It rained one July afternoon...

This year, the usual dry period of Feb-May was much drier. In fact, our stream dried up in late Jan, and we were hopeful of some showers in April (chithirai rains). April became May, May became June, and still the dry spell continued...

Last year, our 42,000 lit rain water harvesting tank had helped see us through the dry period. In fact, we had survived last year without having to bring in water from outside. This year, the tank had a few leaks, and with no rains at all during the summer months, we had to bring in several loads of water from outside. It was also with much goodwill that several of our friends shared their water even in the middle of the dry spell.

By June, we had become accustomed to the severe water rationing. During the dry spell, we had also repaired the rain water tank. And we waited.

There were some showers, but they were too brief and too light, though they did keep the plants and trees alive. 

Then in June, we had some rains. The water tanks began to fill and finally, one July afternoon, the rains were finally coming down heavily. The stream started to flow again, and we were able to pump water up again. With subsequent rains in Aug and Sep, all the water tanks are now full. 

Our main rain water tank, repaired and now full again

The stream flows again, ever so slightly...

This year, by mid-September, we have received just over 16 inches of rainfall - about half of last year's annual rainfall. With the northeast monsoon still ahead of us, we hope this year we will get as much as last year, if not more.

And for now, with the rains finally here, we are busy again with planting banana and other tree saplings.

New sightings of the Indian Gaur

One of the distinct rewards of driving back home to the farm late in the evenings is the sighting of wild animals. In the past, we have invariably had at least one sighting on every such late evening drive - of gaur, elephant, or deer. In the recent months, however, we realized we had not had any sightings at all, if you do not count a few hare that we spotted.

Last week, we were again thrilled to see not just one, but two separate sightings of the Indian gaur on the same trip. These are massive creatures, muscles rippling under the dark, shiny skin. These pictures are grainy, but you must give allowance that they were taken from inside our vehicle, in the backdrop of a screaming spouse warning me not to go any closer :-)

For all the mud they trample, I wonder how they manage to keep their "socks" in a reasonable shade of white!

From our very own Amla trees

We've been blessed to have several trees of the mountain amla, native to these parts of the Pulney hills. One year, we tried selling them in the Oddanchatram market, and we quickly realized that was not a feasible option. We them found out they were excellent for making preserves such as jam and pickle. So the last two years, we have plucked them and have made delectable preserves.

The jam has been made with brown, unbleached sugar. The candy, however, could not be made with brown sugar, so we have made the concession of using white sugar to make them.

The picture above is this year's products. 

 

Here a quack, there a quack...

The addition of ducks to the farm has added much life. We bought them from two places; one set we bought were coloured, and the other white. No racial overtones,just telling it as it is ;-).

They are such timid creatures. For the first couple of days, they would not budge from a nook they found for themselves. Slowly, they started moving around a bit and then they discovered one of our rainwater storage tanks. What a joy to see them splash around. Interestingly, while they enjoy swimming in the water, they also keep the surface clean of all mosquito eggs and other flies, so that's an additional usefulness.

I know we are not supposed to count the eggs beforehand, but we do look forward to some duck eggs in a few weeks from now!

Strawberry surprise!

So much of our time is spent in despairing over plants which don't grow as well as we think they should, that we often don't stop to enjoy those that do very well even in the harsh terrain of our farm. 

One of the recent reminders of this was the strawberry plant. A friend dropped in a couple of months ago and had brought along a few strawberry plants. We assumed it would be very difficult to grow, but to our pleasant surprise, most of the plants did well. In fact, every few days we have been tasting our very own strawberries - although very few in number that sometimes we have slice them so all of us can have a bite!

So, now the Strawberry is on our "to-do" list and we'll have to source a few hundred plants and see how well they do.

Some of the other "pleasant surprises" - plants that have done surprisingly well in our farm - have been the avocado, pineapple, rosemary and aloe vera. Some of our avocado trees have just flowered for the very first time, and we are keeping our fingers crossed to see if we will get to taste them a few months from now.