Summer pics, varied and sundry! Raspberries are beautiful fruit

Sage's morning glory that he brought home from school with him for summer break, unfortunately it hasn't flowered yet and doesn't look as good as it does here

The Snake! there is a story here I have not time to tell...Kenji found this snake around the chicken house and brought it over to the boys, they were very fascinated with it and it seemed rather friendly actually.Kai said it's so soft mom, we HAVE to send this to grandma so she can feel how soft it is???



It turned into Sage's pet in his mind and it was a heartwrenching drama for him to let it go that night..

See what I mean?

It was about the same length as Sage

A living "boa" hee hee



bee's nest, maybe a killer bee nest

Harvesting tomatoes

Helping buttering toast





Stag beetle-found!

Everyone loves it

Festival in Naganuma, kind of a memorial festival for dead relatives? That weekend, everyone goes home to their hometown and cleans and decorates the graves. Each area has it's own dance for a traditional song. THis town has a costume contest and whoever dances gets a free raffle ticket for all kinds of gifts they draw for at the end, so all of Menno Village was in the dance, it is very simple. We had a good time and we won some boxes of canned tea and juice etc

Our kids loved the funny costumes and the older men in this group really teased the kids alot, Lucas didn't know what to think!



Koko did not like the costumes however! (Orie-san's daughter)

They are not real okay!

A very old man who entered the costume dance and won a participation prize. Toshi holding Kai

Orie-san and kids Koko and Rita-kun(boy)

Akiko and Kazu listening for their numbers to see if they won anything, they gave away hundreds of prizes

Kai is holding the cup with his number on it

This has been almost a month ago now, the beginning of summer break. Sage was very fascinated with the whole wheat harvesting process and the combine. Here are he and KenKen following, which Sage did for a very long time, a safe distance of course, he is my cautious child!

The fruits of harvest

working on the combine, this combine has tractors instead of wheels so it can be used to harvest rice as well

the field after harvest

Riding in the truck to take straw to the greenhouses

Helping to load straw into the back of the truck

Ridin'

nothing like a hayride to bring out the kid in ya!



Orie-san and Lucas, the everready cuke in hand

Hanabi! or fireworks, done as often as possible in a Japanese summer

Swordfighting or writing in the sky, who knows with this child!

Do not try this at home! Actually mom it just looks really scary in the picture!

Steve and Lucas enjoying the fun

Senko hanabi-the sweetest little firework there ever was-if you are patient and steady a little drop of what I call lava forms and then little lightning comes off of it.

Again, it's just the photo effect mom:)

Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is almost over, and we felt a fall wind through our windows the other night. Mmm, I love fall winds, well I love fall..

It's time to take a deep breath after a whirlwind month of Sage's summer vacation. It's been lots of fun, so much fun that I haven't had time to write or post hardly. We've been and done and stayed up late many a night. No time to waste, eh! I'm waiting for Hello to post some pics, so I'll try to write a little anyway. Sage is at his Jiji and Baba's for tonight and tomorrow night. He was so excited to go, his girl cousins are all there too. Even his newest -Nozomi-born August 5th to Kenji's older sister Makiko and her husband Masaru and their little girls Manami and Megumi too-congrats!

You'll see what we've done from the pictures I'll be posting. No time to get bored of summer vacation in one month though! Sage isn't ready to go back. When I asked him what was best, he said playing with all the kids and people. I'm glad that, rather than a destination.

Besides the fun stuff, the work is always here! The eggplants and peppers survived the aphids and are thriving once again, the cukes may or may not, many succumbed, although I'm not sure if it was just the aphids, maybe they had a virus of some type. Besides laying the straw under them, they were sprayed with a vitamin spray, the aphids sprayed off with water often and Ray says the ladybugs may have finally arrived in force to eat the aphids. Sage has now taught me the difference between the good and bad ladybugs:). There is one bad type here and many different types of good ones. The winter wheat and rye have been harvested and the potatoes have died off and we'll start harvesting them next week. The first batch of corn is almost ready too. The beets we started harvesting yesterday. Kenji spends many hours weedeating. They don't have a brush hog here, many places are pretty tight for one. The weedeater he uses, uses a blade rather than a string, it works great and is long enough not to be dangerous.It is best to keep all the weeds along the fields and everywhere cut down before they go to seed, an endless job. The rice had a run with little inchworms, so Ray sprayed with a bacteria used by organic farmers, very specific to this stage of butterfly(I think), upsets their delicate intestinal balance and takes away their appetite! Worked great, so he was very pleased. Yesterday he said he saw quite a few stinkbugs. They suck out part of the baby rice kernel which is like sweet milk right now and leave a black mark on the kernal when it's harvested, doesn't look nice!

Lucas is the number one raw veggie eater around here. Found him chawing on a overlarge zucchini left out on the ground, nice little chomp marks all around it in spirals! The other boys were all using them to make pretend food with, but they said he was saying it was yummy. He also likes to break the tips off the green onions while we are in the gardens and eat them, can't believe it, but he doesn't spit them out either! Of course he's loving the tomatoes too, he ate a whole large one the other day outside! He eats them best off the plants, as do the other boys.

Ray and Akiko are leaving the 5th of September with their boys to go to the States for 5 months. Ray is trying to finish up course work at AMBS(Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary-maybe?)
and give their boys a chance to practice their English. They have a good start, so it should really be a big boost for them. We'll miss them here, it will be interesting! We'll be harvesting the rice and some of the potatoes and the winter squash after they leave. Many detailed instructions are being given-think equipment operation and storage! Delivery for the CSA continues through the first part of November and then eggs every other week through the winter. And we get orders for potatoes and beets etc to send out through the winter too.

Kenji and I are starting to think about plans for when we return to the States. Not because we are thinking about leaving here, but because we realize any plans we make will take quite a bit of planning, and not having anything set up to go back to...We are dreaming, thinking ,along the lines of some type of organic farming. Not sure we want to go the CSA route, but anyway. Lots of fun ideas, but no real business plans yet, speaking of practical issues like how much money can you make doing it and how much do you need to live on! Looking for good ideas, any out there?? If you are interested in such things, and have some thoughts, please email us with them or send us websites/links etc. OH, also good land...We are in the gathering ideas, info stage!

Kenji's dad has continued to spend quite a bit of time here, although he's taken more time off since Kenji's sister gave birth as they first hosted the other two little girls, and now Makiko and the baby too. Kenji's parents are very involved and helpful in their kids and grandkids lives, thanks! He was here this week and made us a bed and worked on other things around the house. The boys were glad to have him back. They were beginning to wonder why he was leaving for so long, I mean this is home, right??)

Well, this is seeming rather boring, so I'll sign off, pics will come soon I hope. If you're reading this let me know!Love to hear from you, I get alot of your scoops from faithful mom.