Christmas updates

Now finally the forest plots' boundaries have been marked, albeit not so very officially. As I mentioned the surveyor didn't actually measure anything but just asked all the owners if they were OK with putting the boundary posts here and here. Also the boundaries are not registered with the city office. We have made a document signed and stamped by me and the other owners that says we are OK with these posts but the actual official map still overrides all that. The surveyor made a map of where the posts are put, and when I compare that map with the actual map the shapes of the plots are not exactly same, for example a couple of borders that are supposed to be parallel according to the official map are only almost parallel according to the posts. So the plot sizes are different (in my case I think one of my plots is like 80 sqm smaller than it should be)
Overall it is not a huge difference. If I plant trees in my plot it means a 5-6 less trees, so instead of planting say 150 trees, I will have 145 trees. I can still add those 5 missing trees if I plant them right at the border where I think the correct map shape is but really who cares.

One of the new concrete posts

Another post. They are red and cute and cost me 10000 yen

So with the boundaries defined, I can no longer blame anything to block my progress. I have a square shape of over 1000 sqm full of bamboos to tidy up and get into shape. Armed with my new chainsaw I went into the plot thinking it would take 1 or 2 days tops to cut down all the weed...

The before image...

...and the rest of it

A day of cutting down bamboos and laying them along the border later, the plot was still full of bamboos. In fact no change seem to have occurred.

Oh boy! This is gonna take a while isn't it?

Looks like just a couple of days won't be enough. So I decided to spend all my free time during the new year holidays to cut and cut and cut....
On our way back I also took a picture of the farm plot I have borrowed nearby.

I am thinking melons, garlic, corn and some more stuff

In the garden at home, not much goes on except for freezing. The little pond is completely frozen.

Let it go, let it goooo...

And frozen is also the passion fruit. The huge thing started to drop its leafs and I thought it is going to sleep for the winter, until I looked closer and saw that it had actually frozen.

Wait what?

Not only frozen but the water in the branches has exploded with ice. Man. I guess they are dead unless the roots have some magic left in them. Oh well, learned the hard way. Passion fruits are not gonna grow here.

Close up of the exploded passion ice