AA1

sbf and SantiSuk PLUS both your wives,

Thank you all so very much for all you did to make this such a fascinating and enjoyable educational, as well as social, gathering.

Your map directions were so clear that Ting and I sailed straight to your house, sbf, without the need of a Sat Nav (which I do not have) or Co-ordinance (which I do not understand)!!!!

,

After being welcome by you sbf with a drink, lovely buffet lunch and meeting up with old and new friends, off we went to see some of the amazing projects you are working on which would help local Thai farmers greatly improve the profitability on their rice farms by using solar energy to irrigate their r ice fields making it possible to grow 2 or even 3 crops of rice each year on their fields (almost unheard of in much of Isaan) and how they can greatly improve the quality their soil. Then, on returning from the fields, learning about your butterfly venture. Seeing the black & yellow Bird Butterfly flying around was a fascinating climax to the afternoon.

The afternoon being over, it was time to relax our minds! so moved on to SantiSuk and Ann's house where we relaxed, chatted and ate delicious locally made pizzas washed down with the odd glass or two while seated by their lovely swimming pool.

A very memorable day for which Ting and I thank the 4 of you for all your work and kindness.

Well done SBF and Santisuk. Thrilled that you are kindly holding Meeting No. 12. Please add Wife and I to your list of acceptances and much looking forward to seeing old (maybe I should say "long standing" rather than "old" !!) friends again. AA1.

WormFarmer and Bergen for your support.

Bazmlb. Thanks very much for your interest, hope to meet you WHEN we can find a Venue!!

I am a Norfolk (UK) man so obviously I have to be a hopeful optimist and support Norwich City F.C.!!

Do you know it is exactly 10 years to the day that our NCFC owner made her World famous Half Time speech and here I quote from the BBC today.

• Let's be havin' you

  Posted at

  09:10

  

  What Premier League teams need for encouragement is a bit of Delia Smith.

  It is 10 years ago (yes, TEN YEARS!) to the day since the Norwich owner and famous telly chef took to the microphone at half-time to try to get her side's fans behind her team in a 3-2 defeat by Manchester City at Carrow Road.

  Those immortal words were: "Where are you? Where are you? Let's be havin' you. C'mon."

---------------------------------------------------

Now 10 years later I would like to use her words to inspire someone to host our next Meeting!!!!

"Where are you? Where are you? Let's be havin' you. C'mon."

WE look forward to hearing from you and will be extremely grateful.

When?

and

Where?

I, sadly, was in Europe & the US when you, Bergen, kindly hosted Meeting no 11 and have been fairly hectic since BUT recently realised that I had not seen you all recently.

Was a Venue or Date arranged for the next meeting?

If not, can we all have offers from anyone kind enough to act as host for the next Meeting (no. 12). Do not worry if you have not hosted one before as not much work involved and as some of us have hosted 2 Meetings we will be very happy to give you any help and advise you need.

Usual arrangement is as many of you know:-

Arrive at Host's home about lunch time for drink(s) and maybe light snack to meet/catch up with others coming.

Afternoon. Have a look our host's 'farm' or other venture.

Later. Back at Hosts home, have a drink or 2 with everyone to chat about what we have seen (or anything else!) and then finish with a bbq. or similar which also needs washing down

before

retiring to a local resort to rooms pre-booked to recover before returning to our homes next day.

All this is the sort of idea in the past but nothing is fixed and the host can plan for what fits with them.

Farmers plus wives or husbands or what have you are all welcome

Drink. This has very generously been sponsored in the past.

Offers to host the next Meeting will be much appreciated.

HI Bergen,

Thanks so much for holding the Isaan Farmers Meeting No. 11.

I very much regret that I will be over in England at that time attending a niece's wedding, as well as doing my annual round of grandchildren in both England and the US.

I so enjoyed the last one which you held about 2 years ago. As I say, I sadly I won't be with you but highly recommend others, who can, to go and enjoy their time with you.

All the best,

AA1.

Hi Packdee,

I am slightly worried by your Agenda!

You have the registration time as 8.00-10.00. We have a 4 hour drive to reach you and I know that some of the others have an hours or so more than us which would mean a very early wake up. Are you able to adjust this?

The other worry is that the 5 hour teaching which you are proposing is maybe a bit to professional for us. Many of us are retired and country lovers who have started up small farming ventures of various types. The Farmers Meetings give us a chance to meet like minded people, see different ventures or show people round ours and also see if any problems we have can be sorted out. As you will have seen your mushroom enterprise has created a lot of interest but I think that most would be interested to go into mushrooms growing more for semi domestic consumption rather than as a commercial project. I worry that your 5 hours of teaching may be rather professional at this stage and that a simpler overview with question and answer sessions may be better. Then those who become interested in growing Milky Mushrooms professionally will be encouraged and can join the professional teaching programs which you do. Just a thought and I hope this does not sound discouraging as we all are really looking forward to coming over and studying your enterprise.

Much look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

AA1

As said earlier, they have been in all the villages around where we live for about 2 years except that they have mostly rotted away by now. Obviously must be the silly season when writers cannot find anything worth reporting about in Thailand so you get these old stories dragged out of the cupboard again!!

If you are finalising your diaries before confirming that you can coming to the next meeting, may I suggest you also look at the Thread "Milky Mushroom (Calocybe Indica) Cultivation" which Col. Packdee started just under a year ago. Several postings are from farmers already well known to us (sadly we know 2 are not going to be out of the country) but seeing the size of the mushrooms IsaanAussie grew, thanks to Col. Packdee, make one's mouth water. Whether you thinking you might grow commercially or for self needs or just learn more about mushrooms, it will be a fascinating meeting.

Write it into you diary and let us know you will be coming!

For those interested in growing different mushrooms and have been reading about Col. Packdee's expertise look at the Thread "Isaan Farmers Meeting No. 10" as we are organising a meeting at his mushroom business at the end of March! Do get in touch if you are interesting in joining us by contacting us on the "Isaan Farmers Meeting No. 10" Thread.

Interested to see ideas recommended but am surprised that no one has mentioned that whatever you settle on should have been owned by an expat and so likely to have been looked after and serviced better.

Will much look forward to seeing old friends again as well as meeting new ones. Come and join us as it will be well worth while. Sad Bergen that you will not be amongst them.

BERGEN.

Please accept my humblest apologies. I have just found that I have made a most embarrassing mistake when I typed my acceptance to the next Meeting and typed your name at the end when it should have been IsaanAussie as being unable to come.

I just can't think what came over me. I can only put it down to Old age and Senile dementia or something like that.

Of course I DO hope that you will be able to come as it will be lovely to see your cheery face again.

Please forgive me even if it means I will have to humbly 'kiss your toes' at the Meeting!!!!!!

AA1.

Where does one start!

Packdee.

Thank you so much for your very generous offer to host Isaan Farmers Meeting No. 10 and the kindness of your wife to produce us with lunch. Having read about your mushroom venture before, I will be most interested to learn a bit on how we can grow them! I very much look forward to meeting you on the 29th. March.

WormFarmer.

Thank you so much for organising this fascinating Meeting. It has been worth the delay in between Meetings 9 & 10. This is something special as we will be getting advise and inspiration from an expert.

I love eating mushrooms so can't wait to learn how I should grow them properly!!

In answer to the Information you require:-

1). There will be 2 for lunch - My wife and I (Ting and Anthony).

2). so the same 2 will be there for the afternoon

3). and the same 2 wish to attend the dinner.

By that time I will NOT want drive back to Surin!! so I will be arranging for us to stay at the Banrai Jomthong Resort.

DaveHKT.

We look forward to toasting our super sponsor again. We also look forward to the day when we might be able to toast you in person!! Thanks so much.

Will much look forward to seeing old friends again as well as meeting new ones. Come and join us as it will be well worth while. Sad Bergen that you will not be amongst them.

thaiguzzi. Welcome back.

Lucky you hoping to just have 36 weeks break before you start tapping again. We are down in Surin and when I chatted with my wife last night she is not expecting to start tapping for at least 3 months!! Maybe this is because of her experience last year when we had a bad drought year which hammered the section of the trees which are being cut at present so they suffered badly badly and she had to wait 4 months before beginning. This delay gave the least affected trees (about 3/4s) more time to rebuild their strength and the other 1/4 were given a year's rest to fully recover. In the end only about half a dozen were killed so could have been a lot worse.

Interestingly 12 rai of rubber we have adjoining the above, didn't suffer at all. They were planted early July 2008 on ex sugar land and have grown very well. When I measured their girth at 1+ metre height in early October last year they were averaging mid 40s cms. As we were talking about rubber, last night I asked her if she was thinking of starting to tap them next year as by then they would have had time to grow more since I measured them. She being Thai, I was amazed when she said "No, I want most of the trees over 50 cms. before I start them"!!! Especially as she knew that when the first tapping started on the farm, which it did 18 months ago, the farm paid for all fertilizer and other costs NOT me! Living in Thailand is always full of surprises.

Thank goodness we are in rubber and not rice although it would be very nice is the price for rubber was higher next season. Some hope!!!!

Many congratulations to you both.

I have 2 year old Grandsons and they are gorgeous. Full of fun and really enjoy playing with each other, Just wait for feed time - non stop at first and then it just becomes chaos. Don't worry as only joking. They really are a pleasure to visit.

David. When they are old enough, bring them along to an "Isaan Farmers Meeting" - PLUS MissFarmGirl, of course,

and all the other wives will be in heaven playing with them!

Hi All,

After talking to WormFarmer today, I decided that it would be a good idea if I put our comments from the topic "Farmers.Metting" on a new Topic as many of you may have missed what we put as the previous topic was slightly confusing.

Here we are again where all can see and hopefully respond positively to it!

I wrote:-

"Posted 2014-01-12 03:04:56

To which WormFarmer added:-

"Posted 2014-01-12 08:57:20

NOW it is up to YOU to decide what YOU would like to do!!!!!

We look forward to hearing from you.

AA1.

Hi aussieruss,

Well done bringing up the subject of the Farmers Meetings on the Forum again and look forward to welcoming you back to Thailand for the LAST of your annual monthly holidays. Then about one year hence, Thailand won't know whats hit it when you hopefully come here on a more permanent basis!!

Everyone.

I feel that I am partly to blame for the lack of subsequent Meetings as I held the last one in June last year which those who attended seemed to thoroughly enjoy even though we had quite a number of last minute absentees. Sadly when it comes to holding a Meeting, farmers seem to be a rather shy community!! We have been six different farming ventures and as Wormfarmer & I have held 2 meetings each that makes up 8 Meetings and then the other was a very popular and successful Meeting going round one of the King's Agricultural Research Centres and then having a party into the night as the resort where most of us were staying. Thus making 9 Meetings so far. We are almost all basically small farmers - not large commercial operations - and I think very few of us, if any, were involved in agriculture before we came here BUT we all love the peace,space and clean air of nature in the country and by being involved in farming carry on learning as we go and keeps us fit and active!!

Maybe it is the fact that they are called Farmers Meetings that put potential hosts off, as that sounds structured and formal.

Maybe they should have been called Farmers Socials as that would have been more appropriate as there is NO structure and NOTHING formal.

It is just a gathering of like minded people who love the outdoor life to meet up for a day away, see different parts of Isaan, look round and learn about our hosts venture and generally chat with others about problems we may have (or anything else) over a simple lunch and maybe BBQ supper while downing a bottle or 3 and generally having a good day out and making new friends.

Any possible host, let me know to talk more.

re. The offer of a possible Farmers Meeting in Laos.

I would here like to thank MrOdyssey for the offer and very hard work that he put in when he offered to hold a Meeting up as his place in the Bolaven Plateau in Laos during November or December last year. It created quite a lot of interest and discussion BUT Mobaan, I think, was the only one who expressed their interest on the blog as being able to go at that time and I know you aussieruss and Dancealot would have liked to go but could not be in the country during that period. Bergen, I have just seen in 'what happened to the farming forum' blog that it should be revived. I would agree but first we would have to find out whether MrOdyssey would be happy to and when would be a suitable sort of date for him and if so that would be a very good reason for having another meeting where and when details could be thrashed out face to face.

Must stop now BUT please all of you have thoughts about what I have said.

Hope to see many of you again fairly soon.

AA1.

Hi ALL,

Hi Guys,

Any thoughts on the next I.F.M.?

DaveHKT.

Thanks very much for bringing me back to earth!!

Everyone.

Having been very busy sorting out family matters worldwide which has been taking up a great deal of my time and are still ongoing as well as being cut off twice - for a week plus each time - from the rubber farm by 3 foot floods which also caused havoc with my internet connection as well, I am afraid that I have been neglecting following up the next meeting (No. 10) AND the idea of a Farmer Meeting in Lao.

As many of you already know, we are group of 'so called' farmers who meet up every few months and to which ANYONE is welcome to come. It is nice to meet in different parts of Isaan so that not only do we visit different areas of Isaan, but also see different farming ventures and have a good chat with like minded country folk, seeing and learning more about what they do AND have a chance to get possible advise over any problems we may have. All this being helped down by a bit of lunch and a BBQ plus a pint or 2 or ------!

It is all very informal as we do NOT have any committee or anything like that and try to meet every 3 months or so. We rely of the kindness of people to offer their home/farm as a venue for the day so that we can meet up, learn from each other, make new friends and see old ones, and generally enjoy each others company. I held the last one which is why I am looking for a new host as none of those present were able host the next one as they were either going to be out of the country over this period or for other genuine reasons.

We now need someone to offer to be the host for a Meeting (No. 10). Could you offer? If you want to know what it might involve, please get in touch with me and I can advise.

re. The possibility of having a Farmers Meeting in Laos.

As you may or may not know, 'MrOdyssy' has offered to hold a Farmers Meeting at his 'developing' venture into coffee, etc. etc. on the Bolaven Plateau in Laos. It would be fascinating to be able to do this but, because of the delay, the possible date would need to be revise as quite a bit of preparatory planning would need to be done. He has been over in the USA looking into aquaponics and am not sure whether he is back yet but if there was enough interest it would certainly be very entertaining. Here is a suitable place to start on his website at it tells you a little bit about his venture and has some picture of what the area is like.

http://www.wrongwayhome.com/my-site/ . Let us have an idea of your possible interest then, if it is considered viable, we would definitely need a Meeting when we can spend a little time deciding how we organise it!!

I have searched through for the Thread about "Farmers Meeting in Laos" so have brought it up to the top to help you find it!!

Let's hear from you about a Meeting or any other suggestion on the subject.

All the Best,

AA1

For up to date information - SEE Thread "Isaan Farmers Meeting No. 9"

AA1

I am amazed to read that so few people have supposedly been drowned by the flooding.

We live in the southern half of Surin province where we are told we have had our worst flooding for 50 years. I don't know if that is correct but I do know how fast the flood water rose. Very little concern at 6.00 - 6.30 p.m. when it got dark but by 1.00 a.m. villagers were waking up to find the ground floor of their houses flooded when it had never happened before. Likewise most of the roads became impassable either by flooding on grey roads or by becoming mud baths, washed away or fallen trees on 'dirt' roads. Sisaket has suffered worst than we did and stiil are.

My wife said that she personally knows of 3 people around here who have drowned around here including an 8 year old girl who went in to rescue a 3 year old and through saving him, slipped and was washed away. I wept for that little girl who had died for being a real hero. (Before anyone says 'where was supervision', I agree with them completely BUT now it is too late to save that brave little girl).

I don't know if others around here drowned and would be very surprised if none drowned in Sisaket but the figure of 9 to 15 or whatever that are being quoted are way off being accurate

Hello all,

Just thought I'd mention (warn you?) that the Ubon hashers are keen and we may even get the Vientiane crowd. Could turn into a good event. All in the spirit of the more the merrier. We can discuss farming issues while they sing silly songs and freeze their testicles sitting on blocks of ice. People following this thread deserve precedence, so which weekends would you like to eliminate in November or December? I will also work with the hashers to eliminate weekends that coincide with major hashing events. It would be nice to narrow it down as far in advance as possible. But, a meeting or two should take place before this, so who is hosting the next one?

Hi all,

Sorry that I have been out of touch for so long but thanks to a rogue of an a computer engineer who seemed to have had a monopoly of providing internet connection to the few in this area (about 1 per village!) I have had NO connection for about 6 weeks. I won't grouse any longer or you will get fed up BUT I have now got just about a connection from elsewhere and as it is so slow I am not charged for it. Will probably have to go over to a satellite dish. One of the handicaps of living totally in the sticks with rubber trees in every direction!!!

It was peaceful being completely isolated

BUT,

although wonderful to find out that the world is still there (and in time to listen to live commentaries of the Canaries Football Matches!!), there is so much work to catch up on!!

MrOdyssey,

As can be seen from the above you have been doing a wonderful job in moving things along. Lao internet connection must be much better than we get in Thailand as I have only just seen it so maybe everyone else has not got back online yet!!!!!

Thank you for all your hard work trying to get this splendid plan off the ground and would be fun if the Ubon Hashers join in to as several of them join in with us at Farmers Meetings too.

.

1). Date:- At present I can fit in with any weekend during November & December.

2). Say in late September or early October, it would be a good idea to have a Farmers Meeting when a small part can be set aside so that:-

those who are interested in going to see you at the Bolavon Plateau can discuss - face to face - plans for travel, meeting up, etc.

while

those not interested can chat while downing a pint or 2!

We can then report to others who could not get to the Meeting.

BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1). Date:- We DO need ideas of the most suitable dates to arrange, or avoid, for the visit to visit to MrOdyssey's farm etc. which should be most interesting. Making suggestions for the date, does NOT commit you to going or not but will help us considerably as the sooner a date can be arranged the better for everyone.

2). Next Farmers Meeting - late Sept. or early Oct. We do NOT have a host organised at present so would like you to offer and advise a date when it would suit you best. It does NOT involve much work and they are most enjoyable as you know.

Pour your replies in!!!

As my friend Delia Smith (Canary boss & cook!) once said "Let's be 'aving you"!!

All the best,

Anthony (AA1)

@AA1 and Mr. Oddysey.

I will do my best to try to make it to the Bolaven Plateau this year.

Dancealot,

You've cheered my day up!

If we end up going ahead, we will be delighted if you can make it.

Everyone else.

Do you have any more good suggestions or thoughts which we can answer?

All the best,

AA1.

hi all would be a great day out

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

@ Mr. Oddysey, very entertaining blog and i love the blog entry!

For aussierus'sl-, and Dancealot's sake can't you postpone the whole thing until April?

Hi,

Seems you are both keeping well even if on opposite sides of the globe.

I have had a look on the internet about the Plateau and it appears that:-

a). the dry season is from October till April

more importantly

. the coffee picking season is from October till February

and most importantly

c). that is what MrOdyssey has suggested - Nov. or Dec. so I imagine that that period is most convenient for him!!!!!

I would imagine that it is mainly because of . so April would not work which will means that we will sadly miss your cheery selves.

MrOdyssey.

Your Blogg is splendid. Not only do we get a fascinating insight of what you are up to BUT this time we also got a history lesson PLUS a very good belly laugh about your journey 'worming' your way home from your friendly 'farmer'!!!! Keep the bloggs going it keeps a smile on many of our faces!

Good idea. Why not see if the Ubon Hash House Harriers would like to come to as several come to our meetings anyway BUT may I make a suggestion. Having had a look a map, I feel that we should all meet for a good 1st. night out in Paske then in the morning us farmers can be mini bused up to yours for a good and well oiled Meeting (Beer Lao please) while the Harriers run up - Ha, ha, ha!!!!!!!

Likewise why shouldn't farmers from all over Thailand be able to join us. After all we are using the T.V. Section "Farming in Thailand" to promote our Topic. They would then have a chance to see how their poor country cousins try to scrape a living!! Whether they come from Bangkok as you mention OR they are a Legend or Saint from Phuket!, I am sure that we would make them very welcome.

Best wishes to everyone and MrOdyssey don't forget to replenish your stocks of the Boston product to take home!

AA1.

Hi All,

Thank you all for your very helpful comments so far.

Mr. Odyssey. Sorry. When I talked about Visas, I was only meaning the Laos Visa and whether one can obtain a short stay one at the border or if it needed to be done at the Laos Embassy at Bangkok. Now knowing that Entry Visas can be got at the border (as long as you take the right documents & potos!) this would make a visit much more viable.

Mosha. Thanks for mentioning 'Re-entry Permits'. When I do my annual Visa Extension renewal, I usually get a Multi-entry Permit at the same time so don't have to worry about it so overlooked mentioning it. YES. It is essential to have a Re-entry Permit if you were to go otherwise you would be forced to have a Tourist Visa when you return and would loose whatever type of Visa you had before.

ttwitt. Thanks so much for your very useful info especially with the regard to the Laos use of the $!! Would be worth taking some to avoid any hassle or scamming on currency transfer rates etc.

MrOdyssey. Your ideas for a meeting up at your's and JungleBiker's sounds good BUT if we all start off that day from Ubon any delay at either side of the border could mess up the whole day!!! Just a thought might be for us all to stay the night before at a hotel in Pakse which would for a start avoid the problems which ttwitt and Bergen have about the quality of hotels in Ubon!!!!!!!

Say on the Friday, we parked our pick-ups, cars or what-have-you, at a carpark, presumably they have a decent one, at the border, walked over the bridge, doing our paperwork at each end and then got the bus to Pakse and found the hotel where we were staying. We could then have a snoop round Pakse and maybe have dinner at the French restaurant you mention.

Saturday morning, have a leisurely get up and be collected by arranged transport (hired for 2 days, say) to get up to yours in the latter morning. Then have the day as you suggest. Stay the night in Paksong and then depending what people want on the Sunday either go direct back to the border or have a drive in the transport seeing a bit more of the Plateau or say coffee market etc. before returning later to the border.

Thank you all and keep suggestion and ideas coming as that is how we can learn what you would like and any other problems tha may crop up!

AA1.