Our work continues in the gaps between the thunderstorms. Below: preparing the nursery for rice last week and the rice emerging; children inspecting mushrooms and earthworms while Rumi snoozes in the brief moments of sunshine. Semal plants emerge after a long hibernation and the seed office is inspected by the dogs as new seeds areContinue reading “One day in the season of rain”
Category Archives: office
“Where’s the loo?”
“This is not the tale of how we always had to strategise before planning to spend the day, or half the day, on our new up-coming forest retreat, “Ganga Van.” The multi-acre campus had no bathroom. It did have an “office block,” with a good-sized room set up as an office, an unfinished bathroom andContinue reading ““Where’s the loo?””
Hello, babies!
The two things we have been working on for the past few days are seeds and trenches. Re: the latter, we are in the process of buying and gathering together massive amounts of straw, leaves, and cowdung, and trying to distribute them in piles all around our site. It’s a lot of manual labour, andContinue reading “Hello, babies!”
Seeds and cuttings!
We have started working on our seedlings. We will be able to afford to buy about 2000 plants from the nursery. Those will be our specialty fruit/nut/spice trees and trees that aren’t available easily in the vicinity. But all the others – over 4000 – will have to be added over the monsoon and followingContinue reading “Seeds and cuttings!”
More rain?!
There is no cyclone now, and my weather app shows sun. Then why this sudden downpour? All work has stopped again. The women who came to cut grass are sheltering in the office and snacking. The mud is squelchy and eager to trap anyone or anything who dares set foot on it. Yesterday was theContinue reading “More rain?!”
After the rain…
A few days ago, the cyclone Tauktae in Maharasthra brought a night and day of rain to us, accompanied by the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. We enjoyed the few days of unseasonal breezy coolness in the middle of May, usually the hottest and driest month of the year. The otherContinue reading “After the rain…”
First steps
Digging, tool-building, organising The excavator is busy making trenches along the entire boundary, in order to plant intensively, Miyawaki-style. The trenches are 10 x 20 ft, and each will contain about 75 trees of four different sizes. We’re in the process of making lists of trees and contacting nurseries to order the saplings for nextContinue reading “First steps”
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