What did you do today?

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Was watching Curtis Stone's channel almost non stop yesterday while packing veggies in the shed, there's so much useful information in them it's incredible. Getting lots of great ideas we may be able to use and others that may need a little adapting to the Japanese climate.
gonbechan wrote:Personally I lust after a sunken greenhouse which I presume if done well, would be strong against typhoon.
I think if you adapt a Japanese vinyl house you should be fine. The arch structure they use is an incredibly strong shape at resisting outside pressure and when you can get an unused one for free they get even better. We have four poly tunnels now and all of them were free of charge.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by CYEK »

What l did already today was ask one of the workers to stop using a brush cutter at 7.30 am. Finished a late night project at 3.30 am.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Really ? I would have thought that is the optimum time of the day to be doing brush cutting at this time of the year, later on you'd run the risk of heatstroke so best get it out of the way nice and early before the day heats up. Why just this morning we had the helicopters spraying all the rice fields at 4:30am. Can't imagine nipping out and telling them to lay it off until later on, I would think that would ostracise me from the local community of rice farmers if I did. Besides we'd already been up and working since about 4am ourselves to get veggies picked, washed and in our cold room before the sun got on them.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by paradoxbox »

Zasso Nouka wrote:Was watching Curtis Stone's channel almost non stop yesterday while packing veggies in the shed, there's so much useful information in them it's incredible. Getting lots of great ideas we may be able to use and others that may need a little adapting to the Japanese climate.
gonbechan wrote:Personally I lust after a sunken greenhouse which I presume if done well, would be strong against typhoon.
I think if you adapt a Japanese vinyl house you should be fine. The arch structure they use is an incredibly strong shape at resisting outside pressure and when you can get an unused one for free they get even better. We have four poly tunnels now and all of them were free of charge.
Aerodynamic Nerd alert:

The arch shape is strong but it also produces lift, or to be clearer, negative lift. If you look at an airplane wing you'll see the top section is basically an arch. Actually what you get is a low pressure zone above the arch section, and the boundary layer of air blowing over it starts to break up and become turbulent just past the apex of the arch. So wind blowing over the greenhouse actually sucks it down onto the ground with more force than the beams holding it in place.

The downside to this of course is if your greenhouse develops a gap in the vinyl somewhere, especially near the bottom. If it does, air will flow to the underside (higher pressure) and the result is an airplane greenhouse. And if the vinyl is loose or very dirty, the drag from friction could exceed the negative lift and then you'll get severe flutter, tearing or it might even just lift up and fly off.

How do your greenhouses withstand winds coming from the entrance sides?

I also lust after a partially underground greenhouse like gonbechan but would probably settle for a stone windbreak around the house if I were living in a place like Miyazaki or Okinawa with big winds. Dealing with floodwater seems like it might be a problem too, unless you built a large water collection cistern to handle it all.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Not sure about Okinawa but in Kyushu most farmers take off the vinyl as the typhoon season approaches to avoid having it ripped off as they catch a lot more typhoons down there and they tend to be quite strong when they first hit land.. When I first started farming I was getting a lot of advice from a friend down that way and he was really surprised that here in Kanto we leave the vinyl on for several years before changing it.

Normal preparation for an incoming typhoon is to repair any nicks or cuts to the vinyl and make sure all the bindings are secure. However even then you can get damage and it's not unusual to see one or two houses with the vinyl partially ripped off after a typhoon. The bindings help a lot and generally confine the damage to part of the house rather than having all the vinyl stripped off. Winds coming towards the doors don't seem to be a major problem, either doors are sliding types or hinged ones open outwards. There are gaps around the edges but this doesn't seem a major problem.

Snow damage is another thing to consider, if you live in an area with lots of snow then the vinyl comes off before winter. Unless the house is heated. Never had flood damage but then we live on top of a hill so that maybe something to consider if your vinyl house is located in a dip or something. Personally I favour having vinyl houses sited at ground level otherwise young plants at the edges might struggle for light when they are small but if you aren't growing right up to the edges that may not be a factor.

We recently purchased PO film for one of our vinyl houses instead of the usual vinyl as it is much less environmentally damaging. Apparently vinyl contains lots of chlorine, phthalates and a whole host of other potentially unpleasant additives. Haven't put the PO film on a house yet but if it is as effective as vinyl then we plan to switch over entirely to PO film, it is slightly more expensive than vinyl but no much more.

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Re: What did you do today?

Post by KumamotoHunter »

I shot a nice sow boar in Oita prefecture. Looking forward to eating her soon!

Image

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Eric in Japan
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Re: What did you do today?

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KumamotoHunter wrote:I shot a nice sow boar in Oita prefecture. Looking forward to eating her soon!

Awesome! Try smoking some of it if you have time/inclination. Tasted wonderful.
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Re: What did you do today?

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Eric in Japan wrote:
KumamotoHunter wrote:I shot a nice sow boar in Oita prefecture. Looking forward to eating her soon!

Awesome! Try smoking some of it if you have time/inclination. Tasted wonderful.
My favorite thing to do these days is put it in the slow cooker and make pulled pork!

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Re: What did you do today?

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KumamotoHunter wrote:I shot a nice sow boar in Oita prefecture. Looking forward to eating her soon!
Awesome man, we were given some innoshishi meat last year by one of the hunters in our village and we slow cooked it on our maki stove and it was some of the best tasting meat I've ever eaten. I'm very jealous of you right now. Do you do all the butchering yourself ?

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Re: What did you do today?

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Zasso Nouka wrote:
KumamotoHunter wrote:I shot a nice sow boar in Oita prefecture. Looking forward to eating her soon!
Awesome man, we were given some innoshishi meat last year by one of the hunters in our village and we slow cooked it on our maki stove and it was some of the best tasting meat I've ever eaten. I'm very jealous of you right now. Do you do all the butchering yourself ?
Yes, I do. Hard work, but well worth it!

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