Did a good deed today!

Today around 8:00AM I went to the farm. I hadn't been there for months. Wanted to see how it looked like now. Also a few weeks ago, my neighbor by the land called me up and asked me if he could let his cows into my land. I was estatic, I always wanted cows in the land, that is why I got the fencing done. I readily agreed. Not only they would clear up the land, it will also fertilize it with their dung. Cow dung is considered reverent and not considered 'poop', in India, it is well respected and have many uses including flooring, fuel and fertilizer.

I had my friend Vikrant Ruttala along with me, since my kids doesn't seem to be too excited to come along with me. We drove there in my truck, and we could get in through the first gate, but we couldn't open the next fence, since the earth has shifted and the gate has pulled away from the post, the metal tie was too tight to remove. I then got out and used another street to get to the third gate through which we pass to get closer to the pond and to the cement pad, where there was a house before.

Driving by, I met some of the cows, they lifted their heads up from what they were doing (eating) and had a puzzled look in their face to see who I was. One of them started come closer to us. Smell of cows and dung was suspended in the air, which wasn't there in the land before. But it wasn't too bothersome.

The water in the main tank is gradually dropping and I could see more stones poking out of there. There was one pink lotus plant which was out of the water, and I was concerned about it, thinking that it would have died, but found that it was still alive, even though not in the water, the ground around it was still wet. I used a spade to dig it up and threw them towards the middle of the pond, I am sure they were happy.

I showed Vikrant the land, he liked it much. I went to see the smaller pond(tank) which had cement walls, and wanted to see if there was water. Last time when I came here, there were a few black snakes and good amount of water in it and was wondering if the heat persists and it dries up what they would do. When I went to see the tank, unfortunately, it had dried up and no sign of the snakes. I felt bad, I am sure they couldn't make it. But I couldn't find their remains, it must have been eaten by birds of prey. But surprisingly, I found a few turtles at one shaded corner of the tank, I knew, they couldn't get out. They have piled them over each other, I thought they might have been dead. The clay there was all cracked up from the heat, so they didn't have anything to eat or drink possibly for many weeks. But I saw their heads poking out and it pulled in when I got closer to them.

I asked Vikrant about helping them, and he said he never handled a turtle. Fortunately for me, when raising my young son, Nikhil, we had a small turtle at home in a water tank and have touched turtle before, but it was a much smaller one. The unfortunate turtles were much bigger than I have handled. I didn't know if they would bite me(remembered snapping turtles)so I put on the gloves from my beekeeping line of work and jumped into the pond. I assessed the height to see if I could get out of it after I jump in, and it was only 3 feet deep. I took a plastic tray based on the advise of Vikrant and put all the turtles in it. and got out of the tank and put them in the back of the truck. We drove to the location where I normally access the pond and released the turtles.

They couldn't be happier. They all rushed out and swam around a bit and was so happy to be in water after many days in a tank where they couldn't get out and possibly dying a slow death. I was so happy that I could help those unfortunate critters.

On the way back, saw a lot of greenery, in spite of Texas going through a drought which hasn't seen in the last 50 years. The green plant, which I don't know how they get the water from, is broomweed. If there was water, I am sure they would have thrived everywhere in the farm. Noticed that the cows didn't seem to care about them, but fortunately, they are a bee plant, they were starting to put out yellow nectar filled flowers, and there were bees on them already!

Also I looked into the lonely beehive I have, and they seem to be thriving as well!