The New Paradigm, It's not agriculture, Progress Report No.2

No.2. June 21, 2021

You see in the photos below the family at work on Terrace Number Five, and a touch of fauna at two extremes. One is an interesting caterpillar and the other consists of two of our Carabao.

Together we are reforesting the Philippines… BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Celine makes the planting holes, Marjo (in back) marks the locations for Celine. Peter takes on the heaviest of challenges as the Pathfinder. Janice wields a mean bolo when clearing an area of brush.

It’s time to mark Terrace Number Five commencing at the beginning or southern end and moving north. The slope is around 30% so standing is a chore while working to complete the primary objective of marking and planting the Mulberry in a level, although contouring line.

Jenki is the larger of our two carabao here. Jasmin is the daughter. Jenki's mother is down in the rice fields working, three in all. These two are "mowing" the grass using regenerative principles.

Francois is our future Agroforester who is Age-5 with two years of experience already. (No joke, he goes where Papa goes.) It's either the cell phone or the chance to run around and be a Junior Agroforester-in-training. Not to worry, he gets plenty of screen time, mostly in English too. He is up-to-date with all of his pre-school lessons. What he learns when being with his dad is more than one might imagine.

What have we? Whether it is a butterfly or a moth that is in-the-making it will eventually be a pollinator. First is 1) Egg, 2) caterpillar, 3) cocoon, 4) The pollinator in form of butterfly or moth and then finally we enjoy the fruit on the tree.

The traditional farmer would look at this as a pest and then move to eradicate it with gusto and pesticides. However, when using the perspective that one is not a thousand then one is a benefactor and not a pest. A little food from the forest floor and we see ecological balance.

In time the two carabao will roam and graze the terraces. First, we must build them and then make the soil hospitable to the different grasses and leguminous ground covers.

We are in the beginning of the rainy season and so we must work daily while the ground is soft and there is rain that nourishes the newly planted flora.