Rice Update 2013

Well, I am sure that I am cursing myself to wild boar damage by posting these photos of my BEAUTIFUL ORGANIC RICE! I made the paddy 100 square meters (four times last year) and had nothing but trouble! Leaks and water holding problems- sand washing in from storms, a crab who kept tunneling into the water warming pond and releasing it all into the paddy ice cold! Heavy rains overflowing and washing out the paddy banks! But I learned a lot and I think with about 20cm of aged cow manure spread in there before winter, I might do even better next year.

Koshi Hikari  rice

Koshi Hikari rice closeup

A different angle of the paddy

My helper giving it a thumbs up!

It might look nice if you don't know much about growing rice, but I must admit the yield looks to be very skimpy compared to the neighbor's. Even so, if we escape boar damage, I think it will yield better than last year.

This year I decided to take fewer chances and fenced in the whole paddy by Sept. 3. Whew! Of course, it remains to be seen if it will work. I followed the instructions on the package of netting, One meter high, one meter spread outward on the ground, and staked down.

Elsewhere in the garden, my Sudachi (citrus) is covered in tiny lime-like fruits!
Margaritas anyone?
Sudachiade for the little ones?

Can anyone identify this?
I found this on the back of a pawpaw leaf.... wasps?

Same mud structure from a bit further away.

Splitting Rails

I have a lot of cedar logs. Not so big, about 5-6 inches diameter, and six feet long. So I decided to start splitting some rails out of them, and hopefully eventually make a split rail fence.

It is not as hard as I thought, maybe because cedar is such an easy soft wood that splits if you look at it crosseyed. I just used the two splitting wedges one after another all the way down the log. Maybe five minutes per log.

Now I need to practice making mortise and tenons.

And finally, I need to char the bottoms of the fenceposts before planting them.