permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

I managed to meet with Mai Moyo, the lady who helps me with holes, so that I understand more why this time she looked for me yet in the past, I usually look for her. She explained her situation. Her employer is also her landlord, so when she works, it's for both her rentals and sustenance. When universities close it is an off peak period for their business and they continue with some works but they won't be given money, instead they will be given food to push them through to the next peak period. This time around they have no salary or food and she is stuck. She has about 3 days or so in a week that she can work elsewhere. To hear her trust that I could be of some help was so much of an honor especially with such an important thing. Luckily I have a job that I want to do to level the pathways for the raised bed area, so I will work with her.

From Kumbi's side, he has a WhatsApp status saying if people do not appreciate your loyalty, then it's better for you to steal as much as you can. And I can't help to think that this is directed to the conversation we had when I opened up about how I feel, especially considering he has not picked my call to book a face to face meeting. If this is how he feels it's better for him to come out and say it because that's not what I meant.

It turns out it's easier to work on the soil.  I remember the sandy side which is now the raised bed area has been giving me a really tough time until now, just to see things growing properly. There would be moments where I would feel like giving up but I would get back to my senses and know that the soil was just communicating honestly what it needed. So it's either I was willing to work on it and fix things or not. Not fixing things was not an option and after so much time the soil is giving a lot better. I knew the soil would be honest as long as I gave it what it needed then it would respond positively.

It's different with people, I don't know if the next person wishes me well, which makes it difficult to try and heal each other. Maybe we are not as patient as we are with each other than we are with the soil and animals. I want to if I can, heal us, but it's difficult especially if there is a possibility that things will be stolen from me. Maybe it's not even our conversation he is referring to, but just knowing his thought line is worrying. I will for now put the option of not working together off the table and see if patience and a lot of understanding can change our mindeset.

I have finally gone for scans, something I have found an excuse not to do in the past years. I don't know how I feel about the whole process. I appreciate that my sister was there all the way, she is a super patient human being. I am now waiting to hear what will be found and I have told myself whatever happens, it is what it is.

I will be leveling pathways tomorrow and Wednesday I will meet with Kumbi.

We have started levelling the raised bed area and figuring out how to use an A-frame to level the ground was an interesting part of the day. Mai Moyo didn't turn up, and I was momentarily disappointed, but she had to be somewhere and when I heard where she had to be I took back every I'll feeling I had. Kumbi came to join us where we were working and he never does this so it was a good thing after all.  Mai Moyo will help me with the field, when she comes.

I got my scan results today and I am okay. I got some medication to normalise my system. They said the lump I have is just fat. I am so relieved.
The meeting with Kumbi also went well. He was giving input on how we should do things and he shovelled a lot of soil from the raised bed area already. Today was a really good day.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:I got my scan results today and I am okay.

Excellent news! I hope this brings you some relief. I enjoy seeing your updates.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:I got my scan results today and I am okay. I got some medication to normalise my system. They said the lump I have is just fat. I am so relieved.
The meeting with Kumbi also went well. He was giving input on how we should do things and he shovelled a lot of soil from the raised bed area already. Today was a really good day.

I am so happy for you. I was worried.
A little fat is a good thing!

The plot was a busy place today. I found Mai Moyo in the field and she had already started clearing and this was just after 8 am. I was glad that she was faithful. She had her daughter with her who was sent away from school because she had not paid her school fees. I have been saving up to buy a phone and I had thought of being selfish and first buy a phone for myself and then raise money for clearing the rest of the field and this time I really wanted to put a 'want' first, not being too sensible about things. But I know things do not just happen. The day Mai Moyo came to clear the field is the day her daughter was chased out of school, to me it's a sign. I have decided to give her the money so that she clears the whole field and pays school fees so that her daughter can go to school, I know I can always get my phone. The best thing about her is that even if she is going through tough things she will make you laugh so hard, she does not give one time to feel pity for her.

We were on the other side of the plot, working on the raised bed area. I am so excited, it was one of the few times where we actually worked together at the same time with Kumbi and it was nice. I am trying to plant some mint at the edges of the beds, hoping that by the time the rains come, the mint would have covered most of the sides, that way the soil will not be washed away by water, it's too sandy and loose.

I also need to make a plan fast so that I keep Kumbi and my sister motivated, they are at a peak right now and are hopeful that we are going to start making a decent income, so there is so much pressure on me, in a very good way though.

I keep playing my experience during tests and checks that were done on me and I think when people are sick this is the normal procedure, I hate the process, I feel like there is absolutely no respect for the human body at all and I am trying to build myself value but after the scans I don't know if what I think matters, really matters. I spent last night thinking hard about this. I am more determined to take my young cousins, especially the girls and start having them eat proper food, to avoid illnesses related to food, maybe they won't have to go to hospitals that much, I know some things are inevitable but I wish I did not have to do the scans.

I went to see my niece, Tariro, the one I have been thinking about for years, yet I believed I had no travelling capacity. I guess I needed my hospital experience to make me not live in the future too much and to Just Do Things. This is in preparation for the holidays, I need her to be part of the kids that will come and visit me and I had to make myself known to the people she is staying with. She didn't believe it when I visited and she had thought since her other aunt whom she had stayed with for most of her life relocated to South Africa and had her own biological child, no one from her late mother's side was ever going to remember her enough to visit her or have her for holidays. She cried for most of the time and though her situation now is a difficult one, thanks to permaculture, I got time to even think of visiting her. I think if I were living a conventional life, the best I would have thought of doing is sending her money, because of lack of time. I wouldn't have seen and known what she really is going through.

We would talk to her on the phone, and she sounded fine and she said she did not trust me enough to say anything, but it changed yesterday when I was with her. At some point she had to work for her school fees at school until she went to her headmaster to tell him that she couldn't work anymore because at home she would have come from doing some hard work. This happened last year and when we would call her she would never say anything. She was helped at school to get an NGO to help with her fees, so she doesn't have to work anymore. She would not stop crying because of how she is being treated at home and she is confused why her life is tougher than most of the other children she meets.

To be able to give her hope was a good thing. Now I need to work on a menu that allows me to cook healthy food but in a manner that has the food we eat resemble the common liked food and we will gradually change the diet so that I do not push the kids away from eating healthy by a sudden change in how and what they eat.

I had my hair pleated hoping to have her feel proud of me as her aunt, I hope I will be able to take care of how I look consistently when they come for holidays, so that I become a good role model.

Winter is ending and we are preparing for the heat, so we have started mulching all the beds.  So far all the organic matter is from the yard and as usual it's exciting because I remember how much of a hustle it used to be to look for mulch. I saw how weed tea is made and I am repurposing the leaking drums for soaking the weeds in water. I lined the drums with some plastic sheets and there were still some leaks so I added some soil and it seems to work. I will assess what happens in the next 2 weeks. If this works it will be a really good cost cutting measure.

I was laughing at myself, it now takes me two days to write a post. My phone went off when I was in the middle of updating my thread and I did not see electricity come back as I had already gone to sleep. Well at least we have today.

The one change that's visible is that the sandy side looks a lot more lush than the side with the bigger beds that have clay soil. Our hard work is paying off. It will be a lot easier to work on the bigger beds.

I am excited greatly because of changes that are occuring across different areas in my life. The change I am itching to show off is of some really pretty shoes I bought yesterday from a thrift shop. I am not back home yet for me to write a detailed explanation on how buying my shoes owes so much to this project of mine and the shift it is bringing, taking us from an individualistic mindset, to a community based one, of people who are conscious about how we are using our resources.

Also I got some manure for free, of some bedding from a chicken run. It has a lot of pine  wood shavings in it. Is it safe for me to use this manure for making tea for the vegetables? I read about the possibility of damage to plants as a result of using pine tree shavings.

My environment is a hard one. For the majority, the economy is not working and from the common talk, it's as if even the law is not protecting us as it should. People are seeking to survive in whichever positions they are in and it's getting harder and harder to be compassionate. More rewards kind of go to the hard hearted people. I want to give a testimony of how a small seed if compassion has made a full circle and come right back to me, creating a small little bubble filled with goodness in all the chaos. I am talking about my relationship with  the peanut butter business owner.
It's been over a year since this business got some help, financially through me. We developed a relationship  beyond business. Generally  I find it really hard to ask for help, but it is so different with the peanut butter guy and unlike most times, I don't count the number of times I ask for help, I just ask and he surprises me because he is always happy to help me.
There was a time when a cousin passing though town was arrested, he had refused to give the police money when they had claimed he went through a red robot, which he hadn't and try refused for him to take pictures as proof. He was arrested and when I heard, I called the peanut butter guy to go with me and he helped to get my cousin out. The police had wanted my cousin to spend the night in jail though with his claimed offence he could have paid a fine and left. The money we paid for the fine was less that the receipted amount and the policeman who escorted my cousin out of the cells demanded for beer money and he had to give him. So yes there is corruption, but because there was someone to help us, my cousin did not spend the night in jail and I was not too strained   by the incident. All this ould have gone south if we had no help.
Secondly, the peanut butter guy has bought and sold nuts with my sister and they made a profit. Making it a little easier for me because though I am still depending on my sister, there is also some financial benefit on her part, through me indirectly.
Lastly I have started working with another small business, a stay mother who is rearing chickens. One of her good customers is now the peanut butter guy, he also referred a friend and they buy in cash from her. Then both the peanut butter guy and the chicken lady promised to buy vegetables from me. Everything has come pointing right back to the plot, an area I am passionate about.
Things have been a lot less stressful and I was able to talk my sisters into buying second hand clothes for a family function we have to go to. This way we can stretch the money we have in other areas that are also of great priority. We will still look good and I don't believe this is being cheap. I can only imagine how much the shoe I found costs as a brand new pair, it looks and feels super expensive and I am the one who will be looking expensive.

Hi Rufaro,

you asked about using the pine shavings in your garden, if they could harm your plants:

My way of knowing this would be to use the pine shavings in one part of a few beds (with different crops, as mulch, pre-composted, etc), to have a comparison of what works best for your conditions.

Something you could try, would be to make biochar out of your pine shavings: biochar can be made out of many different organic matter, with a process called pyrolysis. For example you can do it with weeds containing seeds, leftover wood, etc. It is the same process as making charcoal.

The advantages biochar has is that it increases water infiltration and aeration in the soil, reduces some diseases, bind nutrients, and therefore increases production. It also sanitizes the organic matter (killing weed seeds, diseases, and pests).

Write if you have access to a lot of organic matter, and are interested in producing your own biochar.

I have the load of shavings I got, it's still sitting at the plot. There is a high chance that I will be having periodic access to these shavings, since I am working with the lady who uses them as bedding for her chickens and has no use for them afterwards.

I bought two big plastic containers today, for soaking weeds, the trial of lining drums with plastic didn't work and I went to look for these containers simply because I have learnt how important feed is to the soil and I intend to make as much of it with material I have. So it is interesting that you wrote on the possibility of how I can make use of the shavings I got by making biochar.

Rufaro, I use pine shavings in my own garden and have not seen any problems with them.  I start out by applying them to the surface of the soil, using them as a mulch. Then as time goes along, they end up being dug into the garden as I harvest crops and then replant the next crop. They help my soil retain moisture, and over time, contribute to improving the soil.