Town Bus to Nachankulam

I understand the local govt has started a new town bus service to Nachankulam village from Tirunelveli.  Nachankulam is the village near by Farm. It is a good news.  Subbu sent this photo. It was taken from in front of the Sastha temple. The other side is the farm (hidden from view)

I asked if we can bring consignment in that by paying extra wages. Just in case.Yes.

Generally who travels in it.  Subbu said mostly students are plying in the bus. That is a good news. More students will now start getting quality education by joining in Tirunelveli. I remember my college days when I used to travel to T. Kallikulam village in Bus No. 8.

I wonder what people travelling in this bus will think when they see my farm and the wind pump ?  It should be awesome. Children will register this in their mind and perhaps support renewable energy when they grow.

Perhaps the bus stop will be named after the windmill.  "kaathaadi". Who knows ?

Generator engine chocked

The pump that has fallen inside

Sometime last week there were simultaneous two repairs at the farm.

The windpump unscrewed the pipes from deep borewell. After taking out the pipes,  Subbu wanted to make use of this opportunity to do another operation.   He wanted to fish out an earlier foot valve that had slipped and fell 350 feet down.  There are experts for this and they were called. After spending 3 days and some 5K, the effort was futile.

The team met with repeated failures to grab the cylinder deep inside using their instruments.  Subbu asked me the photograph of the same for the team to look at. Luckily I had in my cellphone and I did the whatsup of it to him. That also did not help.  It seemed they were able to grab but could not lift beyond 15 feet as it was getting struck.  More the delay more money will be spent on labor charge.  Generally for a submersible pump they charge 9 to 12 K.   Sensing this I asked Subbu to call off.  The instruments were duly returned to them.

I must try this some other time with different techniques.

Asked the team to refix the windpumps properly for working. They did. 2 days later Subbu said he had to repeat 3 times the operation of removing all the pipes and refixing costing labor.  The reason why windpump was unscrewing was disovered later.   The ball bearing that was welded earlier at the neck of the windpump had worn out.  So whenever the rotor was turning as per change in direction of wind, it was unscrewing the pipes connected underneath. If there is enough isolation in mechnanical train, then the windpump rotor head turning around itself will not affect the pipes below.  that was not the case.  Subbu brought new ball bearing and fixed the issue. This problem was a custom  made solution.  (There are stories on this posted earlier).

The second incident was that the diesel generator collapsed.   Since the time it was put into its own small generator room, the heat generated had got built up.  Even when I was there at the farm last month I noticed that Subbu had not made any holes anywhere in that room.  Build using hollow blocks by local mason, they did not think about ventilation.  When the generator is running for 2 hours, the heat builds unbearable proportions.

Perhaps the engine had choked.  It had to be opened and mechanic found the rings melted.  So some spares were purchased by Subbu in Tirunelveli under the prescription.  Two trips due to misses and omission.  Then the engine was fixed along with fresh washers.

The room wall was broken for window ventilation in two places below the waist level for fresh air to flow. My logic is that cold air will get inside from ground level and warm air will raise up.  The exhaust pipe was extended outside the room.  All these without compromising on security as vandalism is rampant.

Now both the generator and windpump is working.   Generator is now put to rest as we donot want to spend on diesel unless required.  Windpump is giving 3000 liters per day.

Electricity at last

Several visits to the electricity office.  Several visits by them to the farm.  Lunches,  bribes, tips and stories.  Finally the electricity has arrived.

I believe there are 57 people for whom the board had kept pending.  Someone higher official had visited and fired everyone for their lethargy. Then things started moving. They also seems to be having a target.

Finally this week, they visited the farm, moved the poles to holes, fixed them, drew the current and powered ON - everything in single day.  On the last day I had to spend atleast 10K for various purposes.  The final pole is at the corner of the farm. From there to the room it is our expenditure. We also have to pay Rs. 4K for meter that was picked up at Nanguneri Village electricity office by Subbu and fixed at the room.  Other electrical wiring etc were to our cost.

Subbu had to shuttle several rounds to Parappadi, Nanguneri and Tirunelveli which he did on his bike very enthuistically. It is his dream come true.  A coil of wire cost Rs. 2.5 K which we never expected.  Anyway feat accomplished.

This is 2 phase current. In the short run we may have to purchase a matching deep borewell pump  which can run on 5 Amps current. I believe the electricity officials were happy to see the organic farm, which till now is running on windpower.

Electricity board officials in Jeep at front of gate

Work in progress

One angle. Note the wire going to the room from your right hand

Meter getting fixed. I guess he is local electrician

Hmm. Finally. The room is cleaned by Subbu. He has shifted the miscellaneous articles to his home.

Light at last. This is a great thing from security point of view also.  Henceforth i need to spend more money
to draw current inside the farm where it is necessary. This I will do slowly.

Several Stories that I missed

It has been quite some time that I had written about the farm.

Either preoccupation with my IT work, or did not find something not so significant to write about. There is severe drought  running in the place with no visibility for any rain clouds.  Had there been a single rain, I would have got rejuvenated to write more.

But now there had been quite a few milestones achieved in the past few weeks, that I myself did not realize.  I will write about the following one by one in coming days as independent articles as they are mutually exclusive subjects.

a) Finally electricity has arrived at the farm.
b) Pond manure for the Farm.
c) Repair of the Generator
d) Anger of the windmill
e) Failure to extract the lost foot valve from deep borewell.
f) Overall health of the Farm.