Farm Log No. 2

Jason and I brought Joshua and Jimmy to the farm last rainy Friday and Saturday. Joshua has been a regular player on the sand, hunter of tiny crabs while it was the first time for Jimmy. We stayed overnight in the trailer home without electricity and we all enjoyed the "camping" adventure, cooking food on the portable gas stove, sleeping to the ocean's lullaby, collecting starfishes and sea urchins and letting them go after a creature squirted a poisonous pink substance.

 

Jason took home from China a number of seed packets which I gave some to Carling and Gary to plant. We identified the area with the strongest water source where the initial plantings will be concentrated. There are three water sources with tanks and machines but one is broken, the second in the middle portion of the lot is the strongest while the third is weak.

 

Two out of the four farm staff will attend the organic farm training seminar over at Costales Farm on January 23 - 25 so we planned the logistics. I talked to the neighbor with the prawn farm who has been interested in renting our fish ponds so that's a possible income generator. However, I need to check with my Mom.

 

Fifteen years ago, we planted hundreds of trees with Mang Pascual. His health has deteriorated so he let his son take over his job. He visited the farm to say hi and it was so good to see him after so many years, and for him to meet my three J's.

 

I bumped into my classmate's husband at a children's party on Sunday who happened to be into organic farming so all this serendipitous occurrences will hopefully lead to lush and productive farms someday.

 

 

 

 

Crash

My laptop crashed a few days before Christmas so I've been silent in my blog and Facebook and it's been quite liberating. I've been recording daily expenses on a spreadsheet and post-crash realize I don't need to because I already know the daily and monthly average anyway. Facebook, while useful for communication, getting news about family and friends, sending urgent messages, is really something I could do much less hours of because it's a bad form of hypnosis going through other people's photos and updates instead of actually being with others. I missed posting our Palawan family vacation pictures but then that can wait plus I have FB-obsessed relatives who post pictures the instant they are taken. I miss blogging and when days and weeks pass, the things in my head that I meant to write about dissipate like mist, thus the last ultra-short entries.

 

Losing all the programs, data, photos and documents was not as big a deal as I thought because it was time for a detoxifying clean-up, a simplification of life. I log on nothing more than the necessary minutes in my husband's and my brother, Bobby's laptop and that's enough. Using other people's computer makes one more conscious. You can't linger and extend above what's polite even though you could abuse the goodness of family.

I've also been extremely bothered with the current compulsion to capture everything on iphones, ipads, digital cameras and to express everything over the world wide web. My dad, for example, drives me a wee bit crazy because he wants to take pictures of everything -- not even the candid or artistic kind but posing as a group for the camera where all the pictures end up looking the same with faces looking straight ahead with merely a changing backdrop -- like you can photoshop these pictures and it won't matter. Pictures with famous personalities give him and my stepmom a veritable high. Each person gets an adrenaline rush a different way and we must accept and respect each person's quirk. However, an over-abundance of photos does not work for me because it takes away the enjoyment and mystery of the moment, much like spending too much time online or on the computer doing things that can be reduced so we don't escape reality. It takes away the power of the moment, commodifying it, even cheapening it, identical boxes in a dizzying sea of supermarket shelves.

It bothers me seeing groups of people sharing a meal while the individuals are texting away. It bothers me that people are spending more and more time in front of the screen, typing instead of talking. It bothers me that many times, I too, want to get away to bask in the ease and comfort of my own non-threatening laptop because it's too much trouble being with people. We all need breaks from the maddening crowd but if the breaks are too long, it could be dangerous. We're missing out on something and it could be our life.

 

 

Sinag Kalinga

Tito Bingo left the rat race twelve years ago, sick and tired of the stress and speed of city living. He was always one of the coolest uncles driving a motorcycle, travelling to exotic places, designing spaces that connect with nature, embodying the Zen spirit. When we were small, my cousins and I used to jump off from the balcony of their house to land on a mattress set on the grass and then eat aratilis and dance to Michael Jackson. Now he lives all the way in Quezon province near the border of Laguna, surrounded by a beautiful garden overlooking a mini rainforest.   You visit his place and exclaim, "This is the life!"

Around that time he exchanged crazy urban life for sanity in nature, he established Sinag Kalinga, a home for the aged that has a cool jazz vibe, airy, light blue and white fresh.  The place has gotten a good reputation in the province that DSWD often refers people there.  We hope well-run places like this get all the support they need to continue their noble work. 

 

Not Just Another Model Farm

We've been doing farm visits to pick up techniques, ideas and inspiration for our own farm and last December, it was the Costales Nature Farm in Majayjay, Laguna which was our eye-opening teacher on organic farming. Two things impressed me about the farm. First, they made intensive use of the five hectare property filling almost every inch with vegetables in both open fields and greenhouses, fishponds, areas for raising ducks, pigs, rabbits, for vermicomposting, training, entertaining and hosting visitors. Second, as a proven money earner supplying greens to restaurants such as TGIF and Italianis, the farm has attracted investors, some of whom are OFWs who fund the construction of greenhouses which are named after them and get an ROI of around 20% to 30% a year. 

 

The farm is located at the foot of Mt. Banahaw so it's blessed with gushing water.  A model farm I hope to see soon and learn from is one that is not as lucky with the water source.  

My dad and I enjoyed the freshest salad and food the most while my hubby and son enjoyed fishing and feeding the animals.  We all enjoyed the weather, the break from Manila and the inspiring journey of a couple determined to make a 100% organic farm viable, successful and replicable. 

 

From Costales, My husband, Jason bought a kilo of African night crawlers in a large pail which we hosted for a week in our home before Jason lugged them to the farm. I got excited feeding them leftover veggies and fruits imagining the worms gobbling them up like an incinerator. What cool pets but it turned out that we almost overfed them. I got scared thinking they'd escape from the pail but Jason told me not to worry because they'll die outside. True enough, we came home one day with a couple of dead worms on the floor at varying distances from the bucket showing how intrepid some of the worms were to attain freedom. 

  

This is their website:
http://www.costalesnaturefarms.com/

And this is what Costales Nature Farms can offer people who would like to invest in organic farming:
http://www.costalesnaturefarms.com/investment%20opportunity.htm

Pie's Children

Pie was right. There was no time for me to go check out his built architectural works once my children arrive from China so we arranged a tour of two finished houses and one clothing store the day before my sons flew back to Manila.

 

Pie was always one of the best and most promising in our architecture class. His career was one to watch out for and after over a decade of practising in other people's firm and running his own, his works speak for themselves.

 

I always tell Pie that he's married to architecture and his projects are like his children. He calls the project which don't turn out the way he wants bastard child. Every project has some aspects which he thinks he can improve but the bastardized one has him most exasperated with the contractor's mistakes. The ones here in the photos are legitimate sons.