Wake for a Dead Fish

This fish floated dead* in the pond so we decided to give it to the pigs. They didn’t want it. To the chickens, they didn’t want it. To the ducks, and this was their response. Yet another behaviour that we can only speculate upon. A similar behaviour occurred earlier this year, when a female duck was killed by the alpha drake, see Do Ducks Know How To Grieve.

*We have a not so large tilapia pond. Quite a number of small tilapia have appeared. I wasn’t able to catch any of the large tilapia lately because they have become smarter (and less hungry since it is chesa season and some of the fruits have fallen into the pond). As the fish population grows, the older and bigger ones die.

Are You Ready for El Nino?

elnino

Are you ready for El Niño until 2016? What are some of the things you’re doing to prepare, apart from the conservation of water? Do you have plants and animals that are/will be affected by El Niño?

We’ve had a dry spell of nearly 5 months this year, from February until June, and this resulted in the loss of many crops and in some villages, the death of goats and cattle due to the lack of water to drink and moisture in vegetation. So we’re thinking more seriously about water shortage beginning January 2016 and a simple way of water desalination / purification is one of the things we’re looking at, sea water being just a few meters away. Another item on our agenda is soil moisture retention to keep our plants alive and the condition of the soil good. The last one is water harvesting, generally a means to collect rainwater run-off (we’ve already started this by having a tilapia pond, duck pond and a reservoir).

How about you? Are you getting ready for El Niño? Here’s an interesting video on water desalination/purification.