"Bringing in the Sheaves"

Harvest time has come! It feels like just yesterday we were weeding the rice field, but now it is time to collect. We had never seen/helped with a rice harvest so we were very excited to help out. It took us 2 days to finish the entire harvesting process. Overall, Allison took about 500 pictures and 2 hours worth of video. So we're just going to give you a brief summary of how Rice Harvesting is done, here in the Philippines.

First of all, harvesting cannot be done by one person. It takes a hardworking, dedicated team to handle the process. 

Firstly, a group of people goes through and cuts the grains with a Sickle , this was difficult because you had to walk all through the fields hunched over. Also the knives were EXTREMELY sharp. One wrong move and you may lose a finger.

Then, close behind, another group of people come and gather the grain so that it doesn't get wet, and they lay it on the border of the field. This job was difficult because you had to walk back and forth in the deep, sticky mud.

Even Nini and Angela helped to gather the rice. Nini was so funny. Allison spent almost the whole day trying to take a picture of her without her knowing.

After that, people go to all the gathered rice and they tie it. Then it's brought to, in our case, a trailer. 

When the trailer and truck were full, we collected all the rice in one location where the thrasher would later be set.

We, of course, made sure to have fun while we worked. Andrey, our Ukrainian friend, showed us his interpretation of American Football. It was pretty close. lol.

Another highlight, was when Sam was pretending to be "a diva" with her sunglasses for a photo. Nini wanted to try as well. But the glasses were too big for her face. We took so many pictures because she wanted to get it just right but she never could. It was so cute.

Though Allison was busy documenting every moment of the harvest she still managed to help out by gathering rice. But by the second day, she started having an allergic reaction. Her arms looked like she was suicidal and her legs broke out in pustule welts. So she decided to continue documenting from outside the fields.

After the fields were empty. We had to hire a huge thrasher. The way this machine works is you put the rice stalks in and it shakes them. Then the rice falls off the stalk and into a bucket and the stalk is catapulted into the air. After the thrashing we had 17 (50 kilo) bags of rice. PTL!

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,

Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;

By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Till next time...

~Me and Her