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 in Visuals 11.02.2018

Just giving as-is received two weeks back. There is a lot to write, which I will keep doing in coming days. Things are not as green as it is in these photos. The water scarcity has already started setting in. It is going to be a challenge to keep these crops erect.

Pongal at the Farm in Visuals 2018

January 14, is always the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu. Sentimentally the farmers will feel very happy on this day because it will coincide with commencement of harvest.  In our farm too I decided to celebrate properly. Last year it was not so good due to lack of rains.  But this year, I told Subbu to celebrate to the maximum. Gave a bonus of Rs. 1000/- per head.  Rest in pictures.  Subbu had painted the room in light green.

(I donot know the characters in this picture. They are relatives of Subbu).  Post pongal I enquired how he felt.  He said the sambar was tasty. The sugar pongal was marvellous.  As is the custom they will visit next day also and celebrate. It must have been a picnic.

Pongal in the making

They are drawing rangoli designs on the floor

Hello.

Painted Green

Relishing the pongal. ( I am not familier with the guests)

Near the windmill. Our classic old tank. The first one that was built after we dug the bore.

Near the windmill

On the way to windmill

The rice field growing.

Farm Update in Visuals 04-Jan-2018

The new year is good. Nothing great, nothing worse.  Subbu is doing his best. I am doing mine. Here is the update of farm as it stands now.
Rice is planted now. It is growing. Now today the tilling and bar will be constructed for vegetables. Subbu is determined to put good quantity of vegetable seeds. It is boring now to do anything in small quantity.

For strange reasons unknown, Subbu is refusing any money other than salary. how his is managing wages for work and tilling I know not. Perhaps he has taken as challenge.

Recently at a point of time none of the instruments were working.  We are out of that. But it is important to document that.

a) The new boring pump jammed. The motor is fine, but pump is chocked. It is in Valliyoor workshop.

b) Subbu's standby 5Hp (3phase) pump did not work more than 2 hours. Got chocked too. Seems some mud is there inside borewell due to recent rains.

c) Generator did not start. The belt cut off.  Subbu brought this in Tnly and replaced. Now working fine. In fact farm is now running on generator

d) Windpump was disconnected earlier for painting, never restored yet. Not focusing on that.

e) The mini kerosene pump is not working. I guess it was in peak usage. Recently it was helpful to a marriage party to pump stagnant water from road ( whew,,  Subbu us rotating it to known circle !. I have no comments. We must help people. But they must return with care).

Towards the pond

Sapota tree

Doesnot look healthy. The plant to the left near the fence is one of the oldest batches.
I know not why it is not growing.  

The gate from inside

Paddy growing

Not so fertile patch. This one. Let us wait.

My classic mini water tank. This was the oldest one near the windpump.  Yes the front ones are
red bananas.

Another side of windmill. Look at the stay wire of windmill.

One side of tower. Note there is a peacock dead opposite standing.

This portion was infertile earlier. Now we will know after so much efforts.

Banana growing like a forest along with other plants. I donot want clean shave. Let it be this way.