Rice Rules

Just taking a lunch break now. We have 1.2 fields planted. The photos are from when the neighbor came by to help out for a bit and make sure we were doing it right.

We met our "adversary" again today. He told us that the area we are planting in is actually the recipient of a government grant, and that if we screw this up we screw it up for everyone. He said that they *will* spray it with as many pesticides as possible, and that we have to put as many fertilizers into the soil as possible. He told us that we can not just "plant" sunflower seeds (as we had planned in one paddy that decided was too big for us to handle), but that we have to make sure they are all in nice neat rows - or it will put the grant at risk.

Now we finally understand why he was being so grumpy all the time. How we handle the field actually does have an impact on him. We just wish someone had told us there were so many rules and consequences before we agreed to work the fields (at the request of the owner who didn't want to do it). Until now, everyone (but Mr. Curmudgeon) has been telling us we can do what we want with the field, that it doesn't matter if our crop fails - they were supportive that we try something new.

Actually, we don't think the owner or our neighbor who helped us get it and till it, even knew about the grant. Now we are locked into a first year of traditional chem-laden farming. It looks like we may just bite the bullet and make rice in our sunflower field as well, pulling out all the stops - using big tractors to plow, plant, and harvest using as many chemical fertilizers as our neighbors (its all in the water anyway), and just hoping to get the first harvest out of the way so we can focus on a mountain field that no one cares about for next year.