Friday 3 February 2012

Fire and Water

Today, February 3 we spent the morning pioneering. I used a backpack gasoline engine powering a circular saw bladed weed wacker to clear an unused terraced style field of tall grass and weeds near the original Gando farm. Kawasaki-san appears to be expanding his operations. Have a look at a Japanese website www.painter.co.jp and you may get an idea. Anyway after the field was cleared we raked up and burnt the brush. Kawasaki-san tilled some of it immediately bringing many rocks to the surface which we cleared when time allowed.
We were taken out by our young Japanese girl supervisor to an udon (fat noodles) shop for a well deserved lunch wearing our grubby work clothes.
In the afternoon 3 of us dug a shallow ditch along the concrete wall lining the upper side of the field to help drain the water sitting on one end of the field and also to drain water continually running from drain holes through the concrete wall from a concrete ditch above the field. These ditches are designed to control water flow and flood rice fields in spring.
Japan has an abundance of running water. Frequently dams are built in the hills to contain water until needed by rice farmers.

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