This year’s wholesome monsoon has worked in our favour to keep the lake filled to the brim and the springs overflowing with water. We expect this flow to continue all the way to December – January.
Paddy farming in the backwaters of the lake seems like a good call and the crop so far is flourishing. The jowar experiment however hit a roadblock with stray cattle coming in and trampling the entire plot in one night. We have set up a night post in the middle of the field to guard against such incursions. The four hounds that we have added to the Hyderabad Collective family:
- Chase – 5 month old Kanni
- Kombai – 4 month old Konbai
- Brownie – 8 month old indie.
- Skye – 2 month old lurcher
… will be night watchmen for now
The Veggie patch experiment over a small 1000sq yd plot has been a bumper success and is now catering to the needs of all 12 staff members on site. This season, we plan to expand this to around 2 acres and eventually to 8 acres. This should comfortably take care of the needs of 100 families.
The bio-fence is emerging beautifully with a close to 90% survival rate. The team has done a magnificent job by erecting a 2 feet tall stone and mud barricade on the rocky boundaries, where a bio fence was not possible. This barricade will be populated with thorny shrubs to strengthen the barricade and create a bio-fence of a different kind. To put things in perspective, the stone for the barricade had to be hand-carried by the staff. We are in the process of procuring some equipment, including a tractor and a power tiller, to make things easier for them.
The permaculture team has come up with a strategy for food production and we have decided on the backbone water pipeline. We have also applied for grid connectivity for the bore wells, which should materialise in the next month or two.
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