!

2011-11-18T00:27:00.000+09:00

Well, they have come up- and despite some damage from wild boars (more on that in a later post) they are looking good!

Fava Beans poking up

Komatsuna for a windbreak

Sugar Snap Peas

My Rice For Lunch

2011-11-05T20:44:00.000+09:00

My homegrown Koshi-Hikari and my wife's "Saba no Miso-ni" (Miso Mackerel)

Well, I finally had a chance. I cooked and ate the rice.
It was so good! But I am not exactly an unbiased party.
According to my wife, who is Japanese and spent her entire life eating rice, the texture was "mochiri" (kind of springy) and the taste was different from the Koshi-Hikari rice that we usually buy. I think she is being polite when she says "different." But I loved it. The kids loved it, and the woman I love says she loves it just to make me feel good!
She is sitting behind me on the sofa and she says that I should have put the fish and rice on proper serving dishes if I was going to put the picture on the blog. So imagine the rice in a bowl, and the fish on a square plate, with the chopsticks balanced on a ceramic eggplant, with a lacquer bowl of miso soup behind them. (I just didn't want to do all those dishes)

If you want to make Miso Mackerel at home, here is my wife's take on the recipe.

Ingredients:
Mackerel (1, cut into fillets)
Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Japanese Cooking Sake (rice wine) 1/3cup
Water 1 cup
Sugar 3 tbsp
Miso 4 tbsp
Ginger (freshly grated 2 tbsp) or powdered ginger 1/2 tsp.

1. Pour some boiling water over the mackerel.
2. Bring the water, soy sauce, and rice wine to a boil, and put the mackerel (skin side up) in the pot. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or so.
3. Add the miso and boil it down until it is nice and thick.

Planting Jinenjo (Dioscorea opposita )

2011-10-31T23:19:00.000+09:00

I have no idea if I did it right, it is just an experiment.

First, I lay a piece of Moso bamboo I had split and knocked the nodes out of and checked the length.

Then, I dug a trench in the side of my garden bank and put the bamboo trough in it.

Then I filled the trench with soft soil, being careful to avoid any rocks or roots.

At the top of the bamboo trough, I put the top 15cm of jinenjo root my friend gave me, and carefully replaced the soil around it.

The theory is that the root will grow down the bamboo trough, and I won't have to dig a one meter deep hole next to the root just to get it out without breaking it.

Rice Threshing 2011

2011-10-29T22:29:00.000+09:00

My Rice- Koshi-Hikari

Well, I did it. And it feels good. A bit embarassing, but still pretty good.

As you know, this year I grew some rice. The kids and built the paddy, planted the rice, watched it grow, and harvested it.
And now it is threshed and de-hulled.
Here is the story in pictures.

I took the rice off the drying racks and carted it up to the house. That way, I could sit in the sun and work threshing the grain from the straw. I tried a number of ways. I beat it with a stick. I walked on it, but the best method by far was to grasp a few stalks in my hands, and run my fingers from the base to the head. The kernels just popped right off. Of course, this method will be too labor intensive if I ever grow rice well enough for a decent harvest. But for my harvest... Meh.

Here we have a mid threshing shot.

And a closeup of after stripping the grains. Lots of empty hulls and small bits of straw. I then spent a few minutes picking up handfuls of the grain and chaff, and rubbing my hands together to separate them.

Then I winnowed the grain by the time honored method of throwing it up in the air and letting the breeze carry away an alarming amount of empty hulls and straw. After gathering it back up, it looked like this.

And so I weighed it. 1500g. of unhulled rice. Hmm.... 25 square meters, 400 plants, 1500g of rice.... Oh, did I forget? I took it to the big machine in town to have it polished up and the hulls removed.

It came back at 1000g. Yes, my yield was 40g/ square meter.

So if 1 acre equals 4047 square meters, I would have grown 161.88 Kg. of rice, or 356.9Lbs...

(in 2001, the US average rice harvest/ acre was 6374 Lbs...)

All the more incentive to do better next year.
But I will enjoy eating this rice!

My Precious.....

Planting Fava Beans the Japanese Way

2011-10-26T23:57:00.002+09:00

This year, I thought I would try planting some things the way they say to do it on the seed packets here in Japan. Minus the chemical fertilizers of course.

It started like this after pulling all the weeds and making a compost pile in the corner of the garden.

And with a generous helping of this

donated by them,

I double dug a row one meter wide and six meters long.

I used a stake and some string to mark the edge, and with my Japanese hoe, or kuwa, I piled the soil from the sides into the middle to make the une, or raised bed. The seed packet called for it to be 60cm across the top.

Ok, what next?

Next, with my helper,

We smoothed out the top with a section of pipe,

And voila! A prepared bed for planting.

(I made another one next to it just after this picture)

After we let the beds rest for a week and let the lime mellow out, I planted two fava beans each, 50 cm. apart.

When you plant the beans, make sure to put the black ends down, and push the seed down until it is just hidden in the soil.

Here we plant them in late October-Mid November. The packet recommends putting some bamboo branches along the north sides of the bed to provide some protection from frigid North winds.

I'll keep you updated.

Three Leaf Akebia

2011-10-26T00:29:00.000+09:00

Akebia growing in a friend's backyard

Just starting to split

Open it up and enjoy the sweet pulp.

I love wild food. And this is one of my favorites! Akebi. In this case, it is an "Ishi Akebi" (stone akebia) as opposed to the "Murasaki Akebi" which is purple. Sweet pulp, seedy as a passionfruit. But you can just eat the seeds, no problem there. The only problem is that they grow so far up in the trees! I was lucky with this one. My oldest son was walking to the meeting place to go to school, when he stopped, pointed at the ground, and said "Daddy! Akebi!" Sure enough, there were two overripe ones that dropped off the vine laying on the sidewalk. So I looked up, and there were a bunch of them, some within reach! Hooray!

Akebi enjoy growing on the edge of the forest, which around here means along the roadside. So around this time of year, I keep an eye on the ground, looking for dropped fruit. Then I make a note of it, and know where to come back to in the future.

Dioscorea opposita, or Japanese Mountain Yam

2011-10-21T23:22:00.000+09:00

Dioscorea opposita

My farmer friend down the mountain grew some "yamaimo" seeds two years ago, and as I rode by on my way to work, I stopped to watch him dig them out. That he gave me one was just a super lucky bonus!
I am kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of the whole root, which was as big as my arm at least. This thing was huge!
I peeled the root, since Mayuho can't touch it because it makes her itchy. But I am fine with it. So anyway, I cut the bottom third off, peeled it, and began to grate it over a mixing bowl.

It was beautifully gooey. Just wonderful!

Then we put some soy sauce in, and dumped it over a big bowl of brown rice. Wow, that was sooooo good!

Open Sandwich, Ulrich Sandwich, Bread Baser, or Tartine

2011-10-16T09:53:00.001+09:00

I love sandwiches. I love grilled cheese sandwiches.

But I only had one slice of bread and about 3 minutes....

Behold with all proper awe and adulation,

THE OPEN FACED GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH!

Single slice of bread, buttered on both sides, some cheese...

Flip it quick

Browned cheese.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

The Darkening...

2011-10-14T23:48:00.001+09:00

Amending soil with rice hull charcoal

As you can see, the sandy soil in my garden is on the left. I put about 5cm of rice hull charcoal on the soil as you see on the top right, and mixed it in with my fingers and a small garden trowel (bottom right)
That is quite a bit darker. I am looking forward to see how it does with fava beans in it next month.

A friend of mine advises to soak the hulls in urine for a few days to let them get some nitrogen in them. What do you think?

More Rice Hull Charcoal

2011-10-14T08:37:00.000+09:00

Being the peak of the rice polishing season, I can get bags and bags of rice hulls. So I have been using them to make more rice hull charcoal for my garden.

I'm hoping to experiment with using sawdust sometime. I think that perhaps very rough sawdust, like from a chainsaw, might work. I don't know if the fine dust from a sawmill would though...

Anyway, enjoy!

The One That (Almost) Got Away

2011-10-13T08:44:00.001+09:00

After my watermelon patch gave up the last watermelon, I kind of... well, totally stopped tending it. The vines kept growing all over the place, but the weeds were growing as fast or faster.
I noticed yesterday that the weeds were about to set seeds, and I thought "One year's seeding is seven years weeding" so I rolled up my sleeves and dug in. Holy cow there were a lot of weeds. And I got in there just in time. Flowers everywhere, and a few plants had immature seed heads. Whew!

Then I found my little friend. The weeds must have sheltered him from being seen by the crows. I'll be digging into this one for lunch.

Neighborly Rice Advice

2011-10-10T18:00:00.001+09:00

The 2012 Paddy Plan

My neighbor, whose family has been growing rice in the area for (I think) seven generations, gave me some advice.

1. Use the paddy I grew in this year as a holding and warming pond next year. This means I will have to line it with either plastic or clay, and make another paddy next to it. But hopefully the water will be much warmer and the plants much stronger. I think I will use clay to line it, and darken the red clay with some rice hull charcoal.

2. Remove some of the soil and buy some real paddy soil. This is not a real option, since I am so cheap. However, there is a place up the mountain where a cattle farmer regularly scrapes off the dung and top layer of soil in his barnyard and dumps it in a ravine. I claim that as mine. The new paddy will be a bit deeper than the previous one, lined with clay, and filled with this composted manure and soil. My neighbor recommends 30cm of this. But he also said that I could just gradually increase the depth 2-3 cm each year until I get a respectable harvest. So I am aiming at 5cm for 2012. Much better than the 0cm I had this season...

Rice Harvest 2011

2011-10-09T19:38:00.000+09:00

My helper and his remote controlled tank.

I did it. Finally harvested the rice.
I have never seen such a weedy rice paddy before.
And the results are pretty disappointing. But- I am a firm believer in learning from mistakes. So I am happy.

So, to harvest the rice, I needed a "kama" or hand sickle, a handful of long rice straw to bind the sheaves, six bamboo legs and a thicker crosspiece for the drying rack, and... that was all.

Grasp the stalks in the left, and cut with the right.

So I got into the paddy, which I had dried out some time ago. I put my foot near the rice plant to be cut and using the sickle cut it off about 5cm from the ground. There are about 20 or so stalks in each clump. I did the one next to it, and the next.... until I could no longer easily hold them in my hand. Then I took three or four long rice straws and wrapped them in a band around the bundle near the base. After wrapping it around, I twisted it 3-4 times, and then pushed the twist through the band. Then I did the next one, and so on. I ended up with about 20 bundles.

Real farmers don't have to steady the sheaves with their legs. But it sure makes it easier.

Embarrassing photo of more weeds than ever before seen in a mostly harvested rice paddy.

Next, I built the drying rack. Basically make two tripods and balance a long stick across them. I made mine of bamboo.
And finally I hung the bundles on the rack to dry them.

Drying rack in harvested paddy.

I will be surprised to get enough rice for one family dinner out of this harvest. But I don't mind. It is all experience.

My rice.

Squash Surprise!

2011-10-05T23:47:00.002+09:00

So we wanted to try the squash I grew in the garden this year. The wife can't cut squash- they are too hard for her. So yours truly tackled it and soon split it with our heaviest knife. So far, so good. I scooped the insides into a shallow dish- since I wanted to roast the seeds. Suddenly, little white jumping larvae were boiling up out of the squash innards in the bowl! The wife was seriously grossed out and left the kitchen, telling me to cover the bowl or put hot water on it, or to just "DO SOMETHING!" So I put them in the microwave and zapped them. It worked. But as you can see, a few escaped to the floor. Once you could disassociate them from being inside food you wanted to eat, they are kinda cute, and funny when they jump.
A few minutes later, the boys and I were on the sofa when we saw a pair of them jumping across the floor. So I took a video. Those little buggers could jump about 20cm!

Tephritidae are a kind of fruit fly. Here in Japan these are called "Kabochamibae." Lit. Pumpkin Fruit Flies. They do a lot of damage to squash here. The adults look a bit like small wasps, and they lay eggs on or just under the skin of the squash. The larvae eat their way to the center and then go to town on the soft inner pith.

I checked our squash very, very carefully, and found no damage to the meat of it. So I scraped off an extra few millimeters and we cooked and ate it. The same with the seeds- none had any damage. They just were eating the connective tissues around the seeds apparently. Maybe they would eat into the meat and seeds if they were older. But anyway, it was pretty good. No wonder the flies liked it.

The next squash I will open up outside to spare the wife some distress.

So the way I made the roast seeds was to:
1. wash the seeds in a colander until they were clean
2. Boil them in fairly salty water for 10 minutes.
3. Put a dollop of sesame seed oil on a shallow baking dish, and spread the seeds one layer deep.
4. Sprinkle with salt and roast them at a medium high temp until they were just about to turn from chestnut to black.

Man, they were so good.

Incredible Urban Pioneers Video

2011-09-29T23:22:00.000+09:00

What these people are doing is amazing. Simply amazing!

Amazing Firewood Stack Stabilizer

2011-09-29T22:54:00.000+09:00

Now, if you are like me, you spent all Spring just happy that you didn't have to worry if you had enough wood to last all winter. Then Summer was too hot, and now, far, far too late, you are chopping like a madman. At least the weather is cool.

So we procrastinators out there have to stack our firewood to allow maximum air circulation if we want to get any kind of value out of the wood. But we all know that a long, single depth stack of wood falls over if you sneeze at it. Which is why I developed the Amazing Firewood Stack Stabilizer!

Go ahead and start stacking an eight foot long wall of wood out in the open. When it gets to about a foot high, start another a foot away. Then add the amazing stabilizer and see how sturdy your stack it! You can start a third stack to build an exploded cord (Three 8x4 foot walls of 16 inch wood, with a foot between each wall) and let the wind blow through and around the wood. The best part is, it is free! You guessed it, it is a four foot long, small diameter, relatively straight branch! Just bridge the walls with it and keep stacking above it. I found that two about two feet from each end, one at one foot, the other at three feet high makes a rock steady cord out of what was a mighty shaky exploded cord.

Bridge two stacks and make it much stronger

Vastly improved airflow through the stack

Next year I'll start stacking from early spring, I promise.

Good Morning's Work

2011-09-24T22:20:00.000+09:00

I got some stacking done today. That stack you see in the picture is 4' x 9' x 1' and the tied in stack behind it is 4'x5'x1'. About 56cu. feet, or let's see... 128 cu. feet in a cord, so 56/128=.4375 cord of firewood. Not bad for an hour in the morning.

The sawbuck I made myself out of five 1x4x8' boards, three 1/4 inch bolts, some rope, and 24 woodscrews.
Here's how:
1. Cut the 1x4s in half. Lay three of them on edge on a flat surface and fasten them at both ends and the middle with two more boards.
2. Flip over the assembly, and lay three more boards next to ribs already fastened. Then use two more boards and fasten them to the ribs. Be careful not to fasten them to the wrong ribs, or it won't open!
3. Next drill the holes for the bolts. I mad mine at exactly 30 cm (1ft) from the top of the ribs. Thread the bolts (add an extra washer between the boards) and tighten.
4. At the bottom, tie a rope to the opposite bottom boards to keep the sawbuck from opening too much when you drop a heavy log on it. I keep about two feet of slack.

There you go, a really easy sawbuck.

Rin-do

2011-09-24T21:46:00.000+09:00

Logging roads. After the typhoon last week, the logging road up the mountain across the river from the house was a bit damaged. Which was not so good for me, since I had to use it to bring some more wood down. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the bad spots before I spent an hour shoveling fill into a one meter deep rut. But here is one of the not so bad spots.

Top 6 Reasons To Wear Steel Toed Shoes...

2011-09-23T20:02:00.000+09:00

Top 6 reasons to wear steel toed shoes when splitting wood:

Yikes.

I have enough foot problems with gout and bone spurs, I don't need a cloven hoof.

"Higanbana" Lycoris radiata (red spider lily)

2011-09-23T19:58:00.000+09:00

"Higanbana" Lycoris radiata (red spider lily)

The Higanbana is a beautiful flower, but don't pick them and give them in a bouquet, since they are to honor your dead ancestors.
And every year when the higanbana blooms, we know it is time to harvest the rice.

Raining and Shaking

2011-09-21T23:20:00.000+09:00

"X" marks the spot!

Just an hour after Typhoon Roke passed over us dumping a foot of rain, we had another quake- the largest one in quite a while- 5.3 magnitude, depth 10 Km, location- almost directly under our house! Now don't worry, there was absolutely no damage, just some racing heartbeats and a groggy baby.

Talk About Erosion! (and Radiation)

2011-09-19T08:38:00.000+09:00

Well, it has been proved that sunflowers do absolutely nothing to absorb the radioactive Cesium from soil.
On the plus side, that means I can eat the seeds now.
You can see the Asahi Newspaper article here.
Our city, Takahagi has posted radiation levels on their website. So we are apparently at average levels.

The Japanese farm ministry has found the "Best" method of decontaminating farmland is to scrape off the top 3-4 cm of topsoil reduced the cesium by 97% in areas that had a carpet of grasses, (75%) in bare soil areas.

In forested areas, removal of the accumlated leaf and branch litter reduces cesium between 50-90%, depending on the age and type of the forest.

They estimate that up to 100 million cubic meters of topsoil will have to be removed and stored indefinitely as low grade radioactive waste. If the forested areas (around 1/2) are not included, that number will come down by several tens of millions. Still enough contaminated soil to fill a 55,000 seat baseball arena 40 times over...

This is why I am against Nuclear Power.

Firewood Stacking Season

2011-09-17T00:00:00.003+09:00

Despite the 30 degree C temps, Ewan and I hauled in the first very small load of chestnut windfall firewood into the house, imagining that it would dry better inside than in a big heap under a tree. Go figure.

The rack is one that my Dad and I build a few years ago at Christmas time. We had a lot of fun planning, cutting, drilling, and pegging the rack together, and it has held up wonderfully over the years. It may not be very fancy, but neither are our woodworking skills. One thing I really like about it is that we didn't use any screws or nails in it. Just half-lap joints and dowel pegs.

I think of Dad every time I put another knot on the fire. That keeps the inside of me as warm as the fire keeps the outside.

Rice Update Sept. 16, 2011

2011-09-16T00:17:00.000+09:00

Well, it is rice at least... But I am not hoping for much of a harvest. It looks pretty empty in there. Some of the heads are filling out a bit though.

Someday, my harvest will look like this though.

Rice Drying in Takahagi Sept. 15, 2011

Beautiful Flowers

2011-09-15T23:54:00.000+09:00

My winged beans are finally flowering!
That has been a long trip to get them this far.
I planted them, forgot about them, remembered them but couldn't find them in the weeds, gave them up for dead, then the squash attacked the bean trellis while we were on vacation. And then I found the beans again! Hooray!

But what a flower. It reminds me of something....

Radiation and Fall Leaves

2011-09-11T20:46:00.000+09:00

While watching "Tetsuwan Dash," one of my favorite programs on Japanese TV, I found out something I didn't know about radiation hot spots.
The show has a segment called "DASH-Mura" where the members of the "band" TOKIO go off to the Japanese countryside and farm. they have been doing it for many years now, and it was immensely popular. They keep bees, grow rice and vegetables, make pottery, restore old houses, and thatch roofs. It was a wonderful show. However, it is in Namie Town, Fukushima. About 25Km to the NW of Fukushima I Nuclear power plant. And the NW was the most contaminated fallout zone.
In tonight's show, they went back, in full radiation gear to measure levels and plant sunflowers. The first visit was on July 11. The strange thing was- it all looked so normal... That is one of the worst things about radiation fallout- you can't tell by looking at the area. You could hear the cicada, frogs, and birds. Bees were making new hives in the abandoned buildings- it all looked like a normal homestead that had been recently abandoned. Until they put the Geiger counter readings up. 10-18 microsieverts per hour. The average hourly dose is 0.34 microsieverts for Americans... 35 times.
They also measured the dose on a drift of fallen leaves. 35 microsieverts per hour! 100 times the US average!!! The drifts of course show you prevailing wind patterns. Where the leaves stop, so does a lot of cesium. So presumably, you could use drifts to identify potential hotspots to facilitate decontamination. Of course, you still couldn't live there for another 120 years or so...

Man, I Love Tacos!

2011-09-08T22:19:00.000+09:00

I love tacos. But the fat! So a while back I thought- how can I make tacos more healthy?
At first I diced an onion and put it in the pan with a little less meat. It was good. Not mind bending, but good.
The next time I put in some eggplant and green peppers, and reduced the meat even more. Very nice indeed.
This last time I had about 1/4 the meat called for on the seasoning packet, tons of green peppers, eggplants, onions, okra, and......... a bowl of short grained cooked rice! The rice blended in so well, that nobody noticed it! I don't know how it would work with long grain rice, but good Japanese rice- wonderful! So now we have relatively healthy tacos. The only thing I would do different next time is to add some chili peppers, since the veggies toned down the heat of the seasoning.

Also, if you don't have tortillas, try making a taco salad on a bowl of rice. It is fantastic! Plus, it ends up in your mouth, not on your clothes, the table, the baby's head....

Back Home Magazine Issue 114, pg 42

2011-09-08T00:12:00.000+09:00

Has the latest article by yours truly.
Pick one up, or order it at the website! Or pester your local library to add it to their periodicals. If you like reading homesteading blogs, you would like their magazine.

Issue 114, Sept. Oct. 2011, Page 42.
"Are You Prepared? Advice From A Disaster Survivor."

Rice Update Sept. 07, 2011

2011-09-07T23:55:00.000+09:00

Well, my diluted urine fertilizer test is working well. The color has really greened up, and the competing weeds are growing like crazy (That was not one of hoped for effects though).

Koshi Hikari rice, Takahagi, Ibaraki

You can see the heads are starting to get larger. I still only have about half the number of flowering stalks as the neighbors though. We'll see what happens. Harvest planned for beginning of October.

Water Source Infiltrator

2011-09-07T23:50:00.000+09:00

I water my bottom garden with a gravity fed siphon from the creek above. I mentioned it in a previous post. It had some serious drawbacks though. When the creek was muddy, the sediment would clog up the line, small leaves and twigs would get in, or the creek level changed and the siphon sucked air and ran out.... Many kinds of problems.

So I decided to make a filtered infiltrator for the supply and hopefully even it out.
A few weeks previously I had stretched a piece of conduit from the "rapids" to the bank just below. I then put a little children's bucket in a hole and had water spilling directly into it. But this had the same problems- sand and silt, leaves and trash, and that was when the whole upstream intake didn't clog up and let the bucket run dry.

So I re-thought out the problem, and came up with a solution (I hope). I took a piece of PVC drainage pipe about the same diameter as the conduit (about 90mm diameter), and began to drill holes in it. Many, many, many holes in a staggered pattern. Finally I had enough. So I drilled some more to be really sure. Then I put a plastic close weave mesh bag over the pipe, and connected it to the conduit. Step one was complete, and the water was flowing OK.

Then I built a quick and dirty sandbag dam- only about 10cm high. But that was enough to fully submerge the infiltrator.
Since then, the water has been flowing OK, even though the bag has picked up some grime on it.

Banana Update

2011-09-03T13:00:00.000+09:00

Japanese Fiber Bananas- I will try and eat one, stay tuned...

The bananas are forming. They are small and flat, still green as of yet. And they are pretty high up there, so I can't really get too close to photograph them well.

I was thinking of using the leaves of the banana for plates when we have our next BBQ party here.
You know in Japan, a BBQ is a lot different from back in the USA or Canada.
Here, we have a smallish grill, and the whole party takes place around the grill. Usually the host (but sometimes if there is a "BBQ Dad" as I like to call them, they will take over) will put the very very thinly sliced meat and vegetables on the grill. You watch, talk, drink some tea or beer if you fancy, and take a piece whenever you want. Then you dunk it in your sauce of choice, and eat it over a bowl of rice.

And I tell you, for dessert, put a banana in its skin on a cooler part of the grill, and let it turn black. Cook it until it starts to bubble and ooze out of the skin. Transfer it to a plate, open it, and put some cream cheese on it. Wow. You must try this.

Buckwheat Boy!

2011-09-02T13:00:00.001+09:00

Took this picture yesterday, you can see the boy is wearing the same shirt. The buckwheat I planted August 15th has really taken off, and is growing like crazy. I am growing it in the old potato patch. After digging the spuds, I:
1. Raked it into some troughs
2. Added leaf mould in the first and third rows, and well composted steer manure in the second and fourth.
3. Then I raked the aisles over the trenches to give them a slight mound, and planted buckwheat in them.
4. And finally, since it was about a gadzillion degrees with not a cloud in the sky, I covered the mounds with some cut ferns and grasses to give them some shade before watering.

And now, they are doing well. I can't see much difference between the compost and leaf mould, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the compost plants will have extra nitrogen and grow just a bit taller.

Behind the boy, you can see the tower of compost I am making from cutting the weeds around the garden. That is how I pay the rent for it. In exchange for cutting it back twice a year, I can farm it. And I get to keep the compost. That is about 1/4 of the cut weeds, and it is 2.5 meters high...

Rice Update

2011-09-01T22:24:00.000+09:00

My daddy is trying to grow some rice...

The rice is flowering! I am hoping for at least some crop. However, as you can see in the picture, there is a nitrogen deficiency problem. About half of the crop is yellow-green and a bit stunted. After the typhoon passes by I will add some diluted urine to the problem areas to correct that.

Rice should be a much deeper green...

I can tell that the cold spring water has really affected the growth of the rice, it is at least a week behind the neighbor's rice, which was planted the same day as mine.

Already planning next year's paddy, adding another 25 square meters and sealing the bottom with 2cm of clay! And I will somehow find enough compost to give it a good 2cm across the whole bottom. So let's see.... 50 square meters times .02m... One cubic meter of each should be enough. Of course, will I actually have the time to do such a project? Hmm....

The Heat is Driving Me Bananas...

2011-08-18T13:33:00.000+09:00

....to flowering!

Musa basjoo (Japanese Hardy Banana) flowering

Closeup of banana flower spike

Too bad that the Japanese fiber banana fruit is basically inedible. But unless I learn that it is poisonous, I am bound to try and eat some!

I'm Baaaack!

2011-08-10T22:38:00.001+09:00

Well, it was a wonderful vacation overall. The flight was a low cost carrier, AirAsia. So there were absolutely no amenities. We had to take a bus to the plane and climb the ladder. There were no movies, indeed no screens in the plane for showing any, of course no food, no beverage- even water- we had to walk from the plane, across 200 meters of tarmac to the terminal after landing, and that was OK because oh my goodness it was sooooooooooo cheap.

After flying all night to Kuala Lumpur, we waited in the McDonalds there for another 5 hours before catching the flight to Khota Bharu, in the North of Malaysia. Then we took a high speed van to the coast, and a tiny boat with twin 150hp Mercury engines on it across the straits to the islands. 27 hours after we left, we arrived at Bubbles Dive Resort. Nice place. Nothing to buy, no TVs, just clean rooms and a fabulous beach. The "store" at the restaurant had... well, almost nothing. Which was good I guess. They don't want much trash on the island, so they decided not to sell anything in plastic apparently. Works out well. We could refill water bottles for free at the restaurant and didn't need to buy any more.

While at Bubbles, we had a chance to see some green sea turtles feeding on the bottom as we snorkeled. Pretty cool. More on the trip later. I'm bushed.

On Vacation

2011-08-01T17:01:00.000+09:00

South Besar, Perhentian Besar, Malaysia; photo by jpatokal

Well, we are heading out the door in a few hours for a week in a tropical paradise. I will fill you all in when we get back from the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. Until then rest assured our good friend John will be taking care of the house, garden and livestock.

So I filled up the truck with gas...

2011-07-19T14:30:00.000+09:00

Gas prices here in Japan have been going down a bit, so I thought I would take the K-truck in and fill it up. Sure enough, 141 yen/L. Not too bad.
For you Americans out there: 141 yen is $1.78.
One liter is .26 gallons.
So the price in USD was $6.73/Gal.

What's the price like for you guys?

Tree Frog

2011-07-02T14:33:00.000+09:00

I went out to check on my satsuma mikan trees today, and there was this little buddy sitting on a leaf catching some rays. It is a Japanese tree frog (Hyla japonica). Keep up the good work little buddy, the aphids are on the march!

Japanese tree frog (Hyla japonica)

Elephant Ears Are Coming Along

2011-07-02T00:46:00.000+09:00

Taro, or Colocasia esculenta

The taro I planted last February are finally making a showing. I am really looking forward to eating them this winter. My favorite dish with them is a simple nimono that my wife makes. Some taro, shiitake, konyaku, carrots, and konbu are simmered in a sweet soy sauce and some other secret ingredients. Alright, not so secret, but she is asleep and waking her up to ask her how to make nimono when the taro are still just sprouting is a bad idea to say the least. I will give another post about it around New Years if I can remember.

At any rate, to plant them, prepare a bed with compost and lime. Dig a shallow trench and put the corms about 40cm apart. In late June and mid July hill them up- about 10cm each time. Then, when the plant yellows, carefully dig up the corms.

Not so hard, and pretty tasty.

Call them Cattails, Bullrush, or Raupo, they are Delicious

2011-07-01T15:03:00.000+09:00

Typha latifolia or common cattail

Finally, The cattails near our house are starting to send up their flower stalks. So I got my good sandals wet (don't tell my wife) and harvested two of them and decided to give it a try, ala Euell Gibbons and his book- Stalking the Wild Asparagus. I harvested them when they were still quite young, about the thickness of my little finger (that would be most people's middle finger size). The stalks are fibrous and tough as could be. It took a few minutes of twisting and tugging to finally get them off. Next time I'll bring a scissors or blade of some kind.

At home, I peeled off the husk, and tossed them in a pot of lightly salted water for 3 minutes. Then I fished them out, put just a little butter on them, and enjoyed them like corn on the cob. It was really good. Reminded me of avocado, but with a slightly grainy texture. The inside of the bright green immature flower was a very pretty yellow. Towards the bottom of the flower it was almost all stalk with just the tiniest bit of flower, but near the top it was wonderful and thick. I wonder if that wasn't the immature pollen up there... I offered some to my wife, and she took a bite but the texture disagreed with her.

I will definitely be doing that again (but I'll leave the good sandals at home).

The flowers in their husks

Boiled up and ready to eat.

Garlic Harvested

2011-06-25T20:40:00.000+09:00

I pulled all the garlic out of my keyhole garlic bed. 50 of them are now hanging up to cure under the roof protecting the cob pizza oven. That is about one each week! I'll have to plant more next year.

You know, if we all ate garlic at every meal, nobody would think that I smell like garlic all the time...

Gomer is heating up

2011-06-25T20:35:00.000+09:00

Gomer Pile, the newest compost heap (green weeds and rice hull charcoal), has reached 60 degrees Celsius and still climbing!

Now for you Farenheads out there, take sixty and multiply it by 9.

Did you get 540? Good.

Divide that by 5.

Did you get 108? I hope so.

Add 32.

You had better have 140 degrees Fahrenheit

So it is on its way!

And in other news, the currants are coming in!

Popcorn Disease 2011

2011-06-25T20:28:00.000+09:00

My mulberry tree is not doing so well this year.

Black Mulberry with popcorn disease

As you may recall, last year I had quite a few fruits with popcorn disease. I cut them and let them fall to the ground. This was a big, big mistake. This year I estimate over half the fruit is infected. The tarp below the tree did not work in preventing the spores from wafting up to infect the fruit. I am hoping that it will work in collecting the infected fruit from reaching the ground and letting the fungus into the soil. If I can break the cycle, I hope to get it under control without using any sprays.

Rooftop Garden Update

2011-06-25T20:20:00.000+09:00

The rooftop self watering planters are growing leaps and bounds.

Self Watering Planter June 13, 2011

Self Watering Planters June 24, 2011

The Watermelon is growing like kudzu vine. You can practically hear it growing!

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle

2011-06-22T23:22:00.000+09:00

Wow. I was pulling out some leaves for mulch from the pile I made last year. Then I noticed a circular hole in the densely packed leaves... What could it be?

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle emerging

From My Corner of Japan

Why, a Rhino beetle coming out of its pupae skin.

Here in Japan, they are common pets among children and otaku.
The Japanese name- Kabutomushi. Kabuto means "helmet" and mushi means "insect." A helmet bug if you please. Samurai helmets looked a lot like the beetle, hence the name.
So anyway, I picked it up, put it in a flowerpot with some leaves for bedding, and brought it to my school for the little boys in my classes to look at.

From My Corner of Japan

It's a real beauty! Not so large, but very nice indeed.

Check out those abs!

From My Corner of Japan

Once you get over the freakiness of holding large bugs, you can see they are beautiful.

From My Corner of Japan

New Compost pile and my Thermo-probe 900

2011-06-19T20:32:00.000+09:00

Well, I built a new compost pile with the weeds I slashed down with the brush cutter the other day.
Again, I am pretty... well, very lax about how I make the compost. This time I didn't have any garden beds nearby, so I didn't put any soil into it. I just layered 20cm of freshly cut greens, 2 cm of rice hulls, and repeated. It made a nice pile. That is enough for me. But in the interest of science, I decided to measure the temperature with my amazing Thermo-probe 900.

Just what is a Thermo-probe 900 you might ask? Well, it is a wonderful tool for measuring how hot your compost pile's innards are. Here is a picture of the pile and probe.

Nice, eh? A 900mm long surveyor's stake. Nice and pointy, can stab it right into the pile. Then, after a few hours, just mosey on back, pull it out, and feel the tip. If it is too hot to hold, that is good. If it is just hot, that is good too. My motto is that compost happens. Sometimes it takes a bit longer is all.

Thermoprobe in action

Like a Hot Knife Through Butter...

2011-06-18T00:38:00.000+09:00

I had the most wonderful brush cutting experience yesterday. Unbelievably smooth. It actually made me heat up a butter knife in a cup of warm water and try to cut the butter with it, just so I could have a comparison.

If you are looking for a brushcutter/ weed-eater blade, look no further than the Tsumura Golden Saws 255mm, 1.25mm thick, 30 tooth, Sasa bamboo grass disk. And at 1280 yen (about $15), it is a bargain. With proper sharpening it will last for years, as opposed to the chipsaw type, which are usually only good for a month or so.

I experienced absolutely no resistance for the first hour of use. The relatively woody stemmed weeds just fell like I was waving a light saber at them. It was truly a revelation!

Golden Saws 30 Tooth Brushcutter blade

Mister Kuroba 8 blade and Golden Saws 30 blade

After using the Golden Saws for an hour or so, I swapped disks to the "Mr. Kuroba" 8 blade disk. While not as cathartic as using the GS, it was still orders of magnitude better than nylon strings or the standard chipsaw blades. If you are going to cut weeds and brush with a weed-eater, you deserve one of these blades.

Look at that thing. It is actually sexy!

It took less time to do a neater job in the Satsuma grove! Thank you Tsumura!

Self Watering Planters 2011

2011-06-17T00:14:00.000+09:00

In a previous post, I wrote about making a self watering planter, or Sub-Irrigated Planter if you prefer. A lot like the Earthbox planters you might find in Walmart. I took some advice from the makers of the "Global Buckets" videos on youtube, and connected the planters with a thin aquarium hose and siphon. I must say, it is working great. The tomato planter sucks water like crazy, but the lettuce planter has water to spare. By connecting them, it is like having a single 50L reservoir shared by all the plants.

Well, this year's rooftop garden at my school has more diversity than last year.
I have (from left to right) lettuce, watermelon, bell pepper, cucumber, and tomato in the vegetable section.

And the blueberries I planted in the fourth planter last year have exploded in growth. Amazing growth. The honeyberries have not grown as well as the blueberries, but they look to be doing well.

Future plans for the self watering planter garden:

I am planning to make a large automatic waterer based on the traditional chicken waterer. I am thinking of taking a 30-40L barrel, and drilling a hole about 5cm down from the top.
Then I will fasten a deep tray to the top of the barrel. A second option would be upending and standing the barrel in a large plastic storage case.
The hard part will be flipping it over. 30-40Kg.... not impossible, but pretty heavy.
The water will fill the tray until it reaches the hole, where the vacuum created by the bubble at the top will stop it.
After that, connecting the nearest planter with a siphon will begin the watering.
The planters and the reservoir will seek the same level, and water will gradually be released from the barrel as the water lowers to the hole, where it will "burp" out some more and send a bubble to the top.

I hope to have enough capacity to last for a full week between fillings.

Rice Update

2011-06-15T12:37:00.000+09:00

Well, the rice paddy is doing.... OK I guess.... it is not nearly as tall as the neighbor's chemically fertilized paddy, but....
On Wednesday, I scattered a five gallon bucket of goat manure into the paddy to hopefully get it growing a bit more. Goat manure is so funny. Looks like beans. Real easy to spread though.

June 10

June 12

Brush Cutter- Tanaka TB-21HS

2011-06-13T19:56:00.001+09:00

My Tanaka TB-21HS Brush cutter with a Mr. Kuroba four blade disk.

Here in Japan, people have postage stamp lawns, if any. So nobody has large lawnmowers. And there seem to be a lot of mountains here. So brush hogs are not too practical for most rural people. At least not enough to make a market to sell them. So we are left with the ubiquitous "Kusakariki."
Mine is an utterly average machine. Works well, a bit noisy of course, but does the job.
In Japan, most people use a "Chipsaw" blade, basically a disposable sawtoothed cutter. I used to use one too, but the waste! Hit a stone and the teeth fall off, the blades dull and won't cut. Then my good friend who does this for a living showed me his machine. Wow. He has one mean looking blade on it. A thirty blade steel disk that he keeps razor sharp with a file. And they last so long! After a few hundred sharpenings, the blade will have worn down to 20cm or so and it will be too difficult to get the speed to cut properly, and you need a new blade.

I decided to experiment with a four blade disk by Mr. Kuroba. It is recommended for soft stemmed grasses and weeds, and general use. It is an OK blade. I think I will use an 8 blade disk next however, since I have noticed that it is cutting a bit raggedly. It is easy to sharpen. I just use a plain old metal file, give it a few strokes at a fairly steep angle. I try to keep the blade straight, but wear and tear on the outer edge is starting to round it.

I also use a string trimmer for work around the house, and anywhere there are too many rocks or tree stumps that a blade might catch on. It is an insert type. You just slip the 20cm long nylon cords through the holes, wrap it around and through the exit on the outer ring.

Disk and plugs

thread it through

flip it over and to the outside.

Square cords to cut more efficiently.

Fava Beans

2011-06-12T19:54:00.000+09:00

Man, I love Fava beans. Here in Japan, we start them in November. I just push them into a prepared bed and basically forget about them until spring. Of course, I do weed them from time to time.
Now it is time to pick them. And pick them I have been doing for the past few days. Shopping bags full of delicious, enormous beans.

The easiest way to prepare them is to just shell them and eat them in the garden. However, if you prefer your beans cooked, then by all means. I just shell them into the wife's new "Silicone Steamer." Looks like a rubber box with a lid, but it does a great job of steaming just about any vegetable. As I was saying, I just shell them into the steamer, rub some salt on them, and microwave them for 3 minutes. What could be easier?

Slap the lid on and get cooking!

The Fava Bandit Strikes Again!

Crab

2011-06-06T23:14:00.000+09:00

Eriocheir japonica - Mokuzugani (Japanese Mitten Crab)

Coming home tonight after work, I saw a black blob on the road in front of our driveway. I was about to nudge it with my foot when it moved! I jumped back a step, and then peered at it in the very dim light. Oh my goodness, it was a crab! I believe it was a Japanese Mitten crab, due to the size and the furry claws. Then as I hurried up towards the house to tell the wife about it, two wild boars foraging for worms in the bank of the neighbor's rice paddy exploded out in front of me and galloped through the woodlot and my garden on the way into the bamboo grove. If you have ever startled two wild boars from three meters away, your heart will beat four times a second for the next five minutes. Well, not really, but it does give you a start for sure.

I made it to the house, and told the wife about the crab. She said "Can we eat it?" I love this woman. So I went down to the road, stuffed the crab into a cardboard box, and brought it up to show to her. But it was just so cute, I couldn't eat it. So I put it back down by the road again. All's well that ends well.

Cob Oven Pizza Becomes Reality

2011-06-05T23:44:00.000+09:00

Our Pizza Team

We did it. We finally made the pizza in the oven. And you know what.... It was good. Even though we messed up the first batch, the second was so good, it made up for the first with flavor and texture to spare.

So, this is how we did it, and how it should have been done.

This morning, after walking the dog and tying out the goats, I took a cedar plank that I hand milled with my chainsaw mill and cut two slabs off of it. I measured twice and cut them- 30 cm by 16cm. Then I found a piece of scrap board that I could use to connect them into a single 32x30 plank. I used an old plate to make the curve of the top, and cut it out. Voila- a rough door. I then matched the door to the oven, marked, and cut out on opening to fit it. This is the last thing that went well for some time.

Topping the pizzas

At about 10:20, I lit a fire in the oven. It did not want to burn. After 40 minutes of coaxing, it finally began to burn well. I built it up to a fair roaring fire, and went inside to make the pizzas. It is hard to make pizzas with a 1 1/2 year old who loves cheese... The pizzas had a distinct lack of toppings where his hand could reach the pies. Oh well, gotta love them.

Not Hot Enough

Then, at about 12:10, we put the first pizzas in the oven. It did not go well. I guess my first clue was that I could put my hand inside the oven and not feel hot... The other pizzas were baked in the kitchen while I added more wood.
A bit disheartened by the whole experience, we looked online and found a bit of information that I should have discovered beforehand- Heat the oven for three hours- or until the soot on the interior walls burns away from the intense heat. So we made the decision to have pizza for dinner as well, and I kept the fire roaring for four more hours. At the end of that, there was no soot on the interior walls, I can tell you that much.

For the dinner pizzas, I pushed the hot coals off to the sides and back, and slid the pizzas in. This time they cooked in no time flat, with a wonderful browning of the cheese..... Mmm... .Delicious!

I Heart Pizza

I have heard that you don't need the fire burning in the oven when you bake, but we had the best results with the fire or at least the coals burning as we baked the pizza. Maybe for bread it isn't necessary, since it needs lower temps and longer times. But I think the coals made the difference.

To sum up the lessons learned today-
1. Thin crust
2. Properly preheat the oven- Three hours or until it burns the soot off the walls.
3. Push coals to side and back
4. One parent should distract the cheese stealing toddler.

Next time we will stack functions- Pizzas, bread, and finally sweet potatoes. I can't wait!

Finishing the pizza oven

2011-05-31T10:57:00.001+09:00

I did it. Today my little helper (hinderer?) and I cut open the oven and removed the sand from the inside of the cob oven. It wasn't drying out, but I am hoping that now it can dry from two sides. We also lit a small fire inside just to hurry things along.

Small opening to scoop the sand out

Sure is dark inside there...

Ah, the interior lit up

The first fire- just a small one to start it drying.

Now I just have to clean up that doorway, and make a nice little door to hold the heat inside as it bakes. I think I will get an old sponge and polish it up a bit more as well. Ummm.... can't wait for the pizza!

Oven and Rice update

2011-05-23T22:31:00.000+09:00

Cob pizza oven during polishing process. Kind of looks like my dad's head....

Well the oven has dried enough for me to polish it up a bit. It now doesn't look quite as rough as it did yesterday. The polishing was simple. I took a plastic wrapper- I think that it was an old potato chip bag- put it on my hand like a glove, and smoothed out the dome. The best way was to rub it in circles, like waxing a car. Now it is much, much smoother.

The paddy on its second morning.

The flat of rice seedlings.

A three blade clump of rice to be planted

The rice paddy is doing well- I think. Having never done this before, I am not so sure. But it looks OK to me so far. I lowered the water level slightly since a few seedlings were completely underwater when I checked on it this morning.

Cob Pizza and Bread Oven

2011-05-22T20:54:00.000+09:00

I have been dreaming of this project for years now. And I finally got a chance to do it this year.
I started hauling rocks up from the bottom field last winter. I laid them out in a meter wide circle, tried to make them fit, tore them down and did it again. Then the earthquake came and everything was on hold. But my neighbor decided to let his friends dispose of their earthquake damaged tuff wall blocks on a corner of his property. I thought- wow, those would work really well to make a base for my oven...
At first, I tried using them the way they were, with jagged broken ends and all. But my neighbor's friend gave me the idea to cut the stone into rectangular blocks. I didn't even think about cutting the blocks before, but tuff is basically just a solidified volcanic ash. You can scratch it with your fingernail (but it hurts). So out came the disc grinder with a diamond blade. It cuts tuff like a hot knife through butter. But the problem with a grinder is, it only cuts about 25mm deep. But this gave me the excuse to buy a cold chisel and a rock hammer! Woo Hoo! Put them in the slot made by the grinder, tap it a few times, and off it comes, pretty as could be. Soon I had a base about 60cm tall. It is a pretty good working height. Low enough to be stable, and high enough to work without laying down on the ground to see inside.

Next, I filled the cracks with sand, and laid a 2cm thick bed of sand over the top of the base. Then I laid red bricks on the sand, dry fitting them tightly. This will be the floor of the oven.

Then, I made a sand castle (well, it looked like Homer Simpson's forehead actually) on top of the bricks with my daughter's help. It collapsed a few times, but we finally came up with the solution of having the hose dribble into a saucer shaped depression at the top while we worked. That kept the sand moist enough to hold its shape. Before the sand castle could dry out, we covered it with a plastic bag. This sand dome is just to hold up the cob we will build around it. After it has dried a little, we will remove the sand through the door to create the void inside.

That was when the really fun part started. We pitched three buckets of sandy clay onto a blue tarp, watered it, and began to dance on it barefoot. The clay stuck to our feet, squeezed between our toes, and splashed up onto our clothes. It was great fun. When the consistency was just right- kind of like warm modeling clay, we began to make 8-10 cm balls of it and slapped them around the plastic covered sand dome. It took three mixings of cob to completely cover the dome. This layer of cob is dense- no straw in it- so it can absorb a lot of heat when we fire it. I poked a lot of shallow dents in it with my fingers so the next layer would have something to grab on to.

Now we went back to the tarp- three more buckets of clay soil and a bit more water than before, and we had cob with the consistency of toothpaste. Then we added a five gallon bucket of rice hulls and mashed them in. The rice hulls add a lot of volume, and drastically reduce the density of the cob, while increasing the tensile strength. We slathered this over the dome as well, about 10 cm thick. This is the insulation for the dome.

Anybody can help make cob!

And finally, the finishing layer. We mixed up yet another batch of cob. The boy made it rather thin by adding too much water. But that is OK. Then we added some cattail fluff to the mix and stomped it in. Hopefully the fluff will give the clay enough tensile strength to keep from cracking. We then frosted the rice hull cob dome with about 2 cm of the cattail fluff cob. Later, when it dries out just a bit, we will polish it up with some smooth plastic until it is smooth as silk.

Last year's cattails look pretty shaggy.

Let it dry and I'll cut the door out soon.

Now the only thing left is to keep it covered until the rain lets up, and then cut out the door. Doors should be as wide as whatever pan you intend on using in the oven, and 60% of the height of the interior. Our sand dome was 50cm high, so the door will be 30cm. After I cut out the door, I will have to remove the sand and the plastic bag that covered it. I am really looking forward to that!

Rice Planting Time

2011-05-22T18:17:00.001+09:00

Saturday was the big day. The neighbor had planted his rice the day before, and gave us some of the leftover flats of seedlings he had left. So we started the big day.

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.

Bunches of 3-4 rice seedlings at 15cm spacing.

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.

Finished! You can see the flat of seedlings in the corner on the paddy bank.

April Showers Bring Orchard Flowers

2011-04-24T20:57:00.000+09:00

I thought I would do a post about my orchard and what is flowering. Mmmmmm.... I sure hope that we get a good harvest this year!

A yellow cultivar of Rubus crataegifolius a wild raspberry of Japan

It is hard to see, but hidden in the garlic is a Actinidia arguta (hardy Kiwi)

My water supply. I stuck a hose in a small pool on the creek, and let it siphon down. When I am not using it, it drains into the same creek.

A loquat Eriobotrya japonica, Cultivar "Tanaka"

My quince Cydonia oblonga is about to flower.

Asian Pear Pyrus pyrifolia Cultivar "Hosui"

Indian Blood Peach Prunus persica

Santa Rosa Plum Prunus salicina

Nectarine Prunus persica

Mini Rocket Stove

2011-04-22T23:36:00.000+09:00

Finished Rocket Stove

In my spare time between classes at work, I decided to make a miniature rocket stove. Of course, I got it half done and put it on a shelf. That was a year ago. But yesterday I found it again, and decided to finish it up. So here is how I did it.

1. Tools and Materials
    A. Can opener
    B. Tin Snips
    C. Two sizes of steel cans
    D. Clay soil
    E. Rice Hulls

I used two large baby formula cans, and five small coffee cans. It helps if the cans are designed to stack tightly on each other.

Cut the tops and bottoms off of all but one of the small cans, and one of the large cans.
Then cut a hole the size of the coffee cans near the bottom of the formula can with a bottom, and in one of the small cans. Another small can I cut to roughly match the curve of its mate. And yet another can I cut open and spread flat. That was for the tongue shaped piece called the fuel shelf that you can see above.

Gee... I hope you wore gloves to do that cutting....

Next, I put the cans together to form the feed tube (horizontal) and chimney (tall vertical). I taped the sections lightly together so they wouldn't fall off all the time.

Then I fit them into the large can, with the feed tube coming out of the hole.

After that, I put the shelf (tongue shaped flat piece) into the feed tube. It should rest about 2/3 the way to the bottom.
The fuel- twigs or disposable chopsticks rescued from the restaurant next door- will lay on the shelf, and the tips will burn as air flows in from under the fuel shelf.

Almost ready. Now I needed some insulation. So I took some clay soil and water and made a clay slip. Basically clay and water you stir to the consistency of paint. I sprinkled rice hulls into the slip to coat them. You can use chopped straw if you don't have rice hulls. Or you can use both. Just make sure that all the pieces get coated.

I then stuffed the large can with the slip mix. You don't have to pack it too tight. After the bottom large can filled up, I put the second can (which has top and bottom cut off) on top of it. I made some triangular holes at the top with a churchkey can opener. That way I can rest a pot on top, and still let the gases escape.

Fill the can with slip up to the top of the chimney. My chimney was shorter than the height of the two large cans, but that is OK.

And there you have it- a rocket stove.
How to light it?
Well this is my method.
1. Gather some twigs- from toothpick to thumb thickness.
2. light one or two very small pieces and gently lay them on the shelf. Add some more small pieces gently on top of them.
3. As the fire strengthens, add slightly larger pieces. Keep pushing the pieces towards the end of the fuel shelf. They will burn remarkably fast. There should be a considerable draft and a lot of heat with very little smoke from the chimney.

You can use this stove to boil water, or cook in a frying pan.

Respect fire and stoves.

DO NOT USE IT INDOORS OR IN ANY ENCLOSED SPACE.

DO NOT USE NEAR SMALL CHILDREN.

New Project- Rice Paddy

2011-04-21T22:58:00.003+09:00

Well, the time has come to start experimenting with rice. I had tried to make a 100 square meter rice paddy a few years ago, but it was too large, leaky, and uneven. This time I think it will be a bit better. It is a lot smaller too, only 25 square meters.

Detail of sides

I began by measuring out a 5x5m square near the water source- a small stream coming from the bamboo forest behind the orchard. I used the 3-4-5 triangle to make sure it was square. I planted a stake in the first corner, and attached a 12 meter rope loop. I measured 4 meters of the rope along the first edge, and pounded in a stake, returned, and then measured 3 meters along the second leg. When the remaining 5 meters was taut, I knew I had a perfect right triangle. Then I could expand that to five meters in both directions easily. After that, measuring 5 meters from the posts gave me the fourth corner.

After I had my square, I began cutting the sod out in 30x60cm sections starting from the visible high points. I stacked them like bricks in the low areas to make a wall all the way around the paddy. Then I turned over all the soil inside the enclosure, and raked it fairly flat.

Once that was done, I flooded it. It leaked something fierce- of course it did, it had huge lines of grass sandwiched between the soil. But throwing a few shovels full of clay against the inner edges cut the leaks to almost nothing.

There were still shallow and deep spots, so I used my rake and shovel to even them out a bit more. I threw out all the roots from the bamboo and silver grass that had been there. Finally I had a 10cm deep, 25 square meter rice paddy.

Just two more weeks until planting time! Can't wait!

Published!

2011-04-18T23:28:00.000+09:00

Guess who will have an article about keyhole garden beds published in the May/June issue of BackHome magazine? Coming soon to a newsstand near you! Or at their website.

One Month, Two Hours, Thirty Minutes Later....

2011-04-11T18:30:00.001+09:00

And another Magnitude 7.1 earthquake, depth of 10KM hits, with the epicenter N 36.9, E 140.7
That is hitting pretty close to home. It is about 15Km from my house!
I had three fifth graders in the class, we were playing concentration when it started. They all dived under the table. So did I. The coffee maker, books, and plants rained down- again. But we were lucky, it was only a Shindo of 5+.
Ha! Only.... How used to earthquakes are we getting that a 5+ can be described as lucky.

View Home in a larger map

Radiation

2011-04-09T21:24:00.000+09:00

Now, as you all know, I am 84Km from Fukushima I Nuclear plant. So we were worried a bit about radiation. Still a little worried. But not as freaked out as the foreign media.
This website:
http://microsievert.net/
Shows a visual of the radiation in various situations and the real time counts from nearby cities. The visualization is basically that if you could see the radiation like it was rain, that's what it would look like.
The top four boxes are from left to right:

World Average     Tokyo-NY flight   Prepare to evacuate level Must evacuate level

The second row is: (city, prefecture)
Fukushima, Fukushima Mito Ibaraki, Utsunomia, Tochigi,   Maebashi, Gunma

Third row:
Saitama, Saitama    Ichihara, Chiba    Shinjuku, Tokyo   Kanagawa

We are somewhere between the Fukushima City and Mito levels.

Map of Recent Quakes

2011-03-29T14:49:00.000+09:00

I looked up our area on the earthqake map at High Sensitivity Seismograph Network Japan, and found something interesting

The black arrow points to my house! Click to see it larger

That is a lot of quakes. Don't worry, the red doesn't mean big, it means shallow. Big quakes have big circles.

Changed Eating Habits

2011-03-28T19:19:00.000+09:00

I used to wake up, go to the fridge, take a couple of eggs, some cheese, and ham and make an omlette. I never really thought much about it. If there was only one egg left, I might choose a different breakfast, since the wife might need it for making lunch. If I felt a bit peckish during the day, I would cut a hunk of bread and slap some butter on it for a snack.

Now, I open the fridge, and I hesitate. Is it OK to use the eggs? We only have 10 left..... The cheese bag is half full.... If I use a whole slice of the ham, what will we have for meat for lunch? Hmm.... the ketchup bottle is half full, what happens when it runs out? Can I use one of the potatoes for making miso soup? Or should I save it for making curry at lunch.....

I know most of you saw the video I made about the week after the quake, with the empty supermarket shelves. It changed me. Now the supermarkets are about 90% back to normal around here. But it still haunts me. It only took 4 days without trucks coming in to empty ALL the supermarkets in our area.... four days...

How much food do you keep on hand? What if the trucks stopped coming to your supermarkets tomorrow? How many days would it take to empty your markets...

(buy an emergency crank powered flashlight and radio)

I Have Gas!

2011-03-28T19:03:00.000+09:00

Yes, I chose that title because it was kind of funny.
We decided that we would take a chance, and go into the neighboring town of Hitachi-Ota to fill up the car with gasoline. The wife has become a twitterholic, and some of the people she follows said that the Shell station there was allowing you to fill up the tank- not just put 10L or 2000 yen, but full tank. So we gambled.

In my life so far, I have never left the house wondering if the car had enough gas to get me back home. Think about it. You might worry that you don't have enough gas to get from your house to the gas station, but not knowing if you can actually get any gas- it was unsettling. I knew that we had enough to get there, and at least part of the way home. And of course we could walk if the worst happened, but it was unsettling all the same.

Well, we made it to the gas station and lo and behold, the line was only about 60 cars long! So we got in line, and 20 minutes later we had a full tank, and a 10L can of gas as well. So we headed for the family restaurant and celebrated- in no particular order- my birthday, the daughter's last day of school, the son's upcoming first day of school, temporary fuel security, buying groceries, and finally getting the wife out of the house. It was quite an event.

Two Weeks After The Big One

2011-03-26T23:45:00.000+09:00

Well, it has been two weeks since the big quake. Our car has not moved since March 13, but we are well supplied thanks to the internet. About five days ago, the major package delivery companies resumed their routes, so we now have our main staples in stock. The bread machine is set for 6:00AM, and we have a case of canned tomatoes to go with our beans and rice. Maybe not luxury, but feels good.

Tomorrow, we are thinking of taking the car and going into Hitachi for a well deserved break/celebration of the end of Kylie's school year. Hopefully we can get some gasoline there (On Friday morning, there was a 2Km line for gas in Takahagi- and you needed to get a ticket first... Welcome to our Peak Oil simulation!)

The supermarkets are gradually getting better. Every day there seems to be more and more food in them, but still nowhere near the pre-quake levels.

The radiation levels in our area (about 80Km from the plants) have been dropping- keep in mind, they were never into the "dangerous" zone. All the same we have been keeping inside as much as possible of course. Say a prayer for the men who are working to fix the leaks up in Fukushima.

I don't know why, but it seems that every Saturday evening there are larger aftershocks than other days. We had two shindo 4 quakes this evening.

Some Of What The Earthquake Taught Me

2011-03-21T00:42:00.000+09:00

This quake taught me a lot about myself, and about modern society.
I learned that:

I am a greenwasher. I always cultivated the image of environmental sustainability, but I am a hypocrite. I can finally admit it to myself.
Running water is not to be taken for granted. I never thought about it, really. But during the four day blackout, I can't count the number of times I tried to turn on the water to wash my hands, brush my teeth....
I turn on and off a lot of lights during the day. Same as the running water- I would find myself flipping the switch as I entered the toilet, or the hallway in when it was dark.... Since the blackout, that has changed a lot. I think before I touch the switch.
Wood heat is very important. You can almost always go to the forest and get more wood, even just picking branches from the forest floor can supply enough in many cases. If you can't buy fuel oil or gas, you get cold quick.
Nights are soooooooo much darker without electricity. Not just the obvious overhead lights and bedside lamps. All the dozens of little standby lights, the light pollution from the cities....
The fourth candlelit dinner in a row is actually more annoying than romantic.Especially when the candles are squat and blocky. They just cast shadows on the plate and make it hard to see what it is you are eating.
We tend to get so much more done without electronic distractions. Early to bed, early to rise. No e-mail to check, no weather report to watch, no blog posts to write. Every day by 9:30 I thought it was time for lunch, since I had finished all the usual chores.
Always keep batteries on hand. Rechargeable, with a charging device that doesn't depend on the grid
Live within bicycle distance of your job and shopping. Thousands of people didn't go to work, because they believed they lived too far for bicycle commuting. Always live within 10Km (15-20 if it is all flatland) of your job and shopping. Your bicycle never waits in gas lines, and always gets a killer parking spot- next to the front door. And your bike doesn't need to be some super high tech mountain bike. Two wheels, one medium low gear, a big basket in front and a nice cargo rack over the rear. I used to have an 18 speed 28 inch cross bike, until I popped half the spokes (lightweight wheels, heavyweight rider, gravel road). Now I have a 6 speed, 26 inch mountain bike. My commuting times have not changed.
An AM radio is an important survival tool. We were going buggy wondering what was happening until I discovered that you can wrap cardboard around AAA batteries to make them fit a C or D cell appliance.
Try to keep your gas tank full, and have a spare gas can. You just never know when it will happen. We always filled the tanks on Saturday afternoon, when we made our weekly shopping trips. Well the quake was on Friday afternoon....
Dried or canned beans and rice are so much more important than a freezer full of meat. Your meat will stay frozen for one, two days in the winter. Not in the summer. You can keep rice on your kitchen counter for a year.

More on this later.

In other news, last night (Saturday) we had 6.1M quake, which gave us a "shindo" of 5+ here.
The epicenter (36.7N 140.7E) was less than 6Km from our house! I am starting to think this area might be dangerous. Since then, we can hear deep booming noises, like someone is striking an enormous kettledrum in the basement (well, we don't have a basement, but that is what it sounds like). At least once an hour, maybe twice, with the accompanying aftershock rattling glasses.

Japan Quake Day Eight- Signs of Recovery

2011-03-19T15:58:00.000+09:00

What a difference that a day can make! Today on my way to open my school for the first time in a week, I saw some serious signs of recovery. Cars waiting to get gasoline- sure the line was over 1Km long, but gasoline is beginning to come in. The supermarkets- barren, but open again. Construction equipment cleaning up the rubble of collapsed walls and roofs. My students told me that water was back to most of their homes. It gave me a good feeling. We will get through this!

Like the Beatles said:

"I've got to admit it's getting better
A little better all the time"

Japan Quake Day Seven

2011-03-18T01:46:00.000+09:00

March 17, Thursday

Now it has been one week since the big quake. And I am getting a bit worried. Not so much about the continuing small aftershocks, but that today I went to town by bike to see how the recovery is going. Keep in mind we are on the far southern edge of the disaster area. We got off with very little damage, and the tsunami was much smaller than up north, due to our shallow shelf which bled a lot of the energy off before it struck home. So don't imagine damage like you see on CNN. Only (?!) three people died in our town.

The city and national governments are doing a good job in my opinion. The lines for water are short, if you have a need, you can just ask one of the city workers at the center and they will take care of you. Diapers and baby formula are available within minutes.
Power has been restored, as far as I know, to the whole city, including the parts flooded by the tsunami.
City crews are working on the water mains, and have restored water to quite a few parts of the city.

Filling water tanks by roof damaged buildings

It is the private sector that is worrying me. One week after the quake, I peered into the windows of nine or ten supermarkets, home centers, and drugstores.
Two drugstores appear to have not been touched since the quake hit. Bottles and glass on the floor, shelves of food and medicine that could have been used by the victims here in Takahagi, and even more, up north.

One week after the quake- an untouched drugstore full of bady needed supplies...

Two home centers were closed, even though they are major suppliers of kerosene for space heaters here in Japan. The signs stated they are unable to open due to damage inside the store. But the kerosene station is far outside the building...

loosely translated: "Notice- due to earthquake damages, we are unable to offer any items, inluding kerosene for sale at this time"

Two supermarkets were empty as far as I could see, two more were open only in the mornings, and the only supermarket open this afternoon was the large Aeon chain store, which was rationing severely. I approved of their strategy- only strict rationing like that can prevent the hoarding that follows a disaster like this. I was able to buy a can of generic cola, a can of whole tomatoes, and amazingly, a large can of baby formula for a very resonable price- actually much lower than the usual price.

"Please choose only one item per rack"

However, the independent fruit/vegetable store on the corner across from the big supermarket in Akiyama was doing booming business. Cabbages, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and fruit were available. The wonderful woman running the store is a miracle worker- combing the area for produce, and not gouging prices too badly (of course, being independent, the store was always more expensive than big chains). Thank God for local merchants!

All the gasoline stations in the city were closed, most with signs saying they were closed indefinitely. The TV news reports that the tanker trucks have started moving again, but it will take a long time to catch up to the demand. Personally, I hope they send trucks of kerosene to the worst affected areas. We can drive later- they are dying up there in the cold.

"Due to quake damage, closed indefintely"

On the way home, I stopped to visit some friends, pick up some supplies they had bought for us, and just share stories with. We had some seaweed and instant ramen noodles for dinner, and watched the news.

Private sector- get on the ball. Even without new shipments in, your supplies are needed...

Japan Quake Day Six

2011-03-17T22:13:00.001+09:00

March 16, Wednesday

It seemed like a normal day today, when we didn't have the TV news on. We relaxed around the house, played with the kids, and had inventive cooking from the wife. As you know, the supermarkets are not open, so we have to make some inventive menus. All of them include rice. That is one great advantage that Japan has over much of the USA. Every house has rice, usually 10-20Kg at any given time. While white rice may not be the most nutritious food, it has a heck of a lot of energy, you can keep it indefinitely, and it is easy to cook. Ten kilos of rice will last a young family of five for quite a long time.
Like I said, except when the news was on, it was just a normal day.
Thank you God for small blessings.

Japan Quake Day Five

2011-03-17T00:03:00.000+09:00

March 15

At 2:00 AM the wife poked me awake and pointed to the hall. Electric lights were on. Hallelujia! I eased out of bed, came downstairs and turned on the TV, called my Father, and connected the computer. After talking with Dad for a while, I watched some news. Still disturbing. Scary scary stuff.
After posting on Facebook that I was still breathing, and answering some e-mails I went back to bed, relieved that the blackout was over.

I woke up again at 6:00 to the kids, who were delighted that the power was on. We cooked on the electric stove, watched news, and then baked bread in the bread machine. We also finally got in touch with some other friends whose contact information was stored in our computers or telephone. A day of relief.

After lunch, I headed to my school by bicycle. I saw maybe five cars. Groups of people were filling water jugs from the river, and from the rice paddy irrigation ditches. I hope to God that was just to flush their toilets with. In town, the line at the supermarket was very short, so I lined up. We were able to buy one item from each of 8 or so areas marked out in front of the store. So I got some kiwi fruit, spinach, one can of tuna, a large can of baby formula, and 5 Kg of rice. In high spirits from my shopping success, I headed out to see the rest of the city.

All over the city limestone garden walls had collapsed, while their neigboring concrete block walls stood firm. Blue tarps covered hundreds of roofs where the roof tiles had slid off. Near the beach, where the tsunami had reached there was still no power. Long lines of cars were waiting to go south, nobody was headed north. Gas stations were comandeered for official use- ambulances, police, military relief, and supply truck use. That I could agree with wholeheartedly. Here and there were cars by the side of the road with "Out of Gas" signs propped up in the windows. Along main street, only one shop- the butcher's- was open.

At the school, I was able to do some vacuuming, and finished the cleanup. With a few minutes on hand, I headed to the local convenience store, more out of curiosity than necessity. After a 30 minute wait, it was my turn to go in. I filled a basket with mostly chocolate and snacks. That was about all that was left. Thank God that we have some food at home still. After deciding that no students were going to come, I posted a note on the door and headed for City hall for the daily diaper ration. The lines for water were shorter, since the military had three water tankers dispensing water. I got home, had a dinner that couldn't be beat, and fell asleep on the sofa for a few hours before heading up to bed.

Japan Quake Day Four

2011-03-16T23:32:00.000+09:00

March 14, Monday

Still aftershocks all night long, but can hardly notice them anymore. Used the last of the bread to make two slices of french toast for the kids. They are troopers and didn't complain (much) that they only got 2/3 slice each. The house is pretty much cleaned up- cleaner than usual in fact, since we have no electronic diversions. We spent most of the morning listening to the radio on and off. Worried about the Fukushima nuclear plant, about 80 Km North of us.

I had a brilliant idea and went next door to our old neighbor and asked if he had any newspapers. He did! There were special editions from Saturday and Sunday. Both just one page, but finally- news! We sat down and devoured the paper, finally able to see pictures to go with the images in our heads. It was upsetting to say the least.

A friend stopped by on her way to her house in the city- she brought news of gas stations opening (3 Gallon limit- three hour lines) and power coming back on in the cities south of us. Other friends of the neighbors came up to fill water tanks and bathe in his bath house. We exchanged news. Some had TVs in their car navigation systems, and were able to watch TV news before coming. Of course, there was no reception here in the mountians.

I decided that I would go to town on my bicycle to save gas, and try and contact some friends we hadn't been able to reach, since cell service has been spotty for the last two days. While I was there, I also planned to get some supplies from my school- all the batteries from any electronic things, a solar battery charger, and diapers.

I saw a gardening friend of mine at the bottom of the mountain and we talked a bit. Then an old student's mother stopped and inquired about us. I assured her we were fine. All the roof tiles had slid from her house, but no injuries. She gave me a bag of broccoli and a small Chinese cabbage. In town, I made phone calls to the wife's college friends. Town was eerily deserted. Traffic was easily 1/3 of usual.

My friend from the Ramen shop next door invited me in for coffee, and we talked about the disaster and the future of Japan. They gave me some fish and two pork roasts that they use for their Ramen. Since there was no electricity, they had to get rid of thawing food in their freezer. In return, I gave them a six pack of my homebrewed beer, and the chinese cabbage. Bartering food.

After cleaning up a little in the school, I headed for City Hall, where they were giving out diapers for families with children. Then I was able to watch some news broadcasts in the relief center. That is when it really struck me. I finally saw the tsunami. Video is a powerful tool. Scary too. As I left the area, I heard a familiar "chirp, chirp, chirp" sound. Sure enough, it was the crosswalk signal! I looked up and the traffic light was working! The florescent lights in the bank were on! Electricity had reached the city, or at least part of it!

When I arrived home, it was still without power, but I felt very hopeful that there would be electric soon. My hopes sank as evening fell, and then night. Candlelit evenings are becoming annoying, rather than romantic. After the kids went to bed, we listened to the radio news and went to bed.

Japan Quake Day Three

2011-03-16T23:00:00.000+09:00

Sunday, March 13

Woke up with the sun- no surprise there, after going to bed just after it set, 10 hours of sleep (well, 8 if you subtract two hours waking up during aftershocks). I flipped the light switch entering the bathroom- force of habit. Nothing happened. I made some pancakes for the kids- have to use up some milk and eggs before they go bad. And comfort food is good for shock. After breakfast, the wife washed the dishes in the neighbor's river while the kids and I walked the dog and tied up the goats. We spent the morning trying to be normal- reading books, folding laundry, cleaning. Had "chijimi" a kind of Korean vegetable pancake type thing for lunch, cooked on the campstove of course.

After lunch we headed for town for some news, and to see if the lines at the supermarkets had calmed down. There was still no power or water. The big supermarket was still rationing out food to a huge line, but one of the smaller markets had a short line. They were selling one day's worth of food- grab-bag style. 500 yen/bag. We thought, why not? And got in line. After purchasing, we found three packets of ramen, a piece of fruit, a chocolate bar, and a salty snack. Not exactly nutritious, but it could be worse. Definitely not worth $5 though.

After that, we went back to City Hall to check out the situation and make a phone call or two. It wasn't until after that we found out you can use any public phone in the disaster area for free. No need to wait in line at just that phone. There were huge lines of people waiting for water at the disaster center in City Hall, and a Japanese Army jeep with two soldiers. One thing noticable was that there were not as many cars on the street as the previous day. And I heard a lot of people starting to wonder about fuel. Some people were beginning to line up outside the gas stations that were still closed.

On the way home from town, we met our daughter's classmate's family! They had driven down from the mountain to deliver food and water to us on their way to town! At their house, they had running water, propane, and most of the wild boar still frozen in their deep freeze. So a wonderful reunion was held by the side of the road. They offered for us to come and take refuge at their place, but we had high hopes the power would be on by evening, and thanked them but refused.

When walking the dog that evening, we noticed a lot fewer cars on the road. Other people were feeling the fuel pinch. A quiet candlelit dinner of pork soup and rice balls, a few hands of "Go Fish" with the boy, and an early bedtime.

Japan Quake Day Two

2011-03-16T14:23:00.000+09:00

Saturday, March 12
Still no power. We had hopes that it might come on during the night, since we hadn't seen too much damage to power lines. Our "All Electric" house was maybe a bad idea in that respect. I never realized how much I rely on the electricity- our well, electric stove, of course fridge, but even our telephone (fiber optic) needs the juice.
So, I made eggs and toast for breakfast over the campstove. We debated bugging out for Mayuho's mother's house. Then we remembered we had less than 1/4 tank of gas in the car, and only the 10L can for the chainsaw in reserve. Also, the roads were sure to be crowded since the expressway was closed. So we made the decision to stay. Our neighbor has gravity fed springwater at his house, so we filled any empty containers with water for use at our house. Thank God we have a composting toilet! At about 10:00 (which felt like afternoon already with no electronic distractions) we headed for town to clean up the school and check on the situation, and hopefully buy some supplies. We checked out the big supermarkets. Only one was "open" in the sense that they were rationing items out from the front door. The line snaked through the parking lot. Easily 300 people waiting. We decided to keep going. Arriving at my school, we took some photos.

(Click to view larger images)

Like I said, it was a miracle nothing was broken! After cleaning a bit, hampered by three hyperactive children, the owner of the noodle shop next door dropped in to say that we could make free calls to contact friends and relatives from the telephones at city hall. While there, we saw the first water lineup. A few hundred people lined up to get a bag of water. Our neighbor was there also. He told us that we could use his house (it is sort of a summer house for he and his friends) since he had propane gas and spring water. We thanked him profusely. Mayuho was able to contact her brother, who sent e-mail to my parents and let them know we were all OK. Not being able to do anything else, we decided to head back home.

At home, it was lunchtime, so we borrowed the neighbor's gas and cooked Japanese style noodles for lunch. After washing up, we headed home, and cleaned/straightened up the living room and relaxed. As much as you can relax when there are aftershocks every 5 minutes or so. On our mountain, you can hear the quake before you feel it. A "rumble rumble rumble BOOM" Shake... And the cats are a good indicator as well. If Caramel (the Tom) climbs the drapes and disappears to the second floor, it will be a pretty good sized one.

One thing I did manage to do was to get our little radio working. We needed 6 "C" cell batteries. We had zero.... So I took some rechargable "AA" batteries from various children's toys, and wrapped them with cardboard to make them bigger. After cramming them in the radio, it worked! Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Now we could listen to the news without going to the car. Of course, listening to the news was scary enough....

After a dinner of macaroni salad by candlelight, we all went to bed early.

Japan Quake Day One

2011-03-16T08:23:00.001+09:00

Just a normal Friday afternoon. I was in my school getting ready for the first student at 3:00 when a deep bass rumble started. I could feel it as much as I could hear it. Usually Takahagi has pretty small earthquakes. Not too much to worry about. But for some reason, this one felt different. I headed for my backdoor. A few seconds later the shaking started. It threw me against the door as a roaring sound began. I sprinted down the steps to the street, just wanting to get into the open. The traffic signal in front of my school was swinging like a pendulum as I raced across the street to the bank parking lot. Then the shaking stopped. All the people around asked each other if they were OK. Then the next phase happened. More, and much larger shaking began and continued for what felt like minutes. The facade on the building next to me crumbled to the street. A large limestone block garden wall crashed onto the sidewalk. Roofing tiles cascaded off of the houses all around. The concrete sheathing on an antique warehouse shattered, releasing a huge cloud of dust. Windows up and down the street cracked, or some even exploded in showers of glass. The traffic lights went out. And then it was quiet. Sirens. People crying. Voices raised in wonder that they were still safe. Then leaders arose from the crowd, marshalling people away from broken glass, and out of buildings. Thousands of cell phones came out of pockets as people tried to contact loved ones. But the miracle was, look as I might, there were no injured people in sight! Thank you God!

As I went back into my school to assess the damage, I got off so lucky. Shelves had toppled, plants were strewn on the floor, a window had opened itself- but no breakage! Not as single coffee cup or plate glass window. A strong afershock convinced me that being in the building was not a good option, so I locked the doors, got in my K-truck and headed for home. The route home was littered by fallen bricks and roof tiles. A power line was draped over the road with just enough clearance for my truck. But a hundred meters or so further on, a meter high fault ran across the road. I turned back and chose a different route. This time I made it to the road coming off of our mountain, and saw my wife's car approaching the intersection. I flashed my lights to signal her, and we had an emotional reunion by the side of the road. We calmed down a bit, and headed back up the mountain toward our house. Boulders, some up to a meter across had fallen here and there across the road. Luckily, most of them had enough momentum to carry them across the road and rest against the guardrail, leaving the road passable. We reached our house and stopped in a field. I ran up to the house to check on some damage, and to remove the woodfire from the house. I stepped inside and flipped the light switch. Of course, nothing happened. I made my way to the living room. Again, all the items from shelves had fallen to the floor. The bricks from behind the woodstove had fallen, and the woodstove, still burning merrily had rotated in place about 30 degrees! I picked out the burning wood with the fire tongs and put them into the metal ash bucket, sealed it, and took it outside. All the while aftershocks continued at a rate of about one every 3-4 minutes. After that, we continued to my daughter's school to see if she was OK. Cell phones were still unusable, but we could listen to the radio broadcast of the disaster and finally got an idea of the scale of it. We made it to the school- all the children and staff were fine. Then we headed back home carefully.

At home, since it was still light out, I was able to dig the camping goods out of the shed, along with a large box of candles leftover from my wife's business. So we had light. A dinner of ham and cheese sandwiches was eaten by candlelight and aftershocks which continued. The kids, still in shock, decided to sleep on the living room floor in sleeping bags, and I on the sofa. The baby and wife went to the bedroom. It was hard to sleep with quakes continuing all night long, but we finally got some shuteye.

Scrapwood Desk

2011-03-10T00:23:00.000+09:00

My no frills desk built of scraps

Well, in my copious free time between classes at my school, I decided to make a desk out of some scrap plywood and old 2x4s and 1x4s leftover from other building projects. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, it is a rough desk. Any high school shop teacher would either scream in terror or fall to the floor laughing. Good thing I don't know any shop teachers around here.
I had no plans, just kind of built it as I went along.

Step 1: I measured the top, subtracted 10 cm from the length and width, and built the base of 1x4s. The back was the full length, but the front was actually two boxes, with a space for the drawer in the middle. If you don't want a drawer, just a simple rectangle is easier of course.
Step 2: I measured the height of my old desk, and subtracted the thickness of the plywood. I forgot the numbers. But they don't matter. Make it a convenient height for you, not me.
Step 3: Then I found two scrap 2x4s that were the height from step two above, plus 20cm. I marked them at 10cm from each end, and drew a diagonal line across the 2x4. After cutting, I had two tapered legs. I cut the bottoms off to shorten them to the desired length.
Step 4: I put the legs in the corners of the box and secured them with screws. I considered using dowels and other joinery, but I was in a hurry and it is not a showpiece- just a working desk.
Step 5: For the drawer, I made a box of 1x3s I ripped with my circular saw. The outside face was a full 1x4. I routed a 2cm wide, 5mm deep groove along the left and right sides, and put rails on the inside of the base for it to slide on. I cut the slot for the bottom out with my circular saw set for a 6mm deep cut. The bottom is a thin plywood sheet cut 1cm larger than the interior dimensions. Screws and glues hold it together.
Step 6: I attached the top to the base with some short screws from the bottom. And glue. Lots and lots and lots of glue.
Step 7: I used a router to shape the plywood. Yes, I used a router on plywood. Stop laughing, it worked OK.
Step 8: A few passes with the random orbit sander and it doesn't give me splinters anymore.

It is a remarkably sturdy, and surprisingly good looking desk.

I can't believe this is the first drawer I have ever made...

Umm..... tapered 2x4 legs and plywood top....

Wild Boar Stamina Yaki

2011-03-01T13:19:00.001+09:00

My friend Yasu went hunting the other day and got a 40Kg wild boar! Woo Hoo!
So on the advice of my good friend Ken, I cooked "Stamina Yaki" for lunch today.
Pretty good.
Just need 100ml each of:
Katsuo Dashi
Mirin
Soy Sauce.

Boil it down to 100 ml, and then marinate the meat in the sauce.
After a couple of hours, stir fry and you are ready! Serve over rice, with some salad.

More Momiji Syrup

2011-02-28T23:51:00.000+09:00

Well, I have been busy boiling down the sap from the Japanese Maple tree, and I now have almost 50ml of syrup. It is really, really tasty. Not much like the maple syrup back home, but more like a hazelnut syrup.

And I played a good joke on my friend Ken. Every morning, we meet up for the carpool. I took the jar and a spoon, and when I saw him, I said "Hey Ken, what do you think?" and gave him a small taste from the spoon. When he tasted it, I said "So, do you think that means I have diabetes?" (In Japanese, the word for diabetes is "To-nyo-byo" or literally "Sweet urine disease")

You should have seen the look on his face- priceless.