Went live on air - at last!

End Sept was the time line to close the bird house and go live with bird calls. Indeed it was a joyous moment to watch the swiftlets came visiting! It turn out the side entrance was used by most birds - a good judgment call (& a self praise, of course).



Obviously I couldn't count.. hundreds perhaps!
















In fact some swiftlets went in to check it out even before that. A few stayed over for the night!









Showing off a newly planted tree.















The final hours - setting up the sound system and the switch board.















Each power amplifier drives about 150 tweeters - total of 600 aprox. installed.















Dome camera & flood lights were installed too.



















A friend came visiting and got stuck in mud!















I went to the rescue and slid down the pond's edge - hanging precarious close to the water line. It lost all tractions and impossible to pull out even on 4 wheel drive.















Turned out to be a bigger rescue effort! Chains secured to anchored poles to prevent it sliding down further. Darkness fell and the flood lights just installed a day earlier came in handy.















Another steel pole formed a guide rail on the other side.















A couple more sand bags in place to help regain traction - without these resourceful guys around I wouldn't be able to get it out! The drama was over and you bet I just want a good sleep that night.



















Thought I've seen it all how the workers live off the land - until I saw them sampling the crabs caught from rice fields around.















These are destined to the cooking pot!















And this prawn from the deep pond - considered small, the head alone is about 8 cm long!















Its been quite a journey building this farm. How do I sum up my experience?
1. It gave me a lot of satisfaction applying some of my engineering knowledge.
2. It brought me closer to nature, which I truly enjoyed.
3. Last but not least, develop new friendships and bonds in the process.