owl sees all

When I first got together with my 'Seven Day Adventist' g/f, she said I simply had to have a river baptism to truly know the pleasures of life. We were In Jamaica and there was a visiting minister who was doing the baptisms not far from us at Troja. The g/f said it would be so, so good for me?! We took the bus and I joined the long queue at the river. They were in and out the water so quick that it was soon my turn Wearing only shorts, I waded out to the minister in the middle of the river. "Do you want to find Jesus young man?" "Yes," I said confidently. With that he grabbed me at the back of the neck and forced me head under. On the count of five he let me up for air. I didn't resist, as the g/f was at the bank watching excitedly. "Have you found Jesus?" "Not yet." I replied. Down went my head for a count of 10. Up again. "Have you found Jesus?" As I recovered my senses I replied, "no". Same thing again. Twenty seconds later he repeated the question. "Have you found Jesus?" Again I replied, "no". Now me maths weren't that good, but I could see that he was doubling the stay underwater every time. The g/f said he had a fantastic success conversion rate. No wounder I was thinking. What could I say to get out of this debacle? Again I was under water; 37, 38. 39, 40 and up. He asked in desperation. Not wanting to drown me I guess. He just didn't want me saying 'no'. "Have you found Jesus yet?" I couldn't face 80 seconds without air. "I heard he fell in further downstream."

Sounds like Ukrainian words for; ''The Russians are coming.''

It's doing OK. Think mangoes grown from seed take many years to give fruit. I can wait.

Make you right there CL. Have to tread a careful line.

I didn't know Owl. Had a quick butchers at the EPL table. Reckon it's goals let in. They have been hammered a few times this season. I'll have to do some research.

It is sad to lose animals. I'm not that knowledgeable, about chickens, but there is a chicken farm next to us that I go to virtually every day. I've noticed that the chickens - especially those with chicks - are not in their pens but under trees. Must find it cooler there; than in their runs.

I've got a great looking Mango tree grown from seed. Will I ever see any fruit?

Need to see some pics Ricko. If we had not put in the solar system at the farmhouse we would have lost 4 ponds. We are just keeping pace with evaporation at the mo. Anyone had rain? Big winds with Dunder n Blitzem; but precious little of the wet stuff.

Owl Log Sunday evening - 05 May. What a week!? Monday to Friday; start at 8. finish about 3-30. Bloody hot! But it's done. 58 trees now have decent water whenever I flick the controller switch on. That is the first section completed. Had this weekend off. Mostly to recover from working in 40C+ all week. Can overdo it. Was drinking at t least 6 x 750ml of water each session. Keep the water cold in a poly box. The tell-tale sign that I need a drink is a bit of heartburn. Just like Rick, my avocados have suffered. Lost 3 in one big pot. I was giving regular water, but i reckon it was just too hot for them. Gutted!! But one has survived. It's growing in a bit of shade. That's a lesson for me in the future. Ban Dung yesterday. The big new build is coming along. If I hadn't have had Mrs Owl with me, I'd have had a good look inside. And at the daily market. A few noble piggies on display. Ant eggs and kadek-kadeks on offer. Sweet delicacies. Didn't see any big terrapins to 'spend' me dosh on. But did buy a couple of big containers in Big C. They will be handy. 199 baht each. Got to pounce on the special offers when they come along. Some pretty strong winds last week. Wiped out 200 mangoes at the house tree About half were binned. At the farm we lost 8 big eucas. Have arranged for Soo to go get them. Probably worth a few hundred baht if selling, but I think he will keep the better ones for his buildings. What is that for? Bella due home from Singapore soon? A new house for the earner? Bit rough for a lady. Mildred reckons it's for the cows. Let them have a lend of our big ladder. Soo on a hot tin roof! Youngster helping with his machete. Watch yer don't cit the wrong thing mate. This extreme heat is bringing out the lizzies. Looking for water I guess. At the house. That's a regular. And the farm. I'll get a drop of water for you bro'. Look as though you could do with a drinkl Other jobs at the farm yo be done. Collect up the unused cow poopoo. There is a few thousand metres of old irrigation pipework that has to be disposed of. And old poopoo sacks. Chop them up and take them to the furnace. Today. took over some more PVCs to number 2; ready for tomorrow's work. Took down the old steel bearers at the top of the tower. The old water tower looks so sad. Once an integral part of the Squanderosa. Now a relic of the past. Will hopefully be able to use the big stew-pots. A nice shot of the palm farm. Sun shining through. Absolutely stunning!! +++++ The Owls did it. Two games with the Blades to look forward to next season. Only Millwall bettered them for points in their last 6 matches. Talk about leaving it late. Brum and Hudders join Rotherham in Div one next season. Pompy and Derby up for sure. Looks like the Hatters for the drop, after that stonking away win by Forest. Pool drop out of the EPL contest. If Gunners or City draw a match, it's all over. +++++ What has happened to the BBC www site? It's been revamped and it's an utter mess. Mildred has just finished a beautiful painting, that she has spent two weeks on. Too dark now for a pic. Post one in the week. The MinL has moved in with Mrs Owl's sister Nook. That is only 200 metres away. Her house is all locked up. Need to get in to get the fridge though. Well! The Mrs says we have to get it. Need help with that I reckon. Tomorrow is another day. Pook - Mrs Owl's sister - has gone off to work with her husband on a building site in Nong Khai. They owe the bank a good deal of dosh. Hope it works out for them. Or they will be sweet-talking me once again!!!! Mrs Owl is getting quite aggressive about buying a car. 'Now' is not the time. I'm telling her. However; she wants to get one before Mildred goes back to school on the 13th of this month. It's boiling up to be a right ding-dong. Can't get tea-bags anywhere locally. Not in Big C. Not in Lotus. Not in Station Mart. Have sent away for 100 bags of 'Liptons yellow' on Lazada in desperation. Out of Cheese also. Can't manage in the mornings without a cup of Rosy and me plate of vegiemited cheese. Only one thing left to say guys; drink lots of water when you are working at the farm in this outrageous heat.

Me and Duncan were fishing at the lake. "Duncan mate, can I ask you a real serious question?" "Of course Owl fire away." "You have been with a woman!" "Sure have Owl" "What's it like Dunk? "What's it like? How best to explain. You know when we go fishing sometimes, and gather up a big jar of worms. Some lads put their dickz into the worms. It's like that; but not as good." "Give the ladies a miss then; stick with the fishing!"

Two genies were walking away from the tree. They chatted as they removed their white hoods and cloaks. "Sometimes I think humans are strange." "What you mean?" "Well, take today. That guy, who released us from the bottle, and got three wishes as a reward. I can understand his first wish; to have a large house in beautiful landscaped grounds. And the second; to be surrounded by lots of beautiful naked ladies serving him cold beers. But his last wish beats me. Why did he want to be hung like a black man?"

The lone Ranger was captured by the injuns. ''Mr Ranger. You will die soon. But we are a fair people, and I grant you 3 wishes. What would you wish for?'' ''I'd like to speak with my horse Silver.'' ''OK. Go ahead.'' The Lone Ranger whispered in the horses ear and he galloped off. A couple of hours later the horse returned with a mountain lion. The Lone Ranger was not amused and chased the lion out of the tent. The indians were falling about laughing. The following day the tribe was again assembled. ''Two wishes left Mr Ranger. What do you wish for?'' ''I'd like to speak with my horse Silver.'' ''Go ahead.'' Again, as before, The lone Ranger whispered in Silver's ear. The horse sped off. Later that day arriving back with a sexy lady on his back. Next morning the lady broke free from the tend and ran off. ''One wish left Mr Ranger. Tomorrow you will die. What do you wish for?'' ''I'd like to speak with my horse.'' ''Go ahead; if you want to waste your last wish.'' The Lone Ranger walked over to his horse and whispered in its ear. ''We have been through a lot together Silver. But you must do this for me. Listen and listen good. For the third and last time; go get posse.''

I'm not saying it's not warm; hot even. I've known hotter. Sitting in an air-con room all day is hardly getting the body acclimatized to anything. Or propping up a bar with so many fans yer can't move. Right at the moment (10-25) it's 37 outside. I have to go to the farm shortly to do a bit of work. I'll not have a shirt on for 20 minutes, then put on my favourite cotton one. White with a top pocket. In a three hour work session I would normally drink at least a three litres of cold water. I take a few cold bottles with me in a poly box. The other day I was out in the farm for 6 hours. TBH, that was a bit much for me. I'll do 3 hours max now. I'm not one of those that go into the sun for the sake of it. Like laying on the beach; or in the sugar field. But getting 20 minutes of sun, on as as much flesh as possible, is good for the body. Just do what needs to be done and appreciate at what nature is offering. Drink plenty of water. Some laced with limes. Not easy to get lemons here.

Isaan buffaloes have an IQ of 130.

Wouldn't be out of place up here in the boonies. People wouldn't even know what it said. Most popular 'T' shirt up here is 'Porn Hub' I wear a trilby when I go out. Baseball caps are no good. Great topic though.

The biggest problem with luggage is air. You could buy special bags that you could suck the air out of. Use a vacuum pump or suck it out manually. Could reduce the size of your luggage by half. Roughly the same weight though.

TBH, I'm saddened at the amount of wimps there are here. Air-con?! Fans!? Ever heard of trees? Get a decent book, a cool drink, and make yerself comfortable under it. Do what nature intended.

Can't speak for that den if iniquity. Anyone in that horse-meat place is gonna pay extra; a big extra, Up here in my Isaan local village, an ex-army guy is doing dentures for 100 baht a tooth. So a full set is a tad more than 3k. Don't seen so bad that. Worth the trip up I reckon

I've been in the bitter cold whilst in Special Forces. So cold yer couldn't touch yer lips with a fork. If you did, someone would have to pour boiling water onto it to unfreeze it from yer lips. That's why we all had wooden spoons. This warm weather is not going to last forever. Take the opportunity to get a bit of sun on yer back. Kick yer feet in the surf, or roll in the rice stubble if not near the sea. Turn off the air-con. You know it's not good for you. If you must; get a fan. My advice; sit under a tree and do what nature intended.

Here in Udon Province it is now 42C. An hour ago it was 43C. Life goes on. People still in the fields. People still walking their buffaloes. People still building houses. Kids still playing kiss chase. Bangkok is a pussy cat. Tigers up here.

Always an odd number of geese too.

Right you are then guys. You spoke. I listened. I reacted. The chickens know the sound of the Mazza and come running.

Indeed. With the frond cover from the palms, the sun don't get through too much. So evaporation is minimal. I'll have a good look on Thursday. Ban Dung tomorrow. Weekly shop.

Owl Log - Tuesday afternoon - Part 3 It's all about water. First live run on the palm solar system yesterday. But first we had to bring over a couple of long PVCs from number one farm. Looked at the lay of the farm and put it where it will get to most trees. Turned the system on, and after 10 minutes the overflow kicked in. That meant that the two 1000L IBCs were full. Although they were half full to start with. So far so good. But as good as the overflow was working, could it handle the inflow. The outpipe was 2 inch; the pump pipe in 1 1/2. Both IBCs kept filling. We could hear the water shooting down into the rings below. Then they decided to overflow. But at least we knew something. The top overflow was not man enough for the job. Just couldn't release enough water fast enough. Let's see how the lower one would perform. Mildred went over to release the IBC water. We waited no longer than a couple of minutes for the lower overflow to kick in. Coming out at a good lick too. Must have been 2 litres a second. Stopped the water from the BCI tanks. But!!!??? Dear me. Waterfall!! Can only blame myself for underestimating the pump capacity. According to the pump data; at 32 metres down, the best it could give was 88 litres a minute. There was two litres a second out of the overflow. So a monumental miscalculation by me. But on the upside. The palms were getting a long awaited drink. As luck will have it; most of number two farm is in on a slight down slope. For now; let the water flow. Now some rough calculations. Start time 10am. Finish time 4pm. Average pump output; 1 litre a second. So 6 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds x 1 litre. On a bright day that's a whopping 20k+ litres feeding the palms. And no more than 30/35 at one time. If I put in some more long PVCs, to allow the switching of water direction, and make sure there are little channels to let water flow where the soil is slightly high, the palms should be very happy. Perhaps I'm being too sophisticated for me own good. It is Thailand after all; not Essex-on-sea. Only one thing left to say; bye ya'll.

Make you right there LL. I don't mind really. She can have anything I have to offer.