Reginald Prewster

45 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Went from self appointed outdoor guard dog, to sleeping in our bed now.

Uh, don't dogs usually sleep in beds?  ????

After returning from work abroad, it was hard to get this habit eliminated. 

But since I showed my wife what dogs are capable to learn (I was as youngster dog trainer in Germany) she claims that our dogs are not the same, they are "people". 

I wanted attending guard dogs, no chance to get poisoned or allowing somebody to carry something out of the gate without one of us opening it..

(the DHL boy was laying for 6 hrs in the glowing sun, because of the tiny insignificant difference between carrying "in" and carrying "out")

But the worst was to learn them "talk" - by meaning sitting in front of me and pretending to have a conversation.

(all for a treat, but my wife now still believes that they really talk)   

Still when thunderstorms passing through or fireworks get set off, one of them sneaks under the bedsheets. 

3 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

 Surprisingly, never even been growled at .. by dogs anyway at 7-11.

I started with 2 of them in Pattaya.

Just little Puppies that got kicked away all time at lake Maprachan 7eleven...

Put them in the side car of my scooter and that was it.

After 2 years of stubbornness they changed like somebody turned their switch on.

From one day to the other their 15 minutes training was not enough anymore and they wanted to learn and show more.

Now on my farm they are already 12 years old and 3 puppies from the Garbage Dumping area in Khon Kaen joined us... 

I guess also, if you not accidently step on them a 7eleven dog will never bite but they are capable (with a little more patience) to become brilliant guard dogs due to their experiences in front of the door of 7/11.

They have met more different human characters and can read their faces better I have the feeling.

All 5 on my farm work very well with our goose who are the alarm system and the dogs do the checking then.. 

But as @soalbundy posted, I am always careful with our geese, they are just unpredictable.

If they think you are standing on a spot that they not appreciate, its time for self defense and for the attacker is Christmas a few month ealier.. 

On 5/22/2023 at 11:58 AM, Hummin said:

I can guarantee you now, you will feel the need for more land. We started out on same idea with almost 4 rai.

I have 3 Rai in Ban Phe now up for sale... LOL

It was a bargain and we thought, lets live of the land.

Plans and Drawings were made, turned, made new, some trees planted to find out how fast they grow and how much they shade out....

This winter we bought a 17 Rai farm.....

....in April we rented 7 more rai.... 

Lesson learned: THINK BIG - tropical farming is making addictive..

The People above mentioned all important stuff from the right chanot over is it allowed to build a house on it and has it fresh and no saltwater... 

Enjoy..

5 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Living here 23 yrs on and not one of those things have happened to me in TH, while visiting Patts, Bangkok, most large metros or enjoying the countryside.

 

YMMV

Lucky you are so smart and understand sarcasm..

It was more meant to be like, No Goose and Buffaloes in Pattaya but other things could happen.

Got it now??

22 years here and follow the rules which keeps me out of troubles as well.

2 hours ago, bigt3116 said:

They range in weight from 300–550 kg

Well,

mine is 876 Kilograms precise 4 month ago at the vererinary and his shoulders reach my chin makes him above 160cm shoulder height considering I am 186 cm tall.

Aggressive, OK he will block the way towards me as soon you approach and by accident he hit me once with his horns as some bug has bitten him on his back and he turned his head. 

Beside this he is very gentle and if he needs a break from work he even can start crying...  

Great,

more Greenhouse gasses due to composting..

I'll take my share if the Government wants me to build a BSF Farm.

Since Fish meal skyrocketed from 240 to 2200 USD per MT, because of the overfishing around South America the BSF is becoming a new interest.

BSF (Hermetia Illuciens or Black Soldier Fly) has gained the first approvals for lifestock food, which can be the substitute for fish meal.

An they don't create Greenhouse gasses like huge compost factories do...   

Well, it takes a lot more than above stated with these picky little flies but a trial of 5 years in my backyard was more than promising..

They went easy through 15-20 Kilo Bio waste per day and outstarved themselves 8 times in these 5 years where I could not gather enough waste... 

The BSF composter was made of 3 blue barrels at the end.. 

Unfortunately they produced beside frass (their poop) also liquid that needed to be dilluted by 1000:1 to be good as (a top) fertilizer.

My Backyard was not big enough for this and at the end even my neighbors could not fertilize more as their Gardens turned into thick jungles LOL. 

But the outcome of this trial was the concept of a 10.000 sqm Hall and other 5.000 sqm Fly cages and breeding habitat which could get rid of 1.500.000 Kilo bio waste per day, without farting just the smallest amount of greenhouse gasses into the air..

Lovely little critters they are... 

We have 2 soi dogs from Pattaya, who are now 12 years old and as we relocated to Isaan on our Farm, another 2 Soi Dog Puppies with their mother decided to make make up a gang.

I believe in the saying, the dog choses his owner, so we decided to keep them and they really get along with our two old bones.

They all like Pedrigee and Smart Heart canned food occassionally, but mainly they all prefer dry food from Smart Heart. 

Interesting Post @drtreelove

especially your mulch piles making me jealours.

Within a couple of years the prices for mulch did explode in Khon Kaen area, pity.

But as above stated, my family is happy with a little extra income and I get the cut straw.

 I crossbred some chickens

Brahma, opposite what people say, was not heat tolerant in my opinion so I got my ladies one of my dad in law's best and biggest fighting rooster. 

Without knowing if they are compartible the hen got broody and gave us some nice chicks.. 

They are looking like tall Brahmas and are very tough, playing around in the midday sun and develop great.

They shall be the workers and fertilizing machines, as soon my 12 paddocks are fenced so I can move them around under a holistic management system (Allan Savoy, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer, David Holmgren but also Joel Salatin give good inputs (just to Name a few) 

I will ask my wife to make a few more clear pictures of all our trees to post here.

Many she takes are in front of other trees, hence have you ever seen a Bakerman in a snow storm?

I told her she should move her nice a** a bit to catch the trees with a blue sky background LOL. 

Maybe some other people join in here... 

Cheers @drtreelove to giude me to this post.

Unfortunately many people found out about the quality of a good mulch and with 17 rai bare soil after I designed my food forest, this high demand of soil building mulch and raising prices I do not accept.

I shifted a few gears down and rented rice fields (10 rai)

On these I let my family do what they did since ever. Growing Rice, peanuts, Beans .....

They can have the main income, but the straw is all for my land.

I guess fair deal isn't it?

I have seen on your turf some "huge" piles of Coco husks and rice bran. 

I am still looking around, but all I can find is people selling it by the bag.. (too expensive) 

For so long I stick to plan B..

Has also a good side. 

The Vetiver Grass barrier should be tight enough no to float the built up soil away

and the first cut of Vetiver Grass gives another few centimeters on top of the mulch mix... 

(Vetiver Grass I planted about 70.000 stalks all along the river, lake and island..)

11 hours ago, drtreelove said:

Your young plantings have promise, but the photo screams of bare ground and mulch or cover crop deficiency.  

This were rice fields until end of November.

The lake and river has been dug and the resulting soil was great, about 2-3 meters loam and another 3-4 meters clay. The latter I used only for certain parts (Road. where the houses are placed and a few spots where trees demanding clay) the rest was given away.

Cover crops are just starting through, I spent a fortune in Arachis Pintoi (Pinto peanuts, as ground cover with nitrogen fixing abilities) and started now with the rain season banging Asparagus & all kind of other perennials in. 

They start nicely... 

5th month and first life is returning

Rice straw bales "suddenly" increased to 80 baht per bale (1400 needed), so I denied to pay the price and rented about 10 rai of the surroundings for 10000 Baht per year.

Beside rice we planted lots of climbing beans and other legumes (also a few Cucumbers) which is for the family but all cut straw will eventually this winter build up the first mulch layer ???? in the food forest.

Lucky me, some students of the University in Khon Kaen found out about my Idea and checked my dirt and well water.

They recommended about 8-15 inch of rice straw because it has lots of silica and the water has drinking water quality, which I expected because there are wells about 6 Kilometer away where some ice factories settled down. 

Followed

Hip bone replacement is due.

Taiwan = 220.000 NTD and dectuctible from my tax here..

Thailand = covered by my health insurance (who might kick me out after this, LOL) 

5 hours ago, AlphaCanadian said:

-Not everyone will necessarily always have a current passport (possible that one may not have gotten a new passport when the previous expired in 2021).

Please let me know what you think.

I had to change once my Passport as I was working in Penglai (China) and the other time was last year here in Taipei (Taiwan) as i lost my previous one.

The Procedure was:

I arrived in both cases with my new Passport in Survanabhum airport and the Immigration Officer called the supervisor. I got told the Number had changed and I said that this was the case. 

The first Time I could show my expired and made invalid Passport (cut off edges)

The 2nd Time I told them the old Number (I travel a lot hence I knew my Passport Numbers) and also told that the old one was lost.

In both cases I got only reminded that I still had a valid visa and have to sign it over.

For the 2nd time they even reminded me to have a lost certificate on hand.

At the Immigration in Pattaya I gave the expired passport or the lost certificate (issued in Taiwan) and also the temporary passport which was 4 weeks valid and after receiving the new one invalidated by cut off corners, but the officer didn't bother that one at all, in that case the lost certificate was counting. 

In total I have now a 22 years history record in Thailand, if needed, they could have pulled me apart providing more than one expired or invalid passport.

Takes about 2-3 Weeks to get a new Passport in urgent cases 10 days (extra fee)

Then you need to go to the Thai Immigration and present both Passports and they will sign the Visa over into the new one.

I assume you love complaining about just everything, do you?

Wait the road is ready and adjust your driveway to it.

A good road in front of the house should increases the value as well and if the house is old and over its Time the Land value will justify the correction works...

Btw, I am 60 years old and bought 17 rai land, dug a 5500sqm lake, a 400m artificial river and raised my land between 0.8 and 1.5 meter (all 17 rai) all in just 3 month...

Now I can happily looking forward to get my hip bone replacement due to osteroporisis,

after that I will start up my farm and retire without complaining. 

(the other way of living or am I just adjusted to the Thai style of live?)

Former President of a well known MC... 

Mae Hong Son 

270 Km/ 1864 Curves

Been there, done that (with Certificate.)

Bikers know where I am talking about... 

Walking Street, 

The bill adds easy up to 9 K there just have a few boobs in your hands and pay some ladies a drink.

Best till now was 3 years ago meeting my mates from work. 

5 of us came from the same project and we use to go the first day at home to sort our "PWTS"

(Post Work Tension Syndrome) 

43.200 THB in just about 2 hrs ...

Good thing was that all customers left, because the girls were taking care of us and as the bar was empty we paid and left too, moved to the opposite side. 

The night was over for the bar and their chicks, because who want to enter an empty bar at 22:30 on a Saturday night when on the oppsite side 5 "bell ringing" Offshore workers were shooting with bra's at each other LOL. 

Strange, that in that bar the bill was after 3 1/2 hrs 24.000 baht... 

Police you need only if you have lost your credit card or bank book but I never heard that you need this for a record.

I recently askes for 2 years because I needed to create an expense list from my farm.

I think it was 200 baht each.

On 5/6/2023 at 9:35 AM, LuckyG said:

You are concluding things that i never posted.

There are always people who reading words and not understand the story. Beside there are always smacktalkers hiding behind their screens and try to hurt and put shame on. These people never die and lovce what they do online, the only way they can show power without getting beaten up. 

Just read what smart and helpful people post for you, they are the ones caring to give a constructive answer. 

12 hours ago, drtreelove said:

BTW, weaver ants are not a plant pest, they do not feed on the trees, but are a natural biological control for some plant pests.  They are evil little kamakaze dive bomber pests for people, but soil improvements or bio-pesticides do not apply for control. Ask your local village neighbor to collect the weaver ant nests.  

For me they are much more valued and I never will consider them a pest.

There might be a misunderstanding.

They are highly sophisticated workers in my farm and always welcome.

A good thing is when they "own" a tree and you have a pest problem on another plant beside, they work even more efficient if you know their habits. 

They will sort some pests in the neighboring plant, but as long they have to walk over soil they do not consider this plant as "their" tree.

As soon you connect a string between the two trees they want yo own also the other plant and marching along the string in hundreds.

Great little critters they are..

The way we are farming now is completely degrading and destroying.

It's all about money.

Monoculture uses only one level and keeps us off the abundance of 6 more levels which support each other.

The great herds of wild animals are gone as also Allan Savory states, but there is a chance to imitate the big herds, when all farmers join together and start a holistic management system, by letting the herds return. This can also be imitated by domesticated lifestock.

I just start my project and after planting my upper canopy I take it easy filling slowly the gaps and let the succession do the job it is supposed to do.

I might loose some plants and others might take over these gaps created, which is absolute clear for me.

The end of succession ends almost always with a jungle, where also pests have their right of existence.  

I only can do my farming and more than hope to find some people copy my idea. 

I am at the age where I might have some trees unter which shadow I will never sit, but if all goes right my kids and grandkids might sit there and having a fruit. Means mission completed...