Farm update 23-Nov-2018 - Mood of workers

I am not happy about the things going in the farm.

a) I sense a prolonged absence of Kandan (farmer) to the farm. Subbu also goes seldom there. It is reflected in their updates they give when talking. I asked for photos. With reluctance Subbu sent few. I explained him why it is important to work to keep ourselves in Job.   Subbu seems to be hard pressed for money. His family is expanding, so also his needs. Kandan has sowed rice in his own field taking advantage of recent rains. He is busy there.

b) Farm is getting enough rain. This is rainy season. Therefore there is no irrigation required for the trees. That is why it must be boring for the fellows and they are roaming around. But i wanted basic house keeping to be done atleast.  Which is cause of concern. But when you have less work in Corporate office, do you work more effeciently or less. I guess we also go out frequent smoking and donot attempt to do that little work. There is no motivation to do little work. It is the scene everywhere.

c) To engage Subbu and Kandan, the solution came from their mouth itself. Subbu said he is going to purchase Fish. I said Ok and sent 3 K.  Which is enough for 500 fishlings. Fish will keep these guys busy. They will make their presence daily - going by my past experience. They love fish.  Subbu went to far away place (near the hills and brought fish from vendor).  100 of the fish will be left in white cement tank as well.  That will ensure they maintain water in that tank too.

d) Subbu also wanted to buy some hen and chicks. That project is pending.

e) The windpump amplifier that I sent earlier by lorry has finally reached.  After diwali festival one lorry had picked this consignment. The transport company called me and gave coordinates of driver. Which I promptly passed on to Subbu. We both followed the driver. After few days, he went zig zac and finally delivered near the farm in a unmanned place.  Police caught and enquired what is this and why this is unloaded away from an address. Nothing wrong in police asking this.  Subbu "adjusted" him and brought the consignment to the farm. It is pending installation.

f) Meanwhile I have made an easy to understand video of installation with instructions and sent to Subbu. hopefully they must start the work anytime now.  They lack basic tools to even open the wooden box that I sent with tight nails.

https://youtu.be/6ABZAZybEmI

g) Farm needs maintenance. There is grass eveywhere. I had earlier asked 9 varieties of cereals to be sown at random so that it can be ploughed after it grows to add fiber to soil. Subbu said he has done, but could not see as grass is taller than this. Bad job.

Grass eveywhere due to rains and healthy climate.  This is good. Only in summer it will dry
and pose fire hazard.

Fishlings that Subbu had purchased.  500 of them. 

The pond.  I asked Vettiver (barely visible) photo. Since it is not grown properly he has sent this.

This is where Navadanya should have been sown. Must wait few more weeks.

My wife had asked subbu to plant these seeds at random everywhere. This is one of the long
pending and evading projects.

Rain water

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Moringa tree

This is the native palm tree siblings that are growing.

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Kandan standing. The background really looks great with thick vegetation

Fish being released into water

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At fish factory. Fish is packed in polythene bags with air pressure to sustain transport.

Farm Update 08-Nov-2018 Mechanical amplifier

Farm update:

Finally the windpump mechanical amplifier  for the Poldaw windpump is ready.  What initially I set out to design and fabricate has now been completed after several rounds of visits to lathe and welding shops.  Past 2 weeks there were intensive activity around this on followup amidst my business work.

The welding helpers lost interest at some point of time. They found this an obstacle in their shop as it occupies space. I hurried myself and finished the thing. Actually I wanted to prepare more tools for Subbu, but confined myself only to this amplifier.

Sending this was also a challenge. My farm is 1000 kilometers away. The transport / logistics company was asking invoice papers. This is R&D piece and have no papers. A search and  by chance a transporter agreed to send this by lorry "whenever it goes" after Diwali Holidays.  Hope Subbu will receive this and fit it properly.

Subbu has returned from Tirupati Darshan.  It went well. he was in touch all along partly to confirm his ticket and seats online.

Meanwhile there is plenty of rain at the farm. This is rainy season there.  Subbu has disconnected the electric wires. Kandan should feel safe. I did not approve the wire being drawn from one room to another without pole. I asked him to secure this quickly. After return from Tirupadi, Subbu has to fabricate 2" pipes in welding shop and make electric poles.

The main unit. The face plate will move up and down along with railings on both sides. This will lift the pump rod.

This mechanism will be pushed from top by the windmill.  This is a slider and can be moved back on the cantiliver.
The more it is moved back, the bigger will be the arc of sweep and hence more water.

Fulcrum at the back. The split on top is for easy removal for repair and refitting.  Theft can happen.

Side view

Sending by a mini tempo. I went in this tempo and searched transporter

This is the original drawing I conceived out of mind and drew on computer using "sketchup" software.  I hope
the final product has come out exactly like this.
This method works.

Farm in Visuals Oct 2018

This is a period of waiting.  There had been rains coming. We need to plough the field. Today is Saraswati puja, Ayutha Puja at Farm.  Subbu told he has brought all the materials for worship yesterday.  I asked if I need to send some money. He said No. he owes me and feels guilty he has still not enabled Phone banking yet.

He also told that brinjal is selling at 70 Kg/- and our farm produced 1 kg today.  Great. But knowing fully well that vegetables are selling why we are not doing anything at all ?

Few days back I had argument with Subbu.  He was talking about new electrical wiring to be done to match the 3 phase. The talk went ON and ON only around technical things that need to be done. Like welding posts in nearby town etc.  We had also been exchanging various photos about the windpump amplifier that I am fabricating in workshop in Pune. I have completed that (Details in next post).

I stopped in mid way and asked "when are we doing to grow food, which is our priority.  Let technical work keep waiting. After all we waited for so long.  We also need to grow food".  This irked him and he went into his usual thought.  It was also partially because for several weeks now he had not been to the farm regularly nor supervised Kandan properly. He knows his fault.  He knows his guilt.  That said.. these are the snape he promptly sent at once.

So temperory workers (ladies) with whom we are not in touch for quite long, has been invited to the farm for today's worship. Hope Durgashtami will bring more happiness and growth in coming day.  For one thing, we are going to grow (crops).

The brush like grass is growing which is native to this place (on the left). This is mid way path to Windpump

Can't identify what that tree is.

Trees are growing. Only the citrus plants are always seen eaten by insets.

Well, banana season is over. This patch has been cleaned and waiting for ploughing.
Now rain has come. It will be seeded with Nine Grains and later polughed. This will add green manure

Beside the porai or the resting place.  Gradually shade is engulfing.

The main entrance as we walk in from the gate.  Subbu is fond of taking photo from this angle,
because this is the only part of farm showing neat growth. Sort of bench mark

Notice the small square patch that I made in July. Nothing has grown inside it. I put lot of seeds in it.
May be they have floated out.

Kind of academic climate is forming here. 

A new angle. from inside the half finished room. I hope to develop this into an open room where  we can keep
heavy machinery once 3 phase comes. Like oil extraction machine.  This can also be multipurpose hall.

Asked Subbu to note the water marks and water logging places.

Notice the circular bund made around the trees. Compare photo above. The water logging is not affecting the tree due to this.

This needs attention.

Jasmine. My only hope and commercial crop now.

Wish I expand more flower beds like this. This is very hard work.

Very funny.  The coconut tree with Zero height.

Classic view of windpump. A new angle too.  This spot from which he has taken was very infertile patch.

Farm Update 24-Sep-18 (partly visual)

Subbu is in a mood to go to Tirupati. His annual pilgrimage. He was saying he did not get proper tickets.  I did not want to therefore load with any other major work.

Finally 3 Phase current is sanctioned. After several sorties, Subbu had obtained the new meter. Now the Eb has to come and give connection from the pole. Upto the pole they seem to have drawn the required extra wiring.  I asked Subbu to call a local contractor to do rest of intra-farm wiring. No compromise should be there in quality as more current is going to come.  Meanwhile Subbu hit upon an idea of making indigenous electric post using 2" pipes to save on cost.  Electric poles are costing very heavy if purchased. (above 7K per pole).

Windmill was fixed and is working fine. However after 3 months suddenly it has unlocked itself. The reason was found to be a silly mistake by Kandan. Earlier Kandan had unwound the rods without holding the lower rod with left hand. This is like trying to open a lid without holding bottle.  the Result is it has loosened a screw somewhere deep inside the well.  Such behavior of people is what makes us develop more idiot proof things in due course.

I spoke to Subbu about what we can do further in agriculture. Presently he claimed he has cleaned the banana patch.  Kandan and his accomplice (One man who has been appointed as body guard to Kandan for a fee. Kandan feels threatened after he hit a thief few weeks back) were given some job. Left alone they would confine themselves to watering the trees and keep quite. I was upset on this and hence Subbu had some work delegated.

I am writing about sustainable farming as a series of articles in Face book in vernacular Tamil.  It has been a long pending due to write something in Tamil for my friends. I started writing about sustainability especially focusing on farm power.  (Wind, CSP etc).  looks like people like it.

There is other reason for writing now.  ABS company called me and told they have a windmill ready and it is occupying space in their factory. They are into bolting business and keep high value items. They want to sell this off quickly to make room for themselves. I promised I will contact some of my agriculture farmer friends. This article of mine has indeed generated interested. Hope it will mature into orders.  If more orders come, I myself want to get involved into design improvements along with ABS.

Meanwhile I am silently working on my low cost verticle windmill project. I just gave order for fresh wings to a workshop. My other project - mechanical amplifier is also taking good shape.

Below are some of the farm pictures as it stands. These are inspiring.

View from behind the windpump rotor blade.

Recently the fuse had burned. This is dangerous. It happens because whatever said, they donot propelry
use rated fuse wires. They tend to use copper wires. I must be strict on this.

Just a random View

Mature coconut

Amla

Sapota patch. Note the climate has started Drying.

Sapota

Jasmine. Nice to see it is bushy. But it lacks manure.

The one and only surviving vegetable. White Brinjal

Need to make pickles out of this. Subbu is not listening.

Jasmine patch

One rod from the well. I wanted subbu to take photo of its tip with pencil.
This is how we exchange information. This picture will allow me
to guage how much is the thickness of the rod.
This is required for me here to fabricate one.  Since he is not having vernier calipher, this idea.
This picture says the rod is 12mm in diameter.

Farm Update 10-Sep-2018

Electricity   :  The much anticipated 3phase power has come to the farm at last.  Several months of waiting and numerous trips to the EB office by Subbu with some disappointments have come to an end.  The EB officials would also make trips around the villages meeting incumbent applicants to collect their tips.

The process is to fix new meter again (paid again), new board, fuses and so on... Each of that will be done in coming days.  I guess now the additional wire in the post for 3 phase had been drawn out by the  govt contractor form the transformer.

I told Subbu to employ a good contractor in the farm to finish the last mile.  We need to pull fresh wire from the gate to the generator room and further to the tank. All will cost a lot of money and some efforts.  The wires are very costly.  We have decided to take it over head by installing few posts.  This is better than burying inside the soil (underground).  We will forget eventually and may lead to other problems.  Being over head will allow periodic inspection, though it will be vulnarable to vagaries of the climate.

Hopefully when everything is done, we can connect back our texmo 3 HP pump and run it seamlessly. That means we can fill the white large cement tank to the full.  This had never been filled properly since the time it was constructed.  If power is drawn upto this tank, then we can also install baby motor to displace water for sprinkler and hopefully a rain fun in future.  The windpump excess water also can converge into this tank.  Ultimately we can then start reducing power usage and worry about agriculture.

Agriculture : I told subbu, let us atleast start growing something for our families instead of aimlessly attempting to grow crops commercially and get disappointed. I want him to send stuff by courier so that I can test all means of sending food over long distances. I told let us first start sending to our known families and friends. Atleast this is the trend I see with organic farmers using social media.  He agreed.

Update on Windpump Amplifier

Today I went to the workshop. I have been rattling now and then, but for one or the other reasons the workshop owners were not available. They generally go out for field work. Or I go in lunch time. Or one of the key guy is missing etc... nothing was moving.

But today was different. All were in place. I spent quite a few hours there. I had purchased a handgloves, round file, a threaded rod of 10 feet, some bolts,  sand paper etc to polish some of the components myself.  I also sent these snaps to Subbu and my wife to impress them that I am serious at what I am doing.

Now around 70% of the work is over.

Rest in visuals.

The completed setup. 70% over

An innovation to allow the cross shaped bar to be removed from top. This is required
for Subbu to further work on this in case. As it is main moving component.
However worry about theft in future.

The moving bolt will further be welded with additional pieces to connect to windpump.

Front view. This will slide up and down.

The rod which is pieced the face plate has allowance to move back and forth to compensate.

Banana is a Loss

The only commercial crop that is ripe and ready to sell is banana in my farm. We started with around 200 trees. I am not sure how many are standing now. How many have been cut.  Because Subbu is in no mood to share that information with me.  He said he has removed substantial portion of banana after giving it off. He has jumped to next action plan already, meanwhile my mind is still loitering around banana and what next.

There is a reason why Subbu is silent.

Banana is not selling well in the market. Attached is a bill from the broker which says Rs. 70/-  (approx 1 dollar) for the bunch of 250 bananas and another rate for smaller bunch at Rs. 30/- (half a dollar). Atleast this is ok.  In subsequent bunches, they got so less price that we had to pay from our pocket for the transport.

Subbu is disappointed, so also me.  After all he had taken careof banana plants for 10 months day and night tending care, watering and growing it to see in full adult hood. When we visited with family we enjoyed that patch very well. Each of the taller than 12 feet are now sold for just Rs. 25/-.  Such is the nature of agriculture.

I must find a way out of this.  Perhaps chips, banana powder.... I spoke to subbu about these just to keep him happy and give hope.  To do that practically is difficult.

Anyway my inner thought says, why can't i take up the job of broker myself. I heared several farmers are giving away banana bunches for loss at this season. If only I collect all of them and sell it at a profit. May be to a far away place after paying toll and transport ?