New Adventures at Dawn Kiam - 5

(fifth installment) 

Day 6: Friday 8 May 1998

The sky has been teasing us all day. It has been pleasantly overcast throughout the day and the winds strong. Much cooler than the previous five days. I even felt something between drops and a mist on the wind. Proper rain probably fell somewhere, but not yet here.

The back-hoe konked out while trying to dig the foundation for a new, improved dam. The hope is that the dam will enable us to better regulate the water draining down the canal so that levels in our ditches is sufficient and our neighbors get enough for their animals and crops and also to better flood the land of the old swamp. The earth dam we have rebuilt every year has required a lot of work and not worked well. Will concrete and a bigger size do the job? Will it be worth it? Once we started investing our thought, time, energy, and money is preserving this forest and land it is increasingly difficult to know what is "enough." The desire to be "safe & sure" doesn’t naturally recognize sufficiency. The struggle continues.

Another aspect of the dam, of preserving the forest of Dawn Kiam, the hill, and perhaps Ms. Pikul's land (what's left of it), and of rejuvenating some of the swamp, is that we need some cooperation from our neighbors. They all have interests connected with the canal and the dam. Most, like us, don’t want the canal to drain away so much, but want it to drain the excess when the heavy rains come in November and December. If we can agree on what the right balance is at the various times of year, our efforts might succeed. If we cant agree, we will end up sabotaging each other.

The human factor is not only important, it is difficult. To make sense with a tree doesn’t take hours of jawing. The birds don’t get angry about ego things. The rocks don’t remember the things people do. Getting people to cooperate is hard work. We must learn to do it and have the necessary Dhamma, e.g. the khanti (patient endurance) which is "the supreme incinerator of defilements."

That we have time to make these reflections is largely because the crisis, if not all danger, has passed. Thus, we feel safe enough to let two of us join the Dhammayatra for Songkhla Lake, as planned. We have been involved in this "pilgrimage" from its conception and want to maintain our participation. (See website for details.) I will follow once the rains fall.

Day 7: Saturday 9 May 1998  

Not many clouds today, consequently very hot, yet again.

Water level in ditches is high. Don’t know why. Maybe some of the back-hoe's digging or moving around loosened something underground. The higher level in the ditches will raise the spread of moist earth at least 10 meters, if not 20, in from the ditch. When I followed the remnants of an old path in towards the burnt areas, the soil was moist quite a ways. The more water in the soil the better chance of surviving trees to live and lesser chance for peat under the surface to burn. Another good sign.

Maybe it wasn’t necessary for the back-hoe to clear those trees on the west side of the road. Ms. Pikul said she didn’t care about the road after all, so it wasn’t necessary to clear that area in order to move the road. And the raised waters in the ditch removed the other reason. Good old hindsight! After it's too late …

The water level in our inner canals has risen also. The dam was improved a bit and so water is flowing into our canals again. The newly dredged ditches in front of Dawn Kiam are also more full of water.

Despite these good signs, there was some excitement (& exhaustion) at 23:00. On the midnight shift, still, I was out watering some last remaining hot spots in the southeast corner of Ms. Pikul's land. This area was still covered in dried out brush and I found more hot burning peat than expected. Fortunately, they were in reach of the hose and I watered down one after another.

As I was working on one spot, something lit up brightly behind me. A fire was shooting up a few feet. Right at the base of the last tall tree in that corner, a tree close enough to Dawn Kiam that sparks from it could easily ignite the dry tinder in there! Worse, this fire was beyond the reach of the hose unless I did a time consuming rerouting of the hose. I found two buckets and started dowsing the fire with them. But one leaked and was almost empty by the time I reached the fire! So I tried running to cut the time for leaking. Half successful. Must have looked silly, but was having a good time jumping through the ash and over branches. Didn’t take long to put it out, fortunately.

That left me exhausted. I figured I’d done my bit for the night and headed of for a soak in the hot springs.

On the way, I met Mr. Daun going somewhere on his scooter. He seemed more interested in going off to some social activities this holiday weekend than worrying about fires J Perhaps another sign that things are getting back to "normal."

Day 8: Sunday 10 May 1998  

It's Visà kha-På jà today! We commemorate the "Birth," Great Awakening, and Parinibbà na of the Lord Buddha. Will shift our fire-fighting energies more towards the inner fires of greed, hatred, and delusion. One week since the fires began, for us.

The southeast corner of Ms. Pikul's property remains the last danger point for us. After dowsing hot spots last night and being in the right place when the fire broke out, most of that area is looking good. No smoke when I walked through this morning. Yet I felt some heat in my face at one point, but nothing clear.

The main thing is to help Mr. Daun look after his boundary with Ms. Pikul's land. We keep pumping water into his ditch.

The back-hoe is back in action. Began deepening the pond in front of our meditation hall, temporarily obscuring our view of the sunrise with big piles of mud and clay. It also helping to pound in concrete sheets that will form the main part of the new dam.

No clouds and no sign of rain. Not much fire left either.

Day 9: Monday 11 May 1998  

The back-hoe finished up the pond and smoothed out the piles of clay so that we have a view to the east again. The pond now has a meter-plus deeper trench around the edges but is the same shallow, reedy depth in the middle where the back-hoe's scoop couldn’t reach. Ajarn Poh says that the wood ducks will like that. A flock of thirty or more used to come by regularly; it would be nice to have them back. If we go swimming, we will have to swim in a square circuit along the edges rather than across the middle. The main thing is that it will hold more water after the rainy season.

Work on the dam continues and the back-hoe continues dredging and deepening other ditches.

Clouds billow to the west an there is a breeze from that direction, but no clouds accumulate overhead. The animist in me wonders if the clouds and rain are avoiding us.

In the evening, Ajarn Poh told us he saw some smoke near the path to Mr. Daun's house. A few of us went out with buckets (since the hose couldn’t reach far enough) and a hose. The hot spot was fairly wide but probably running out of fuel. Didn’t take long to make it cool enough to walk on in bare feet (an easy test some of us have used).

Looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Day 10: Tuesday 12 May 1998  

Weather continues as it has been, the back-hoe chugs away.

The normal daily schedule of Dawn Kiam is back in swing.

This tired monk has finally gotten a good night's sleep and some naps.

This afternoon I couldn’t see any smoke coming off Ms. Pikul's land.

Thought this might be the last one,
but there's a little more ....

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