Foreverford

A chopped model A body, retrofitted onto a 49 ford (wrecked) chassis, with the V-8. Seating was a school bus bench seat. Never was street legal, but we traveled on dirt roads as we did not have a drivers license anyway. The Model A cost 35 dollars, the wreck was 100 and we burned enough rod that our dads told us to buy our own. Took two of us to afford what was a great play toy for a couple of years.

Hot Dog! now that's what I'm talking about. My grandma (Nonie) had a small farm and my uncle lived downstairs, and she lived above. The "Mighty Meserk" my 5'2'' uncle was a mechanic eventually at Lincoln Mercury near Stanford universirty and he had spent a good deal of his life doing just what you are talking about before that. Before the farm they lived in front of the Bay in San Francisco and my uncle was lucky enough to be born before the "Roaring 20's" and before his '29 Model A Ford with the rumble seat came down the line new . I guess it caught his eye, because well before the war while working doing roofing building and working in auto wrecking yards he finally got a used one and then the family moved to the country and a small farm. By the time the 50's started and i was learning my first steps (not quite rock and roll but at that time I did a lot of falling down) that baby blue Ford beauty was only known as "the roadster". Definitely by then the rumble seat had been welded closed and the biggest baddest big piped chrome grilled dual exhaust shot out from beneath that long sloped tail end. It had one red light in the back and when you hit the brakes it said stop in letters about 6" tall. That was the first and ''Only" hot rod in my life. I'm sure one of the first in the country.

When i was old enough to ask he walked me around and about it if I wished, "that's a 32 Auburn dash board" "29 Plymouth grill and radiator" he might say. the 16'' long "bycycle" fenders were choped off of some old car i can't remember, The hood was Chevy and the dozens of chromed louvres on the twin hood covers is what kept the chrome plated acorn nuts out of the weather. Yeah it was a pure hot rod Lincoln with a 1949 Lincoln Zepher flat head V8 with that monster over the top head held down by a bazillion big chromium acorn headed nuts. It was fitted to a (eeh gods i can't remember, now and may have to do some crawling on the ground again some day ) 3 speed on the floor; the rear end as all the other modifications came from the wrecking yards, and was from a Packard and was chopped to fit with a Columbia overdrive in the differential. There was a huge wooden steering wheel and a big red dice for the gear shift lever stared at you when you sat on the tiny two person blue leather hand made (his hands, on every inch of that machine) bench seat with a 10' chopped windshield topping it off that would only function if you took a bycycle racing stature in the seats. Beautiful fat spoked 1936 Kelsey Hayes red painted wheels held the rubbber that would keep it dialed in at speeds that must have approached triple figures in the days of old on new pavement.

The "mighty mezerk" lived to 94 and passed away a few years ago, my cousin took "the roadster" down off the blocks (my uncle mounted a fan on a bench to blow air into it cool it when he fired it up every so often) (hell it is still licensed but I never saw it on the road my entire life as the few times he took it out on the road and "blew it out" I wasn't around) and started fooling with it and got it rolling and after 55 years I finally got to ride in it.we got it rolling down the road lots of blue smoke when we pushed it (I'm in the passenger seat as not being 5'2'' tall I can't work the pedals too well) So it stayed low and slow on the road that morning, but a few more decades (or less) of a bit of care and some Marvel Mystery oil and heck we might just get that old Ford back out on the road and this time it's up into the mountains that surround this San Francisco Bay and maybe peak at some big redwoods. This is a Ford Forever

Man there are mushrooms growing on this site and no pun intended it's been pretty slow so let's hear from a few folks and describe a few of your favorite auto-machines (trucks tractors cars motorcycles, you name it). Maybe start with your first car and go from there. Just a little something to stir things up and see what people think. I catch a flight in about 20 minutes to head offf to see the hopefully biggest wild flower bloom in the last 1000 years in Death Valley on a full moon on the first day of spring. But to just touch on the subject my first was a 1930's model Cletrac track laying tractor when 10 years old (crank start). I bought my first car a 1963 Thunderbird low rider for 600 bucks. 1957 Cad Biaritz convertible was a bad ride my 37 REO Speedwagon Pick-up was very very rare. 62 Tbird convertible was a fine thing and my 60 T'bird did nearly 120 mph on route to a Dead Concert in Eugene Oregon. Hell the speed limit was 55 in those days so I rationalized that it wasn't worth getting caught for speeding unless you could at least double the limit. A lot of folks were a bit blown away seeing an old antique like that flying by and being nothing but in the rearview mirror for me. My 65 Ford 3/4 ton custom Omaha Standard factory installed Flatbed 4wd was as good as it got and got me up and down the Baja very well. But my favorite wasn't even a Ford (now can you believe that) but no time now I'll catch ya all later with a gator peace love and Fords Forever

bee you tee full

updates??

ef

father-in-law sold most for under 14 Hom Mali

That is an impressive piece of kit there IA. How do you dispose of the bleach water? Beats my tube and airstone set-up.

Regards.

why I JUST SAW THE BUBBLY THING AND DANG NAB IT IF HE DIDN'T EVEN FIGURE IN THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH AS HE HAS THE ABILITY TO LEVEL THE AEREATOR PIPES FOPR ANY MINISCULE VARIATION TO LEVEL. yOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING BUT NOT ME i SAW IT HE HASN'T FORGOTTEN TO THINK OF ANYTHING IN HIS OPERATION . jUST AMAZING TO SE3E WHAT HE HAS PUT together in a few years after a bit of well thought out plans. truly amazing asnd will end up being a textbook to raising hogs and anything else associated based on you name it as he has plans for a solar dryer just because he has a roof and can do it. I spent about an hour of intimate association with his hogs (yes and even with him as it is) and I only smelled hogs twice and just as a brief wiff in the air. This is something that can't be imagined as everybody knows within ten kilometers where the nearest hog farm is,...... normally. Truly a new experience I just spent a half of day planting my precious heirtloom tomatoes from Mexico and the US and I usede his compost from the hog manure and it was barely a week and a half old and I would not worry about putting it in my moutha nsd spitting it wher3e it needed to be but really it went into all the beds and then when i did the transplant all the holes wewre filled with the compoist and it was the most sweet smelling earth you could imagine. First class would almost be a derogatory term for this stuff. The Ford "Shooting Break" (how do you like that classification for that old clunker I came in, I/A) was filled inside and on the roof with his gloruious mix as I heade back from the land of war in Si Sa Ket towards a setting sun and i can't reccomend it more, it is what it is all about. Aussie Issan has got it going on too too good. Choke dee and Ford for me

Hi ForeverFord

I forgot to reply, I'm unfortunately neither sweet by nature nor by mouth. KHONWAN is to naKHON saWAN as KORAT is NaKOn RATchasima.

I think I could do with your driller chap paying me a visit but I guess he's a long way from me (can't recall where you're located).

Rgds

Ford-owning Sweet Dude

Boksida: thanks for the info – I'll check it out. Based on my Internet trawling, I reckon it should cost around US$125.

We're in Buriam aat the Surin Cambodia border. He is Actually drilling very nearby and said that the govt next year is going to require permits to put in wells (in our area at least but didn't ask details). I know he has journeyed at 500k to work but he is basically fully booked for life so I think he is just paying back old favors when he3 travels. I told the wife tyo ask him when he could put our last well in before permit time at the big farma and he saidf anytime we wanted (he seems to like us and we are rather close to his village so have many mutual friends) he would just have to tell a lie to whoever waas n ext in line. we originally booked him about 4 months in advance but were sdtill flezxible. Choke dee and a Ford on an open highway with the sun going down Forever

I think Khonwan could still be close to the problem regarding electricity supply, but the problem may be with frequency fluctuation. This is much harder to detect but can cause changes in pump speed. I would suggest to anybody putting a new pump that they look for a 3 phase one. Several manufacturers are now offering variable frequency drives which can convert single phase power to three, and the 3 phase pump can then operate at different speeds. This is usually set up to maintain a constant pressure. The fellow that told you that he adjusted a valve on your pump is probably bullshitting as usually the only valve at the pump will be a non return valve.

For Foreverford, I would think your opinion on your very, very good well man may need some rethinking. There are many companies in Thailand capable of performing pumping tests. It is a contractual requirement for most government and industrial supply drilling projects. Interestingly, one of the international leaders in this field is a Thai company. The economic reality is that none of these companies is probably going to be interested in testing a single domestic well in the sticks. You could do your own pumping test if you can maintain a constant flow rate on your pump. You will need to measure water levels at increasingly longer intervals throughout the test. A simple water level dipper can be made with twin flex electrical cable weighted with something like fishing line sinkers. The downhole ends have to be exposed but incapable of touching. When both wires are submerged, the electrical resistance will change and you can measure that with a simple ohmmeter. Practice in a bucket at the surface to see which scale gives you the best readings. Easiest way is to mark the cable at the static water level and measure the change from there with a tape. There also other ways involving tyre pumps, a gauge and plastic tubing but not as accurate. Interpretation of the test is done these days by anybody with the correct software but there is nothing wrong with plotting the results on semilog graph paper and doing it manually. Your nearest university may be able to help.

Telling you that inline restrictors here are not available is just pulling your pants down. Every reasonable size town in Thailand has a machine shop capable of making something like this. Brass might be the best as it is cheap, easy to machine and resistant to corrosion. You can also buy Teflon in various size cylinders which would also do the job.

Physical and chemical testing is mostly done in Bangkok, although most provincial universities with a geology/hydrogeology department will also do them. If you need the results on a regular basis, you might want to consider buying one of the simple handheld devices which will measure conductivity, TDS and pH.

Hey Bok buddy thanks for the response. I can do all the pump tests no problem but i want a good inexpensive water quality test and can't find them available yet to satisfy me. I ain't as simple as in California that's for sure. I'll invest a few bucks to purchase restictors that I can dial in immediately as I just don't have the time at this point to fiddle with making my own and they may come in useful in the future if tyhe circumstances changes. I can tell you my well guy is a wizard and dowses and quarantees water and does it for peanuts. He walked away fro a bunch of days of work on one of our domestic wells and decided to drill in another area and bingo beautiful clean and sweet tasting high flow water that is allowing us to use probley 50 times more water than we were able to use from the old and now abandoned well. Couldn't wish to find a better fellow and I guesws everybody feels the same as he is never wityhout work and has manaGED TO USE THE SAME RIG FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS WITH HE SAID ONLY ONE ACTUAL BREAKDOWn. good luck to all got ta get. it's a Ford for me

Does anybody know if I could run 2 pumps on the same watering system

Yes, you can run 2 bores/pumps into the same water line. Probably better to install additional check valves at the Y junction.

Thanks for your reply I think that is the way I will go

sorry i couyldn't reply sooner but running a bit hard now. I'm putting in a tank tower and will pump to it from the well and then run all my lines off the tank not the pump (or pumps in your situation with more than one well). You can have a booster pump or a "pressure tank system" to use from your stoerage tank if you need high pressure or high flow.

Hi Offset

Check your voltage at your control panel during peak flow and reduced flow times. If you are on a shared community transformer, you may be experiencing fluctuations in your power supply. Any reduction of voltage would decrease the power of the pump motor and hence water flow. Your description would certainly fit voltage fluctuation.

I too am having a problem with my bore…an insurmountable one (other than using multiple bores). I've now had 3 bores drilled at different locations on my farm (depths of 45m, 90m and 72m – all granite). The best of these was the 90m bore, which my driller swore would produce 5 m³ per hour and had me fit a 2hp Franklin. It didn't. It subsequently proved to produce 0.75 m³ per hour – 12.5 litres per minute. The pump produces 200 litres per minute at the bore head for the first couple of minutes until the initial column of water is used, then only 12.5 litres per minute reflecting the bore recharge rate. This rate does not meet my needs since I need 25 m³ per day to keep my pond topped up. Should I decide to make use of the meager flow I have, and run it 24/7, I'll have to buy another motor with the lowest rating (¼ – ½ hp ?) available. Using my 2hp motor for this flow would result in a complete waste of electricity and probably a much shortened motor-life.

Rgds

Khonwan

Hey Khonwan (sweet dude?) probably a darn good call on the voltage. Hurts to hear what happened to you with all your tries. It seems that tiny pumps in all three wells might at least give you some kind of return for all you have invested in the wells but still isn't going to fulfill your needs. I dug a klong almost completely around the 14 rai rectangular small farm and without it my leaky big lake would be an utter catastrophe. Hopefully bentonite might slolve the lake problem. I put in a Mercury 1 hp submersible in the farm well and a tank tower is going up next week and ultimately the desire is to use it to keep the lake and klongs full for irrigation and aquaculture so I will definitely be looking for the ability to run it 24/7 when I do pump. Pump down tests will be essential to really dial it in and to determine what size pump would be optimum. the bigger farm out nearer the border has lots of water under it, I believe, so i wasn't worried about buying a pump that might be a bit too big right now (hopefully it is too small) but so far i have pumped it for hours and the flow has remained very constant with beautiful sweet water but who knows what the head level is doing. I went around in circles trying to find someone who could do a simple water well test for a domestic well last year and got nowhere. the best i got was finally back to Bangkok and they said i had to specify exactly what i wanted them to test for (Flourine etc and a million other things at about 500 baht a pop for each, just ridiculous). I need some bentonite blocks to mash against my head to make it all make sense it appears. How can it be so difficult to get a domestic well water test? really? What am I missing here? Hopefully the next earthquake we get will shimmy the Jimmy and make a bunch of water just want to bust out of your wells. I'll tell you it was mighty pleasing when they hit water when they were drilling and it just started blowing out of the hole. choke dee sweet dude FF

It is available in Thailand,

although I don't remember the company source,

I sourced it via CemenThai HomeMart Chiang Mai

The lady at that office is Prae Weeraprachamate 081-952-9292

She speaks near perfect English.

It is not one of her standard product lines,

but she did a search and found it.

It comes in 50 kg sacks, and if memory serves correctly,

a ten wheel load of 300 sacks was the minimum order.

This is the Sodium Bentonite

the fancy stuff intended for well drilling, trench shoring, etc,

At that time, four years ago, the cost was B9 / kg.

After this much time has passed, she may not remember that she sourced it.

I buy bulk as mined Calcium Bentonite for B900 / ten wheel truckload.

At 15,000 kg that comes to B0.06/kg.

Soaked in water it absorbs water until a slippery grease.

I've line the bottom of one pond and it holds very tightly.

I applied it thick, but I'm sure far less would work just fine.

I happen to have 5 dumptruck loads standing by on the farm that I'm in the process of losing.

Should there be a steady market for it,

I'd gladly clean up the run of the mine material

so that it is also in powdered form in a nice clean bag.

The process of cleaning it up is simple enough,

Soak and periodically stir in a volume of water so that it forms a slurry,

which then allows any heavy solids to sink to the bottom of the vessel.

Then sundry on a plastic sheet, and hammer mill the shrunken tiles to dust.

If you simply dump the chunks of stiff hard clay as it comes off the dumptruck,

into the edge of the pond, it will absorb water and melt to slippery greasy slurry,

running down the side of pond bank.

Of course it will follow any water that is escaping, and eventually clog the porous gravel of the escape route.

If any are interested

I'll inquire what it takes to ship bulk loads to your location,

as a good friend is a truck company owner.

Calcium Bentonite as available here is also the stuff used as vegetable oil filter, skin treatment, and digestive tract cleanser.

Thanks much Edge of the Water. You sound like you have the stuff I need. In bulk is no problem as I can use chunks of it to beat against my head instead of my poor fists as the in-laws continue to astound me with their "unique" ways. I can do the "Shake" and the "Shimmy" with a bit of the "Funky Chicken" and the "Boog-a-lou" to get all the dust off and be able to use it in powder form. I PM'd you so hopefully we can get it together and will await your reply. thanks for the response and info. Bent Fords tonite Forever

Old Soi Doggy Dog has got it going on. I stopped by the other day and received some of his great hospitality (and a lot of his great food). What a cornocopia of gardening. He had about a thousand tomatoes started and trees and fruits and flowers and herbs from across the globe quite a botanical garden wonder. the highlight had to be the conversation my sis-in-law had with his daughter (about 11 years old). I saw them sitting in the shade of a small arbor near a herb planting area after dinner and they were in a deep discussion. Later I found out that she told Wari that her mom and dad grew the best food that could be grown (and she has that about right) and that she doesn't even really need to go to school anymore because she already knows what she wants to be and that is a very great chef. Obviously she has the will and talent that her folks have as they both are fantastic cooks and it is just great to see what a healthy and good lifestyle can do to influence the youth of our time these days. She made this decision now based entirely on what she has seen her mom and pop create and I don't think there is any outside influence to force her to want to follow this path. She sees a fantastic lifestyle and wants to continue it in a way that she feels will satisfy her,. Quite amazing and a real "good in the heart and soul" kind of story in the world today. Keep on keeping on doggy dog and a bunch of choke dee. Anybody ever see a Baobab tree growing in Issan before, well now I have! Fords Forever

My lake is leaking into an adjacent klong through the klong levee road that was damaged by my f-i-l 's fish trap a few years ago. I fixed the blow out but now have noticed that the lake that is on the other side of the levee road is leaking into the klong. I have heard of bentonite(sp?) that is used to fix leaks and I believe it is a form of clay in powder form and it is effective. Has anyone used this and is it readily available here in Thailand. Any other sugggestions that would be practical would be greatly appreciated. the leak is about 6-7 meters below the top of the levee road (dam for the lake). Forever in a Ford

I bought a 2nd hand tractor about 3 years ago. There was one 6610 in the area and work was easy to get at 350 to 400 per rai. My use was not for ploughing alone but as a wheelbarrow as well. I also didnt buy it to hire out, that was just icing. The tractor with FEL cost 200K and the plough, rotary and hill maker around 20-25 a piece. Mine is only a 1.3 litre 3 cylinder diesel and chews through about 3 litres per hour flat out. Today the scene is different, tractors everywhere, 250 per rai top dollar for anything. My tractor has a hydraulic pump problem that will cost 10K to fix. It can sit where it is at the moment.

If you have the hours for it to do, then buy it. But as Slapout says, else it is really a plaything. All hobbies have a cost, you be the judge.

If you want my opinion, hire first, do the maths, then if it makes sense, buy.

Isaan Aussie

Like I A says rent and observe. Then do the math. Is this a real money thing or do you want to play on a tractror, or do you have some custom stuff you want to have done your way. Otherwise rent rent rent for three years and see what you think with the equipment that is similar to what you want to buy. I assume you were talking new. IA can do work that a 6610 operator can't do because he knows his machine, the ground the moisture the final results he wants. the only problem with renting can be the inability to get someone to work when you really want something done. the other aspect is that you need to know how to operate or the rent rent rent idea will give you a chance to observe and learn. If you are a good mechanic and you can afford it i would recommend that after a few years of observing you would be ready to buy if you still feel it is prudent. Just a PS operating is and will always be rather dangerous, another reason to rent and observe first choke dee

Best guess while knowing nothing certain.

You may have debris clogging your intake in the well.

Suction will pull debris and hold it there,

then when the pump shuts off the debris is free to fall or float away.

It is unpredictable exactly how and when the debris comes to the intake

so each episode would logically be a bit different.

That is possible but the flow of water can go up from 40 to 80ltre per min as well as down and I would of have thought that any debris would stay while the pump is turned on

When the well was drilled the well company told some one what the capacity of the well was/is. If you exceed this amount you take a chance of collapsing the well walls or having to wait for the well to refill.

If you get water good flow and it is steady at 40 Lm you need to adjust the valve at the well head so you only pump 40 liters a minute. As wells get older they pump less water there is also the problem of many well added in the area lowering the water table.

Best to find a flow and set the flow with the valve and leave it.

Good Luck

I'm just starting to use a new well and there really isn't an understanding of how to test well capabilities here in Thailand at least locally. Other wells I've drilled in California we did what you call a pump down test and you put in a highflow pump and log your flows for a certain amount of time and then see how much "drop down" (the difference of the original height of water and where it is after a certain amount of time and flow has occurred) you get. Then every hour you record what the water height is until it reaches it normal level. Another test can be to try to pump at a certain amount over a long period of time to see if you have no "drop down" and then you can put a calibrated restrictor on your line and pump 24/7 if you choose.

This is what I am going to attempt to do. they don't seem to have the restrictors readily and locally available (word of mouth from my very very good well man) and since I am returning to the US shortly I am going to buy an assorted varied amount of them and then create an manifold with valves on it and just pump through each one and see at which flow I can pump continuously and go with that. it is a great time now for testing wells as the rainy season is long past and hopefully you can get a "worst case" reading that will work for you.

This is definitely a bit off subject but partially relevant and also do you have a multi-stage submersible pump or is yours an above ground FF

Such a Sad day, for my family.

Ed was a great person, a true gental giant.

ED will me missed by my daughter, who called him Mr Happy Man.

RIP MY FRIEND

a great fellow with an easy laugh the cremation will be Saturday, Supeen is doing well in the circumstances.

peace and love

Think I lost the real point of the thread somewhere, but here is my 2 cents worth on the difference of farming and or any small business in thailand and S/E asian in general. Here a man can make a living on his own bat, either farming or a small private enterprise. In The west free enterprise is discouraged by rules, regulation. taxes etc.I do rubber here, I could buy land in northern Australia cheaper than in Thailand [for rubber] We could work that plantation and make a resonable living, but regulations,taxes in many forms would make this type of enterprise impossible. This applies to everything you may want to try. I believe they are even charging farmers for water which they get from there own dams. You don;t even have the right to rain water. Wage slaves is what the west is all about, maybe well housed, fed and taken care off, but still owned by the system. Maybe I am on the wrong track here, but I see the same thing coming here as people sell there farms to larger and larger companies and those farmers end up working there own lands for wages. Jim

I think the point of this thread at this point is educating those who haven't farmed or worked intimately with farmers (accountants and income tax consultants a huge part of the picture). I'll "brag" that I've got 1500 years of experience in the farming sector on one side of my family and a bunch more on the other side. The small farmers that have been gobbled up by the monster corporations (Shell Oil, Dupont, etc,) went under on land that they did not even purchase. This was land that has been passed down through the family. I don't think you could find many handfuls of small farmers who actually went out and purchased the land that they farm on and were able to make their payments and purchase the supplies and equipment to set up 100 - 1000 acre farms and were able to make a profitable venture of it. there a re a few, very few, exceptions to this in the end of the 20th and beginning of 21st century in the US. It's a fact a very hard fact but if you want to choose to not believe it such is life. The small farm is dead except for the small niche of organic and "sell from the roadside stand" urban farms. My cousin in Italy had to go to a salary job and abandon our ancient farm with established wine grapes, olives and many many fruit trees. He was strong and innovative. He started some of the first kiwis in the area but even with those he just couldn't get past the middle men who seem to gobble up any profit marginds that you can try to attain. I created a one man business in the US and couldn't take any cash payments and I wanted to pay a million in taxes every year but couldn't even get close. I don't know how anybody can survive and pay his insurance payments and household exspenses let alone business costs and other fiduciary obligations by showing no profit on any small scale "one man" (farming, or my production company, etc ) business. Heck in California my effective tax was about 50%. What a thrill it would be to pay a million bucks in income tax I'd love it.

Wow there is a fellow on here that seems to have no love in his soul. I hope he someday discovers some of the great things about farming, such as the ability it gives you to forgive anyone or anything because some things are beyond our control and we have to live with them. Others aren't and we can choose which things are important and do all we can to forgive and educate the unknowlegeable so that they can have peace fun and happiness in their life. Good on all you regulars that are trying to help and inform the ignorant. And always remember one of "Forever's Foibles & Follies" ...... "Never use the word "idiot" unless you are looking in the mirror" Fords Forever!!

farming is a relatively thankless endeavor yet creates some of the most genuinely good people i've met.

we love ya brother

"Can't do without the one and strive to do without the other.

peace and love and Fords Forever"

Mr Ford !

Reading in between the lines of your first post, it was a difficult year in your neck of the woods !

Hopefully this one will be better for you.

Looking forward your wild Mexican tomatoes and I can definitely use some tractor induced remodeling advice; on a nice piece I am in the middle of acquiring.

Mango season coming up, busy taking care of my trees also just finished pulling about 30 rais of cassava with about another 30 to go.

From the back yard, it's a shot of some nice giant lemons for you.

Best regards.

sorry about the bad luck you are having with your lemons but it appears the only way you are going to keep those trees from comitting suicide and breaking off their branches is by picking the darn things and making juice (a yuk a yuka ha ha). I will try to PM so we can exchange phone #'s to get together.

Yesterday I decided to slaughter a spare gilt who was the fifth in a batch and as their new "Mum's" pen with four feeders is all but finished, she had to go. There had been promises to buy her from several locals but none had materialised for weeks, so into the truck and over to the butcher.

This time I thought I would try to get some loin chops out of the deal so set about sketching what was wanted. Peels of laughter for the two guys, "Same, same I do in Pattaya!" was the reply. Well the results are in the chiller under ice and it remains to be seen what the chops are like when everything is cooled down.

Last night was actually the first time I had been there to witness the fatal deed. Bag over the head, wait for the pig to lay down and go quiet, then cut the jugular. Not a peep from the pig. It was like she was asleep, amazing.

Isaan Aussie

Hey Norteno that is very very interesting I wonder what Fruity thinks of this method. First I've ever heard of it and sounds very interesting. We always went deep after shooting looking for the aorta but could see how a prick of the jugular could do what you said with a subduerd beast, very interesting senor. me

Think I lost the real point of the thread somewhere, but here is my 2 cents worth on the difference of farming and or any small business in thailand and S/E asian in general. Here a man can make a living on his own bat, either farming or a small private enterprise. In The west free enterprise is discouraged by rules, regulation. taxes etc.I do rubber here, I could buy land in northern Australia cheaper than in Thailand [for rubber] We could work that plantation and make a resonable living, but regulations,taxes in many forms would make this type of enterprise impossible. This applies to everything you may want to try. I believe they are even charging farmers for water which they get from there own dams. You don;t even have the right to rain water. Wage slaves is what the west is all about, maybe well housed, fed and taken care off, but still owned by the system. Maybe I am on the wrong track here, but I see the same thing coming here as people sell there farms to larger and larger companies and those farmers end up working there own lands for wages. Jim

I think the point of this thread at this point is educating those who haven't farmed or worked intimately with farmers (accountants and income tax consultants a huge part of the picture). I'll "brag" that I've got 1500 years of experience in the farming sector on one side of my family and a bunch more on the other side. The small farmers that have been gobbled up by the monster corporations (Shell Oil, Dupont, etc,) went under on land that they did not even purchase. This was land that has been passed down through the family. I don't think you could find many handfuls of small farmers who actually went out and purchased the land that they farm on and were able to make their payments and purchase the supplies and equipment to set up 100 - 1000 acre farms and were able to make a profitable venture of it. there a re a few, very few, exceptions to this in the end of the 20th and beginning of 21st century in the US. It's a fact a very hard fact but if you want to choose to not believe it such is life. The small farm is dead except for the small niche of organic and "sell from the roadside stand" urban farms. My cousin in Italy had to go to a salary job and abandon our ancient farm with established wine grapes, olives and many many fruit trees. He was strong and innovative. He started some of the first kiwis in the area but even with those he just couldn't get past the middle men who seem to gobble up any profit marginds that you can try to attain. I created a one man business in the US and couldn't take any cash payments and I wanted to pay a million in taxes every year but couldn't even get close. I don't know how anybody can survive and pay his insurance payments and household exspenses let alone business costs and other fiduciary obligations by showing no profit on any small scale "one man" (farming, or my production company, etc ) business. Heck in California my effective tax was about 50%. What a thrill it would be to pay a million bucks in income tax I'd love it.

Wow there is a fellow on here that seems to have no love in his soul. I hope he someday discovers some of the great things about farming, such as the ability it gives you to forgive anyone or anything because some things are beyond our control and we have to live with them. Others aren't and we can choose which things are important and do all we can to forgive and educate the unknowlegeable so that they can have peace fun and happiness in their life. Good on all you regulars that are trying to help and inform the ignorant. And always remember one of "Forever's Foibles & Follies" ...... "Never use the word "idiot" unless you are looking in the mirror" Fords Forever!!

Cite your source?

I don't get it.

Does the number of product labels have significance?

good question. This was from an article in the "Bangkok Post" or the "Nation". I think you're probably spot on in regards to labelling rather than individual chemical compounds, still a staggerring figue but definitely very believeable. I would imagine medicines in livestock would obviously be thrown in there also. This was an article in response to Thai produce recently having issues in Europe in regards to contamination with chems and also the shipping of infested products.

Here's a post I put on our organic site thought it would be interesting to all that don't read that forum. enjoy

Some new #'s have just come out on Chem usage in Asia. Here are the approximate numbers as I recall from an article a little while ago. Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia total together about 1000 different kinds of Chemical usage on their farms. Now for the big bad nasties of the world, China, they use over TEN times the amount of chems than those countries. Over 10,000 different kinds! Is it possible? Thank your lucky stars that we live in Thailand and don't have to eat the food produced from China (that's too often as a lot of the markets are selling Chinese produce now. Be careful but at least if you buy Thai foods you will know that they use nowhere near the amount of chems on the farms as the Chinese. they use only 23 different kinds. ooops typo there that is twenty three thousand different kinds of Chems in farming and that is not a typo. Bon appetite.

Some new #'s have just come out on Chem usage in Asia. Here are the approximate numbers as I recall from an article a little while ago. Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia total together about 1000 different kinds of Chemical usage on their farms. Now for the big bad nasties of the world, China, they use over TEN times the amount of chems than those countries. Over 10,000 different kinds! Is it possible? Thank your lucky stars that we live in Thailand and don't have to eat the food produced from China (that's too often as a lot of the markets are selling Chinese produce now. Be careful but at least if you buy Thai foods you will know that they use nowhere near the amount of chems on the farms as the Chinese. they use only 23 different kinds. ooops typo there that is twenty three thousand different kinds of Chems in farming and that is not a typo. Bon appetite.

I want to thank every contributer to this thread. It is, by a long ways, the BEST ONE ON THE FORUM. IA, you have the makings of probably the most informative and hilarious book ever for the aspiring falang immigrant. Taken as a whole, this thread in its entirety would make a terrific read for the outside world. Thank you all.

Re: animism - I posted this elsewhere a while ago in response to someone's question about mysterious rural explosions:

On the way to our village, we passed three fellows walking along the road and carrying what appeared to be musket-loaders.

"What are they up to," I ask Herself.

"Funeral," she says. "They shoot."

"What do they shoot, please."

"Ghost. Bad spirit."

Just one more thing I love about rural Thailand.

P

Peter,

Thanks for the support. We should all instantly join in and sing the Python song "Always look on the bright side of life" There is always a lighter side even to the frustrations of rural Isaan life, its just a matter of looking for it. The alternative can be very depressing. Writing it down with a little humour added makes many of my memories much more enjoyable.

Isaan Aussie

Howdy All I hope everything is good "Down On The "farm" Today " for all. It must appear everyone is as busy as me (tell the truth) and doesn't have time to share what it is. well what it is? as dey say. I definitely can't put it down at this attempt as I beat the sun and all the vendors to Kaesesart U Ag Fair this morning and off to change hotels and make a noon golf game (so busy?). This was an interesting year as we continue to improve the land (26 tons of chicken manure and 20 tons of cane ash along with multipile green manure crops in the off season for these old rice farms that ill soon not be just "old rice farms". Ducks hogs laying hens lots of mangoes nd lots more coconut trees along with hopefully tons and tons of bananas will see our ground in the esxtremely short future. This year itis more Pah Teung beans fo9r cover crops and seeds and then we intro9duce co9rn and pumpkins on a slightly large scale for feed ands sale. Yeah fruity i had to give up the idea of putting a train shipping line in to bring out all the frogs rtio sjhip to the Eifel Tower in Paris but still will try to bring on the survivors of your family that are living in the peaceful comfort of the hiomestead as the condos were washed off to some far away land as half of Cambodia came washing thru thiis year. I put in that huge pond you saw me digging and it's about 6 plus meters deep and then I ringed the entire plot on the farm you saw with a 2X2 meter klong so i think we will be doing more catfish and nile perch than frogs as i think profitability will be better (it cost a lot of money to lay down railroad tracks all the way to bangkok and either buy or make railroad cars, you never explained it that way when you guaranteed that the 3000 baht I spendt buying frog stocks was going to make me a multi bazillionaire.).

Guess i can't make this all in one paragraph so let;'s see where we start for the year. I think i may have left everybody with the rice being planted on the small farm (the newly to be irrigated) and rain falling the next day. Well it never rained again, much, many many people lost their entire plantings and without our fledging ability to irrigate we would have also but we survived the drought of 2010 luckily. Of course everbody in and around Buriram and korat know the rest of the story. we got hit with the 100 year floods later in the year (after getting the once in a lifetime floods about tjhree years ago). The "klong", we'd call it a river anywhere else as it is about 30 meters across on average and about ten meters deep got to flood stage and then finally came over my newly constructed 2 meter high "big levee road" ...got to go will continue but just for the records rice doesn't do well when it is under 7-8 feet of water for weeks on end. Choke Dee and if you own a Ford and can say Fore life is not too bad, peace and love me forever with Fords Don't go back

Oh My The taxi driver was 20 years old and from Issan but he picked me up after i got down from the Skytrain he saw I had my golf bag and i told him Bangkok Sports club ... golf... horse racing.......... gambling!!?? etc and only 1-2 km away. He said yeah I know ok and off we go. About a few more than a couple k and nothing looking correct I call my Thai buddy and he talks to the driver and he is going to the wrong racetrack and golf course andit's 30 minutes from the point he picked me up to get back to it again....... yeah I missed my tee time and had to catch them on the second hole but it just got better and better from that point on as we helped a good buddy celebrate his 50th birthday ? why Dr. HS Thompson is his role model i don't understand, but every so often it's time to persue similar literary and life patterns, fear not.

So where were we.... yes raging flooding rivers and torrents of Cambodia awash through the flats of Lavia (the village) and all earth and mass between atwixt and about. Water crested over the top of my "big levee road" but the levee held as it spilled over in a couple of places. I had monster excavator transports on this old newly renovated"bike and buffalo" path last year and obviously the Ford's work stood the test but unfortunately a bit further up stream the main government road and levee couldn't handle the flow and it spilled over and eventually blew it out in a couple of places and 100's of thousands of rai if not millions went under. It blew out my one and a half meter tall interior levee road systems as it ripped through in its initial surge. The weather was rather pleasant at the time in California as I was visiting with my mom. That ended access to the main farm for many many weeks as the ten mile detour upstream to get in to the back side around the river was impassable also. Good news was the other big farm planted much later out nearr the back side wasn't hit as bad and it could take the meter or so of water it was sitting in. All the people who cried as they saw their crops burn up in the earlier drought now could just look as their friends now took their turn shedding tears as their yearly income sat rotting in the flood waters.

We managed to get a crop from the main farm though it was completely under water for weeks (lucky it was "head-high" due to being able to irrigate thru the drought when the floods hit) and the crops at the other two farms came in much better. Nowhere near the 29 tons we have harvested in the past but 29 tons of the old methods equated to a 1/4 million baht loss. This year we will make a profit through all the adversity. I don't think it has as good a flavoras in the past but everyone who has had it for the first time thinks it is the best rice that they have ever eaten (Europeans Vietnamese and Chinese) but I think it may be time to try to find new seed stock. So now I am in need of some very serious help as the main farm has been operating for three years completely organically with no chems of any kind. With the flood waters on the farm will I need to go through another 3 year period of organic methods to be in line with all international certification standards? (I'll will base my conclusions on the standards that are set for the State of California under the USDA or the major body that dictates for the EU). As stated in my earlier posts the province of Buriram has no ability to certify organic though the neighboring province of Surin has an excellent organization.

I'm in Hua Hin and the final piece of the puzzle for the main farm should be put in today. A multi-stage submersible pump is going in the well and then we will have a year round water source to go with the lake and klong system that we have on the this 14 rai piece. I am going to expand the klong to completely surround the plot and also put in two more lakes. The box scraper on the Ford will haul all the topsoils out of these areas to the homesite at the main lake and to top off the irregularities in previous levelling of the the farm. The heavy clay sub soils I will put into place around the farm with the box and my newly adapted angle dozer blade (oh yes it can still rip with those big teeth i mount on it) and make the levee around the farm at least two meters and then i will raise the main levee road up another half a meter or so. At that point i don't think there can be a way that we can be affected by any water that isn't generated from within our property and then there can't ever be any question as to "is it really organic?". I truly believe aqua-culture could be a huge part of the future income of this old rice farm. As I have said before these levees will be the beds to plaqnt many different types of fruit and coconut trees that will also be above the flood levels (100 year floods included!)

The big and main farm are both in cover crops of pah teung that are getting close to be tilled under for green manure and we will leave some sections in the big farm for seedstock for replanting and sale. We started quite a few pumpkins in Dec and just transplanted them into the main farm and hopefully will have a bunch more and corn to be going in this year. I have quite a few different kinds of tomatoes (I'll really try hard to get over and see you in a little bit ol' Soi Dogger and hopefully I can turn you on to some wild Mexican tomatoe seeds and seedlings). We just finished constructing a 8x8 meter clear fiberglass roofed pole barn type structure in the homestead that we will use for an outside kitchen, solar hot water heater, worm composting facility, fish and frog infirmary, bar-b-que shack, and most importantly an all year rain free area to grow hopefully prize tomatoes. Ol Dogger I've got a bunch of heirlooms and they all seemed to germinate well but have been in flats since well befor xmas but it has been so darn cold I haven't even transplanted them as I don't think they are strong enough yet. Should be about perfect in a couple of days when i head back to the farm (Chinese New Year on the roads eeegodds).

I saw some rice straw floating in one of the klongs the other day and found one of the solutions to organic feed for the ducks and laying hens, snails. they were all over the straw that was floating and it reminded me of all the monster tennis ball sized snail we harvested off of the bottoms of the 55 gallon drums that we used to build the Hilton Frog Condos. I should be able to harvest tons of the buggers to feed them when they are young and it should be great protein and calcium for the entire life of the laying hens and another use for that nasty ol rice straw.

Well all I'm typed out for the day but just got a call from the wife and the seven stage pump is pumping like a jewell and she thinks the water tastes as good as it can get which is really good news as the water at the homestead is very hard tasting before we run it through dern near nuclear multi-filtering before drinking and selling it (1 baht a liter). So the first decade is over and we move on to the next of this millenia and it's still the same two words that dictate the way we will live, water and contamination. Can't do without the one and strive to do without the other. peace and love and Fords Forever

If you are worried about a few flies,

then perhaps Thailand isn't for you.

We do have flies

just like your home country has in warm weather months.

We just have no Winter, so you can see them 365 days.

Case by case basis of course.

No one could make one call for the many slaughterhouses of the whole nation.

Mae Sot now has a brand new sparkling slaughterhouse

while the old one it replaced was a sight to behold from the street

I kill my own livestock on the farm,

so I know the potential problems.

I have to instruct the men,

and then enforce what I told them,

because if I turned my back it would be done any sloppy way they please.

If I want the cuts to be recognizable I do the butchering myself.

because they will just whack the carcase in random pieces.

Their logic is, It's food,

you are going to cut it in tiny pieces eventually,

so how could the exact appearance matter in between?

I found it funny,

after I recovered from first being furious,

that an animal could be cut in such unusual ways,

because proper butchering is done according to the logical divisions of the body.

A carcase just wants to fall apart in an orderly fashion

It's not me doing it in the difficult outlandish way.

Never mind cutting neatly at bone joints...they have a machete to break right through bones.

My farm process is not fancy, it definitely does not look pristine,

but when the meat goes onto the ice,

it's been tidy every step in spite of the farm surroundings.

If someone was to see it all from the front gate,

they might be completely put off.

I'll eat from my own sooner than from someone else's.

So it is with a slaughterhouse.

It doesn't necessarily need a shiny roof with sparkling paint on the outside

Open air works about as well.

It's the attention to detail and speed,

getting the meat on ice in the shortest possible time.

What happens after it leaves the slaughterhouse is up to the market vendor.

Some markets have a separate room for meat.

Some of them are even air conditioned with strap curtains over the doors

Others have nothing but tables on the sidewalk,

with an old fan motor spinning plastic bags to give the flies frequent exercise.

If you carry the meat home and cook it well,

everything the fly left will be quite harmless

The other side of this answer is that the places that look darling

are not necessarily more sanitary

Consider that the most formidable microbes thrive in a hospital,

so imagine a pretty market room that isn't kept truly clean EVERY day.

You will potentially get just as sick from pretty meat as from meat with fly eggs visible.

Good News is that most meat in Thailand is sold the same day that it was killed.

Sorry I can't guarantee you that meat in Thailand would not make you sick,

but I've not been food poisoned here in 6 years,

with the minor stomach rumblings from nicer places.

At the slaughterhouse, I've seen animals that died on the truck,

or during unloading.

Soft pampered sheltered animals

who had apparent heart attack in the heat noise and cramped quarters.

Just failed to unload themselves from the truck.

One day two animals died while unloading from one truck.

The truck was contracted to a big name that everyone would immediately recognize.

They aren't separated from the living animals process,

just taken in first when the night slaughter team comes to work.

Nobody outside ever seems to know exactly how long that animal has been dead.

The holding pen stock handlers were not dismayed that multiple animals died.

It was all part of their normal day.

So would I rather eat from my messy looking farm,

or from the spiffy slaughterhouse going to a brand name cellophane package?

W.E,

Any ideas where I could obtain a captive bolt stun gun here in Thailand? I assume slaughter houses here will use these as a means of dispatching their subjects?

I would very much like to obtain a stun gun, which would be used exclusively 'on farm' when the time comes to say cheerio to sows that have served us well. In my opinion the most humane, stress free method.

Have found companies in the UK & States, however, I would think getting one brought into Thailand would be a nightmare?

Any ideas / info appreciated.

Cheers

Fruity

Howdy there Fruity Toot Toot

I think I'll get the bro-in-law on it and maybe we can make one out of an air cylinder and a bike pump or tap air off an air compressor (better). I think something about the size of cherry tomatoe would ber about right size and then have some sort of safety cabling on it so it can't travel more than 3-4 inches out of the device. Don't know if blundt ended (flat) would be better than rounded ball-like but we can talk about it mybe next week.

Interesting thing about this is when i had my hogs in Monterey County in California my budddy and I did all our own slughtering and then had the carcass worked at the local farm butcher. Man could he make sausage and bacon. Still the best I have ever had. Anywho the first litter it was time to start the process and I took out the old Iver Johnson 8 shot 22 pistol my Unc had given me (what a useless thing it was, as all hand guns basically are) to drop these guys. Now I've been on the runway of a wild charging boar in the mountains of Northern California and the boar didn't win this one but it was 102% total luck that I'm still here today but that's another story, so I finished off a few wild and domestic things in my day up to a few huindred kilos in the ocean and on land and quite a few in the air. Anywhoo again, without sounding repetitive, so I babied over one of my litlle sweethearts into the far reaches of the old barn and figured what wouold be best spot and put a "long rifle" into its skull as my buddy waited with the "sticking" knife. Well there was no big boom bang and goodbye, the hog squealed and gesticulated more than when i got it high on good old homemade sourmash that I was raising them on (and truckk loadfs of brussel sprouts) and dang nab didn't stop umntil it was compleely bled out. Like you talked about good buddy I felt devestated that I had made one of my "babies" suffer so much because i couldn't place a bullet in the correct spot (I heard the stories of guys bouncing shotsof the skulls of wild charging boars because they didn't factor that long sloping snout skull). After dressng it we were going to take it to the butcher and I decided i wanted to split it and see how my bullet missed its target. The brain of a "market"hog is about the size of an egg (and probably a lot more intelligent than a humans in most cases) and when I split the skull I found that the bullet had travelled straight through the center of the brain cavity and basically bisected the brain in the longest way possible. there couldn't be a better way to put them down with the weapon we had. This s has always been an issue for me here as i am sure the fami8ly wuill have nothing to do with this process so the idea of having a stun gun that will drop them without the wild flailing and screaming will be a good thing. peace and love and an old Ford Tractor does wear out but definitely not as fast as this old Ford operator

So where the H>E>L>L have you been FEF? By the way, I despatched my eldest boar yesterday at 330kg. He is delicious!

Well hey buddy I've been around and a square but just doesn't seem to be enough time in the days for what it is all about almost put two 46 hour days on the farm and tractor in a matter of a week . My oh my am I getting too old for this stuff but almost got the master plan finished but will update ya when i get a chance at "on the farm" when I continue my last post. peace and love me

I want to thank every contributer to this thread. It is, by a long ways, the BEST ONE ON THE FORUM. IA, you have the makings of probably the most informative and hilarious book ever for the aspiring falang immigrant. Taken as a whole, this thread in its entirety would make a terrific read for the outside world. Thank you all.

Re: animism - I posted this elsewhere a while ago in response to someone's question about mysterious rural explosions:

On the way to our village, we passed three fellows walking along the road and carrying what appeared to be musket-loaders.

"What are they up to," I ask Herself.

"Funeral," she says. "They shoot."

"What do they shoot, please."

"Ghost. Bad spirit."

Just one more thing I love about rural Thailand.

P

Peter,

Thanks for the support. We should all instantly join in and sing the Python song "Always look on the bright side of life" There is always a lighter side even to the frustrations of rural Isaan life, its just a matter of looking for it. The alternative can be very depressing. Writing it down with a little humour added makes many of my memories much more enjoyable.

Isaan Aussie

Howdy All I hope everything is good "Down On The "farm" Today " for all. It must appear everyone is as busy as me (tell the truth) and doesn't have time to share what it is. well what it is? as dey say. I definitely can't put it down at this attempt as I beat the sun and all the vendors to Kaesesart U Ag Fair this morning and off to change hotels and make a noon golf game (so busy?). This was an interesting year as we continue to improve the land (26 tons of chicken manure and 20 tons of cane ash along with multipile green manure crops in the off season for these old rice farms that ill soon not be just "old rice farms". Ducks hogs laying hens lots of mangoes nd lots more coconut trees along with hopefully tons and tons of bananas will see our ground in the esxtremely short future. This year itis more Pah Teung beans fo9r cover crops and seeds and then we intro9duce co9rn and pumpkins on a slightly large scale for feed ands sale. Yeah fruity i had to give up the idea of putting a train shipping line in to bring out all the frogs rtio sjhip to the Eifel Tower in Paris but still will try to bring on the survivors of your family that are living in the peaceful comfort of the hiomestead as the condos were washed off to some far away land as half of Cambodia came washing thru thiis year. I put in that huge pond you saw me digging and it's about 6 plus meters deep and then I ringed the entire plot on the farm you saw with a 2X2 meter klong so i think we will be doing more catfish and nile perch than frogs as i think profitability will be better (it cost a lot of money to lay down railroad tracks all the way to bangkok and either buy or make railroad cars, you never explained it that way when you guaranteed that the 3000 baht I spendt buying frog stocks was going to make me a multi bazillionaire.).

Guess i can't make this all in one paragraph so let;'s see where we start for the year. I think i may have left everybody with the rice being planted on the small farm (the newly to be irrigated) and rain falling the next day. Well it never rained again, much, many many people lost their entire plantings and without our fledging ability to irrigate we would have also but we survived the drought of 2010 luckily. Of course everbody in and around Buriram and korat know the rest of the story. we got hit with the 100 year floods later in the year (after getting the once in a lifetime floods about tjhree years ago). The "klong", we'd call it a river anywhere else as it is about 30 meters across on average and about ten meters deep got to flood stage and then finally came over my newly constructed 2 meter high "big levee road" ...got to go will continue but just for the records rice doesn't do well when it is under 7-8 feet of water for weeks on end. Choke Dee and if you own a Ford and can say Fore life is not too bad, peace and love me forever with Fords Don't go back