Hey everyone, today is my client Rebecca S. Ramsey’s blog party (and her birthday too! Happy Birthday!!). All around the blogosphere people are celebrating their favorite Wonders of the World. Go over to Rebecca’s site for a list of links (and check out her archives to see her incredible blog), and have a Wonder-full Wednesday!
My wonder is….
Can you tell what it is??
Oh. It’s in the subject line.
It’s rice!!!
But not this Rice…
This rice!!!
It’s good for breakfast…
It’s even good to drink!!!
Just don’t drink too much.
My parents are rice farmers. Don’t believe me?
That’s me standing in a rice field.
It’s September, which means it’s almost time for harvest!
That means this…
And this…
My dad took that last photo. Pretty amazing, right? His favorite thing in a rice field isn’t the rice though. It’s these:
Birds love rice too!
But I’m not a farmer. I like this too much:
Don’t forget to check out Rebecca’s blog, and her book FRENCH BY HEART!
Wilfred-
Oh, yes. My dad knows the Buschs well.
I think the way you talk about your family in this post is very sweet.
your family knows the Buschs?!?! When I was in high school we went on a field trip for “History of St Louis” (where I am from) and we snuck into a rich private neighborhood where the Busch family lives. Their mansion was HUGE!!! but then a snooty rich driver in a fancy-ass BMW saw us and threatened to call the cops on my teacher and us students. We ran away from the neighborhood. That was so much fun!
Love rice for breakfast! Warm with butter, sugar and milk. Can’t go wrong.
Great sunset picture!
As for rice trivia, my home state of Arkansas, last I heard, is the top rice growing state in the US. Nice to know we’re known for something besides crazy college football fans… *cackle*
Well, both California and especially Arkansas are in the water rights wars. And rice is a water intensive crop.
The aquifers under Arkansas rice country are drying up and there are battles being fought over diverting water from the White River. It’s a big mess that will get messier.
On the West coast, I think the rice farmers, maybe Nathan’s parents too are selling some of those short term water rights to Los Angeles which is hurting for water due to battles over the Colorado River.
Yeah, boring I know, but it would make for an interesting novel. The old west water rights wars updated to the 21st century where the stakes are even higher.
Nathan, I’ve been to the rice mill northwest of Sacramento several times. Probably real close to your parent’s farm.
Oh, and the Busch Family is going to get a lot richer when the Inbev deal goes through. I may need to turn to writing full time.
Wilfred-
There are varying opinions about how water-intensive rice is compared to other crops like cotton, but especially in California, because of the soil it’s grown in, very little of the water seeps into the ground and it basically just sits on top of the hard pan clay soil for most of the summer. So the water battles haven’t hit my family too hard, and we also haven’t been doing water transfers, which is happening more in the San Joaquin Valley.
Re: “Yeah, boring I know, but it would make for an interesting novel. The old west water rights wars updated to the 21st century where the stakes are even higher.”
Boring, are you kidding? One of Joan Didion’s best (signature) essays is about water out west. I think it’s in the White Album, check it out if you haven’t already. (I love that essay). Joan Didion also had a lengthy interview on Cspan book channel recently – same weekend as Nathan’s podcast. Maybe it’s online somewhere.
Also plot of Chinatown.
Hey, Nathan ~
Thanks for sharing this with us. ‘Tis totally awesome.
“Boring, are you kidding? One of Joan Didion’s best (signature) essays is about water out west.”
Hmm, maybe I need to rethink that 3rd book I’m plotting out now. As an Environmental Engineer I’m in the thick of it. The whole water issue is even more critical in places like China and India where I’m spending much of my time.
Some say water will be the new “oil.” And sooner than later.
So waddaya think, Nathan?
Re: “The whole water issue is even more critical in places like China and India where I’m spending much of my time.”
I think a deal to ship Great Lakes water to China already fell through; recently legislation was passed to limit the amount of large water withdrawals. As well you have to be within a certain area (contiguous states I believe, but not sure exactly) to make withdrawals from Great Lakes.
Also there has been controversy about bottled water, and suggestion the plastic of the bottles is a carcinogen…
I think there are lots of possibilities for writing about water use issues in a novel…I think even the temperature of water discharged by industry is an issue…invasive species…mercury…the list goes on…
HA! That was Ricerific! 🙂
Nathan-
Check out this great (and fun) site for Free Rice
https://freerice.com/
it’s a great vocabulary builder.
September 11 reminds all of us that the work is still to be done and it needs a courage for all of us as a strong nation under God. May God bless those striving for the loss of their love one. Also may God bless us all and America our nation.
haha,That’s cute..liked it 🙂
For the best experience in enjoying natural beauty I recommend you to visit my blog which present God’s own country’s natural scenes.https://vijayanaranmula.blogspot.com. Some good photos are being published in it.