My Farm Visit April, 16 to 20, 2018 (Revised)

I had visited my farm as part of vacation in the last two weeks with family.  I had family function, marriage, temple function, sight seeing etc combined.   However this time we determined we will spend quite some time in the farm.

As luck would have it, the entire family of four (Self, wife, two children) were able to spend entire day in the farm working.  We ate lunch there. It was memorable. After that i alone visited the farm twice and encouraged the team.  Here are some excerpts in visuals.

(I had posted visuals from my mobile phone earlier. Due to roaming coverage or otherwise, I guess it did not post properly. I have removed that post.  I am sorry for those who visited the page and got disappointed)

God Sastha. The neighbourhood deity.  He is just at the entrance of the farm and facing the farm.  The temple has now got a proper roof and the damaged idols renewed by the family who worship him.

This is the road leading to the farm. On the left is a tank that gets filled once a year. This year however it got filled and drained fast as people had sucked water for farming using motors according to Subbu.

Well, our first mango.  Very tiny tree. But mango was large. The plants that we purchased from Ramji nursary is good. 

There is eucalyptus tree too in the farm. Couple of them. It brings my ooty memories. Just squeeze a single leaf. The entire area will smell of eucalyptus thailam.

Myself, Subbu and my son Muthu.  Having a chat on the stone table in the farm near the windpump.

Kandan inside the banana patch.

Banana Flower.  Maintaining the farm free of chemicals is giving back dividends. I can see honey dripping in the flower and honeybee (wild variety) sucking the same.  

The good old wind pump. Working. (Separate post on that later).

This is the first tiny tank that we dug near the windpump. Those days for us this was looking big.

The vegetable patch at last !.  You must search for the small plants. Ask subbu he will list a dozen vegetables. But will say that without interest. He is still not convinced. (Separate post on that later). However I am forcing.

Kandan near the jasmine patch. The Jasmine plants are yielding now atleast around 200 to 400 grams per day. But not enough for market.  When we were there, we plucked and gave to temple. It was of good quality.

Jasmine flowers.

The pond. It is dry now. But I want to preserve the complex micro eco system that it has. So no further digging. (Separate post later)

Coconut tree fairs well. The windmill at the backdrop.

Me. Sitting on the stone table.  The purpose is accomplished. However it was hot. Need some shade. Not a priority though now.  Adjascent trees are growing to give shade.

Drum sticks. Looks good. Perhaps I must grow them more

I donot know what is this. But this is not lemon. No one knows. But must be some useful tree. Because we purchased only known ones from Ramji nursary. One day I must bring someone who can identify such trees. Presently let us grow them well.

A wonder and welcome development. Honeybee in toilet ceiling. That is a certification that this farm is organic and pest friendly.

Well I made this small patch myself. Kandan is finishing it. This is where I have sprayed the miscellaneous seeds that I carried from pune to farm. I hope the bricks lining will stop the tiny seeds from floating off when watered. 

Family chatting with staff and tasting mango pieces.

I am not sure. This giant tree has grown near the windmill. It will grow taller than windmill next year. Not sure when we brought this and what is this tree variety.

This patch is barren now. Subbu is planning more bananas. Currently he is on vacation.

Subbu showing the tapiaco freshly dug from mud. He has planted them near coconut trees so that they get water automatically.

The rice (paddy) grain after harvest. For the small plot the yield is good. Not sure what variety it is. Subbu has kept in the room for polishing later through a rice mill.

The farm as it appears from the road.

Jasmine flower being plucked. My daughter in the foreground having a bag full of jasmine buds.

Farm update in Visuals - 29-Mar-2018

These photos were take a month back. Neverthless it is more relevant.   I am not sure what is the relationship I have with my employee - Subbu and Kandan.

There are certain things they DO. There are certain things they DON'T DO.  This is irrespective of whatever level of motivation you do.

Like nature, we need to understand human behavior.  Sometime I get irritated. I must not show that in words. Everyone has a story and a version for that. They too have. They have priorities and I must be sensitive to that. Be very attentive and ears on the ground.

At first sight these photos reflect a water starved ill maintained farm. (Inspite of two full time employees). But on a careful look and talking, it will reveal the kind of hard work and toil that has gone into shaping this up. It may also show the future potential.  Rest in Pictures.

Paddy Field

The paddy field. Ready for harvest. Subbu's own farm needs his time. They will do this when they get labor. But he never projects this to me. Apparantly because it is not come upto expectations.  As mentioned earlier, I left it to him to chose the seeds. Next time it will be country variety.

The Vegetable Plot

The Vegetable Plot: The most disappointing one. Where I vested my hope and aspirations for several months/years now. Not coming up properly. I am creating huge pressure on Subbu to keep planting relentlessly. In Parallel, I am preparing an aunty in village to sell this.

I will be visiting the farm in April 3rd week during vacation. Subbu is aware of this. He is working overtime to get this make-up. Let us see. I am not going to give up.
Yesterday I had asked Subbu to delivery 400 Gms of Jasmine and 6 banana flowers, some citrus fruit for pickles and drum sticks to the Aunty in Nanguneri. She is to sell this today. There is a utsav (Festival) going ON. I want the word to spread. Her house will be the first organic store. The flower will be garlended to the deity. This could be my first sale this year.

Banana

The banana has come to fruitition. It grows well in this farm. Only need more water. I am sure this will be successful crop. But selling is a problem. This time I want to sell this by boxing it in small quantities.  Few bunches at a time.   Let us see.

The not so fertile plot of banana. Not growing well. This is what I pointed out to Subbu and we had some bitter exchange.  He was very much upset after i spoke. It too 3 days to pep him up back to action. Anyway I wanted to convey the message that Kandan is not working.

Not so fertile piece

The Lemon. This road is small internal road going to Windmill. This is the only road.

.

Moringa

This grew on its own. Yielding nicely. Perhaps why not plant this more ? Seriously. 

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.