Southwest Monsoon’s Aftermath

I am thankful that there were no serious incidents to our family during the Southwest monsoon (Habagat), except for hubby and I getting sick, and losing my MIL. However, there are some events in our home sweet home brought about by the monsoon.

• Mother hen hatched her first batch of eggs last January. Out of 10 hatched, 4 survived prior the monsoon. She hatched her second batch around mid June. There were 8 chicks at first, then 1 did not survive. Come monsoon, we lost 2 out of 4 chickens and 6 chicks. Hubs said the chickens may have been picked up by strangers. If that is the case, hope they got the chicken to take care of, not to cook for their viand.

• We had a small soil erosion. The greenhouse area became muddy because of it. There is a lot of cleaning up in the coming days.

My vegetable garden looks like it was abandoned. The once lush Baguio beans and bush sitao are all gone. I am having a hard time recognizing the borders of the garden plots. The whole garden needs rework. The beans were being harvested. I was just waiting for the bush sitao to mature since they are past the flowering stage, but all gone during the monsoon. I am not sure if I will plant again during this rainy season. Funny story. When I was so sick, I saw some chickens on top of the trellis of the beans and they were feasting on them. I didn’t have the energy to shoo them away so I let them be. Then came the monsoon that wiped out the garden. Well at least most of the beans were eaten by the chickens so it was still put into good use. Good thing also that we have harvested all the pechay so at least we had a taste of some of the vegetables I planted before the monsoon.

• Some flower plants also did not survive. Well, it was partly because of the monsoon. We have an unfinished greenhouse and the area was still accessible to the chickens. When the monsoon came, it was the only shaded place where the chickens can stay to keep themselves dry. Unfortunately, sometimes they would walk on the plants. Repeat that for a month. Goodbye plants. I will just have to regrow the survivors again. But first, secure the area. Note: I placed the chickens on a chicken pen last summer, but I noticed that they were getting sick. There was even 1 casualty. I let them out of the pen after a month and just tried to secure the planting area. However, the nets were not enough. Need to do more this time.

Those are about it. Hope everyone who experienced the rains were not greatly affected.