“Just fence a farm and leave it alone.  Come back in 10 years and you’ll find a thriving eco-system.”  We hear a lot of such statements. Unfortunately, we are not wise enough to wait for 10 years and would like to do 'some thing' towards the creation of an eco-system - mainly for our own needs.
Our farm land had remained unfenced on 3 sides so far and unused for the last few years. And it had become the grazing ground of choice for all the cattle nearby which has hardened the soil making it tougher for tender roots and other small organisms to penetrate. After we understood the importance of fencing, the choices were to go for a) concrete fencing or b)stone fencing with barbed wires in bettween or c)a living, green fence.
Our main purpose was to protect the land from cattle grazing and not from trespassing humans. If someone wanted to break in, they’d find the means anyways. Options a) and b) didn’t have the right vibe to them and also quite expensive. A living fence held many exciting possibilities. We could use the excuse of a fence to plant thousands and thousands of green shrubs. It could serve multiple purposes and be easily mended by hand if broken or breached.

In late 2007, as we were preparing for our move back to India, Nipun and Guri tagged us with free tickets to an awesome but expensive conference on sustainability - The Bioneers.

With Aum in tow, Ragu and I took turns to listen in person to many great folks that we had only read about.
Halfway through a panel, Jay Harman, an inventor cum naturalist was almost choking about the destruction of species that goes on every second. The scientist in him knew too well what the naturalist in him did not want to. We all could feel a pinch of that pain.

 
Thanks to many thinkers and doers, the first phase of setting up the farm was completed recently. And it's nice to breathe easy for a while.
Looking back, the motor and water supply was the first one to come alive. Soon, an access road was laid which served as the main artery. The fencing and tree trenches were dug around the perimeter of the farm in one intense go. Then started the planting of the fencing bushes (mostly Jatropha, a local favorite) which kept happening on and off.
After 3 days of land survey and designing on paper, about 70 internal, contour trenches were dug at 25 feet intervals soon. And quite nervously, we ordered 8000 tree saplings. More horizontal access roads were added at 1 acre intervals.
We planted the first 300 saplings at a very slow pace. And saving the rest from scorching sun was a project by itself. When the first few silver oak saplings died, we felt very sad. The reality that some of them can not and will not survive the transition from cushy nursery environ was understood soon.

Our many warnings about the Zero-Star rating of GreenLocal Lodge didn't dissuade friends and family from putting their bags down there for a few days and nights. It was so joyful to see them all and it reinforced that nothing much had changed even with our move half a world away.

The familiar faces included newly-weds Arun and super-friendly-Shravanti, little Arunima with her parents, new friends Sriram and Karpagam from Bombay, Arathi volunteering at Aravind in Madurai, our Yoga buddy Arun, our parents and Ragu's sister with our little niece.

The ease with which every one blended into the space was amazing for us to see.

When we started the blog, Ragu and I had agreed that we'll not publish any "about" stuff. But we came across couple of web sites that helped us a lot at multiple levels and decided to make an exception.

PointReturn is the awe inspiring journey of 60+ years old DV Sreedharan of Good News India to be the change he writes so well about.

Sometime in October 2008, we felt well settled in our new environment. It was time to focus on the farm's design as an eco-system but we didn't feel like we were ready enough. We had some goals and ideas, a rough design and even a task list but the details were missing. So Ragu and I decided to wait and learn, learn and wait.

We started reading books and magazines suggested by local friends and well-wishers. We visited quite a few farms in our neighbourhood. The visits were useful but not fruitful. Most farms were designed for two dimensions and mono-culture.

 

Mr.Palaniappan is a spirited 70 year old elderly person that takes care of the farm on which our current home is built. He lives away from his family but that doesn't stop him from cooking great meals for himself. On a laid back afternoon, Aum and I were sitting on the porch and chatting with him. And he suddenly exclaimed "My wife!". I looked and saw a very very old woman, old enough to be his mother.

For the first time, I looked deeply into his eyes and his left eye was heavily clouded. No wonder the landlord was unhappy with him for missing out on obvious work items in the farm.

When I broke two pieces of bad news in a row, he went into a few minutes of hesitant silence.  But he quickly agreed to go for a check-up and get operated if necessary.

We had this not so unusual problem of hundreds of thousands of ants marching through the house, the front porch and side yard. They were clearly up to something big (a siege?) and we left them on their own for a couple of days. Their business was still unfinished. Nisha got tired of being up against an ant hill every day came up with a solution.

She cut a few small pieces of fresh lemon and placed them at critical junctions.  In under 2 minutes, all but few had retreated to their bastion.

Later I googled and found that lemon juice is an ant repellent. But extracting the juice doesn't seem to be necessary. And the lemon pieces are re-usable just in case the ants decide to re-route.

This has worked 5/5 times for us on small black ants and small red ants. Wait till they evolve!

We have a bunch of $5 bills given by friends with the loving mandate to do some things nice and small. It has inspired us to buy meals for janitors at the airport, pay forward the hotel rent, sponsor tabla classes for students that we haven’t met and a few other things. And those small acts have come full circle - bigger and better, from so called strangers in far away places. Here is the latest recepient of your gift:

Recently, we met Rangan, an ever-smiling middle-aged man of our village. His feet are always bare. When we dug a little, we learnt that he is an excellent farm hand who owns no land and makes a living wage just enough to support his family (we hired him to sow our first seeds). Like many villagers of the older generation, he walks quite a few miles barefoot in the hot sun every day. I guess items like a pair of slippers could not be part of his ‘needs’.