Jinriki

Notes from the Workshop on Carbon Cycle Farming, Sept 11, 2011

2011-09-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:4ea3b82246e360a7}These are notes from the workshop on Carbon Cycle Farming (CCF) (炭素循環農法、TANSO JYUNKAN NOUHOU) held in Komono, Japan, on September 11, 2011. The teacher was Hayashi Sensei. The notes are in the order presented. We started the event at a vegetable garden, moved on to some rice paddies, and then on to a classroom.

Fermentation culture vs. Rot culture

Fungus makes use of oxygen, so the ground needs to be somewhat dry. If the ground is not dry, figure out a way to drain it. (Such as by raising rows, or digging ditches.)

Natural plants dry out. Plants fed on rot rot. ("Natural plants" is a reference to plants like weeds that are not raised on rotting plant or animal matter too rich in nitrogen.)

Bugs eat their food, rot, which is not human food. What humans are eating is bug food. Bugs are not attracted to plants grown in a fermentation culture. Bugs go to bitter leaves and fruit, which is caused by filth in the soil. To allow the soil to rid itself of the filth, grow plants, and let the bugs consume them, reducing the energy in the filth and carrying it away. Bugs will eat the garbage and then leave.

Beans hurt the earth most, and while rotation of other plants is not a necessity, rotating other plants in after beans is essential. Wheat is a good crop to plant after beans, as grasses pull up the excess nitrogen in the soil. The wheat need not be eaten, but at least leave the straw on or in the soil as food for fungus.

Keep the ground the same year round, planted or ready to plant. Raise soil.

Kids know that vegies taste bad, so they don't want them. They aren't good vegies. (One class member tasted a green tomato from the garden. It tasted bitter.) Consumer education is important. Real vegies from CCF gardens are the standard for food.

Once mushrooms come up from the soil, things will start to grow. This will take about three years. In the first year plants will grow from the rot in the ground. In the second year plants start using up the rot, and bugs eat them. In the third year, the soil is in good shape and plants will grow better.

About 3-5 cm of wood chips should be spread over and between the rows as fungus food. 10 cm of rice straw can also be used. Put it in one season before planting. Coniferous wood chips interfere with fungus growth, so put it outside to be exposed to the elements before applying directly to where the rows for plants. Between the rows will work fine as it will also retard the growth of weeds. Green bamboo can be split and laid along the row under a layer of soil.

The energy of animal and human excrement can be reduced by mixing with 50 to 100% the amount of wood chips, mixed, and allowed to ferment. The resulting material can safely be applied to gardens.Do not burn anything.

If it is clean, then wild boars will not come either, because they come in search of worms that eat the filth. Worms are good because they eat and reduce the energy of rotting filth, and are a mark of poor conditions, not good. If the soil is clean, boars will not come through gardens.

(We moved on to the rice paddies.)

CCF for a rice paddy is somewhat different for a vegetable patch. A rice paddy is clean if the soil is all that can be seen beneath the water, or a layer of algae, not brown scum. The best conditions are deep, clean water. After harvest, mix in rice straw, mix in wood chips, and make sure living grass is not mixed in.

When growing rice, do not let the water dry out, and do not practice, "naka boshi," which is the practice of allowing the paddy to dry out to the point of cracking soil as a way of slowing growth. (Growth needs to be slowed because soil ammendments cause rice stems to grow too much, allowing the plants to fall over in strong winds or rain.) Rot encourages weeds. Again, weeds and bugs make the ground healthy as they consume the rot in the soil. Shirokaki (mixing the very fine soil at the very top of the paddy) should be done very shallow.

Natural farming does not allow the soil to clean itself.

(We moved to the classroom.)
"I hate growing vegetables. I hate digging in the dirt. I don't have any strength. That's why I like this style of farming." "I care for life. I have no idea how to make vegetables. I know the difference between daikons and carrots. That's all I can tell you."

Okada Mokichi, and Rudolph Steiner basically talked about the same things, but didn't talk enough about this world, so people didn't listen. Don't put yourself as the standard. Avoid preferences. Fertilizers aren't bad, but people can't make food without them. Two rights don't make another right, they cause a conflict. If it's the real deal, it will spread. Up to now the development of civilization has been about destruction.

We're in the wrong position. We petition got for what we want. What we should be doing is making god's hopes for us come true. Among the all the other things god hopes for us if for us to live in peace.

A family garden must make better food faster than the pros or you might as well leave it to them.

If bugs eat fermented material, they die. If humans eat rotten material, they die. Our food is not the same.

Tanso Jyunkan Nouhou: Carbon Circulation Farming

2011-09-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, I participated in a workshop by Shiro Yuuji in Komono, Japan. The topic was tanso jyunkan nouhou , or carbon circulation farming (My translation. From here on CCF). This is a summation of that workshop.

I had heard of CCF, but had never had the opportunity to hear about it from someone who uses it. I would characterize the principles as follows.

CCF Principles

no fertilizers
use of wood chips or other woody medium as,
a culture for fungus growth
little watering
emphasis on fermentation rather than rot
plant and animal (human) morphology similar
reinterpretation of popular explanations

The workshop started in a vegetable garden, where we looked at a CCF crop in action. The rows and the area between them were covered in wood chips. Mr. Shiro showed us the fungal growth happening in the wood chips, and told us that the basic premise of CCF was the forest.

Forests grow without supplements and without more than normal rainfall. They are continuously planted in the same crops, and never becomes deficient in nutrients. The forest floor is fecund and does not require human attention.

Currently science offers an explanation of this interchage as being one of quantifiable and qualifiable nutrients that are available to the plants from the ground to the the roots and from there to the rest of the plant. But why is this interchange not available in agricultural settings? Why does the ground lose its fecundity over time and require suppliments?

Shiro's explanation is that the explanation itself is flawed. The "kasetsu" or popular wisdom is just one possible explanation of how something works. Similar to the firefighter observation, where it is assumed that firefighters start fires, because they appear at the time of a fire.

In the end, says Shiro, nature is the final teacher. Forest floors, covered in leaves and decaying plant matter, is the home to growth and health is the lowest common denominator.

We have to look to the future, not the past, and deal with the root of the problem. Our fields will change quickly. Changing our minds is the hard part, he says.

He says our bodies are very similar to plants, only inside out. Our roots are our digestive organs, and the soil is the matter that surrounds our roots, or fills our intestines in our cases.

Shiro asked what the explanation is for how we receive nutrition. We explained that the popular theory is that we grind up and mix the food we take in through our mouths in our digestive tracts and absorb the nutrients and calories through the linings of our guts.

Carefree: A state of being

2011-05-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

The etymology of care starts with Old English, caru, cearu "sorrow, anxiety, grief," also "serious mental attention." Carefree would mean a state of being without sorrow, or serious mental attention.

Yesterday I cycled into work, and on the way home, as the rain began to fall, I had a feeling that I don't think I had had for a very long time, which I can only describe as carefree. It is a state that I would like to foster as an constant way of being.

Carefree is not a state of laziness or irresponsibility. I have a family to provide for, students to teach, and a farm to attend to. I responsibly fulfill my roles every day.

Carefree is a state of mental freedom. It is a condition of fearlessness. Carefree is a choice one with a free mind can make.

McKenna Quote

2011-04-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

"I'm not motivated, as you see. I need a place to keep some books dry. Having achieved that my motivation falls to pieces. "

From "The Last Interview" part 1, 1:00:20

The Power of Community ( Spanish Subtitles )

2011-04-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

Making a break with refined sugar

2011-04-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

On the way to work everyday, I would stop by the local convenience store and buy a cup of coffee and two pieces of bread. You can see what those treats look like of you do this search on Google Japan. Each one of those items has something like 350 calories in them, and most of it comes from refined sugar. Then maybe white flour.

On the way home I would often buy another one for eating in the car.

I don't really want this post to be fear mongering about the ill effects of white sugar, so I'll just say that I have eaten more than my share of the white powder in my life, and don't need any more.

I'm on day six of a white sugar fast, which means that I am cutting out anything that contains refined sugar. That is pretty easy for me, as my family eats a predominantly whole grain, vegetable, bean, and fish diet. We don't even have sugar in the house, so if I eat what is here, thanks to my wife, I'm fine.

This idea came to me when I found one day that I craved something sweet at certain times of the day. Normally I would have given in to the temptation, but six days ago, I decided that it was a bigger problem than just a craving. The sugary treat would satisfy me, but why did I have that strong desire to eat it anyway? The only conclusion I could come to was that I am addicted to sugar.

I did some searching and found that there is indeed addiction to the stuff, so I decided to get the monkey off my back.

I did a similar thing with alcohol some years ago. At that time I thought that I had an addiction to alcohol, so I gave it up. I had cravings, but none of the feelings, physical or emotional, that came with that experience were as bad as the feelings that I had after drinking.

Just like alcohol, I've had more than my share of the world's refined sugar.

Japan nuclear woes could mean more China exports | Reuters

2011-03-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

Japan nuclear woes could mean more China exports | Reuters

"The radiation in the east in Japan actually decreases the amount of land that they could use" for farming.

With the amount of farm land that goes fallow every year, this will not affect farming on a national level. It will certainly reduce the amount of land farmed in the impacted prefectures, but will not necessarily reduce the amount of agricultural products nationally. On the contrary, it could help farming in other prefectures by making their products more valuable.

Irradiated food: by leaking power plant or on purpose for sterilization

2011-03-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I live in Japan, many miles from the devistation caused by the recent earthquake and tital wave, and from the reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Recently the Japanese government has taken steps to keep food that may have been contaminated by nuclear waste coming from the power plants. This includes a variety of vegies and milk from the area. This made me wonder, though, how, if this is bad, purposefully irradiated food is any less dangerous.

My conclusion is that it is different because purposefully irradiated food is exposed to radiation, but the radioactive material does not remain on the food. With nuclear matter that settles on the food or is consumed by a food producing animal, the radioactive material remains on or in the food, later to be eaten by the consumer.

But I was wondering, then, if there are other effects on the food. It looks like there are. Even though radioactive material doesn't remain on the irradiated food, the food itself is changed in the process. Here are some materials that may be of interest.

This is an article on health risks and the misleading of consumers.

This is an article by the CDC on how irradiated food is safe.

How to Espalier a Tree

2011-03-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

I want to do this with the persimmon tree we transplanted yesterday.
How to Espalier a Tree

Taro potato

2011-03-14T00:15:00.000-07:00

Harvested some taro potatoes yesterday. Great crop for this area, and grow with little attention.

Speaking Truth to Power

2011-03-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Great site on "navigating what current events are manifesting."
Speaking Truth to Power:

Heard about her on KMO's excellent podcast, C-Realm Podcast number 246, "Navigating the Coming Chaos."

The principles of a rocket stove and how to build one.

2011-02-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

DRTV: Rocket Stoves

2011-02-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

rocet stove, YouTube - forest21c's Channel

2011-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

This is a video on a rather large scale rocket stove project. Looks great

YouTube - forest21c's Channel: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Rocket Stove: ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ　ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かるロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）

2011-02-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

Another link with good graphics on a rocket stove.

ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ　ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かるロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）:

Rocket Stove,ロケットストーブ作る | 神流アトリエ日記（３）

2011-02-10T20:26:00.000-08:00

This is a post on the 神流アトリエ日記 blog about a "rocket stove." I saw one of these in a 現代農業magazine today, and came home to research it a little. Very cool idea for several reasons.
1.) It's cheap to make. A drum can or two, some stove pipe, bricks, mud, gutter tiles, and some concrete, and it looks like anyone could make it.
2.) You can burn any size wood in it.
3.) It is useful for heating as well as cooking.
4.) It doesn't burn fossil fuels.
ロケットストーブ作る | 神流アトリエ日記（３）

The Metaphysics of Freedom

2011-02-02T00:11:00.000-08:00

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" Janis Joplin from "Me and Bobby McGee"

The other day I was listening to The School Sucks Podcast: 078 - Nonviolent Communication Round-Table (w/ Wes Bertrand and Stefan Molyneux). It was a discussion about ways of communicating with people non-violently, and the intro was Marshall Rosenberg saying this:

"We deny responsibility for our actions when we attribute their cause to vague impersonal forces such as 'I cleaned my room because I have to.'"

I won't go into a long description of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), but it was incorporated by the creators of this podcast, because they think it would be useful in helping people communicate better. For the most part, I think that is true, too, but that in itself is not the objective of this post. It is also important to know the general aims of the podcast. Brett Veinotte claims that the objective of the project in general is the end of public education.

The END...of Public Education?
1. END: It's over, irrelevant, useless, needs to be done away with. Does far more harm than good (it does no good).
2. END: (As in means to an end) We'll also explore the true intentions behind the system, which have very little to do with real education. There is substantial evidence that its failure to educate is no accident.
School Sucks Podcast is a show about what one might do about these problems...

The end of public education as a violent organ of a violent institution, government in its present form, and the beginning of freedom, which would also necessitate the acceptance of responsibility for our actions in word and deed.

So what's this post about?
I am happy when things work out, when ideas work together and are formed elegantly. I am satisfied to accept the process itself as a positive experience, but I am especially pleased when I can look back on the beginning and see some of the original theme where I now stand, like a beautiful piece of music, poetry, physics.

I had that experience with this broadcast, and I would like to share it with you, Oh Patient Reader. My conclusion is that in freedom, a metaphysical construct is important and available. It has nothing to do with religion, but appears at first to be something like Buddhism. In the podcast, Stefan Molyneux voices some skepticism about Rosenberg's ideas because he talks about Christ consciousness, spirit, and eternal principals.

My guess is that Rosenberg experiences this metaphysical feature of personal responsibility in a religious way, and that is the language he uses to express it. It need not be expressed in that way, but it may be useful for some people.

Why I think this
During the Bush years after 9/11, I was depressed. I didn't feel good about people or myself the way I had before, and I was tired of feeling that way. I needed some perspective.

My first stop was a podcast called "Morning Coach." I'm not sure that the podcast is still there, but it was very helpful for me then. In it J. B. Glossinger spoke about positive mental attitude and finding prosperity. Also at that time the book, "The Secret" came out. I became interested in manifesting prosperity, and the works of other writers, such as Napoleon Hill, and James Allen.

In a nutshell all of these people were saying that you/I/the individual is capable of and responsible for creating his or her own happiness, worldview, wealth, security, comfort, and freedom. Some have interpreted this to mean that if we do the right stuff we can get all the material wealth we want. That is shallow and unproductive thought in the long run, but probably can't be avoided.

However, extrapolated out, this responsibility for creation has immense metaphysical implications. If this ability is real, and I according to others it is, then we are responsible for so much else. We can not only bring freedom to ourselves, but to others. The enormity of this idea started after I listened to Joe Vitale speak about ho 'oponopono.

total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Terrence
One day as I was reading my tweets, I came across one from a teacher (I searched for the link, but I can't find who wrote it now.) who had added a link to a podcast about shamanism. As I had experienced a sweat lodge experience with a Native American shaman just before I read that, I followed the link and downloaded the mp3 file. Terrence McKenna. (Follow this link, and choose any of McKenna's talks that sound interesting. You'll never be the same.) I had never heard of the man before or what he was talking about, but I was blown completely away. The strange sounding man spoke eloquently about topics that I had never dreamed of, and his words filled me with hope.

The Liberty Movement

His words also helped me know that culture, including government and organized religion, are not our friend. Something about that was ringing true. Why weren't humanity's most sacred medicines available? Why are so many people in prison over a plant?

I had voted in the presidential election, and Mr. Obama became president. So much was going to change. So much stayed the same. I was sad, and didn't have an answer for how there was any way to make our world better if the election of a man in whom I had so much hope wasn't going to work.

Then I listened to an episode of The School Sucks Podcast, and there it was, like the missing piece of the puzzle. The why and the what , at least, of freedom.

Conclusion

Rosenberg's expression of how Christ consciousness is understandable, because liberty posesses a metaphysical aspect as well. If we want freedom, we must take responsibility. That is where our power lies. By giving it away, by saying that some external force made us do it, we empower that thing.

I was happy when I heard this podcast, because it reassured me that my journey is progressing with little bits of closure here and there, like a fractal, that contains the whole of the universe in each of its parts.

Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show -- January 17, 2011 | MichaelMoore.com

2011-01-17T23:09:00.000-08:00

Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show -- January 17, 2011 | MichaelMoore.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Well done, Michael. And remember, this is a member of the NRA.

Michael Moore Meets Wendell Potter on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Pa...

2010-11-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

In the end, the only argument government/corporations have is the ad hominem attack. Quite an eye opener.

FDA to our rescue: Four Loko alcoholic drink

2010-11-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

I don't know what I'd do if the FDA didn't ban this, I'd probably drink a whole case of it just because it's there, and then something really bad would probably happen.

Thanks FDA!

Four Loko alcoholic drink to lose caffeine jolt | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

drying rice

2010-10-06T18:36:00.003-07:00

drying rice
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Drying it out on the racks, "hasakake" that we cut and put up.

drying rice2

2010-10-06T18:36:00.001-07:00

drying rice2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Drying in the sun.

harvesting

2010-10-06T18:35:00.001-07:00

harvesting
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the guy we bought it from, Mr. Hiuchi, testing out the machine. He spent hours trying to get it through the whole paddy, but we gave up. It was too muddy. Next year we'll have to dig some ditches around the perimeter to drain it better.

partially harvested

2010-10-06T18:33:00.001-07:00

partially harveste
Originally uploaded by touzanka

We decided to harvest about a week early, and good thing. The weather had been pretty good, so the ground was somewhat dried out. It was too wet in most places to use the binder on all of it , though. The rest was harvested by hand.

preharvest

2010-10-06T18:32:00.001-07:00

preharvest
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the rice just before being harvested. It's getting a little yellow, but would like to have left it longer.

with monkey damage

2010-10-06T18:30:00.001-07:00

with monkey damage
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the whole paddy. You can see how much of has been knocked down by the monkeys. The fence is more for boars than monkeys. They just use it like a jungle gym.

monkey damage

2010-10-06T18:29:00.001-07:00

monkey damage
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a closeup of some the damage the monkeys did to the rice before it was harvested.

rice sprouts in trays

2010-10-06T18:28:00.001-07:00

rice sprouts in trays
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Rice is first sprouted in trays of small pots with one or two seeds in each pot. Then we just pop out the sprouts and stick them in the mud.

planting

2010-10-06T18:26:00.001-07:00

planting
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Planting rice on June 19 and 20

ready to plant

2010-10-06T18:25:00.001-07:00

ready to plant
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Plowed and ready to plant.

plowed but not ready

2010-10-06T18:23:00.001-07:00

plowed but not ready
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Rice paddy in May, 2010

YouTube - Terence Mckenna: Reclaim Your Mind

2010-09-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

"to say what has never been said
to see what has never been seen
to draw paint sing sculpt dance and act what has never before been done
to push the envelope of creativity and language, and what is really important,
I call it "he felt presence of direct experience", which is a fancy term which just simply means, we have to stop consuming our culture. We have to create culture. Don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own road show. "

YouTube - Terence Mckenna: Reclaim Your Mind: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Trivium - definition and examples of trivium

2010-08-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

First time I had heard this word, or the concept that there were 7 disciplines that made up liberal arts.

trivium - definition and examples of trivium: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Miyazaki to triple number of hogs and beef

2010-05-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

The authorities in Miyazaki Prefecture who are deciding how many meat animals (beef and pork) will be slaughtered in reaction to the latest foot and mouth outbreak. They are guessing 205,000 additional animals.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-19/japan-to-triple-cattle-hog-cull-on-foot-and-mouth-update1-.html

Japan to Triple Cattle, Hog Cull on Foot-and-Mouth (Update1) - BusinessWeek

www.businessweek.com

Japan will almost triple the number of animals to be culled in Miyazaki prefecture, a major farming region, as an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease threatens the nation’s livestock industry.

That is 155,000 pigs, each pig producing 75kg of meat for 11,625,000kg of pork. 50,000 beef at 225kg of meat for each animal, making 11,250,000kg. If you figure that one Japanese person consumes, on average, 43.9kg of meat per year, and there are about 30,000 people in my town, that means that the amount of meat wasted in Miyazaki is going to be 17.369 years worth of food for every man woman and child in the town.

What in the world is going on?
-Beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1
-Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food.
-On lands where feed grain is produced, soil loss averages 13 tons per hectare per year.
-"More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans."

These resources aren't coming from Japan. (all except the water maybe) The rest is coming from the rest of the world. Japan don't need burgers that bad.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html

Eating Simpler and Closer to Home for Happiness and Health

2010-04-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

In the eight years that I have been living with my wife, she has supported a total change in my eating habits, and thus an enormous change for the better in my life. I characterize our lifestyle as a modified macrobiotic lifestyle, and credit it with ending my asthma problems and helping me find a happier, healthier lifestyle.

These are my suggestions, but basically the keys are to simplify and keep it close to home.

I. Eat local
Eating food grown locally means eating food that is balanced with the seasons where you are. It's possible to grow food in greenhouses, and we avoid that, but other food that grows near where we live is in a similar synch with the environment around us. The big implication here: if it doesn't grow near you, avoid it. If you live in sugar producing country, enjoy whole sugars. If you don't, avoid it. Same goes for coffee, bananas, or anything else that grows far away from you.

II. Eat seasonal
This mean to consume foods that are growing where you happen to be. Eating locally and eating seasonally are linked, bringing us the same benefits. If we eat what is close to us and what is growing now, we can't go wrong. If nothing is growing because everything is covered by snow, then canned food that grew around you in the summer is the next best thing.

III. Eat simply
There are so many cookbooks and recipes floating around out there that our expectations for what we consume are artificially exaggerated. We don't need meals that originated exotic restaurants. Simple meals cooked at home by and for people who love each other are the ticket.

We eat brown rice, miso soup and a simple vegie dish, sometimes with a piece of fish nearly every day. From time to time we may have a pasta dish, but we eat simply and enjoy everything we have.

IV. Eat with people you care about
Sharing a meal brings people together. There is just no question. Cook it and share it with people that matter to you.

V. Avoid meat
No one needs the negative energy from meat, and while cutting it out entirely may be very difficult, cutting back should be no problem. We very rarely consume meat from warm blooded animals and feel great. Our children have never had meat in their lives, and have had very little fish. They eat like horses and play and study as well or better than other children their ages.

VI. Quit micromanaging your food
Media and marketing entities try to focus our attention on the micro nutrients that we are or are not getting. I have found this microscopic view is crap. I was brainwashed into thinking vitamins and supplements, calories, grams of protein and fat were important. If you are following the above hints, you need not concern yourself with anything else.

There are ways to improve our lives through our habits surrounding food, but none of those ways involve making it more complicated. Simplify, and enjoy what you have cooked with people who are important to you.

Talk with a veteran farmer

2010-02-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to meet with a local veteran farmer who shares similar views on farming. His name is Kannnatsu. Our friends introduced us, because he was such and interesting person, and also may be able to start our rice seedlings for us.

There is some background here that is important. Though we initially started farming, expecting to plant rice in an untilled paddy, we have since found that tilling will be essential, until we get a good cover crop established. So this year we have plowed and will be planting rice sprouts.

Starting the seedlings from scratch is a tricky job that starts with selecting the good seed from the whole batch, soaking it until it sprouts, and then planting it in small containers something like ice cube trays. After the sprouts grow covered for about 10 days, then most farmers uncover them for 10 more then plant. Mr. Kannnatsu plants his after a total of 35 days, so they're quite a bit taller.

Mr. Kannatsu is convinced that building the soil is the key, and not with chemical additives, but with rice straw, husks, and bran. He also suggested that if our goal is to plant our paddy without tilling it, then leaving water in it year round is the best way to go. Writing this makes me wonder what will happen around harvest time, when other farmers' paddies are relatively dry and they can lay their cut rice plants on the ground before binding them and hanging them on the racks to dry. Something else to learn.

It was a dense conversation with more content than I could easily process. He is a professional with a lifetime of experience, and I am a true beginner. It is funny to me that I started on this journey of self sufficiency thinking that our small family would be alone in our efforts. I had no idea that I would meet so many like-minded people who are working with nature and with each other to provide good food for themselves and others.

Japan: Far too much roadway for one country

2010-02-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

There is a Japanese myth that tells of a country, a nation of cars. It is a country where automobiles capture the imagination of the young, and the ethos of that people is melded with the machines. To the Japanese this country is across a vast ocean, but like in most stories of this kind, it is actually themselves.

Japan has become a car society, and they are willing to sacrifice greatly for it. They are willing to pave over more of their country, and die in greater numbers than that far away country to appease the auto gods.

Of course the fabled country in Japanese myth is the United States, but let's compare. Japan has 377,835 km2 of land area. They are number 61 in the world. The US has 9,629,091 km2 of land, number 3 in the world. Japan has 949,101 km of paved road, number 6 in the world. The US has 4,209,835 km of paved road, number 1 in the world.

That means that Japan has 2.5 km of paved road for every km2 of land. The US has 0.43 km of road for every km2 of land. Japan is willing to pave over their rice fields for their cars, even though their food self sufficiency is only 40% (An exaggerated, terribly over optimistic figure).

They are also willing to sacrifice their people in greater numbers. For every billion vehicle-kilometers, 10.3 Japanese die for every 9 Americans, even though Japanese travel less then half the distance annually that Americans do, 24,000 and 57,000 miles respectively.

This ridiculous situation grows worse by the day, especially at this time of year when they are crazily spending up every last yen of their budgets on road work. This also effects me, because the country is planning to build two more roads, one an elevated highway, and the other a road to service it, that will pass uncomfortably close to my home. This while the population shrinks and ages at a rapid rate. Its population could drop by half this century, meaning year by year the burden on each person of maintaining these roads will grow and grow.

It's time Japan rethink its automobile fetish. It will need all of its people and resources to maintain their people in the years to come, but what it does not need is more roads.

A Nation of Farmers: Guess what book I'm buying now.

2009-10-22T00:16:00.001-07:00

This looks like a book that belongs on the shelf of every revolutionary farmer.

内容:

"A Nation of Farmers: How City Farmers, Backyard Chicken Enthusiasts, Victory Gardeners, Small Family Farms, Kids in Edible Schoolyards, Cooks in Their Kitchens, and Passionate Eaters Everywhere Can Overthrow Our Destructive Industrial Agriculture, and Give Us Hope for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness in a Changing World."
- Civil Eats » Blog Archive » A Nation of Farmers: A Handbook for Food System Revolutionaries （Google サイドウィキで表示）

Yoi To Make

2009-10-12T22:35:00.001-07:00

This is a video version of the stills below. You can see how the pile driver works and hear the work song that goes along with it. There are several versions of this song, some of the quite ribald, so it was always fun, even though the work was hard.

One foundation stone

2009-10-10T16:49:00.001-07:00

one foundation stone
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is one completed pile with the stone planted. One beam will sit on top of this stone.

Group Pull3

2009-10-10T16:48:00.001-07:00

group pull3
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Another shot of the thumper ready to drop.

Notice the pile of stones that will be pounded down.

Group Pull4

2009-10-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

group pull4
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Log up in the air, ready to drop.

Ropes-n-pullies

2009-10-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

ropesnpullies
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is how the pile driver looks when it's ready to go. We all grab a rope, haul the thumper up, and let it drop. All to the rhythm of the singer, the owner of the house, who has done his best to remember the yoi to make song, a great work song.

Foundation guide

2009-10-10T16:42:00.001-07:00

found guide
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a photo of the guide for the foundation of the house. There are markings on the boards which form a grid helping us determine where each of the piles should be placed. In the forground is a pile of rocks that will form the piles.

Yoi To Make stomper

2009-10-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

log
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the business end of the Yoi To Make. It is a 100 kilogram pine log attached to the tripod with pullies and ropes to lift it off the ground and drop it onto a pile of rocks.

This forms the foundation for one beam of the house.

inner wall

2009-09-12T01:23:00.001-07:00

inwall
Originally uploaded by touzanka

The wall on the right is the covered wall, and that on the left is what a section looks like before it's covered from the inside. The gap at the bottom is a window.

innnerwall 2

2009-09-12T01:21:00.001-07:00

inwall2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

You can see the difference in the color of the mud. The brown on the left is the older mud. That on the right is the newer mud.

outwall

2009-09-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

outwall
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the dried outer wall. Lots of daylight getting through here.

More on mud walls

2009-09-12T01:18:00.001-07:00

Since the outside half of our mud walls was up dry, thanks to the terrific weather, we put up the inside half on Thursday. Again with the help of seven other hard working friends, we got the job done in one day. Thursday's work went smoother for three of reasons, we had more practice, the outside wall gave us something to push against, and the new mud was easier to apply.

We started at 9:30 by mixing up the little bit of mud we had left, and uncovering the new load of mud we received for the remainder of the walls. The old mud had gotten harder, because the weather had been unusually dry and windy. The new mud, having been covered with plastic, was ready to go.

The inside walls went up much easier than the first time. The first reason was that all of us had experience at it. Also, since the outside wall was already done and the big gaps in the bamboo lattice were filled up, the new mud went on much smoother. Finally, the straw in the new mud had been chopped up finer and had rotted longer, so it was easier to spread. The smell was quite a bit stronger, too.

One other interesting feature of the different mud is the color. The mud we used on the outside of the building was from a nearby source, and is tan in color. The newer mud is chocolate mousse color. You can see that in the photos.

We will cover the walls once more with a thin layer of mud with a higher sand content for the sake of appearance and making it varmint proof. Now there are lots of gaps in it as a result of the mud drying. Sandier mud won't crack as much.

Mud supply

2009-09-08T01:56:00.001-07:00

dwindling mud
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Actually, this isn't enough mud, and to finish up the inside walls, we are going to have to find some to buy. There aren't many, but people do still make mud for wall commercially.

Gradually working your way down

2009-09-08T01:55:00.001-07:00

from the inside
Originally uploaded by touzanka

From the inside

2009-09-08T01:54:00.001-07:00

frominside2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is what the wall looks like from the inside.

Looks and smells bad

2009-09-08T01:53:00.001-07:00

looksbadsmellsbad
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Smells nearly as bad as it looks.

The west side story

2009-09-08T01:52:00.001-07:00

onedown
Originally uploaded by touzanka

The west side of the kura is finished.

Start at the top

2009-09-08T01:51:00.001-07:00

start@top
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the first section completed.

Mud and straw walls: Putting the mud on the latice work

2009-09-08T01:45:00.000-07:00

There are pockets of Japan where you can still see what it may have been like to live here as a common person 150 or 200 years ago, and those areas are pretty much anywhere you go. You don't have to go anywhere special, just walk around enough to find those places.

Some ways to you can tell you have found that kind of place is by narrow roads. Roads didn't have to be very wide for people to pass, or a horse, or a pull cart. Thatched roofs, or more likely thatched roofs covered with galvanized steel sheeting is another. My favorite old structures have been kura, or store houses.

Kura vary in size, but they all have very thick walls, which are white on the outside, with thick metal doors and windows. They are often adorned with carved plaster reliefs of storks, tortoises, or some other auspicious animals. And aside from the wooden frame, and steel doors, they are almost entirely mud and straw.

I always admired those structures and wanted one, but thought I would have to buy and old one. I never thought I would be building my own. It has been quite an adventure.

Yesterday we put up the mud on the bamboo lattice walls. The mud has been sitting in our back yard, with the rice straw gradually rotting and forming a fine fiber net that will hold the mud together for decades, and then when my kids or grandkids want to redo the walls, all they have to do is pull down the old mud, mix it with a little new mud and straw, and put it up again. 100% recyclable.

We started at about 9am, wading through the stinking mud to mix it up and adjust the consistency. The straw rots and smells like a swamp, which is really what it was. The bacteria comes from the straw, and is the same strain that helps turn soy beans into natto.

At around 10 we started applying the mud to the walls. Your loader loads a football sized glob onto your pallet, and you throw it into place and spread it out as evenly as possible with your trowel. Then you reach down for another glob that your loader serves up to you with a miniature pitchfork, especially designed for the purpose.

You keep that up, working your way down the wall, until you reach the earthen floor, and then move on to the next section. People reported various symptoms of overworked muscles, twitching biceps, shoulders that wouldn't raise anymore, hands that couldn't grip a trowel or pallet. The smell you get used to.

Traditionally you started applying mud from the inside, then wait a few days for the mud to dry a little, and then apply the outside wall. Our kura has relatively thick horizontal beams on the inside, so we used them as a shelf for the mud to sit on and started from the outside. We will wait for a few days and the apply mud for the inside.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable process, mostly because of the people who gathered to help us out. There were ten people in total who contributed their time and labor, which makes the building all the more dear. They all came for different reasons, mostly to help us or to find out how to make a mud-walled building.

That kind of communal work party is called a yui, 結い、in Japanese, and were common when people planted, harvested or built buildings. My guess is that in the future we'll have more of them, because the people who came to help all expressed a desire to have their own kura, with a couple of people saying they wanted a home or business build that way.

finished umeboshi

2009-08-30T04:51:00.001-07:00

finished umeboshi
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a photo of what your finished umeboshi will look like. The faint white powder is the dried salt. Sour and salty, my mouth is already watering.

Ode to the umeboshi: How to make them yourself

2009-08-30T04:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, the humble umeboshi.
Your wrinkly pink skin is so devine,
Your sour salty flesh so alkaline,
In winter does your yangness invigorate,
In summer do your electrolytes rejuvenate.
Illness extinguishes appetite,
Rice gruel with umeboshi and soysauce makes it right.
Sour stomachs may cause us misery hard to endure,
Only tea with you and soysauce can cure.
So here is to you umeboshi,
Simple and common,
Remedy to10,000 illnesses summon.

Not brilliant poetry, and umeboshi is worthy of much better, but you get the idea.

I wrote today as my wife put up 207 umeboshi that she has been doctoring along for two months. This is her approximate recipe. (She cobbled together ideas from here and there to make hers.

Ingredients: at least one kilogram of ume fruit (Ume is a fruit like an apricot.), 180g of salt per kilo of fruit, 500g of salted red beef steak leaf or perilla.

1. Wash the ume in water, removing stems, leaves and throwing out bug-eaten fruit. Completely drain water off of the fruit.
2. Put the fruit into a crock or large jar and pour the salt on top of the fruit, covering it evenly. (Some recipes call for a layered approach, fruit and salt alternating.)
3. cover with a lid that covers the fruit, but not the opening of the jar, and then put a weight on top of the lid. The weight should be about 2 kilos, and this should gently press the fruit and salt together. Leave this for anywhere from five days to a month. (recipes vary)
4. At the end of this period there will be a yellowish liquid called "white ume vinegar." Keep it out and add the shiso. Again, recipes vary. You can leave it on top or layer it in with the ume. Then pour in the white ume vinegar, put on the lid with the weight, and let sit for another 20 days.
5. After that time, remove the pickled ume and shiso from the jar and lay them out on a large wooden or bamboo tray. (The liquid will now be called "shiso ume vinegar." It is good as a substitute for vinegar in salad dressings and other places where you may want to use a fruity vinegar.) They should barely be touching each other, and the shiso should be evenly and thinly spread. Put this out in the sun to dry for 3 to 4 days.
6. At the end of this time put them back in the crock or jar that you used to pickle them in, and store in a cool, dry place.
7. Serve them with white rice. (One ume per serving.)

Bamboo Lattice from the Outside Again

2009-08-13T22:02:00.001-07:00

bamboo lattice 1
Originally uploaded by touzanka

In this shot you can see the bamboo as well as the joints. Beautiful craftsmanship in these joints. This type of building uses the same type of construction as Horyuji near Nara. Those buildings have lasted for around 2,000 years. If I get just 10% of that in my building, I'll be dust long before it falls down.

Bamboo Lattice from the outside.

2009-08-13T21:57:00.001-07:00

bamboo lattice 2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

You can see the bamboo tied on from the outside. The large open space is for a window.

Bamboo Lattice Top

2009-08-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

bamboo lattice 3
Originally uploaded by touzanka

You can see a slender piece of bamboo running horizontally at the top. That is to secure the tops of the bamboo strips. That is done when the other horizontal pieces are added.

A detail shot of the verticle bamboo lattice

2009-08-13T21:54:00.001-07:00

bamboo lattice detail
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Bamboo Lattice for Mud Walls

2009-08-13T21:53:00.001-07:00

bamboo lattice inside
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the verticle portion of the bamboo lattice work that we put in yesterday. There will be horizontal pieces tied in here, and the mud will be applied. It's almost a waste to cover the walls with mud. The bamboo is attractive.

It is easy to tie on, but it takes some precision cutting to make sure that the bamboo is the right length. It has to fit into the space from top to bottom, but you must also leave about a 3 centimeter gap at the bottom so that the bamboo doesn't bow outward with the weight of the mud.

Mud before mixing

2009-08-05T17:42:00.001-07:00

mudbeforeJPG
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the mud for the walls before it has been mixed with water and straw. It is about as stiff as cookie dough. The little kids didn't sink into it as they stood on top, but I went straight to the bottom.

More mixing

2009-08-05T17:41:00.001-07:00

mixmud
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Mixing the mud for the mud walls

2009-08-05T17:40:00.001-07:00

mudfoot
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of my foot in the mud and rice straw for the walls of the outbuilding. My feet are still stained with the color of the mud. The kids loved it, totally covered in mud. We mixed in enough water to make the mud the stiffness of bread dough.

splitting bamboo

2009-08-05T17:37:00.001-07:00

splitbamboo
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a medium length pole. For the long ones we had to stand on top of the cab of the truck. Sometimes I wished I had a hardhat. Really trusted my partner

more bamboo

2009-08-05T17:34:00.001-07:00

splitbamboo2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

split bamboo

2009-08-05T17:31:00.001-07:00

splitbamboo3JPG
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This photo is a shot of the pile of bamboo we split. It took most of the day to finish this lot. We had to haul some of the unsplit pieces we had cut out of the woods. Then we got to work on this around 10am. Finished around 4pm with a 1-hour lunch break. Once you get it down it's not so bad. This may or may not be enough for the who place.

Yet more rain, rotten for farmers

2009-08-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yet more rain today. This has gone on for weeks. The rainy season, which is usually over by now, has dragged on into the summer that is usually sunny and hot. That is bad news for the farmers. Soy beans look like bean sprouts. They've been planted up north, but they aren't growing leaves.

On a more personal note, I need to put up some mud walls, but can't get out with all the rain. If we put them up in this weather they'd never dry and succomb to gravity.

How to Make a "Doma" or Tamped Earth Floor

2009-08-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a cheap way to make a hard floor in a foyer, in a shed, or barn, you may want to consider a tamped earth floor, or what is called "tataki" or "douma" in Japanese. Japanese buildings have all historically been tamped earth or wooden flooring. Some temples have earth floors over huge areas. Kitchens and storage building floors were often made of the material that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Recently home builders have been returning the material for its aesthetic appeal, as well as the cost. The floors last for decades with moderately heavy use, are easy to repair if they crack, and can be made smooth or textured and decorated. They are inexpensive, because the materials are available nearly anywhere, and you can do all of the work. Finally, in the end the floors return to their natural condition, dirt.

First you need to consider how large an area you want to cover. If your foyer is three meters square, and you want a floor that is fifteen centimeters thick, then you will have to have about one and a half cubic meters of compacted earth and lime in the end product. I recommend at least fifteen centimeters of thickness for a strong floor. The thing is though that once this is packed down, it is about 1/3 the height of the original materials untamped. That means that you will need to start with about three times the amount of sand and lime to compact for your floor with the desired dimensions. In other words, you will need a little more than three cubic meters of sand and a one cubic meter of lime for your three meter square floor.

After you have calculated the amount of the simple materials you will need, you need to prepare the area that will serve as the base for the floor. The beauty of an earth floor is that you can easily put it right on top of what ever base you have, dirt or concrete. (You cannot make this on top of a wooden floor, because it will crack as the wood floor bends during tamping and after it dries.) If you are making a floor on a dirt base, then you need to also decide whether you want to have hard edges. For example, if you are making it so that your door will close, you need to make a frame that will define the dimensions of the floor so your door will shut. You can do that easily with a stout board cut to fit the width and desired height. If you are making a ramp into a storage facility where you may be rolling in your wheeled lawn tools, then you will need to dig a shallow ditch of about 10 centimeters in depth and the same in width, with the ramp ending at the middle of the ditch.

Mixing the earth mixture is easy enough if you are covering a rather small area, but if you are dealing with a large shed or indoor area, a backhoe may be useful for mixing. Mix the lime and dry river sand together, mixing it thoroughly. Do this right before you are ready to spread and tamp it, because the lime will start to react to any moisture immediately. You can then start mixing in water. You will need enough that the mixture is something like beach sand after the waves have retreated, damp, but water does not drip out when held in your hand. Start shoveling it onto the area to cover and start tamping it.

A tamper can take many forms. In Japan, a wooden mallet was used to tamp smaller areas, and a pine log with four long handles, like shovel handles, for two people to lift and drop was used for larger areas. Pine was used for its weight, but also for its auspicious characteristics in Japanese folklore. For those who are less interested in details or who have an area that is too much to be dealt with by hand, a gas powered tamper will work just as well. As the mixture is compacted, more should be added on top and tamped until it reaches the desired depth. What ever you do, you will have to use all of the mixture that you made that day. It will harden as a pile as the lime reacts with the water, and will not keep.

Once you have beaten it to the desired area and depth, you should decide how you want to finish it. If you want a rough finish, that is fine. The tamping should have left marks, and those may work. You may want to add different designs by stamping in a rope to make letters. Some people work in marbles, pretty rocks, or ceramic tiles. Or you may want to make it smooth. If you want a smooth finish, you will need to rub it with a mason's float or trowel. First sprinkle the area you can work on immediately with a little water from a brush. Try a small area first and work your way up. Then with the float, give a small area a beating, and start to rub it with the float. It works best if you lift the leading edge just slightly as you smooth the area back and forth and round and round. The fine, wetter particles will come to the top, and the coarser particles will be worked into the center of the floor. The fine particles with eventually make a smooth surface. If there are areas that are lower than others, fill it it with some of the left over mixture, and beat it into place with the float or trowel.

The floor will dry from the inside out, meaning that the outside will feel wetter when you touch it that it really is on the inside, but you shouldn't let it dry too fast. You will have to avoid walking on it for some time. If you can give it a month, that would be best. If you live in a dry area, cover the floor with a grass mat and sprinkle it with water daily, just so keep it from drying so fast that it gets flaky or crumbly. If you live in a damp climate, like Japan, you will need to keep areas under a roof damp, and areas outside from washing away if there is, for example, a water drain coming off of the roof. After about a month you can use it normally.

As the years pass your tamped earth floor may develop cracks or wear out in spots. Just mix up a little soil, lime and water and pound it down, let it dry, and it will be good as new. If you sprinkle it with water from time to time, it will thank you, too, especially in dry indoor areas. Some people in some areas of the world put oil on their dirt floors. You may want to try that, too, but choose a non-petroleum oil with a smell that you can live with, especially if it will be in your living area.

Earthen floors have been used all over the world for millennia in all kinds of spaces. There are different details in the mixtures. Some places even mix ox blood into their mixture, but what they all have in common is that they use naturally occurring materials to make low maintenance floors that live and breath with you and the rest of your space. They are easy to make, even the kids can be involved in the process. (Keep them away from the lime!) They are beautiful and soulful to live with.

split bamboo and mix mud

2009-07-30T02:14:00.001-07:00

bamboo splitter
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Spent the day splitting bamboo and mixing mud for the mud walls. This is what you split bamboo with. You can probably guess how you use it.

Yet more rain.

2009-07-29T00:42:00.001-07:00

More rain today, but had to go into work. Doesn't look like I'm going to get to the fields today. Tomorrow is a bamboo hauling day.

Heavy steady rain today

2009-07-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Heavy steady rain this morning. Won't go out to the fields today. Reading about saving tomato seeds in 2009 Farmer's Almanac. Think it may be prudent to start saving seeds. GM0's and "terminator genes" pose a threat to farmers like me and to plant life specifically.

Bamboo for Lattice Work in Mud Walls

2009-07-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

Went out to cut bamboo for the walls that we are going to put in the outbuilding. We needed about 80 pieces from between 5 to 2 meters long. The bamboo we cut was on some property next to the home of the carpenter that his helping us build the building, and we got their permission to cut some. We tried to thin out the grove rather than cut everything in one patch. A person should be able to walk through a healthy bamboo stand with an open umbrella, and so with that in mind we cut the plants that were weak and too close to other healthy plants. We loaded it onto the truck, and drove it home, but it was quite a challenge. We took three loads back, and the leaf springs on the truck were flat.

I thought we would see more beasties. As it turned out we only saw one very big hornet. It was large enough that the beating of its wings blew dried out bamboo leaves as it passed close to the ground. Major insect.

Putting in A Beaten Earth Floor

2009-07-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of building our out-building. Yesterday we put in our beaten earth floor. Here is how one is made the Japanese way. I guess that some places use ox blood in it. We did nothing that extraordinary.

We have an area about 50 square meters for which we wanted a floor to store our small tractor, other farm implements, and harvest through the winter. We have chosen to build as close to a traditional Japanese "kura" as our time and effort will allow. That means that instead of a tile roof with dirt underneath as an insulator, we are using galvanized metal with a foam insulator underneath. And instead of two layers of bamboo lattice in the walls, we will use one layer of lattice, making the walls about half as thick as the 40cm walls on the real deal. Yesterday we put in the beaten earth floor, it was quite a workout, but made considerably easier to do with experienced help and modern equipment.

We started by digging a 30cm wide and about 10cm deep ditch 30cm from the where the wall will start. The ditch will serve as a deep spot to keep the floor from slipping outward. There is also a ramp area in front of the door that will be kept relatively dry with the overhang on the front of the building, for which we dug a deeper ditch, about 30cm deep. We put a wooden frame around the building, just within the ditch. Then we started mixing earth and plaster. We used about three quarters alluvial sand to one quarter plaster with a small backhoe. We mixed a total of about 5 metric tons of earth, and started from the outside, shoveling in the sand and beating it down with hardwood mallets. They were short handled, and the business end was long and rounded. The entire mallet was about 50cm long, and the striking surface was about 30cm of that. We were working on building up about 15cm of beaten flooring, which required about three layers of earth. My guess is that loose earth compresses to about 1/3 of its original depth after beating. The outside floor required hand tamping, because it was laid around the beams of the building and inside the wooden frame. We used two gasoline powered tampers to compress the larger areas inside. The outside floor was nicely polished with a mason's trowel. One of the masons there to help us with the project kindly showed me the method for flattening and smoothing the surface. You must beat it to smooth out the bumps, and then sort of massage it with the trowel. This works the larger particles of sand in and brings the finer particles out, which smooths the floor.

We started working on the floor at around 8 in the morning and finished cleaning up and loading the equipment back on the trucks at around 6. Several of our friends came to help, and were happy to have had the experience. They are also working on developing their homesteads, and one family that came to help is in the process of building their own home with wood working studio and extra sleeping areas to come. I'm sure we will use our hard-earned experience with their projects, too.

It was hard work, and I am sore today from swinging those mallets, but we enjoyed the work and companionship, and now we have an earthen floor that will return to the earth, hopefully long after I have.

The Cats in Summer

2009-07-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

Couple photos of the cats.

Chikens thriving

2009-07-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a rough start, the chickens are thriving. First we had the incident with the older birds pecking the younger ones. We segregated the little ones into an old doghouse. They are well, and then one of the cats got through two layers of fence to grab one of the birds, injuring the chicken slightly. We brought both little ones in and warmed them up in a box with a light attached, and they are now happy and health. We have added another layer of protection to the sides, especially to keep the cats at bay. They are still interested, but can't get at the birds.

Now we are enjoying watching their growth. The little ones are getting their combs, and the older ones are getting wattles.

Students want to diet

2009-07-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

My students, most of whom are first-year women, often comment that they need or want to diet in order to lose weight. I tell them to eat well. I don't just mean vast quantities, nor do I mean just expensive food. I mean eat good food that is good for you.

They are poor college students. All the better my dears. They don't have much money, so they need to spend it on good food. By that I mean chemical free, locally grown, high quality grains, vegetables, fruits, and meats if they're into them. Let me take meat for example. We are close to some of the highest quality beef grown in the country, Matsuzaka beef. It is beautiful and a meat eating experience like no other (if you're into meat), but it is expensive as blazes. No student could afford very much or very often. That would be the way to go. If they limit themselves to quality food, they will get less in grams, but more in satisfaction and health. Brown rice costs more than white (for reasons I can't explain), and chemical free is even more costly. Chemical free fruits and vegies are hard to find, but available at a higher cost. Everything will be less affordable when buying quality, but will satisfy and less is more when you want to lose weight in a healthy way.

If they eat this way, they can also be healthier than if they go for quantity rather than quality. When the buy for quantity, they get large loaves of white bread or white rice, lots of sugar and chemical additives, as well as more salt than they need. I hear students say that they had instant noodles for breakfast. They will crash long before lunch, they will binge eat large quantities of crap, and then then they will feel bad. Why bother? Have some brown rice in your rice cooker and a kettle the stove for a cup of quality instant soup (not the variety that they sell at supermarkets), and a cucumber, and there is a breakfast that will stay with you until lunch.

Since many of my students are women, so they want to eat sweets (a phenomenon that I was not aware of in the US) often in the form of cake. I tell them not to bother with hormone tainted cream cakes and white sugar when confections made with tofu cream and raw sugar are available at a few good cafes around the area. Granted, they won't be filling up on cake at the prices that quality sweets cost, but they will enjoy themselves and get something good for themselves in the process.

Don't know how many students take my advice, but if they are happy with themselves and healthier, we'll all benefit.

Sinus infections and allergies

2009-06-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

An acquaintance is suffering from allergies and sinus infections, and I wanted to scream at them to change their eating habits. It happens to millions every year, and it used to happen to me. The weather changes; the flowers bloom and their heads swell to twice their normal dimensions. It would happen to me, too. To the extent that I am sure that sooner or later, I would have died either in the spring or the fall due, at least in part, to my conflicted breathing situation. The ironic part is that those are my favorite seasons, and I had come to dread them.

If you are suffering now from some kind of seasonal health issues, you don't have to. Of course see a physician for sinus infections. They are nasty. And then do this.

Stop taking milk, yoghurt, ice-cream and other dairy products
Switch from white bread to wholemeal and also begin to take brown rice, wholemeal noodles and other wholemeal products
Eliminate red meat
Eliminate white sugar and products containing sugar
Eat lots more vegetables and fruits
Eat less quantity overall all the time
Eat better quality food

Watch the pounds disappear, and your health return. It may take a year to notice any results, and it is especially important to continue these eating habits when you are not being dogged by these problems. Like in the summer and the dead of winter. It is tempting to think that the problems have subsided, when really they are getting their energy to reemerge from the food you build your body with in the problem-free times.

Ageing Japan's fertility rate up but population falls | Reuters

2009-06-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Japan's fertility rate up by 0.03 points, below the estimated 2.07 needed to keep the population at current levels. There were 51,300 more deaths than births.

Can't help but think this is a trend that the whole world should be reflecting, lowering human impact on an already over-burdened earth. Current economic dependencies on ever-increasing levels of consumption of cheap junk have to change to quality, long-lasting necessities.

There's lots of gloom and doom reportage here, like the phrase, "The low birth rate threatens to squeeze the economy by shrinking the labour force, which could weigh in on its GDP and leave fewer workers to support a growing number of pensioners." The paradigm here is that we need more and more workers churning out more and more crap to support old people. Why not fewer, more highly skilled workers turning out quality goods, and earning more to support pensioners. Either one is equally imaginable, but the former is just easier to accomplish. Business as usual laziness will accomplish that.

Ageing Japan's fertility rate up but population falls | Reuters

chicken coop door from outside

2009-06-02T23:54:00.001-07:00

chicken coop door from outside
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the front door that will lead to the fenced-in outdoor area where the chickens can move around outside. All of this will need to be weather proofed and painted nicely. My son has promised to do the art work.

chicken coop roof

2009-06-02T23:52:00.003-07:00

chicken coop roof
Originally uploaded by touzanka

Another shot of the roof of the coop.

chicken coop door from inside

2009-06-02T23:52:00.001-07:00

chicken coop door from inside
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the door from the inside. I may need to reinforce the top of the door later.

chicken coop side

2009-06-02T23:50:00.001-07:00

chicken coop side
Originally uploaded by touzanka

I used this wire mesh on the sides to keep the birds cooler on hot summer nights. In the winter I'll cover those over with an opaque plastic sheet. You can also see the plastic roof that I put on the top.

Our Daily Bread: A movie review

2009-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

"Our Daily Bread" had been staring me at the DVD rental shop for months, and I kept rejecting in favor of something else, because I had a feeling I knew what would come, a full on indictment of industrial food production. I rented it Friday, and that is what I got. A kind of Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance experience completely about the industry that manufactures much of the food we eat without the cool Philip Glass music. In fact there is no music at all; the only speaking one can hear is the very quiet speech of workers from a distance, and there is little other background noise other than machine or animal sounds.

The blurb for the movie says:

OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn’t always easy to digest - and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

We may have been enabled to form our own ideas, but the images left me with very little wiggle room. My conclusion is that if the results of the industry portrayed in this film were my only source of nutrition, there would be no need for my continued existence. Fortunately I have other sources, and am struggling to create my own, so I still have a place here.

The food industry degrades the existence of everyone that comes in touch with it. There is often a disclaimer at the end of movies, something to the effect of "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie." My son chuckled that the disclaimer at the end of this one should read something like, "No animals were unharmed in the making of this movie." From birth the babies were raised to live the most miserable lives imaginable, only to be killed in the end so their bodies could be consumed by humans. The humans involved faired only slightly better, the odds being good that their lives would not end at the hands of another person, and less likely that their bodies would be consumed by canibals. Thier working lives were either as drones serving the mutant plant food, or right out of the first ring of circle 7 of Hell in the river of blood to which we are all doomed if Dante was right. This Hell in Phlegethon is Dante's name for the river of hot blood that serves as the first ring where spillers of blood themselves, violent offenders are submerged to a level corresponding to their guilt.

My convictions about the food industry and my choises were reenforced, and it was ironic that today a friend questioned my decision not to feed my children meat, as they ate spaghetti with "meat sauce," whatever that may be. I wanted to tell them about the film, but didn't think it would be a good idea to ruin their meals. I just said that I don't want to feed my kids the industrial food products any more than I want to eat it myself.

roof and roost from front

2009-05-21T22:28:00.001-07:00

roof and roost from front
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the roost and roof from the front. It is getting heavier all the time, so I hope it is still mobile in the end.

roost

2009-05-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

roost
Originally uploaded by touzanka

The roost. Hoping it will be long enough for three birds to hang out on.

coop roof

2009-05-21T22:26:00.001-07:00

coop roof
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a shot of the roof. I made it a kind of lid that will fit neatly on top so as not to blow away in the early spring winds, and to allow it to be lifted off for added ventilation in the hot summer.

LancasterOnline.com:Lifestyle:Pint-sized 'guerilla gardeners' sow seeds

2009-05-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Great! Kids using seed balls, ala Masanobu Fukuoka to grow flowers in empty lots.
LancasterOnline.com:Lifestyle:Pint-sized 'guerilla gardeners' sow seeds

Assembled frame front

2009-05-12T00:27:00.001-07:00

frame1
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a photo of the assembled frame from the front.

This is all I could do with the time that I had today. Gotta work sometime. I will continue to photograph the progress here and keep updating this project.

Assembled frame 2

2009-05-12T00:25:00.001-07:00

frame2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a photo of the assembled frame, with triangular supports on the front end of the play area.

coop parts 2

2009-05-12T00:24:00.001-07:00

parts2
Originally uploaded by touzanka

These are the two sides of the coop with the lateral supports in the middle.

coop parts 1

2009-05-12T00:23:00.001-07:00

coopparts1
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is a photo of one of the sides fitted loosely.

Mobile chicken coop plan

2009-05-12T00:21:00.001-07:00

plan
Originally uploaded by touzanka

This is the plan for the chicken coop we are working on. In the upper left corner, you can see the measurements and the numbers of the main beams for the main frame. We used 4.5x4.5cmx4m lumber for the main frame, and put it together with wood screws. Guess it may save some time in maintenance.

The newest swine flu isn't as new as you might think, and is a direct result of the way we grow food

2009-05-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

According to an article in The Charleston Gazette, a newspaper from my home state of West Virginia, the new strain of swine flu is not new, and came as a direct result of the way we grow our food.

From a link in the paper, one can read at The News and Observer site

"This virus was found in pigs here in the United States," Rabadan said in an interview. "They were getting sick in 1998. It became a swine virus."

Then from the Gazette article itself you can read

And therefore you’ve got a lot of hosts available to exchange a pathogen, which is one of the processes by which viruses and bacteria evolve and acquire mutations. And then the way in which these operations are run – and I want to stress that this is a worldwide issue, it is not peculiar or restricted to Mexico.

People have also isolated influenza virus from the legs and feet of flies in the vicinity of these operations. This was noted in some outbreaks of avian influenzas, for example, in Japan.

This new disease is neither new nor inevitable. We can start to change this global health issue ourselves by changing the way that we choose the food we eat. Eat locally grown food from farmers who use sustainable, humane methods.

Public transportation is poor choice for some

2009-04-30T16:29:00.001-07:00

Have to go to Kobe today, so took the train to work. Walked for 35 minutes, rode for 50 minutes, and waited for trains for 35 minutes. Cost 600 yen, about six dollars. In cost effectiveness, public transportation comes in last. Next is a car, costing about $2.34 in gas round trip and less than one hour one way. Next would be a scooter with 67cents in gas and one hour. Bicycle is number one! No gas, one hour.

On "How to save the world: One man, one cow, one planet"

2009-04-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

Peter Proctor is a farmer in India using Biodynamic farming techniques to help people everywhere. He has seen first hand how the agrichemical based farming has ruined huge portions of India's farmland, and he has lived the good news of how organic/natural/biodynamic farming can produce sustainable yields into perpetuity.

The documentary "How to Save the World: One man, one cow, one planet" is a terrific introduction on how "The Green Revolution" in India was really chemical warfare on the earth, and how he has dedicated his life to building sustainable farming in India based on the work of Rudolph Steiner and Biodynamics. Biodynamics is really a comprehensive lifestyle that incorporates and sustains communities. This is the kind of future humankind can have.

I was also impressed by a quote by Ghandi that appeared in the film, and it sums up how this kind of farming is also a political act, supporting a democratic future.

Ghandi's view of Democracy

My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest... No country in the world today shows any but patronising regard for the weak... Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism... True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the centre. It has to be worked from below by the people of every village.

Honeybee shortage worries Japanese farmers : Read Pesticides killing off bees

2009-04-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

I always wondered about this. I mean pesticides aimed at bugs kill bugs. There is probably some fine tuning one can do to limit collateral damage, but if you spray for insects, you will probably kill insects. Farmers spreading tons of insecticides are killing off the bees that they need to pollinate their crops. Then they blame it on Australian disease or ticks that have now become resistant to the pesticides that are supposed to kill them. It is all too ironic.

The answer is to farm with nature rather than against it. It may take time and effort, and much economic discomfort to the agrichemical industry, but it's possible.

04/19/2009 - Honeybee shortage worries Japanese farmers - STLtoday.com

'Natural patterns' of farming touted in documentary - USATODAY.com

2009-04-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

If I have a hero, it would have to be "Joel Salatin: Lunatic Farmer."

'Natural patterns' of farming touted in documentary - USATODAY.com: "'Joel Salatin: Lunatic Farmer.'"

Jinriki

Notes from the Workshop on Carbon Cycle Farming, Sept 11, 2011

Tanso Jyunkan Nouhou: Carbon Circulation Farming

Carefree: A state of being

McKenna Quote

The Power of Community ( Spanish Subtitles )

Making a break with refined sugar

Japan nuclear woes could mean more China exports | Reuters

Irradiated food: by leaking power plant or on purpose for sterilization

How to Espalier a Tree

Taro potato

Speaking Truth to Power

The principles of a rocket stove and how to build one.

DRTV: Rocket Stoves

rocet stove, YouTube - forest21c's Channel

Rocket Stove: ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かる ロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）

Rocket Stove,ロケットストーブ作る | 神流アトリエ日記（３）

The Metaphysics of Freedom

Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show -- January 17, 2011 | MichaelMoore.com

Michael Moore Meets Wendell Potter on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Pa...

FDA to our rescue: Four Loko alcoholic drink

drying rice

drying rice2

harvesting

partially harvested

preharvest

with monkey damage

monkey damage

rice sprouts in trays

planting

ready to plant

plowed but not ready

YouTube - Terence Mckenna: Reclaim Your Mind

Trivium - definition and examples of trivium

Miyazaki to triple number of hogs and beef

Eating Simpler and Closer to Home for Happiness and Health

Talk with a veteran farmer

Japan: Far too much roadway for one country

A Nation of Farmers: Guess what book I'm buying now.

Yoi To Make

One foundation stone

Group Pull3

Group Pull4

Ropes-n-pullies

Foundation guide

Yoi To Make stomper

inner wall

innnerwall 2

outwall

More on mud walls

Mud supply

Gradually working your way down

From the inside

Looks and smells bad

The west side story

Start at the top

Mud and straw walls: Putting the mud on the latice work

finished umeboshi

Ode to the umeboshi: How to make them yourself

Bamboo Lattice from the Outside Again

Bamboo Lattice from the outside.

Bamboo Lattice Top

A detail shot of the verticle bamboo lattice

Bamboo Lattice for Mud Walls

Mud before mixing

More mixing

Mixing the mud for the mud walls

splitting bamboo

more bamboo

split bamboo

Yet more rain, rotten for farmers

How to Make a "Doma" or Tamped Earth Floor

split bamboo and mix mud

Yet more rain.

Heavy steady rain today

Bamboo for Lattice Work in Mud Walls

Putting in A Beaten Earth Floor

The Cats in Summer

Chikens thriving

Students want to diet

Rocket Stove: ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ　ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かるロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）