Gerontion

Well, the quote int the OP post is nothing else than a typical response,

I wouldn't have expected something more self critical, which does take some guts

and self esteem to look further then just in to the mirror after the make up has been applied!

Oh, if only people who made posts like this could appreciate the irony...

A good OP and one reason why I never really pay any attention to the General Topics section of this website (and if you're wondering, this thread was listed on the main index) - the special interest forums can be extremely informative but this section (like those of its competitors) seems to be almost exclusively populated by fools and fascists.

Thanks for the great reply bannork!

Agreed. Interesting stuff.

You can download the Lexitron dictionary from http://lexitron.nectec.or.th/2009_1/

Cheers for those. I've attached a Peace Corps dictionary which I downloaded a while ago.Northern___Central_Thai_Dictionary.pdf

Bannork, could you tell use what you did before starting the BA?

- How long had you been living in Thailand?

- Where and how did you study Thai?

- Did you go to high school in Thailand?

- How old were you when you started the BA?

- Does your father or mother speak Thai?

I would like to have an idea about the level of Thai that is necessary to consider entering the course.

Can I add to the list of questions?

If you live away from the University, how often are you required/advised to attend?

Cheers.

Is the company you saw in Baan lae Suan called Home Builders ( http://homebuilders.co.th/ )? In the magazine they advertise artificial thatch of various kinds but the website has no details (nor, handily, prices for the products which they do list).

I've just discovered a version of StarDict which Linux users can run which does the same thing as this add-on but which works in any program where you can select text. Details can be found at http://www.mrchoke.org/node/183 Works perfectly on Ubuntu 9.04.

I've just come across a great Thai-English/English-Thai dictionary (which runs in StarDict) which translates the cursor selection into a pop-up. Details and downloads are available from http://www.mrchoke.org/node/183 After you install everything disable network dictionaries and get rid of the pre-loaded Chinese stuff.

I did a search for this but it doesn't seem to have been mentioned before: There's a very handy add-on for Firefox called Orange Dictionary which translates Thai words on websites to English as you run a mouse over them (the translation appears in a pop-up). The add-on and details are available from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6698. It's flagged as experimental but it seems to work fine in 3.0.10 on Vista.

At times, The Nation makes Fox News look like a paragon of journalistic integrity. The Nation is a dreadful, dreadful newspaper (and I use that word only out of habit); God only knows why this website chose to associate with such a third-rate rag.

About all that can be said for threads like this is that they at least reveal just how stupid and ill-informed most people are. There is an Everest, no a Himalaya, of evidence to support theories of anthropogenic climate change and against this the "skeptics" (though better-named simply idiots) have not a sand grain of counter-evidence. Concentrations of atmospheric CO2, along with other greenhouse gases, are known to have increased. Average temperatures are known to have increased. Climate change is happening now. There is no debate as to the whether or not anthropogenic climate change is real, at least for those who are, at a minimum, on speaking terms with reality. There is, however, debate, amongst other things, about the degree of sensitivity of the climate to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and of how feedback mechanisms are operating. Of course, much as people deny the reality of the holocaust, or evolution, or the moon landings, idiots will always insist that climate change is a myth. They are wrong and remain idiots.

But to respond to the OP, a five degree increase in temperatures (and that would be an increase in 5 degrees on average globally by the end of the century, not within 15 years) would put the entire world safely in the truly – and possibly on human timescales irredeemably – f_ucked category. It wouldn’t really matter whether you were in Thailand or Tyneside, chances are you’d be screwed (and don’t forget that by the end of this century, world population will, all things being equal, be 50% higher than at present so things are going to be a mite tricky anyway). Plant yields will fall in higher temperatures and there’s a good chance that the Asian monsoon will be disrupted, with obvious consequences. Couple this with a drying up of glacial melt water and significantly more violent weather events and huge swathes of the world will be under very, very major water stress. Huge migration can be expected as food production and distribution breaks down, coastal population centres become increasingly uninhabitable and as life in the tropics becomes simply unbearable. There’s a very good book available called “Six Degrees” which goes into some detail about the consequences of a temperature rise of, in turn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 degrees and unlike the wishful thinking of climate-change deniers, it’s based on peer-reviewed papers. It makes for grim reading but I thoroughly recommend it.

I don't know a thing about tamarind but buying land for (about) 115,000 baht per rai and getting a return of 100,000 baht per rai per year sounds like a lot. Still, this interested me so I had a look and found:

"Some tips on Tamarind cultivation:

The varieties can be planted during June-December either as isolated trees or in commercially viable groves in red and black soil. They are ideal for commercial plantations as these trees commence bearing fruits from the fifth year of planting.

Each plant produces about 250 kg of fruit every year from the ninth year, compared to 65 kg of fruits per tree by several traditional varieties.

About 70 kg of tamarind pulp can be extracted from 250 kg of fruits.

Pits with volume of one cubic metre are to be dug and filled with organic manure at the time of planting. In the initial stages of growth, the plants may need to be irrigated, especially during summer.

About 250 trees can be planted in one hectare. Tamarind trees have an extensive rooting system and once fully established in the soil, they will no longer need any irrigation."

(from http://www.agricultureinformation.com/foru...hines-reg.html)

So one rai will give you 40 trees, or 2800 kilos of pulp so to get to your 100,000 per rai, you'd need to sell at 35 baht/kilo. That is assuming that you've got high-yielding trees and these figures are correct.

A BBC documentary on peak oil/forest gardening/permaculture is available on google videos at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1798330770061172002 Probably won't tell you anything you don't already know but may be interesting to readers of this forum.

Sadly, no. I know less than nothing, but I'm - or will be - learning. I'm in the early stages of building an adobe house so once I get that done, I'll be on to the gardening.

Thanks for those. I'll have a read later. The link doesn't seem to work, though (it took me to my own scribd account). Try http://www.scribd.com/jandtaa

Companion plant

This is something that interests me. Can you suggest companions (guilds? Is that the right word?) for things we might plant in Thailand?

Always plant three (at least) of everything, not necessarily in the same place. One for the animals to eat, one for you to eat and one that will not flourish.

Ha! I like that.

You've got a long west wall. This will maximise heat gain. Better to have your house thin and long, along the east-west axis so you have a small west wall. It's also worth finding out which direction the prevailing winds come from and orienting your house towards those (the house doesn't have to be at 90 degrees to them). Thin and long houses also have the advantage of maximising cross-ventilation. If you want to know about the size of eaves, download a copy of sketchup (it's free). You can do your design very quickly and then, if you plug in your latitude and longitude, you can see how shadows will fall at any time of the day/year.

I'm in the rural north. The bamboo is untreated - you'd have to sort that out yourself.

I've looked into this in the past but I keep hoping that things have changed. Alas, not.

I was looking at some yesterday that were around 7 - 9 cm wide and 6 metres long - they were 17 baht each.

^ How much power does that produce?

Not really farming related but to do with the OP: Has anyone tried rainwater collection from thatch (those 7-baht panels you get everywhere)? The water would be for plants only so the inevitable bits of straw that ended up in it wouldn't be a problem.

As others have said, solar power is expensive here. If you're on the coast, you may get enough wind to be viable but otherwise renewable power is relatively very expensive. That being said, if you buy land which isn't yet on the grid, you're going to have to pay for connection so it may be cost effective; it just depends on where you are. You may be better off attacking things from the other end - minimize use. Solar cookers are simple to make (there's ton of stuff on the net but I've just been getting my daily dose of energybulletin so look at http://www.energybulletin.net/node/48370) and intelligent design of your house should dramatically reduce cooling needs. Solar heated water is also very simple. I've seen dry toilets here and they work fine as well as simple grey-water systems that deposit waste directly to banana trees. Rainwater catchment is - again - simple enough. Go to the villages and you'll see that many houses have rainwater tanks.

I'm interested in the reed-bed waste water treatment. Has anyone built one in Thailand? Any tips/problems/suggestions?

^ Thanks again for your help. You're a star!

I had a look in the Tilapia Manual produced by Nam Sai Farms, which says:

"There is one exception to this rule and that concerns rain-fed ponds where a large volume of water is required to prevent the pond quickly drying out in the dry season. In this case it may be necessary to increase water depth during the rainy season to 3 meters or more. High fertilization will be necessary at this time, but during the dry season nutrients will tend to get concentrated, due the evaporating water, and so little fertilization will be necessary."

Does anyone have experience of digging deeper ponds like this and then letting evaporation lower the level in the dry season? Are there are problems with doing this? If I dug a deeper pond, would I need to do anything else - eg aerating the bottom - or can I just let the water level rise and fall on its own? Thanks.