Rain, Rain only Rain

It has been raining like Dog in the farm for the past few days. Not only here but the entire Tamil Nadu is drenched.  Due to a low pressure in the atmosphere or some cyclone, there is continuous water flow.  Some more rain is predicted by Met man.

As far Subbu, he is not getting the manpower. Currently all are busy sowing in various fields. Even obtained, there is rain and water logging to do any useful farm work. We should wait for water to recede.  I can only give lecture over phone on organic farming,  energy independence and power generation in captivity.  I asked him to send photos of the farm with water.  Even for this he is unable to venture out.

There has been serious causalities in this part recently due to lightning strike.   One should not venture in two wheeler in country side, lest you become the lightning arrestor.

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Reports The Hindu Paper as follows

Rain lashes Tamil Nadu; schools, colleges closed

Updated: November 13, 2015 12:04 IST

  

Heavy rainfall brought daily life to a grinding halt across Tamil Nadu, as seven districts announced holidays for schools and colleges.

Tirunelveli, Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts have announced a day’s holiday for schools and colleges, while Kanyakumari’s District Collector has announced a holiday for schools.

Many parts of Chennai were marooned under water after a torrential downpour since Thursday night.

Puzhal recorded the highest volume of 21 cm rainfall on Friday. The weather stations in chennai and Meenambakkam recoded 15 cm and 12 cm respectively following a thunderstorm.

According to the IMD bulletin, the trough of low at mean sea over south Andaman sea and neighbourhood now lies over south Andaman Sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal. It is likely to develop into a low pressure area over southeast Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood during next two days

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Farm Progress in Visuals October, 2014

Subbu had sent snaps now of the farm when it was raining 2 weeks back. Since then there is no rain and water is being purchased.  The irony is, we do have water now stored in rainwater catchment tank (not in any of the below picture). But how to pump it out ?  Thinking of purchasing a small kerosene water pump for such temperory water shifting.  The rainwater pit is far away from the main action area. But we had already laid the backbone pipes through which we can pump and bring it upto the overhead tank, so says Subbu. Hmmmm. I have to see how much a pump would cost.  When I floated a quotation in the net, I got replies such as Rs. 280 for one dozen pumps !.  They thought i want plastic pumps. What i need is a kerosene engine with centrifugal pump. I asked Subbu to walk across to Tirunelveli market and purchase one outright.

Otherwise we are purchasing water @ Rs. 400 per day for 1500/- liters. That will continue till the rain comes, which is expected anytime this month.

overflow water tank (the old and original one)

closeup of greengram

Healthy Millets

Water logging during the rain. Have to plan how to divert all these water into a pit which is far extreme at the centre

This is the current Action Area. Vegetables will be sowed here in small quantities.
This is adscent to the wind pump

Another view of action. Seen in shadow are Subbu and Kandan

Harvest, a humble beginning

This is the most focussed part of farm

Banana Plants againt backdrop of windpump

Some of the grocery for the farm. Few items of these will be sown as green manure. We did already.
but there was no rain thereafter and all the sprouts had dried down.

Another view from the tower side

This is the famous Kandan Mistake.  Kandan had planted these trees too close and had a good mouthful from everyone

On ground Planning for Swale

Sitting comfortably on the ground under the shade with Subbu, Mayandi and Kandan, i was able to draw a swale on the floor out of sand. This was when I visited the farm last week.  I created a small mound in the shape of long crest with bare hands from the sand and explained how it can be useful to contain runoff water and store it underground. Every drop of rain water is important and that need to be stored somewhere. Present practice of storing them in open ponds will dry them soon. Weather is very hot here for 9 months in a year. But storing underground will lock it for longer use.  Earlier I had read Bill Mollison and watched Geoff Lawton videos just to get some ideas. Recently i discovered John Kitsteiner



Run off water taken away nutrients

Subbu was immediatly able to relate to his 'borewell' experience.  While boring, we hit rock immediatly in 20 feet. From then onwards it was only rock for 160 feet. That means mud is available for only 20 feet. If I create a swale and stagnate water, the water will go down upto rock bed and then have nowhere else to go, but climb up slowly. Rather it will spread out underground. That will be useful for all plants and trees during summer.

My land is at the tip of an already created pond Nachankulam (by Government). Ideally water flow from across the land will pass through my land, which has also removed the top soil and nutrients. The entry point of water is as shown in the picture with white arrows. Water gets logged on the spot marked with Yellow arrow. If I cut a swale close to the fence inside, i must be able to harvest water and benefit from it.

water enters as in white arrow and stagnates as in yellow arrow.

"Will water works department object to the swale?", asked one.  "No, that is only in another farm where the water pass from one lake to another. This is only rain water and there is no official water path here", replied another.

I said cutting a swale is an art (impressed by D V Sridharan's experience). Therefore it has to be done carefully and slowly. "Dont worry sir, we have understood. Our JCB persons are skillful" came the reply. Another said, "We will enable JCB for channel cutting and employ manual labour for dressing"..

Swale as it should be. Courtesy : John Kitsteiner

Thus my job was over. I only need to arrange funds. I expect a swale cutting would require 2 days of work. That means Rs. 600 x 5 Hours x 2 Days = Rs. 6000/- Plus 1000 Bata for Driver for two days and food.  5 Nos of manpower Labour would be required at Rs. 300 each for two days costing 3000/-.  The total would be thus around 10000/-.

That should protect my crops and recharge my land for posterity !. And contribute to ground water recharge and make me move towards permaculture.