Farm Status 31-Dec-2019

It has been a long pending work to update this blog.   I am not sure when and where I left.  but I just  simply got myself lost in time. And facebook. And politics threatning the country. Once a gap forms, it takes effort to get back to this routine. 


One of the reasons for this procrastination is, not knowing where to re-start after the gap.  Some of you may be thinking nothing is happening in my farm because of no information.  It is partially true. Though nothing spectacular was happening several good things were happening too. 


The other reason of not updating is ofcourse is to blame Subbu for not providing enough photos or news about farm.  His camera phone is in horrible condition with broken touch screen. Subbu and his entire family have defunct phones. All of a sudden his Oppo phone went bad. His wife phone also went bad.  Screen became dark, may be broken. He tried his best travelling to Valliyoor and Tirunelveli towns.


No hope of repairing due to frequent technology change. Villagers are deeply affected. He is barely able to attend phone with his dark screen. He went through several such issues.  It is because of this, he was unable to send any pictures for several months now. Only upon repeat followup, he uploaded some pictures (camera is working) from his phone blindly.  I am also not sponsoring him any new phone or camera which i used to do earlier. I am just waiting for him to buy a new phone himself.  And he has several excuses for not prioritising this.


He often keeps it switched off also (to avoid his irate customers in cable business). Subbu himself had issues in his own cable TV business. Recently due to rains and thunder lightning, some transmitter box got repaired. Only the company (Sun Network) can give replacement worth 45K. He went all the way to Chennai and got it after few days of stay.


Subbu has now three children growing fast. He had purchased an old car (for 60K) and enjoying shuttling in that. He went Tirupati. He was working for his monther-in-law to build her house and so on...... Overall he is enjoying his life.


Let me summarise the current status of farm as follows.


a) Farm is going good as per my own standards. As usual for my spouse, it is a white elephant or a liability and nothing seems to be happening. She may not be knowing several of small developments I better not discuss to invite more warth.  They are reserved for a future only when things frutify. Ladies donot appreciate efforts.


b) Last month I invested on new fruit trees. Useful fruit bearing trees were purchased from Ramji Nursery, Nagarcoil. I left it to Subbu to make a choice. I also spoke to nursary in charge. For purchasing,  I had to compel Subbu to get going with this initiative, because there is heavy rain in the farm.  He always excuses for heavy sunshine or heavy rain. But Only during these two months, ground will be wet and is a right time to plant trees.


Now they are planted in and around the white cement tank, a not so fertail patch. It is better to dot every space with some trees. My earlier hope of growing vegetables is kept aside mainly due to lack of interest from Subbu and Kandan.


I hope trees are the only visual filler that can show productivity over time. Trees will also be easy to maintain for Kandan with his frequent absentia.  The seasonal crops or vegetables, unless carefully grown and sold, will not be appreciated. They also require lot of labor and supervision and crop maintenance.  I am encouraging them to plant few vegetable crops for their own use (to engage them).


c) Paramu, the carpenter friend had his family issues. His son who is teenager ran away with a girl another teen ager.  Both from same village, same caste.  It has become police case. He is depressed and down due to that. I have asked subbu not to depend on paramu for any work. This time, I compelled Subbu to make a cement platform under the windpump tower to install the water amplifier frame which is kept aside for several months now.  Now it is in its place and is working. (I cannot appreciate unless I see a photo)


d) At the farm, there had been heavy rains and almost floods. The wall of adjascent pond was raised by local farmers. Now due to more water, our farm is flooded.  The walls of underground toilet sink which was nothing but a mud pit without reinforcement is broken. I asked subbu to first fence it. Once water is less, we can attend to rebuilding it. It is not much used.  Now after a week, it is dry.


I need to speak to Subbu for two things to be done this week.


a) Secure the electric wire which is not so well supported by pole. The wire that extends inside the farm from gate to the generator room is having a loop that is very low.


b) Build the proper pit for the toilet, that which got damaged in rains.

Farm Update 26-Jul-2019

Subbu was upbeat yesterday. After few days of trying to reach him, I finally did yesterday. He hurriedly submitted that his JIO phone was not recharged and the other one is still limping with its hardware problem. He needs to change his phone. But that is not the point. He off-late feels very much guilty to attend my calls.

He was having some pleasant news for me.

a)  The two of the wings removed from the tower had been re-fixed.  All the work on the windmill is over. It is yet to be released for rotation just as a matter of adequate precaution till all the work under the tower is over.

An illustration to show how it should be.
This way i communicated to Subbu over whatsup.
Final what he did  will be known only after he send picture.

b) Besides the ladder that is completed and fixed, the foot rest stand that I designed for him is also done. I am not sure about what is the final. But this is what I told him to do (Diagram). With this small platform, one can stand and approach the rotor of the windpump should you want to oil that or paint or even remove it (with the safety harness ON ofcourse).

Initially i wanted a small foot rest to be clippable and hung from steel wire and hook. but there is no space atop tower. Only 2 feet .  Therefore advised Subbu to make one supported from under using two angles.

c)  He has employed two ladies to clean the entire area (I had earlier mentioned that someone will visit the farm).  I want to put some gravel and keep a board giving technical details of the windpump. But that is later.....

d) Today the boring pipes will be removed out and foot valve be cleaned.

e) The windpump amplifier that I sent last year will be connected properly

Hopefully the entire windpump will start working as usual giving more water.  He is determined to focus on this only.  Let me see....... I have no photos as his camera phone is damaged. But he said he will manage to send....

Ladder to Heaven at Farm

It has become important and a routine to climb atop the windpump tower.  Presently Subbu and others are using their palm tree climbing skills.  They are not complaining about the fatigue but I can sense that.  I want the basic infra to be in place.  I always wanted to make this ladder to climb the windpump tower.  I also brought a pair of PPE through online and got it delivered  (Personal protection equipment which is nothing but belts and hooking fastners to be worn while working atop the tower).

For several weeks now I had been asking Subbu to take quotes from various workshops. They charge a cool 20K. I donot want to spend that much. Discussed with him various ways of doing that. But they have a fix or a hang on that. Perhaps at the ground level, they are bound by resources that is practically available.  Subbu spend several days disappointing me.   I thought he was good at negotiating. But he was not. He was so innocent on certain matters that he accepts on face value without questioning. Even a bit of technology will make him surrender.

Finally I gave an idea. Let us buy iron patti (flat strips) and give to a welder and get this cut and welded. My point was strength is not important. Because it is going to lean and be fitted on the existing tower only. Tower will provide the necessary support. Subbu accepted with hesistation.

He went about and finally purchased 1" x 2" square pipe conduit. Same material for the sides and the rungs.  Total 8 pipe of 20 feet length.  Some welding sticks, cutting disks and work started. The material was purchased from Valliyoor and welder from Parappadi. We need to give labour cost to the workshop man. It took 2 weeks to make because the welder this in part time.  It will work out under 10K for making a 50 feet long ladder and fit it on tower.   They also tried to hang a welding machine from tower and tried to weld in air. But seems did not work out.

Here it goes. As I am writing the ladder is finished, fixed and painted. I was surprised and annoyed to hear the ladder was tide with rope !.  I chided the team and asked them to fasten with patti, nuts and bolts.  Such is the followup required.

Kandan with his PPE worn

People atop the tower fixing blades. Without the ladder

Welder is cutting the pipe

Delivery of square pipe. The material was done at site.

The ladders half done. Total 50 feet.

Windpump Repair and restoration

The POLDAW windpump or windmill is now over 5 years.  Of late it is giving a lot of trouble when at a time my team is gone into comfort zone. However I love my windpump.  The more I wanted that to be up and running, the more it sucks.  It is a challenge and I am prepared for fight.

My objective is to put this back in action with lot of water pumping. And perhaps showcase it for future business.  This will be for higher end customers and my own verticle axis windmill that I am designing for low end customers. That's the idea.

The windmill with one tooth missing

Recently few months hence, one by one the bolt/nut had unscrewed itself and started falling down. A large bolt from the main rotor fell down, luckily no one was there. Windpump without load is a monster and rotates faster. Recently last week it broke one of its wings on its own and that wing fell on the water tank splicing it. Luckily again no one was there.

I declared it unsafe and given clear directions to Subbu. The more it breaks, more we resolve ourselves to repair it.  Following are attempts.

a) I called on an agency (Vista telecom networks) through known contacts for help. They have trained riggers (certified tower climbers) who maintain cell phone towers. A person came from Tirunelveli by bus for inspection, Subbu picked him up.  He climed the tower and went back without quoting anything. Two days of followup with his supervisor had no results. They were just now answering phone. perhaps they were not interested in this small job. Or found it odd job to do. They obliged to come only because i took help of a common friend who is their client.

Closer examination shows, the cut is not due to
any bird strike or object impact. It is due to sheer
rotational tear apart force. Not due to rust either.
Just a high velocity object torn.

b) Crane is an option to reach the windpump quickly. To my suprise, there is a crane operator in Nanguneri,10 Kms away. It costs Rs. 5000/- for half day including crane charge, bucket fitting and transport and driver bata. However that is an option I want to use only when we are fully ready with all tools.

The broken wing

c) Our default option was to climb ourselves. Earlier I had already purchased and sent online two numbers of body harness. Subbu likes it. I feel safe if they wear it while climbing.

Subbu and one more boy Ramesh who is experienced in this. However he had a sprain and we had to wait for a month. The boy had become more mature and demanding more money. That however is working. The couple had so far applied crease, fixed the loose bolts.  But the propeller wing that is broken need to be removed for a welding shop. While the broken wing is with us, the nut from the frame is not coming easily. It is at an inaccessible distance with ordinary spanner.   I asked Subbu to purchase a cross bar wrench tool.  Subbu went to Valliyoor and the shop which generally had everything did not have this one. they ordered to Madurai for stock and one week later got it.

d) Windspeed is very high. They are waiting for it to slow down so that we can tie the windpump rotor and do the work. If load is given to windpump, it is unlikely it will break down like this. The wing had broken only due to high velocity wind and the rotating speed.  This reminds me of the danger the propeller aircrafts would have faced during world wars.

e)  One of the favourite pending requirement is making a ladder to climb the tower. The thought of climbing the tower should make Subbu weary. A ladder will make climbing cool.  As per a local garriage, a ladder of 45 feet costs 20,000/- to make.  I rejected. Asked Subbu to find cheaper alternative. After several days and months, now the bill would be around 10K.  It requies 7.5 pipes of 20 feet to make a 50 feet ladder. Same pipe for side and rungs.  I asked Subbu to purchase material in one place and make it in another workshop only paying labor charges. That seems to work.  However Subbu is yet to hit the road. perhaps with ladder in place, next time, the tower maintenance would be a pleasure.

Coconut tree

Newly planted jasmine. Around 3 months old.

Farm Update 10-Jun-2019

I am providing a farm update as a check list; Each of these items deserve a separate story by itself and am Intend to cover that as I keep writing.

a) Subbu and Supervision
b) Windpump under repair
c) Condition of Farm and my recent visit
d) Verticle windpump research:

a) Subbu and Supervision

Coordination with Farm supervisor Subbu reached frustrating levels and now a new normal.  He just doesnot respond for several calls or even days. When responds, he makes false promises. Always has some excuse or the other on hand. The half truth is, his smart phone has got screwed up. It was an "Oppo" which fails on speaker ring volume. For several days he missed business calls, then gave it for repair at authorised service centre. As usual the centre with juniors took 15 days to send phone to another city and permanently damaged the phone. I Hope he has done something about it. After long interval, he could send some snaps of windmill (under repair).

Subbu was'nt attending the farm regularly, which I sensed thorugh his never ending excuses. Later I learnt that he was helping his mother-in-law build her own house in a small town called Eruvadi, under minimum budget of 25 lacs. He seemed to be doing daily sortie on his bike to the construction site around 20 Kms one way which now he regrets. Finally his hard-work was not appreciated, mother-in-law donot like the house which was built to her specs. Anyway Subbu is back on farm.

Subbu's family has expanded. His 3 children are studying and growing. He needs more money. He has brought a second hand car for 57K which he was happy about initially. I heared he washed it, tended it daily and decorated with jasmine flowers from our farm. His joy lasted not long.  Recently he regretted he brought the car. His MIL, sister & family were driving him to crazy reducing him to a driver on waiting. He got so vexed he removed a wheel and delcared it broke-down !

In any case, I had several hard talks and inspiring talks with Subbu. He need to realise that only by systematically working for "tomorrow" that we can comeup in life. That "tomorrow" can come through agriculture or allied activities (like manufacturing windmill itself). I wanted to impress him with thought that we need to do "some business" and for that he must pay attention now.

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Catching up on Blog posts

The problem with blog is that unless you continuously drain your thoughts on blog, your thoughts get clogged in brain and doesnot allow even new and trivial posts to come out.

I have given huge gap by not writing anything and posting. I need to catch up.

Several times kept postponing and did not realise it is already 3 months that slipped away...

One of the reason was I was too much disturbed by the developing trend around General Elections in India.

Somewhere I have to start. I will start with ongoing thing first. Here comes the story.......

(I also just noticed that  Google+ is no more available. I am not sure how the regular readers of this blog will get information on any new post).

Farm Update 10-Mar-2019

In another 10 days I will be visiting the farm. I am not preparing anything for that. I am not allowing myself to get exited. I must prepare myself for some disappointment. I resolve to work there for 2 days without minding anything. I must also plan to stay at the farm one day.

A portion near the windmill
Cleared of boganville shoots that had grown in
hapazard manner. This ground is ready for banana
however waiting for watering to make it
soft.

a) The rapport with my farm supervisor friend Subbu has increased once again.  He had infact wanted me to call on whatsup Video. I did. He took me around the farm live and showed areas of concern and growth.  I really appreciate the frankness, maturity and confidence in that one call that he exhibited.

b) As planned earlier, Subbu had indeed purchased around 500 saplings of Jasmine plants from Tirunelveli and brought them in a bike.  The ground was earlier worked out by JCB and around 130 holes were dug and ready. The Jasmine plants were planted by two workers with 4 each in each of the pit.  The plants cost Rs. 4/- each.  The pits were also filled with cowdung manure obtained from one of the women's cattle shed.  The new jasmine plants will also be replacing some of the older undergrown pits in earlier patch.

The newly planted Jasmine saplings

b) There is huge sunshine. Too hot. I asked Subbu to brace for it. We can expect more heat. It was not a good idea to have cleaned the farm devoid of grass and weed. They help to keep the saplings cool. However based on feedback from traditional farmer friends, Subbu had cleaned the farm thinking that will beautify.

c) The windpump amplifier is at halt. The link from windmill to the below, near the windpump rotor itself had got unscrewed. The wind velocity is so high, one cannot stop the fan from rotating. Subbu is waiting for right moment. I asked him to be cautious and slow.  Can't take any risk with heights. Let it even take few days more for wind speed to come down.

The fact is something is loose above.   All these days it seems screw motion had so far been passed on into the borewell,  unwinding the central rod systems earlier  . Those days,  every now and then the rods used to unscrew somewhere down into the borewell.  We spend time and effort to pull entire pipe assembly, find the fault and put back.  We were unable to locate the the root cause. Now with my new machine in place, that is separating the the central rod assembly from the top with the one that is going into the borewell.

Therefore any mechanical unscrew that happens due to high wind gets arrested above the ground itself. An interesting case study that I want to approach slowly. I have asked Subbu to document the findings on why something above is tight or loose causing this.

JCB is digging pit for Jasmine. They charge around  600 to 800 per hour.

Subbu is contemplating standing
on an infertile patch thinking something.

One of the assembly points on top of the tower. This had got unscrewed itself due to
wind direction, though it is designed not to. My new windpump amplifier has stopped this unscrew
action to be passed on into the long chain or rods.

Workers who helped plant 

Finally my Windmill Mechanical Amplifier working

The blue metal strips will keep
the frame to the ground.

The Mechanical Amplifier that I designed on my own 4 months back, fabricated in Pune and sent across to My farm 800 kilometers away is finally working.  The following are the advantages.

a) The ABS (Poldaw) windmill has a freedom of 10 cms (3.5 inches) verticle movement. This need to be amplified to exploit the foot valve cylinder that has over 20 inches freedom so that more water will come. This apparattus that I have designed works like a cantilever to expand this movement (energy). Presently we get 3000 to 5000 liters of water per day. This will become 20,000 to 30,000 liters per day. Already we are seeing early results even without adjusting further.

b) This will isolate windmill from underground pipe/rod assembly. So that we can work in deep well bore without stopping the windmill.

c) The twist and turn of the windpump rotor will not affect and unscrew the borewell rods anymore. Minimum repair and re-fix.

d) This will hold the weight of central rod assembly. Thus windpump is relieved of pulling the entire weight for every stroke. This is achieved by hanging the rod on moving frame and counter weight at other end of cantilever.   I want windpump to become completly free so that is runs smoothly.

Just to fix the frame on the ground has taken a month.   The holes that I made on the frame did not match the already existing bolts near the bore well.  Some measurement went wrong.  Subbu,

Kandhan and his friend Paramu could not think of an alternate solution.    There were actually so many alternate solutions available.   But they thought of the most difficult one,   and kept postponing executing it because they have to carry the heavy frame to the welding machine in another town. I dismissed their ideas.

 Finally I have to  intervene and the provide a simple solution.   Refer the photograph.  I just ask them to put a strip of metal over the Bolt we keep the frame anchored to the ground and it worked.

 Even though I had taken care of sending all the ingredients by packing in wooden box,  they misplaced a few and was searching for it later. This  was due to delay in installation.  Other times,  they were doing everything very wrongly even though I had earlier posted a demonstration Video with myself explaining everything in vernacular.

They misplaced the video message in WhatsApp.     Finally everything is in place.  Minor adjustments here and there are still required. But water is coming.  Subbu had taken pains in the last 2 days to mend the pipe, fittings and actually worked very hard.  Only the counter weight is still not properly placed.  Subbu was reluctant to add weight. When forced, he said he will hang a lorry tyre. I got wild and ridiculed his thinking process itself. Suggested him to hang sand bag. 

But the windmill mis-behaved. It threw the weight out. Some clamps came down heavily.  Luckily there is no injury. I need to investigate why it did not take counter weight.  I think it is because of speed of windpump that there are unnecessary jerks in its movement.     I asked for clear video. But subbu is not an ace shooter. The photos he sent were not that useful.

Rest in pictures.

Subbu's friend fixing the frame.

Atlast the water. 3/4 inch pipe full of water.  This will be diverted to overhead tank

installation in progress.

Farm Update 19-Feb-2018 - All is not well

It has been a quite a long gap this time in updating this.  The main reason for this is overwhelming information.   Yes. in this age of connectivity and always online, the communication gap is at the highest.  That is the paradox. Same applies to blog posts also.

When some story is developing, you wait till it completes.  When the story keeps taking twist and turn with new issues and solutions, you also keep postponing writing. That way days, weeks and even months pass.

Following are the updates.

a) The relationship with Subbu was not all that well. I had to firmly talk to him and impress upon him that nothing is happening at the farm.  The same paradox that was explained above works here also. Farm now has adequate water and other resources. But agriculture activity has halted. Long back when the farm was having acute scarcity, we were growing several things. Today everything is there and the output is abysmally nil.   One of the reason is attention diversion, lazyness, gross mistakes, not having enough motivation etc.  But nothing can explain or justify the money that is being spent to up-keep the farm. People have to work.  No choice.

b) Kandan had been absent for several days. I am not clear about his attendance.  He is not communicative. Basically good guy. But lazy.  Last rains, he was taking care of his own farm, I was told.  He even asked for extra money (loan) which I refused.  Later he fell seriously ill. He always refused to do any extra work and confined his scope only to watering existing trees.  I had to pay another person in his absence to survive the plants without cutting his salary also.  I was patient all through. I wanted Subbu to pass on this message that he will to be fired from job if he continues to be absent. I have no choice.

c)  For several days Subbu will be unavailable.   His phone was not picked up or he was not reachable for days together.   Later I learnt he was building his mother in law's house.   He also said that his customers (Household village ladies) from his cable TV business where pestering him with complaints. So he had to keep the phone switched off.   (There have been recently change in delivery of cable TV with an on ground technology change which operators like him found cumbersome to train foot soldiers to implement)  

However what upset me most was his continuous absence to the farm.   His father is a professional farmer and a very rare visitor to our farm.   He seems to have scolded him why he is keeping the farm so dirty.   Subbu called me promptly ordered for tractor and ploughed the fields without any purpose.

d) Subbu suddenly came with an idea of building a poultry farm on the empty half constructed place. He wanted to use the casurina poles for that. He wanted to keep country hen and said this will bind Kandan to the farm and ensure his attendance.  He also said the profit will be ploughed back to paying salary to Kandan and himself.  All right I said, but it is upto you. I donot encourage farm at this stage.  

Later one day he called for workers, bricks and ordered for sheets.  As usual he started ranting the plan hinting that I have to foot the bill. I refused. I scolded him saying anything should be started simple with available material. Why build a big room for a poultry which may or may not be success. how can we trust Kandan. or for that matter yourself ? Who will give injection, feed etc. What expense?  Why get me into more trouble, when we have not been able to grow even small quantity vegetables  ?  I asked several questions like this and perhaps a longest conversation that I had in recent times clocking around 1.5 hours.  He said he is dropping that idea.

e)  He called to say he is mentally upset. I left it at that. Let him sink the feeling. I did not defend him. I only advised him to go out to Thovalai and watch the flower market. I urged him to watch others, how they are doing business. He indeed went to Tirunelveli to a nursary. That is his beauty. He will never do what we ask.

f) Presently he seems to have realised.  That means more planting, more expenses and more activity. That is fine.  This includes getting JCB to dig around 100 holes for fresh Jasmine plot.  He had identified Jasmine nursary in Tirunelveli costing Rs. 6/- per plant. Had ordered. I also felt we must expand Jasmine as a commodity for sure / future

(Will continue)