Farm status today 04-Jan-2023

Some small milestones. Subbu is active now. Inspiration is the forthcoming pongal festival. This time he want to celebrate at farm. Whitewashing and painting done. (Not in picture).

Pictured below are work done in pruning the jasmine plants, creating water holding pits around trees and so on…

Mango tree
Amla tree
Jasmine sprouting after pruning
Jasmine plants pruned

Making use of discarded borewell

Remember I have two borewell. The productive borewell that had jet pump inside went berserk. Suddenly mud/sand/gravel started falling inside, repairing the deep submersible pump. I paid upto 7K to repair it and Subbu did his best to repeatedly pullout, repair and put back. But no use. Again the bore water was clogged with dirt. There was no option but to abondon thinking it will settle down in few months. If it were some new underground new water current source, then it should settle down.

No use the situation was same even after months. Therefore windpump had to be pulled and it that borewell, the jet pump had to be inserted to maintain the show. On my visit to the farm I saw the abondoned borewell. Ideally I could have put a vertical axis windpump that I am developing. But alas, it is not ready. That if it were would pump the water slowly with mud and all.

While enquiring for a compressor in the market, I chanced upon this compact monobloc compressor, ready to use. priced at around 14K, this is the best. Vendor told it can reach upto 200 feet. Immediatly I placed order for one and started the work. We will install this near the borewell, pump the mud water using compressed air. That way nothing can stop us from using that well. Thought was put into action. Rest in pictures.

Otherwise abondoned well

Above is a picture of unused borewell covered with sac. This had mud falling inside rendering any jetpump useless.

Monobloc Motor

Monobloc Motor compressor pump

Decided to purchase this monobloc pump.

A fully functional water supply system fabricated in 3 days flat.

New Water tank, fully operational

Video of final shape of newly installed irrigation system putting to use the discarded borewell. Thanks to Subbu, Kandan and Kandan’s son Sivanesh who is a technician now himself. He does a good job. He also brought an efficient technician who charged a bit high, but did a pukka job as can be seen in the picture. Subbu was upset, but he has no reason to be upset, for the damage he had done so far outweighs anything.

After this, few months hence, now only the lateral pipes are not in use. They are clogged. Otherwise Kandan is able to manage is work.

Farm Update in Visuals – My Farm visit – August, 2022

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I had visited the farm in August, 2022 casually taking advantage of “work from home” and with permission from boss. I could spend quality time in the farm for few days intermittently. After coming back somehow I was unable to write any post for my blog. The primary reason is procastination and lethargy.

Let me re-start right away. All these are visuals. Needs no explanation. Where required i have given.

You can expect more posts in few days.

Period of No activity – Farm update

Not that the time is bad now. It has always been that way for the past few years now.

There is virtually no activity in the farm now. The fruits and flowers are just getting matured and falling apart in natural way with no one to take care. Perhaps animals and insets must be having huge party. Plants and trees are growing however with bare minimum support without any hinderance. That is how it should be. It should be exiting to visit the farm. I have not been there since 3 years now (due to corona and subsequent lockdown).

Subbu and Kandan have continuous family issues. They have become old, weak and worn out is what i hear from other circles. Whereas Subbu is continuously hampered by domestic issues, Kandan has health problems.

They are so busy and engrossed that they hardly find time even to visit the farm and do the long list of to-do things that we always discuss. Some activity over fixing the electricity is half way. Bills are coming to range of 2K per month. Recently subbu attempted to repair the kerosene pumpset but it failed after spending around 15K and lot of effort to carry that all the way to Tirunelveli. He also skid from two wheeler and then on took some rest.

Besides these there were some mystical things also happened near the farm. Adjascent to our farm is a small Sastha Temple. Every year relatives and friends of that family use to visit on Uttaram day. They rest in our farm during the hot sunny day. The principle owners of the temple – a family did not visit for few years in a row. This year they all visited. He made a call also for donation purpose with renewed energy.

But alas on the same day they lost their son in a freak car accident nearby just 10 minutes into a dropping a relative to railway station. It was told that he was a drankard earlier and was basically a good guy but without any aim. The accident itself was very freak and could not believe it happened. Now I am not sure how that family will come next year to worship – either they will fear the God even more and fulfill their project or abandon altogather and handover to other relatives. God has his own plans. Subbu was very much with that man till last moment and he escaped that accident as he had some work in the farm at that time and did not accompany him.

Farm update in visuals March 2022

Kind of settled in new way of communicating. Subbu has finally started taking some interest on his own. Atleast answering the phone. Perhaps he is feeling guilty over prolonged absense.

These are pictures he sent. Basically there was huge problem on jet pump. Suddenly two weeks back it stopped working. Result was, some plants started wilting without water.

The root cause was found to be some small stones were coming in the bore well and damaged fans. It was taken to valliyoor and promptly repaired. The team suspects someone would have put mud into the well or and a new stream got opened under the earth. The latter is more likely due to extreme rains last month..

Anyway this woke up Subbu and he started working fast. Of course the loss was for me (around 10k) and second time repairing of same pump also did not work.

Finally the old bore well was abandoned and the motor was shifted to tube well under the wind mill. That is how it is working now and we are waiting for the old bore well water to settle down.

Jasmine patch.
I guess some pest has attacked the tree.

Farm Update 23rd Jan, 2022

My first post in WordPress after migrating from Blogger. It has been very confusing experience in WordPress. It is unintuitive, cumbersome. What more it is asking money even for basic setup. I could somehow invent few techniques myself using DOS, Excel and migrate all my 330 posts here. They are my 10 year work that i had in my blogger. Seems each of companies like WordPress, Microsoft and Google are onto making money and in that process has left the core product and customers behind. Anyway I am on basic plan and will continue to innovate. (don’t like spending money unnecessarily)

Update on the farm

Rains have gone. Sun is shining. Subbu can no longer hold on to his white lies forever. The roost have to come home. Finally he started moving his ass after innumerable persuasions. If he doesnot act now, some of the trees will dry up. The fact is electricity is costly, had cable cut and is not working. Motor is not working. Windmill was never connected. Therefore now he is at compulsion to act.

Idea is to remove the pump and motor from each of the borewells and clean and put back. But the roots of trees have blocked the borewells. Therefore labour is required and lot of physical activity. Currently (Yesterday) he has removed things from both the wells. Now the electric submercible needs repair and maintenance. He has taken to Valliyoor along with technicians on motor cycles. Will cost around 6K.

The rusted pipe just removed from windmill borewell
Workers removing the pipe assembly. Due to chocking because of root growth inside the borewell, this lifiting is a mammoth challenge. Make one mistake the assembly will fall deep.
Kandan at the other borewell where submercible was removed.
Securing the well with cover.

Year 2013 and before Posts

2010/12/31 —- Land Purchase At Nachankulam

2011/01/15 —- Journey To Registration

2013/04/04 —- Survey And Fencing Part 1

2013/05/16 —- Survey And Fencing Part 2

2013/06/18 —- Survey And Fencing Part 3

2013/06/28 —- Building The Farm Gate

2013/07/26 —- Boring For Water

2013/11/10 —- The First Plants To Go

2013/11/11 —- Selection Of First Batch Of Plants For Fence

2013/11/17 —- Completed Some Basics On The Blog You Are Invited To Follow Regularly Once In A Week

2013/11/21 —- Creating Swales In The Farm

2013/11/25 —- Backdated Postings

2013/11/28 —- I Said No To Free Electricity Proposal

2013/12/06 —- Wind Energy

2013/12/12 —- First Plants Appear On Screen

2013/12/13 —- Farm At Different Stages Photo Summary

2013/12/15 —- Solar Power Using Reflectors

2013/12/15 —- Visit To Rajkot Tinytechindia Plant For Renewable Energy

2013/12/17 —- Managing Farm Inputs

2013/12/17 —- Steam Engine For Farm

2013/12/18 —- Farming Is Not About Just Growing Food It Is Much More

2013/12/20 —- Prosopis Juliflora The Devil To Farming

2013/12/30 —- How To Communicate To My Workers From 1500 Kms

2013/12/30 —- Yellow Flowers And Mustard Oil