cooked

you could rent out a tractor with a posthole auger attachment?

slightly off topic, where can I get a reliable, independent laboratory test done for my water? Nobody seems to bother about this much, you just get told, 'don't drink the tap water'. I'm sure you can get rid of most stuff that's in the water, but what about pesticide and herbicide residues for instance? Arsenic and mercury?

Well there was a productive response today! One member who isn't available on an unspecified date, and of course, "Our" Andy the "bridge" builder.

Come on guys, hand up somebody!

well alright, after I get back to Thailand and get married, in September, I might have time.

many years ago in Iran somebody got fed up with cars using their horns all the time (I was told that with some cars the horn came on when you started the engine). A law was passed, things went on as before. Police set up roadblocks. Confiscated offenders' cars. Stripped them to their underpants. Painted their shaved heads red. Gave them the bastinado. Three days later after seeing these guys limping home half naked and red headed, people had stopped doing this. True story I assure you.

I think that the police would be ready to do their job properly, the political incentive to do so isn't there, and anyway, anywhere in the world it is the easily proved misdemeanours (going through a red light, being over the limit, no helmet, being drunk) that are most readily punished.

I found that 'learningthai...' was very useful, starting you off as any child would start in Thailand. The problems with 'the' phonetic system is that there are others out there, also for me, coming from a German background I tend to pronounce them differently from most Anglophones. I don't regret learning the alphabet from the beginning, theoretically there are 'only' 44 letters, 4 letters for 's' and so on, but it is all the exceptions, special rules, rising tones and so on that make it seem like a small language in itself.

By the way, there was a book fair in Vietnam recently, the Vietnamese read a lot. You ever see a Thai reading on a bus or train (above Mickey Mouse level), with a library...? I think they have the same problems that we do.

Ephraim Kishon once wrote that the Hebraic alphabet was invented to keep knowledge out of the hands of the general public, and that this is still the case today. Thai seems to have a similar function. I found Hebrew much easier than Thai.

A friend told me that his mother in law regularly came into his vegetable garden and took everything that was eatable. Seriously though, instead of selling the crop directly to a buyer, setting up a potting/tinning/drying shed (with burglar alarms), something that enables you to process the stuff you are cultivating and to sell it when prices are high, seems the way to go. Thai farmers don't seem to be into this apart from rubber processing,

In answer to the question about kale, yes chinese kale, mainly for home consumption. I am amazed at the way they will sow whole packets of seed all at once and then be confronted by a jungle of stringy crowded plants that they then thin out throwing out 90 % of what they have. They also don't have any idea of selecting the best plants for seeds and collecting seeds themselves. Insects can be kept off developing seeds with gauze bags or similar.

PS I also brew my own beer for home consumption so will be sowing a small plot of barley next year as well as wheat to get some decent flour. Plenty of possibilities as long as you don't need to make a living out of it.

you mean get together physically? Not a good time for us

On a personal note I don't fancy Cassava cultivation at all. The wife's family cultivates rice and doing all that work for 30 000 a year hardly seems worth it. I am thinking along the lines of growing and processing chili, by drying, making sauces. My wife doesn't know that there are other varieties of chili, some quite mild, some much stronger, so some experimentation along these lines would be interesting. Around here (Isaan) people grow kale, chili, basil and some beans and that's it. Not even sweet potatoes. Maybe I'll be finding out why next year.

All over Europe now farmers are being forced to find alternative crops, alternative sources of income, the smaller farmers are going out of business. I can't see this happening any time soon in Thailand but the fact that rice is now being imported from Cambodia is an indication of things to come.

There are many stories of people improving farm land that then find that the previously uninterested family or neighbours suddenly want it back. I would be very careful that everything is in order before I started on a piece of land that didn't belong to me or I just thought belonged to me.

yes, and the whole point of my post was to see how long we could keep a thread going that was absolutely pointless, just following up the previous posts. Doing quite well so far and proving my point that many threads on the forum are non-consequential twaddle. Including some of mine. Keep up the good work guys, some of the responses are really funny.

excellent load of aimless twaddle, keep it up!

dam_n it,off topic again!

anybody read the fish fingers thread?

mm, this is an English problem, joking aside..only poofters like to dance.... I have danced free style Bourée with a man, in front of 200 people- this is a real contest of two cocks trying to impress the ladies. I didn't look in his eyes once (or even touch him) but boy did we know exactly what the other guy was doing. Morris dance is not about dancing with men, it is about showing off to the ladies, hence the showy costumes and handkerchief waving. I myself only ever did the sword dance stuff. Believe me, my divorce was caused by the fact that I was having one affair after the other during that period. I have been accused of a certain sexual orientation by guys eying up the birds from a table. I usually answered, ok, stay there with your nice manly friends, we'll see who pulls a bird at the end of the evening... and I was right.

oh I agree, anything you say. Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya are models of civic right mindedness, how silly of me

shame on me, I have done Morris dancing and it is not for the faint of heart, I was always waiting for one guy in the group to have a heart attack.

so you think that the alternative will be better? Personally I don't think so.

we got a mad tuk tuk driver last time, talk about you only live once! Also for 300 Baht

First time I visited the in laws I bought two bottles of decent 'duty free' whisky. It just got gulped down before they started on the Lao Kao, waste of money. Maybe buying something that they would find exotic, like Kirsch or Gin or a liqueur for the ladies would be a better idea?

In my neck of the woods (Buri Ram Province) to can rent a super brand new house for 5/6 thousand a month !, yeah thats right 5or 6 grand and you can live the life of Riley for 35 grand a month fully inclusive , two good hospitals with good doctors Buri ram and Surin and all the modern amenities , if you do decide to come and live here ,talk to people who have lived here for quite some time , do not rush into anything which you may regret later , personally I could not be more happier with my lot ,but have heard and seen quite a few horror stories, best of luck.

There is only one problem with that plan....you'd be in Buri Ram....

yes, what a dump Buri Ram is, far away from Nana Plaza and KFC, pollution and horrific traffic.. Living well, nice wife and house, doing my own thing on the farm on 47 000 a month sounds ok to me.

please stay on topic!

I hate wannabe Mods. I guess you're one of those tourist police gangsters, thinking your T-Shirt can get you special privileges.

well you are banned for not having a sense of humour my friend

please stay on topic!

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An over sized unit will lower room temperature quickly and shut off before humidity has been extracted sufficiently.

There is some good straight forward information on <URL Automatically Removed>

Bit of fun really, many potentially interesting threads here rapidly get turned into 'you're wrong, no I'm not' rubbish, a bit annoying if you are looking for information.

Any answers to this thread should be somehow connected with the previous answer please.