Great Weather

I don't remember such a sunny summer here. It has been great.

I got this shot on the way home from Akaishi, the next village south.It is our fancy German windmill: our ecology saver. One of the shareholders is my friend, Mr. Ota, who owns the plant that bottles water from our World Heritage Site, the Shirakami old growth beech forest.

Mr. Ota helped me out with my need for firewood by introducing me to the villagers from Sarutani (Monkey Valley) who go into the foothills of the Shirakami mountains to cut cordwood from their traditional site there. This cool forest glade is on the rough gravel road that goes 2 miles in to the site.
This whole ecology business is complicated. Mr. Ota used to be the one cutting the old beech trees: they were sold to make TV cabinets. When the forests were protected, he was in a quandry. He realized it was a waste to haul these beautiful giants out on cables (the new technology that allowed him to get at the trees that had been inaccessible), but he had a (Japanese) moral obligation to provide jobs for his employees. So, he used the now-famous Shirakami name to sell bottled water, and his employees work at the bottling plant. His investment in the windmill project is furthur proof of his new-found commitment to ecology concerns. However, one of my German friends tells me that after several years German involvement in wind technology, they have determined windmills are net energy losers, if the cost of building, maintaining, and then replacing the mills is factored in.
And, why do I suddenly need firewood? I now have a wood burning stove because some researchers think burning wood balances the human production of carbon dioxide and the forest's prodution of oxygen better than burning fossil fuels, so the government subsidized the purchase of the stove (with kerosene prices double what they were, I got with the program). So- what is the net energy equation if you factor in the gas I use to transport and cut the wood? I try to pick it up when I am going past on other businees, but still...
And as for the good weather, I am enjoying it, but my farmer friends are eyeing shrinking resevoir levels with concern- will there be enough water to finish of this year's crop?
Life is complicated. We do our best (sometimes), but ultimately our trust must be in God.

Yet More Tractors

Why? I am farm raised- you don't need to ask why.
Hirosaki High-schooler Saori came to English Camp awhile ago. Her grandfather has antique engines, tractors and other farm machinery. She wanted me to attend his one-man tractor show, so I went down today to check it out.

Saori was happy to pose with the old farm tools, but when I asked if she wanted to learn how to use them, I got the anticipated "You've got to be kidding" giggle.
Most Japanese kids- even farm kids- want nothing more to do with food than eating it.

The "foreign models display included a 1922 Fordson and a Fiat from the 50's, I think.

The Japanese section included one of the very first Japanese produced walking tractors (in the foreground). It had vertical tiller tines,like an eggbeater- an inovative, but short-lived experiment.
The most unusual thing about the display is that it exists at all. Unlike North America, where you can attend numerous, large and well-attended antique tractors shows each year, Japan has virtually no antique farm machinery buffs at all.
Another unique feature was the uncle who showed up to check on attendance (it was MOST modest when I was there- i.e., I was the only guest). This man is one of those blue-collar philosphers you run across from time to time. I don't know about you, but I find them as insightful (maybe more) than their doctorate-holding compatriots in the acedemic world.
This one was telling me of his forays into the woods when he is feeling stressed or frustrated. Just contemplating the vastness of nature ("you know, you always look up, at the boundless blue sky, or the countless stars. I mean, if you look down, all you see is ashphalt or dirt"). When he learned that I am a missionary, he got wary. ("I never saw why I had to go to a church to get back on track"). He seemed satisfied with my explination that getting quiet and listening is God's idea- that's why we have Sunday, and church- to take time to stop jumping around, turn off the noise, and LISTEN.

On Keyboards and Code

Darwin's ideas have been around for a long time. Other branches of science have undergone paradigm shifts, but biology has just been tweaking ol' Charlie. So I was surprised to see a news article last week suggesting there are now some iconoclasts who want to replace mutation/natural selection with something called "evo-devo". You gotta admit, it DOES sound cooler. What does it mean?
Well, as nearly as I could decipher it, the idea is that certain genes are key in development ("devo"). They can switch on and produce alternate forms of, say, a leg, if conditions change. So the organism evolves ("evo") in a certain direction, as a result of devlopment.This seems to be a better explination for big changes than chance mutation. However, "better and "correct" are not necessarily the same thing.
Pundits claim the whole DNA thing is a result of undirected chance, or is inherant in the structure of molecules. One problem: even if either of those could produce a DNA molecule, you still have only the "keyboard". It is the order of the 4 bases on the strand of DNA that carries the code, the data which determines what organism the DNA produces. This is the "story" written on the keyboard- so, who wrote the story? Where did the data come from?
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

A Visitor From The woods

Yep, still here. Just haven't had much to say lately, or else far too much.
Today we had a Steering Committee meeting for our church association. It was interrupted by this fellow.

This is a "sparrow wasp"- we grow 'em big, here. Those are inches on the tape, not centemeters. Fortunately, these wasps are not very aggressive. One sting can land you in hospital- or in the morgue.
The meeting was concluded successfully -as successfully as any of them ever are- after I disposed of this intruder. I don't mind them in the woods, but in the church...