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