kickstart

I speak Thai ,a case of having to, I come to Thailand to work ,with Thai farmers who do not speak any English , I had structured Thai lessons for 2 months,still could not speak more than about 10 words at the end of it ,that was a good few years ago Now I am married I still speak Thai, the wife and all her family do not speak any English ,so I have no chose . Also, we have a small holding rearing a few cattle ,if I want to buy a bag of feed or a bag of nails I just go and get them ,no waiting for the wife to go with me. But living in a rural area with just one other farang nearby I can go weeks some time without speaking any English ,just Thai ,If could not speak any Thai I would be one lonely guy. Also being dyslexic being able to speak any language is an achievement .

Can we have the link to that quote ,takes some believing.

In some ways you can see where they are going,nearly all of Thai good are hauled by road ,the last time fuel pries were high,diesel was 40baht plus litre 10-12 years ago prices,of every thing went up . Now with the high inflation, the government are thinking subsidizing diesel will be cheaper in the long run than an even higher rate of inflation.

A 1925 NUT,Newcasle-Upon -Tyne,made in Newcastle,this engine they made them self's 698cc OHV ,almost the same as the JAP engines , One NUT motorcycle won the 1913 Junior TT and an eye-catching exhaust system. Like a lot of bikes manufacturers at the time,with the depression, they closed in 1933.

Yet again, different rules for different shops,I brought a new bike cash ,just copy of passport ,and visa, and yellow house registration book, no immigration certificate. The joys of speaking Thai ,I went on my own ,it is all in my name.

Rummers going round,him at the top of the ladder says he can stay on as PM ,so that has about finalized it. And remember, when he first took over he said it was for the transition period ,for when the late king passed away ,and his son became the new king ,and all the time he was saying,how good he will be ,and now him at the top is saying thank you.

Funny you should write that ,the wife's niece is a nurse at a rural hospital ,all I here is that last week she was here and they ,ie a jolly, again ,I said does she do any work,and she is on about 35k/baht month.

Interesting article ,our garden we have a good few fruit trees Lumyai,Farang,Mango Limes,Pomegranit ,they are ding all right ,but after last year's flood ,garden was 18 inches deep in water for 2 days ,then waterlogged for another week ,we lost a few young fruit trees, the big trees all survived The papaya soon died .all but one ,they do not like getting their feet wet at all . A few years ago I planted some lime trees ,they would not do ,so I dug them up .dug a good 18-inch hole filled 60% of it with stones ,then the lime trees on top ,they soon picked up,improve the drainage for us organic matter is no problem ,we rear a few cattle. In about another 6 weeks ,end of the rainy season?I will try Papaya again this time ,I will try the deep hole/stones ,see if that helps . We have tried Durain ,twice now,they just died ,our area is just not a Durian area.

As I said they use a Kwie Lec,and pump from a pond ,they have said with the long tail it still lift water with some pond sediment in it ,not certain if a pump would cope with pond rubbish. Our own place we have a electric pump on our pond ,use to water trees and plants in the garden ,I have had to take it apart ,to clean out a bit of grass from the impeller ,that was reducing the flow. I knew a farmer he got an old pickup petrol engine ,and a second hand gas system ,rigged to a pump,he was watering grass ,had the gas cylinder there ,said it was an economical set-up,even with gas going up ,got to be better than diesel.

Those Laxada ones are Chines rip off Honda 's,at that price it should be OK .........for a short time,places like Home Pro sell them ,but where you can get them repaired I would not know ,I would say main problem would be the diaphragm in the carb going. You can get a Chines 2 stroke one for about 3500,a bit over your budget .a lot about and most locals can fix them ,the carb is the problem ,they do not like gashol fuel . Anything half descent will cost you, I got a Mitsubishi 2 stroke good strimmer ,that was 4 years ago cost 6000,only last month I got a new set of rings and pistons, from my locale motorbike repair shop ,who also repair strimmers ,so they are repairable, have seen Stihl ,they are good ,on the net for about 7000.,I used them in the UK for a few years ,no problems.,

Hi jvs Thanks for that and the links ,I must admit not thought about solar units being stolen,they rice fields are out in the sticks . This photo I have posted before ,units mounted on a trailer ,any problems ,take them home with you in the evening

Hi All. The wife's son-in-law and daughter are rice farmers, and they are always pumping water into their rice fields ,they use a Kwie Lec,walk behind tractor ,turning a water auger ,belt driven . Yet again they're saying about the cost of diesel for the Kwie Lec,this time last week it has been 5 000 baht,and they are not yet done. So,anyone out there using a solar pump to pump water ,the water is a pond that fills in the rainy season ,looking at the net most systems seem to use boar holes ,using 1-2 HP motors and 2 inch pipe,that would be a bit slow ,for them a 3-inch pump would be ideal ,with a low head 10 meters at the most,a 2 HP? motor should work .with 6 panels?. Anyone any ideas .and what is the cost of a panel and all the electrical bits that need to go with the system. Thanks .

And the fact that his maid was,at the time was the 3-4 richest person in the country ,along with his children,the court was right he is the offender. But, the Singapore company that brought his company ,brought the shears though the Thai stock market ,under Thai stock market law no tax was needed to be paid. I can remember at the time that is a big loophole that needs closing . As for the rest of his businesses, of course he tried to fiddle the tax ,might have been legally ,but I suspect it was not so

Announced this morning, UK inflation is now 10%,highest for 40 years, with energy cost's due to go up ,even more in the new year ,when you need it ,not a nice place to be in. So the last person leaving the UK turning the lights off , they can use that dinghy,down at Dover on the beach left by the newcomers to leave by. No chance of a flight out, BA are limiting passengers to 100k/day at Heathrow due to staff shortages ,and the time it takes for new employers to get security clearance. If Truss gets in ,and it looks likely,with her proposed tax cuts ,funded by energy company's windfall tax,still not enough in the pot to pay for every thing ,things will only get worse.

We grew Papaya for some years ,had lots of fruit ,we even provided some to a local SomTam seller ,then for 5 years we could not grow any ,a bit of research found it was a root-born disease,this year we are growing a few but not over good ,it is almost they need growing in a rotation . As for Tamarin ,forget it ,we have some 50 foot monsters near here we have a few around the place ,one we will have to take the top out and slow it down . Also, Thai like the sweet Tamarin ,these are normaly found in Petchaboon Provence ,some say ?they do not grow well else where ,we have one grown from seed they are sweet. Try a Lar-Moot,Thai word, nice fruit,easy to grow .

A job to say you mill your 1 ton of rice you will get about 300 kg of husk ,rice bran,and small and broken rice grains ,as husk does not weigh a lot I would say 150 kg of husk. It will also depend on the quality of the rice ,nice fat grains will yield more than small not so good quality grains.

I do not think a Farang can get a bike on the never-never, if you can, you will need a wife or girlfriend to act as an guarantor a lot of hassle . I know most Thais buy a bike on HP ,interest is about 30%, say Wave 125 cash is now 60 000 baht, put say 3000 down as a deposit ,2000 /baht month over 3 years , a realistic term for buying a new bike. then at the end of it another 1500 baht , for "Own"Thai for getting the log book.76 500 baht,in total. and the wife has said they could a life insurance on top of that.

Agreed,I know Lopburi quite well ,and these new ammunition dumps will be built along way from the monkeys . A PS,for the past 2 weeks the Thai army have been having exercises near me 60 km from Lopburi ,they have brought the tanks up from Sarburi for a run round for a few days ,we have been hearing the big artillery guns going off most days ,sometimes at night time too. Been going on for a long time this time ,unusual I said to the wife, practising for the next coup.

First off, dogs do not get Anaplasmosis ,that is a cattle tick disease ,more than likely Babesia. Babesia takes a dog a long time to get over it ,but normaly it does not come back for a loge time ,but like cattle that dog will be "salted' for a long time ,that is if you do a blood test it will show systems ,but the dog will be eating ok and general ok. As for limping with Babesia ,yes in cattle certain breeds of tics can cause praises in the hind quarters ,never heard of it in dogs ,I would get another vet to look at it .

When I was in the UK at collage ,we were told burning was a good thing ,gets rid of any disease spores ,some weeds ,and the residue had some P and K fertilizer in it. Someone had worked it out that a good burn was worth a good few quid/dollars an acre. How things have changed ,just a pity Thai combines do not have choppers on them to chop the straw in to small pieces for incorporating back in to the soil ,get a bit of organic matter back in to the soil, Saying that around here it is the main sauce of roughage for the dairy cows along with all the problems it causes, mainly infertility ,if rice straw was chopped farmers would have to get off they backsides and grow some grass.

Was out today about 20 km from home saw a drone spraying a very poor crop of maize ,about 8 inches high ,a lot of weed .looks if the army worm is having a go. This guy was charging 70baht/rie ,must be about the only thing about that is going down in price . Brewers grain, one of my cattle feeds has just gone up 6 baht,40 kg bag ,can not complain fist price increase in at least 6 years .

Hi FJ The guy finished my tractor this afternoon ,what took the time was the Ford he was doing ,he had to send one of the shafts away ,sounds if the splines on the shaft had gone, and he had to get them redone ,that took 4-5 days to come back. He is a one-man band ,as you might know Thai's do not use splitting jigs to split a tractor .or railway lines as a friend of mine use to call them ,they use the over head gantry and a chain hoist as he only has one set, I was in a queue , He replaced the clutch cover pressure plate and diaphragm spring ,all one unit ,the clutch plate was still in good condition ,not bad for a 45-year-old tractor ,and he replaced the trust bearing ,that lot was 2600 baht ,I know because I went and brought them ,not to bad as the tractor place is 10 km away ,he charged 1000 baht for labour ,so in all a job well done ,will go and pick it up tomorrow morning. And sods law ,with no tractor we could not make any silage ,this past week very little rain, could have got the job finished, tractor now done talk of 80 -90% rain for the next 2 days . Note ,a drone spraying maize near me ,for Fall Army Worm ,charging 80 baht/rie.

If my memory serves me right, there was on a ratio of something like 4 savers for every borrower ,and as a UK saver a rise in interest rates would not go a miss .and I would say a lot of people would agree. People in debt ,with a lot it is the want , want ,when I was last working in the UK excluding mortgages the average debt was 12 000 GBP,that was a few years ago ,mainly on plastic . As for home buying my first mortgage in 1978 I was paying 15% interest ,and we managed,what is it today .as I said it is the want ,want culture.

One of my favourite authors ,Ian McEwan,been writing for a lot of years, won many awards. My favourite ? has to be The Innocent, Saturday,and the one most people know Atonement, Amsterdam . I will admit not read any of his past 3 books,can anyone comment.

Hi FJ I drive past that spot most days ,no weeds have started to grow back,I have now seen 3 plots like this one, none of them have any grow back. When I was on the farm in the UK we used Glyphosate to dessicate Oil Seed Rape, ,Canolar to you,that was a long time ago ,things might have changed since then. We have had 77 mm of rain so this month ,that is about aveage for us ,but last year we had 224 mm for July . I think this year will be a good year for farmers ,with the world problems crop prices are well up ,a lot of corn crops are being harvested the price is 8.50-8.90 baht/kg,and no penalties for high moisture ,I would say most crops are being harvested at least 30 % moisture ,which makes me think they must be a shortage of corn for livestock feed ,which I would say, is because of no or few imports of wheat and barley for livestock feed ,but it seems that malting barley for brewing beer is not in short supply . They still are a few crops of cassava being harvested ,that is 2.90 baht/kg a good price' . The next crop of corn is being drilled nearly all is being direct drilled ,but one guy did say he was worried that the soil would be too compact for direct drilling,I said wait for some rain then it will be all right. We are trying to make some grass silage ,with the showers not easy ,now the thrust bearing in the tractor clutch has gone,I took it to our local guy ,and he had a Ford 6600 transmission in bits ,he's taken the housing off not a gear or anything in it, total strip down,looks if a bearing on the gearbox main shaft went big time ,the main shat had just come back from the lathe man,next door to him, looks if he re-built the shaft by welding ,then turned it down, so a new bearing would fit ,a good guy ,he has done a few jobs for me over the years ,Thai's are good at keeping these old tractors going .