islandguy

Call my neighbors (English). When a rain came and the frogs started they came and removed the frogs in the night from our very small pond (near their bedroom but not mine) without asking. Made me appreciate the American Revolution even more! And yes, those frogs can be very loud. Eventually we filled in the pond (only a garden feature) because the frogs were attracting snakes. Before that there were some large fish in the pond and no frogs.

Heard of three years a while ago. Was with a particularly well connected agent and rather small consulate. Didn’t see passport myself, but think it was true.

4 minutes ago, ChiangMaiLightning2143 said:

Like the pungent people I saw , who were driving back after their time at Burning Man.

Yes

I few years ago at Kuala Lumpur airport was joined in a queue at Immigration by a group of pilgrims returning from the Haj. They were probably middle class, certainly not rich. My impression was that they had stayed at basic accommodations in a harsh desert setting (based on their physical appearance and state of their clothes). Of course we know Mecca is located in a harsh desert, but unlike most of you, i grew up in a similiar climate. Many in the group had a dry, hacking cough, without any other evidence of illness (in this group). Desert air and desert dust and sand tend to have that effect. 

Thankfully, I don’t know lol

The picture is from the transformer station near the snake farm, still the same yesterday

I asked my landscaper, who is a tree transplantation specialist, to try to find me a loquat sapling. He found one, and it is doing nicely. This was in the Chiang Mai area, but hopeful for you that they are commercially available in Thailand. Agricultural fairs usually have nursery businesses selling saplings of new and unusual trees, especially fruit trees. Did you grow the ice cream bean and rolina trees from seed, or find them here for sale?

Heartening to see some improvements in the elephant tourism sector. There are some competent and compassionate Thais involved (thank you K. Lek) and more and more tourists are choosing not to patronize the more exploitative businesses. At least the elephants who would have been discarded before can have a better lifestyle with a way to generate revenue to pay for their care. No way to release them into the wild, that ship has sailed. 

Good to remember that most of the employees we deal with domestically at BA are competent and service minded. We even have had late luggage delivered directly to our door after arriving on next flight. Overall company policies are what the poster is upset about.

Thanks, I’ll double check

Had mine for years. Love the old enamelware. Not watertight for soup and curries, so you need to be careful. Can also get locking Japanese steel bento containers with a gasket that are watertight.

Thanks for the suggestion, love the website. Sadly, no indigo (except as a color description for tomatoes). Out of curiosity, how do you do with these seeds in Thailands climate?

My wife is interested in indigo dyeing and we have space to grow indigo. Seems like it could be a good crop for agro tourism in conjunction with on site classes in dyeing and dye production to me. Anyone know where to get seeds for either Japanese indigo or SE Asian varieties? When is the best time to plant? I was thinking best for us would be the season before the rice crop (January to April) but have room to do it on another part of the property at any time.

We have a design based on the King’s principles. Overflow from a pond goes down the ditch, winds around some trees on a raised level, and then encircles a 15x25m area with rows of trees planted. Since we have year round irrigation available it is not quite the same situation. This ditch is not sealed. However, the water that flows in is going into the ground, including near the trees, which are doing well in their second and third years. Water flow is turned on some of the time, off some of the time. If you seal the ditch, only water going over the seal will be going into the soil. So I would say getting a pond that holds water, and then if the pond is far from the trees to seal part of the run to the trees would be the way to go. Getting the water to flow where you want it to go is a whole other question. For low cost, I would go with straight clay to seal pond. We tried clay impregnated liner, which didn’t work, than converted to plastic liner for upper ponds. A separate lower pond hit the water level and keeps water year round without a liner.

All the ferry services provide this. Many prior postings with details. I recommend Lomprayah. Note: short connection times at airport not a problem in practice.

And yes, it is quite possible that we will need to pull some bioengineered rabbits out of our hats to get through this, but don’t put too much faith in your interests being coincident with the very large companies behind this, especially here in Thailand.

8 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

 

Your post still has some problems.

 

 

Firstly, glyphosate has been off patent for 18 years.  Numerous companies make pesticide-tolerant seeds.  I am curious as to why you're particularly annoyed by Monsanto's trademark.  

 

 

Okay, and?

 

To bring this back to the topic as best I can, people who bemoan the application of pesticide to crops need to explain what else farmers are going to use if glyphosate formulations go away.  Shall we go back to the days of DDT?  Urea?  Lead arsenate (yes - they actually used a lead-arsenic compound on crops that people are supposed to eat).  These legacy pesticides are hundreds or thousands of times more toxic than glyphosate.

 

It might not sound like it, but I'm very concerned about the environment.  I heavily criticize my Thai inlaws for tossing batteries into the garbage.  I have set up composting bins behind the house and showed them how to make compost, to their utter delight.  People who know me personally have called me a tree-hugger, although I think that's a stretch.  I want farmers to use a little pesticide as possible. Where it's needed, I want them to use the safest, most environmentally-friendly one available.  If you think the farmers of the world are all doing it wrong, then you tell me: which pesticide should they use?

And your post likewise has problems. Transgenetic cotton with BT genes doesn’t sound so bad, but why not use BT in the soil? The bigger problems that concern me are the deceitful, harmful, and very monopolistic practices of the agribusiness giants, which work against the interests of consumers and farmers. On the island of Kauai, which is where I used to live, their political dirty tricks (midnight legislative initiatives at the state legislature to disempower the local county rulings on disclosure, impressive sounding experts in their employ, endless lawering) were employed in full force. For once, it was a community with a lot of local resources to combat the myriad ways that big business can exert its will upon the political process. These seeds are patented, even if the pollen from them drifts into your crop of original varieties, they can and will sue you for patent infringement for planting the seeds you grew yourself from your land. Ensnaring the farmers with cheap loans and advances only to find out (like my neighbor here in Thailand) that your soil gets so depleted and lifeless that it won’t grow much anymore and that every year you need more and more chemicals that cost more and more. Here in Thailand there is also a widespread lack of understanding of what is considered by proponents to constitute safe use (estimates here in Thailand are that farmers often use 4 times recommended dosage), health problems like necrotizing fasciitis (thread on TV)......

While your point about the impossibility of growing enough food organically makes sense on the face of it, if we poison the environment past a certain point we will be having to grow our food inside because the outside will be in such bad shape. We need much better answers than trusting agribusiness and the politicians they have co-opted to make considered decisions that help farmers and consumers.

One positive change locally would be to use corn stalks to make silage. This is chopped up corn plants that are then fermented and fed to ruminants (cows and other animals with multiple stomachs). Unfortunately it doesn’t work for pigs, and takes a lot of work/space/machines. Instead, the corn stalks have become one of the major sources of the annual smoke crisis up North.

I was referring not to what you are calling Bt corn, but to what Monsanto markets as ‘Roundup Ready’ crop seeds. They test these where I used to live. I stand by my post.

17 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

That is great news, because it means zero pesticide applications on the crop.

 

GMO corn is designed to withstand huge amounts of toxic and expensive applications of pesticides/herbicides rather than not needing any

I will be moving to Chiang Mai next year and wanted to get some first hand advice about changing my business location. What are some of the pros and cons of keeping the business and changing the province versus shutting down the business and starting a new one? There are other factors involved, but this question seems one some Thai Visa members may be able to knowledgeably comment on. Thanks for any helpful replies.

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

That looks like an earthbank dam so my thoughts are any overflow at the top is very likely to start cutting its own channel in the dam. If that starts then I have no idea how it could be stopped.

As I admit I'm no expert on dams and those are just my thoughts. 

Water is the expert at finding any weak spots.

If true, sounds very alarming. Anybody there have information on this? Reminds me of the coverage of the 2017 Orville dam spillway problem, which fortunately ended well but caused great concern at the time.

I affectionately refer to my 4 door 4wd truck as my ‘motorcycle helmet’.