Farewell to our Dundu cat

Dundu was my daughter's pet cat, he was brought by our servant lady, Padmini chechi, around 6 years back. I used to call him Dundu mani, my wife calls him Dundu Pappu, my son calls him 'Suban', daugher calls him 'Dundu'. He was very playful and night time we used to keep him in a cage so that other cat's won't attack him. Later he became a good fighter and fighting with other cats was his hobby. After each fight he would return exhausted and injured and he won't go out till he is completely recovered, after that the routine starts again. He was friendly with female cats and would share his meals with them. But with male cats, he would sit near his meal so that no one takes it, later when he is hungry he will finish it off.

He would chase rats away sometimes would catch and kill them too. He hunts squirrels and chameleons too. He learnt to come inside the house by jumping the window and he knows how to take away the mosquito net which is a sticking type. He has a seat in the kitchen and he sits there till he is fed with his food after that he goes upstairs and sleep. He is very aggressive with dogs,and beats our dog Peeku, for no reason. 

When we are not around, he would go to our neighbour's house and will take rest there and knows his food will be served from there.

Once he disappeared for 2-3 days, we got scared without knowing what happened to him, and we searched in the neighbourhood. We also told the neighbours about this to get any clue to trace him. Our neighbour Vijayechi while talking to some others mentioned about that the white cat was missing and surprisingly another lady told she had seen a white cat trapped in a cage which was kept in an deserted place to hunt some small animals. Vijayechi told us and I went to see the place and he was desperately crying in the cage. I just opened the cage and he came running to home and started drinking water from a bowl kept outside. That was a miraculous escape for him.

Once he became ill and doctors suggested to him antibiotics and that became overdoze and he was vomiting blood and also later became motionless. My daughter panicked and started calling many hospitals and finally decided to take him to Palakkad Veterinary hospital and doctor said he may not survive. But he gave couple of injections and to our surprise next day he became fine.

Recently he started drinking water more and my daughter felt some thing is not right with him and he used to get indigestion often. He would run on hearing the fish seller approaching on his moped and he would give some fish to him. Some times, there will be dogs too, but he would fight with them and will bring it inside. Last week, he ate a big raw fish and started vomiting and was on fasting. But we gave novamox antibiotic but still he didn't felt better. We had to go my wife's house since her father was not well and I came back hearing Dundu was not OK. We took him to veterinary hospital and they gave drips and 4 injections and he didn't even get up after that. We were about to take him for a second consultation but he left us before that.

He gave us lot of good memories, Dundu, you will be there in our hearts.

2023 - Drought

This year summer was very harsh, didn't receive summer rains and temperature touched 40 degree. I had stopped watering all together and farming was just rain fed. Last two years since there was enough summer rains, didn't have any issue. But this year coconut trees and cocoa trees started wilting. I lost one coconut tree completely as of now, few trees are badly affected. It would take 3-4 years for these trees to recover fully.

Could see that few coconut trees which were surrounded by mango and jackfruit trees were doing relatively well. The shade provided by the evergreen trees were quite effective in fighting the summer. At the end of the rainy season, I had cut and mulched grass, mexican sunflower and super napier grass at the base of the tree, but that alone didn't help.

While going through one video of Panos Mainkis, natural farmer from Greece, he mentions about the need of evergreen trees to shade the farm. So at this point, thinking of growing mango trees and jack fruit trees around the coconut tree along with mexican sunflower,super napier grass and also banana plants. Also decided that mexican sunflower and super napier grass will be cut only twice, may be in July and September, after that they will be allowed to grow so that there will be shade.

Another approach to fight the drought is to use the cover crop Mucuna Bractecta which grows very fast 10-15 cm per day and also within 6-9 months, would fill the entire field. It withstands summer and would provide a green cover even at the summer, this should allow the coconut trees to fight the summer. But issues with this is that they have to be cut and controlled frequently and also it is not eatable for cattle, if eaten may endanger their life. So planning to try this out in one area of the farm.

07-06-23

Since rain is delayed, loosing more coconut trees, lost 3 of them as of now. Feel like going for Mucuna solution, even though it is a hard decision.

Paddy cultivation - first season 2023

It is time to start paddy cultivation and I do organic tilled way in my 0.35 acres of paddy field. After the last rice cultivation nothing was being done in this field and touch me not and other grasses were growing. Received couple of good rains now, so wanted to grow daincha as a green manure crop, tilled the field and broadcasted 5kgs of daincha seeds and then tilled one more round.

Daincha seeds were given by the tractor driver at 30/- per kg and he took around 1 hour for tilling the field.

03-July-2023

Land was ploughed using rotovator

July 6-2023

After this rain started heavily and could not use the line tiller since land was too wet. Hence ladies put the seeds in rows in their own way. Seed was put in cowdung water for a night and then sown.

No-till experiment - 2023

This year also planning to do no-till experiment in my two plots in which I had tried rice last year. It was lying idle in the summer and had some weeds, cut them and mulched back. Also had piled up cut pureria last year which had decomposed, spread that also in the field. Weeds were much less after the no-till, can see that very strong weeds have disappeared.

Planning to do rice for the first crop and finger millet and foxtail millet as the second crop, and if moisture is still there, cow pea after that. To the extend possible planning to have a cover always, so that bare soil is not exposed.

23-April-2023

2nd plot before cutting weeds

1st plot after cutting weeds

This time will be trying happy hill rice, attapadi upland rice and kattamodan or chennellu

11-July-2023

Grass was cut using Scythe and planning to cut using brush cutter.

Kozhikulayan (കോഴിക്കുളയൻ) - traditional variety mango

 Kozhikulayan (കോഴിക്കുളയൻ) is a traditional variety mango found in some parts of Trichur (Thirur,Kolazhi etc). Its basic taste is of Komanga/Vattamanga which is a famous variety found throughout Kerala. It weighs around 200-300gms and seed is polyembrionic and no worm attack, hence seed would give the characterestics of mother tree.

Bought this from a shop in Puthissery, which is a place in Muthuvara-Adat road. They sell it at 60 rupees per Kg. 

Ginger in backyard

Last year's ginger was harvested and some are being used at home and some are kept in a pit for use for next season.

Some taro also is kept in the pit.

Some beds are being prepared with leaves spread on it, beds are not raised. Also dumping kitchen waste directly on them, in situ composting. 

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