Permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

The neighbors were asking what I was doing with the bottles and trenches I have been digging on the raised bed area and we talked about the raised bed concept. It's not often that we have such direct conversations. I saw this year they are not throwing their weeds away, they piled them up and they have a small patch in their field that they mulched (with material that they usually burn) and it's looking so great. I believe some of the things they or I do will just rub on and some how we get to spread a certain different way of doing things that actually helps the earth and us.

I will be using most of the dry mulch for the veggie beds, even of weeds I removed from the field and the field will have live mulch from the nyemba beans (cow peas).

I am celebrating, the cow peas have started popping out and there has been no watering from my end, all watering labor was from the heavens!!!. I am almost done with  planting suckers in the big beds, I am giving myself an off day tomorrow.
I have decided Friday is one day I will not work on the plot, there is the Serendipity meeting on this day if my internet allows and this is one thing I know is of high priority. This was cemented yesterday when I was re-reading animal farm. In the introduction they were talking about different interpretations on the book and who it was meant to target. I liked two aspects from the author. The book did not target anyone or any government, but a world that was capable of creating the Hiroshima bomb (system). The other thing I liked is what was said about his other book 'inside the whale':

Miller had failed in his duty to protest, had "performed the essential act of allowing himself to be swallowed, remaining passive, accepting."  

I am becoming more aware of the fact that there are some realities that become realities simply because we make them so, meaning that there is actually a choice on what world we want to live in, we just need to be aware that the choice is there. Which is what serendipity is helping us with. I feel like the more I am aware of all the options already in front of me, the more productive and pretty (beautiful even) I will be.

I managed to join the last bit of the Serendipity meeting and I was my usual self, mute, but I will not shy away until I feel comfortable with blending in. I planted beets, carrots, pepper as well as cucumber, in the raised bed section that has bottles around it. I had to us whatever I could find for mulch, I will replace this with time. The weeds in the maize field are already coming out even though we weeded and I need to keep the cow peas clear of weeds a little while longer as they are still so tiny.
The son to the lady who is staying at the plot is weeding around the vegetable garden and her daughter together with my cousin were helping out with pruning the choumouellier/ covo/ kale. Things were getting out of hand, my cousin whom I am staying with was showing signs of tiredness as we were juggling the plot and home, and I had to ask my mother's friend to take her in and help with feeding the dog, as I moved to the plot and do the work that needed to be done to get ready for the rain. There were just too many things that needed to be done and they were time bound. Having people at the plot, has not only reduced labor costs on chores that I could have paid for, to have done, but my cousin has found a friend of her age and she now looks forward to going to the plot which is buying time until my sister comes back from school and she can stay with my cousin at home while I move to the plot.

Today I made sales just on time to buy mealie meal for us and the dogs, and I can also buy tomatoes to add to the mix of what I planted. I know my sister would have bailed me out, but I did not want her to, I want to survive out of the plot. I know it is taking time but I have a strong conviction it's possible to survive off such a big space.  

Rufaro Makamure wrote:
I found the vertiver grass, so my target to plant this during this season's rain will be met.

Excellent news! I think this has the potential to be really important for you, and your community. Do you have a good understanding of how to plant on contour in dense hedges? This seems to give the best protection against losing soil due to runoff, and to sink the most water within your own land.

Having a local nursery in your community could be a valuable product for you to produce for your neighbours, as they become convinced of its value.

Michael Cox wrote:

Do you have a good understanding of how to plant on contour in dense hedges?

I can't say I do. I learnt about this grass through this thread and I liked what I read about when I read more on it.

Do you want to start a second thread specifically to discuss the vetiver specifically?

I would like that, though I will only be able to do practical experiments when I clear things and a little less swamped.

What state is your vetiver in right now? Is it slips that need transplanting? If so, you should probably get them in the ground and watered - even if only in a temporary spot. How many slips do you have?

You need a LOT of slips for a meaningful planting. Can you give a small area over as a nursery? Somewhere you can provide a bit of extra water to help get them established?

I have planted slips, I will send the pictures when I get to the plot. They are not that many. I just got a huge 'chunk' of the grass dug out for me with its roots, where I got it, and I split this into multiple slips.  

We finished pruning all the vegetables and I am weeding around the cow peas plants to just clear these up.

One of my sisters was meant to visit tomorrow. My young cousin was so excited because we were going to be taken out for drinks, I realised that I have to find a balance in building a stable permaculture homestead and merging this with the present life that is attractive, if I am to sell my story well, especially when I have children staying with me. When my sister cancelled, I decided we would still dress up and go for milkshakes. There is a picture of what successful people do and going out and dressing up is one of them, then there is a stereotype that farmers get which makes farming a non-existing option as a way of life unless if it is commercial farming. I want these distortions to fade away for the youngsters I get to have some influence on.

I am still learning the art of dressing up (and it's never easy without my sisters), but I think I did well today as a starting point.      

Below is a picture of the slips I planted. I put some along the fence.

The cucumber seeds have germinated, I took mulch from the fowl run, and I harvested some manure too, just when I needed it, especially for the beetroot. The plants are still tiny, I fed them and I am sue they will be me visible in the coming week.

I had a chat with the lady who is now staying at the house she wants to buy and resell choumoullier from the garden and possibly drop her second job. Its like pieces of a puzzle that are slowly going into their place, I need to grow things fast and have this family earn a living from our place and that way, I will not have to try too hard to look for help.

Rufaro - looks good. I hope you get good success with these first slips. They will end up being your nursery stock to plant more in future. Are you able to give them a little water at this stage? My understanding is that newly planted slips do much better with some extra water in the first few weeks, while they get their roots established. Although it looks like your soil has some moisture at the moment? Have you had some rain?

The past days have been really hot, without any rain, we will water the maize field this week if it doesn't rain, I will put the grass together with the maize in the watering schedule.

I have successfully sun-died tomatoes, If there is anything I learnt this year is that I need to have a good stock of food, which is why I am sun drying as many tomatoes as I can from the tomato plants that I have.

There is some seed I got from one onion's flower that I have nursed. I was looking at the quantity of seed I got from the one onion, it kooks like its the same quantity that would be in one packet I would buy from the shops.

My sister is finally visiting, and it’s really important for me to have a clean and happy home. I have to consciously work at this so I am spending the day cleaning the house. Since the day I took my cousin out, we have been having spontaneous moments of either singing or dancing so on happiness we are on track I think. I am even fortunate my cousin has a few dance routines she is teaching me and we will have some entertainment for my sister.
Since I am at home, I am taking the time to write down the financial planning part of my sustainable/ regenerative project and planning is always so intimidating for me especially writing down a clear picture of what I am visualising. I have a spreadsheet I got from a friend that is keeping me focused, so my planning is a lot easier than before. I can say in my life I have about three distinct things that are intimidating for me
1) planning
2) Meeting and conversing with people, no matter what age or background, I actually wonder what it is people talk about
3) The biggest one of them all is spoken English. I am super conscious about how I speak even if I try to convince myself it’s not about how I speak but the content and genuineness of what I will be saying. I always fear I won’t find the right word or my accent will be completely off.  

We received rain today, and I was half way through watering the maize which was now wilting and some of the small plants' first leaves were drying up. The weather forecast had been predicting rainy days and the most we would get were clouds, and I no longer trusted the probability of rain, but I am glad it finally rained. I also checked the slips, as I was concerned that they had dried up, I had initially thought they did not require any watering, I was relieved to see some green leaves on some of the slips that were covered by the dry ones.

There was some runoff water which was flowing into the water harvesting pit, which is a really good thing.

My sister came and it's always good to have her.  It does leave me drained a little, it's almost like it's a time where we are directly weighing the values and ways of the current system and it's convinience vs something that is both human and earth friendly that I am working on establishing. Though this is never direct it comes out in the most subtle way. I am glad that Tashi our cousin had her milkshake experience before yesterday's night out, in as much as we had more last night, she is not exactly belittling our experiences and I think it keeps her options vast as she goes, in the future.  
Some situations are difficult to keep me away from comparing myself with others. The experiences that are not tangible and are priceless are what makes me snap out of this negative space.