Happy life of ogurayama farm in Azumino

Our family sang on the stage

2009-05-03T15:59:00.002+09:00

We had a concert on last sunday.

Akio-san and his friends sang songs at this concert.

That was great!!

Of course our children attended to sing a song, too.

We sang"You are my sunshine."

We have practiced this song over and over every night.

Children like this song.

When Towa cries in the car, Wara always sings this song to him.

You can listen to our song at You tube.

We planted potatoes

2009-04-14T02:01:00.000+09:00

Our wwoofers, Hester and Davin, and Akio-san planted potatoes this morning.
Akio-san thought now is the time to plant potatoes before the rain.

Wara-chan and I also helped to plant them.

First, we cut potatoes into quaters and then put some ashes on potatoes.

Therefore, potatoes wouldn't do bad in the soil.

Wara did a good job putting ashes and planting potatoes.

Akio-san, Hester and Devin planted all the potatoes before it started to rain.

Great!!

I hope we can eat yummy potatoes this year again!

2009-04-09T00:39:00.001+09:00

It's full moom today!

Cherry blossoms in Matsumoto Castle

I went to Matsumoto Castle with my children and wwoofers to see cherry blossoms at night.

We, Japanese people like to see the cherry blossoms in spring.

We usually need to pay money to enter the Castle, but we can enter for free at this cherry blossoms season.

Cherry blossoms were illuminated by the light at night during this season.

We were also able to listen to the traditional Japanese instruments.

What a beautiful songs they were!

There was also a tea ceremony in the castle garden.

I was happy to see the beautiful places there.

Humama garden

2009-03-16T20:16:00.000+09:00

We took a break in our garden this morning.
Hu-mama want to made our garden like a Tasha Tudor.

Tasha Tudor is Amarican.She wrote many picture books for children.
And Her gerden is special and great.Humama love her gerden so much.

Now Humama admire her, she found many flowers bud in our garden, she
replanted them and make road in the gerden.

She imagin Towa will play in her gerden this summer.

It was fine day today, so we can see great mountain when we drink tea.

Family trip!!

2009-03-10T03:47:00.001+09:00

I triped Nagoya, Shizuoka and Yokohama with my family from 6th until 10th on this month.
Our family go to trip once a year.But I hope if children will grow up, I would like to go to trip many times in a year!!

First, we went to Nagoya to meet Mizuho-kun and Mayumi-chan.Mizoho-kun was our neiborhoood. He finished his school in Nagoya in this March.
We went to his school.He painted nail art to my finger.

And We saw Mayumi-chan too.She was a wwoofer 2years ago.
We went to Nagoyakou-Aquarium with Mizuho-kun and Mayumi-chan.
It was so great. I like to see dolphins.I would like to swim with the dolphins someday.

After Nagoya, We went to Sizuoka to see Akio's brother's family.
They have 3 children.So Huwa and Wara are so happy to play with them.

Nextday, We went to Yokohama where I grew up. I met friends from high school.

I spend all good time with friens!!

This is a nice trip!!

Kendama

2009-03-03T01:33:00.002+09:00

It is a typical Japnese toy.
Huwa is playing with it everyday.
He is addicted to play Kendama.
It was given this by his elementary school.

Students have little skills of playing Kendama.
I will show you Huwa's playing.

First, he plays Kendama with songs, and then he plays like baseball.

He is getting new skill everyday.

Interview!!

2009-02-08T05:45:00.001+09:00

I interviewed Jessica, Jenny and Chihiro today.They are wwoofer our farm now.Jessica leave here after this interview.I said to them "Would you talk about funing? "

Plese show this video.

Thank you very much Jessica, Jenny and Chihiro.

ehoumaki

2009-02-03T14:36:00.001+09:00

I am Towa penguin!!

It's Setsubun today!
We eat ehoumaki on Setsubun.

Setsubun is the end of winter in the old calender,which is on February 3rd.

We have Setsubun ceremony.

In this ceremony,we always say"demon is out, come on luck"
as you throw soy beans toward the front door.

It means to make bad luck go away and welcome the good luck.

Ehoumaki is said to be a good item to welcome a good luck.
Ehoumaki is a big sushi role.

We eat this sushi as you face towards the best direction.

This direction changes every year.

The East-NorthEast is the best direction for this year.

Um---.Yummy!!

So,I upload mamy videos to our Japanese blog for "You tube."
You can watch our family!

http://tsuiteruogurayama.blog81.fc2.com/

Thank you!

We make carrot & apple juice

2009-02-01T14:25:00.000+09:00

We cut apples and carrots to make carrot & apple juice.
We take out the bad parts from the apples.

This juice is very tasty.

Carrots are sent to our farm by another organic farm.

The farm owner is a friend of ours.

I like this juice.

Did you know that apples & carrot juice is good for your health?

Akio-san brings these apples and carrots to the jyuce factory.It takes 3hours from our farm to the jyuce factory by truck.

He went to threr 3 times because we made 3000bottles this year!

We cut apple trees

2009-01-25T11:35:00.000+09:00

She is a first wwoofer this year.Her name is Kaori.She came from Tokyo.

We cut all the apple trees on one of our 7 orchard.

We use these trees for the stove in my house.

We need trees to make a fire in our stove.

But this is not reasen to cut apple trees.

So,Kaori is collecting cut-trees now.

It hurt my feeling when the trees were cut.

Because I saw these trees had beautiful flowers and lots of apples last year.

If we didn't cut these trees, they will have many apples this year too.

We have many reason to cut these trees.

It is very cold here!!

2009-01-15T13:35:00.002+09:00

Look at this picture!! It's fine this morning.
The temparture here is -10℃（７Fahrenheit)

I look forward to reading the thermometer every morning.
What degreee is it today?

Whenever I looked at our car, I remembered the movie, of "Back to the future".

Have you seen this movie ?
Do you remember the scene when the time-machine appeared from the truck? The car looks frozon

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=yosuvf7Unmg

I can see crystal on the window of the car.

I give my dog some water every evening, the water become ice by the morning!!

That is how cold it is here!!

2009-01-10T10:48:00.000+09:00

We took a part in the ceremony in this small area. We call this ceremony, Sankurou.

It is a burning ceremony of ornaments from the new year, and we take this smoke and wish for our well being for this year.

Here is how we start this ceremony.
First, we knock on neighbor's doors and collect some used new year ornaments form each house, then we built like an ornament delta corn, using bamboo and pine trees.

When we burn this, it has a good sound.

I like to seeing the fire.

I like this celemony, because I grew up in Yokohama.

We weren't able to make a fire like this.

Because Yokohama is a big city.

There is no space to make a fire.

We can make a fire here, and can get together with neighbors at the same time .

Children and parents look fun. We had a good time together.

A Happy New year!!

2009-01-01T22:24:00.001+09:00

This is our Osechi

A happy new year!!
How's your new year?

Our family is all well!
We woke up early and watched the sunrise and pray to the sun.

We ate Osechi and Mochi .
Osechi was cooked yesterday.

We prepared Osechi for new year until the day before.
Osechi is a special menu only for the new year.
We serve food in the special lunch boxes.

Each menu has a meaning.

For example,Kuromame(black beans)means if you eat this you will be all fine and can work well.

We went to the book store and McDonald.
This is not a typical Japanese culture for the new year.
That is only our family culture.(culture?)

We usually don't go to McDonald, but our children want to go there.

SO, we go to McDonald once a year.
It's today!!

Our children are so happy because they are given a special toy from McDonald.

I hope this year will be a good year!!

We went to shrine

2008-12-31T14:10:00.000+09:00

On the last day of this year,Akio-san's brother family and my father came to our home.

He has three children.

Our children and his children play together,they look so fun!!

We enjoyed going to the Onsen in the evening.

We went to the Shinto shrine to say thank you for this year.

We were able to spend this whole year being healthy and well.

We went to Hotaka shrine that was rebuilt this year,so it was very beautiful!!

It was so cold in the shrine,and there were a few people.

Thank you everyone for everything!

Thank you Rumi-Sense this year!

Mochitsuki!

2008-12-30T20:02:00.000+09:00

We pounded mochi with my family and my friends in the field today.

This is a traditional custom in Japan.
We celebrate New year and eat mochi for 3days in new year.

We pounded mochi to eat during the new celebration.

First,we steam rice,and then use Kine and Usu to pound steamed rice.

Kine is a thing to pound Mochi.
Usu is a thing to put Mochi in.

We eat mochi in New year because old Japnese people think the god resides in Mochi.

So old Japanese people eat Mochi on a special day.
Mochi is very tasty!!

Puppies 2 !!

2008-12-28T14:51:00.001+09:00

I take our dog,Rio for a walk every early morning.

Sunrise is late in the winter, so I can see the sun glow.
While I am walking,I deeply feel the happiness.

I can see the beautiful sight,and I always take a deep breath.
What a fresh air!! The nature makes me happy.

I love this area.

By the way,puppies left our house this morning.
I gave our puppies to our friends.

Kuro's new papa is Dai-chan!
He is a carpenter and built our wwoofers house.
Dai-chan named him Peace.

Shiro was taken to Oohama family.
They are nice family and keep a goat, too.
Can the goats and the dogs become friends?

Buchi was taken to Masuda family.
We have been friends for 17years.

I miss them. Of course ,Rio and my children miss them, too.But everyone lives near my house,so my children and I can go see puppies whenever we want.

I hope the puppies will become happy!!

Christmas Party

2008-12-25T15:27:00.001+09:00

Kurohana and Santa (Bazu)

Sing Gospel

We held a Christmas&Celebration Party for our midwife today.

This party was so great!!

I sang gospel songs at last.

We have practiced singing gospel many times since Octorber.

Song titles were" Joy to the world ,""My life is in your hands,"and "Oh Happy Day".

These songs contain good lyrics. I liked the lyrics.

I practiced these songs in the car,so my children remember these songs.

When I sang these songs together,I tasted a sense of unity.

We sang gospel songs first,then Papa's team acted a skit on Christmas in this party.

Bazu who is a wwoofer at our farm acted Santa Claus!

He practiced his phrases in Japanese everyday.He has done well!!

We watched a slide about our homebirth,too.

She has helped 100baby birth.

All the familes seems so happy and calm.

I felt happy to meet my great midwife and friends.

My midwife Matsuba-san

We did it!!

Karaoke!!

2008-12-16T15:48:00.001+09:00

We have 5wwoofers with us now.

Lala who come from Ireland and Malcela who come from Australia like to sing songs.

When they worked in the field,they sang songs.

They sing songs while they are working in the field.

When they came back for lunch,they said they want to go Karaoke!!

I went to Karaoke together with wwoofers(Lala,Malcela,Bazu,David)and Towa tonight.

It was the first time to go to Karaoke with foreigners.

We sang all songs in English!!

It was fun!!

When I was a high school student,I want to make friends with people from other countries.

When we were enjoying Karaoke together,I felt my dream have come true before I knew it.

How to cook gratin

2008-12-11T15:27:00.000+09:00

I learnd how to cook gratin from Hu-mama.

Hu-mama is my mother-in-low.

We call her Hu-mama(mama means mom)

Because it's too young to call her grandma,so we call her mom.

We live with her.

She cooks nice meal everyday.

She has been living with us since March this year.

She taught me how to cook gratin.

When she cookes it before,it tasted wounderful!!

So I wanted to learn.

First,we cut some vegetables and meat into small pieces.

Then,we saute the onions with butter in a frying pan until tender.

We put a cup of flour into the pan little by little with a strainer.

And then,pour a cup of water .

She says a key here is to use water instead of milk to prevent lumps.

After adding two bottles of milk into it,then add cooked potatoes,macaroni and meat.

We cook over low heat until boiling.

Then,remove from heat,and turn the ingredient into the baking dishes.

We put shredded cheese and sprinkle some bread crumbs on top of gratin.

Finally,we bake in the oven for about 15minutes at 230℃.

That's all!!

Towa

2008-12-10T02:00:00.000+09:00

This is Towa . He is 3 month old baby.

He was huged by many friends and children eveyday.

Hi my teacher!Your reqest come ture!!!

Our farm's production

2008-12-07T01:46:00.000+09:00

Our farm grow and sell apples,peaches,pears and Japanese pears.

We sell and send our products directly to our customers.

Some fruits that are not good for eating become juice and jam.

We want to use everything we grow.

We cannot send some apples to our customers,because they are pecked by birds and are scrached by the wind.

So we bring these fruits to the factory.They make jam and juice to use for our products.

We sell not only fruits but also jam and juice.

The label of jam is new!!Yui-chan who stayed here as a wwoofer drew these labels.

Our children are the models of the picture!!

I love this area

2008-12-06T23:42:00.005+09:00

I took this picture at the back of my house.
There are beautiful mountains and sky!!

I took this photo at the tea time.

There are Onsen near my house .
It takes 5minutes by car.

You can go Onsen by walking.
I waked up 4o'clock this morning, It was still dark.
So I can see so many stars !!
If you see the sky 15 minutes at night ,you can see shooting stars.

That's wonderful!!

New wwoofer Stijn a chef

2008-12-02T13:56:00.000+09:00

Stijn who come from Belgium was a chef .
He cooked the dinner for us this evening.

I was amaized because he had never cooked Japnese food.
But We didn't need to buy any new meterials.

He used Tofe (made out of soy beans ),to cook Lasagna!!
Tofe is the most typical Japanese good .

What a chef he is !!

He cooked with Tofe ,potatoes ,carrots and tomato source.
It was very yammy!!

H also cooked spinach soup.It tasted like Maccha (Green tea)
What a great meal! I am happy to eat this good meal.

Chicken!

2008-12-01T23:31:00.000+09:00

When I started this blog , we are starting to raise chickens and I wrote about this chickens.

One of them became weak because other chickens pecked her.
We thought she was dying soon.

My husband tried to cut up this chicken.

Oh!! I had tried to cut up ducks two years ago.
I don't like this but I tried.

Because I eat meat sometimes and, I would like to feel that animal are giving life for us.

First ,he cuts chicken's neck and held upside down to drain the blood .Then ,he bolied it so that it would be easy to pluck the chicken.At least ,he cut the chicken meat.

I used this chicken to cook curry rice.

Appreciation every meal.

Gospel rehearsal

2008-11-29T23:12:00.002+09:00

This photo is my midwife

I am going to attend the Chiristmas party of our mama's circle.

When I gave births to my chirlren,my midwife took care of us.

She has helped childbirth more than 100family by this year!!

So,she will hold a celebration party.

We have decided that we are going to sing gospel for her as a gift.

We rehearsed gospel this evening.

It was great!!

I enjoyed this.

We will sing these songs at the 21st on the christmas party.

I ama excited because it is the first time for me to sing gospel.

I want to practice a lot.