Michael Hare

Vetiver grass would be available at the local Department of Land Development in Chaiyaphum. But it is an ugly grass and even though it will stabilise the pond banks it probably would not like it. A grass worth trying is Pangola grass. You can obtain cuttings from your local Department of Livestock Development Animal Nutrition centre in Chayaphum or Khon Kaen. Pangola is a soft, fine prostrate type of grass and would creep across the soil fairly well. It tolerates water.

https://springerplus.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-1801-2-604

https://www.tropicalforages.info/text/entities/digitaria_eriantha.htm

I do not recommend the turf grasses you buy as sods in Thailand; Zoysia (Nuan Moi) and Malaysia grass (Yaa Malay).

I had the same problem in Ubon city when I first came here in 1994. I purchased a pump to pump the water from street into our house. I found out later that this was illegal to pump in from the street. Another problem was that pumping in directly, the water quality was very poor. Sometimes brown, dirty water. Best to pump in through a large filter into your tanks and then use another pump to pump from the tanks into your house. That is what I do now in my new house. 

The nitrogen comes from the nodules formed on the roots by the rhizobium bacteria. Gently pull up a few plants and examine the roots. There is no need to wait until Sunn hemp flowers before cutting and cultivating it into the soil. Soft, leafy green matter will work into the soil better than stemmy fibrous matter. You can also cut high and let the plants regrow from the stems for a second cut which is the final cut that you cultivate into the soil. Remember than you are wanting green manure which is high in nitrogen to be worked into the soil. The roots fixing soil nitrogen is just one part of the nitrogen supply. 

On 11/14/2020 at 1:14 PM, islandguy said:

Was happy with the results from planting a couple of kilos of green manure (sun bean). Will the second generation beans collected from those plants already have the microorganisms that help the soil or do I need to add inoculant for good results?

I presume you are talking about Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea).  Sunn hemp will noculate freely with the native cowpea rhizobium bacteria in the soil. I also presume you are planting it in Thailand. Sunn hemp is widely grown in many regions in Thailand, particularly in the north and northeast. I far as I know, none of the farmers innoculate their seeds. The rhizobium is in the soil and not in the seeds. You may very well indeed get better growth with added rhizobium, but as the crop is only a green manure it wouldn't be worth your trouble. A lot of sunn hemp seed in Thailand is given away free by various government departments or at a very cheap price (20-25 baht/kg). This seed is normally not very clean and has a high contamination of weed seeds. Be careful and select only pure sunn hemp seed with no weed seeds. 

There is no visa in my passport. With PR, one does not have a visa. 

I just tried it. It works with my ID number which is the number on my pink card and on my blue house registration book. Do you have a yellow house registration book? If so, use the number on that. I doubt if it will work with passport numbers. 

"Last September" to me means September 2019. If it was September 2020, I would say "This September". With Covid-19 restrictions, many things have changed. 

I renewed my 5 year driver's licence in March and several of my staff have since then.

1 Listen to seminar on-line (about 50 minutes from memory).

https://www.dlt-elearning.com/Home

2 Once the seminar has finished, you have to register on-line to join a queue to go to the DLT for final eye tests, photos and issuing of the new 5 year drivers licence. This may be up to two months away. They will give you a date and time.

Everything is in Thai and so you will have to get a Thai speaker to help you through the on-line seminar and registration. 

No need for a medical certificate. Just bring along you existing drivers licence and the usual documents. 

I know nothing about a certificate of residence as I have PR and I didn't even need my passport. 

Maybe pop along to DLT first and ask what documents you need.

18 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Yes there is and it needs to be continued until approved. If working it is 80k baht unless married to a Thai and then it is 50k baht.

When did these minimum amounts come in Ubonjoe? I don't recall there being a minimum amount when I applied back in 2000 in the category of being married to a Thai. At that time, I was working as a lecturer at Ubon Ratchathani university and my monthly salary was only about 35,000 baht. 

1 hour ago, Patriot said:

"Ubon: The Last Camp before Freedom" Ray Withall.

There are copies available at the Seven Seas restaurant in Warin - very interesting read.

Thank you Patriot. I will drive out and buy a couple of copies. An American friend said that his Thai wife's older sister was about two years old when the Japanese were in Ubon. The Regional HQ was here. The Japanese commander-in-chief was missing his young daughter back in Japan very much and so arrangements were made for the two year Thai girl to come and play at the HQ a few days a week. This arrangement went on for about a year. 

Another friend said that his Thai wife in Phana remembers the Japanese soldiers marching through her village on the way to surrender.

In addition to the looking after the Japanese soldiers, the allied forces also had to make arrangements to repatriate the comfort women!

1 hour ago, American Legion Post TH01 said:

Ray Withnall was a guest at one our meetings here in Ubon and gave a presentation about his research and history of the airfield.

He has put a lot of time and effort in researching all POW camps and their history here during WW2.

 

Thank you American Legion. What I find interesting is that in the 26 years I have lived in Ubon, no one has ever mentioned this air-strip. And it is nearly in the city. (Thought not when it was first built). Not surprising though, because some history is forgotten by the locals here. Yesterday, I showed the photos I had just taken to my young staff. Took a lot of explaining, especially when they didn't no anything about WW2!

My late wife, Nitayaporn Nasaree, didn't even mention this air-strip. She worked on the Ubon Airbase for nearly three years from 1971 to early 1974. First as a personnel clerk for the American Base exchange, PACEX and then as a personnel assistant. In her last year there, she was a secretary for Wagner High school, Adult Education Division at the Ubon RTAF Base.  She said it was the happiest time in her life.

15 hours ago, BTempleman said:

Ray with all has written a fantastic book about this WW2 airfield and the POW's that built it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0897B3Z46/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_b0897b3z46

Thank you Bruce. I will go and order a copy.

20 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

It is here on Google maps. https://goo.gl/maps/Vz8tKB1edE6Tzmei9

 

 

Thank you Ubon Joe. On the left hand side of route 212. I will drive over and have a look in the next few days and take a photo.

Over the years of living in Ubon, I have been asked by various people about an airfield built by the British during the war. I thought they were talking about the Vietnam-USA war and the airfield 4 kms south of Loeng Nok Tha on the way to Mukdahan Road (212).

But apparently the airfield people were asking about is the POW built-airfield in WW2.

1 Loeng Nok Tha airfield. The main purpose of this airfield apparently was to prepare for a land invasion of Laos up to the 17^th parallel. The construction was done in the 1960s and involved British army engineers with help from Australian and New Zealand soldiers. The Prime Minister of NZ at the time, Keith Holyoake, flew in to visit in 1964. After the airfield was completed, a road from Loeng Nok Tha to Nong Phok was also built.

https://op-crown.webs.com/thestoryofcrown.htm

The airfield is still in use, as I drove on to it last year to have a look. Only 200 metres off the main road. I think it is run by the Thai Air-force. There were several young cadets there and one small Cessna parked on the runway. 

This is the location of the Loeng Nok Tha airfield.

https://www.google.co.th/maps/@16.1548669,104.5869778,2306m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

An Australian who worked on the airfield in 1966 has written a comprehensive Masters thesis on its history. Well worth reading.

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_412783/S40773207_mphil_correctedthesis.pdf?Expires=1602746794&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=WjjZjfZT-U~Ca1uRvlw~5xWRxgx9fHvGxv1O~E7-QNpnDXm3E3xZ~LQrkW~NqRqLOkumtIRIAxjOv~IlAUtNbA8ITzNf57WxWfqDWwdDG6Ex4GdBL6~Xv5vA633XKhCd6H4bq2EpUvMJ6RVep4AI~QfB712JGqBN9bnZoAPKtZyWaSpUfDzPRRi~UMChRllUYUlFWcP~0Hw6LbdHB8hI4qGvPwNEoCDw0JihcMpLRZZpdJC7D33BlT~SDALdYSZ9I0or4kJyMWhJVHAsPLoPwM0V7mqe9BL-M7Eqwa84WozqCGPz2naoHK5pABvfSQZVGiZEpiaF5oaVIQgTDEMehg__

2 Ubon POW airfield. This airfield was built by POWs in 1944-45 on the same road 212, but only 9 kms north of Ubon, behind or near the large Honda car dealership. I cannot find it on Google earth, but maybe some readers of this forum know more about its exact location. Perhaps it is further up the road.

https://fepowhistory.com/ubon-airfield/

1 hour ago, Hellboy75 said:

Nobody knew that covid was going to happen & the result would also include relations between China & Australia souring so a country with a billion ppl is now cutting how much they import from Oz, China also culled all their pigs last year because of swine flu so the Chinese have spent a good part of this year without access to as much meat as they'd like with borders easing restrictions demand is up, who knows if it will stay up throughout next year? I forgot to mention a few weeks ago a ship with thousands of cattle from oz destined for China went down. 

The ship that went down a few weeks ago off the coast of Japan bound for China, was from New Zealand, carrying about 5,000 dairy cows for breeding and milk production in China. 

12 hours ago, Patriot said:

Was this at Warin Hospital, Michael??

No Patriot, it was not at Warin public hospital. It was at Dr Sima's private clinic on Chayangung Road at the entrance to the now closed Pathumrat hotel. Dr Sima used to practice at the Warin army hospital. Maybe he still does from time to time. If you get the surgery done remember to buy a decent pair or pairs of dark glasses. One's eyes are very sensitive to sunlight. I made the mistake of walking up the road to a Top Charoen eyeglass shop. "Buy one pair get one free". Hopeless. Quickly, I got a high quality polarized pair because they really reduce the glare. I now have six pairs, each for different types of work ranging from gardening, driving the car, travelling and working in the fields with my seed crops; Rayban, Persol, Oakley and Serengeti.

14 hours ago, alfen said:

Thanks for the reply, did you use a private clinic or public hospital? 

I don't think cost has changed that much but you have given me a good guide,  regards Al.

I used a private clinic. Long queues at the public hospital in Ubon. 

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

Massive raining in Ubon-Sisaket since Friday morning.

 

Some roads flooded and farms turned into swamps.

 

And the damn thing is moving away extremely slowly...

Here at my house in Ubon Ratchathani city it started raining about 9 pm on Thursday night and it is still raining steadily now (Saturday 3 pm). Over 40 hours. The heaviest part was Friday afternoon. Massive surface flooding, trees toppled over and roads blocked. As said above, moving away extremely slowly. 

I had both eyes done (three weeks apart) here in Ubon Ratchathani in 2012 with laser surgery. Cost was about 23,000 baht per eye. I had been wearing glasses for over 40 years and after the operations were completed, threw the glasses away and put on dark glasses to stop the glare. I am sure there are equally good cataract surgeons in Khon Kaen, as it is now a common practice in Thailand. 

6 minutes ago, Owiee said:

What is a KR2?

Good question. Never heard of it. 

I think by now the DLD purple guinea seed would be all sold out. In May, DLD were so low in seed stocks that they purchased 2,000 kg of purple guinea from me. I doubt if any ruzi seed would be around now. I purchased 2,000 kg of ruzi seed back in February and then acid scarified it to get the germination up from 50% to 95% but in the process lost 20% in weight. We sell this seed for 250 baht/kg, which is far higher than normal ruzi seed in the market place. But with 95% germination and 99.8% purity there are buyers, particularly in Vietnam. We call it Ruzi Thai to distinguish it from ordinary common ruzi seed. 

They have started planting Purple Guinea grass as well as Napier . Are these suitable or is there something else they can plant ?

Well, that is a start but it will take about 60 days or more from planting before tmhe grasses are ready for this first cut. By that time it will be the beginning  of the dry season. What are the plans for watering? Will the grasses receive fertiliser? Has the fgamily nanun experince with growing grasses. Not easy. 

Interesting that you have planted Purple guinea grass. I was under the impression that Purple guinea seeds were sold out in Thailand at the moment. Did you check the germination. Or maybe you planted tillers.

There are many other good grasses around that are better than both Purple guinea and Napier grasses. You will have to wait until next year to get seeds. 

2 minutes ago, cooked said:

Most small Thai farmers only feed grass + rice straw. If they are expected to raise decent animals they need to invest in concentrate as mentioned by Kickstart, they also seem very reluctant to even buy salt lick. Veterinary fees should come into the equation (they usually don't).

In my part of Isaan at least, beef prices have dropped quite a bit over the last year or two.

 

Many farmers are even reluctant to grow decent grasses and forage legumes. 

There is so many courier services between Bangkok and Ubon it is difficult to count them all. For small boxes, parcels and envelopes, Kerry Express is probably the best. For larger goods, say 50-100 kg++ try Thaiparcels, Intercity Express, SMS services, Jet, NTC, Nim are some of the few.