Welcome to our farm. [music] Since a lot of you have requested in the past, for me to do this video, I am finally giving it to you. I'm going to give you a tour of our farm. Welcome to 'Beati Firma'. To give you a brief idea, we acquired this land on 2011. It was a raw land. Actually, it was very bare except for just one tree. We discovered this place through Tita Isabel Rivas. And then, she invited us in her farm here in Zambales, not so far away from here. And she said that they will show us a piece of land. At first, honestly, back then, I was very young, I thought, can we really take care of a farm or is it worth it? Or will we be able to focus on it? And so, I asked my mom if she was interested and of course, initially, she thought, "Are you going to exile me?" that she brings it up until now. But then, we are so glad that we bought this piece of land because now it's beautiful. Of course, this will not be completed if we were not helped by our friends who also have farms close by. Like Sir Edward Cairus, who used to be an American soldier who also chose to retire here, and became a family friend. So he helped us put up a fence around the property, and made the perimeter. And also, this pathway was build by Oliver Abraham. Of couse, no man is an island. You know that you will need a lot of help from different people and most importantly, since we're not originally from Zambales, we're so glad that the people here are so kind and we get along with them. And I feel happy that my mom is safe here, and so is my brother and his family, and of course, my stepdad. I am just so glad that everything came together and now I can finally show it to you. So behind me are our Mahogany trees. The whole perimeter of our land is being surrounded by Mahogany trees. They are 8-years old now. As you can see, they're still thin which means they're still young. But, theyre' actually good investments because in the future, they can be bought by furniture designers for a very, very good price and actually, aethetically they are beautiful to look at. And when Mama planted these, it used to be 5,000. But then, when Typhoon Ulysses hit, one got badly hit. And there it is. So today, I can no longer claim it's 5,000. It is now 4,999. It's still okay. It will still grow. It was actually cute, because it was like Mama was playing Farmville. The distance of the trees is perfectly placed, she also put up signages. I don't know why [laughs] she put Basha there. She probably thought Basha lives here. She forgot her daughter is actually Bea. This looks like a sign from a restaurant, but Mama's too cute, and she will kill me if I didn't show this to you because she worked hard for this. Yeah, my mom has a house. I think the House of Basha, she was referring to the guest rooms. And the House of Santiago, of course, Santiago is my nephew, who is actually turning 1 this April. So from our fence, you will see the view of the mountains and the beautiful cows that we have. There is actually a time of the day that they're in a specific area. And in the afternoon, they'll come here. It's probably because, they also want the cows to eat the grass in that area, and also so as not to make a mess, and it is not difficult to herd the cattle. And I like how our farm is actually the perfect size for the number of cows that we have because they do not compete for food. I'm very proud to say that we have an organic farm. We don't do feeds. We don't do antibiotics. Um, we also don't do sprays or pesticides, we don't use them for our farm. So, it's actually all natural. And it makes me so happy that it's also earth-friendly, because even our trash, we segregate it, and nothing is wasted. So you will see all over the farm that we have solar-powered light posts. So even if it's night time already, when you enter our farm, it's well-lit. And what's nice is that it's sustainable. We don't need to pay for electricity just to light up the entire place. At night, automatically, when it gets dark, everything will turn on. So, I'm glad that my mom was able to invest in those lights. These are our Mango trees. It's now starting to have flowers, which means it will start to bear fruit. Because the season for mangoes usually start April or May. And in-between our Mango trees are Calamansi trees. They can earn from these because they sell these here in Zambales because we have a lot of Calamansi trees. Uy! Uy! Uy! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Drei! [laughs] 00:06:11.16135 So here beside me, the caretaker and manager of our farm, Dhoy. How many years have you been with us, Dhoy? Dhoy: 8 years. So he's the one who really knows the farm, that's why he needs to come with me in this tour. Look at what the cows are doing to the golf cart. [laughs] Dhoy: They might.. He might swallow my phone. Can you give us a tour of your place? Because they have.. Since this is like a community here. On the other side are our houses, while on this side is where Dhoy's and the others' houses are. So this is Dhoy's area. Dhoy: Yes. This is where you hang out? Dhoy: Yes. And then, what is your regular routine here, Dhoy? Like, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Dhoy: We start watering the plants. And then? Dhoy: And then we feed the cattle Dhoy: and the pigs in the.. And then you ride the tractor in the morning, right? Dhoy: Yes. So I told them that our farm is all organic. What do the cows eat? Dhoy: Darak (powdered husk) and also Dayami (straw). And then, there's also pulot (molasses), right? Dhoy: Yes. Where do we get the pulot? Dhoy: We get this from the sugar canes. They look so cute, like, it's their dessert. Pulot is like honey, right? So they eat those because it nourishes them. And then the leftovers, since we also have a rice field at the south of the farm, in Botolan, Zambales. Dhoy: Yes. The farm is self-sustaining because the rice we eat here comes from there, we also sell those to sustain the farm. And the leftover rice we have, we feed to the ducks. Dhoy: Yes. Right? Mama also has a lot of rescue dogs that are Aspins. What we feed the dogs are, I'm not sure if you are familiar with sodas? These are the trimmings from the meat. Yes. So we buy the meat trimings from the grocery, and then, that's what we feed to our dogs because they also save dogs here. [whistles] Hi! There's Beati. Dhoy has a daughter who's name is Beati. He named it after the farm, so it's from Beati Firma. And then, we also have a well. Isn't it this well has been here ever since we bought the land? In this area, the water pressure was low, right? So that's the challenge we had before, where we had to dig a lot of area to really find the source of water in this land. Dhoy! Dhoy: No, it will not ran after you. [screams] [laughs] I'm so stressed! So we're now here at the cattle pen. This is where the cows rest and eat. How many times do they eat in a day? Dhoy: They only eat once a day, Dhoy: but they drink water all day. Ah, because they get hot especially in summer. Our mango trees here on this side, where the cows are, the bottoms are trimmed. It looks like the trees were professionally trimmed because the cows eat the ones they can reach, so the bottom looks beautiful. It looks manicured but it was naturally done because it was the cows who manicure the trees. They're looking at me and they're mad. [laughs] What's the hardest thing to do here in the farm? Dhoy: For me, everything is so easy to do now. Wow, you're the best. [laughs] You and Mama are are the ones managing here. Dhoy: Yes, and although I don't own this, I love this farm already. Aaawww. You might cry, Dhoy. [laughs] So we're now here in the nipa hut that Dhoy made during the ECQ. He just got really bored, then he got all the available bamboo and every other wood here. And then he made a nipa hut. Just because he was bored. That's how they are here when bored, they build things. But what did you do here, So you got everything... these are also avaiable here? Dhoy: Yes, I got those here. And also these? You just made these? Dhoy: Yes, here. So what are these? Dhoy: Cogon, those are cogon. Cogon. And these were the leftover material from the parking space we constructed? Dhoy: Yes. They also made the stairs which were also handmade by Dhoy. This is where they keep their logs. Where do you use these, Dhoy? For burning? Dhoy: As firewood. Firewood. So these are properly placed here to avoid any fire. Dhoy: That's where we burn the wood that are already really rotten. You burn those so it would no longer cause a wildfire, Dhoy: Yes. that we didn't know? Dhoy: Yes. Dhoy also made this old-school kitchen. Eventually, you might see me cooking here, I'll share it with you a recipe that I just learned. The provincial life. If it's the provincial life that you're looking for, this is how you should do it. What did you just spend here? Nails? Dhoy: Just nails and wires, that's it. Just nails and wires. Everything else came from the farm. Imagine, with just nails and wires, you have something like this. Amazing. Very good! My ducks are here! [laughs] So here are the.. Bibe Cream is here, and also, Bibe Ko! [laughs] [sings] [laughs] Bibe Ko! He got out! [laughs] Dhoy: That's okay, he'll return. [laughs] Oh my god, I'm sorry! Sorry, ma! Sorry, ma! [laughs] Sorry, ma! Come here! Let's go, come here! There it is. He doesn't like it. He really doesn't like me. Let's go to the pigs. So, here are our 3 little pigs, whose names are, Sam, Gyup, and Sal. Come, I'll introduce you to them. [laughs] Hi, Sam, Gyup, Sal! We're still breeding them, so we can have a lot of branches. Just kidding. [laughs] We just got them right? Dhoy: Yes. Dhoy: We're still trying to breed them. So what kind of food are we feeding them? We don't give them feeds, right? Dhoy: None. Dhoy: We only give them darak. Darak? When we're done with rice milling, we give them darak. For those who do not know, what is darak? The Rock. Darak comes from the rice. When you grind the rice, it separates the rice kernel, darak, and the husk. And that's what our animals eat, darak. Darak. Darak rocks! [laughs] [laughs] Dhoy: Sheep. [tounge twister] [laughs] [tounge twister] [laughs] [laughs] [laughs] So we're now here in our sheepfold and look at our lambs! Hello! Can I hold you? They really don't like me. Only the cows like me. Hello! Do they all have names? Dhoy: Not yet. 00:13:51.11531 Oh my god. Looks like the geese are getting mad. Dhoy: No. [laughs] So what do these eat? Dhoy: They also eat darak. Also darak? So it's really darak that.. Dhoy: They eat darak and grass as well. Oh, yes. Dhoy: They also eat leftover vegetables. And how many times do they eat in a day? Dhoy: They eat twice a day. Okay, twice a day. Because I ran here every morning when I'm here in the farm. And I always bring Dhoy with me because the dogs don't know me so they might chase after me. Every time we come here, what is it that you always say? One lap. Two laps. Dhoy: This is every round. [laughs] Dhoy: There you go! [laughs] We're now here in our court, and this is only a half court. So you can play 3-on-3s. Like that. This is where my cousins and I bond. It also has a hole where you can put a rod in for badminton or volleyball there. So, at least if we are here, we have other activities to do, other than eating and sleeping. There's so much to do here and so we can bond here as a family. We can hold events here. And, what's nice about it is that, even at night, we can use it because it is surrounded by solar lights. We are now in our tree house and fish pond area in the farm. And we have tilapia here in our farm. So normally, this is where we also get the fish that we serve, to make it more sustainable. And this pond is actually pretty new. We just build it late last year. We want to learn how to really take care of the fishes. Although, Mama, when she was living in Quezon, this is not something new to her because she also had samaral before. Before, she also had shrimps, so my mom is really into farming ever since. So, here we have our tree house. When we purchased the farm, this was the only tree that's planted here. The locals here call this tree, Cupang. I feel that I wanted to create, like, a memorial for this tree because when we put up a tree house here, it didn't seem to last. But then, we had to cut it because snakes are started living there. When we cut it, we cut it up to here and turned it into a table for this area. And then, it is still deeply-rooted. So we still call it a tree house even though it doesn't look like one. This will serve as our remembrance of how it all started. There are many things that we want to improve at our farm. Just like right now, we are trying to build houses for our staff. And there are areas that we are starting to landscape, like the area that's near the tree house. The work never stops. It is always a work in progress, just like ourselves. And I consider myself to be very lucky to have a mom who continuously work hard in order for the farm to be beautiful and sustainable. So there you have it, beautiful people. I hope you enjoyed watching this video and you enjoyed getting a tour of our little farm. And next week, watch out because I'll give you a tour of our farm house. See you! Don't forget, life is BEAutiful! [blows kiss]
