Watching family members switch off when we parched rice, listening to music. County music mostly, some gospel, very little rock. Having to make sure there were enough batteries until we thought to use an extension cord.
This picture is from the eighties. I'm glad the smoke moved from me. I heard the saying that smoke goes to the prettiest one. It's how we were encouraged to keep working. At this point, the rice is almost ready to take off the fire to be cooled and packed for thrashing. That's how it was-thrashing. In the old days, the rice was put in a hole in the ground lined with leather and the lightest person had to jig it. That's where the term came from. The person thrashed around to make sure the hulls were cracked. From there it was transferred to winnowing baskets made out of birchbark. Fanning was best done on windy days. Luckily, there were people in the village who made thrashing machines that halved the work for us.
Food tasted better after we were done working. Seeing people with food was the signal that we were almost done. The amount of rice harvested during the day was usually parched that day. Occasionally, it was spread out to dry when we couldn't get to it right away. There wasn't time during the season to let it sit in the bags til we were done on the lake. It had to be parched within 2-3 days. Once it's parched, it could wait days until it was thrashed.
My mom said that in the old days, they used to go get the rice even after the lake froze. I thought about walking through the snow to the rice beds. I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore. It finally dawned on me that they cleared a path and used sleds to bring it back. Duh.
Ricing starts 07 Sep 2011 from 10-4. Can only go from the Island down to Woodduck. Hope everyone's ready who's going to be ricing. I may try one or two days, if I can sweet talk my son into letting me go.
Food tasted better after we were done working. Seeing people with food was the signal that we were almost done. The amount of rice harvested during the day was usually parched that day. Occasionally, it was spread out to dry when we couldn't get to it right away. There wasn't time during the season to let it sit in the bags til we were done on the lake. It had to be parched within 2-3 days. Once it's parched, it could wait days until it was thrashed.
My mom said that in the old days, they used to go get the rice even after the lake froze. I thought about walking through the snow to the rice beds. I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore. It finally dawned on me that they cleared a path and used sleds to bring it back. Duh.
Ricing starts 07 Sep 2011 from 10-4. Can only go from the Island down to Woodduck. Hope everyone's ready who's going to be ricing. I may try one or two days, if I can sweet talk my son into letting me go.