Life Farm in Winter

It is winter and the mists are regularly seen in the mornings at LiFe Farmstay ! This picture is taken using my new 3G Nokia Phone ! We have GPRS connectivity now !


Er. Kalyanaswamy is a retired Engineering Professor from our city. He is making tea for us using Carbon neutral cooking ! Lantana shrubs are used as firewood ! Bricks as Stove!

New Visitors

Dr. Ramani, a renowned Translator who has translated the poems of our Ex. Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee has visited our Farm on 25th Nov along with his Friends.



In the pic ( From L to R ) : Dr Ramani fm VIT, Vellore, Mr Edwin Packiyaraj fm Bharathidasan University, Trichy, Gauthama the Buddha fm Eternity, Techie Kumutha fm Cbe and KUKKA fm Varakampadi !



Playing in the Varaga Stream on the way to LiFe !



Me along with the Guests.

Varakampaadi Deskdop Image !

Installed a Buddha Statue

Grilled Corn - Tribal Snacks

No Oil, No Sugar, No Salt, No Fossil Fuel, No Added Colour or Flavor ! You call it primitive ... I say Low impact and sustainable and healthy and economical and... m .. m .. very tasty!


Vellikutty (My neighbor ) arrived at LiFe to prepare Grilled Corn for the lunch !






Grill is ready now..

Planting of Trees - Root Straightning

Today we have started our tree planting using the Prepared Base Soil , which is a mixture of Top Soil, areca pith and sawdust. This mixture below the coiled roots will retain some moisture when the soil is getting dried by the sun. So the roots will go strait down to suck the moisture of the organic base mixture and will grow in a healthy way.

From Wooden Boxes to Windows

Carpenter KARTHI from Palani arrived at Life a few days ago and started doing his work. Here is the example of how he is recycling the used wooden packaging boxes into nice window frames!


Measuring . . .


Used Wooden Packaging Boxes


Carpenter Karthi at work


Two windows were ready before lunch


Two more frames at the end of the day!

Images from LiFe Farm Stay - Part 1

Making a door with used wood !

On my way to farm I found a second hand wood shop a few weeks ago. I found a few package boxes with some nice grains. I bought them Indian Rupee 200 per piece and bout 20 boxes for 4000 Rupees. With that I made my front door with the help of Mr. Raman, my neighbor. The total cost of this recycled door came around Rs 1200 which includes Labour !


Mr. Kupuswamy, a retired Deputy Superintend of Police ( he blogs at maravalam.blogspot.com, a blog on indian herbs ) opened the door in a simple ceremony !

Making a work table !

I woke up around 5.15 am after the village morning alarm sounded "Cockaraco"! Peacocks and cuckoo birds started their morning symphony. After the morning rituals i went to the farm to plan the day after a quick breakfast made by Aval ( flattened Boiled rice) and country sugar soaked in water for 15 minutes. I wanted to build a work table for my laptop to do my regular office work. Raman my neighbouring former who knows a bit of carpentary and masonry has arrived to build my working table. We decided on an unbonded Brick table covered with a recycled wood top! We have marked the place and started the brick work without mortar so that we can dismantle it once we have our proper wooden table. We finished it around noon. I sat and checked the comfort level. A bit of fine-tuning went on for a few minutes and our work table was ready for my laptop!


I took a quick lunch again with Aval and Mr.Raman brought me some fresh oranges and gua fruits. They were plucked from the trees just an hour ago! The fresh aroma of the fruits and the sweetness of the chocked Aval filled the gap lightly and i tried to connect to the net via my cellphone and laptop. I dont have the electricity and i should finish my configurations in an hours time cause i am using a laptop battery that was bought 3years ago. But i could not do it in one hour. So i decided to return to my base camp ( Mr.Vincent's nursery) without proceeding any other masonry work. Mr. Raman wanted to go to Palakkad to look after his ailing son and hence we started in our car to the nearby village joint Anaikatty.



On reaching anaikatty i went on for searching a netcafe! None is there with a working internet connection. But i found a local digital studio guy with a computer and a dialup ! I asked him to rent the set up and we agreed on Rs 20/hour tarrif. But his key board was a junky one with so many keys got stucked while typing and typing the passwords was a very trickyaffair! I asked the studio guys permission to connect my Laptop instead of his old system and he readily agreed. I could post yesterdays notes and returned back in the evening. Mr Rajan brought some Mixed Vegetable Rice from his home and we finished our simple dinner around 8.30 pm. In the village, all are going to bed before nine ! We in the city used to strech our day till the midnight watching TVs ! You must come to my farm to see the vision power of the tribals! They could spot a person in the forest two miles away from us, where we could not spot even an elephant! I went to sleep after listening some old numbers of Raja in the zen mp3 player!

By Osai Chella,Blogger & Podcaster in Tamil

LIFE : Low Impact Farmstay Experiment Started !

I started towards varakampadi around 11 AM by car from the cotton city Coimbatore. Picked up my farming friend, philosopher & guide Mr. Vincent Paulraj ( he blogs in tamil at http://maravalam.blogspot.com/ ) from his greeny home at Peelamedu. You must visit his open terrace atleast once to know how inefficient, we the concrete junkies of the city! He grows Greens, keeps Bees, maintains a green house for ornamental plant propagation, manufactures vermicompost etc etc!! .... all in his open terrace ! We reached Manngarai, the foothill of Attapadi Mountain Range, in 45 minutes and took "Chukku Kaapi", our traditional morning drink... along with the crispy Raagi Pakkoda at the popular "Rajan Chukku Kaapi Shop".. From there the Ghat Road Section begins. From Maangarai you have to travel just 20 minutes / 10 kilo meteres, to reach the hilly village joint Anaikatty.

On the way, we visited the organic farm of Swamy Ramanji, a disciple of Swami Dhayanantha Sarawathy and took some nice images of the tree Noni, a fovourite of Hon. Dr. APJ Kalam, our ex president. The fruit of Noni is rich with anti-oxidants. We reached Anaikatty, our base camp around noon !! We bought some vegetables, groundnut oil, an LED torch light, a few chalk-pieces, a ribbon and a green ball point pen. We also bought a few Barottas ( cooked using renewable firewood ) for our lunch. We reached Varakampadi around 2 pm ( 12 kms from Anaikatty ), our second/last Base Camp, ie Mr Vincent and Mr Thirumalai's Plant Nursery. Mr Rajan, our farm caretaker welcomed us with folded hands ... "Sir, Vaanga Vaanga, Vanakkam " in a traditional Tamil Way. We chatted for a few minutes with a few locals informing us... a new check-dam project coming up near Mr Vincent's Farm. Mr Vincent was very very happy cause he visualised one for water harvesting a long back and his vision came true through a government funded project ! Mr.Vincent made a nice Passion Fruit Juice made with country sugar !! Oh What a tasty welcome drink !



Mr Vincent and Mr Rajan went to see the farm and i took a short nap cause i was terribly tired due to my house shifting work. They returned back in an hours time and we set out to my farmstay ( 10 min walk from Plant Nursery) where my experiments are going on in its own way ! The way is bit steep and you have to climb up a bit to reach our farm. On reaching the farm we painted LIFE with the chalk piece and tied the ribbon. Our low impact "opening ceremoney with now flex banners or tent or guests is performed by cutting the ribbon by the Mr Vincent . Mr Raman our neighbour and the Rajan are the only two guests! The Low Impact Farmstay Experiment Began !