OOTAI

It has been my experience that there are a lot of people who want to buy the land but none with the money needed to actually buy it.

Then as for the price, I believe it works like this Person #1 tells person #2 that they just sold there land for xxxx baht

So person #2 then adds 10% or more to their price so they can brag later that they got more than person #1.

And then they will never come down as that might mean they were wrong about how much they thought it was worth.

In the end it is only worth what someone pays for it, but remember that once a piece of land is sold what the person selling it says they were paid for it is probably very inflated.

Once I was with my wife and we inspected some land that was for sale and they wanted 1 million baht for it, I don't remember how much land it was but anyway we offered them 600,000 and they moaned and groaned but when they realised we were walking away they said OK but on 1 condition and that was that we never ever told anyone what we actually paid them for the land. In the end we passed as it was too difficult as it was part of a larger family plot and if you are not part of the family they can squeeze you out or at best make it very difficult re access etc.

kickstart

I don't know where "here" is but the price here (Buriram) has been 600 per rai for the past 3 years and we have been doing harvesting for the last 6 years.

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

Good looking setup you have there.

Was the price for a set of tracks and was fitting included.

Would be a pain in the preverbial if the track snaps in a boggy field.

farmerjo

The price was for just 1 track and it was fitted by the guy who operates it with help from the truck driver.

It was done insitu luckily there had been no rain for a while so the ground was not really muddy but it is still a pain in the butt job.

The missus has all that gear but I told her she will never get all the money spent back so just forget what has gone and take easy on the equipment and make a bit of cash each year.

If you flog it trying to make a killing like I see with contractors then the harvester is wrecked in a few years and maintenance costs are high.

The idea of her buying it was so we didn't have to wait in line each time for our rice to be cut. They say "we'll be there tomorrow and eventually a week later they turn up.

My missus and the guy who operates the harvester share the money made after taking out the costs.

Her brother drives the truck.

So they offer a total package of cut and deliver.

The problem is the Govt is their wisdom have frozen harvester charges for the past 3 years since they started paying a subsidy for it.

Airbagwill

Good post (#117) above.

If you ask most (if not all) drivers, "Are you an above average or below average driver?" and they will answer "above average" which is impossible as by definition 50% must be "below average".

When people ask me, I usually reply, "depends on the day and my mood at the time."

There are times when I am as bad as the worst out there.

As for your reply to my previous port Airbagwill it was a bit deep for me to comprehend.

I really don't mind driving here but it can be stressful at times due to other drivers doing stupid things.

Whenever I want to waste an hour or so I watch "Bad Driving Thailand" on YouTube, there are some amazing things captured on dashcams these days.

12 hours ago, saengd said:

I'm not sure about the numbers. This study says average farm size is 4.51 ha, that's 2,812 rai.

 

http://www.fftc.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110726143050&type_id=4#:~:targetText=The average farm size in Thailand is 4.5 ha.,income to the farm household.

 

(see scale of agricultural production).

I don't know where you got those figures from but;

1 rai = 1600 square metres

1 hectare = 10,000 square metres

So 4.51 ha = 45,100 square metres = 28.19 rai

I am assuming 2,812 is 2 thousand eight hundred as you have used the decimal point in the 4.51 ha, I believe Americans use the comma instead of the decimal point sometimes but even then it would be incorrect.

How does an ant eat an elephant, a bite at a time!

My advice is that you are the only one who can decide what it is you want to do. However saying that don't over commit too soon.

I came to Thailand for a holiday nearly 20 years ago met a girl and we are still together today.

I tell people that at the time I was in lust and she (I believe) seen an opportunity for perhaps a better life anyway it has worked out well for both of us.

I think the main thing I did was get her to come to my home country as a tourist for 3 months to stay with me when I was in my work environment not in the holiday mode. It was an eye opener for her and she realised that while it might have appeared that I had money to spare on holiday at home I was not a "rich" man.

We have now been married for over 17 years and get along fine even though I am now retired and at home all the time. 

djayz

Don't be a spoilt sport just make a plan draw it up and make a couple of copies then get your Missus to explain to the "builders" what you want and give them 1 copy of your drawing.

Now go away enjoy yourself and come back and be surprised. Surprised that you got what you wanted or how they stuffed it up. If you want to survive here you need to not take things seriously or it will do your head in.

I have a motto, "just keep banging the head against the wall" it will stop hurting one day.

Good luck with the chicken coop.

djayz

You didn't say how thick the guy left the sludge when he spread it out. If he left it nice and thin then I reckon you could simply plough it in. If however he left it quite thick then I would suggest you get in and break it up and spread it out a bit more before ploughing it in.

As with most of the rice paddies here the mud he dug out would be fine material which when it dries becomes almost like concrete. Also as it is so fine there is no spaces between the soil particles for plant roots to grow into and for water to drain through.

So as I think was suggested by kickstart get as much organic material as you can find i.e. rice straw, cow <deleted> etc. and mix it in with the mud.

I was amused by your statement about never getting what you think you asked for in this place. When we were building our house I designed a tank stand for 2 x 2000L tanks had to be able to stand up under the 4tonne of water and every morning when I checked I would have to do a revision to the design because they hadn't done what I had asked. The when they were building our outside toilet/washroom I told them what length the posts needed to be and showed them my plan drawing. When they put them in they made a great joke about how I had got it wrong and they had to cut the tops off the tops. I bought out the plan and showed them that they had put the posts in the wrong place, no more laughter.

I don't have any symptoms that you describe but a few years ago I had numbness in my arm which turned out to be from a nerve that was being "pinched" in my neck.

Anyway I went and had an operation in Singapore which fixed the problem.

So if you are not happy with the Doctors you are seeing in Thailand then maybe a visit to Singapore would be beneficial. If you have the financial means for that and good International Health Insurance I would recommend you visit there.

If that is something you would think about doing let me know and I will post the details of the Neurosurgeon, he is (in my opinion) brilliant and a world leader.

5 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Non septics  !! ????

That's not true, I am an Aussie and have never called them anything but "crosswalks".

When I read a thread like this it reinforces what I thought and that is the people who should do the TM30 reporting don't or aren't i.e. hospitals, landlords, hotels etc. 

And then the people who pay are those that weren't reported i.e. Expats wanting a Visa extension.

So why does everyone say its stupid, I think it is an ingenious system for Thai Immigration.

To the OP

I would be careful with your dates as October has 31 days and therefore if you come in on the 8th Sept. 60 days will be up 7th Nov.

19 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

I have a girlfriend in Surin, Buriram and Korat and they are all reporting rain.

Greedy <deleted> leave some for the rest of us!

A couple of months ago I took a friend with me to Immigration, I was doing my 90 report, and he wanted to ask about a Non-O Married Visa. He had entered Thailand 3 days previously on a Visa exempt entry.

I must say that he had been here many times in the previous years but always on short term Visa's.

He was told if you want you can apply now so he did and within less than 3 weeks he had his Non-O Visa stamp in his Passport. So you can do it, not sure if there was tea money involved as he never said anything to me about that.

But what he did have was a bank account in his name (solely) and over 400K well seasoned in there.

So I would expect that your main issue is not having the money "seasoned" in your bank account.

My suggestion to you is to transfer the money from your girlfriend's account to yours and then delay your arrival for 2 months so it can become "seasoned".  Alternatively come for a short tern visit get organised and then go home and come back.

I remember back to when I first took my wife (not married then) to Australia and we were having a conversation about Thai food and I said to her, "Only 1 thing wrong with Thai food>" She immediately said let me guess, "not enough meat". Another time we were having lunch and we ate a whole chicken between us, she says to me, "if I told my Mum that we had just eaten a whole chicken, she wouldn't believe me."

So I believe that the amount of meat is a economic consideration, i.e. most can't afford a lot of meat.

As for me I eat just about anything but so far have refused frogs, rats, snails, ant's eggs and lots of other Thai fare.

My wife (of more than 17 years now) is a fantastic cook and when we were living in Australia people were always asking her when she was having the next dinner for friends.

When I went to work in Indonesia she asked me what the food was like, my reply, "Its OK."

Her reply, "It must be awful because you would eat <deleted> and say its OK."

Nowadays I use the comment I learned from an American friend, his response when asked, "what's the food like?" was, "It'll make a turd!"

My question is: Why would a person who is applying for a visa extension be fined and have their application refused because their landlord refused to submit a TM30. As I understand the section 38 law it is not a tenants responsibility to submit the TM30. How do you make a Landlord (Thai or not) submit the TM30 if they don't want to?

Also is there another form (TM28) that is supposed to be submitted by the "foreigner"? If this is the case then if the TM28 has been submitted by the "foreigner" the Visa extension application should be processed and a visit made to the Landlord by the Immigration police and him/her fined, not the tenant.

When I have had CC's sent from Australia to me in Thailand I have used DHL, yes it costs but I can track it.

I always have my Thailand address in/on the package in both English and in Thai.  The English address gets it out of Australia and the Thai address gets it to the right place here. Usually less than a week door to door.

If as stated by Govt. sources the need/justification for to TM30 is National Security then the reporting needs to be done by Thai's as for anyone else Thailand's security is irrelevant. So once they start enforcing the need to report onto the Thai landlords then I might start believing that BS. Why should a "visitor's" Visa be refused because someone else failed to do their National duty?

Asking or relying on someone who is a risk to National Security to voluntarily report themselves in my opinion would be the same as putting criminals in charge of the Police stations!

Brunolem in Post #43 said

“Things change, but I think it has more to do with staff changes than political changes.  

Thailand employs a huge number of public servants, among which lots of police officers and affiliated.  

And these people rotate... a lot! 

What happens is that the freshly nominated little or big chiefs want to show a difference, that they are tough guys, tougher than their predecessor.”

WWest5829 in Post #49 said

“Hmmm, observations of stricter enforcement are valid and a bit threatening to our status but it does make me pause to reflect. Higher feelings of nationalism and anti-immigrant feelings have been rising in many of our home countries for some time. While it wrinkles me, as I am a great guy, it should not surprise any of us that Thais are also being caught up in the current global outlook. I fear we are just not too accepting of ”law enforcement” and ethnocentric thinking when it is focused on us."

I have a laugh everytime I read about people here complaining about laws being enforced as most also say that the police should enforce the law, especially in relation to improving driving habits here. I think what Brunolem said about "new" chiefs is also relevant in regards to the "crackdown" on TM30's

When I first came here over 20 years ago I likened it to the wild west as you could just about do whatever you liked and at worst pay a bit of cash to solve the problem. Now when Thailand is starting to enforce laws, albeit in their own way, some people are not happy.

I see it as a choice between living here in a police state or going back home to live in a nanny state. I have never been asked for my Passport aside from for Immigration purposes. Last year I went to get a Thai drivers licence and the lady said to me no need just use your Australian one, I got stopped not long after and the head of the roadblock says "no good you need IDP". So now I have a Thai licence. My only real complaint is that it always costs a little bit of money to learn the "rules".

By the way I always carry my Passport and credit card so if needed I can leave in the time it takes me to get to the airport.

Never....

I am no expert so you can take or leave my advice/ideas however you want.

I believe that using a mulching mower means the cuttings stay there and act as a moisture retention layer, something which I think is critical in the current dry spell (I live near Nang Rong in Buriram) so its probably the same as far as rain goes.

As for watering everyday versus soaking twice a week. I believe everyday watering results in the grass only developing shallow roots as they always get a little bit of water near the surface everyday.  Soaking I think makes the roots go deeper as the surface dries out over a day or 2.

As for fertilising make sure you water well immediately after applying the fertiliser so it dissolves down past the grass "leaves" and into the ground for the plants to use.

If I might ask, are you an Engineer?  The symmetry and straight lines in the garden suggest to me that you are.

I am an Engineer so maybe that's why it appealed to me.