We are flooded out again and are quite concerned. What used to be an occasional and unusual phenomenon seems to have become an annual one, and the severity seems to be increasing. Most of our fields, in all directions, including those which NEVER were flooded before, are under water. Those that are not are inaccessible:Continue reading “Flooding”
Author Archives: Irfana
First pond!
We have finally dug our first pond! We plan to have perhaps two or three of different sizes, and channels connecting each part of the land to one or the other. It’s been a daunting idea, but here’s the first one! We’ll do more shaping and landscaping, including adding stones etc, after this monsoon, onceContinue reading “First pond!”
More trees!
We have finally purchased our last (for this year) major batch of trees. 750 native plants for the trenches and a wide variety of fruit trees, both from seed and grafted. The heat is building up and we’ve had a couple of dust storms and very minor showers. We want to get these in beforeContinue reading “More trees!”
Andhi!
Cutting grass and mixing mud
The last two months have mainly been a daily slog to do these two things. Sunil works for a few hours with the grass cutter to reclaim meter after square meter of land from the wild flood-jungle it had become. And we have had the JCB digger in again to make the compost mix andContinue reading “Cutting grass and mixing mud”
Crinkle-crankle walls
Along the riverside, we have a low (3-4 ft) wall with a four foot wire netting. For the most part, it feels secure, though we are planning to raise the netting in a few places where it has been breached by nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus – Asian antelope; very common in these parts). During the floods,Continue reading “Crinkle-crankle walls”
In the lull
This month’s work: clearing grass, growing wheat, and putting up a fence towards the river.
Harvesting babul – and more
We have started thinning out the babul trees (Vachellia nilotica or gum arabic trees) on our land. They grew on their own, and really took over the landscape, which we have been very thankful for these past few years when we didn’t have our own trees. But now it is time to select, prune, andContinue reading “Harvesting babul – and more”
Welcomed back by the land
We’ve mostly been trying to get things back in hand after the monsoons, which were overwhelming, and then trying to harvest the rice and get in the winter farming crops in time. The whole village is doing the same, but with a calm and collected attitude. We are such amateurs in comparison! Here’s our rice:Continue reading “Welcomed back by the land”
Children’s Day
On the 14th of November, Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday, the country celebrates ‘Children’s Day.’ We usually have a picnic and games–usually a scavenger hunt, and this year we decided to take the children to Chhitauni. It was the perfect setting, and we rounded it off with a yummy meal of puri, alu, and halwa cooked rightContinue reading “Children’s Day”
gangavan.org 