Return to the real world?

When they say, "rainy season", there is a reason.
Last Monday after early morning rice delivery, I parked my van a bit closer to my home and carried the supplies needed for teaching woodcarving and leatherwork, plus stuff needed to camp in a tent for a week. The day was sunny and very hot.

At camp I set up the tables and benches in the craft area and unloaded the supplies from the van, got the needed items set up from the craft lockers, and then fixed up my tent and cot and a sleeping corner for Nikko. There were plenty of mulberry trees outside and the silkworms got plenty of fresh food. We had a staff dinner and meetings and ended the day with an opening campfire. So far, so good.

Because of the early-morning rice delivery and lugging all that heavy stuff to and from my van, moving heavy furniture in the craft room, and a fall coming down my pie-shaped stairs carrying stuff, I was more than ready to hit the sack. That was Monday ... and I don't know if it even waited until Tuesday before the rain began. (sometime during the night ... and the tent leaked)

Usually the rainy season has frequent light showers but what we got was in the pouring category. The run-offs during the week were like Niagara-wanna-be. I was probably lucky to have an indoor job, even with an old leaky roof. The classes were very full and it was a big challenge to watch all those teenage boys with sharp knives ... even with help from older youth and one adult three periods.
I was afraid few scouts would finish but in the end, there were only three incompletes.

I had taken quilt stuff, hoping to use the large tables to mark and cut the border fabric and the backing pieces for Ben's quilt. I didn't even get it out of the van. Lunch and evening times were spend doing board-of-review for advancing scouts. One afternoon and evening I had to lead a Brotherhood walk  for the Order of the Arrow (Scout's National Honor Society  ... and something that can only be done by those who have gone before) In the same society, I spent Thursday night doing a Vigil for another honor Scouter. Meanwhile the rain kept coming and hardly stopped until Saturday when we could dry the tents and pack up the van. As I left camp, I gathered mulberry leaves along the road winding down to the gate,

The silkworms had completed another instar while in camp and were eating more.

I have begun to worry about keeping them fed until they are ready to spin.

I moved them to a bigger container, easy to keep clean. This picture is how they look when fed. About 50 worms with 25 large mulberry leaves piled on their heads.

And, this is all that is left an hour later.


Of course they are very patient and do not crawl out of the container looking for more food. They just sit there and wait for more leaves to be dumped on their heads.

This is only about 50 critters and I can't imagine the work that goes into raising them for an industry!


Saturday I returned in the afternoon and was able to unload the van rather near my home. I carried all the gear back to my second floor work area. I was looking forward to putting my wet clothing into the wash and getting a good rest since Sunday was an early rise for choir singing in the first service, and a Cub Scout Leader's meeting in the afternoon.

Alas, when I got to my third floor greenhouse/bedroom. there was standing water on the floor and my bedding, my clothing, my bookcase were sopping wet. No wash got done and I spent the rest of the day trying to rescue my books and mop up the floor. I suppose I should have given my husband a call to close the windows. He claims he did but I suspect it was after the rain and he didn't notice the standing water on the floor. Needless to say,no quilting got done.

Monday I left early for a quilt group meeting, a long walk from Ichikawa station. It was fun to get together. I didn't get my fabric marked but Kuraishi Sensei demonstrated an easy way to put the backing together. Of course she whipped it up in no time on her machine.

Tuesday was spent with more cleaning and getting musty soggy clothing and bedding through the washer. No quilting ... and I am still very behind even looking at blogs to see what I have missed.
I did leave early to a meeting at church so I could take advantage of table space there. The border is now marked ans waiting for cutting.

This morning Nikko and I went out to scout out more mulberry trees ... well, I scouted the trees and she scouted the smells she had missed.

I hope next blog I can show off a bit of quilting progress.