Farm Pond has a fence

Farm Pond has a fence

It was decided not to leave the mud pond as is.  It will be highly slippery when it rains. The water level will be unknown and will be a potential threat for any stray cattle, children or even regular workers.  Even if anyone falls into the 6 feet deep pond, due to mud and no grip it will be difficult to come out.

Subbu said it will cost unnecessarily and was postponing my proposal. I insisted that we do put a fence whatever be the cost.  Finally I hatched a plan to put a low cost fence  using iron angle rods. We will put only 4 feet stumps.  One feet inside the mud and three feet outside.  My idea is this should act as marker, prevent small animals, cow and human from trespassing into the pond. It is not meant for any other use.

The steel rods come at 10 feet lengh. They will be cut to size,  punctured with holes to pull the wire through.  We will get plastic coated GI steel wires to make it look nice. Now a days we get strong GI wires coated with colorful plastic coating for durability.

We need 12+12+3+3 rods at 10 feet distance each.  It will be directly hammered into the ground. Our own workers with some helping hands will do this.

I heard they have completed the job and looks neat now.  Safety ensured.

Banana and Draught

Water is now plenty as windpump is working very normal for the past 4 days.  The solution was a jugad one (Not so optimal, but is ok till I find a permanent one)  which local team after wrestling for many days and pushed to corner, found themselves. Thanks to Subbu and Paramu's indigenous idea.

The team has welded a ball bearing to act as buffer to separate
rotation being transmitted down.  This is a modification
on the original part. This has solved the problem
I am yet to report this to the company

One of the things that I noticed from the snaps is that the banana trees had not been cut even after harvest.  As per my earlier discussion with Subbu, they were supposed to leave one or two siblings and cut the mother tree into pieces.  This is to be put into the compost pit for manure.  But i was surprised to see the trees still standing adding to eye sore and waste of compost material left to dry.

So I asked Subbu why ?

Promptly came the reply.  I am convinced. This is what he said.   Sir,  since there was no water in the farm for many days,  the small sibling banana crop would have dried out if not for the mother plant.  The suckers will absorb moisture from the mother plant for their survival.  We will remove them once we water that plot.  Great !

Banana after harvest feeding suckers

Farm Status in Visuals 14 August, 2015

After crossing a very hot extended Summer and battling for water,  this is how the farm looks today.  There is good news. Team out there consisting of Subbu and Paramu have hopefully fixed the pumping issue in windpump.   It was an indigenous idea which we will discuss separately.

Kandan overlooking the extending work of the existing water pond.

Though shaky, this photo taken from tower shows team has managed to save the banana amidst hot climate.
Look at the wind. It will be very hot wind.

The Red banana isn't growing well. Still it is dwarf.  After a parched days, they get water.

Near the Gate.  Individual Trees get their ration of water through drip

The fence Casurina has grown well.

Vegetation fighting the drought

Boganvilla can survive any climate.  

I remember they were very small when I visited.

Jasmine doing very good.

Aerial view of farm from atop tower. Note progressive decline of green away from tower. That shows water importance

The completed Tank

Ghost atop the windmill

Is that so ?  Could be !  is what we should think.  It is umpteenth time that the rod assembly is unscrewing itself, especially during the night.  Whereas in day time the windpump is working very well. Subbu had spent entire day watching carefully to check if the rods are twisting to unlock itself and setting the windpump free.  Nothing happens.  But when you retire home and come next day morning... Lo !   Windmill is rotating free and fast without pumping water.  The pump is dead and disconnected......

No proper explanation. All options are tested and ruled out.    Is it mis-alignment, pressure, erractic wind....  At one time, Subbu even welded the pump togather with connecting rod, and the welded joint was found broken promptly next day morning deep inside the borewell.

Who could have done it ?  "Is there ghost on the windpump ?, I asked Subbu.

"Not likely sir,  Sastha (God) is watching it. We have done enough pooja (worship) already", Subbu told. Incidentally the Sastha temple is overlooking our farm. So no issues.

But it could be due to "Dhrushti".  (Mangalik dosha or the gaze).  The windpump is so beautiful, people have popped their eyes on it....May be.  Subbu had already made special pooja. The scarecrow however is pending to be made and installed.........

Well,   he fixed it for umpteenth time.  Each time we hire two more workers which cost money on labor charges.  Atlast 4 people are required to pull the pipe assembly from borewell.  The inner rod assebly, the outer pipes and filled water weigh heavily.  Plus there is task of holding the windpump propellers from rotating and aligning...  Tiresome work when you want to repeat every few days.

Now he has put back old pump and 1.25 inch pipes, removing 2 inch pipe.  It is working fine for the past 2 days. Hope it will continue.....

Meanwhile I have spoken to ABS company and appraised of the situation. Sought for new washers for the Foot valve.

In parallel I made three diagrams of three different proposals on Microsoft Power point and made slides out of it explaining diagrammatically for fixing the problems.  Made a video out of it using windows movie maker with my voice over and sent the DVD to Subbu yesterday.  Let us hope something works to fix this permanently.

There are three ideas that should work;
a) Creating a "H" joint to compensate for displacement of centre alignment.
b) Creating a "T" in the rod assembly such as a Jesus Cross so that the "Hands" of the cross dash against the tower preventing any rotation
c) Creating a "A" triangle shape from the tower to centre to keep the rod in its position when moving up and down.

More on that later.....

Triumph of Nature, No more worry !

Subbu had successfully re-pealed and replaced the washer in the pump by taking out the assembly. He was so pushed to the corner at some point of time, nothing was in his mind except thinking about "What Next" and "Water, from where it will come".

Now windpump is back to normal. There is heavy wind now to add to the beauty.  Pump is working well. But Subbu is SAD.  He is sad because he is unable to find the root cause of why windpump was knocking off the pump assembly in the night every time.  It had kept him sleepless many days.  Earlier it used to uncork the rod assembly, release itself free and start rotating freely. Perhaps windmill wanted complete freedom and did not want to be chained.

Yesterday he was literally clinging to the tower for 2 hours observing if there is any suspecious movement when the wind changed its direction.  Nothing. The windpump was working picture perfect. Disappointed at 6,45 PM when the light fell, he climbed down.  Today morning also he was looking disappointed over phone when I called to check the status.  He said windpump is working fine, but added that he still could not find the puzzle of why they failed earlier.

Anyway, I am happy. He is happy too.  There is water, there is hope. We can look forward to other activities.

The digging (extending) of pond would complete by tomorrow.  It is extending by 15 feet.  Now we will have large area to store water.

NO NO to oil based pumpset - Betting on windpump

Finally after many enquiries for old and new Pumps, we decided we will not purchase one. Let us endure this draught, hoping Rain/Wind will blow soon.

Old Pump:  Subbu called me to decide on purchasing a heavy duty Slow Speed Twin Flywheel Diesel Motor.  The seller was a farmer who wanted to sell at 13 K, so we were interested. Later we found he was greedy. He will not sell engine alone, but want us to buy Single Compressor at additional cost of 20 K.  Plus servicing them, additional pipes,  chassis etc total will come to 30 K +.  Said No No and walked out.

New Pump:  The new twin Flywheel 650 RPM diesel engine costs around 25K.  Add another 16K for compressor. Again we are landing above 35K.  So decided to give up this too.

Finally I anyway did not like the idea of depending on fossil fuel.  My good old Windpump is enough.  So I told Subbu to serve himself with purchased Water tanker till we cross another few days, by when I guess there will be either wind/rain.

Coming to Water purchase.  A tracktor tank of 1000 liters costs Rs. 250.   A large tanker of 6000 capacity costs Rs. 1000/-.   I guess finally we purchased around 3 loads of water.  That is ok.

Meanwhile wind is blowing. But windmill is chocked now.  The dry washer at the foot valve, when not in operation, chokes the pump.    Subbu called yesterday night that he will fix that today morning. Waiting to see results......