On Saturday, the rain cleared up so I and Hinata went to the plot in the afternoon with our scythes and sickles. We slashed away at the sasa bamboo and thorn bushes. After 30 minutes, Hinata hit himself in the shin with his newly sharpened sickle, causing a 5 cm gash that oozed 'mashed jelly' according to him. He promptly freaked out and fell to gibbering, and had to be admonished sharply. We drove to the Hojo Hospital for Fools Who Can't Use Tools and had it dressed. He had lost his taste for slashing by then and mooched about the site looking at the insects and the graves in the graveyard.
The densest thickets were like something out of a fairy tale - dark, and prickly, and impenetrable to all but those utterly pure of heart, like me. I had some very large blisters on my hands when I finished for the day. The evening's beer tasted especially good.
Sunday was rainy, but I felt drawn to my land anyway. I went on my own and got a lot of slashing done, opening up a swathe almost to the Northern Border. I also found an old metal trailer that might make a nice ornament with some planters around it. There were a
lot of mosquitoes in the thickets.
The view to the north looked very good with rain clouds swarming over the mountain peaks.
Kajiwara-san of
Fonte sent me a mockup of the house, that I hacked around a bit in Photoshop.
The green blob behind the house is a pond for collecting rainwater and recycling household water. There will be a lot more trees left than this suggests.
