Enjoy Fresh Vegetables by Planting Your Own

This is the third time I worked on this piece of vacant land in front of my house to prevent it from becoming an eyesore and a breeding place for all sort of pests.  By turning it into a vegetable plot it will provide me with fresh home grown vegetables as well as provide me with a good exercise to sweat it out and remove those toxins from my blood system.

The first time I started working on this idle patch of land in front of my house was in March 2009. I had to stop barely after 3 months later because the land owner brought a team of surveyors to demarcate the boundaries of his 3 house lots.
Seeing that nothing was being done by the landowner after a year I worked on the land again but had to stop during the monsoon of 2011 due to the area becoming water logged as the drain that used to drain the area was clogged up with sand and debris. Together with two other neighbours we cleaned up the drain and constructed a concrete sump to prevent further clogging, thus rendering the area to be usable again.

This was how the area looked like way back in 2009. The area was covered with rumput buluh or rumput bulu (lopatherum gracile) and semalu (mimosa sp).
 I had asked my neighbour Pak Mat to join me in working the area as he had done so the fist time with me. Being old he preferred to maintain his small plot of maize and watermelon planted in rubber tyres filled with soil to raise its level for fear that a heavy rain may submerge his plants.

Pak Mat's garden.

 Pak Mat's sole watermelon  fruit only managed to grow to palm size. I doubt it can grow any bigger than this as his soil in the tyre is very limited.

Clearing up the area was much easier this time around as a neighbour had used the area for his cattles to graze and thus the grasses were kept low. In March this year I started to plant up the area with the usual vegetables which is easy to plant and which I love to eat. Yes you guessed it right, kangkong and bayam again.
A few beds were made and planted.

The initial two beds of kangkong (ipomea aquatic) and bayam merah or red spinach (Amaranthus gangeticus). All the beds were four feet wide at the base and 9 inches high with varying lengths.

 A simple shallow well was dug to provide the water. Since the land is close to an irrigation canal, the seepage from it kept the water table high. Should the well dry up when the canal is not functioning during the rice harvesting season, I will have to water the plants using water from my tap.

Another bed was added to accomodate the exess seedlings that needed to be thinned once the seeds germinated. The cangkul was all the tool I need to cultivate the soil.

More beds were created and by now I have added the ubi setelo or keledek or sweet potatoes (ipomea batatas), ubi kayu (manihot sativus) and serai or lemongrass (cymbopogon) to the list of plants found in my vegetable plot.

The kangkong was easy to plant but somehow the red spinach failed me and I had it replaced with sawi or choy sam to the Chinese.

Young kangkong plants will taste great especially if it is fried with belacan. I prefer it in soup with rice noodles garnished with a rich dose of fresh prawns.

The sawi (Brassica sp.) or choy sam to the Chinese isn't our favorite vegetable and after the first crop, I stopped planting it.

My first bed of sweet potatoes and beside it the newly planted tapioca bed.

The maize plot is growing very well. Soon I will have them boiled.

The plot is enlarging.

Where I threw my previous crop of red spinach, a new crop emerges. What luck.

My gardening tools with my gardening shoes.

My sweet potato is nearing maturity after 3 months.

The exposed tubers after some digging.

The harvest from the first bed of keledek. Though not much, the nearest neighbors will get them too.

The proximity of the vegetable plot to my house made it possible for me to tend to the plants daily.

With enough exercise working on the plot, I am eating well and putting on weight. I am looking forward to Ramadhan and hopefully a month of fasting will help to shed off some fat. The produce from the plot will be shared with the neighbors some especially those that suppled me with seeds and manure. It will be payback time and thank you Allah for allowing me to gain some pahala sedekah.

DIY And Save Yourself Some Money

When my daughter in law Noralyani wanted to prepare a concrete working area at the back of her house covering an area of approximately 100 sq.ft., she was quoted at RM3,600 for the job. She felt that the amount was too much as it would only be a temporary feature as one day she may want to extend the kitchen as being done by her two immediate neighbours. After discussing with her husband, they decided to enlist my help since I was coming to Kuala Lumpur for my 40th  Year Reunion Dinner with my classmates, The Class of '72 College of Agriculture Malaya. on the 16th of June. I had a few days to spare before I leave for home on the evening of the 19th of June.
Having told Yani to order some sand and cement and a few tools such as the spades and a piece of 4 mm plywood for the job, I came to KL bringing along along from home some of the required tools such as the cement trowels and whatever else I could carry in my bag.
To help me with the job, I had roped in my son in law Ridzuan who happened to be home for the weekend.
The work area measuring 10 ft by 13 ft need no earth cutting as the highest end is at the right height and only the lower end needed to be filled in. A low brick wall was laid on the lower slope using cement bricks. Then sand was used to fill in to the desired level.

Ridwan helping to fill the area with sand while grandson pretended to work.

Work was continued the next day. Some manual compaction was done to prevent sink holes from developing. When that was done a lean cement mixture was laid and leveled so that water will flow towards one corner nearest to the drain hole.

The day ended with Ridzuan asking to be excused for the next day as he needed to rest his aching body on Monday to be ready for work on Tuesday. (Monday was a holiday for Israk Mekraj in Negeri Sembilan where he works).

I was in a fix as I need to lay another layer of cement rich concrete before I can consider the cement rendered surface done. I didn't have anybody to assist me on Monday and doing the job alone could be too much for my 62 years old body. Suddenly Yani volunteered to assist me saying that she was eager to learn a thing or two on how to do the job. 

Yani helped to carry the sand from the front of the house to the back using a wheel barrow, making the dry mix, later mixing the cement/sand mixture with water added.  When we were laying the final layer, she even volunteered to do the back breaking job of the final plaster and finishing stroke to bring the surface to a shine. Wow! That saved me a lot of backache.

That night Yani offered to take me for a massage so that I will recuperate fully before my trip back to Pasir Mas. I declined the offer as I know my body could repair itself and thus saved the money for other things.

Who says menial jobs are for men only? My daughter in law proved that women can do it too and even first timers can DIY (Do It Yourself) if you are willing to try.
All in all we spent less than RM600 for the purchase of the following items:
                    3 cu. yds of sand.
                    4 bags of portland cement.
                  100 cement bricks for the retaining wall and sink stand.
                    1 length of half inch diameter PVC pipe and pipe fittings.
                    1 faucet
                    1 second hand stainless steel sink.
                    1 roll of brick mat which I forgot to use.

With a saving of RM3,000, don't you think DIY is worth a try? The reward is numerous among which you learn how to do things new to you. You also learn to appreciate how tough it is for those who do such work for a living. The biggest reward is of course proving that you too can do it if you set your mind to it.
During difficult times, saving a few thousand ringgit is definitely good for the family.
 

My Life's Journey - The First Train Ride.

 Taking the Express train ride from Pasir Mas to Kuala Lumpur today is reliving the day I took my first train ride out of Kelantan some forty three years ago at the College of Agriculture Malaya, Serdang, Selangor. I will be on my way to a gathering of my classmates who did their Diploma of Agriculture course from 1969 to 1972. It will be our 40th anniversary since we graduated in 1972. The only difference now is that the express train now leaves the Pasir Mas station at 7.15 PM instead of 10.00 AM it used to do in those days. The train will arrive  at KL Sentral instead of the majestic old KL Railway station but arrive at about the same time around 8.00 AM, meaning the journey of old took almost 21 hours compared to 13 hours nowadays. Another significant difference is that the coaches are now air conditioned and the seats are individual  and comfortably upholstered seats unlike the long bench with bare wood. The Pasir Mas railway station itself has undergone tremendous transformation. The old wooden building is long gone due to lack of maintenance and severe termite attack. The platform is as long as the express train length and waiting passengers have shelter from the sun and rain all along the platform. The other difference today is that I am taking the sleeping berth instead of the third class sitting coach. In those days they will let you ride the train even if you have to stand all the way from the point of embarkation to your destination as long as you have a ticket.
 Back to that day forty three years ago, just imagine a nineteen year old boy from the village soon after finishing school setting his foot out of Kelantan for the first time. A whole new world was opening up to me. I was on my way to study at the College of Agriculture Malaya located in Serdang, Selangor, a place I can't even imagine how it looks. The only place that I have ever set foot outside of Kelantan was a trip to Sungai Golok in the south of Thailand with my classmates from Rantau Panjang who considered the town as an extension of his town of Rantau Panjang. We were innocent kids then and didn't have much money to spend on anything beside buying a piece of underwear.
It was a Saturday forty three years ago that I took the express train from Pasir Mas to Kuala Lumpur. To the local the express train is known as the Mail train. Maybe it was used to carry mails back then. I can remember clearly that it was a Saturday in June 1969 but I could not recall the exact date. The black Monday of 13th may 1969 was slightly a month away and everyone in the family and even in the village was apprehensive that I should embark on a journey to Kuala Lumpur which was the epicenter of the riot of May 13th.
The train station was crowded with well wishers sending their loved ones away. I couldn't remember having any member of my family sending me off as on that day as my village being 10 miles away from the station would have cost some money for any of them to travel too. The bus fare for an adult was 50 sen and a ringgit saved for a return journey could be put to better use. For the journey to Kuala Lumpur I had seventy ringgit on me which was a big amount in those day. That was all the family could give me including monetary gifts from well wishers in the village. I remember another friend had his RM100 sewn into his underwear for safety. The fact that there wasn't anybody from the family to send me off didn't bother me as my sweet heart who is now my wife of 39 years and going, was there to see me off.
I had been staying away from home since the age of seven when I began schooling in another village called Kangkong, five miles away with my grandparents. After completing standard four and passing a special exam I was enrolled in a special Malay Class in Pasir Mas at the age of eleven to prepare us to join the standard six of an English Primary school. Upon the advice of my older half brother, my parents had agreed that I should get an English education for a better chance in life. I often wonder how uneducated village folks like my parents could be so forward looking compared to our leaders of today in developing an education policy that would benefit the people. How I wish my children could have the same education that I had to prepare them for their life.
To be continued...
Notes: Some photos will be added later.