Gleaning.

mahdam

mahdam

Surin Founding Father
We have just finished cutting, drying, bagging, selling, just under 50 Rai of rice. Tomorrow we will cut a further 14 Rai. we have bloody rice coming out of our ears, and yet! my mother in law can't wait to get into any fields that have been cut to start Gleaning. She is gone first thing in the morning and wont come home till dusk, worries the wife and her sister sick. She will bring home all her "gatherings" and sit and thrash it by hand, all on her own. When the rice is finished she will revert to spending all day either fishing, or digging up crabs from the fields. She is a true "Hunter gatherer" Does anyone else have a relation that does this?
 
My mother in law used to do that 13 years ago but as her daughter netted a white buffalo she stopped and went on the laokao what almost killed her, she has stopped drinking about 4 years ago and has slowly started to fall in her old habits like yours mahdam.
 
My father-in=law is a bit like that. Not gleaning (that's women's work), but when I go out shortly after first light, he's often coming back from foraging; during the day he tends the cows and buffaloes. MIL spends much of her time on her silk farm. But neither of them touches the lao kao or tobacco in any form (MIL chews betel).
 
My MIL can't sit still. She does all of the above. She also works in the city when it is offered, mixing cement, building work, she is in demand at every funeral to help with cooking etc. She is currently cutting rice by hand. She is 67 years old!
 
Wombat said:
My MIL can't sit still. She does all of the above. She also works in the city when it is offered, mixing cement, building work, she is in demand at every funeral to help with cooking etc. She is currently cutting rice by hand. She is 67 years old!
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Yes, forgot to mention the Mil is also a professional mourner. Attends just about every funeral for miles around. Also sleeps by the beds of those on the way out,to give comfort and generally help out. She to is 67, only marginally younger than me,and I couldn't manage a fraction of what she does in a day.
 
Agree with all of you... My wife is that way.. 2 years back in Thailand after 40 years in the states and she's back in full Thai mode... Never stops.. Always on the go and is rabid about taking care of her fields and crops.. She wants to know why I don't get more involved.. My answer is simple... I came here to Retire and kick back after busting my butt all of my life.. That was supposed to be the game plan for both of us.. We do a lot of traveling but once she's home in the village it's non stop Farmer Brown with her.. Old habits don't ever die...
 
Voodoo said:
Agree with all of you... My wife is that way.. 2 years back in Thailand after 40 years in the states and she's back in full Thai mode... Never stops.. Always on the go and is rabid about taking care of her fields and crops.. She wants to know why I don't get more involved.. My answer is simple... I came here to Retire and kick back after busting my butt all of my life.. That was supposed to be the game plan for both of us.. We do a lot of traveling but once she's home in the village it's non stop Farmer Brown with her.. Old habits don't ever die...
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Yes, hadn't really thought about the wife, but mines just the same. We live in the UK for 6 months in the year, and whilst there she behaves like any other Brit wife.
But on return to the village, she can't wait to wrap the T shirt around her head and get stuck into village life. Her mates in the UK would not recognise her at all.
You can take the Girl out of the village, but you can't take the village out of the Girl.
 
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