March 2011 - Our First Rice Harvest

In mid March, the rice was finally ready to harvest. The crop surpassed our expectations and gave us 9 months supply of rice for the Home. Israel hired a harvesting machine to do the work which only took a couple of hours compared to a couple of days by hand. Once the machine separated the grains from the rice stalks, the rice was spread out onto large sheets of plastic to dry in the sun. A few days later, the older boys helped the workers load all the rice into big storage bags and the straw was gathered up into a huge pile to be used to feed the cows.