Finding Soil

Thanks to people who responded to the translation post I felt really good today about going out and working in the field. No more anxiety about that translation project that I don't have time for! Yeeeeeeehaaaaaa!

Today Tomoe and I spent the afternoon working on a pile of fertilizer that we had hoped to be ready for our rice field, but it was not fermenting as planned, so we are guessing it will simply be used to feed our backyard field.

We were happy to find that the nearby dam sells a truckload of composted leaf and organic debris that gets caught in its filters, for only 100 YEN! That's about $1 - for a truckload! Until now I have been making daily trips to the mountain with my shovel and wheel barrow in order to gather good soil. It would take me DAYS to gather a truckload that we can now buy for only 100 yen!

So, I would like to say that we are going to spend the next few days getting and spreading the soil, and building a fence around the portion of our yard that we want the chickens to tractor, but... I have to go to the opening of the volunteer fire department opening ceremony tomorrow, and for a few days after that we have customers coming to help work on an old thatch-roof house.

The photos are: Tomoe in the yard X 2, a carrot that has been trying to grow all winter, and our dairy farmer neighbor with his vet who was visiting today because of an udder infection in one of the cows... cow flu???????