WatersEdge

I follow the concept...

Ripper teeth hinge up harmlessly when moving forward,

dragging gently over the freshly dozed surface.

but lock against the back of the dozer blade when moving backward

A photo would clarify for all

The time honored method in Mae Sot is to bust the surface with a disk plow,

then push with the dozer blade.

While it works, it is cumbersome, and exerts unnecessary wear on the valuable plow.

Your method is a brilliant stroke of machine design.

Grandpa Henry Ford would be proud of you!

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be.

Anyway i arrived in Buri Ram a few years ago with a Ford 6610 on a truck with a 3 a 7 and a casava hiller. I took the hiller apart and took the 3 point frame to the local welder in Prakon Chai and gave him a few pages of drawing and selected a sheet of steel and a piece of two and a half meter mobar for a dozer blade and 4 days later we were painting a space ship (well at least they thought it was) Ford Tractor blue. I was a proud owner of a giant 3 point box scraper. Never got to use it much due to time of year other work, tractor lessons etc etc.

I recently found a fellow in Phetcheburi that sold equipment for Caterpillar motor graders and I bought 5 two foot long ripper teeth. Back to the farm and off with the front dozer blade and over to the welder, drawings in hand and shazam! I got a blade with 5 removeable ripper teeth that can be mounted facing backwards. some of locals said no good as they needed to be facing forward but with a space ship and these dragon teeth watch out.

we had a high spot in the new rice farm and had been flooded twice due to the enormous amount of rain this year and the klong blowing out the leveee road in a couple of places. Let's make this short, in two days me, one guy, and a couple grand of baht in diesel. I built nearly 300 meters of new road with some fills of over 3 feet with no lifts over 3-4 inches (not the Thai 2 1/2 foot lifts of dumping a truck and pushing out a bunch of dry dirt). I ripped it all out of the high spot on the farm found some good golden clay and saved that to top off the road at the end with the stickiest, all the soil had good moisture content and if not I blended the different one to make it right.

The illegal part was that I did it all in 6th gear and reverse. I'd drop the blade and rip in reverse then drop it in 6th and lower the box scraper and pick it all up and go somewhere and lay it all down nice and thin When i got enough down and compacted, I'd cut it down with a full box of dirt to compact it more. Two days of just almost thinking someone was going to come and get me and say i can't do it anymore. It was miles better than the old Gannon box scraper design where you had to use you hydraulics to lower your ripping teeth below your box scraper, then rip going foward, then put it in reverse and back it up, then hydraulicly lift the teeth, then (lots of "thens") put it in forward and scrape it all up.

I actually started to think they were going to really make this illegal when I ripped going back down into the farm and then shifted into 6th and dropped the box and while scraping it up I used the Dozer blade to cut away the edge of a spur road i had built earlier. It was mind boggling I thought this dozer blade on the front of a farm tractor was one of the goofiest things I had ever seen when I got here in Thailand but with a little bit of adaptation I have never accomplished more good work in such a short amount of time.

The box scraper cost about 17,000 baht to make (during the high steel prices days), everything included (except the hiller frame as I actually designed so it can be unbolted (I know it never will) and you can put the hiller discs back on). The ripper teeth and fabrication and welding of the mounting boxes and pins was pocket change. I can't see anyone investing a million baht on a 90 horsepower tractor and not investing this extra amount to create a monster.

The road was hard as cement and was properly crowned and properly sloped around the couple of turns so that I guarantee when it rains there will be no potholes, sinking or washboarding as every and almost all dirt roads (without a finish of rock and the use of a motor-grader) in Thailand are with their massive lifts of fill.

Maybe they'll just consider this type of modifications as hazardous materials like chiles and neem trees but for two days I was like a little kid again and really really enjoyed being on a tractor and it sure didn't feel like work.

And ya all know that god surely wouldn't have made farms and farmers if he wasn't going to make Ford Tractors ya got to luv em. ForeverFord

This thread is now some months old,

It was last posted in August,

just before the beginning of Corn harvest in the North

But to offer any who may want Corn,

I have 300 tons to sell,

and can readily obtain more.

The market price can be monitored daily

http://www.dit.go.th/diteng/image/hi_4_50.jpg

26 November 2008 the Feedmill quotation is B7.58/kg dry kernel corn.

Based on that market price,

I will bag and ship in 25 ton full truck loads to anywhere required.

Depending on distance and season truck demand, the freight will vary,

but rule of thumb figure B1.00 per kg on 500 km distance

From September through December, Corn trucks are busy, so they won't offer bargains.

In the off season they will haul much more eagerly.

Adding B1.00 to the Market Quote for bag & handle at my barn

and Freight as quoted at time of hauling

I have a hammermill which can handle a truckload per week

so add another B1.00 for cracked corn

For longer term planning,

Planting is Mid May

Harvest starts late August and extends into October

Delivery of truckload lots can be as early as late September

For those who would arrange their own transport

Barn Location is 110 km north of Mae Sot on highway 105

on Moei River / Burma border

You have a choice in the way you set up the company

1.all in a trusted Thai's name

or

2. going legit with a Thai company 49% in your name

This is what I never liked about setting up a company in Thailand. Unless you are investing large amounts, you have to be the minority shareholder in your own company.

This is probably why the current owner's girlfriend owns the company. Because they created a company and she is either the sole owner, or she owns 51% and he only owns 49%. So she calls the shots with all of his money. Works great now, but what happens later when the relationship breaks down?

Luckily I am from the US, so I would never get stuck in this situation. Let's hear it for the treaty

The treaty expired

The list of items in demand provided by a Restaurant Owner Friend

Jalapeno Pepper

Bell Pepper

Carrot

Asparagus

Iceberg Lettuce

Garlic Regular size

If any can help me source the seed,

I am dismayed at the short display of the same old stuff in all my local stores.

Three or Four solutions for a dead pond bottom.

1. Air Stones, Bubblers on the bottom,

putting oxygen in the area it is most needed.

The bubbles rushing for the surface also physically mix the water,

pulling dead water toward the surface,

and with it, some of the nutrients needed by algae near the surface.

2. Pump oxygen depleted water from the bottom of the pond,

splash it on the surface so that it absorbs oxygen,

eventually you pump a large percentage of the dead water out,

and the oxygen replaced at the bottom will begin to feed aerobic bacteria to consume the sludge...

resulting in carbon dioxide

This should be done in the brightest sun hours,

as the algae will boost oxygen levels of depleted water even more.

3. Reduce the depth of the water to around 1.5 meter,

so that the algae can reach to that depth of the pond,

producing oxygen and consuming nutrients in the bright sunlight hours.

Algae produces around 15x as much food value per unit area as a land crop

This means that it also can consume 15x as much troublesome sludge nutrients.

This is the cheapest and easiest...particularly if you grow Tilapia that will eat the resulting algae.

Departing topic a few seconds...High Algae content will also cause oxygen depletion in wee hours to early morning hours

they consume oxygen in darkness

until sunshine returns algae to oxygen production mode

4. Add Fresh cow manure, which contains anaerobic bacteria to consume the sludge.

The methane generated will bubble harmlessly to the surface.

The cow manure will do you no good in the water, so devise a way to sink it undiluted to the sludge.

The greater the sludge accumulation the more severe the solution must be applied.

In order to return the pond to healthy condition, the sludge must be physically removed or consumed.

With Aerobic bacteria, every bit of available oxygen available on the bottom will be immediately consumed.

But by bubbling, eventually you will consume most of the sludge nutrients.

The Anaerobic bacteria are nice because they don't effect oxygen level.

They actually require "bad" conditions to work.

Grand idea

I don't see anything complicated about this.

I have two of the two wheel tractors,

Also have two designated diesels on concrete mixer and hammermill.

Belt pulley for any of the Kubota / Yanmar type diesel motors are readily available and very cheap,

B210 I paid for a 3 belt six inch cast iron flywheel pulley,

bolting to the flywheel with three simple bolts.

Belts will cost B3-400 each, I paid B700 for two.

I have bought both 3 new Kubota Diesels and recently a second hand.

The 2nd hand 11 horsepower Kubota was B23,000

Before I bought a dedicated engine for the hammermill,

I had them build a bracket to attach the two wheel tractor

I am fortunate that my farms are in the service area of a really fine equipment dealer.

I have taken several weld fabrication designs to him, and pick them up less than a week later.

Just recently a pull trailer with hammer mill and diesel engine mounted inside.

I would suggest mounting the generator on a stand,

so that the center of the shaft is at the same elevation

as the center of the tractor flywheel when the frame is level.

Next I would build a means to adjust the belt tension,

probably by two threaded rods to separate the tractor frame from the generator frame.

For me, the uncertainty of laborers being able to correctly adjust all of this

led me to just buy the second hand diesel,

and permanently mount it

Having taken the diesel off and remount it,

to move and then transport the mill,

I think I would remove the engine from your tractor

to bolt to your generator on those occasions when the generator is needed.

It is only four bolts, and proper alignment of the belts.

Lest I burden you with more detail than you asked for,

I will close right here.

david

They do grow very readily from seed.

They won't sprout in the shade though,

they have to have bright sun to germinate.

If you crush a ripe fruit in your fingers,

you will see tens of thousands of tiny seeds

If you plant that in nice dirt you will have to thin the crop

You will find them in the nearest open place

a short distance from the original tree

It should not be necessary to grow from seed

when they are so prolific in the wild.

The taxonomic name is Muntingia calabura,

native to the Caribbean,

Spreads so rapidly that it gained a place in the

Field Guide to the Forest Trees of Northern Thailand.

even though it is not native to Thailand

It is called Jamaica Cherry, or Singapore Cherry

If well watered and carefully trimmed, it will provide a total umbrella shade canopy

I had one in my previous house yard a little over two years old with a radius of nearly 4 meters,

reaching a height of over 5 meters

Does anybody know the name of the tree that has all the red berries fruiting about now? They're found all over the country, usually isolated by the roadside but never in an orchard, and grow quite fast. The pulp is mildly sweet but has a subtle flavor I quite like. It seems like they would make a good preserve too...

Does anyone know if these saplings or trees are available in the Pattaya-Bang Sare area?

Thanks Beardog

The taxonomic name is Muntingia calabura,

native to the Caribbean,

Spreads so rapidly that it gained a place in the

Field Guide to the Forest Trees of Northern Thailand.

even though it is not native to Thailand

It is called Jamaica Cherry, or Singapore Cherry

If well watered and carefully trimmed, it will provide a total umbrella shade canopy

I had one in my previous house yard a little over two years old with a radius of nearly 4 meters,

reaching a height of over 5 meters

Does anybody know the name of the tree that has all the red berries fruiting about now? They're found all over the country, usually isolated by the roadside but never in an orchard, and grow quite fast. The pulp is mildly sweet but has a subtle flavor I quite like. It seems like they would make a good preserve too...

Brilliant,

I have seen bamboo brush thrown on the surface of ponds for this purpose,

but the barbed wire would be neatly invisible, and yet would snag every net cast in.

If you want to annoy fish thieves, lay a coil or two of barbed wire in the pond (or around the edges if they use cast nets). They'll never get their net back.

Don't forget to drag the wire out before you try to harvest