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Borrego Springs, CA

Friday, December 9, 2011

Sorting rice and ??

Last night as I was making the cupcakes up in the community building, I pitched in to help Barbara sort the five bags of harvested rice stalks we had been given by the biologist.

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Each of the five paper grocery bags is full of stalks like this harvested off of the refuge.  Each bag has a code on the outside identifying the field it was taken from.  The study is to determine productivity.  And who better to do the tedious work of separating the seed from the chaff than the volunteers?

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We put the results of our sorting into separate smaller bags.  Here’s the weeds found in amongst the rice stalks.

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                                      Then we break off all of the stalk heads and put them in a pile. _MG_4663Each individual rice seed (?) was to be removed from the seed head and then counted before being put in a specially labeled bag.  This small pile is the result of several hours of work the night before by Barb and James.  One night of all of this and Barb talked to the biologist and suggested he find someone else to take off the individual seeds and count them.  I guess an intern will get that little job.  Smile

The flexible part of this assignment is that we can do it up at a table in the community building in the evening, and chat or bake cupcakes while we’re doing it.  For some reason, not too many people are clamoring to help us with this.  I can’t imagine why.

This afternoon, a secret admirer that reads this blog showed up to take me out to dinner.  Imagine that!  He opened the door and helped me in and out of his vehicle as we made our way to the exciting community of Winnie.  I’m not used to someone asking me to wait while he got the door.  He wined and dined and sweet talked me until I decided it was best that he drop me off at the rig and return to his motel room.  Do you remember when I had that bittersweet short shipboard romance last year?  Well, I’ve decided to give this a little more time, and have allowed him to visit me again in about three weeks when I’m back in Mississippi.  In love  There’s something about those tall long-leafed pines…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

28 comments:

  1. OH my goodness, I'm breathless!

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  2. Oh, Oh....is it romance? Oh I love a good Romance.

    But I also want to know if this is the same sort of rice the Native Americans harvested and if so how DID they do it?? A little bit of cultural history to go with my romance if you please.

    Sherry
    www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

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  3. Waiting, waiting, waiting ............


    And jealous!!! ;-)

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  4. hmmmmmm... looks like that mottled duck will have to wait...

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  5. Oh, I can hardly wait for this story to unfold.

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  6. wOOhOO!! Now that's an interesting development!!! Since you're our favorite blogger about the birds and the bees, we'll be waiting for all the details...

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  7. Our daughter worked with special needs kids and they had a "rice table" to play on...very interesting...As for your secret admirer...YOU GO GIRL!!! Sounds like a very interesting development in your life...Judy, Judy, Judy!!!

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  8. Ask him to sort a bag of rice with you - see if he is serious. :)

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  9. Hmmm...now that's an interesting development. I think Laurie has a good suggestion! Keep us posted...

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  10. This isn't the guy who proposed to you, is it? WOWIE! By the way, did Emma approve of him?

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  11. Ask him how good he is at catching mice. If he is good, he might just be a keeper. Just don't ask him to help you sort rice...

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  12. Tell me more.....tell me more..... I am writing a book......

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  13. Maybe your secret admirer could show you how much he cares by helping with the tedious rice-sorting project? ;)

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  14. WOW I am excited for you ~ nothing like beimg treated like the special lady you are... Hope it all goes well for yoou!
    {{{HUGS}}}
    Donna

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  15. I agree with Paul and Marti's comment! and slowly, slowly! I speak from experience!!!!

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  16. I would've loved to see the rice, and maybe even help in the project ... for a little while. Does it have a certain scent to it, like oat-grass or seaweed does?

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  17. PS. Nice to have someone treat you special :)

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  18. ROMANCE! Awesome.

    That's the sort of work I did last, only with wheat. I got paid, and I was either laughing with my boss or coworker, or threshing meditatively. I liked it a lot. It was a good gig. Before that, I was in the lab, looking at wheat's DNA, so to speak. Also a good gig, but I preferred the fieldwork.

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  19. I'm not at all surprised you have an admirer. How could anyone reading your blog not admire you? I know this one is different, but still.

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  20. Okay, I have to go back and read about the cruise again:) I have a hard time working up any enthusiasm for cleaning rice stalks and then counting the grains. That is right up there with watching the grass grow:)

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  21. OMG - is romance in the air? Did you know he was coming to take you out, or was it a surprise? How fun! :)

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