Oils Ain't Oils

[xerostar]

I've just come back from our farm shed and I'm hopping mad!

Yesterday I was complaining to our Thai teenage boys about some oil they had spilled on the farm shed floor.

They had drained their motorbike oil into a cut-down 10 Litre oil can (lying on its side).

The oil had leaked out over the floor in a 2 square foot puddle.

The dog (with white fur) thought it was water and lay down in it (perhaps thinking it might be a cool spot).

The dog then proceeded to lay down in different spots on our verandah, against the wall and

left dirty black grease stains everywhere!

That made me real mad and I had the boys (grudgingly) cleaning up!

Talk about ATTitude! Teenagers!! Bahh!!

To top that off ..

Yesterday we had the service guys from Kubota turn up to do a major service on the tractor.

It was news to me as nobody tells me anything around here!

This morning I discovered the terrible mess they had left behind!

They had used a large plastic tub and various plastic buckets to drain about 100 Litres of oil out of the tractor.

A lot of it had spilled on the ground with half empty oil filters scattered around.

The tub of oil was still where they had left it.

I could not believe it!

I immediatley found an old 44 gallon drum and ordered the boys to put the oil into the drum.

I had to get a funnel because they didn't think you needed one!

I had supplied the drum last year when I was here, but nobody had bothered to use it.

It had been used as a scaffold support instead.

I ordered them to dig up all the oil-soaked earth around where the mechanics had worked and put

it in a wheelbarrow together with the old oil filters.

The only choice was to take the oil soaked earth and filters to a spot where we burn rubbish and

hope that we can burn the residue out of the soil before it soaks down into the watertable.

Our water is supplied from a bore (drinkable quality) and I tried my best to explain that

if they continued to spill oil then sooner or later the drinking water would start to taste

like oil and eventually the polluted water would kill all the plants as well.

I also explained that when the drum is full we can take it to an oil recycling factory and by all

rights we should expect payment.

They obviously have no idea about the price of oil or anything about pollution!

I told them never, ever, spill oil like that again!

The next time those sloppy Kubota mechanics turn up they will get a piece of my mind!

Even though I don't speak much Thai, I think the tone and volume of my voice will convince

them I'm not going to put up with that sort of irresponsible work around here!

Every drop of oil will go into the drum and not on the ground!

The national Kubota company are going to get an earful of my complaints too!

How can they just leave a large volume of oil for ignorant farmers to dispose of!

Probably down a hole in the paddock or into some convenient klong?

If this is happening all over Thailand then God help them!

They are ruining this beautiful rich earth that also happens to provide their only means of living!

Anybody else had this problem or know of an oil recycler?

How can we educate the service companies and the tractor owners?

I can put up with sloppy plumbing and dumb electrical installations but this oil problem is just too much!

[c64]

I've just come back from our farm shed and I'm hopping mad!

Yesterday I was complaining to our Thai teenage boys about some oil they had spilled on the farm shed floor.

They had drained their motorbike oil into a cut-down 10 Litre oil can (lying on its side).

The oil had leaked out over the floor in a 2 square foot puddle.

The dog (with white fur) thought it was water and lay down in it (perhaps thinking it might be a cool spot).

The dog then proceeded to lay down in different spots on our verandah, against the wall and

left dirty black grease stains everywhere!

That made me real mad and I had the boys (grudgingly) cleaning up!

Talk about ATTitude! Teenagers!! Bahh!!

To top that off ..

Yesterday we had the service guys from Kubota turn up to do a major service on the tractor.

It was news to me as nobody tells me anything around here!

This morning I discovered the terrible mess they had left behind!

They had used a large plastic tub and various plastic buckets to drain about 100 Litres of oil out of the tractor.

A lot of it had spilled on the ground with half empty oil filters scattered around.

The tub of oil was still where they had left it.

I could not believe it!

I immediatley found an old 44 gallon drum and ordered the boys to put the oil into the drum.

I had to get a funnel because they didn't think you needed one!

I had supplied the drum last year when I was here, but nobody had bothered to use it.

It had been used as a scaffold support instead.

I ordered them to dig up all the oil-soaked earth around where the mechanics had worked and put

it in a wheelbarrow together with the old oil filters.

The only choice was to take the oil soaked earth and filters to a spot where we burn rubbish and

hope that we can burn the residue out of the soil before it soaks down into the watertable.

Our water is supplied from a bore (drinkable quality) and I tried my best to explain that

if they continued to spill oil then sooner or later the drinking water would start to taste

like oil and eventually the polluted water would kill all the plants as well.

I also explained that when the drum is full we can take it to an oil recycling factory and by all

rights we should expect payment.

They obviously have no idea about the price of oil or anything about pollution!

I told them never, ever, spill oil like that again!

The next time those sloppy Kubota mechanics turn up they will get a piece of my mind!

Even though I don't speak much Thai, I think the tone and volume of my voice will convince

them I'm not going to put up with that sort of irresponsible work around here!

Every drop of oil will go into the drum and not on the ground!

The national Kubota company are going to get an earful of my complaints too!

How can they just leave a large volume of oil for ignorant farmers to dispose of!

Probably down a hole in the paddock or into some convenient klong?

If this is happening all over Thailand then God help them!

They are ruining this beautiful rich earth that also happens to provide their only means of living!

Anybody else had this problem or know of an oil recycler?

How can we educate the service companies and the tractor owners?

I can put up with sloppy plumbing and dumb electrical installations but this oil problem is just too much!

Have nothing smart to say about the issue you posted except that I almost laughed my guts out and remembering a story from back home where I grew up.

An aquaintance of me use to refurbish cars and sell them making himself a living from it. Once he had this nice car - straight out from his workshop and wasn't put together completely yet (missing a rear light) and therefore making a perfect sleeping place for his cat.

You know cats... They're quite gracious, soft on foot, perfect balance and lightning fast reactions. This cat had neither of it: lazy clumsy and only good at being scratched and fed. She tried to imitate a normal cat and balancing on the handrails on the porch. Tripped, lost her balance and falling into a barrel of used oil that he was going to deliver later on to a service station.

Of course cats don't like to freeze so she jumped up on the hood, walked over the whole car, jumped down and crawled inside the car through the hole for the missing rear light. Drying herself up on everything imaginable before cuddling herself together on the driver's seat.

All the best