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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Farm Update 08-Nov-2018 Mechanical amplifier

Farm update:

Finally the windpump mechanical amplifier  for the Poldaw windpump is ready.  What initially I set out to design and fabricate has now been completed after several rounds of visits to lathe and welding shops.  Past 2 weeks there were intensive activity around this on followup amidst my business work.

The welding helpers lost interest at some point of time. They found this an obstacle in their shop as it occupies space. I hurried myself and finished the thing. Actually I wanted to prepare more tools for Subbu, but confined myself only to this amplifier.

Sending this was also a challenge. My farm is 1000 kilometers away. The transport / logistics company was asking invoice papers. This is R&D piece and have no papers. A search and  by chance a transporter agreed to send this by lorry "whenever it goes" after Diwali Holidays.  Hope Subbu will receive this and fit it properly.

Subbu has returned from Tirupati Darshan.  It went well. he was in touch all along partly to confirm his ticket and seats online.

Meanwhile there is plenty of rain at the farm. This is rainy season there.  Subbu has disconnected the electric wires. Kandan should feel safe. I did not approve the wire being drawn from one room to another without pole. I asked him to secure this quickly. After return from Tirupadi, Subbu has to fabricate 2" pipes in welding shop and make electric poles.

The main unit. The face plate will move up and down along with railings on both sides. This will lift the pump rod.

This mechanism will be pushed from top by the windmill.  This is a slider and can be moved back on the cantiliver.
The more it is moved back, the bigger will be the arc of sweep and hence more water.

Fulcrum at the back. The split on top is for easy removal for repair and refitting.  Theft can happen.

Side view

Sending by a mini tempo. I went in this tempo and searched transporter

This is the original drawing I conceived out of mind and drew on computer using "sketchup" software.  I hope
the final product has come out exactly like this.
This method works.

Farm Update 10-Sep-2018

Electricity   :  The much anticipated 3phase power has come to the farm at last.  Several months of waiting and numerous trips to the EB office by Subbu with some disappointments have come to an end.  The EB officials would also make trips around the villages meeting incumbent applicants to collect their tips.

The process is to fix new meter again (paid again), new board, fuses and so on... Each of that will be done in coming days.  I guess now the additional wire in the post for 3 phase had been drawn out by the  govt contractor form the transformer.

I told Subbu to employ a good contractor in the farm to finish the last mile.  We need to pull fresh wire from the gate to the generator room and further to the tank. All will cost a lot of money and some efforts.  The wires are very costly.  We have decided to take it over head by installing few posts.  This is better than burying inside the soil (underground).  We will forget eventually and may lead to other problems.  Being over head will allow periodic inspection, though it will be vulnarable to vagaries of the climate.

Hopefully when everything is done, we can connect back our texmo 3 HP pump and run it seamlessly. That means we can fill the white large cement tank to the full.  This had never been filled properly since the time it was constructed.  If power is drawn upto this tank, then we can also install baby motor to displace water for sprinkler and hopefully a rain fun in future.  The windpump excess water also can converge into this tank.  Ultimately we can then start reducing power usage and worry about agriculture.

Agriculture : I told subbu, let us atleast start growing something for our families instead of aimlessly attempting to grow crops commercially and get disappointed. I want him to send stuff by courier so that I can test all means of sending food over long distances. I told let us first start sending to our known families and friends. Atleast this is the trend I see with organic farmers using social media.  He agreed.

Farm Update 23-Jun-2016

1.   The electricity officials have visited and gone.  Subbu told that they had promised electricity from a nearby existing transformer of Nachankulam village. May have to lay 4 poles each 150 feet apart.  I guess each will cost between 10K to 15K for me.  The next work is a paper work to fetch the map for the farm. Earlier application form,  Farm room design was submitted.

2. The officer had remarked there must be a toilet in the farm.   Electricity is being applied for domestic purpose. It is given only for houses.  Here we are treating the room inthe farm as a house.  Inspection is to find if it indeed is occupied.  Yes, we have a stove, bed and other things necessary for stay. Minus toilet.

3. I told Subbu irrespective of what they said, we will build a toilet. It will be always useful for visitors and lady staff alike. Now now, a little later.

4. There is no rains. By and large it is very dry irrespective of south west monsoon pouring rain in many places.   It is not surprising.  We get rains only in october.  We need to endure upto that.

5. There is enough wind.  4000 liters per day or 4 tanks per day is pumped by windmill. I guess that is sufficient.  Some water was poured into the depleting water pond also for fish to survive.

6 Windmill which was bit mis-aligned has been re-aligned. This was an exercise by itself.  Last week when I called Subbu he was atop the tower.  Subbu and Paramu planned the activity. I guess 4 people pulled the head of the tower in a direction and Paramu fixed it. Some socket that was eccentric. I cannot guess what they did. But I heared everything is fine now.  If that were not fixed, something was grinding with every stroke and some rod would have worn out in a month or two due to friction.

7. I need to step up farming activity once I get electricity. It is still few weeks away.  The officials should not change their mind and should help bring electricity. There could be small bribes or expenses to take care of workers.

8.  Only when electricity is in sight, i should plan for purchasing submersible water pump.  I still donot have full hope.  Plan B would be to go for slow speed diesel pump and compressor.

9. The lotus has not sprouted yet. It worries me. I had put live roots in the pond and sprinkled seeds too. In this climate I hoped it will catchup.

10.  The seeds my children put had sprouted it seems.  For me it was a personal satisfaction to ;
a) have utilised the newly remodeled nursary shade
b) use the plastic bags brought earlier
c) use the mud and manure (cowdung) mix
d) My wife and children participated though the activity was small, but in intense sunlight
e) Demostrated to Subbu and Kandan our intentions by action.

Children prepared the sprouting bags and fixed some random seeds that we
had collected over a period of time. They were tree seeds.
Mostly Gulmohur. This week I heared they have sprouted.
I have plans to distribute them outside the farm also.

Farm Update 04-Nov-2015

1.  The windpump is working smooth for the past many days.  The new solution has really worked. There is normal wind also. I believe we are getting between 1000 to 4000 liters of water perday. That is sufficient to maintain crops irrigated in round-robin fashion.

2.  We are still waiting for the rains to come to make the next move.   We need to procure and plant Jasmine plants.  Subbu said he heard Rameshwaram Jasmine is the best.  He has ordered 100 saplings from there. However they will supply only when they get atleast one shower.

3. Painting has been done for all the structures like Gate fence and room with green paint.  This is to keep the team occupied.

4. The shadenet has fallen in the wind.  It is torn also.  Without this the nursary will not work. It is an eyesore to see a broken nursary.   I have ordered for one more bundle of Shadenet 50 meters costing Rs. 2100 including courier from Coimbatore. It will reach tomorrow. Post that Subbu team will mend the nursary.

Somehow the team is not showing interest in nursary, compost pit or any such non-traditional things.

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Farm Update 28th february

1. Decision to be taken if ready made concrete to be purchased or concrete to be mixed on the spot by local mason. This is for tower foundation.  Subbu was supposed to visit a nearby ready concrete mixing factory. He was told to come again as concerned manager was not there. I wonder, just for 3 cubic meter of concrete, why people make so much fuss. But that is the way it is. Whereever labour work is involved, human touch is expected. City guys have no time for these. But we end up paying more than necessary on 'online' purchases and also donot develop any 'reusable learning experience'. Whereas people like Subbu gain so much knowledge in these moments of truth.



Kandan with is New Bicycle. Learning to walk it



2. Kandan has started walking straght with his new bicycle !. Earlier he was going in one direction and the cycle in another. I am told, now he has learned to 'tame' his cycle to walk with it steady. I am waiting the day when he will mount it and ride it. I was kidding him and he has promised he will fall down and learn it.

This beautiful tank spotted in nanguneri.

3. Assuming that wind water pump will be up by next month, I need to plan for water tank.  'Purchasing' plastic tank would cost Rs. 7/- per liter. assuming we need 10,000 liter tank, the cost would go upto Rs. 70,000/-.  That is too much. I need find an alternative. Perhaps a cement tank. I know many Govt projects construct cement tanks. Need to find who is the contractor and talk to him.

4. Preparation of Tower foundation for wind pump. The tower requires to be assembled  on ground and pulled up to stand straight.  I happened to see the installation photos of Iron Man wind Pump in an US Farm. They have used JCB, a crane, tractor, truck and a fork lift. That is too much of resources to use to just make a tower stand straight. I am sure we will be using none of these. Some labour, techniques and one JCB perhaps should do the job. Let me see. We can think about it only after fabrication which is underway in ABS factory.

5.  Team has gone through two CDs so far.  Kandan has watched the CDs that I gave at his home CD Player. Subbu had set it up for him. That is good. Now I can engage them with some more training CDs. They must have covered two topics so far.  a) Compost Preparation  b) Dry land Farming.

Back home I need to record my speech in camera and append it to the VCD.