permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

The onions have brought so much excitement, and it's such an incentive for developing a productive culture. The bulbs on most of the onions are not as big as I had hoped, so we are just going round, picking on the  onions that have fallen leaves, meaning they will no longer grow. We will give the rest more time, to grow bigger.
Even though the onions might not give us what we had hoped income wise, the attitude towards work at the plot has improved even more. For example, termite mount soil is being piled in advance on the side of beds that we intend to grow beetroots in, ( the bed that we spread this soil with, before planting beetroots has seedlings that are looking really healthy). Then the plan was that, once we remove onions, we will put beans in the all the onion beds, and already mai Kumbi and Kumbi, are planning to start collecting termite mount soil again, in preparation for this,  which will be spread in the beds, and it's their initiative. I need to quickly come up with a boost in the quality of life, in the present time, to keep these spirits up.

We will not be selling the onions now. We will be waiting for the time when the onion prices are high. This was made possible by my sister, who has promised to buy our onions with current market prices, but she won't take them. A few months from now, when the onion prices are good, we can sell the onions and pay her her money back. This she did, so that we can cover our current living expenses and benefit from our produce in the present time, since we don't have the capacity to hold on to our produce as yet, for us to waiting for best times to sell in the market.

We have started curing the onions, and as usual, my first thought was that, whatever I do, I need to explore using recycled material. When I went to our local scrap yard, I found out that the price of scrap was ridiculously high, and I ended up buying a simple fence for this.

Onions look great!

I need to make something like that drying frame for my corn.

I am going to buy chickens for home consumption. Meat is a really important part of meals, and a significant part of income, in relation to how much someone earns, is channeled towards meat. I have decided to buy chickens (broilers) for home consumption for my family and for those at the plot. This came about as I was thinking of an incentive to keep the excitement level high at the plot, and I was looking at the abundance of mulberries from the two mulberry trees in our yard. Most of the fruit is just dropping and going to waste. This is a resource that's slipping through our fingers, and it is about to change.

I have started collecting the mulberries, which I will be drying, and I will mix the dried mulberries with maize and have this ground. I will do more research on proper mixes with maize grains, and this will buy me more time with the guys at the plot. Already, mai Kumbi is really excited about the whole idea. She has started drying leftover starch from her household, to add to the mix and again this was her own initiative.

I got to the plot just after 7am, and two beds had already been planted with beans, (we are planting beans where onions were). Mai Kumbi planted before she left for work, and as she was planting, the son was watering the other beds. By 10am, the family was busy with their life, apart from plot business. Mai Kumbi asked me for plant spacing before she planted the beans. It means that they now trust me.

how exciting about the chickens! it is mulberry season here too and we will be going out to collect this weekend (make jam and baked goods with the fruit). I know many people pen their chickens underneath the trees, they seem to love the fruit (as well as the insects it attracts).