Water
Everyone went off to Kanagi (50 minutes to the north) to see the cherry blossoms in the park there, but I thought I'd have better luck keeping quiet if I stayed home alone.
Since it was another nice day, I decided to take my niece's dog Buddy on a proper walk, instead of the usual jog around the quarry he gets when I'm walking him alone.
After hiking over the hill and around the back, I came out on a local road that runs along a stream. Someone chipped a channel in the hard clay streambed (on the right)to divert water along the road beyond the bridge, instead of dropping under it. You can see the control gate (a board) where the water is gushing back in, as the channel hasn't been opened yet this year.
Further down, the diverted water goes into these 2 ditches, and then into fields that are 3 meters (9 feet) above the stream. It saves a lot of pumping.
These clever channels are common here. Some are small and simple, like this one, and others are quite large. The one that runs in front of our house starts in a mountain stream 6 kilometers (4 miles) from here.
Right now, local farmers are growing rice seedlings, and are flooding the fields in preparation for working them up into a slurry so they will be ready for transplanting in a couple of weeks. They need a lot of water.
Usually, water shortage is not a problem here. In fact, damp, moldy closets are a bane. This is a wet, green island. So I was intrigued to hear a Japanese woman talking about her trip to the Middle East. Riding a bus from Egypt north, she saw extensive desert for the first time. The irrigated fields of Israel were a welcome sight, and she realized for the first time why water and streams are mentioned so much in the Bible. She had always taken water for granted.
It is so easy to take God's gifts for granted. What has He given you? Take a minute to think, and be thankful.
Since it was another nice day, I decided to take my niece's dog Buddy on a proper walk, instead of the usual jog around the quarry he gets when I'm walking him alone.
After hiking over the hill and around the back, I came out on a local road that runs along a stream. Someone chipped a channel in the hard clay streambed (on the right)to divert water along the road beyond the bridge, instead of dropping under it. You can see the control gate (a board) where the water is gushing back in, as the channel hasn't been opened yet this year.
Further down, the diverted water goes into these 2 ditches, and then into fields that are 3 meters (9 feet) above the stream. It saves a lot of pumping.
These clever channels are common here. Some are small and simple, like this one, and others are quite large. The one that runs in front of our house starts in a mountain stream 6 kilometers (4 miles) from here.
Right now, local farmers are growing rice seedlings, and are flooding the fields in preparation for working them up into a slurry so they will be ready for transplanting in a couple of weeks. They need a lot of water.
Usually, water shortage is not a problem here. In fact, damp, moldy closets are a bane. This is a wet, green island. So I was intrigued to hear a Japanese woman talking about her trip to the Middle East. Riding a bus from Egypt north, she saw extensive desert for the first time. The irrigated fields of Israel were a welcome sight, and she realized for the first time why water and streams are mentioned so much in the Bible. She had always taken water for granted.
It is so easy to take God's gifts for granted. What has He given you? Take a minute to think, and be thankful.
posted by John Elliot | 8:14 PM
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