Do You Live In A Thai Village Full Time

[Martin]

Yesterday was a 'big Buddha day'. Something to do with honouring the ancestors (so possibly rooted in pre-Buddhist times, but absorbed into Buddhist practices).

My wife had been cooking on the previous day and making little packages of food, wrapped up in green banana leaves.

I was woken before 07:00 and told that she was shooting off to the temple on the motorbike, but would be back in an hour and that I had to be ready then to drive her and her big bowl of offerings, that was too big to be carried on the bike, back to the temple for 'Part Two' of the morning's ceremonies.

This I duly did, and was allowed to go home for a couple of hours till she phoned me to come and fetch her back.

When I went to get her, there were well over half of the women of the village out in the grounds of the temple laying down their offerings of sustenance to their ancestors.

It was the most dramatic example of social cohesion that I have ever witnessed.

[Martin]

Edited to remove duplicate posting.

Edited September 27, 2007 by Martin

[macb]

Well we were having some building work done as Ron and his wife had finished there's as already mentioned : But our builders needed a bit more iron for a roof extension, she wondered off down to the other side of the family and came back with a trolley of iron as it was odments left over but after some welding useful lengths, the wife told me ask Ron's wife how much for iron, she replied don't know I would not get any money back for it, so the wife is going to give her some money for it THE SAME AS I WAS GOING TO DO FOR RON. SEEMS LIKE RULES FOR ONE AND RULES AND RULES FOR ANOTHER TO ME

Its okay Roietjimmy no problem

[roietjimmy]

Well we were having some building work done as Ron and his wife had finished there's as already mentioned : But our builders needed a bit more iron for a roof extension, she wondered off down to the other side of the family and came back with a trolley of iron as it was odments left over but after some welding useful lengths, the wife told me ask Ron's wife how much for iron, she replied don't know I would not get any money back for it, so the wife is going to give her some money for it THE SAME AS I WAS GOING TO DO FOR RON. SEEMS LIKE RULES FOR ONE AND RULES AND RULES FOR ANOTHER TO ME

Its okay Roietjimmy no problem

Mac...as promised I have arrived at a concensus after talking to family and neighbors about this issue of buying vs. giving to friends or family members. Rules 1 and 2 pretty much apply anywhere in the world.

Rule 1 - Friends and family should not buy from each other. They should share if the item in question is not a "big deal" expense wise. In the case where Ron had some left over frame work, he should give it to you and you should not offer him money. At some later date you can do something for him in turn.

Rule 2 - Ignore Rule 1 if the item you recieve is relatively expensive to the the person who has the item. Then an offer to buy it is OK and OK to take the money.

Rule 3 - If there is dislike or friction between a family member or friend, offer them money no matter how trivial the item received. This does not include food as this would be the ultimate insult. Being non confrontational, this is a common way Thais send a not so subtle message of displeasure.

Rule 4 (my rule) - Learn the village language (verbal and body) in my case Lao/Isaan. Since doing this and still learning everyday, I find understanding what is really going on in the family and in the village is much better than when I relied only on the wifes interpretations. We love and trust them but as with us they too have "agendas".

[macb]

Well we were having some building work done as Ron and his wife had finished there's as already mentioned : But our builders needed a bit more iron for a roof extension, she wondered off down to the other side of the family and came back with a trolley of iron as it was odments left over but after some welding useful lengths, the wife told me ask Ron's wife how much for iron, she replied don't know I would not get any money back for it, so the wife is going to give her some money for it THE SAME AS I WAS GOING TO DO FOR RON. SEEMS LIKE RULES FOR ONE AND RULES AND RULES FOR ANOTHER TO ME

Its okay Roietjimmy no problem

Mac...as promised I have arrived at a concensus after talking to family and neighbors about this issue of buying vs. giving to friends or family members. Rules 1 and 2 pretty much apply anywhere in the world.

Rule 1 - Friends and family should not buy from each other. They should share if the item in question is not a "big deal" expense wise. In the case where Ron had some left over frame work, he should give it to you and you should not offer him money. At some later date you can do something for him in turn.

Rule 2 - Ignore Rule 1 if the item you recieve is relatively expensive to the the person who has the item. Then an offer to buy it is OK and OK to take the money.

Rule 3 - If there is dislike or friction between a family member or friend, offer them money no matter how trivial the item received. This does not include food as this would be the ultimate insult. Being non confrontational, this is a common way Thais send a not so subtle message of displeasure.

Rule 4 (my rule) - Learn the village language (verbal and body) in my case Lao/Isaan. Since doing this and still learning everyday, I find understanding what is really going on in the family and in the village is much better than when I relied only on the wifes interpretations. We love and trust them but as with us they too have "agendas".

A big thank you for going to all this trouble RJ:

Well the family said he cant give it to me and I cant buy it so never mind aye all it was ,was a box of frame work bits for making a suspended ceiling cost about 500 bht .

Still never mind , I really must get my head around the Khmer language, but they don't want me to learn it . I got a book on Cambodian and CD's but apparently this is not the language spoken in the village.

[roietjimmy]

A big thank you for going to all this trouble RJ:

Well the family said he cant give it to me and I cant buy it so never mind aye all it was ,was a box of frame work bits for making a suspended ceiling cost about 500 bht .

Still never mind , I really must get my head around the Khmer language, but they don't want me to learn it . I got a book on Cambodian and CD's but apparently this is not the language spoken in the village.

No trouble at all Mac. As I'm sure you would agree, living in a village as a retiree we're always glad to have these little projects.

Edited September 28, 2007 by roietjimmy

[stament]

What's happened to this thread? Nobody's posted for a while. I love reading this thread, as it's so different to my mundane life here in the UK as part of the rat race.

Come on guys............. ;-)

[macb]

Well village life is still changeable, there is always something happening or going on:

Folks are now starting in some locations to harvest the rice, looking st the growth maybe the yield will not be to bad after all a much wanted rains came just at the right time.

Whilst my Cousin and I have bores within our grounds which provides water to the house, we are now laying pipe to service the family houses apparently there are two Bores(lakes) one is water good enough to drink which is what the locals use and the other lake the water is good enough for there laundry or showering in, so we feel that the softer water will have less minerals in and better in the long run to decrease the scaling and discolouring in the toilets.

Well I rigged up an aquarium and did some electrical work to provide sockets etc. then had to run a LAN line through the house to re-locate my computer, then there was strimming in the garden. A bit of carpentry as well to provide stands for the wife's Orchids.

Future projects House maintenance bit 'O' painting and varnishing windows.

Not bad for village life AYE :

Had a party at the Cousins the other week few beers and dancing with the lasses SANUK

Last night BICKO and his wife came over also joined by Cousin Ron and his wife for a BBQ (The Steak I bought was like boot leather) Never mind the beer was okay and the conversation good

[Thaddeus]

there are two Bores(lakes) one is water good enough to drink which is what the locals use and the other lake the water is good enough for there laundry or showering in, so we feel that the softer water will have less minerals in and better in the long run to decrease the scaling and discolouring in the toilets.

Be careful here Mac.

I had a well drilled after the village supply had been off for four days for the umpteenth time. The water looked fine but it smelled a little of iron. Decided to switch to bottled water for drinking and use the bore water for everything else.

After six months the washing machine packed in, as did the shower and the bum gun. All internal parts were coated or clogged with a fine red dust. I managed to clean everything out and it all works fine again, but I have switched back to the village supply and only use my bore for showering when the village water goes off.

I discovered recently why the village supply would be down for four or five days every month. It also comes from a bore and very likely uses the same aquifer as mine, but they run the water through a huge filtration system that needs cleaning every few weeks.

I now only drink from bottles (water)

[macb]

there are two Bores(lakes) one is water good enough to drink which is what the locals use and the other lake the water is good enough for there laundry or showering in, so we feel that the softer water will have less minerals in and better in the long run to decrease the scaling and discolouring in the toilets.

Be careful here Mac.

I had a well drilled after the village supply had been off for four days for the umpteenth time. The water looked fine but it smelled a little of iron. Decided to switch to bottled water for drinking and use the bore water for everything else.

After six months the washing machine packed in, as did the shower and the bum gun. All internal parts were coated or clogged with a fine red dust. I managed to clean everything out and it all works fine again, but I have switched back to the village supply and only use my bore for showering when the village water goes off.

I discovered recently why the village supply would be down for four or five days every month. It also comes from a bore and very likely uses the same aquifer as mine, but they run the water through a huge filtration system that needs cleaning every few weeks.

I now only drink from bottles (water)

The bore I drilled 2 years ago is full of minerals and clogs my shower heads and discolours toilets, but I am going to tap both supplies so I have a choice, the villages drink the water from the local bore but I will still drink from bottled, I have been drinking rain water for 2 years but now to many birds so gone back to bottled water

[ThailandTony]

Good to hear from you guys again, hope all is well with your baby and wifes parents Mac?

Have you considered blending the water to reduce the side effects to appliances and bum gun (love this term....lol)? May be a reasonable compromise. I never trusted the tap water for much more than brushing my teeth, probably why they are looking like a row of houses up for demolition these days.....haha!

I also suffered from intermittent availability of water and variable pressure so I installed this tank with a pump. Now have great showers and you could put someones eye out with the bum gun

Also love this pic so wanted to drop it in to

Roll on December when we are back in Thailand, got 2 weeks in Ubon followed by 2 weeks in Chaiyaphum....yeehaaaaa.....maybe catch up with a few of you guys for an early Xmas lunch at the Falang Connection?

Happy Days.

Edited October 20, 2007 by ThailandTony

[ThailandTony]

Hi Guys

I just realised I forgot to post this "day in the life" that I did for family following our house blessing earlier this year. I apologise for the quality of some of the photo's but I have no excuses, I am just not a good photographer! Sorry if some of the language is simplistic, it was meant to be read by people who havn't experienced Thai life too much.

1st of March 2007, a good Buddah day!!! The house blessing day started at 03:30 when I, my wife, children and a friend went into the city (about 20km from our village) to buy all the food we needed for the ceremony. In the Buddhist tradition all food bought to give to the Buddhist monks is only for them, there is no such thing as sharing the food as that does not “make merit”, the backbone of Buddhist karma. Fully loaded we returned to my wife’s mothers house (about 80m from our new house) to prepare the food. This is a big community thing where a lot of helpers “make merit” by helping to prepare the food even though they didn’t purchase it themselves. This is quite common in the poorer parts of Thailand.

With food preparation well under way, supervised by my wife’s watchful eye, our youngest son Dan and I went off to the local temple at about 06:30 to collect the necessary elements required for the ceremony. Some friends and family were already waiting and we loaded up quickly and only 5 minutes later (a short drive through the village) unloaded at the new house.

This done, it was time to collect the balance of the 9 monks (the best number of monks for any ceremony). 5 had arrived under their own steam and I collected a 6th from our village temple and then drove 10 minutes to the next village to pick up the balance (3 monks).

Whilst I had been doing the ferrying around, food was being transported by hand cart from “mama’s” house to our house and by 08:00 we were ready to go.

Unfortunately I had to stay in the house with the men whilst the ladies went around the house 3 times singing and dancing and scattering the main symbol of Thai country wealth, rice.

That done it was everyone inside, the monks did a good 15-20 minutes of chanting and their was plenty of Wai’ing (a Wai is when you hold the 2 hands together as if you are praying, there of a number of different positions and additional gestures to go with this but that is for another tale). My wife Tae, myself and our children (Ked & Dan) were then blessed by the monks who were then served the prepared food and were gone by 09:00! (with me doing the dropping off again in reverse order).

Back at the house the family and friends then took it in turns to tie a small piece of the white string you often see on Thai wrists (the string is actually blessed by the monks during the chanting process, cut into short lengths and then carried over the ear of the giver as the head is the most sacred part of the Thai body). They give a small amount of money in the hope that it will return to them many times over (preferably via the lottery….haha) and then tie a piece of the string to each persons wrist which is then kept for 3 or more days.

With the formalities over we then had to move furniture into the house and stay overnight. The a/c hadn’t been installed yet so this was a big ask but necessary all the same. The happiest were our 4 dogs that now have 2400m2 to patrol day and night. With Max & Sola around I wouldn’t like to be caught in the “killing ground” too far from the fence. Right now we are only worried about Olympic athletes that have turned to a life of crime and moved to our neighborhood…..haha,

Max

Sola

All in all a very worthwhile visit and my wife and family were thrilled that I could make it home. With a bit of final finishing to do by the builder the family plan to move in full time by the end of the month, just ahead of moving to Bahrain at the end of April! It’s all go in the ThailandTony house!

Thanks for reading.

TT.

[Bicko]

Hi Guys

I just realised I forgot to post this "day in the life" that I did for family following our house blessing earlier this year. I apologise for the quality of some of the photo's but I have no excuses, I am just not a good photographer! Sorry if some of the language is simplistic, it was meant to be read by people who havn't experienced Thai life too much.

1st of March 2007, a good Buddah day!!! The house blessing day started at 03:30 when I, my wife, children and a friend went into the city (about 20km from our village) to buy all the food we needed for the ceremony. In the Buddhist tradition all food bought to give to the Buddhist monks is only for them, there is no such thing as sharing the food as that does not “make merit”, the backbone of Buddhist karma. Fully loaded we returned to my wife’s mothers house (about 80m from our new house) to prepare the food. This is a big community thing where a lot of helpers “make merit” by helping to prepare the food even though they didn’t purchase it themselves. This is quite common in the poorer parts of Thailand.

With food preparation well under way, supervised by my wife’s watchful eye, our youngest son Dan and I went off to the local temple at about 06:30 to collect the necessary elements required for the ceremony. Some friends and family were already waiting and we loaded up quickly and only 5 minutes later (a short drive through the village) unloaded at the new house.

This done, it was time to collect the balance of the 9 monks (the best number of monks for any ceremony). 5 had arrived under their own steam and I collected a 6th from our village temple and then drove 10 minutes to the next village to pick up the balance (3 monks).

Whilst I had been doing the ferrying around, food was being transported by hand cart from “mama’s” house to our house and by 08:00 we were ready to go.

Unfortunately I had to stay in the house with the men whilst the ladies went around the house 3 times singing and dancing and scattering the main symbol of Thai country wealth, rice.

That done it was everyone inside, the monks did a good 15-20 minutes of chanting and their was plenty of Wai’ing (a Wai is when you hold the 2 hands together as if you are praying, there of a number of different positions and additional gestures to go with this but that is for another tale). My wife Tae, myself and our children (Ked & Dan) were then blessed by the monks who were then served the prepared food and were gone by 09:00! (with me doing the dropping off again in reverse order).

Back at the house the family and friends then took it in turns to tie a small piece of the white string you often see on Thai wrists (the string is actually blessed by the monks during the chanting process, cut into short lengths and then carried over the ear of the giver as the head is the most sacred part of the Thai body). They give a small amount of money in the hope that it will return to them many times over (preferably via the lottery….haha) and then tie a piece of the string to each persons wrist which is then kept for 3 or more days.

With the formalities over we then had to move furniture into the house and stay overnight. The a/c hadn’t been installed yet so this was a big ask but necessary all the same. The happiest were our 4 dogs that now have 2400m2 to patrol day and night. With Max & Sola around I wouldn’t like to be caught in the “killing ground” too far from the fence. Right now we are only worried about Olympic athletes that have turned to a life of crime and moved to our neighborhood…..haha,

Max

Sola

All in all a very worthwhile visit and my wife and family were thrilled that I could make it home. With a bit of final finishing to do by the builder the family plan to move in full time by the end of the month, just ahead of moving to Bahrain at the end of April! It’s all go in the ThailandTony house!

Thanks for reading.

TT.

Good one TT. Thanks for sharing with us

[jay-uk]

Hi All

We had the same problems with water and smell when showering and decided on a large filter outside for showered water and a small extra filter in the thai sala kitchen so that it gets a second filtering for drinking. Just to make sure as i'm paranoid about this kind of stuff' I then boiled the water and cooled it off in the fridge. Result... great drinking water every, maybe a bit excessive but safe and tastes fine. No further problems with minerals and smell after that. However the down side is you have to keep cleaning the filters every 6-12 months. We have two bored water wells on our land feeding house and gardens as we do not have mains supply yet in the village/town close by. They talk of it arriving soon but i'm not sure you need it as its just another added cost you can do without i guess.

Jay

[ThailandTony]

Anyone who's never had a Thai BBQ don't know what they've been missing! Since I have been toing and froing between the village and work in the Middle East for the last couple of years its become a bit of a tradition that I always take out the family group on the last night before going, kind of a send-off dinner (on me of course...lol).

In a nut shell it comprises a table top charcoal burner in an open air restaurant. All of the food is laid out buffet style and you can select a number of ready cooked dishes for a starter whilst the charcoal gets going and the main food cooks. The staff are structured in order of attractiveness it seems, with the poor crooked teeth girl delivering the hot burners whilst the pretty girls with the dazzling smiles serve up the drinks (hmmmm...now where have I seen that played out before?). Basically its all you can eat and the price depends on your height, ala theme park style, where we live if your under 1.20m its 59Bt, and 79Bt for those not vertically challenged! This is great for the Thai's as they are naturally considerate (greng jai) of their hosts (until they get a bellyfull of Khao Lao...lol) but as its all you can eat they can go mad! Also, we are about 20km from the city and alot of our family don't get into the city much so they don their glad rags (usually reserved for temple visits) and its a big night out in the city!

The circular aluminium cooking thingy (can't think of another way to describe it...lol) that goes on top of the charcoal burner has a domed bit with slots in it in the centre for cooking the meat on and a trough around the outside where you cook the soup. Starting with the stock that comes in teapots you fill up the trough and throw in a load of salad and anything you want to boil. On top goes the meat. Alot of the meats are marinated and there is plenty of choice of meat, sea food and veggies/salad. Everyone tends their side of the bbq, normally one between 3-4 persons, and helps themselves to whatever is cooked until your full and theres only space left for fruit, ice cream and one more Leo! TOP TIP, wait until the soup has been re-filled a couple of times, by this time the juices from the bbq have been running into the soup trough and the thickening broth is just to die for!

We normally have 14-16 (6-7 in front of the pick-up, rest in the back!) of us and the whole evening costs about 1500Bt including my beer.....lol. Lots of thank yous as I drop everyone off and everyone goes to bed on a full stomach....Happy Days.

A few happy, and not so happy faces...lol

Mrs TT, the long-haired General!

[ThailandTony]

Hi All

We had the same problems with water and smell when showering and decided on a large filter outside for showered water and a small extra filter in the thai sala kitchen so that it gets a second filtering for drinking. Just to make sure as i'm paranoid about this kind of stuff' I then boiled the water and cooled it off in the fridge. Result... great drinking water every, maybe a bit excessive but safe and tastes fine. No further problems with minerals and smell after that. However the down side is you have to keep cleaning the filters every 6-12 months. We have two bored water wells on our land feeding house and gardens as we do not have mains supply yet in the village/town close by. They talk of it arriving soon but i'm not sure you need it as its just another added cost you can do without i guess.

Jay

Nice bit of lawn Jay, did you turf it or sow it?....Want to get something similar going at our place this winter so we don't have red mud on the bottom of our shoes again next summer.

Cheers.

TT.

[jay-uk]

Hi Tony

We turfed around the house and gardens at the same time which looks good now but if you could have seen how the lads do this compared to back in UK you would think the grass would last a week if that. They literally throw down small squares of turf which look "thread bare" with little or no soil attached. But after days and days of watering on my part they soon grew and even the patches which were very loose did take after a few weeks with fast root growth. Can't remember how much it cost in total as it was included in our costs for all the garden a couple of years ago when we decided to tidy up everything inside our wall.

Jay

[mailman]

A few members have mentioned that the ground water in the village is hard and causes problems with

the appliances (washers, shower heads, toilets,etc..).

A bit of a house keeping question, but what are you using to clean up, especially for yellowing grout in the shower and toilet? We have a filter, but looks like we need to get a better one.

[Thaddeus]

The circular aluminium cooking thingy (can't think of another way to describe it...lol)

We call it a Mexican hat.

I would have taught them the real word, but try getting a Thai to say sombrero

Edited October 20, 2007 by Thaddeus

[Thaddeus]

A bit of a house keeping question, but what are you using to clean up, especially for yellowing grout in the shower and toilet? We have a filter, but looks like we need to get a better one.

Bathroom Duck Pro.

Works well on the tiles and if you put some of it into a bowl undiluted then let the dismantled parts of the shower head, bum gum, washing machine solenoid (not the electric bit) soak for a few hours, everything is like new.

Try this one, plug up the drain in the hong nam, I can do mine with a plastic tumbler, and tun on the water while splashing the Duck cleaner around, when there is a few mm of water over the entire floor, turn off the water and go for a few beers.

On your return, remove the plug and let it all drain....... nice clean floor.

[billd766]

I have just come back home after 4 months in Papua New Guinea. a beautiful country though to see the best bits you really have to go down tracks which beat the suspension of the truck to death. Most of the people are OK though there are a few crazies around and most people carry 2 or 3 foot bush knives everywhere, children included.

It is so nice to be back home again though, eating real food and being with the family. We had a welcome home party for me last Sunday which ran on a bit and Monday was a recovery day. This Thursday we paid the return visit.

Now we have Nee's whole family up for a few days and we are off to Chiang Rai. There is her Mum and Dad, eldest brother and second wife with their 3 kids, us with our son, her middle brother, his wife and their son and the youngest brother who is about 90 satang to the baht but OK when he takes his medicine, plus John's wife and her 2 girls. It should be good fun.

Luckily we have a small house where some of them slept last night but they were layers of them all over both houses.

We also have a water storage problem so I have built a tank farm of 20 x 1,000 litre storage jars which we fill from the local supply and use for everything except drinking and we use 2 x 3,000 litre stainless steel tanks for that. The storage tanks take out most of the sediment from the water which then goes through a plactic disc filter (which blew up while I was away) into and steel charcoal filter and then around the system.

When I get back I will post some photos of the system and next week I have to go to Penang to start my visa all over again (another story).

It is nice to go and earn some money but it is much nicer to be home.

Edited May 24, 2008 by Tywais
Personal information removed

[Gimbo]

Plenty do do for me up here in Putthaisong. We are completing a house that was started six years ago by my wifes late husband and her. He died before the house was finished.

We have tiled up the floors, added stucco cement on the walls and an inner ceiling.

In addition we have added a bath room to the house with farang facilities. But on completion found out that the public water from the village is highly unreliable. Basically as far as I can understand it, the water pump and tower is owned by the local wat, while the village is responsible for maintenance and running it.

But the PVC pipes that distribute the water is burried about 5 milimters into the ground so they break frequently, and the water tower does not have an automatic shut off valve. So when it's full it overflows. So they shut off the pump. Naturally when there is water, everyone then top up their hong nam water tanks. And the tank is empty in a few hours. Then they only start it again when somebody complains about it.

So thanks to everyone for the different sollutions. We do have a water well on the property, but we are probably going for Tony's sollution with a tank and a pump. I think we'll rig it so it fills from village water when that is available, and the well when it's dry. Have to do some more thinking about it.

Else we are now busy adding a kitchen to the house. And we need some appliances for it. The main thing is a stove. I saw some decent ones at Home pro at the mall in Korat, but those where 30000 baht , and I thought that was a bit stiff. So if anyone can recomend somewhere I can buy an electric stove with 3-4 gas cookers on top for less I am happy. If not, I guess it's a trip to Home Pro...

Else we need to get a fence or wall built, tidy up the property, plant some stuff on it, put a concrete "skirt" around the house, concrete tile the "driveway" so we don't get muddy every time it rains, and in between simply have fun and enjoy ourselves. So boring in Isaan? Then you lack immagination.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Gimbo

[macb]

Thanks guys that has revived the village life thread not trhat it will ever go away now gets to many visitors reading through the posts great stuff

[Martin]

In the ten years that I have been here, I haven't had enough build-up of calcium deposits to cause any of the plumbing to malfunction. That is probably because our little township's water source is a big pond/lake (about 1kmx1km) that collects rainwater.

There can be a problem with sand collecting and causing restriction of flow at bends in the small bore pipes.

I keep promising myself that I will have a good sort out of our plumbing (which has grown like Topsy over the years as each house addition or re-modelling has occured). But I never seem to get around to it. I wonder if there may be something in the village water to which those round tuits are averse? They seem to be getting rarer and rarer.

We used to buy in our drinking water, but have now got two 1000-litre stainless-steel tanks to collect rainwater off the roof of our big carport. After a dry spell, my wife lets one thunderstorm wash the roof and then diverts the downpipes to the watertanks when the next one comes.

[macb]

In the ten years that I have been here, I haven't had enough build-up of calcium deposits to cause any of the plumbing to malfunction. That is probably because our little township's water source is a big pond/lake (about 1kmx1km) that collects rainwater.

There can be a problem with sand collecting and causing restriction of flow at bends in the small bore pipes.

I keep promising myself that I will have a good sort out of our plumbing (which has grown like Topsy over the years as each house addition or re-modelling has occured). But I never seem to get around to it. I wonder if there may be something in the village water to which those round tuits are averse? They seem to be getting rarer and rarer.

We used to buy in our drinking water, but have now got two 1000-litre stainless-steel tanks to collect rainwater off the roof of our big carport. After a dry spell, my wife lets one thunderstorm wash the roof and then diverts the downpipes to the watertanks when the next one comes.

For 2 years we have been drinking rain water gathered from the house roof into to tanks giving us 3100 litres: But a bird problem has built up with pigeons nesting in the guttering and leaving a right mess so I tried a mesh filter in the down pipe but this just blocked up so we now get bottled water because the water would still contain bird excretion and not safe to drink, so apart from a Shot-gun the birds have won for now

[Thaddeus]

Mac

Have you found any way to get rid of these pigeons, they have taken a liking to me for some reason. I can scare them off for a few minutes, but they just keep coming back..... the constant coo'ing is annoying to say the least.

[macb]

Mac

Have you found any way to get rid of these pigeons, they have taken a liking to me for some reason. I can scare them off for a few minutes, but they just keep coming back..... the constant coo'ing is annoying to say the least.

Thought I had all the pigeons in Thailand but pleased you got some as well : Not found a way to get rid of them yet, apart from I have not put the guttering back yet so they have gone to sisters house .

I am told that if you can find ornaments of owls and place them around here and there birds don't like owls

[jay-uk]

sounds like a new past time for all isaan folk. get a gun (air rifle will do) and sit patiently in the garden on a sun lounger until each pigeon Sh*ts on the roof and pellet the bugger. Thai in-laws may love the taste of pigeon so you can have a BBQ on the night time. both farang and in-law are happy......job done!

[macb]

Well I was in Krasang mkt last night looking for a BB gun shoots little plastic balls my mate hgas got one and works well on unwanted guests on your land (I better clarify guests animals and birds I mean ops I better clarify birds I mean the feathered kind

[Gimbo]

Well I was in Krasang mkt last night looking for a BB gun shoots little plastic balls my mate hgas got one and works well on unwanted guests on your land (I better clarify guests animals and birds I mean ops I better clarify birds I mean the feathered kind

Hmm, this could also solve the shitting chicken problem. My acuracy with a slingshot is not what it used to be anymore