Hot Weather
Weather is too hot now a days, it has reached 42 degree centigrade in Palakkad. Summer showers are still missing, last year we had very good showers on April 22nd and April 28th. While travelling to the farm, I can see some of the ponds has gone completely dry which I have never seen after the relocation. My well had 4.5 feet of water after deepening it, now it is completely dry. Water level in the 'Kokkarni' (pond) has also gone very low and motor runs just for 1 hour. I can see fishes getting suffocated, last time when I was watching one crawled to the side land portion and after some time again jumped to the water. At home I can see kingfisher going deep into the well looking for fish, since many of the water sources has gone dry.
House construction
This is a small house to stay for us and for guests. Wanted to reduce the cost of construction and hence used old doors/windows, but still they are strong. I won't be plastering the walls and low cost tiles will be used for the flooring. It is taking more time, since labors comes for some time and they will go with other sites and keep going many projects in parallel.
Weather is too hot now a days, it has reached 42 degree centigrade in Palakkad. Summer showers are still missing, last year we had very good showers on April 22nd and April 28th. While travelling to the farm, I can see some of the ponds has gone completely dry which I have never seen after the relocation. My well had 4.5 feet of water after deepening it, now it is completely dry. Water level in the 'Kokkarni' (pond) has also gone very low and motor runs just for 1 hour. I can see fishes getting suffocated, last time when I was watching one crawled to the side land portion and after some time again jumped to the water. At home I can see kingfisher going deep into the well looking for fish, since many of the water sources has gone dry.
House construction
This is a small house to stay for us and for guests. Wanted to reduce the cost of construction and hence used old doors/windows, but still they are strong. I won't be plastering the walls and low cost tiles will be used for the flooring. It is taking more time, since labors comes for some time and they will go with other sites and keep going many projects in parallel.
Tamirind harvesting
There is one old tamirind tree which yields well. We harvest and process it removing the seeds and planning to sell it in the open market during festival time when the price is good.
Cowpea Cultivation
After the experimental paddy was cultivated, the field was having grass, so thought of growing cowpea without tilling. One reason was to make the field more fertile for the next season paddy cultivation. The grass was cut two weeks before. Grass was pulled back and then seeds were sown and again mulched with grass. I made sure that this time, the thickness of mulch is uniform..so this time it established better.
White ants
White ants are active in the summer, eating whatever is available and converting to soil..
Mangoes
This time mango trees was not having much fruits..The particular variety of mango given below is called 'kudiyan manga' or 'nattu manga' or 'chandrakkaran'. If the fruit is ripe on the tree itself, the taste is unimaginable. When my 12 year old niece was asked why she wants to come to India from US for the vacation, the reason what she gave was to taste this particular mango which she had tasted two years back.
