Light in the Woods Series 5: Where has the fisher gone?

Where has the Fisher Gone?
Dr Abe V Rotor

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Light in the Woods Series 4: Blue Starfish

Blue Starfish

Dr Abe V Rotor

Light in the Woods Series 3: Echoes on Tikob Lake

Echoes on Tikob Lake

Dr Abe V Rotor

Light in the Woods series 2: A Cross in the Sky

Light in the Woods series 2

A Cross in the Sky

Dr Abe V Rotor

Light in the Woods series 1: Will you draw me a ship?

Light in the Woods series 1

Will you draw me a ship?

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 

Oldest and Biggest Trees in the World - Baobab and Redwood

Oldest and Biggest Trees in the World

- Baobab and Redwood

Dr Abe V Rotor

Few trees live in isolation. One of them is the baobab (Adansonia digitata) found in South Africa claimed to be 6000 years old (1000 years at least by Carbon dating). In The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupery, the baobab is feared because it could destroy the small planet of the little prince. The tree was also featured as movie background of The Gods Must be Crazy.

Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world.

Remains of a once towering redwood, one of the tallest and oldest trees

in the world. It is believed it was already bearing cones at the time of Christ.  

Standing redwood trees showing massive trunks


Redwood bonsai; redwood seedling. ~

The Eye in the Coral Reef

 The Eye in the Coral Reef

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)


The Eye in the Coral Reef, Acrylic Painting by the author 2015

The eye! The eye!
among the corals watching.
conscience of the sea,
over Homo sapiens fishing.

It never winks, it's alive,
guarding against man's folly,
whose eye - not of man,
disgraced guardian of the sea. ~

Chrysanthemum's Finest Hour

 Chrysanthemum's Finest Hour

Dr Abe V Rotor

Chrysanthemum's Finest Hour in acrylic  (44" x 30") by AV Rotor 2021

What good is beauty when it simply fades away, 

a flower weathered by sun and rain,

visited by many a bee, picked for a base or lei?

But a thousand genes in great refrain! 

Chrysanthemum morifolium, commonly known as the Red Daisy represents 

unconscious beauty. Chrysanthemums symbolizes luck, long life, love and fidelity.

Let us save our deteriorating sloping land

        Let us save our deteriorating sloping land 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Upland in Silang, Cavite, typical of farms on sloping land. Erosion does not only reduce soil fertility; it strips off the fertile "skin and flesh" of the land permanently. Here the slope has been sliced by rills and gullies, footprints of runoff water. Through years of neglect and mismanagement the land is now marginalized, a step away from becoming a wasteland.   

These are ways to conserve sloping lands. 

1. Don't disturb the natural vegetation that has preserved the state of the land, say forest or grassland, for years if not generations. Nature knows what is best in keeping the land in a state of dynamic balance, which is the key to long term stability (homeostasis).   

2. A slope does not exist as an independent piece of land - it links two terrains, the upper part is usually a watershed that catches the rain, and the lower part which deposits the net runoff in rivers, ponds and lakes. 

Destruction of the slopes leads to desertification (wasteland formation) as the land is stripped of its cover, predisposing it to repeated brush fire and erosion. Below the rivers run dry, so with the ponds, that irrigate the fields. The lake shrinks and form a swamp around it.  

3. The slopes serve as buffer and storage of water and soil nutrients.  If it is destroyed, rainwater will be lost quickly as it rushes down with little amount absorbed and kept for future use specially in summer. 

The aquifers (porous rock layers) will not be filled up to feed the streams and springs. Plants will dry up under the sun to fuel a spark into conflagration as what is has happened to many arid parts of the world - Indonesia, Australia, Green, China, and the Philippines.     

4. In the Cordillera (Mountain Province and Ifugao) terraces have been built on mountain slopes where there is a rock core, on contiguous and graded slopes that span from a cloud rich summit down to rice fields that sustain a community. Ultimately a natural waterway becomes the catchment.  The scenario starts with rain cloud from the summit slowly and continuously moving over the terraces in the shape of a giant funnel. 

Terrace building took centuries, terrace after terrace, linking the generations and cultures, unifying agriculture and ecology, and it is for these underlying reasons that the Banaue rice terraces has gained the prestige of one of the wonders of the ancient world, and today's honor as a UNESCO heritage.  

6. For privately owned sloping areas, if  one wishes to go into farming, say an orchard or woodland (agro-forestry), or as a pasture - or in combination - it is important to consult the present Land Use Policy. Consultation with the DA and DENR is important. 

Typical sloping land farming (Internet)
SALT (Sloping Land Technology) is a program of the government patterned after those of China, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan and many other parts of the world. Author's Note: SALT  has limited applications, typically feasible on gently sloping land, and seldom in areas above 45 degrees.  Where rainfall is limited and irregular SALT is not recommended. SALT is not the answer to wasteland conversion, rather it is a wasteland prevention measure. 

7. Where agriculture is not feasible, sloping lands should be preserved as ecological sanctuary, to compensate for the shrinking natural habitats of wildlife. Ecology tourism is a boost to such areas.  More and more tourists are coming out from cities at weekend, and tourists searching for the richness of tropical greenery, the famed setting of John Milton's sequel -
I saw Paradise Lost and I Saw Paradise Regained. ~

“Gaze at life in Me the second time”

“Gaze at life in Me the second time”

Photo and verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

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Prayer is a universal element of Human Nature. It comes in many ways irrespective of creed and culture. It is ingrained in the rationality of the human being, emanating from a deep source which we cannot fully grasp. It is by believing in something beyond our comprehension that undermines our ignorance, arguably but true, as a unifying factor of humanity.

Gaze at life in Me the second time,
whatever the past had been;
a new beginning is what matters now,
most beautiful you’ve never seen.

Touch Me now that I am risen,
with your mind, heart and soul,
for you have chosen the path
of life with Heaven its goal.


Redeemer of our postmodern world,
We come to You, our Recourse
To find peace and accord
On life’s rugged course.

Author's Note: Apo Resurreccion (Ilk) is a wooden icon of the resurrected Christ which has withstood the ravages of typhoons, earthquakes and the atrocities of the Second World War at the author's family residence.  Prayers are offered by quests who visit the place, which is gradually being developed into a Living with Nature Center cum Botanical Garden, in San Vicente Ilocos Sur.  Articles linked with the features of the Center can be sourced out in this Blog avrotor.blogspot.com

"Quo vadis, Agriculture? (To where is Philippine Agriculture headed? ) Farmers' Museum (NFA Grains Museum)

"Quo vadis, Agriculture? 

(To where is Philippine Agriculture headed? )

Farmers' Museum (NFA Grains Museum) 

Re-opened After 30 Years

The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread throughout the world to the present time. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

DIORAMA: The flagship of the Marcos administration Masagana 99, a nationwide

 rice production program that made the Philippines a net exporter of rice in the later part of the seventies to the eighties.

The re-opening of the museum signifies the revival of the original objectives of the museum, which the author envisioned and pursued as its first curator in the early 1980s.  

Featured in the Grains, official publication of the National Food Authority, the NFA Grains Industry Museum with address at the Regional Office in Cabanatuan City (NE) is now inviting students, scholars, researchers, and ordinary folks, even while restoration is on-going. 

The feature story is quoted in part, as follows:  (December 2016 Vol. 44, No. 4), written by Ms Lina G Reyes and Ms Josephine C Bacungan), 

"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains .  It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape.  It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it.  But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.) 

Rare Artifacts   

Operated by hand this native rice mill made of wood and bamboo separates the husk from the grain, leaving the grain intact with its bran.

Brown rice or pinawa dehusker made of bamboo and hardened earth with hardwood grinder displayed at the former Farmers' Museum of the National Food Authority in Cabanatuan City.c 1981 

The bran contains minerals, vitamins, oil, and digestible fiber which conventional rice mills removed during polishing. Polishing removes the bran leaving the grain white and polished. In the process, much of the grains is broken, particularly the defective and immature ones chalky and powdery.  It is the bran that gives the nutritious tiki-tiki which is extracted in the final boiling stage in cooking rice. Tiki-tiki was developed by a Filipino scientist, Dr. Manuel Zamora, a cheap and practical source of infant food supplement which saved thousands of babies during the second World War. It was later popularized as United Tiki-tiki. . 

 Biggest wooden harrow (suyod) with a span of two meters, more than twice the size of a typical harrow for upland farming.  



The harrow is of two designs and make. One with iron pegs (left) is used on wet paddy. It serves as harrow and leveler.  The second is made of bamboo with natural and embedded pegs used as harrow for the upland.  

Author demonstrates a rare wooden planter with a sliding wooden block at the middle. The block creates a tic-tac sound to let know the worker is busy on the job, while the deep sound warns birds and rodents to keep away from the newly planted seeds. The block vibrates the stake shaking off clinging soil and dirt before it is thrust to make the next hole. Whoever put this mechanism into multiple and unified uses must be a true genius. 

At the background (above) are naturally shaped hame* made of bamboo.  At the foreground is the mould (cross section) showing the formed hame. The process involved is simple.  The mould is placed atop an emerging shoot.  The shoot grows through the mould and grows to maturity. One or two years after, the bamboo is cut with the mould, and cured and seasoned for durability all in the natural way.  (Hame is a curved harness that fits over the nape of a draft animal like carabao and bullock. Hame for the horse is made of two wooden pieces, padded and clamped together around its neck.) 

Native raincoats made of leaves of anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), cowhide, and woven bamboo slats, with matching headgears likewise made of native materials.  Foreground: Sleds, one made of bamboo (left) and the other of wood. 

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All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.   
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These sets of mortar and pestle in different designs came from different regions of the country, principally for dehusking palay into rice, and making rice flour. Other uses include  cracking beans such as mungo, and grinding corn into grits and bran. 

Photo below was taken just after the inauguration of the Museum (1982). The author (left) shows new collection to Dr Romualdo M del Rosario (in barong), deputy director of the National Museum, who helped in setting up the museum. 

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The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.

Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency.  It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down.  It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." AVR   

There are six dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum.  Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground.  The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.   

 Rice Industry Dioramas 
                           
                            One of the six dioramas, Rice farming on the Banaue rice terraces

Rainfed (sahod ulan) farming dominates the uplands and hillsides. 

Good harvest depends on generous amount and distribution of 

rainfall during the monsoon. Since ancient times festivals implore 

providence for bountiful harvest. This practice still exists especially 

among the  minorities like the Yakans.  

World famous rice terraces in Banaue in the Cordillera have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Rice farming on the terraces is as old as the terraces believed to be as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, and much older than the Great Wall of China. Science is still studying the sustainability of these terraces. 

 The Encomienda System dominated agriculture during Spanish rule over the

 islands for more than three centuries. The friars and Spanish officials were the encomienderos, similar to hacienderos.   Although the system underwent land reform, it still persists to this day under corporate umbrella such as the case of Del Monte pineapple plantation. Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac still retains some features of the system.                          

                  

This mural was destroyed when the wall it was painted on had to undergo 

major repairs.

                               

How primitive are farmers' tools and implements? The animal-drawn sled predates the wheel cart, and has not changed since its invention thousands of years ago.  It is still used in the remote countryside. 

Brain coral for shelling corn raises eyebrow to the city bred.  Biggest iron bar scale (timbangan), probably is another item for the Book of Guinness. 

“Education is the lifeblood of museums. Museum education has the power and the responsibility to do the challenging inner work of tackling tough topics and turning them into teachable moments... If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums’ capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek.”

― Monica O Montgomery

“Closing a museum to save money is like holding your breath to save oxygen...”

― Nanette L. Avery