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OK, This is a weak post. I have been trying to get the rice dried as I try to figure out how to get my computer fixed, and at the same time doing maintenance on bikes for the fall colors trip coming up in a few days. I have not used my Camera in days.
This time it is just Mona, feeling a bit shy and possibly offended that I took a photo of her with her boobs out.
The other photos show her learning to use chopsticks, and just being cute.
Dakkoku, or removing the momi (rice kernels with the husks intact from the straw) from rice that has been drying on racks is in full swing again today after a few days of rain. If you harvest it in the rain it will not dry well. I, unfortunately, have to go to the tax office a a few hours away. That should eat up my day. Today I helped my neighbor with her rice, just trying to pay back all the help she has given us with everything else, so I didn't have time to work on my own rice, but hopefully the weather report is correct and tomorrow will be dry and sunny. Perfect to finish up our fields.
A note to the people who contacted me about rice: I am thrilled! Thank you! For those who wrote a comment on the blog, I am unable right now to see your email addresses. I was trying to do something about comment spam, but my hacking skills are not what they once were. I broke my blog admin's comment interface, and have not yet figured out what I did. So I can't see your email addresses. Please send a regular mail to me at kevin@kevincameron.net. I will let you know prices and more once everything is completed.
Today's photos are just a couple of shots from around my neighborhood. The photo just above shows my hamlet from across the river. You can just see the tip of my roof, I think. We also see a neighbor girl harvesting sweet potatoes, and her grandpa looking a bit pooped. And the last photo, well, I'll leave it up to you to interpret.
So Tomoe doesn't need her power cable back just now, and I am able to upload a few more photos. Since Mona was born on 100110, and today is 101010, my excuse is that I am posting 10x10x10 photos of Mona. That is a whole lot. There may be more coming in the next hours.
And, in final tribute to 101010 , please watch this amazing video of our world viewed in staged of 10 to the fortieth, (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). Wonderful.
I have lots of photos of Mona this time. I don't have a power cable or battery for my computer. So I quickly leave you with these photos of mona looking for breakfast. She eventually found it.
While my rash is gone, and I no longer awake with bloddy arms from scratching in my sleep, I am finding the days difficult. I don't know what to do now that all the rice is harvested and drying. It will be a week or so before I can get started on the next task - dakkoku - taking the kernels off of the straw.
Everyone is worried because, due to the exceptionally hot summer, the rice quality this year is not as high as usual, so it demands a lesser price. I'm not worried, even if the quality is a bit lower than usual, at least we got enough to eat, enough to send to Tomoe's family, enough to send to people who give me cameras, and enough to sell.
If anyone is interested in 5,10,20 kg of almost organic rice, please let me know. We still have to decide the price, and it will depend on the quality test results, but no matter what, it tastes best when it is fresh, so it is best to order it now.
We can also supply a year's worth of rice, sending it to you as you need it and we will take off the hull immediately before each shipment, which keeps it much fresher than sending it all at once. We still have rice in the hull from last year that tastes almost as fresh as it did in November last year.
Photos: Our rice drying, and the rooster "on loan" to us by a local grade school. The teacher was keeping it as a sex-education tool when his students (only two) wondered why the hens' eggs didn't hatch. After he got the rooster, the eggs were fertilized, but the rooster attacked an old lady living near the school, so he had to get rid of him. Naturally, he called me.
I was worried that his early morning crowing would disturb the neighbors, but apparently they didn't even realize I had him for the first two weeks. I love having him, as he has never tried to escape from the yard, and the hens tend to follow him around. It keeps them from running away and causing trouble in the neighbors' fields.
He is a bit aggressive, but only to Tomoe. The first time I grabbed him (to take him home from the school) he drop-kicked me, but I think I showed him who is boss, because he has not attacked me since. Tomoe, on the other hand, is on his shit-list.
Unfortunately, the fertilized eggs did not hatch and the children have sent me a letter saying they need him back. Hopefully once he does his job, I can get him back here, unless anyone has a rooster laying around the house that they don't need?
So, I kow I ask for a lot of free stuff on my blog. It is not because I am cheap (though I am) I just hate buying new stuff when I know there is probably someone out there who has a used one in their closet.
This time I am looking for a battery for my MacBook. Someone poured a glass of water onto it yesterday, and while, after leaving it on the dehumidifier all night, the computer itself works fine now, the battery does not. I need a power cable now to use the computer, and the power cable is broken too.
I don't know if it is the battery that is messed up or the computer. I want to test it with a used battery before I shell out for a new one and find that it doesn't work.
I know it is a stretch, but If anyone out there has a battery that will work with a MacBook 5,1, 2Ghz Intel Core Duo (I dont care if it keeps a charge for a long time, I just want to see if it works) or a magsafe power adapter, you will be rewarded with a guide for a wonderful weekend in the Japanese countryside.
kevin@kevincameron.net
Mona had her first camping trip and hike two days ago. It wasn't a long hike, but plenty beautiful, and a good chance to try out the baby-pack given to us by the Open BSD geeks.
The camping portion was only car-camping, but it was satisfying enough. We have made it a goal to get out and camp once a week. (I'll let you know how that goes...).
Mona also enjoyed getting booby on the top of a mountain. That's the best. Trust me.
We just went up the mountain from our house. About a 45 minute drive, but with beautiful scenery and very secluded. No one ever goes up there, so we can crap wherever we want to, and there is tons on wood laying around to make fire.
While Tomoe and I enjoyed eating Tomoe's bread toasted of the fire with her special bean paste and tomato sauce, and a few eggs from our hens, Mona enjoyed licking rocks.
I had a lot more better photos - even one of Mona jumping of the "jumping rock", but my camera is not feeling well. Half of the photos are lost.
Oh. I forgot to mention that this was our birthday present to ourselves.
So Tomoe was cutting her hair and locked Mona out of the room to prevent the obligatory playing with and tasting pieces of hair from the floor. Mona decided to rip a hole in the paper shoji door to see what was going on.
One of the tasks that got put on hold when I couldn't move, was cleaning out a neighbors shed so I can store my bikes there. Luckily, before I was attacked by the walnut, I was able to carry back this old electric organ. Mona LOVES it. She first just started pounding on the keys, but recently she has actually started making something that one might, with an open mind, consider music. Probably no one will recognize it until she becomes famous, but the evidence for me is that she is an eccentric musician that prefers to play in the nude. She tells me that nudity keeps her creativity flowing.
As I wrote in the previous post, but may have been too long for people to read, the rice is almost all cut and on the drying racks. It would have been done by today, but rain postponed it until tomorrow morning. Instead of harvesting all by hand this year, due to a lack of help and my condition, we borrowed a machine called a "binder" which both cuts and binds the rice. While hand harvesting is more fun, this saved us many days. I have caved to the conveniences of modern agriculture. (what is the emoticon for "hangs his head in shame"?)
Mona is a real trooper. (Almost) always smiling as she sits in her chair and watches us work. In will only be a few years before she will be helping. Can't wait.
She would be helping now, but even just watching kinda tires her out.
