The month of April saw a lot of evening showers making the summer tolerable for the cows, humans and other animals. Even in the scorching heat, there is still greenery around for the cows to graze. We replanted ginger and turmeric in our existing zero till raised beds and also in the new beds that…
Tag: sustainable living
Homesteading update : Composting our own shit
We started construction of compost toilet in May 2019 and completed in August, the same year. The compost toilet foundation and the chamber walls, the chamber ceiling were constructed with stones, hollow bricks, cement, sand and concrete. The walls were built with self-manufactured sun-dried adobe bricks made with farm sub-soil. The roof was a madras…
Palm Jaggery – King of Sweeteners
In the first 17 years of my life in Bombay, I used to wait for Taadgola every summer. I vividly remember the vendors who used to sell Taadgola in the corner of the road 100 metres from our house in the suburbs. I used to coax my mother to buy some whenever we used to…
A House made of Earth – Part 3
This is Part 3 of a three part series of our story of the construction of our house using locally available sustainable material and skill. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2. I am not sharing too many technical details for I am not an expert. Those who are interested in the finer…
A snapshot of happenings at our farm
We are building a food forest and kitchen garden for ourselves at Papanasam, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India since July 2018. We have been focusing on adding a lot of carbon / organic material to the soil. That’s why you will see photos covered with neem, mexican sunflower and glyricidia. We have let the old neem…
A House made of Earth – Part 1
This is Part 1 of a three part series of our story of the construction of our house using locally available sustainable materials and skills. I am not sharing too many technical details for I am not an expert. Those who are interested in the finer details of methods employed, please Comment below or write…
Gratitude for our Sustainability journey
It takes a village to raise a child, it is said. I think – It also takes a village to run a farm. Economies of large scale and consumerism don’t favour the sustainability movement one bit. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Almost none of the industries, which rely on resources from nature, care about recharging the source…
Vivasayee's Life 
You must be logged in to post a comment.