Being a small farmer - going the uncharted route Part 1

I changed direction in my life, leaving the corporate world and entering the agricultural world.  Before making this decision, I considered many things.  I realize that I no longer wanted to be involved in board room shenanigans and wanted to remain true to my principles.  I also wanted to be able to spend more time other than in meetings till late at night and to have my weekends back.  I also didn't see myself going at that pace for long nor do I see a long-term future.  Let's face reality, as we age, we come to a point that we have to "retire" and for the younger ones to move up.  So, what will I do then.  I cannot imaging myself facing the walls or watching tv day in and day out and not having much mental and physical activity.  To me, that is a sure way to get sick fast!  I began work on a life plan - considering what I love to do and to turn it into my "golden age" plan.
I have always loved plants and animals and being outside.  Added to that, I also love being active and not sitting in one place.  I also enjoy doing things that are a challenge.  Taking all those things into consideration, I decided to go into agriculture - not run of the mill type, but something new.  Hence the birth of the concept of natural integrated farm, a farm whereby emphasis is placed on maximizing nature to provide food without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  I tend to shy away from the term organic farming as I find that this term has been over-commercialized.

The first item was to select the right piece of property which has good, natural water supply, easy vehicle access, available utilities infrastructure, freehold land grant, within my budget and not far from Kuala Lumpur.  It took me about 10 years to find a piece of land that met my requirements.  To many, at first glance, the land represented a lot of work since it resembled a jungle - there was even vines that you can swing from tree to tree like Tarzan.  Taking a walk within the land then was a challenge and you need to have a parang handy to make your way through and good hiking boots as the land contour was not clearly visible and also as protection against leeches and who knows what else.  I fell in love with it at first sight - I saw possibilities in the different vegetation there as well as presence of dried stream beds.  My mind began to fill with all kinds of ideas and the vision of what this land can be developed into.
First things first, acquisition of the property.  I was fortunate that the land grant is in good order but with the twist that the property had 2 owner names on it as a portion of the total property as described in the land grant had been sold off at one time but the grant was  not converted into 2 separate land grants.  I refuse to just add my name to the grant so one of my terms of the sale was that the grant be divided accordingly before the sale can be concluded.  I wanted a proper land grant that fully described what I will own with my name on it to avoid any property disputes in the future.

During the period whilst I waited for the land grant to be processed, I visited the property many times, studying its contour and vegetation as well as checking out the water availability.  That area has poor Syabas water supply so I had to find alternative sources.  In the worst case scenario, I would have to use the Sg. Lui water where it crossed the land, splitting the land into 2 portions.  The river wasn't indicated in the land grant and apparently the land grant has not been updated since the 70's when a major flood caused the Sg. Lui to re-route itself.  However, in getting to know the people in the area, I found that water can be piped down from a clean water source up in the hills.

The land was filled with all kinds of plants, shrubs and trees and I began my study of what they were and how they can be useful to me.  It was during this period that I found that there are many plants that can be of medicinal and also nutrition value.  Thus began my adventure in the study of the properties and use of plants as well as herbs.  What to some people may be just a mess that using a backhoe can clean it all up, I found it to be a treasure trove.

I have always loved being close to water and with Sg. Lui running through the property was great, an added bonus was to find that there appeared to be stream beds running through the property and during heavy rains, the water would run through it.  This gave birth to the idea of being able to raise fish.
As the land had been left untended for many decades, I found that through the natural process, there was good quality top soil from the natural decomposition of plants and trees.  My decision to not use a backhoe to raze the land was a good one as I then can keep the top soil ensuring good fertile soil presence for my plants and trees. This meant that land clearing would be done in a manual manner with judicious selection of what plants and trees should remain and what is cleared.  My favorite tools are parang, weed cutter and cangkul.  Through the initial land clearing, I was able to see the contour properly and to set a first-level design plan for the land.

With an understanding of the elements of the property that I wanted to retain, I started selective land clearing and construction of the fish pond.  After the intial land clearing, the first structure that was built was a storeroom cum bathroom.  I needed a place to store tools and equipment as well as the need for privacy for....you all get my meaning.  I had a well dug in this room so that there was a water supply for washing and cleaning as well as a refreshing "bath" after the workout.  Now I was ready for the serious development.........