After the last couple of days, we have gone from too little water to, too much water. Rice shoots are completely covered by water and our pond is now up to the bottom of our sala. Worst of all we had to call off our morning ride on the Ninjas.

A little break in the rain might be nice.

Sometimes I think we live on different planets VF ;-). My planets been dry and sunny since around 10 am.

certainly didn't look like the weather was going to break this morning though.

Rain seasons certainly here with a vengeance.

Heavy rain all night, continuing this morning.

With a couple of fine days I thought the weather might be clearing but it seems there is plenty of wet stuff up there yet.

I am not so sure much of that huge rain we just had actually hit the ground. With the fierce winds pushing it, most of it seemed to be heading in a horizontal line for somewhere south of here.

I am not so sure much of that huge rain we just had actually hit the ground. With the fierce winds pushing it, most of it seemed to be heading in a horizontal line for somewhere south of here.

some of it is on the floor of my loungeroom.

It is a good thing to NOT turn on the lights on the porch / veranda / balcony this evening. The extra rain last night has brought out the ant "blooms" in full force today. Of course, it is a good idea to encourage your neighbors to turn on ALL of their outside lights. Saves you a lot of cleanup in the morning.

Keeping a few lighted, large candles out on the yard / garden after sunset works well also but don't use small candles unless they are fastened together in tight groups. Small, single candles are extinguished quickly when the ants mass the things.

It is a good thing to NOT turn on the lights on the porch / veranda / balcony this evening. The extra rain last night has brought out the ant "blooms" in full force today. Of course, it is a good idea to encourage your neighbors to turn on ALL of their outside lights. Saves you a lot of cleanup in the morning.

Keeping a few lighted, large candles out on the yard / garden after sunset works well also but don't use small candles unless they are fastened together in tight groups. Small, single candles are extinguished quickly when the ants mass the things.

Mate

So that's what they're called.

We had truck loads of them here last night.

Even the pooch's were running scared.

Couldn't believe there were so many.

The little buggars got into the house as well.

A pain in the butt to clean up.

Regards

Will

Well, ant blooms is what I call them but I am sure that is not what others call them.

I can sit here right now and watch the things spiraling upwards out of holes on the ground. Lots of holes, lots of spirals. Big population on the wing tonight.

Anyway, our house will be lighted to a minimum tonight, probably with only light from the television but bright lights will be available out in the garden to act as beacons to them. That does save a lot of work and smell at the house. They stink when they pile up overnight.

The father in law puts a blacklite high on a pole in the garden. At the bottom of the pole is the paddling pool filled almost to the brim. He hangs a UV tube across the pool and the ants come in from miles for the blacklite and are then attracted to the UV. Once their wings touch the water theyre trapped. He scoops literally thousands out in the mornings and sells them by the kilo to fishermen/woman. Last year people payed over 300b/kilo!

Ants here seem so much smarter and more varied than the ones we have at home.

In England I only ever saw the standard ones, with occasional summer gatherings of flying ones.

Here I see huge ones (by compariosn), red ones, tiny ones that move far faster than they should be able to, and these ones who appear from nowhere whenever you leave a drink or food unattended for a second.

I really wouldn't be surprised if humans eventually end up as ant slaves.

cold. Why is it that Thais don't have wood heating vented stoves in homes (or anywhere, for that matter)? If anyone knows of someone selling or fabricating a wood burning heat stove anywhere in northern Thailand, please let me know. Thanks.

I had thought of purchasing a cast iron kit in pieces (from US) for building a wood stove from a 55 gallon metal drum, but the weight would run the shipping cost up too high - plus, salivating Thai Customs officials might charge me 150% of value to allow me to get it.

mis-post

I've been toying the idea of putting a chimney and open fireplace on my house.

There's plenty of dead wood lying around without cutting trees down for it.

So how is the weather in Chiang Rai today?

I've been toying the idea of putting a chimney and open fireplace on my house.

There's plenty of dead wood lying around without cutting trees down for it.

thats fighting words....we have more than enough smoke here now.....will send a stork to sit on the chimney.

I've been toying the idea of putting a chimney and open fireplace on my house.

There's plenty of dead wood lying around without cutting trees down for it.

Most of the dead wood is at his keyboard

Today the weather actually quite nice.

The storm heading to Chiang Rai-Kai-Tak,is the name.

.

So where is this Kai Tak, anyway? We had two or three drops last night and that has been the extent of it.

Hi VF!

If you dont know it-things like this can some times change speed or directions.

From my window-right now, the clouds are coming over Chiang Rai,so I think you will see them soon.

Thanks, now I know where to go when all this complicated weather stuff gets me confused or flustered.

I ramble a lot and I have to be aware of a potentially dangerous weather situation.

The weather radar map in the link below is the most reliable way to know what is coming. Take note that the time in Thailand is 7 hours ahead of the GMT time shown at the bottom of the map (12.00 hrs GMT = 19.00 hrs in Thailand).

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/asiasatellite_large.html

I ramble a lot and I have to be aware of a potentially dangerous weather situation.

The weather radar map in the link below is the most reliable way to know what is coming. Take note that the time in Thailand is 7 hours ahead of the GMT time shown at the bottom of the map (12.00 hrs GMT = 19.00 hrs in Thailand).

http://www.weather.c...lite_large.html

I keep that map running in a loop on the Dashboard section of my iMac. Great little tool, just wish they had something that good but a little more local.

Where has all the rain gone

Rained here the last two nights.

Clear skies at night - stars galore

I thought we had seen the last of our beautiful clear Chiang Rai Sky for this year. How wrong I was. The last couple of days have been beautiful. Excellent mountain bike weather.

It was a bit dusty down here today.

It was a bit dusty down here today.

You have the dust we still have the haze. Last year there was none. This year after less rain fall we have it again. 2010 less rain we had the haze. Is there any connection I wonder.

The dust from the harvesters settles fairly quickly.

Some of the rice in this field is still too green to cut so with luck they will come back and do the rest by hand.

Interestingly they seem to be using the same size gang as they do for hand cutting but it's a lot quicker with the machine of course.