Now that rain gods have finally decided to take a break, we decided to clear up some key access roads. Clear is a huge word given the thicket that had sprouted over what used to be decent mud roads.

So we apologised to angry ants and scurrying rats, cleared tons of grass and regained some semblance of  pathways.

And where it was not critical, we cleared just enough for a person to walk. It took 3 days for 3.5 of us and was worth it for 2 good reasons.
a) Now I venture into many more nooks and corners of the farm (Ragu wonders why that counts as a good thing!)
b) The grass so cut yielded enough mulch to cover 8 raised beds each measuring 22 feet by 4 feet.
Given that temperatures are set to soar from mid Jan, we are very happy to spread all this grass in less irrigated areas.

The second type of clearance that happened is the elimination of lower branches of tall trees known locally as "Kavaathu". It's quite different from pruning of a branch in that this does not change the shape of a tree. After this process, the trees are lighter and girth of the trunk increases due to elimination of competing branches. Also the taller tree yields more light to the nearby shorter trees after this process so they get their chance to catch up. This process took 3 man days per acre. Again, Kavaathu proces yields tons of coarse organic matter that is ideal composting as well as for burying in mounds or raised beds if you follow the traditional "Iru Madi Paathi" (twice folded raised bed) system.

The third type of clearance that happened is the attempt to uproot all Lantanas that were taking over all the empty spaces. Earlier, we had made the mistake of clearing the Lantana bushes but leaving their roots intact. They grew so fast that by the time we noticed it, the off springs are well on their way. The thorns made it difficult to deal with them or get past them.  So this clearnace almost took 4 man days per acre but the guys did a really good job of digging out all the roots. If we don't want to repeat this expensive excercise,  we need to get busy planting some thing else like castor in these ex-Lantana spaces so their seeds won't sprout as much. Some one who knows how to use Lantana for making furniture would have been delighted by our harvest of this species. But we have no clue and it all got used up as mulch or firewood.