Pacific Swallow (Hirundo tahitica)
Habitat - Common along coasts, in towns and open country, rarely over forest.
Size - 5 inches total length.
Shooting Info - filmed in habitat at Maambal Orchard, Pangasinan, Philippines on September 11, 2022, Nikon Coolpix P1000, fluid head + tripod + built-in mic, manual focus, manual exposure in available light, recorded and processed at 4K/29.97p.
White-breasted Wood-Swallow (Artamus leucorynchus, resident)
Habitat - From open country to clearings at forest edge up to 1800 m.
Size - 7.50 inches total length.
Shooting Info - filmed in habitat at Maambal Orchard, Pangasinan, Philippines on September 4, 2022, Nikon Coolpix P1000, fluid head + tripod + built-in mic, manual focus, manual exposure in available light, recorded and processed at 4K/29.97p.
A Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) preens and gives out a call on top of a tall tree.
Habitat - Early second growth, open scrub and gardens.
Size - 10 to 11 inches total length.
Shooting Info - filmed in habitat at Maambal Orchard, Pangasinan, Philippines on September 9, 2022, Nikon Coolpix P1000, fluid head + tripod + built-in mic, manual focus, manual exposure in available light, recorded and processed at 4K/29.97p.
We finally completed the roofing system of the farmhouse on September 30th. Now, we can continue with the finishing works even during rainy days. Additionally, we can already store construction materials in the farmhouse itself, allowing us to clear the garage and use it for its intended purpose - parking.
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| The structures we have built so far are the caretaker's quarters (upper left), the water tower and well (center), the garage/storehouse (partially visible in upper right) and the farmhouse (foreground). |
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| Here, the camera is pointed west. The terrain is gently sloping down from the main gate to the rear of the Orchard. The side of the farmhouse facing the gate is less tall than the opposite end because of this. |
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| With the camera pointed east, the taller side of the farmhouse can be seen. The kitchen doorway leads to a landing that is about six stair steps from the natural grade line. Visible in the background at the upper right is the gray main gate. | |
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| The rear face of the farmhouse forms a straight facade, with wide 1.8 meter high windows that allow good views of the atis, cacao, bangkok santol and guava stands around the water tower. The ornamental plant garden is visible in the upper left (just beyond the line of palms). |
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| The farmhouse is U-shaped to allow the maximum number of window openings on the two bedrooms on the left and on the right. Each bedroom has a balcony that faces the ornamental plant garden, while a spacious porch dominates the center. The front of the porch will be planted with bermuda grass later. The gently sloping terrain is also apparent in this photo. |
As of September 18, 2021. the roof framing system of the farmhouse is essentially completed. The GI roofing sheets, gutters and end flashings are already on site, ready for installation starting on September 20th.
The fascia boards are painted white first before the gutters and flashings will be installed.
When the roofing system is in place, we can start storing finishing materials inside the farmhouse. Rain showers, short of a full blown typhoon, will no longer delay the construction work.
Music - "Portrait of Time" by Aakash Gandhi.
The non-stop rains brought by Typhoon Kiko (Chanthu) temporarily halted our construction work at the half-finished farmhouse. After inspecting the newly delivered GI roofing materials, I visited a couple of trees that are currently fruiting.
We have three mabolo trees that are now about 9 years old. For the first time ever, I saw them bear fruit. It looks like this is their first season of maturity.
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| A rain-drenched mabolo fruit (velvet apple, Diospyros discolor) yet to ripen. This was a favorite fruit of mine when I was a kid. We used to rub these against the grass to remove the velvet-like fur covering the skin. I haven't eaten one in decades, and I've almost forgotten how it smells or tastes like. I'm eagerly waiting for these ones to ripen. I'm sure a flood of childhood memories will come rushing back after the first bite of a ripe mabolo. |
Over at the guava stand, fruits are everywhere, mostly unripe yet. In a couple more weeks, the birds around the Orchard will have a feast on these.
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| Guavas are great to be eaten fresh off the tree (after washing these, of course). Some folks prefer the manibalang ones (just before fully ripened), while others like the ripe ones better. For me, the best use of ripe guavas is as a souring agent for sinigang na baka sa bayabas (soup made with tenderized beef ribs, string beans and guavas). This was a special dish prepared by my granny in Batangas when I was young. |
Meantime, in another fruiting tree beside the farmhouse, a mixed flock of birds are having their lunch. This tiny bird was feasting on the fruit of an aratiles tree (Muntingia calabura). For a sense of scale, the berry-like fruit is typically about 1.5 cm in diameter.
Red-keeled Flowerpecker (Dicaeum australe, a Philippine endemic)
Habitat - Canopy of forest, edge and flowering trees.
Size - 4 inches total length
Shooting Info - filmed in habitat at Maambal Orchard, Pangasinan, Philippines on September 11, 2021, Nikon Coolpix P1000, fluid head + tripod + shotgun microphone, manual focus, manual exposure in available light, 4K/29.97p.
We are now doing full welds on the numerous joints of the roof framing system. The GI sheets and other accessories will be delivered in a week or so, and we hope to mount the roofing within a couple of weeks after that.
Once the roof is covered, our finishing work inside the farmhouse can
progress rain or shine. We can then start decongesting the garage (now being used as temporary storage) and transfer the bulk of construction materials to the farmhouse.
Music - "Borderless" by Aakash Gandhi.
It is not very often in rainy August that the golden light of the sun shines through the clouds in the late afternoon.
While we continue to assemble the roof framing system of the farmhouse, I took some time off the construction work to send the Mavic 2 Pro in the air.
The Orchard and its surrounding farms, now green with young rice plants, are quite photogenic during this time of the year, especially if the skies are just very slightly overcast. The thin clouds filter some of the harshness off the late afternoon sunlight.
Music - "Hurts So Good Blues" by Unicorn Heads.
In this 4K footage filmed on August 24, 2021, the roof framing system of the farmhouse at Maambal Orchard nears completion.
The truss-rafter combination is built up from 2" x 6" x 1.5 mm thick galvanized steel tubes, with 2" x 4" x 1.2 mm thick tubes as minor members. Three coats of epoxy primer were applied before assembly to protect the framing system from corrosion. The galvanized steel C-purlins are 2" x 3" x 1.2 mm thick, spaced at 0.60 meters on center. Rib-type pre-painted GI sheets at 0.60 mm thick will be used as roof covering.
One year after turn-over of the Orchard, much work is yet to be done. We have built the garage and the caretaker's quarters, secured the water supply through a deep well, but the farmhouse is still halfway to completion.
Six month old Burrito (a male pug) normally spends most of his time inside an enclosure at his hooman's home.
When let loose in a mango orchard, he goes crazy and runs around like there's no tomorrow.
In this July 8, 2021 update on the progress of building the farmhouse at Maambal Orchard, we dug the foundation of the landing outside the kitchen door using T-Rex, our 1-tonner mini-excavator. We also started scraping earth in front of the house to control the water runoff along the sloping terrain.
A hearty lunch of pork adobo, hard-boiled egg and rice wrapped in banana leaves somehow made the job easier.
There are two Giant Catimon mango trees at the Orchard, and both bore a lot of fruits this season. The fruit of this mango variety is very large, about three times the size of manggang kalabaw. We particularly like its sweetish taste when it's just about to ripen (manibalang). When fully ripe, it still tastes good, but if forced to choose only one, we'd still opt for the ripe manggang kalabaw.
This season, we saw for the first time the fruits of each individual mango tree in the Orchard, allowing us to ascertain which variety each tree belongs to.
Among the over two dozen mango trees in the Orchard, we counted six different varieties. The vast majority are manggang kalabaw, our preferred variety because of its unbelievable sweetness when ripe, and various stages of sourness when unripe. The rest are two types of piko (not good tasting when ripe), manggang supsupin, Giant Catimon and Indian mangoes.
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| An unpicked Giant Catimon mango fruit - with no familiarly sized object in the photo, the huge dimensions are not readily discernable. |
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| The huge size of the fruit becomes apparent when we include a ruler in the photograph - the total length is over 7 inches! |
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| This particular fruit tips the scales at 969 grams, and this is not yet the largest one we have harvested. Some of the even larger ones easily exceed 1 kg. |
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| This last photo shows the relative size of the Giant Catimon and a large specimen (for its variety) of manggang kalabaw from Zambales. It usually takes three pieces of manggang kalabaw to make 1 kg. We traditionally name something after kalabaw (carabao, or Philippine water buffalo) because of that thing's large size. But if manggang kalabaw is dwarfed by the Giant Catimon, which animal would fit the latter - manggang elepante? Or manggang balyena? |
We have cleared the triangular area between the garage and the gate of construction materials and scrap items, then overlaid it with some gravel. This area is shaded by a row of mahogany trees and grass wont grow well in such a condition. The gravel overlay will protect the soil from erosion and keep the patch a nice place to walk on (mud-free) during the rainy season.
A new bahay kubo was placed in the centroid of the triangular area to serve as our field office as we supervise the construction of the farmhouse.
Burrito, our male pug puppy, recently visited the Orchard. He is about 14 weeks old and he now weighs around 3.80 kg. He weighed just 1.50 kg when he arrived about 5 weeks ago.
The wide, open spaces of the Orchard is a treat to Burrito. He enjoyed running around like crazy, even under the high heat index prevailing in northern Luzon.
There are six matured sineguelas trees at the Orchard and this is the first season when we are able to taste the small, oblong fruits.
Sineguelas (aka Spanish Plum, Spondias purpurea) is a deciduous tree introduced from tropical America by the Spaniards. It grows to a height of 5 meters and bears smooth-skinned, oblong fruits that are about an inch long. When ripe, the fleshy skin and pulp of the fruit is eaten, leaving behind a large, stony seed.
Thanks to the Orchard's previous owner who selected and planted the seedlings years ago, the fruits turned out to be good tasting. The pulp is thick and sweetish, with a hint of sourness and that unique sineguelas taste. The fleshy part easily separates from the seed, making it probably among the best sineguelas varieties I ever come across.
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| The fleshy part easily separates from the seed, making it probably the best sineguelas variety I ever tasted. |
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| A cluster of low hanging green fruits - it will take about a week more before these ripen. |
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| When ripe, the small fruits turn dark. |
T-Rex, our 1-ton mini excavator, is mobilized to Maambal Orchard this 16th day of March 2021. This machine will be permanently based at the Orchard, where it will do various digging and gardening jobs.
We were able to load it safely onto a truck using a pile of sand as a ramp. At the orchard, it was unloaded without issue using a pile of 3/4" gravel as ramp.
Upon review of my first try this morning, I realized that I didn't use the arm and the inward rotation of the bucket to dig into the material. I tried again in the afternoon, and this time I can scoop bucketfuls of sand easily.
The motions are still very jerky, but in a few more training sessions, I reckon I'll progress a bit towards becoming a smooth operator. 😉
We plan to use T-Rex in digging drainage canals, doing earthworks in the garden, and other small digging jobs in the orchard.
Before mobilizing T-Rex (our new 1-ton mini excavator) to Maambal Orchard, I have to learn to operate it first. A pea-sized gravel stockpile is a good practice area.
This is my first time to run such a machine, and I'm surprised at how complicated it is for me to get used to the numerous controls and movements. Although I've over three decades experience in driving cars and motorcycles (I can also operate a forklift quite well), a mini excavator is a different level of ball game. I've to watch out for the balance of the machine given its very light weight.
I'm confident though that in a few more sessions, I'll become quite familiar with the equipment and I can start using it in the Orchard.
Our 1-ton mini excavator, which we named "T-Rex", was delivered this 3rd of March 2021. We plan to use it in sculpting the orchard's terrain - grading the trails, building earth berms in the garden, digging canals to drain run-off rainwater and cultivating the soil (its rake attachment will be used here).
