Frontier Spirit! Clearing of Land!

I greet everyone with love and joy!

It has been more than two weeks since I started working on our land while trying to settle down on the house I am renting. Two weeks, and yet I feel like I have been here for a year! I met amazing people of the community, and a few from a nearby community. Everyone was kind and helpful and I cannot ask any more goodness from the universe.

While trying to settle down on the new house, I focused a big part of my time in clearing the land before the weeds become out of control. I realized the power of summer when I saw how fast the shrubs grew after leaving them for only a week! They already grew beyond my height!

 I can't even reach the top leaves!

With a grass cutter, I started cutting the grass in a certain pattern so that I can gather the grass easier to use it as mulch later. I certainly thought I could finish almost a hectare of field in a few days but I am oh so mistaken! If they the grass is less than a meter in length, I may have finished earlier but with shrubs this high, I had a hard time cutting the thick stems. On the bright side, as I was cutting shrubs, I was able to find new and interesting stuff coming out of the grass.

An egg of a wild bird, probably a pheasant

After a total of backbreaking five days, I am mostly done with clearing the shrubs and grasses! Next step is to gather grass! All by hand, by myself and oh my, oh my, I only did one third and it took me almost a day to gather them into a pile!

Perfect mulching material!

This grass pile will be an excellent mulch and fertilizer! Nothing beats a slowly composted grass and shrub. Since their roots are strong and deep, and their natural life force, they are able to absorb nutrients efficiently and bring the unavailable minerals to the upper portion of the soil. If I mix this with leaf litter under the forest, I can make compost that is incomparable to compost made from cow dung.

I decided to gather first the cuttings from the upper field, and then I moved on to rototilling the soil with a small tractor. The soil was naturally clayey but with the power of the weeds, the organic matter of the soil is good enough to make the soil friable enough. I learned a certain technique to make the decomposition faster. I first set the rototiller to about five centimeters to cut the remaining stubbles of weeds then rototilled again for another 15 centimeters. If I did this every season or at every new planting, the soil will eventually have a hard pan underneath that will result to poor drainage. So, I am only doing this ONCE. Just so that I can build permanent beds easier and plant cover crops.

Like a canvas with infinite possibilities of creativity!

Two days of continuous rototilling on the upper field produced a very nice crumby textured soil!

Look at that crumby goodness!

I will soon make permanent raised beds so a lot of planning is needed before I actually make them. Everyday there is something new. Everyday there is a moment of paradise.

Mt. Komagatake with Onuma Lake

"With Love, this space is going to be splendid like a place no other. With Joy, this space is going to gather my ancestors. Through Co-creation, this space will continue on to the next generations."

Weeds in our hearts

Weeds. Not the one that makes you feel strangely happy but the ones considered by farmers as nuisance or enemies. They grow everywhere! Even on asphalted roads, they find their way through the cracks and still grow happily.

There are numerous ways to consider different things or situations such as the way we perceive weeds. It's like a rainy weather. For the farmers who hope for rain to water the parched lands, rain is a blessing. As for the people who were supposed to have a picnic outside, the rain is a bother. It is all about how we perceive things. Whether things are good or bad, it solely depends on us, in fact, only us humans classify things as good or bad, increasing or decreasing, democratic or republic, rich or poor, we simply love to dichotomize everything! But for nature, everything simply is. Everything and anything simply occurs as it is how it is supposed to occur. There is no enemy nor win or lose, everything is part of one universal whole.

This brings me as to how I perceive the weeds. When I was in college, we were always taught that weeds are something to get rid of. Anything that is not the crop you want to grow, or any undesirable plant is considered a weed. I remembered this definition from my class then I smiled and laughed. I thought "Well, if I consider every plant in my land as desirable then my weed problem is gone!" I looked at "weeds" as something beyond their current state. Each plant has their own purpose to fulfil, thus, none being undesirable. I am seeing the flower, the vegetables, the fruits, within the "weeds".  The previously arduous and draining job of weeding or cutting grass has become a fascinating job as I saw that these will soon transform into another form. 

These so called "weeds" also produce very beautiful flowers.

With these in mind and heart, I continued on my job in clearing the land. The plants were already my height and they were about as thick as a pinky finger. Clearing almost a hectare of land by hand by myself is very difficult so I used a grass cutter. Oh how happy I felt as I cut the plants. It's as if I was correcting the misuse or negligence of the previous owner!

Before cutting the plants

After cutting for about 7 hours

I can already see vegetables, berries, and some grains growing around!

Being a steward of the land is similar to how we use our minds. If we allow "weed" seeds to grow and flourish without control, our land will soon be devoured by it. Our mind is like the soil that carries millions of weed seeds. We can choose to decide not to nurture these "weed" seeds and let them control our thoughts. We can never be without weed seeds in our mind, but it is up to us whether we cultivate it or not. The harder we try to remove these negative thoughts, the more difficult it will become. Let us accept that inside us, we do have these seeds of negative thoughts within us and we have the choice to water it or not.

Happy gardening everybody!

Few learnings from the visit to Philippines

This post is not directly related to the how to's of building a family homestead but I feel this will be helpful to one's thinking or mindset while building one.

After spending more than a year in Japan, I visited Philippines again to attend a very important wedding of my cousin. Initially, I thought that it was going to be a rather simple trip- meeting relatives, meeting friends, eating lots of mangoes, and drowning myself in coconut juice- but it  turned out to be a significant part of my journey of awakening.

The moment I stepped out of NAIA Terminal 1, instead of my relatives, the first one to greet me was a small girl asking me for alms. Since I was born and raised in the Metro Manila, this was a common encounter but after having lived in Japan for a year, experiencing this again had a deeper effect to me. I thought I was prepared to experience life in Manila again but I was gravely mistaken. Traffic, worsened. Population, increased. Street children, still present. Cars, increasing in number. Noise and Air Pollution, uncontrolled. 

It seems I am painting a bad picture of the Philippines, but I am only speaking about my experience in Manila. I contemplated deeply as to how I can accept this environment after living a relatively peaceful life in Japan for a year. As I rode the car to our house, I looked around, looked deeply into the faces and eyes of the people walking, standing, passengers, and children. Observing the surface, most of them seemed tired and grumpy but as I looked longer and deeply there is a strong sense of happiness and "in the present moment" satisfaction. There is suffering, no doubt, on the physical level because of the weather, pollution, hard work, and work stress. Many people here live day by day. After paying for food for their family, costs for transportation, and other living expenses, they are only left with very little. While struggling with these needs, they have to survive the harsh environment of the concrete jungle. As the day ends, many are simply grateful and happy that they survived the day. The circumstances helped them realise the happiness of the moment- simply existing is bliss in itself. 

Living for more than a year in Japan, I have noticed that many become accustomed to the safety of the environment and exactness of schedule such that I hear complains from very simple matters such as late trains, rainy weather, and honking of car horns. I even sometimes catch myself say some of these simple complains. Due to the privileges and conveniences of living in Japan, people become more concerned of "work" instead of "living".

I can't exactly remember what this saying is but it goes something like this-

"You may find the path to enlightenment faster while living in the city than secluding yourself in the mountains."

If you find your peace within despite being surrounded by chaos and madness, then wherever you go,  this peace will remain with you. 

Ironically, I found peace as I visited a mall in Manila with my relatives. I was surrounded by crowds of people, noise machines, dashing cars, wifi signals, and boosted bass music. Within these, I suddenly felt at peace. Rather, I felt that there is peace within all of these. Within the spaces of the sounds, the visions, and the sensations, there is silence. I felt as if I was simply observing all of these happenings around me without being identified or attached to the surroundings. I knew that this will have a tremendous effect on me as to how I experience life. The feeling quickly faded away as I get engulfed again by the chaos around me. I was happy knowing that there is indeed this state of consciousness where you feel at peace with your surrounding and that it was possible no matter the situation.

As I return to Japan to continue building the family homestead, I now carry this experience and I am confident that even if suffering or hardships come knocking on life's doorsteps, there is peace. This peace is not hidden within, as most will mislead us, but laid in front of us like the cosmos. As we look above, we immediately notice and place our focus on the stars but not the spaces between the stars. Without the space these stars will not exist. Such is finding peace in every moment. We instantly notice the problem, the noise, the image, the feeling and not the silence in the moment. These are based on the teachings of Eckhart Tolle.

I am grateful that before being fully immersed with my activities I had the opportunity to be back in an environment where peace seemed impossible to find. Finding the needle in the haystack seemed futile but as long I am the magnet that attracts the needle, I can find it. A simple law of attraction.

I apologize for the random ramblings!

Next post will be more on the practical side.

Clouds climbing the slopes of Mt. Banahaw (Lucban, Quezon)

"Ainu neonan Ainu"

(Ainu language, Human who is Human)