Volunteers
On April 12, 25 volunteers showed up. We gathered at my house in Muttukkadu for breakfast, pooled our cars and drove over for an all day work visit. I had planned a series of activities that would help the project and hopefully, motivate the volunteers. We marked out a 40′ long contour and dug out a trench along it. The excavated soil was piled on the lower side as a soft, fluffy mound. The mound was seeded with a mixture of leguminous plants, heavily mulched and watered with a rose. Such a contour trench is also known as a swale. Once the swale mound is fertilised by the pioneer legume crop, it will be planted with vegetables.
When the windmill pumps an excess of water[-rarely these days, I must sadly add] it will be led to the trench, where being level, it will spread and hydrate the mound. Swales are excellent water harvesting cum plant growing structures. Several thousand feet of these at pointReturn would end my water woes described earlier.
Hello Mr. DV,
I’m following the posts here as well as on twitter closely…One problem with the twitter though – We miss the thinking process / the emotional highs / lows and photos which you were describing in the posts on website posts….those were more important…because that is what matters in such projects. Twitter gives just the plain updates. Hence, request you to start giving updates and yes – photos etc on the website articles.
Regards,
– Kedar
Dear Dv
I am a follower of point return for a few years and i beleive i can bring in volunteers in regular numbers, i would like to meet you in person and discuss the same. you may mail me at sridhar.lakshmanan@gmail.com or call at 9445384021
Regards
Sridhar
shobhan…
you make a good point. active RWH and recharge is the next major exercise at pointReturn. the problem is, the pond’s floor is impervious clay, in the summer when water is most needed, the windmill has poor supply and the hardpan soil all over the site facilitates rapid runoff.
the solution is to trap rain water where it falls and guide it underground.
-dv
DV,
I have read all the articles. I am a regular visitor to your site. I wish your pR to be a success.
I have a question though. When you had rain last year, there was excess run-off from your site. Also any excess pumped by the windmill goes into the network of pipes you have installed. Why not make all these excess water be led into the borewell itself? It will stay there as is and you can use when you want it? you can install a filter ( RWH type) which will clean the water and then let into the borewell.
Let me know what to do you think about it.
We totally understand your pain. Some 8000 of our tree saplings went without watering because the motor failed and the repair service men made mistakes on top of it. But most of these saplings survived with two feeble showers in between.
I read somewhere that plants decide very early whether they can survive or not. They do not waste time and energy growing up into sick adults.
Incidentally, we read a couple of pieces recently that lifted our spirit.
Kareem’s forest
http://59.92.116.99/eldoc1/e23_/01jan08csy1.pdf
The Man Who Sowed Gandhi and Reaped Happiness – from GNI!
http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/cherkady-natural-farmer/
Our village near Coimbatore received a fair amount of rain today. Hope the clouds go where you are too.
Ragu and Nisha@greenlocal
Wow. This was a very interesting article DV. Thank you for such an honest and lucid piece.
I am wishing the wind brings you rain soon :)
Dear DV,
Good to see an update on the happenings at PR.
The whole project is indeed a mighty challenge,and one can clearly visualize the amount of endurance, and resourcefulness that’s needed to pursue and progress.
Results apart, I am sure you are having a great experience in all of this. and is certainly inspiring to follow whats going on.
As for a shower, I am sure a whole lot of us are already praying for it :) its probably just a week away.
Regards,
–Ganapathy