Farmers almanac

I am not sure what the Japanese correspondent is called. But right now I happen to be ready to plant something, except I have no idea what. The reason is that now is middle of summer and everything I know how to plant is sown either in spring or in autumn. So now I am feverishly googling for things that are planted in summer.
Actually this weekend was supposed to be the weekend when the retaining wall between house and garden would go up. But with my usual luck it seems the concrete blocks coming from Kyushu got stuck thanks to typhoon. The same typhoon also apparently hindered my fence posts that I ordered to arrive this week. So with those off, I was going to plant something instead, but now being summer I guess the most exciting that will be happening this week is the arrival of my new bicycle.
Maybe I take the bicycle to the home center and buy me a couple of fruit tree saplings and put them in the ground, just to have something to do. Also, after throwing away my drawers, I basically live out of my carton boxes. Maybe a trip to a nearby mall to buy a small drawer for my clothes.
I also had promised my other half to get a couple of large rods (3-4 meters) to use for hanging laundry in the balcony where there is already holders installed. Will take a saw to my forest plot and cut down the nicest bamboos for this purpose. Only I had hoped to be able to mark the four corners of each plot with posts, instead of the now red painted tiny grass straws... wonder what genius came up with that idea.

How borders are marked apparently

There is not much to it when the land has no official markers unlike the house and the garden. The only official document for the forests' boundaries is a map from city office with measurements from a nearby boundary marker. But no one is going to measure couple of hundred meters from that marker with the correct angles in the woods unless they are a surveyor with proper equipment. I was told lots of forest plots are like this. Neighbors simply agree to a certain boundary and live with it in harmony. They said one can always ask a surveyor to measure and then register a boundary marker for the plot, making it all official, but that would not only cost money, but also agreement from neighbors on all 4 sides. The problem is that the narrow strip of jungle behind mine belongs to not only one or two persons but is shared between 120 people, according to the registry. Finding and getting everyone's agreement is not realistic, and they have no incentive to agree because with proper measurements they may run the risk of losing part of their land. That is if they are still alive.
All I got was these red painted grass straws as markers of the corners, measured by a half professional sensei of some sort. I assume that is another name for old guy in farty pants. Better than nothing, plus I should talk to my neighbors anyway and make sure we have an understanding. I can always use the photos I got which are hanko:ed and signed which makes them half-official from farty point of view. At least they indicate near which tree a certain corned may be found. However, not all the pictures are useful. My favorite is this one, which also happened to already gotten its grass straw eaten up by some animal or gone with the wind.

Aah, now I know exactly where this picture was taken. This patch of grass looks totally different from the rest of the wild.

But even if that fails, the plots are more of less already marked with vegetation. Mine is a clear square, un-maintained and overrun with bamboos. The other one is a jungle plot between a flat square farm with clear boundaries and a similar jungle plot. I just wanted to put posts there to show someone new is in charge of the old plots, or something like that. Well well, maybe later.

Back to the topic, so to summarize I will go get me some bamboo and maybe I bump into the next plot farmer and strike up a chat. If not, I can get back home sooner with the bamboo and start working on the backyard patio, plus removing an old ugly handrail from in front of  the house door.
And plant some trees maybe, and cut some weed and tidy up the garden maybe.

The ugly can be seen just to the right of center. It prevents all access to the garden plot behind.

If still there is time, and the weather is nice, maybe we'll have a barbecue in the garden. Whatever.