douglasspade

You also need to look at your browser before doing something crazy. I have found that Firefox with the 'Adblock' plugin runs pages faster on windows 7 than any other browsers, and it cuts out all popups and add banners on pages.

With limited experience in bigger bikes I'd say stay below the 400cc class. I learned to ride when I was 14 on a Kawa GPZ750F, and even today in my 40's, on a frigging scooter, Thailand still throws me curve balls. It is a dangerous country to ride a bike, no matter what you ride, what speed you ride or experience you may have.

The Kawasaki W range looks like a nice starter bike for your classic retro look feel you are after. Currently for that look feel, the options are slightly limited. I will personally go for the Yamaha SR400. https://www.yamaha-motor.co.th/bigbike/sr400/overview. The motor is from the XT series scramblers, XT500. They are a bit pricey, but the quality is superb with a 30 year track record, and has a large fan-base if you want to resell.

Had a friend in 2008 that got a gray import from Japan and it impressed me so that I almost bought one myself.

Whatever you buy, good luck and ride responsibly!

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

trap the creature and no harm was done

My 7 month old son sleeps in the living room in a pen. If anything moves in the house - it dies!

1 hour ago, Gahn5 said:

The difficulty this year has been sodden rais

Indeed. This year the harvesters came late to our area. None of our family nor us have gotten a chance to harvest. The harvester teams go for the dryer paddies and standing upright rice first to get as much land covered to make their money fast. Also they are scared that some outsiders will move in and steal the easy work, while they struggle doing less rai's with boggy land and fallen rice.

With our crazy rainfall this year in lower Isaan many land owners has started cutting by hand as some rice is already starting to drop, witch makes the measurements even more difficult when the harvester teams eventually take over.

Ketamine is very useful in trafficking people quietly, and keep them under obedient control. Just dig in to the CIA... 

With politicians mentioned, one with wit may speculate about the vanishing children of Thailand. 

And this post will probably be removed .... ????

Had an electronic expansion valve issue on my Samsung freezer/refrigerator. Got it fixed for 400 Baht and a six month warranty from the shop owner on that specific job and parts replaced.

Get a quote before lining up to buy a new one, most parts seem not that expensive.

Don't get why you will need an app to measure a Rai. Just use your normal GPS and covert it.

type "X sq meters to rai" into google. Where "X" is your square meters measured on GPS or Google Earth or Google maps.

"yard2 to rai" or "hectare to rai" or "acre to rai" all convert.

1 hour ago, JCauto said:

Georgia is not just a state in the United States

That is correct. Post #1 was not aimed at the US Georgia, but at the US as a whole as I expected some action of Trump supporters to act out their disapproval like the guys in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Hence I 'expected more' from the US.

I can see the post may have triggered some confusion. Sorry my bad.

12 minutes ago, LawrenceN said:

Could someone please identify the snake?

There are 3 types I have experienced so far in Thailand, Indochinese - Monocled - and King cobra. They can all vary greatly with color depending on region, time of year and last molt. Have to see the belly to tell for sure. My best guess is King cobra, I could be wrong.

14 hours ago, ddeellbbooyy said:

the grass is cut and no food laying around 

Our village is surrounded by rice paddies and forest. When the rain season hits or when the harvesting season is ongoing you will see alot more snakes wandering around. Cutting the grass, keeping the yard clean really does not help keeping them away. Being vigilant and ready to act is the best defense.

Expected more...

On 10/30/2020 at 7:55 PM, 473geo said:

At the very least store until next year

We did that for the past 2 years, a lot of extra work drying it out and bagging but we got 15.30 p/kg last year and 14.50 p/kg this year.

This years crop though will not be stored as I had to give up our lease agreement for the land where we stored our rice and kept our cows and chickens.

On 10/30/2020 at 7:55 PM, 473geo said:

we may possibly buy 'new rice' next year meaning 'seed' rice

We did 5 Rai of new seed rice(6 x 25kg bags) this year to provide us good seed for the next two years for all our land. Unfortunately that specific piece of paddy never flooded and I foresee a maximum of 200kg per Rai there. Ouch!

All I want this year is all our crop to yield enough to cover my cost. Also I will not do the cover-crop on our land and no the Ruzi grass as we have no cows anymore and that halted the buying our own tractor too.

For the immediate future we will be keeping our eyes on the weather not to plant too early. Some of our rice were in the ground for more than 2 months before it got enough water and we could fertilize. We will also be judging quantities and timing of herbicide and the best mixes of fertilizer.

I bought a seeder to fit my little tractor and will be testing it sowing corn soon. I am really interested in sowing our rice on 5 Rai next year with the seeder and following the "organic" method. Although there is nothing "organic" about it as I have learned from a man in our village that does use this method. His rice plants looks virtually perfect compared to the rest of the village, and his paddy was only flooded recently by the provincial water authority.  He claims 3.5 ton for the past 2 years he applied the method on his 5 Rai. Looking at his plants, I can believe it. PM me for a picture of that land take 2 weeks ago.

I feel this might be a way to go, work less land but do it methodically and correctly to achieve higher yields. Using the current method for a perfect monsoon season might be the traditional lazy way, but it is time for drastic change if we want to farm rice profitable.

6 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

Lots of European women head to Africa and the parts of the ME for fun. 

 I worked in West Africa for 10 years before covid hit, and before served under the UN for 2 years in Central Africa.  Women has started to outnumber expat men in Africa. When I went to West Africa a long time ago I would rarely see a European woman. Now that has changed dramatically.

I met numerous NGO's and UN servicewomen, musicians and artists, divers, photographers, students, teachers  ... too many to mention, who were there for anything but "fun". 

I will add that expat women are much more adaptable and open minded in Africa than men.

3 hours ago, up-country_sinclair said:

Should we just throw it on the junk pile and buy a new laptop?

Unless you have dropped it in the ocean or from a skyscraper, any laptop is worth repairing if you can find the parts.

If you not a DIY guy, there are techs that will get the job done for less money. Jeez 1000 Baht is madness, are they using golden screwdrivers?! Try finding a second hand computer shop, those fancy ones will charge the hell out of you. You might have to assist buying a part online or use a second hand one if they can find it locally.

If you choose to DIY,

I would suggest you back up all your files externally and attempt a clean re-install of your operating system, just to totally eliminate any software problems caused by corrupt files, a bug or the famous Asus driver update malfunctions.

Only then if the problem persists first remove the keyboard and inspect it. Clean it off an remove any dirt. You will be surprised what a single hair, a cookie crumble or old spilled sticky coffee under laptop button can have. If that don't solve the issue, only then continue to buy and replace the keyboard like RichCor said in post#1

Good Luk!

23 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

On the plus side, at 51, he'll be carried out in a coffin from prison

Yet in prison he will be labeled a 'cop killer', he will be treated like a god by the other inmates.

There was a topic in 2019 that was Archived

I would really like to hear more about planting rice this way, and if in this past season there has been any positive projected yields for the farmers that use rice planters compared to the previous years not using them. I do not see anyone in my village or nearby villages using these seeders yet, but have seen them gathering dust in he shops for some time now.

With me doing some other small scale farming, I believe that a planter that can also deposit bean, corn, and groundnut could be worth hooking up to my baby tractor. Price for the "TRA NGAO" 4 row is around 6000 Baht and the 6 row about 8000 Baht with delivery. Seems to be the best quality for the 10hp range. Any suggestions?

If the shell is softer then the hen is either older or stressed, it could be mycotoxins as well when free ranging. A harder shell could mean that there is too much calcium in the diet, but that is rare.

Looks more like the "accident victim" is on flakka!