Selection of First batch of plants for fence

The following are the plants that I have selected for my Farm - first to go inside the fence.  The idea is to ;

1. Create a first level defence using bougainvillea  (Kakitha poo) supporting the wire fence. By the time the still wire mesh will rust away in 3 years, this thorny bush should takeover.
2. 2nd level plants like Marudani to grow into thick foilage.  Consists of two parts.  Flowering ones like Arali facing the road side. Useful ones like Kodukapuli on other sides.
3. Third level trees at 10 feet each. They can be flowering trees like Gulmohar on road side and useful ones like Neem at other sides.

The prices quoted are actuals from a nursary to give an idea of what is the expenditure outlay. Add Rs. 1500/- for lorry rent, loading and unloading with lunch.  Some of the plants quoted here are much more than the market rate of  saplings that are generally sold in a nursary. That is because, these are well grown plans, sometimes with the large pots, which we brought out as the nursary offered them without any choice.

Botanical Name	Local Name	Quantity	Rate	Total Rs.
Bougainvillea spectabilis	bougainvillea	100	15	1500
Pithecellobuim Dulce	Kodukkapuli	2	150	300
Nerium Olender	Arali	50	15	750
Caesalpinia Sappan	Pathimugam	25	30	750
Lawsonia inermis	Marudani	50	10	500
Baruhina Purpurea	Mandarai	5	30	150
bombax Cebia	Elavamaram	2	50	100
Cassia Fistula	Kanikondrai Kondrai (Yellow)	10	20	200
Delonix Regia	Mayflower Red (Gulmohar)	2	75	150
Michelia Champaka	Shenbagam	2	60	120
Sapthodea	patadi (Flame of forest)	5	20	100
Caesalpina Crista	Mut kondrai	5	20	100
bamboosa Oldhami	Giant Timber Bamboo	2	60	120
Bambusa Vulgaris	Yellow Bamboo	2	120	240
Bambusa Arundinacea	Common Bamboo	2	25	50
Casuarina junghuhniana	Savukku  common	1000	3	3000
Eucalyptus globulus	Southern Blue Gum	5	15	75
Syzygium cumini	Naaval	2	15	30
Joanesia Asoca	Ashoka	5	15	75
Azadirachta indica	Neem	50	15	750
Tamarindus indica L.	Puliyamaram	2	20	40
Citrus medica Linn.	Narathangai	5	30	150
Citrus medica Linn. 2	Narathangai 2	5	50	250
Emblica Officinalis	Peru Nellikaai	5	30	150
Citrus sinensis	Kamala Orange	2	250	500
Psidum gujava	Guava	5	50	250
Punica granatum	Madulai (pomagranate)	5	50	250
Cyathea dealbata	Pungan	5	15	75
Swietenia macrophylla	Magogani	5	15	75
Olea europaea	Pinnai	5	15	75
Prunus amygdalus	Almond (Badam)	5	15	75
Pterocarpus santalinus	Red Sander	5	20	100
Santalum paniculatum	Sandalwood	2	150	300
Magnifera indica	Alphonso Mango	2	125	250
Ficus benghalensis	Alamaram	2	60	120
Ziziphus jujuba	Ilandai Maram	1	125	125
	Palamaram	1	100	100
	Vadulam	5	15	75

The first plants to Go

With withdrawal of South west monsoon, rain fall has started in southern part of India. It is peculiar though. When north east cold currents force the south west monsoon clouds, the hitherto dry lands of southern tip of India, gets its full rain.  Otherwise a rain shadow region, for rain parched Nanguneri, these two months are important to get their maximum rain. Taking advantage of this, I have ordered about 1300 samplings from nearby nursery in Nagarcoil.  The farm that I was dreaming about for the past 3 years gets its first life.

A mixture of flowers, fruits, live fence, trees, shurbs to give color to the bio-diversity of my farm. There is a catch, though.  I have a hand operated pump installed on a newly dug borewell. that is all the source of water for my farm, which is fenced and secured.  A new employee, a farmer by himself is going to water these samplings.  My friend Subbu would provide his helping hand as usual. I am waiting for the snaps of the first few plants that are already installed. Subbu told he has dug 2x2 pits and placed fruit trees already with a circumference of planting not exceeding 50 meters from the hand pump, lest it will be difficult to irrigate.

  

Boring for Water

Boring or piercing the earth is something I would want to avoid. After reading so many articles on ground water depletion, I had very many hesitation to go for boring. But in this part of the land, there is no other water source.  Irrigation from canal or river or even a lake is absent. People are dependent on rain water or underground water.

I did my own study of where I can dig for water.  Digging an open well is an option. I would love to do that as open wells have their own elegance. Who would not want to take bath in open well or pumpset. Those who are from rural background would relate to what I am writing. They support more life forms. But I understand it is very costly,  given the labor shortage. It may cost between 3 to 6 lakhs, even then there is no guarantee of year long water. So it is ruled out.

 I used to spend hours pondering over the Google earth. In and out, in and out. Imagining there could be water way underground which will show up as a green belt. Indeed I firmly believed that all the dry lakes surrounding my lake would have sunk the water deep down and should be available. I chose the point X for boring.

Meanwhile I also had a local 'prospector'  who did water prospecting for me using his own technique of coconut and stick. He also spotted the same. Additionally an experienced guy was consulted. The guy who was contracted for boring also had a wealth of experience to share and he was positive. But he also said he did not get any success for the past few borings he did in the neighbourhood villages. Anyway i wanted to go ahead.

My sanction to my supervisor was to go for 90 feet to 150 feet maximum. I expected water at 40 feet. I planned for something like this;

	Feet	Rate	Amount
Boring	150	65	9750
Casing	20	230	4600
			14350

I was in Hyderabad and boring was happening around 1400 Kms away. My supervisor was coordinating. He had selected a dry day for boring and was waiting for the boring crew to be free. An  

So the boring went on.... 80 feet, 90 feet, 100, 110 and so on... There ws no water even after 160 feet. Only hard rock in black color. I believe from my supervisor telling that if there is no change of color, that was worrying him. He asked my advise. At 160 feet we asked to stop the work.

Boring Lorries, taking position

early morning was selected and boring commenced. 





Boring in progress



The crew was asked to start a boring from a new location, let us call 'B' towards East. This spot was also a choice selected and kept as plan B.  There also the crew could get only hard rock for about 90 feet. we asked to stop. My supervisor asked what to do? very difficult situation.  By that time it was lunch time. Boring owner was anyway gave up.  My supervisor also. Mood was very dull. I was in my office.  Then i picked my courage and ordered as follows. I said, anyway we have dug over 160 feet in 'A' location. Let us continue further boring over there. I have guts we will get water. Come what may. I will pay for it. Please go ahead and don't worry.  The boring fellows have to be convinced to re-aling on the same pit once again. Generally they will charge for re-boring. This time they accepted due to friendly talk.  So we started again,  at 190 the rock blasted and water started coming. We continued boring till 220 and stopped.

I was told the water was crystal clear. Since it was from under a big rock boulder of continuous depeth, there should be perinnial supply of water for atleast few years. Meanwhile I have to work towards recharging the ground water.  The same day evening the water level rose to some 30 feet.  My supervisor and his friends were able to draw water with simple bucket and rope.

Now a bigger worry !  What happened to the half dug borewell. Though both are well within the compound, we were worried no one should fall into that. Same day I strictly told my supervisor and others that the B hole to be closed at any cost. Presently they have to construct obstacles - which they did. Next day some workers were hired and the hole was closed with mud, sand, stones and waste material. Then i had relief.  As for the main bore hole, it was covered with outer (the PVC pipe) and was tied with Jute bag. Cementing to be done later.

Thus a successful boring operation was over.



Land after Boring. I understand the rocksoil is good for growing "asola". I asked them to preserve it. I donot know if they understood my advice.



Building the Farm Gate

Having settled with the Fence, my supervisor Subbu had created a make shift arrangement for entry into the farm.  The Tata Steel Link Mesh was to be removed from one of the pillars, rolled over in order to enter. Subsequently when you need to close the farm enterence, one has to roll-in the mesh and fasten it using still wire pieces.

This was not a good method and was prone to vandalism. Subbu had to stay back in the farm many nights in order to safeguard any leftover material and the farm itself. This cannot go ON for long. Something was needed and that was the gate.  So started my gate project.

I was exited at the thought of having a big gate at the enterence, which i wanted facing North. that means the means of entering from the main road will be through the buffer zone I reserved to be at 12 feet in bredth. From the road one has to go down the ramp and turn a sharp right. That means;

a) A Ramp to be made of mud for vehicle to move from main road which is on a tank bund to farm gate which is at ground level.

b) Degree of freedom required at the gate for a lorry to turn right at 90 degrees.

So my gate was to be of 20 feet in length (the longest gate I have ever seen) with each door having 10 feet distance.  Sitting from 1300 Kms away, i was doubtful of my own decision, but still I went ahead.

I was confident of my own decision. It is better to be big than compromise and get into trouble later. Secondy the gate enterance has to be bit moved inside for vehicles to 'turn' confortable.  Imagine a situation in which the adjascent land owner (housing colony) builds upto the border. Then I will be on my own 12 feet road and vehicle has to take a sharp 90deg turn into the farm.

Gate construction starts with identifying mason and ordering for gate.  The iron gate was to be ordered in Valiyoor after few enquiries.  I decided on the design after going through internet photos and communicated over mail/phone.  Subsequently I discovered that i need not scratch my brain too much. Just look around your colony in a city. You will find all kinds of gates. pick and choose one, photograph and send it. But it was too late. I had already decided.

This was kind of model i chose. Long gate and simple

Gate fabrication will be done at the workshop. It takes atleast 15 days to 20 days after paying advance to fabricate one.  There is no chance of changing your mind.

Meanwhile ground preparation is an important activity. The gate would weigh a ton. Therefore pillars are required to support the gate on either side. Since pillar also cannot withstand the test of time, whatever be the foundation, they need to be connected under the ground through horizontal concrete pillars. So it is a major project.  Cost was escalating and my supervisor was worried. I encouraged him all the time.....

Foundation work started

This work generates lot of labor. So i did'nt mind paying...

Gate pillar work under progress

Bricks are used to cast concrete horizontal pillar for strength

Another angle

Therefore two parallel activity was in progress, namely fabrication of Gate and construction of Pillars for support. Cost ?  it was also going up.  Now a new problem.  You cannot have two megasize pillars and a giant size gate of 20 feet width standing in middle of nowhere !.   How will it look like.  Therefore it was decided to construct side support collar walls to the pillars to a decent length. I also wanted a small gate in one of the walls so that only humans can enter it. the gate has to be so decided. I left the design open for the ground crew to decide. But later i learned that they lacked innovation. They had put only an ordinary conventional gate which must be kept closed.   These are small things that can be perfected only when the owner is on the spot. This is also the price i had to pay for operating from remote... anyway i was prepared for it.

Description	Unit Rate	Quantity	Amount
Iron rods	80	365	29200
Labour charge 5 days	250	50	12500
Other expenses	200	10	2000
Cement, Concrete, Bricks	5000	7	35000
Gate			15000
			93700

My friend Subbu was mentioning that all villagers who are passing by thought that there is a big factory or company coming up.  He was laughing and saying that he was also part of gossip mill. I was worried.  When three lorries (actually two of the lorries were empty and the drivers were resting and chit chatting with our friends), few motorcycles, drums and hectic concrete activitywas going ON, who will not think otherwise.  For villagers, a Company means hope of employement as well as threat of environment.  For me it was cause of concern as cost of labour will escalate and people will misunderstand me. Therefore i wanted the work to be hurried up. Used all corporate 'Followup" strategies.  So finally the fusion of Gate and Frame happened.

There was also necessity to construct side wall. foundation is seen

Completed Gate.



Having Completed the gate, i cannot hieve a sigh of relief. As you can see there is a gap under the gate which requires raising of floor..There is finishing to be done to the walls. There is a small gate pending. There is painting. There is decoration on the pillars.  So life goes on......

Survey and Fencing - Part 3

Fencing

This is the activity i was waiting for.  Fencing activity gives a high feeling because you are securing your own land and for good.  Fencing a land starts with a decision to be made.  Wheather to outsource the entire activity or do it yourself.  After calculating my area of land, it came to around 1400 feet perimeter distance. Even at very nominal rate of around 140 per feet, it will come to more than two lakhs. Therefore discarded that idea and decided to do on my own.  My farm supervisor was ready to do it himself and showed positivity. So I supported him.


The newly purchased Earth Augur at work.
Two men required. 20 holes per liter of petrol

Now some corporate planning  (using our business brain).  For installing the pillars and subsequently for tree planting, I decided i will purchase an earth Augur. I got this from 'pasumai vikatan'.  Browsed the internet and found a dealer in Madurai having branch in Tirunelveli. Couple of visits to that place for Demo (In village, you need to wait for many many days even for a mundae activity like a demo.).   The demo equipment had gone out, person incharge will go out of station, the technician is not there etc can be some of the excuses. Neverthless, the demo happened and my farm supervisor was happy. he sent me the photographs of the equipment in action. I decided on the best one and cost me 39000/-. Worth the investment.

Purchased in small lots and stored on farm.
Without fence it was vulnarable for theft.

Next is the stone pillars itself. To buy them in lot will not happen. There are few people (unlicenced) whom I want to help. Very poor people who work on daily wages cutting stone. After all, our project is to support low income groups. Therefore decided to go in small batches of 6 stones. Because they are poor, we need to settle cash on hand every time. Accumulate around 3 such batches and hire a vehicle for delivery.   Store the 25 stones in the farm on the ground.  Like this waited till the total count exceeded 160 Pillars.  After installation it was counted and found that around 14 had gone missing. few got broken.

The next in the list of items is Tata Stell Wire mesh. I decided to go for wire mesh called chain link fencing.  Different vendors in different towns like Valliyoor, Tirunelveli were contacted.  A mesh having 3.25" gap with 4.5 feet tall and having 2.5mm thickness was selected.  The process is by giving an advance confirm the order and wait for the wire to be knitted in factory. Then it is delivered.

We estimated we need around 18 bundles of knitted wire. weighing around 2 tonnes.  The total spend was something like this;

Description	Unit Rate	Quantity	Amount
7 feet stone	195	50	9750
5 feet stone	165	140	23100
Delivery van per 25 stone	400	10	4000
Unloading labor	400	10	4000
Tractor trip	300	30	9000
JCB	5000	4	20000
Bulldoser	5000	4	20000
Fence Material	40	1400	56000
Labour charge 3 days	500	30	15000
			160850



The actual fastening of the wire mesh cannot be done by ordinary labours. Therefore few workers at Rs. 500 per day were hired for this purpose who did a good job.

For team motivation, lunch was served (mostly biryani is liked by everyone). Water supply. A shade was built as a semi permanent setup. The construction of this cost some money (i remember less than 5K), but is worth spending.

Shade under construction for resting

Completed Shade (tent)

Quality and Alignment check

Post fencing, I started guessing the shape of the farm. I gave some "engineer" to draw the diagram. He again made so much fuss as follows;
a) Asked an ambassodor car to be picked up from Nanguneri to Valliyoor.

b) Pay him his fee of 3000 for survey

c) Pay him additional 4000 for a diagram.

Finally I got shabby piece of pencil drawing on a waste paper that i tore it off as soon as i received it in courier from my friend.  Even my baby kid will draw a better diagram. Anyway that is the way it is. It is clear that you should not approach any designer or engineer.

 

This was my grand plan. (However it did not workout subsequently as we will see......)


So I am on my own. Decided to draw it myself. I chose Visio and applied all my skills. I had nothing in front of me. Just with a survey diagram and photographs sent by my friend, I imagined, counted the pillars and drew near perfect diagram, which later my friend apprecaited.  This diagram gave me enough confiance and helped bridge communication gap between me and my manager.  It will also help me instruct over the phone clearly as we will see later......

One more thing, at every stage it is also required that some landscaping is done. Some left out areas have to be dressed properly. For this JCB and bulldozer were hired. Strictly this cannot be part of fencing cost (management brain fooling itself to believe so...), but neverthless they are mandatory.

Finally the fence is ready.

Survey and Fencing - Part 2

Waiting for the surveyor to come had become an endless wait.  So many execuses everytime i call my broker or farm supervisor. Meanwhile time is running and seasons are changing. I cannot keep endlessly waiting for the sequence of events to happen. The sequence and hence the constraint is as follows;

If you want to do farming, you need fence and fencing require survey to happen.
Survey require all registration to be complete and surveyor to be in place along with VAO. Since this is physical group activity, waiting for everyone's convenience is wasting time.
 

This is how the land looked with top soil with sand and salt.


In order to keep myself busy and the team, i decided to press on levelling the ground, come what may. Removing thorns, levelling and ploughing twice are the targets set for the team.  I am going to do very minimal or nil ploughing subsequenlty in the farm after organic cultivation starts. Therefore i want to complete the activity now and re-kindle the soil.  I also had the curiosity to see what does the bottom soil looks like.  As you can see in the below pictures it is not bad. Strokes are following tractor proves, there is life in soil.

 


JCB pulling down the thorny bushes (Burma weeds)



Having started the activity, the resource was consumed continuously.  Nothing can be stopped. Around 600/- to 800/- per hour for JCB and Bulldoser each and depending on area and complexity they must be run for 2 to 3 days for 8 hours per day.  We also had adventures like JCB bucket failing, the joint getting broken. Spares used to be obtained form nearby town Tirunelveli with downtime of around 3 days.

After all that you get satisfaction to see a vast expense of your land devoid of thorns, bushes and exposing the red earth.



Finally the levelled ground

Then on a fine day, the surveyor and VAO were invited as per their convenience.  This second visit also cost me more, but gave a satisfaction that atleast something is getting completed.  In farming activity, you are so pushed to the corner (like a waiting patient in Govt. Hospital taking the token) sometimes that you start accepting everything as Gods gift.

Farm got surveyed and borders identified.  Now I have to depend on the guy who got the briefing from the surveyor and some of the markings on the ground we had made with pebbles.  If there is any land dispute, that has to be settled on the way.  So far as the guy to the east who created dispute, we thought of giving some buffer zone while fencing.  We can sort out this later. This decision was taken so that we proceed with rest of the activities.

On the north, I asked my guys to leave about 12 Feet distance for any lorry or vehicle to pass through. Even I wanted to have the main gate towards north.  Ahead of my land was alread a plot whose ends were irregular. Moreover my land was being used by villagers as road for long time. Therefore I did not want to block anyone's access to go inside.  Sacrificing 12 feet for a length of around 200 feet made sense.

Next is west.  There is a main road at an elevation (Tank bund). Already there is some buffer space for road widening. Otherwise I have no issues on finding the border.

Finally the south. Here is the catch. I was told there is a worshipping stone in this area. Now to allow it inside or leave it outside is the question. I took a call to leave it outside so that those who workship (Once a year, i believe someone comes to workship the deity) donot disturb farm activity. Presently this consists of few broken stones (Someone attempted to make some pillars ages ago). It could be some demi-God of village or a family deity or even a samathi of a saint. I donot know. I allowed around 25 cents outside and planned to fence not disturbing the spot.  Over a period of time, planning to plant some trees over there.

Otherwise south is full of small land holdings with paddy cultivation going on whenever there is water.

Thus border identification is completed. next to plan for actual fence.