Rescue of snake

After digging the well, next week we found a snake in the water. The well was not covered and  no boundary wall so one snake found its way to the well. When I first saw it, it was not moving so put a small stone in the well, then could see it moving and not dead. Even though I am not an expert can identify cobra, viper, rat snake and a few others, but being at a distance of 33 feet, couldn't identify it. My worker Palani also couldn't identify it.

After couple of days, when I visited the farm, carried a rope and wanted to put a basket tied to it and put in the water, so that snake can escape from the well at night. As soon as we lowered the basket, it noticed it and came towards it and when we just moved it, it had its hood visible and tried to attack the basket. Now identification was easy, it was a cobra !!. Couple of times, it made the hissing sound and came again to attack the basket and later it dived into the water and was not seen for some time.

When we saw the next day, it had gone..it would be now roaming in the farm.

Digging an open well - updated on March 2014

I wanted to construct a small house in the farm for staying in the farm on weekends and also when more work is there and also for accomodating some guests. As part of this, 3 years back I started the work of an open well. In one summer it was dugged to a depth of 19 feet and there was no water and work was dropped. There was rocks at the bottom and it had to be blasted, so the work was stopped. Next year, got another team of labourers and brought one team for blasting the rocks. They bring the compressor in the tractor and make holes in the rock and put the explosives and then apply some eletric trigger and blasts the rock. The explosive is put at a depth of 2 feet and hence each blasting clears a depth of 2 feet.

Again after reaching a depth of 25 feet, there was no water ...and neighboring wells have water. They just dig another 2 feet in just one place to see if there is water, but there was no water, except that soil was little bit moist. In the 2nd year also the work was stopped.  I brought a person who uses some sticks and see the presence of water. In the well position, he didn't show any possibility of water and he suggested another area, but he also suggested since I have reached this depth, it is better to try another few feets.

This year, in the third attempt, we digged further with blasting rocks with explosives. And after reaching a depth of 30 feet, there was water !!!. I was so happy to see the water dripping from inside...We blasted twice again and now reached a depth of 33 feet and there is around 2 feet water inside the well. Hope there will be water till May and after that rain starts.

The farm has complete mulch every where and earth worm castings are also seen in lot of places. So I am assuming, there is lot of water going inside, but still planning to do a recharge using small pits made here and there so water can get recharged easily.

After couple of days, when we measured the depth of water, it was 4feet+, it is unbelievable and felt so happy.

 Here are some photos...

2013 rain was good and open well had recharged nicely. But 2014 summer is also going strong and open well at my house has gone dry and I could see nearby ponds also are going dry. But to my surprise well at the farm has still some water, at least 3-4 feets. I am planning to put more recharging pits around the well this time.

 2017-May

2016 rain was bad and estimated to be less by 40-50% and summer is very severe, most of the ponds dried, lot of coconut trees have dried. Well dried up in September, also it never recharged fully. I have to carefully tap all the rain water and put into sub soil. Planning to make trenches to redirect rain water and evaporation loss by sun and wind will be minimal and humas formation will be maximum at this condition, and humas holds lot of water, so trees will have more water available.