Sometimes keeping hope is easier said than done, especially when you are fighting against all odds in every aspect of your life, but I believe that the trick is never to give up, no-one ever claimed that life would be easy or fair.
This year alone I have lost a great deal of my crops and animals due to drought and related water issues, I tried pulling some of the crops that I had through with minimal water, and managed to succeed, but then disaster stuck when our subversive water pump that draws water from a deep seated well packed up, this left us stranded without any form of running water for weeks, and all my newly planted chilly seedlings that I had planted just weeks before in the net-houses died. Once we had the water back up and running - I acquired more seeds and started planting again - this time a heat stroke settled over us for a few days and the young plants again died, at this point I was feeling quite discouraged, but what can you do? Nature can be a cruel mistress, so we cleared out the nets yet again, got more seeds and started planting again, just as the seedlings started to emerge, the shit hit the fan yet again, this time on a more drastic level - Our water well had completely dried up, leaving us again with no water.
With no rainfall, dry land and a dried up well, hope was dwindling - and fast.
As a farmer, reliant on natural water, not having ANY water, is really a worst case scenario. Not only your own survival, but that of your animals and crops are dependent on it, and with the crops and the animals being our main source of income, I am sure that you can just imagine the sense of dire straights.
We finally pulled the pump out of the well and had people come in and test the well, this only confirmed that the well had indeed dried up, but as by some or other divine intervention, I decided to have some of the older well tested as well and we found one that had not been used for quite a few years, it was standing open because the pump for the well had packed up many years ago, and we did not have the money to replace it, it was not a very strong well as many other farmers at that stage were also drawing from the same underwater vein. The blessing was that the other farmers had stopped using that vein to pump from over time, which means that the well could now maintain a steady water supply. We dropped the pump from the initial well in the older well and managed to source water in this way. This might not be a sustainable solution, and we are not sure how long the water supply will last, but at the moment we are just to grateful to have water again, after a few weeks of being without.
So off I went to go get more seed - yet again and I started planting, and the seedlings are starting to emerge once again. But not only that, it looks like the upcoming week might hold a tiny bit of much needed rain for us as well.
Nature sends reinforcements:
But that was not the only good news - at this stage it seems that nature is actually working with me for once, not only is there a glimmer of hope in the possibility of rain, I have also been having a wonderful influx of beneficial insects making their home in my crops.
In the photo of the twig monster below you can see the egg housings of already hatched praying mantis eggs. These little hatch-lings start feeding on other insects from the moment that they emerge, and is and amazingly beneficial insect to have in your gardens or crops
Praying mantids eat aphids, beetles, caterpillars, earwigs and leafhoppers, and in some instances, even other beneficial bugs. You can almost say that they are natures own pest control.
Another such insect that serves the same purpose and that has made their way into my crops is the ladybugs. Below you can see the newly hatched ladybug larvae
These little guys are also ferocious predators in the insect world, and feed off of a variety of harmful insects.
So I was really happy to see those little guys around, doing the great work that they do.
Right now I am all about keeping the faith, because right now - that is pretty much all I have left.