The first step of clearing the land is cutting & harvesting the rice. The cutting (reaping) starts by hand, cutting the rice around the land so the small rice-cutting machine can drive over the field. Traditionally the work is done on the rice-field fully dressed as protection against sun. And wearing rubber boots as the ground is still one big mud pool. You take a bundle of rice in one hand and cut it with a curved knife. Then you lay the bundle of cut rice on the land. If you like to experience the slow life & culture of Pua in Nan province, then come and stay a few days at Non Na Pua Homestay.
After the preparations (1 hour) the little rice cutting machine comes in. It is managed by 1 person walking behind it. Under are moving knives to cut the rice and on top are rotating small "arms" that will move to rice to one side. Very easy and cheap. We pay only 200 THB for our small piece of land and it takes only about 1 hour. After the cutting of the rice it will have to dry for a few days (hopefully not too much rain anymore). After that a machine will come to split the rice from the straw, called Threshing. Then the rice will be put in bags of about 45kg. This is then brought to a rice-mill to clean the rice and make it ready for consumption. A lot of work for a little bit money as rice is cheap. So until now we only did the the cutting (called reaping) and soon will be done the Threshing & Cleaning. I will update this posting for the latter 2.
Update : The Threshing & Cleaning of the rice has been done and we now have 10 bag of rice (from land of 540 sqm.)
