Beautiful baby owl

  "Oh what's that?" looking down on the floor in the kitchen.
  I turned away to look right back, what could it be a bird, really?
  It was dark, all i wanted is to feed the dogs and go to sleep.  Of course, i noticed some how the fluffy feathery grey lump right by the door.
  A baby grey owl on the ground with ants starting to get to it :(  i picked it up.  So sweet.  Wow, does it have claws.  It is hardly the size of my fist.  Beautiful big eyes!  Little feather horns above its eyes.  So sweet.  They have a nest in the "keet" where it meets the cement roof.
  How did it get there?
  Will the parents come back for it.  Who do i call?  I tried Aurosylle, Mirabelle and Monica to no avail.
  Hmmm..What do i feed it?  if only i had a syringe i could nourish it with water or some vitamins.  is it sick why is it not flying away?
  Getting all the little ants off its beautiful feathers and going through a thorough check up..nothing seems to be the problem apart from some feathers missing on its neck!
   I call back Monica, yes she picked it up and gave me super instructions on what to do.
  I have put it in a basket with plenty of cloth.  I marked around it with chalk so no ants get to it.  Placing it on the verandah, right below their nest, hoping its parents will show up tonight..
  I wish it will survive and return to the wild healthy, strong and safely!
  Good night :)

Hopping "Twitter"

  An evening we came just before dark.  We spot "twitter" sitting on the stool outside the kitchen door.  Unusual.
   She has been used to staying in the kitchen as she grew up in there.  Otherwise, we had started to put her in the chicken pen with the other adult hens.
  I wondered why would she be there.  She got off the stool and started to limp!
  She had a cut on her paw.  Ouch.
  The next morning i wanted the vets opinion, "Hi.  You got a problem with your cock again?!"  the vet joked seriously.  "is it your hen or the cock that needs attention?" and so i explained the story.  As per her orders i went to get ointments and medecine for "twitter"
  I still could not put the pieces together as how the chick was hurt and not put in her place.  According to the watchman, he says Saedi was after it; and she hurt "twitter" Do i beleive that?
   And then that he could not catch her to put her with the others. hmmmmm..
  Well damage is done.  After dressing he for several days and giving medecine she continues to hop.  She is unable to place her foot down :(
  Truly wish her foot gets better, after all she grew up in my pocket!

Where does Saedi go?

  I was doing the rounds; making sure the drip irrigation was working.  Picking up the drips and opening them to make sure nothing is blocking the circulation.

  Who pops up after hours of absence? Saedi.  She had already disappeared this morning when we walked the last field.  Ready obedient followed me back.  i believe she visits our neighbor Iyyanar further up in the cashew fields.

  After disappearing again, she shows up in the evening sunset with a funny head shake!  She ignores Ready completely comes straight for me.

  Head shaking and jerking strangely, i thought she was playful and excited to see me.  i started to play and stroke her neck under.  Her mouth was dirty with red earth.  Uhmm...curious.  She continues to shake her head and open her mouth.  "Saedi, what is the matter?" i query.

  Of course she does not respond with words :)  but she does come to me again asking for help.  

  i look in her jaw and what do i see?  "A band of angels coming after me.." just kidding that is a song that came into my head.

  It was a bone stuck transversely between her teeth!  It was stuck!

  We get a long very well.  she listens to me and is very obedient if not scared :)

  So i pulled it out and of she goes trotting to drink some water.  "Hello, where is the thank you?!" :)

"twitter" is grown up

  She does not fit in my pocket anymore.  She still does come to you for attention, food and a little chat once in a while :)
  She has lost her chip chip voice.  She carries a red hood hat.  She sleeps with the adults; no more kitchen cupboard special suite.  She is slowly integrating into hen-hood :)
  She is beautiful, smart and a little of a bully.
  "twitter" goes after our cats like anything.  She pecks them, even pulls out fur.  She steals their food..
  She is a product of the land.  She has survived and is around! :)

Squirrel finds its way back

  Ever since we brought the squirrel quickly to Mirrabelle in Sharnga; i have always been thinking how is the squirrel doing.
  The other day we visited her as she said she had 2 cocks to give away and knowing that Windarra Farm desperately needed; i felt this is an opportunity to satisfy.
  She was busy as ever with her restaurant Balarama; did not taste the food but it sure looked good.  She managed to squeeze 5 minutes in between serving to go catch 1 cock.  Sadly the other one the night before had been eaten by an animal!
  She has this trap to scare away mongoose and rats.  A mongoose and a "bandicoot" were inside when we came...aagh.
  She went in the pen to catch the lovely cock but he was too quick; so one of us went in to help.
  "BTW how is the squirrel doing?" i inquired.
  "i just let it go this morning!" she answered happily :)
  I am glad and grateful that the squirrel has returned to its natural habitat! :)

..Our toilet..

  Our toilet!

  Our toilet upstairs does not want to flush correctly.  Every time you pull, in this case :)  Normally one pushes, right?  As i fabricated a new device (nylon rope) that goes from the top ~ through a hole i drilled, you pull..

  Anyway.  It is scary to see the water fill the toilet and not sure if it will overflow..:)  So far it does go down but slowly :(

  3 bottles of acid down ~ we thought would do the job.  I hesitated as it is not friendly environmentally but it worked for a few days..

  Some advised me to check the pipe maybe there are roots blocking the way.

  Next step.  Believing that maybe the overflow tank does not percolate fast enough we could pump out the water..

  I wanted to share all the gory details but i will spare you :) shit. lol :)

Our watchman Suraj

  I walk the land almost everyday.  Walk the fence to see how it is growing.  Is it breached?
  Since i have this watchman who works part-time, i am more relaxed and reassure :)  I have asked him to do a few things..even i forgot what i had given him to do; to my satisfaction the fence is looking better and better.  He gives good attention to the land.
  The Nepali have a sense of work and aesthetic very deiffernt to the souther folks :)  For example, we have to put sticks for the tomatoes to be held up; he instead put a branch with many smaller branches,,so the green beans looks like a shrub now :)  Of course, with our broken tamil and my broken hindi..i told him, "do it just like in Nepal."
  It is a fine balance between giving freedom to a worker and to control..
  He is happy.  I am happy and the land is happy.  Thank you :)

Twitter our hen

  "Call her Twitter," Monica emphasised with her spanish accent.  She is a bird lover!
  Even an iphone application called birds gets her going :)
  Twitter was born with a few other siblings.  Her mom sadly one day defending her babies was bitten by a snake; my mistake.  I did not follow my instinct/intuition to put another basket over the one eaten by termites which i was using ~ means that it was holier and more vulnerable! :(
  The hen was our last standing one.  Sadly, until her passing, she protected her last surviving chick ~ twitter!  Just writing this saddens me..
  Twitter grew up with us.  She adopted us.  She spent a lot of time in my pocket; warm and cozy just like being under her moms wings.
  We could not tell if it would be a hen or rooster.  Well, i think i already gave it.  She is a hen. Yes.  Our country chicken dynasty can live on.
  In the meantime, our cocks were getting cocky and going bananas.  NO hens!  Our cats were targets.  They were each other's target.  Nope.  We need to get hens fast, Twitter will take longer to grow up.
  Windarra was so nice to give us 4 white hens.  Bigger eggs.  We call them the Gandhi family, as they were handed to us by the lady there called Gandhi :)
  Today, Twitter cheeps no more.  She is brown-red and happy!  She has had many visits..people are always surprised to see a chicken in our kitchen and amongst us.  Our family in the making.
  

Rediscovering her roots

  She has rediscovered her roots.
  She has started her vegetable garden!
  Coming from an interior design/architect background - she finds today nothing more rewarding then sweating in your vegetable garden!
  She is exhilarated.  She is motivated.  She is full of energy.  She can hardly finish her sentence she is so moved by her joy of work :)
  We visited her work place; home.  Lovely to see her site.  Papayas growing galore.  Pineapple in the hundreds; she says, "i am trying to get a 1000!"  All beds lined up, weeded, a variety of vegetables growing happily.
  All this maintained by her and watered by a drip irrigation system installed by her.
  Even the Farm Group has to say if she can grow so much in so little space, why can't she be a farmer? :)
  To our suprise, she made us a meal that night with home grown veggies!   Excellent!
  oh, yeah,  beans hanging from the sky she collected and ate straight from the vine - our advise - she thought it better then cooked! ;) Thank you Ilona.
  People, edible landscape!

Leaking tap

  Behind the house we have a leaking tap.  It has for a very long time.  A lot of water is "lost".
  When i discovered drip irrigation for my convenience and started applying it here on the land; i figured that i should install for the coconuts too.
  So i added a system to the leaking tap.  I wondered if it would work.  Well, to my surprise, each drip is dripping nicely all from a leaking tap.  and i can tell you the leak is minimal.
  So with the pressure of air and little water it makes a perfect system.
  Avocado and Coconuts are happy! :)