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....

Windpump correction for more water and Smooth Flow

The windmill.

Windmills are romantic.

My windmill is now running very smooth. Subbu says this is first time after several years that no sound is coming while it is operating. Various initiatives taken recently has ensured that. But one more thing is pending. That is my long standing dream.

I want to increase the volume of water output.

Bottom of windmill with
boring mouth.
Here is where I will
be fixing the below equipment.

The issue is, currently the windpump is designed to pump 10cm (4 Inches) of water in one stroke. My submercible pump  (footvalue) on the other hand is capable of moving around 45 CMs (17inches) of water.

So I need to "Amplify" the mechnical motion of windpump.  Here is the design I made out of my mind. I used sketchup software (trial freeware).

Yesterday I went to couple of workshops in pune and discussed with the mechanics. One shop has lathe machine and another is welding. I had to go twice to meet them with printouts.  They agreed to make this. I am doing it locally in Pune and will be transporting this to my farm (around 900 kms) across.  I want to do this under my supervision till final design takes shape. I may want to simulate here. I am in touch with Subbu to send measurements of the base etc.....

The idea is to amplify the rocking motion of the windmill pump rod.

Notice the crevice on the top of the pump to allow freedom of movement. Then
look at the diagram below.

This design is to allow some freedom for the vertical movement which may sway
bit due to semi circular motion. Here I want to keep the rod going to boring well steady and absorb the
movement through the cantilever.

This cantilever type (yellow) will amplify the stroke.

Top to bottom view. I want the components to be removable so that Subbu can take it for modifications if any.

Counter weight to support the weight of boring rods (of around 80 feet). this will make the pumping light
weight and will not "stress" the windmill which otherwise have to lift the weight.

How am I going to sustain ?

Pipes loaded for re-threading work

It is meaningless and appearing as futile effort sometimes to think about what I am doing in the farm.  More than half of the crops shown in the previous post is going to vanish in few weeks.  Some are already dead and Subbu donot want to report that to me. I can guess. Symptoms of severe water scarcity has already started.

Last week I fell ill due to Virus and could not even have energy to type an SMS due to weakness. Virus fever last 7 days and there is no medicine. Doctor gave few medicines including one antibiotic, but they are nothing to do with curing. Today I am back. World has not changed in 1 week.

Pipe cut and mended properly.
Look at the mud choke

Subbu has already started sounding about water scarcity. It has completely occupied his mind, soul and body. I knew this would come, but did not expect this soon.  According to him entire neighborhood have gone dry. Crops almost ready for harvest are destroyed due to lack of essential water. Farmers who depend only on rain or pond water have no chance.  I asked Subbu to try and help others where possible. I guess he is already doing that. Sometimes he says Generator was running full night. That is good. Hope he takes fuel cost.

In our farm, i thought everything will be alright as we have now multiple energy sources as backup. No my assumption is wrong.  Water is being pumped through generator which gulps diesel. It consumes 1 ltr per hour. There is deficiency in watering and backlog is piling up every day. Borewell is not having enough output. You start sacrificing one by one as water level decreases.

My dream of vegetable growing and vending is slipping away......

Water flowing in channel.

Meanwhile Subbu himself decided (and I always insisted) that the windpump be fixed again to help. Currently that guy is happily rotating without any load.  He had kept this activity postponed due to over confidence on relying over Diseal power and electricity.  Plus this also requires some money spent and labor mobilized.  Both electricity motor and diesel genset have screwed up untill now.  Though genset is working, it is eating away into precious cost and efforts to keep the machine running. Subbu has to shuttle with petrol-can  every now and then on a bike to fetch fuel from 10 Km away.

So wind energy is back. Good old energy source which I always trust and wanted to keep running.  I wanted this to be kept in top shape, because I have distant plans of making this model site for others to see. I may also get into this business sometime in coming years.

Such a watering method will consume more
water. But they believe in this as it is easy to make and
shape furrows in cheap,
traditional way.

The borewell pipes of windpump and the connecting rods that had earlier rusted are now neatly cut on both ends and re-threaded in nearby lathe machine. Budget 6K.  Hope this will be fixed and windpump will start pumping its nominal water to help overcome the summer.

Meanwhile I asked him to weld the sprinkler on a stand and experiment with it. I want moisture above soil. Currently Subbu has resorted to flow water in channels in traditional way wasting a lot of it.  Villagers just don;t change ways.

Now purchasing a lot of laterals for drip would be costly. I donot want to keep spending money on crops that would never yield. Instead I wanted Subbu to weld the sprinkler on tripod and move it, use it where necessary.

Farm Update with Visuals 04-Nov-2017

This is water collection and water way leading to the pond. The spot from where
this photo was taken is the bank of the pond. 

There are a myriad of farm activities that are pending.  Subbu is alone and the gravity of work weights on him. There is heavy rain in the farm and adjoining areas. Right time for sowing But we cannot keep inviting labor for everything. It costs a lot of money. Each day per person would be Rs. 300 to 500.

Kandan is sick. He is becoming sick often. Subbu complaints his wife is not cooking properly. That could be true. In a natural farm what else other than insufficient food will be an issue ?  That too for a hard working person ?.    His wife spends on unnecessary things is the main complaint.  This is the trend in villages. They are attracted by things that are shown in TV or consumed by their relatives in cities.   Anyway I asked Subbu to give him a warning.  Kandan had not been regular for several days now.  He also doesnot care to report back if not coming or is trying to be routine.  Therefore Subbu is alone.  The sales activities have stopped. There is rain. The resting room needs the roof replacement.  The knitted coconut leaves that were purchased to replace are kept aside. The skilled artisan has not come.

There is heavy thunder showers and lightning and it is risky to talk over phone.

The more you speak to Subbu and give assignments, the more it creates mess. Saying is easy. Doing is not.  The following are my regular conversation topics with subbu.

a)  Windpump needs attention. In the recent heavy thunder strom, the wind pump rotor had twisted itself at right angles to the tail. This is an emergency safety feature in-built into the wind pump mechanism to save the rotor from rotating very fast in a cyclone.  This has happened when Subbu was away to Tirupati. This need to be put back. I asked Subbu to take this opportunity to build a stair way upto tower and paint the galvanised steel blades and tail with aluminium paint. Also the nuts and bolts to be checked. We were waiting for water to be available so that we can overhaul the windpump. Now that current and electric pumpset is operational, we can lay our hands on windpump.

b)  A permanent structure to be designed to solve the issue of foot valve getting disconnected often when there is frequent change of wind direction. More on this later.... But currently I have asked Subbu to put our old hand pump above the borewell.  I want to disconnect transmission of power from top of wind tower directly to bottom of borewell through rods.  The handpump in between will isolate this. Then we will find a mechanism to move the hand of the handpump up and down using windpump. This is a long pending re-engineering work.  This way I want to use the capacity of foot valve fully.

c) Vegetables are far and few. Not enough. Next month aunty will come and we have to start organic shop. There are no vegetables as of now to promise and commit.  Subbu said he has sowed further more seeds in a specially prepared bed. Yesterday. I am waiting for photos. But even if, the quantity will not be sufficient. It takes many hours to convince Subbu to think big.

Farm Status - 8th August, 2017

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.

What is running in my mind ?

My Farm is dry. Whenever I call Subbu (just now I finished a conversation) i can sense the despair in his voice. As usual there is no rain in our place for several months now inspite of the fact that Tamil Nadu is experiencing heavy rains in some parts.  Subbu feels ashamed to tell me that we are buying water to survive plants. Quite often. That is the fact. He says most of the expenditure is going towards "purchasing" water. Village born, village grown men donot like spending for water. Successive Governments have failed to develop irrigation projects. There is rampant loot and plundering of natural resources all over the state driving the water tables below.   Vested interests are in power. Water is their main cash. The adjscent perinnial river has been leased out to Cocola company and other commercial factories for bribe. The other thing that is plundered is the River Sand and granite.  Mountains are shaved. Rivers are scratched with heavy machineary.

Coming back, we do have water inside the borewell. Luckily there are crescent shaped ponds from oriental times around in our place that store water during rainy season which lasts 1 month. These ponds are dry for most of the time, but I guess they are keeping the water tables recharged. At 100 feet we have water. But no means to pump them except for the lonely windpump.  The 2nd bore well is mounted with manual water pump. It is too hot and dry to do any outdoor activity. I cannot ask people to pump water. Labor costs money. Tracktor load full of water costs a lot. We need to survive with just hope.

There are two hopes.  One is the electricity. We are waiting. Today, tomorrow it should come. We have passed several months waiting for that. Last week, the electricity board authorities summoned Subbu twice to Nanguneri to load the electricity poles. But he waited till evening can came back. Either of the officers are not there. But there is hope we will get the installation done in 10 days time. Post that I have to buy a submercible and start the actual farm work that for which I was waiting for the past several years.  I wanted to avoid electricity, but cannot help it till the below happens.

The second hope is my own initiative of developing verticle windpump.  Backhome at Pune, I have finished the rotor that is smoothly rotating for many days now. I have also finished the gear, this time using bevel gear. Just last week that was done using a lathe shop and another welding shop.  It has come out well. Now I need to customise the motorcycle chain to drive the shaft.  The third stage for this would be a pump. But for my farm, I can straight away start using the wind energy to drive the hand operated manual pump. I am in parallel drawing each stage of the windpump for fabrication in bigger size.  Subbu is waiting along with another shop owner in Valliyoor for my drawings. Some of the material is already ready.  This should come up in a month's time.

The gear assembly. First run.  Details https://www.facebook.com/groups/519702174896073/

The original ABS windpump is failing very often. That is a sour point.  The links are unscrewing during operation.  In the last one week twice it stopped working because of de-linking of the joints.  Subbu has lost count of how many times he had fixed it now.  It has become a routine to hire two labors, draw out the entire pipe assembly out of the borewell, fix the twist and insert again.  Today i believe 3 of the rods had lost the grip and he had purchased new rods from Vailliyoor. There is no choice. This windpump is the only source of water.

Farm Update 06-Oct-2016

Subbu is frustrated.  It is understood.  There is intense heat there continuously.  There is no rain for the past 8 months. No. Not a single drop of water. Not even clouds.

My guess is right.  The macro climatic predictions done by Government, Met and other agencies are still far from reality. They are done for policy makers, share market and general public in cities who are unconnected with reality. Clouds appearing on satellite maps not necessarily bring rain. They never.

There is drought in this part of country. there is floods in another. None of this appear in bulletin.

Something must be done to Farmers - to record and predict local micro climatic conditions.  Even their time tested traditional techniques of observing birds is failing them because of global climate (Warming).

So no drop of water. No wind either.  Subbu is disgusted because we had to purchase water several times.  Even then the water poured is drying up within half day and the trees are drooping down. This is exactly words of Subbu's explanation of why he is frustrated.  Generally villagers donot like spending money and that too wastefully on water.  Paying for water would be accptable to city folks. Even to drink one liter of water we pay 20/- without any shame.  But in village they are yet to be dragged into corporate exploitative vicious world.  For them purchasing water is still not digestible.


He had fixed the handpump in the new well.  Employed one lady employee to water the plants as we did 4 years back.  History repeats. I asked him to put a canopy for shade. He had purchased matted coconut tree leaves 20 nos for this. There is no helping hand for him to build a canopy.  Kandan is not coming

Kandan has vouched for a temple.  He has put "mala" for a local diety and has gone for alms around. Therefore he is unable to visit the farm. This will continue till he fulfils his vow.

I had asked for some pictures to be sent. But he has no time.  The coordination of water tracktor, pumping the water with hand, watering etc in the absence of Kandan is taxing on him.

The plight of small and medium farmers across the country is the same situation.   No opportunity to cultivate due to lack of water.  On a macro level the water politics, or water lobby is creating more hurdles for farmers.


Something must be done.
Something must be done.
Something must be done.
Something must be done.
Something must be done.
Something must be done.
Something must be done to small farmers.

I cannot let the farm dry after like this year after year.  Inspite of fact that now 2 bore wells are there, the pond is expanded, there are cement tanks and overhead tanks. Lack of power in the farm is another factor.

I must expedite my verticle windpump.   But even then it will not make my farm secure with water.  I need even more power. Perhaps concentrated Solar Energy again. I must ride two horses now on......

-----

I am missing the Farm once again

The Farm activity is going ON in full swing without me there.  I am missing the action. Anyway,

a) 100 Banana siblings have been re-located around the Wind Pump.  They were uprooted, kept for 2 days to dry and planted again evenly.  That means by next few months there will be lush green growth around the wind pump on both sides.

b) Subbu will go to a nursary to purchase some more trees. We have decided we will have;
1) Coconut trees - 10
2) Lemon trees - 5
3) Teak to replace gaps where casurina did not grow - 20
4) Any other fruit trees - Sapota few

Around 30 seeds of Country palm has also been sown.

As per latest information the pond is full with water and overflowing.

Meanwhile Subbu and Paramu had attempted to try their experiment on windpump to increase the sweep length. It is raining over there.  He called from wet phone to say that they had some issues - a wrong welding which needs correction.  A visit to nearby town to do proper welding got delayed due to power cut.  I am still wondering what device Paramu has made - after we discussed on my visit.

I have asked for photographs of the farm and the device. Subbu wanted to send me photo after making it success.  This is the problem with we Indians :-)

******

Farm Update 31-May-2015

a) Last week was without any event.  There is heavy sunshine at the farm even today. This is the hottest part of the yea known locally as Agni Nakshatram ("fiery star") or as Kathiri Veyyil, with maximum temperatures around 38–42 °C (100–108 °F). Though there was a prediction that there will be monsoon rain, it is getting delayed by about 10 days.

b) Subbu had to pump water from neighbouring well as usual. There is zero wind for 3 days and hence no production of water from windpump.

c) We wanted to change the 1.25" pipe to 1.75" inch pipe in the boring.  This is to get more water and prevent friction between the central rod and pipe for windmill to operate smoothly and without noise.  That was finally done.  Ordered for TATA pipes @ around Rs.600 per 10 feet. Total length 100 feet. Also purchased a large drum for panjagavya and some accessories.  Alas after replacing the pipe there was no wind to test its working for atlest 3 days. I donot know if today there was wind.

d) The windpump pipes were replaced by own team. The new pully was put to good use. I was told it made the job easy of lifting the pipe assembly which should have weighed 130 KG.  only two ladies could life the assembly while the men replaced the pipes.

e) The nursary has been started with seeds of Brinjal, tomato and one more I donot remember.   A modest 50 polythene bags that was purchased 2 months back had been prepared with mud, cowdung. I heared the seeds have germinated too in about a week.

f) The only target now is to enrich the soil. We have to catchup on what we lost.  The soil is not fertile and we have not cared for;

1) Ordered two tracktor loads of cowdung. That came in about 10 days from neighbourhood. Cost Rs. 2000/-.  This cowdung will be used to prepare panjagavya, gana jeevamrudam, apply on soil directly and the compost pit topping.

2) Considering the demand, I asked subbu to go for more cowdung. I need to confirm tomorrow.

3) "Sanappu" or garlic was planted between the newly laid red banana roots. they have germinated. It will be manually mashed to soil to add enrichment to soil.  We need to repeat this steps.  Though opportunity for spreading multi grains exist, subbu is still not in for that idea.  Sanappu is ok for now.

g) The week ahead should see activity planning for trying one more crop. I want to put groundnut. For want of water, we kept it aside. If monsoon comes, we will go for it. Otherwise we have to run the show.

h) Subbu wanted to harvest the fishs. Enough he said. We need to maintain that tank properly. It is silting with mud.  Now they have to workout how to catch the fishes. Perhaps some fishes will be saved in another tank for future.