Giving Water, Manure, and Shau

 

We want to write more about manure.  It’s so important to life!  For now, here is a shot of the early morning work getting going on an April plowing day.  The fields are flooded before manure is spread, so that it doesn’t wash away — so most plowing mornings start at first light with the whole village gathering to shovel into baskets and carry and dump, manure spread by Abis with shovels and turned in with the seed.

Please see a post last year from Caitlin on watering, the work that is happening right now in Tar….

Here is a field being watered, before plowing
Here are the ladies who give the water
Making shau —  (see the video below as well)
 
And this is what we’re going for.

After plowing, we rake the fields smooth and level using a rbat, leaving only carefully contoured rimo that will carry water to each part of the field. The women then come through as a team to carefully shape the rimo for flood irrigation. They use a hand-crafted tool called the panka, which is made of an apricot-wood head on a willow handle. Aba Tsering Dorje was making them one day, and we would love to learn.

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