What you perceive from what I write about the activity that is happening in the farm is different from what actually is happening. It is like you create an image in facebook for youself while your actual personality that your family knows about you is different. It will be interesting and less stressful if both of these are kept in sync. i.e., write what you do. But that is difficult.
Subbu was earlier assigned some duty to also be care-taker of my house in Palayamkottai. That became vacant recently and Subbu had cleaned it up with helpers, locked it. We decided we will wait for good tenants. Earlier experiences were not so good. Ultimately we ended up spending huge
money white-washing after the tenant vacated paying peanuts every month. The wait was worth it. A decent family had come and seen. Subbu went couple of times to Palayamkottai to show the house as key was with him. Hopefully the new tenant will shift-in by 15th of this month.
Meanwhile at the farm, there are a few developments. I was speaking to Subbu today who was resting after participating in a temple festival in his village.
1) Now that electricity is there, we wanted to buy a single phase electric deep borewell pump set. It should cost around 22K. Currently we are using a spare one from Subbu's family that is connected to the generator. I have to return this back. But the sour point is the cost of wire. It will be more than this and therefore the total cost of ownership will be too much. No choice. Subbu had been waiting for electricity for past 2 years. Now he is restless. He promises we can do full fledged farming once we get the pumpset. Hope so. He also added that he is on the look out for old pumps and good condition wire. These days many are giving up farming and it should be possible to get good ones. that will reduce the cost by half. Hope so we get something in coming days.
2) Wanted to refurbish the windpump properly and set it right so that it works for long time. It is because of the windpump that we are surviving. It is because of this that tomorrow also we will survive.
3) Subbu is fully convinced that pouring oil (dieseal) and running the show is costly. Now a days he doesnot even start the generator. This is good news. Even to my conciousness I was feeling guilty that I am deviating from natural resources to oil and power. But that is not to be.
The good old windpump is more adorable. It is proving to be champion. I can say this with authority, because now I have tried dieseal generator and electricity. The electric power however will be cheaper if it comes through subsidy. personally i will try to reduce its consumption in near future as I know that it is coming from nuclear power. I must replace this with indigineous concentrated solar power generator. My experiments on that is shelved for time being because of domestic issues. My wife is against me spending time on it as my son is appearing for his SSLC exam this year.....She wants no distraction if not my attention.
4) My alternate business - I have asked Subbu to visit Valliyoor and prepare sprinkler stand. Asked him to prepare a small plot to experiment with few lentils. He has forgotton what i said few days back. This area needs more work from me. I visited my own website and found it is not working. I blocked it long back and keep renewing it. But I have to develop a website for advertisement of farm produce. Long term plan. But shortly I need to do something....
5) I have spent lot of money on purchasing the nursary trees and growing them. But how many of survived and what types ? I remember sapota, jasmine, citrus trees are growing well. we need to repeat them only. In terms of marketable lot what is that i have ? Only Sapota and jasmine. Others I have to grow. I have to try my hands on millets to begin with.
Subbu was earlier assigned some duty to also be care-taker of my house in Palayamkottai. That became vacant recently and Subbu had cleaned it up with helpers, locked it. We decided we will wait for good tenants. Earlier experiences were not so good. Ultimately we ended up spending huge
money white-washing after the tenant vacated paying peanuts every month. The wait was worth it. A decent family had come and seen. Subbu went couple of times to Palayamkottai to show the house as key was with him. Hopefully the new tenant will shift-in by 15th of this month.
Meanwhile at the farm, there are a few developments. I was speaking to Subbu today who was resting after participating in a temple festival in his village.
1) Now that electricity is there, we wanted to buy a single phase electric deep borewell pump set. It should cost around 22K. Currently we are using a spare one from Subbu's family that is connected to the generator. I have to return this back. But the sour point is the cost of wire. It will be more than this and therefore the total cost of ownership will be too much. No choice. Subbu had been waiting for electricity for past 2 years. Now he is restless. He promises we can do full fledged farming once we get the pumpset. Hope so. He also added that he is on the look out for old pumps and good condition wire. These days many are giving up farming and it should be possible to get good ones. that will reduce the cost by half. Hope so we get something in coming days.
2) Wanted to refurbish the windpump properly and set it right so that it works for long time. It is because of the windpump that we are surviving. It is because of this that tomorrow also we will survive.
3) Subbu is fully convinced that pouring oil (dieseal) and running the show is costly. Now a days he doesnot even start the generator. This is good news. Even to my conciousness I was feeling guilty that I am deviating from natural resources to oil and power. But that is not to be.
The good old windpump is more adorable. It is proving to be champion. I can say this with authority, because now I have tried dieseal generator and electricity. The electric power however will be cheaper if it comes through subsidy. personally i will try to reduce its consumption in near future as I know that it is coming from nuclear power. I must replace this with indigineous concentrated solar power generator. My experiments on that is shelved for time being because of domestic issues. My wife is against me spending time on it as my son is appearing for his SSLC exam this year.....She wants no distraction if not my attention.
4) My alternate business - I have asked Subbu to visit Valliyoor and prepare sprinkler stand. Asked him to prepare a small plot to experiment with few lentils. He has forgotton what i said few days back. This area needs more work from me. I visited my own website and found it is not working. I blocked it long back and keep renewing it. But I have to develop a website for advertisement of farm produce. Long term plan. But shortly I need to do something....
5) I have spent lot of money on purchasing the nursary trees and growing them. But how many of survived and what types ? I remember sapota, jasmine, citrus trees are growing well. we need to repeat them only. In terms of marketable lot what is that i have ? Only Sapota and jasmine. Others I have to grow. I have to try my hands on millets to begin with.
