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Anybody parents did rice farming?  Did u help??

i did..spent a lot of my childhood days in the backdam with my parents..ie until i started high sch

i have excellent memories of those days..

we were poor n didnt use tractor to plough or rake land ..

nor combine to cut/harvest rice

i even went to the rice mill with my parents..

i used to ‘guh round d bulls to mash d rice’

i fetched water to give to laborers as they cut our rice

we had 4 prs of working bulls..to plough, rake n even mash rice..this way they were not overworked…my father took good care of his animals..he used to ‘bathe’ thebulls at end of the day n he spoke to them n gently stroked their bodies as he washed their skin.



share yr stories pls…i have a lotof memories

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Aah yes, the memories of those days. I have very vague memory of sitting on a ‘gasitah’ (?) and of going to the rice fields by bullocks. Omg those things were big ( or I was small…lol) in the early days we also had people cutting rice…my mom cut rice when I was a baby ( so I was told)

I was teaching at GP and still was planting/patching rice. I remember watching the guys ‘shy’ the paddy.

later my mamoo got a few tractors and eventually we used combiner to harvest…still had to cut if the land was too wet for the combiner.

i also remember the leeches…eeeeeeeek. Omg a leech attached to hubby’s lower leg while he and his friend were cleaning the parapet at our friends’ cottage up north

i also remember using a seine to chase Patwa while planting’beeya’

W
Last edited by Wildflower

My grandparents owned three acres of rice land ,during my teenage years growing up there helped out planting and cutting rice.

My grandmother got one acre of land at one of the first Land Settlement Schemes for Indian Indentured Laborers established in the late 1800's on the West Coast Demerara. Later years they purchased two of their neighbors land.

Django
Last edited by Django
@Django posted:

My grandparents owned three acres of rice land ,during my teenage years growing up there helped out planting and cutting rice.

My grandmother got one acre of land at one of the first Land Settlement Schemes for Indian Indentured Laborers established in the late 1800's on the West Coast Demerara. Later years they purchased two of their neighbors land.

Where was this? 1st land settlement schemes? Leonora??

Lynn
@Django posted:

My grandparents owned three acres of rice land ,during my teenage years growing up there helped out planting and cutting rice.

My grandmother got one acre of land at one of the first Land Settlement Schemes for Indian Indentured Laborers established in the late 1800's on the West Coast Demerara. Later years they purchased two of their neighbors land.

Did u cut a “taas” or 1/2”taas”

i have no idea wht the measurement of a tass was but my dad had a long bamboo stick that he called a rod.. n he used this “rod” to measure a taas. I dont know how many rods for a taas .
some old ladies used to cut rice.. till they could  hardly  stand up.. too much back pain .some kids too 1/4-1/2 taas.

sometimes they did bartering so as not to pay laborers to cut the rice. Family “A” cut for family “B” n vice versa

Lynn
@Wildflower posted:

Aah yes, the memories of those days. I have very vague memory of sitting on a ‘gasitah’ (?) and of going to the rice fields by bullocks. Omg those things were big ( or I was small…lol) in the early days we also had people cutting rice…my mom cut rice when I was a baby ( so I was told)

I was teaching at GP and still was planting/patching rice. I remember watching the guys ‘shy’ the paddy.

later my mamoo got a few tractors and eventually we used combiner to harvest…still had to cut if the land was too wet for the combiner.

i also remember the leeches…eeeeeeeek. Omg a leech attached to hubby’s lower leg while he and his friend were cleaning the parapet at our friends’ cottage up north

i also remember using a seine to chase Patwa while planting’beeya’t

Whts gasita??

yeah my mom

used to patch with beeya

they used to erect  scarecrow to scare away butds because the ate the paddy whn u “shied” it

Lynn

U know I think gasitah was a thing attached to the back of the tractor or the ox for transporting paddy etc will ask me mother later.

my great grandfather owned the village where I spent my first 9 yrs ( until the govt bought it out and allowed them lifetime plots that they still had to pay property tax on) each of his sons had plots of land for house and 20 acre rice land. Some of them sold out to outsiders ( including my family) 3 sons had rice land, farm land and double lots until the school needed some of the land to build. Where I was born is still a double lot ( Django next time u visit ur friend u can see my home where my nana lived)

W
@Lynn posted:

Where was this? 1st land settlement schemes? Leonora??

INDIAN SETTLEMENTS

On the West Coast Demerara, Windsor Forest and La Jalousie, with a combined area of 3,000 acres, was offered for rent at a rate of one dollar per acre for the first year, and six dollars for each subsequent year. The tenants had the option of purchasing the land by paying $8.50 per acre for 25 years. A nearby estate, Hague, was also leased out in lots and offered under similar terms.

http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter81.html

Django
@Lynn posted:

Did u cut a “taas” or 1/2”taas”

i have no idea wht the measurement of a tass was but my dad had a long bamboo stick that he called a rod.. n he used this “rod” to measure a taas. I dont know how many rods for a taas .
some old ladies used to cut rice.. till they could  hardly  stand up.. too much back pain .some kids too 1/4-1/2 taas.

sometimes they did bartering so as not to pay laborers to cut the rice. Family “A” cut for family “B” n vice versa

The Rod = 12 ft  ,from recollection 1 tass  is 3 rod wide and 12 rod in length.

Will help no tass work. Tass is "task work".

Django
Last edited by Django

Wow a tass was a big  piece of ricefield  then?
my maa used to cut a tass daily for the neighbouring farmers n my youngest bro cut 1/2 tass every day for different farmers ..the older bro cut 2 tass daily with different people , so this way we didn't have to  pay much to cut our rice.

thnx for the info .. Dj

Lynn
Last edited by Lynn
@Django posted:

INDIAN SETTLEMENTS

On the West Coast Demerara, Windsor Forest and La Jalousie, with a combined area of 3,000 acres, was offered for rent at a rate of one dollar per acre for the first year, and six dollars for each subsequent year. The tenants had the option of purchasing the land by paying $8.50 per acre for 25 years. A nearby estate, Hague, was also leased out in lots and offered under similar terms.

http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter81.html

Wow!! I never knew this.. thnx for sharing!

Lynn
@Wildflower posted:

U know I think gasitah was a thing attached to the back of the tractor or the ox for transporting paddy etc will ask me mother later.

my great grandfather owned the village where I spent my first 9 yrs ( until the govt bought it out and allowed them lifetime plots that they still had to pay property tax on) each of his sons had plots of land for house and 20 acre rice land. Some of them sold out to outsiders ( including my family) 3 sons had rice land, farm land and double lots until the school needed some of the land to build. Where I was born is still a double lot ( Django next time u visit ur friend u can see my home where my nana lived)

We called it “slide”…my dad made it.. looked like a wide boat. We had 2-3 of them ( my daddy’s  handy work). Whn the rice was  cut, they labourers tied it in “wads” which were left in the field. At the end if the day these were  loaded onto the slide n 2 bulls transported to our ‘watchhouse.  There my mom n bro made a stack ( which is wht we used as bed to sleep on ) . Whn the mashing started, my ma used to climb up n used grads knife to cut open those wads n throw down the sheaves. Then my dad n bro used pitchfork to scatter sheaves on the ‘karyan’. 4 bulls were yolked together n 1 tied to a middle walaba post n i used to hole the tail of the 2 nd or 3 rd bull n ‘guh round’ them to mash d paddy . That was 1 of my ‘jobs’ in the backdam (as a lil kid.. i stopped going to the backdam a yr after i started high sch.. end if my fun days)

Lynn
@Django posted:

INDIAN SETTLEMENTS

On the West Coast Demerara, Windsor Forest and La Jalousie, with a combined area of 3,000 acres, was offered for rent at a rate of one dollar per acre for the first year, and six dollars for each subsequent year. The tenants had the option of purchasing the land by paying $8.50 per acre for 25 years. A nearby estate, Hague, was also leased out in lots and offered under similar terms.

http://www.guyana.org/features...story/chapter81.html

Same thing with our rice land but it was 100 yr lease.. we paid rent to the owner .. he owned several estates. Abt 10 yrs ago. The the son sold the land to the farmers .. omg(at the end if the lease it would have been cheap) but he cancelled lease n my bro n others   had to pay an arm n a leg to get ownership of the leased land. They even went to court but it wasnt going anywhere n they finally agreed to pay!

Lynn
@Wildflower posted:

Aah yes, the memories of those days. I have very vague memory of sitting on a ‘gasitah’ (?) and of going to the rice fields by bullocks. Omg those things were big ( or I was small…lol) in the early days we also had people cutting rice…my mom cut rice when I was a baby ( so I was told)

I was teaching at GP and still was planting/patching rice. I remember watching the guys ‘shy’ the paddy.

later my mamoo got a few tractors and eventually we used combiner to harvest…still had to cut if the land was too wet for the combiner.

i also remember the leeches…eeeeeeeek. Omg a leech attached to hubby’s lower leg while he and his friend were cleaning the parapet at our friends’ cottage up north

i also remember using a seine to chase Patwa while planting’beeya’

My maa said she used to plant rice whn she was in “lining house’ in water to her hips !!

Lynn
@Lynn posted:

My maa said she used to plant rice whn she was in “lining house’ in water to her hips !!

I was always wondering about lining room is they had to wear lining…loooooong after I realize I lying-in room caz after baby they suppose to stay in for a while

W
@Wildflower posted:

I was always wondering about lining room is they had to wear lining…loooooong after I realize I lying-in room caz after baby they suppose to stay in for a while

Well u beat me

i never figured out that

now i know. Lord have mercy!!

dem does tue down u belly too!
Lord me nearly dead how tight they strap me tummy!

dem say it was to ‘set back my womb”

( i used to pull it off as soon as they left d room as i couldnt breathe!)

n they fed me stout.. warm with salt!! That thing taste awful ., i used to drink 1/2 bit in morn n 1/2 in aft … TORTURE

i was in ‘lining’ house after I had Jo in GY 1987 for 8 days

( i didnt do 9-day ie kandell.. but they cooked n invited my bro n family n my aunty )

Lynn
Last edited by Lynn

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