canopy

Let me give a quick lead in. In the villages around here the kids get on a motorcycle not long after age 10 years old and will never, ever use their bicycle from that day on again. They get daily enjoyment roaming around on their parents bikes for recreation with no idea of how to drive properly and it can be quite dangerous. In one case I was making a blind, tight left corner when an 11 year old on a motorbike appeared squarely in front of me in my lane. I wasn't sure what to do. Normal procedure would be to hug the left side but that would only work if he knew enough to do the same and I was betting he didn't. So I braked and eased right just slightly to give him a little room left of me and the option to get in his own lane if he tried. At this point I was nearly at a dead stop and he seemed to lose control and barely kept from slamming into me head on by taking my lane going by on my left side. In retrospect I could see I made the correct move in this case otherwise it would have been a head on collision. But it was a gamble. Now I see this little guy's older 15 year old sister can now be found driving her parents pickup truck for fun here and there dangerously and alone with no knowledge of the road rules.

What I wanted to do is get a DMV book and give it to the family so the kids would have a chance of learning how to drive before something bad happens. I went to the DMV in our province and to my surprise they have none to offer. In fact, they have no learning resources at their facility at all. They said to have a look at the government web site. I did and the only thing I found are some boring hard to click through scanned in images of a book. Giving that link would go over like a lead balloon. What they need is a book on their coffee table that they can pickup at their leisure, look over, and discuss. Is there any chance of that or finding a more realistic way to learn online?

Well they used to called them wildfires as if they were some sort of natural occurrence, but I think the satellite imagery of thousands of dots everywhere fires were being started on a daily basis pretty much debunked that notion. They also usually blame nearby countries for all of the smoke. This year it seems the strategy has changed to call it dust instead of smoke to make it sound better and have a few airplane circling to act like their is improvement when actually nothing has changed.

The farmers around my area are all in that last giant push to burn everything they can in their fields which they will continue to do until the rains start. As far as I can see, every farmer loves burning their land and several have expressed puzzlement to even being irked as to why I never light mine ablaze. They think it is so much prettier when you burn everything down. Their carelessness have caused 4 forest fires in the national forest this month adding much "dust" to Thailand's atmosphere not to mention ruining rare habitat and trees. One fire nearly got to my land today. If I wasn't around it would have. At first I was stupidly in disbelief that a neighbor let his fire cross into the national forest. When I saw the wall of fire approaching incinerating big trees in balls of fire I called the forestry hotline immediately--only to discover their phone was turned off and got the AIS callback service message! I then called the police who could hear the fire raging and had to yell for them to hear me over it. I then spent what seemed an eternity with a shovel to keep the fire away from my area. It was a hot, desperate battle on steep slopes with everything really dry and flammable and always a risk of going ablaze myself with my rubber boots and straw hat which is all I had. At one point a guy on a motorcycle stopped and watched me. I explained the gravity of the situation. He casually nodded and meandered off. Never have I felt so alone. The forestry guys showed up a couple hours later. By that time I had saved my area and the national forest behind it by putting out breakouts that jumped the road which was terrifying as these spot fires grew quickly and furiously and there were flames up to several stories high just across a narrow dirt road. The forestry guys seemed to only have a pickup with a few barrels of water and a coil of hose and pump which was surprisingly effective in containing the fire though there were a few breakouts that they had to scramble to deal with. When it was over it was snowing chunks of ashes. This has been the worst year of burning I have seen and there is a long way to go still.

Do you use sketchup? If so I have the baler drawing that you can pull all the (metric) dimensions from. I don't know if we can post skp files here however.

I don't bother with supermarket member cards, but thumbs up for the pizza company card. Buy 1, get 1 free for 6 months validity. More than pays for the cost of the card on the very first usage.

They should make payment incentives based. For each 10% increase in air quality a village gets 10% of the allotted budget. Villages that do nothing get nothing.

I have years of experience with various security cameras that send MMS messages to a mobile phone when triggered. I like the instantaneous ability to see a picture on my phone of what set it off and the confidence of security when I am not there. I have good experience ordering such cameras from the extensive collection listed on dhgate in China that are sent to me in Thailand with no duties and free express courier shipping. For under 10K baht just drop such a camera where you need it with a sim card and you have secured an area than can run off-grid for months at a time on batteries. An important downside is like another mentioned is most are PIR based and can trigger on something as benign as a moth flying by at night to break your sleep which is a real nuisance.

Well just a closing note. After many months scouring every single manufacturers offerings in Thailand I gave up and bought a Sony Vaio S series in the US and had it shipped to me in Thailand by a 3rd party. I love it. Unlike Thailand where Sony, Dell and the likes choose the options and colors for you I was able to go on the Sony web site and customize everything exactly to my needs. And yes, it has a very nice range of colors to choose from, a high quality fit and finish, full-HD, blu-ray, and absolutely everything i wanted. I paid about 10,000 baht less than if I bought it in Thailand staying well below budget which was partially cancelled out by a customs fee of 1100 baht & shipping.

A "drywell" has several other disadvantages. With a drain field, 40% of treatment happens after the septic tank. With a drywell you get none. A drywell leaches waste in a concentrated area which contaminates ground water. Basically, a drywell is not a good system and does not meet minimum international standards.

To size your drainfield you need to know your soil percolation rate. Something like this: http://www.inspectapedia.com/septic/fieldsize.htm

If you are perforating pipes yourself then make sure to read up on how to do this properly. There are good rules to follow like only placing holes at 5 & 7 o'clock. You can also buy pre-slotted PVC pipe in various thicknesses. The 4" pipe in 8mm thickness seems quite durable.

Moderator: can you please move this thread to the farming forum?

Reading about swales I think that is a good idea, thanks.

A backhoe recently contoured a steep hill into 2 shelves. What would be the ideal way to drain this area? For instance, should it be embanked up to run the water next to the hill and make ditches on the hill side? Or should it be embanked down to let water run off the sides into the road ditch? I can get a tractor to do such work. It is just a green area that I plan to plant with ground cover and trees in the upcoming wet season and will receive no vehicle traffic.

It isn't suitable to use straw. This is an environment of rapid decomposition and the straw will soon be gone.

Straw has a proven history for this purpose and is code approved even today everywhere I am familiar with. Straw can degrade away in time but it gives the soil above time to consolidate and compress such that it won't be an issue clogging the rock. A quick search on the internet should confirm this. If there are disadvantages, I have yet to come across them.

For outlet circuits wire in 2.5mm2 with a 1.5 or 2.5 earth and protect with a 20A breaker.

I was under the impression and also see in lopburi's chart that 20A is too big for 2.5mm2. Is it possible to clarify this? One other thing is if a light switch or outlet has 16A stamped on the back, would that mean it should not be on a breaker that exceeds 16A?

It is also perfectly suitable and common to use a layer of straw over the rock instead of a fabric.

Where might one find smooth drain rock? At building stores all I see is coarse rock for making concrete. I have seen little bags of ornamental round rock sold at landscaping places, but that would be cost prohibitive at cubic meter quantities.

Believe me I am asking around everywhere, but sometimes there is a genius online who has just the right information to make an even better decision.

Right now they are felling logs from a teak plantation a few kilometers from me. Medium size logs are 3000 baht w/ papers. Bigger ones the size I need are 6000 baht. They aren't going to have quite enough and the other problem is I haven't found anyone who can mill them. I don't have confidence a chainsaw operator can get square sides even given nice layout lines.

Mai Daeng is definitely impressive. Super strong and also cheap and I use it for some things. But don't like that dark look for this particular project.

I need to make an order for a teak house. Sawn lumber of specific sizes is needed with up to a 6x8” face and up to 6M in length. That rules out a salvage which is mainly planks. It also rules out just poles as I don't have a good way to mill them. The order involves over 70 large pieces plus lots of decking. Teak w/ papers is preferred but would consider other hardwoods if there is a price advantage. This is for Phetchabun province, but it can come from another province. Suggestions on how to go about finding someone to fill this order is appreciated.

Now, requirements vary due to soil types.

First off, great response. And yes, all soil is different and these differences are important. A soil percolation test needs performed at the site and the results used to design a drain field; this test takes just a few minutes with some water, a measuring stick, and a timer. You don't have to have super special soil per se because the rock in the drainfield creates a large surface area for microbial biofilm communities to develop. I believe that no matter what type of soil you have, there is always a better system than the small septic tank & concrete rings which is just a glorified waste container polluting the environment.

I am going to pack this paragraph with everything a person with imagination needs to know. Drain fields are wonderful. With a drain field, 40% of waste treatment occurs after your septic tank. Drain fields are shallow and have plantings over them to draw out the nitrogen. The typical Thai system of a pit of concrete rings does not meet minimum international standards. There is no secondary treatment of waste and concentrated waste seeps down and pollutes ground water. Septic tanks should also be properly sized. The ones you see at the hardware store are too small which reduces treatment and need pumped out frequently. They are also single chamber which further reduces treatment and can leak because they are designed to be cheap, not good. For comparison sake, the building code of Florida which has a comparable climate requires a septic tank of 3400L or LARGER based on usage. Moral of the story is you are throwing away many would-be benefits when you reach for that 800L unit at the hardware store and outlet into some rings.

In my observation you can either have a septic system thrown together by a high school dropout builder who has absolutely no knowledge or care about designing a suitable system which is the norm where even simple things like pitching pipes, venting, and cleanouts are lost on them. Or you are on your own to put together a properly engineered, proven system like those in use worldwide that do not need pumped frequently, treat waste effectively, do not pollute the ground water, and have a host of other benefits you can enjoy reliably.

Anyone know where the Tesco Lotus Extra is located?

Home Depot was mentioned for comparison sake. I don't believe there are any in Thailand.

That's good to hear. It might be worth mentioning that a Global House just opened in Phitsanulok Dec 1st. This outlet has a reputation of carrying very fine quality goods. I don't know about household goods but someone told me their tools are contractor quality. Should we be excited? I don't know, but hope have a look soon. Just when Phetchabun gets a Watsadu, we get one by upped by Phitsanulok the very next day!

I have learned a good amount of Thai over the years and can read and write and type though there is still much more I wish to learn. Learning Thai is like earning freedom. The more you know, the more freedom you get. Freedom to speak to anyone, freedom to order from any menu, freedom to watch any movie, freedom to be a bigger part of what is going on around you, freedom to achieve more. Too many freedoms to list and many locked doors are opened.

Learning Thai is not something you can just do and get out of the way. It's just too big and daunting for that. It is a gradual process. Take each small step up the ladder and notice it pays dividends and find inspiration to go further. At the end of the day, you've got to want it. It just won't happen by itself.

Just saying that compared to HomePro, Watsadu has the same items at better prices and also more types of products. I am not defending the poor quality and I myself prefer high quality goods. But since Watsadu opened I find myself rarely going to HomePro anymore and used to go there often. If I must have something of high quality I'll definitely look in HomePro first, usually be disappointed, then end up going to Bangkok or import what I need from abroad.