“Accomplish but do not boast, accomplish without show, accomplish without arrogance, accomplish without grabbing, accomplish without forcing.”
― Lao Tzu
The joy of accomplishing something is greater than anything else. It’s something you can legitimately brag about, but of course, within limits. For me, successfully completing what I (we) started a week ago is a big accomplishment I would like to speak about repeatedly. Such is the joy of sharing and reducing the burden of your family.
Shortly put, finally, all those tedious tasks that I was loomed over throughout the week ended this weekend. What a relief, well, for now. A week full of harvesting and preserving the grains for the dog days. It was special for me as this is the first time I engaged myself from the beginning to the end of this hectic task and (un)fortunately, this year we aimed for the biggest harvest ever tried. As a result, efforts were doubled, as did the hardship.
After completing the full process of preserving the crops, it looks like we are close to our expectation— around 3.5 tonnes of rice from 1.3 acres of farmland. Although we expected more, this year we had less rainfall than average and so, the yield dropped. We tried to manage alternative sources for irrigation, however, luck didn’t favour us this season.
So, yeah, nothing that we could do but whatever we managed to get is suffice to cover production costs and make some decent profits. Besides, this year we did all the processing ourselves. Hence, the overall production cost is reduced, helping us to make more profits than usual— something to cheer about.
Although I keep saying it’s all done, in reality, there is still work to do, and stuff to take care of. The outside of our house has turned into a mess, they need a deep clean. My tiny garden is quite soiled, and the plants need water— a heavy rainfall would be better but at this time of the year, in winter, a rainy day would be devastating to the people. Luckily, my younger brother was watering the plants. Now that the hard part is done, we can now focus on such issues— starting with my two cacti plants planted in tiny pots.
Meanwhile, I visited our mustard field today, only a few minutes away from our house and I was surprised to see them in all-yellow. I worked in this field a few times only, so, nothing to be proud of this sprout but the vibrant colours did enchant me without fail. Truly, nature is amazing. In the next few days, I will probably spend more time here— not to take care of the crop but to enjoy the sheer beauty of this bountiful grace.
All while you can only enjoy the colours, let me assure you that the lingering smell of freshness is captivating enough to lure honey-loving insects— not to mention the beautiful girls from the neighbourhood. :p