Farm Update 23-Nov-2017

1. The wind pump and tower painting with Green and Aluminium paint has been completed. The support structure dismantled and vendor informed to take and go.

2. The pump is not connected. It may be connected to the borewell today.  The foot valve had been overhauled. Subbu told the windmill is running freely. Hope it will run on load. Not much wind though.

3. The small anemometer that was long back dismantled will be fixed in the tower.  This was the instrument that helped me decide before I brought the windmill.

4. Vegetable is a sorry story.  None of the vegetable is growing properly. As per Subbu seeds of pumpkin or snake guard has not even sprouted.

5. I asked him to destroy and create raised bars with tractor. Subbu is also planning the same.

6. I suspect right amount of moisture is not there. Sprinkler is the best option. I have been asking him to experiment one. He has to weld a sprinkler head on a tripod so that it becomes portable.  I will follow.

7. Spoke to Aunty to check when she is coming. She got inspired and gave many ideas. One of which is making a film or documentary on organic farming.  I said all that later. Now it is important to generate and sell vegetables. Word of mouth, few pamphlets and a flex board should do.

8. Subbu said he will buy more seeds today in Tirunelveli. His other profession is a television cable business. Due to lightning some of the cable junction boxes had broken.  So he is going to Tirunelveli for some work.

9. We need to plant more trees. I inspired him to hire volunteers from schools.  Told we can support. Let us call local Village officer and create any activity and connect.

10. Like any other project this vegetable selling business is going to take its own time. Patience. Patience. Patience.

From atop the windmill

The beauty of the farm from atop a wind mill.  It is a rare sight.  Subbu took this risk for me. I asked him to document each of the repair works for later reference. It is a labor intensive work of constructing the ladders, opening the screws, getting down the components, replacing faulty bearing, painting and again assembling.  All these done manually using one pully.

The impression I get after seeing the farm at a glance is disappointing. More vegetable patch is required if at all we need to foray. The cucumber is waste now and need to be destroyed. Lots of work ahead.

The main gate is on top right (white color)

Near the tower, beside the water tank.

The main farm where vegetables supposed to grow.  Spread is cucumber that is a waste now.

Towards approach road to the windpump

Fresh coat of paint. Background is the Nachankulam lake.

The majestic windmill undergoing maintenance

Self explanatory. Planning to refit and paint. Subbu old due to storm winds the propeller blades are slightly bent. Tail would have taken a beating. A bearing is damaged. That will be replaced.   Subbu told a close examination reveals the blades and the tail had collided each other randomly due to heavy storm. The chain system had twisted.

Farm Update 13-Nov-2017

The main resting place is undergoing repair work.
It is several days now the artisan has not come.
Yesterday however Subbu told he had come
and started his work.  The knitted coconut leaves
have to be tied to this structure as roof. It requires skill
and very few have that now in village.

I wasn't satisfied myself on the way I had written my previous post.  I wanted to take it down and re-write. But due to some engagements, I could'nt find that required peaceful time.   Last week I attended Amazon Web Services (AWS) classroom training for 3 days sponsored by my company and another 2 days went on finishing some mandatory HR training....blah blah....

Subbu was sick for the past few days. I called him and his wife and wished speedy recovery.  It is dengue season. Luckily he just had cold and fever. Now it has gone. I did not want to disturb him. Therefore our conversations were far and few. I caught up with him yesterday.

As part of storm protection procedure, the windpump
had automatically taken to this shape. The tail is now 90 degrees
to the rotor. This is to prevent the blades from facing the wind during stroms
This is to be reversed only by climbing the tower. I wanted to
take this opportunity to do full overhaul of the windpump

a) The resting place roofing work is going ON. more snaps later.

b) Windpump is my next big target item. It is waiting.  The same artisan who is doing the roofing work has to build a support structure using sticks to reach the wind tower.  So that workers can work from that safely.  I want to paint the blades and tail with aluminium paint.  The screws have to be tightened.

But the most important work would be to rectify the mis-alignment that is still there since installation. I want to fix that.  More story later.

I have no idea about vegetations - current status. But though I know many vegetables are coming up as planned.  Coming 20th the aunty would be in her village. I need to start a shop....

Just a random shot to show the current state of fauna.

The windpump borewell pipes are removed and kept aside neatly.

I like this shot. It shows the trees are mature. 

The jasmine patch is growing well.

Subbu was mentioning this.  Due to heavy rains the cucumber leaves have gone pale.  I warned him earlier itself. Anything which grows and yields fast is not good.

Farm Update with Visuals 04-Nov-2017

This is water collection and water way leading to the pond. The spot from where
this photo was taken is the bank of the pond. 

There are a myriad of farm activities that are pending.  Subbu is alone and the gravity of work weights on him. There is heavy rain in the farm and adjoining areas. Right time for sowing But we cannot keep inviting labor for everything. It costs a lot of money. Each day per person would be Rs. 300 to 500.

Kandan is sick. He is becoming sick often. Subbu complaints his wife is not cooking properly. That could be true. In a natural farm what else other than insufficient food will be an issue ?  That too for a hard working person ?.    His wife spends on unnecessary things is the main complaint.  This is the trend in villages. They are attracted by things that are shown in TV or consumed by their relatives in cities.   Anyway I asked Subbu to give him a warning.  Kandan had not been regular for several days now.  He also doesnot care to report back if not coming or is trying to be routine.  Therefore Subbu is alone.  The sales activities have stopped. There is rain. The resting room needs the roof replacement.  The knitted coconut leaves that were purchased to replace are kept aside. The skilled artisan has not come.

There is heavy thunder showers and lightning and it is risky to talk over phone.

The more you speak to Subbu and give assignments, the more it creates mess. Saying is easy. Doing is not.  The following are my regular conversation topics with subbu.

a)  Windpump needs attention. In the recent heavy thunder strom, the wind pump rotor had twisted itself at right angles to the tail. This is an emergency safety feature in-built into the wind pump mechanism to save the rotor from rotating very fast in a cyclone.  This has happened when Subbu was away to Tirupati. This need to be put back. I asked Subbu to take this opportunity to build a stair way upto tower and paint the galvanised steel blades and tail with aluminium paint. Also the nuts and bolts to be checked. We were waiting for water to be available so that we can overhaul the windpump. Now that current and electric pumpset is operational, we can lay our hands on windpump.

b)  A permanent structure to be designed to solve the issue of foot valve getting disconnected often when there is frequent change of wind direction. More on this later.... But currently I have asked Subbu to put our old hand pump above the borewell.  I want to disconnect transmission of power from top of wind tower directly to bottom of borewell through rods.  The handpump in between will isolate this. Then we will find a mechanism to move the hand of the handpump up and down using windpump. This is a long pending re-engineering work.  This way I want to use the capacity of foot valve fully.

c) Vegetables are far and few. Not enough. Next month aunty will come and we have to start organic shop. There are no vegetables as of now to promise and commit.  Subbu said he has sowed further more seeds in a specially prepared bed. Yesterday. I am waiting for photos. But even if, the quantity will not be sufficient. It takes many hours to convince Subbu to think big.