Minna no inekari-rice harvesting by hand with Menno people

the day we tried to have the rice harvest and just as the explanation was beginning it started pouring...so we served the hot soup and postponed until the next day!

so the next day, nicely sunny and warm

the cutting has begun, you just grab a bundle and whack it off! the kids especially like this, getting to handle a sharp, wicked looking tool not being a daily occurrence!

Sage was a rice cutting machine, his goal was to cut one row end to end and he did this plus much more, he kept with it for most of the time that we were cutting all day long

more kids enjoying themselves!

Kenji's cool pics, here and the next..did you know rice was so pretty??



Orie-san and Rita-kun

Kai demonstrating, he also cut for much longer than we expected, sticking with it, using real tools is such a motivator!

showing Lucas how to do it

when you plant the rice you plant little plugs of rice, you can look back at some of my first pics to see, so it grows in clumps, easy handfuls to grab and cut

the fields have been drained for some time now so are only somewhat muddy instead of sucking you up muddy in most places at least

piles of cut rice

taking a break, sitting on a pile of rice

Sage and Koko, almost to the end of our rows, Koko told Sage she wasn't going to go to the rice field or cut, but since we all went she said, well,I'll just go and look, but then she decided to try it and ended up cutting lots of rice along with Sage

my picture doesn't do them justice, but there were so many kinds of pretty fall wildflowers in the ditch next to the rice field, beautiful!

mmmm, what better artist than God