Poos

In a previous entry I wrote about Yamaga meaning the "scent of the mountains". Sadly there is another "scent" near our house that I can't imagine anyone wanting to bottle and take home with them. In fact at certain times as soon as some people arrive at our house their noses start twitching and although they are usually too polite to say anything you can see them thinking "what on earth is that smell?". It is usually at this stage that I point down the road at the "chicken farm" and try to convince them that our drains don't need cleaning.
I am in two minds in terms of the chicken farms. They are not "egg farms" but they just raise the chickens until they are big enough to eat and then the trucks come in the middle of the night to take them away. There are a lot near us and when the wind is blowing down the valley the smell comes directly towards us. The bigger the chickens get, the bigger the smell gets. Today (as you can see by the photo) the chickens are pretty big and the wind was blowing today....
I understand that the farmers need to make a living, but there are many people living near here that are starting to protest more and more. Some people are sandwiched in between two or three farms so no matter which way the wind is blowing they are affected. I won't even start on the "cruelty" aspect of it....
On the other hand, the piles of poos that come out of the farms are a great source of manure for my garden, so today I put on my gas mask (actually I forgot my gas mask so worked as quickly as possible) and went and collected bags and bags of chicken poos to put in the garden. It is hard to be politically correct when you can get things you need for free....

Thank you to all those who gave me good hints about chestnuts. I think I'll try again in the next few days - I discovered some other areas today that I didn't manage to clean last time....chestnuts really fly!

Autumn

As I think I have mentioned before, Japan is a country of seasons. Right now we are just heading into autumn and as well as the quite dramatic temperature drop at night, there are many other signs around the place that autumn has arrived. Today we went chestnut hunting – great fun as long as you have thick gloves! My parents-in-law have quite a few chestnut trees and it was interesting to see the difference between those which have been protected by fences from the wild boars and those which haven’t. Those protected have zillions of chestnuts under them while under the un-protected ones all you can find are wild boar footprints. No chestnuts in sight! I guess they are not bothered too much by the prickly protection.

Last week I decided to roast some chestnuts, a first for me. I figured you could just put them in the oven and roast them…. apparently not! After just having cleaned the kitchen in preparation for the Korean guests I found myself re-cleaning it after the chestnuts not only exploded in the oven, but also after I had taken them out of the oven. It is incredible how far little pieces of exploding chestnut can fly! I guess I need to do a little more study before I attempt it again! Any hints, recipes welcome….

Other signs of autumn at the moment are the red “higan-bana” which although are very attractive and deter moles, are also very evasive. The cosmos flowers are also starting to make an appearance. If only the start of autumn didn’t mean that winter is just around the corner…..

First “paying” visitors

Well the first “paying” visitors to Kiora Cottage have now been and gone. They turned out to be a little different to what I had been originally planned and prepared for, but it all worked out in the end. Tom told me that there would be 2 men and 2 women. The youngest would be 61 and the oldest 75 years old…. So I figured a nice healthy breakfast of homemade bread and muffins might not go down so well and bought some things that would go better with a traditional rice breakfast and some things to eat and drink with them in the evening. Then at about 5pm I got a phone call from an embarrassed Tom saying that he had made a little mistake and that they were a little younger than he had first said – in fact the 61 and 75 referred not to their ages, but to the year that they were born! So with that in mind they had to shuffle the male and female pairs and we ended up with 4 females who really enjoyed a breakfast of homemade bread (with jam of course), pumpkin muffins, homemade muesli (thanks for the recipe so many years ago Dawn!) and fresh fruit and yoghurt.

They were from Korea and it brought back many memories of what it was like when I first came here to Japan and couldn’t speak any Japanese. One of the women spoke a tiny bit of English, but apart from that we were limited to gestures etc. They didn’t arrive until about 8pm, so after they “freshened up” in the cottage then came to our house to talk for a bit it was bed time. Up for breakfast at 7am and then away by 7:45am. A very short visit, but it was a nice start. They all seemed to really enjoy staying in the cottage and all said they wanted to build one like it back in Korea (that was translated by the interpreter!). Now we just need to get all our permits etc. sorted out so we can start advertising properly and then we need to train Emily and Masaki to not put on their “we’re so shy we can’t speak” act! Both sat on the floor in the hallway to eat their breakfast……so much for mingling with the family!

Mountains

After tea we went monkey hunting again, and although we didn't find any monkeys we did find some beautiful "steamy" mountains. The name of the town I live in is "Yamaga" and the meaning of the kanji can be translated as "the scent of the mountains" - very accurate today!

Monkey Mountain

About 45 minutes drive from our house is a mountain called "Mt. Takasaki". It is home to hundreds of monkeys and for a fee you can pay to go and literally walk around with the monkeys and watch them being fed while listening to their horrible screeching. Today I discovered a better way to view monkeys - just go outside our house! That's right - today I looked out across the rice fields and saw a big monkey galloping along the road. We took chase and managed to spot it in a persimmon tree up on the hill, but it ran off into the bush as we got within photo range. Apparently it is not uncommon to see monkeys here and they are usually a lone male who has been thrown out of his group and is in search of food. It just reminded me that not only do we live in the countryside, but we live in the "wild" countryside! Last year wild boars, this year monkeys, next year.... bears????

With a typhoon due ot hit here tomorrow I spent all day yesterday trying to get the garden under control and somehow I think I have got most of the weeds out - for now! Just in case you have forgotten how overgrown it had got, here is a before and after shot - now all I need to do is plant some more things in it. Fortunately the tunnel house is starting to get full of trays of seedlings so within a month or so I should have lettuces, onions, potatoes, silverbeet etc. etc. planted among the weeds!

No more pumpkin patch

The first time my husband went to New Zealand he was seen lurking around the window at 3pm looking very confused. When asked what he was doing he said he was looking for the rain. Apparently it had said on TV that it would rain at about 3pm and he believed them - a very silly thing to do in New Zealand! In Japan however the weather forecasts are basically 100% correct. Well they have been until today! Miracles of miracles it didn't rain like it said it would and I managed to get a whole lot of weeding done. Mickey, do you recognise this garden?? Until today I had given it over to the pumpkins that had self seeded in the compost. My plan when I went into the garden today was to pick the pumpkins (just a few more to store...) and that was it, but when I started weeding I just couldn't stop! It felt good to get the whole garden clear so now I can start the autumn planting tomorrow.... if it doesn't rain of course!

Bloody rain!

One of the advantages of raising your children to be bi-lingual in the countryside of Japan is that you can control a lot of the language that they learn. My children think the only way to ask for a drink of milk is to say "Please Mum/Dad may I have a drink of milk" - there is no "drink please" here! They also don' t know any really "bad" words - unless there have been some recent slips in the Sesame St videos that I haven't seen yet! But one word I am thinking of teaching them very soon is "bloody" because right now that is the only way I can think to describe the rain that has been falling for the last week or so and which is forecast to fall for the following week or so too!

Now for anyone reading this who is not so familiar with the English language here is a short lesson. When I say "bloody rain" - I don't mean that rain the colour of blood is falling from the sky. It is an adjective to describe the rain that I have become to hate so much this year - rain that is overflowing the swimming pool, rain that is flooding the lawn and rain that is turning the garden into a mud puddle making it impossible to pull out any weeds let alone plant the autumn seeds! "Bloody" is not a "good" word, but there are worse that I could teach my children and that I would like to use to describe the rain that is still falling here right now!
The insects seem to be enjoying it though - here are a few more that have been appearing all over the garden (and in the house... the lizard seems to like our bedroom!). I hope you are having a drier day wherever you are in the world!

For anyone who doesn’t know, this is my Grandma. Unfortunately she died in 2001, but she left behind a legacy that has perhaps helped me to move in the direction I am at the moment. My Grandma made jam – and not just the occasional jar, but enough jam to feed all the students in Dunedin! Every summer we would go on outings to Central Otago to get the best apricots and peaches and she would make it into jam to sell at the local flea markets etc. Every year I would get a jar of pickled onions for my birthday – the best present she could ever make for me!
My father made a collection of my Grandma’s jam recipes and gave it to all her grandchildren for Christmas one year. In that book he says:

One of the memories we all have of Grandma and her flat in Melbourne St, Dunedin is the huge pile of boxes filled with jars of jam and pickles, relishes and chutney. The smell of cooked jams was part of that lounge. And he was exactly right. Everywhere you went in my Grandma’s flat you tripped over boxes of jams. On the tables, under the tables, under the beds, in all the cupboards. There was jam everywhere!
Anyway, her book of recipes has been well used in this house and I am following in her footsteps with boxes of jam… fortunately I have a new guest house with lots of cupboards so I don’t have to put it under the beds anymore. And after a spurt of activity this week I am now up to 7 varieties and about 150 jars in total. Next week it is selling time!
By the way – I hope this picture is symmetrical enough for you Mike and Dad….

Lack of sleep....

Unlike my husband I have never been one of those lucky people who can fall asleep within one minute of my head hitting the pillow. I don't know why (I don't think it has been a full moon lately...), but for the last couple of nights I have been having even more trouble getting to sleep, which has given me even more time than usual to think about what I really want to achieve this year. When I initially built my new kitchen I planned to start a jam and muffin business - trying to grow as many of the ingredients needed to make these as I could. That is still my dream in many ways, but for the meantime I have decided to focus just on jam. I figure if I can make that a success then I can branch out into other things later.
The main advantage in making jam as opposed to muffins is that jam can be stored for at least 6 months, whereas muffins need to be baked and sold on the same day (and of course taken to the shops etc. every day too). Much less waste! Anyway to celebrate my big decision I went and picked the pumpkins (before the crows ate too many of them..), bought a new jam pan (26 litre capacity) and 15kgs of sugar to start with. Tomorrow I am going to challenge the marrow and ginger jam again.....

I've been making good progress with my weeding and each day seem to discover more plants which are surviving in amongst the weeds. Today I found mini tomatoes and peppers. I guess the garden is at least one-third weeded now, although I know that by the time I finish weeding it the first place I weeded will be overgrown again. I've been getting up at 6am and doing a couple of hours in the garden before Tom leaves for work and before it gets too hot and trying to do some in the evenings too - but as it gets dark here by 7pm you can't exactly get a lot done. I did outlast Tom's father tonight though - but had to stop after I realised I was probably pulling out the pepper plants and not the weeds......

A day of surprises

Today seemed to be a day of discovering new things. For starters I went to make Apricot and Pumpkin jam and discovered that although we can't get any radio reception in our house, the new kitchen gets perfect reception! A good start followed by a good jam making session with my new gas. I would have to say it is fantastic! About three times as powerful as a normal kitchen one so it is perfect for making jam. Now I just need to invest in a few larger pots....
Next surprise... I started on the big task of weeding my vegetable patch to discover that I had in fact become a rice farmer! Until last year my garden was a rice field and there must have been quite a lot of rice within the soil as it is all through my garden! I have left a section of it beside the tunnel house just to see what happens. I guess with the amount of rain we have had the ground was in a flooded state most of the time.
The third surpise was when I started weeding around my dried up cucumbers and discovered that they haven't actually dried up at all. Well the ones that I had growing up the poles had all dried up, but the offshoots had found some shade in amongst the weeds and were growing well. I've trained them up the poles and hopefully they will produce some more before the cool weather strikes.
The final surprise was when I took out the compost and discovered a pumpkin plant growing up our olive tree! The garden in our bottom section is totally overgrown with pumpkins. They are all self seeded and I have just let them go wherever they want - which is exactly what they have done. I think I'd better get this one out of the tree before the pumpkins get any bigger and break the tree!
The only thing that didn't really come as a surprise to me is that after a month or so of no weeding, you get really tired after a day in the garden! I probably got about a fifth of the big garden weeded today though so it was a good start. Now it's time for a foot massage - any one willing???

The end of the holidays…

With record rainfall, record heat and two children at home for the holidays I haven’t been near the garden for weeks…. But, hopefully that will all change tomorrow. As you may know Japan is a country for “seasons”. There are given days when all the office workers change from short sleeves to long sleeves (regardless of how hot it actually is that year), the pools all close on August 31^st (despite the fact it is still very hot…) etc. The first of September signals the end of the school holidays and the beginning of the season to start planting autumn vegetables. Unfortunately as you can see, I have quite a lot of work to do before any planting can happen! I’m determined to get it started tomorrow, but it will need to wait until the first batch of pumpkin and apricot jam of the year is made…. Maybe by the afternoon I will have weeded a small section! Where are my "WOOFERS" when I need them????

On a better note the rice is definitely growing well and the first grains are now fully formed. Only one and a bit more months until harvest!

Herb tea anyone?

Every spring I get really enthusiastic about the garden, plant lots of seeds, vegetables etc. that should all be ready in the summer months. But then the summer arrives..... and not only is it too hot to contemplate moving further than the fridge for a cold drink, but it also gets very dry and therefore almost impossible to keep everything watered and even more impossible to pull weeds out as the ground is so hard.
The result is always the same..... a garden full of weeds just waiting for the cooler autumn months to arrive! This year has been no exception. Although this week I did manage to weed the top corner garden and discovered some nice surprises. The top photo is my "herb tea garden". I was thinking that it was all weeds, but in fact there are virtually no weeds in it. The lemon balm, lemon grass and lemon verbena all seem to love living together in their sunny spot.
The cinnamon basil is also managing to survive well. I know you are not supposed to let basil flower, it does a good job of filling a spot in the garden and adding a little colour. And besides, there is only so much basil you can eat every day!
On Tuesday I managed to mix work with "pleasure" and took the children camping. If there hadn't been about 20 children there with us it would have been perfect.....

First visitors

On Thursday we officially became new "guest house" owners. Well we haven't actually paid the final installment yet, but we have got the keys and have started moving some things in. We had a typhoon arrive on Friday (knocking down all my sunflowers and beans....) and that combined with other work meant that I really didn't get a chance to get near the place until Saturday. Of course now that we have spent all this money on a the actual house there is no money left to decorate it properly, so things that have been cluttering up our house have been shifted in there in the meantime. As soon as the children go back to kindergarten in September I am determined to spend some more time there - especially in my new kitchen!
The first "Korean guests" have postponed until December, but the first guests have already spent a night and have put their stamp of approval on the place - mostly in the form of greasy hand prints all over the walls...... We are looking forward to having you stay at "Kiora Cottage" (yes, I think Tom has finally agreed to a name.....) some time soon!

Bugs....

Recently I've had a few "bad experiences" with clothes. I have never been a great one to really worry about what I am wearing and with two small children I am used to discovering unwanted "marks" on my clothes after leaving home in a rush. My children have grown a little more now though and the surprise discoveries of a bit of snot or vomit (sorry I don't mean to be graphic!) have been getting less and less frequent. However twice in the last week I have looked down at my shirt in a meeting and discovered it streaked with greenish yellow lines - everywhere! I think these lines must appear after I leave the house as they are so obvious after I sit down that I can't imagine how I never noticed them before. They have been a bit of a puzzle to me - they don't come out in the wash (although with a little "Sards Wonder Soap" I can generally get them out) and they seem to appear from nowhere.....

It wasn't until this morning that the mystery was solved. You may remember a few weeks ago I posted a photo of a bright green caterpillar. Well this morning I found another huge caterpillar munching on a tomato plant - and guess what??? It was exactly the same colour as the stains all over my shirts! Thinking back I realised that each time the stains appeared I had quickly gone into the garden before going to my meeting to collect some tomatoes to take with me..... mystery solved!

On the insect theme - this is a "Giant Katydid" and I would just like to tell you that they are even noiser than the frogs and the cicadas put together! I just scared this one away from our deck door as it was so loud that we couldn't hear the TV - I made a sound file to show you what I am talking about, but my technical knowledge falls flat of actually being able to attach it to this blog. You will just have to come and listen for yourselves!

Okay, so I really don't have a lot to write about today..... sorry! Actually the guest house was supposed to be completely finished and handed over to us on Friday, but it wasn't quite finished in time and now everyone here in Japan is on holiday until the 16th so we are still waiting to actually get inside and put some furniture in it. A little frustrating, but I think the end is insight. There are 4 Korean City Office workers booked in on September 11th, so here's hoping it is finished by then! We have to start paying for it somehow.....

Camping!

One of my dreams is to take my children camping every year - like I used to go with my family in New Zealand. A week by the river with nothing to do but eat, read and play cards. Heaven! Of course the ideal camp spot for me is:

1. Reasonably close to home. I don't feel the need to drive for hours and hours to get somewhere only to have to drive all the way back again if someone gets sick.
2. Close to some water - a river or the ocean will do (even a good pool close by would be adequate).
3. Close to a clean toilet. Nothing like wandering for miles in the dark to the closest toilet only to stand in some poo!
4. Some access to cooking facilities (don't want to rough it too much....)
5. Not many people close by - I would hate for them to be driven away by my lullaby singing at night!

Anyway - after going through my ideal camp site list I realised that we have the perfect camp site right here in our back garden. So, the children are asleep out there right now and Tom will soon join them, which means I get the house to myself. What more could you ask from a campsite??? Any other campers are welcome - please bring your own tent though - ours is a little full!

Along with our new campsite, we also have a new front door, new doors inside the "guest house" and new lights so we can venture in there at night. Also in the camping mode we ate outdoors tonight - nothing better than tempura cooked outside with vegetables taken freshly from the garden. I think we had 9 different varieties of vegetables today. A pity you can't deep fry tomatoes.......

Magic Sunset

Now who wouldn't want to stay in a house that had views of fantastic sunsets like this each night? The site manager estimated that all would be finished in a week's time.....I'll believe it when I see it!

Helpers

The weekend was a busy one! On Saturday we suddenly felt the need to paint the deck of our house (not the new house - the deck for that one isn't built yet....). What we forgot was that it was going to be yet another boiling hot day and that our feet would burn as we were painting it! It has been averaging at least 36 degrees each day lately....

We also forgot that we would have "helpers" - along with the frogs there was of course Emily who decided she had to "help" the entire time. Hard to say no, but frustrating when you say yes!
Sunday was Masaki's fourth birthday so we mixed New Zealand traditions with Japanese traditions and had a cake and noodle races down a bamboo pipe. Fun for all!

The house is on hold at the moment - the latest hold up is that the rubbish company won't come and empty the skip which is overflowing with rubbish. This means that the plumbers can't do any of the drain work, which means the concrete people can't do any of the final touches. The builder hasn't turned up to do the front steps again today so everywhere is very quiet. In a way I think we are now hoping that they delay a little more as we have a clause in our contract that if everything is not completed by the 20th of this month then penalties start to be incurred and our house gets a little cheaper! Maybe that way we will be able to afford to put up curtains!

The latest development in the garden at the moment is the discovery of a new variety of pumpkin.... Most of my pumpkin plants were self seeded in the compost and there were two different varieties - butternut (like the one on the left) and a small green variety. They seem to have mixed somehow to produce the one on the right. I wonder what it will be like inside......