Long handled sickle with a bend

I use Scythe very heavily for cutting weeds and cover crops. At tight spaces Scythe can not be used since it needs more space for swinging. Also when the grass is very thin, especially in walk ways, Scythe is not a good option. Either I should use brush cutter or some sickle. With small handled sickle cutting is very tedious since we have to bend a lot. So thought of making a long handled sickle with a bend so that it remains horizontal to the ground, similar to Scythe. Even though I have to bend, but it should not be much. 

The blade became very thin, so if it hits the ground, it will bend. Also it is heavy, so using it for long time with one hand becomes difficult. The connection from the wooden handle to the cutting blade is very thick, hence it became more heavy, have to further tune it. But it is going to be one of the tool which I will be using more often.

Feb-2023

Wanted to make it a bit more thin, hence replaced the iron bar connecting handle and cutting edge with a more light one. Originally it was 375gms and after this change it became 305gms. Also the pointed edge was removed since it was hitting the ground often. Now it is quite OK, except that the handle is not very comfortable and also since the blade is very thin, it bends some times. Still it is a quite useful tool

Turmeric Patch 2 - Harvest and getting ready for next cultivation

After harvesting Patch2, cut grasses were used for mulching. Also road side grass also was cut and leaves gathered from road also used for mulching.

Turmeric Patch 1 - Harvest and getting ready for next cultivation

Turmeric Patch 1 was harvested, this time it was very minimal yield, mainly because last year sowing was done along with harvest and in many places, seeds didn't come up. Also after some time, weeds took over and no manuring was done.

This year, after harvest decided to keep the area heavily mulched and one round of fodder grass was used for this purpose. Also wanted to see how the deep mulched area becomes at the start of the seeding.

Also had bought some Mucuna Puriens (Black velvet beans) seeds from amazon and sown this in the channel between the beds, had watered this area using the irrigation water from dams.

Feb-2023

Python

Few months back there was a talk that a JCB operator had seen a python while doing the excavation work in the nearby farm. It disappeared after that, and no one had seen it afterwards. I was cutting the Pureria vine in one part of the farm and after cutting the top portion, one part of the snake was seen. It was a huge one, it was not viper from the markings. Only one part was visible.

I could see that it was a python, but it was not moving at all.Also it was hiding below the vines of the Pureria, normally I never saw snake in that position. It was not moving since it had eaten some thing, its belly was bulging. Called the neighbour person and 3-4 people came with him. I also called Kollengode forest office and they said, it will go and won't do any harm. One neighbor was telling, we will just kill it, I was very sure that it should not be killed. Sometimes you have to be very firm with these kinds of people. I was bit hesitant to leave it there, since we will be working in the grass. They agreed that, they will leave it in forest if handed over to them. One person Babu was called and he said he can catch it. 

Finally we cleared the grass and could see the tail, and Babu was holding the tail and two persons held the jute sack at its neck side. With some difficulty it started crawling into the sack and we tied and took it to the forest station in my car. I had to pay 500/ to Babu and overall expense was around 1200/, but felt happy that its life was saved and relocated it. Yet another neighbour was telling, it's meat is very tasty and next time, he should be informed while seeing one. I am not going to do that, I like to give shelter to such creatures, even though some people think that they are insignificant creatures.

Taro - easy to grow and produce lots of food

Generally root crops are easy to grow and they come up well in natural farming conditions, without much care. Here is the harvest from a single taro plant, this is enough to make curry for 2-3 days. Few seeds were planted back in the soil.

Karpooram mango flowering

This mango variety is called Karpooram and is bought from a nursery in Mannuthy,Trichur. Few months back, I had pruned all the inner branches, now it started flowering. It is a very tasty variety and has smell of camphor when ripe and you get this smell when cut. This is not affected by worms.

16-05-2023

There are reasonably good amount of mangoes on this tree, to be seen if the pruning helped, have to try pruning this year also.

Super Napier - for mulching

There are two super napier clumps which gives lots of mulch. Cut it and used to mulch young mango saplings and also coconut trees. It gives lots of mulch, cutting and carrying to other parts is difficult, if the trees to be mulched are nearby, then it is much better.

Cutting has to be done very close to the ground. Then it grows back very fast, in rainy season, it may be ready for cutting in 1.5 months time. The good thing is that the mulch takes time to decompose hence provide good shelter from rain and sun.

Have to form a time table, so that cutting can be done at least twice or thrice an year.