Farm Visitor Number 1

Had our first visitor to our farm. A good friend in his early fifties. He is trying to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. Came with him wife, most probably trying to bring back some romance in their life. They were with us for 7 days.

We started off by acquiring a car. We called lots of the so called cheaper rental that offers low rental rates. All of them do not have an immediate car for us. Most of them are privateers and have only a single vehicle for rental. We finally found Kinabalu Car rental, spoke with Miss Tan, who offer us a good rental and even deliver the car to us. The car a Proton Saga 1,300 Auto is a sufficient performer, it even surprised me. The is very new and it sufficient to even traveled through the Kimanis bypass.

Once we took delivery of the car, and checked out of the hotel, we proceed to Signal Hill. This used to be an observatory point. It offers a magnificent view of Kota Kinabalu and it's surrounding. We can see the whole city and some adjacent island. There is also the Atkinson Clock Tower nearby.

 Second stop is the Jesselton Wharf. Kota Kinabalu was called Jesselton during the colonial days. This wharf was refurbished and is now called Jesselton Point. This is the wharf where you can take the ferries to the surrounding islands and even to Labuan. The islands attraction include Tunku Abdul Raham Park, Gaya Island, Sapi Island, Manukan Island, Suluk Island and Mamutik Island. This is the ticketing counter and on the walls there are the historical pictures of Jesselton. You can spend some time to look through the historical pictures.

This is where you board the ferries. Hives of activities during the morning and evening. During night time, the place is crowded by dinners or people out for a drink.
There is another famous island, made popular by the show, Survivor Island. It's called Pulau Tiga. You can go to this island by making your way to Kuala Penyuh, and take a ferry there.

We then proceed to visit a Durian farm in Mengbankut. It's a small town near Beaufort. The durians is bearing fruits and maybe 3 months latter we can come again for a durian feast. The durians are of the clone Red Prawn.

We stopped by a hanging bridge just for our guess to have a feel of crossing a hanging bridge. Crossing the hanging bridge is easy if you walk with the rhythm.

Our guest has has the opportunity of testing out various machinery and to live out his childhood again. We have ploughing machine, chainsaw, grass cutter and lots of hand tools. As usual all good things has to come to an end. It's time for our guest to go home after staying seven days with us. We all had a great time and off we send them to the Tung Mah Express bus station. Their flight home is in the late evening.

Free Range Chicken,

Free Range Chicken, keeping of chicken that runs freely. Some call it Day range chicken, as we keep them in the coop during night.
The question now is whether the Chicken came first, of the Egg came first? For us the Rooster King and two mother hens came first. We brought these three chickens to our farm and let it runs freely since last year. The mother hens laid some eggs and hatched them. Unfortunately only one survived till now, and had grown up. The high mortality rate was due to our inexperience and rough geographical conditions. Predators also contributed as this is a newly developing area.

The second batch, we did better, as we are more aware of predators like eagles, owls, wild cats and etc. Also we had kept two dogs now, which helps too. They had also found refuge in our storage hut. Eight chicks survived and grew healthily. The mother hens looks after them constantly.

We had also built some shelters for them, and it offers more protection too. This were 'simply' built, with no plans and drawings or measurements. We keep the young chicks in the coop for night protection. We have plans to increase the numbers and had identified an area to built a bigger coop. Construction shall commence latter.

The eight chicks had grown, three cocks and five hens. We are transferring these to Parcel 4, to start a Free Range Chicken farm. The chicks has to be separated from the mother hen so as to promote faster laying of eggs. The mother hen shall delay laying new eggs if she needs to tend to her chicks.

Constructing a chicken coop on Parcel 4. It also double up as a temporary generator room. Its about 16 feet by 16 feet, to carter more for the measurement of the zinc roof. This was built close to the trees so as to keep it cool during the day. We have plans to built another coop for young chicks.

With the generator in, and the holder for the diesel fuel. An opening was left at the rear for better ventilation of the exhaust. The height at the rear is too short and I keep bumping onto the roof thrust. Have to built higher the next time. The generator is kind of loud too, wonder if it'll affect the chickens.

Finishing off the rear. Since we have some 1X2" lying around, shall just use these to fence up. Note that we do not cut the wood to size, we simply use / reuse what we have / what we can laid our hands on.

Taking a tea break, after a morning's work. Our helper's children came along too this morning. Had some fried noodle.

Making and mounting the door is tough. Had to re-do as one of the frame broke. Mounting was also difficult as we do not have the proper tools and ad forgotten to make the allowance for the hinge. Wasted lots of time to re-do the hinge.

Decided to separate the generator with a divider to reduce the exhaust sound to the chicken. The generator only runs a couple of hours a nite, until electric supply is available. Hope the chicken wouldn't mid too much. Put a thick layer of rice husk on the floor. Fixed up some wood for the chicken to stand.

View from the door. Found some discarded metal bed. Used it as a fence for the lower portion, exhaust.

We're done. The side view of our 'simply built' chicken coop. Still need to do up the drainage as the coop is located at the end of a slight gradient land.

Our new tenant just moved in. We only managed 7 chickens at the moment as one "escaped" while transferring to the box. Shall leave it maybe for the next trip. These chickens seem to love the rice husk and they just takes it on as food. They immediately start scratching for food. Problem when feeding as the corn get 'lost' in the husk. Found a container to house the corn, but their scratching over turned it. Watering is also another problem. Shifted the feeding and water container to the generator side that has now husk.

Rooster King and one of the consorts, still in Parcel 1. He has 4 consorts now. Let's hope that he works hard. This is a tough guy as when rushing for food with the dogs, it pecks the dogs paw until it bleeds. The 2 dogs is rather afraid of him. Dogs eats corn too.

Four eggs now, more to come. Hope that we'll have more chicks to start a new colony soon. We are trying to duplicate these free range chicken into our other Parcel if successful.







Now we shall be able to monitor the temperature and humidity of our coming brooder.

We have some other chicken from the house. Shall most probably shift these to Parcel 4 to increase the strength of our colony. With a strong colony, it shall propagate at a faster rate. Note the pigeon at the back ground. We are also toying with the idea of raring free range pigeon for meat. Planning for a pigeon coop / lofts.

Planting Corn, not as easy as I think.

Planting Corn, I thought was easy. After my first failure of planting sweetcorn, I did more research and found more information that prepare me more, for my next trial.

Current planting technology involve lots of new technology and data. Weather plays a very important role as with any activities. Knowing the weather trend helps to reduce planting risk and increase yield. Long time ago, some clever planters devised a 'Planting Calender'. I was told these planting times had some how been incorporated into the Chinese calender. Planting calender, being geographically based, shall differs from location to location. I am still trying to find our local planting calender. Other factors affecting the calender most is the climate changes that we are currently experiencing. Another is the kind of hybrid that we intend to plant. The seeds that I had bought has a maturing date ranging from 45 to 78 days (am sure that there were no hybrids during those hay days).
Weather Forecast and trend for Keningau

Planting distance. Corn are preferably planted in blocks of minimum 100 to be effectively pollinated. As these are wind pollinated, there is a higher chances of pollination in blocks rather than in (just) rows. The optimum planting distance differs from location to location and types of seeds, it varies from 6 to 20 inches and 20 to 40 inches between rows. Planting depths also varies from 0.5 to 2 inches.

Land and soil. Land preparation, do a soil test to find out the soil condition. This is something that we had never done (village style). Plow the soil to a minimum of about 6 inches. Sweet corns require lots of nitrogen. Use a nitrogen rich fertilizer. Condition needs to be moist and hot for good germination (easy part). Found a cheap PH meter.

Next comes the weeding control. During the flowering stage, make sure the weeds are short. This shall secure higher pollination. Lots of sunshine, some water and some fertilizer. Wait for Harvest.

Progress on Parcel 5

Sweet Potatoes, these were transplanted a week back via 'cutting' method. We cut lengths of about 7 to 8" and with roots. Plant it on the ground and watered it for the next few days. Some did not made it, but 60% did. This is growing now. Have to weed our the surrounding on the next visit. Once it starts to grow, it's easier to propagate further. We are still looking for the Japanese Potatoes variety.

Couples of frogs made home at our nursery. As it did not affect the germination, we left it be. Tadpoles are growing too. Hope it shall help us eliminate the mosquitoes and other insects. Come to think of it, Frog Farming?

Avocado are fruiting, we have 4 trees here. Shall check again when it's ready to plucking.

A small avocado tree ready for transplanting.

Our lemon grass is growing. These were planted back in March.

We have rows of Lemon grass along our perimeter. Banana too.

Our worker experimenting with Long Beans and French beans.

Our corn for chicken feed.

Our Yams is also progressing well.