Thread: Japanese House

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

This is niger cake

how do you pronounce that?

Originally Posted by DrAndy

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

Or was that another example of the famous British sense of humor?

well spotted

they did teach history at my school, as well as Geography

I know there is a seperatist movement in Quebec, but until that happens, you are part of Canada

So sweet of you to remind me!

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

This is niger cake

how do you pronounce that?

It comes from the latin word for black, prononced nijer, to avoid saying nigger and be politically incorrect

Just checking

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

We introduced this yellow flower 4 years ago in Northern Thailand

Is that rapeseed/canola?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

We introduced this yellow flower 4 years ago in Northern Thailand

Is that rapeseed/canola?

No, it's from the same family as sunflower, but smaller. It was unknown in Thailand, until we introduced it. Very advantegeous, grows quickly in 3 months, requires no weeding or watering, no known pests, contains 25% oil.

Cold pressed, it has a very high value in healthy fats, almost no saturated, a very pleasant light almond flavor, will keep for more than six months. You could compare it to olive oil for its health benefits, without the strong taste and low degree of burning, I mean, I cook fantastic french fried in it.

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

No, it's from the same family as sunflower

so, is it a mini-sunflower? what is its name?

Sesame maybe ?
Sesame - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World oilseeds: chemistry ... - Google Books

Great thread, OM. My father is French Quebecois from Montreal and my mother is Italian. I don't like to say I'm Canadian either.

One thing I'm wondering is if there are rule in Japanese about which directin a house should face, what to have in the rooms and what not to have, as in Chinese feng shui. Would you also have the land and the house blessed to bring protection or good fortune?

Merci beaucoup.

Excellent thread monkey.

I thought the factory on the burmese border might have been for production of other goods.

The oil sounds interesting.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

No, it's from the same family as sunflower

so, is it a mini-sunflower? what is its name?

Guizotia Abyssinica.
At first, we could not find its name. We went to Chiang Mai University, Agriculture. Professors specialized in taxonomia (naming plants) could not help.
My wife went on the net and looked at picture of flowers for a whole day. She found it (she can't read);-)
I hope you guys appreciate the presentation. I will look in my photos to show it to you in bloom, if you want it.

Originally Posted by natalie8

Great thread, OM. My father is French Quebecois from Montreal and my mother is Italian. I don't like to say I'm Canadian either.

One thing I'm wondering is if there are rule in Japanese about which directin a house should face, what to have in the rooms and what not to have, as in Chinese feng shui. Would you also have the land and the house blessed to bring protection or good fortune?

Merci beaucoup.

Merci à toi, j'apprécie.
I think that the rules are the same, but I'm not sure, I haven't found references that were not chinese up to now. I always did orient houses facing South in farang land, for obvious reasons, energy (sun) and wind (often West). Here it so happen that the view is due North, that we don't want the sun to tranform the house into an oven, specially now. Lucky, I'm glad. The openings will be mostly North.
Japanese do not have much furniture, in the bedrooms, they roll the beddings and put it in cubbards, in the kitchen, I've seen a hole under the table, so that you could put charcoal there and heat your legs, very clever. Orientals can sit on their heels forever, I wish I could. They are Zen. I will go with the style, japanese, but I will not become one, too late.
Nathalie, how do you get used to this heat?

old monkey now the question is where do i get the seeds, if they are not readily available in thailand.

regards scotty

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

Guizotia Abyssinica

Guizotia abyssinica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guizotia Abyssinica - Google Search

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

I've seen a hole under the table, so that you could put charcoal there and heat your legs, very clever.

they have that in Spain, Portugal, Italy etc from the old days

maybe originally an Arabic thing

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

I always did orient houses facing South in farang land, for obvious reasons, energy (sun) and wind (often West). Here it so happen that the view is due North, that we don't want the sun to tranform the house into an oven, specially now. Lucky, I'm glad. The openings will be mostly North.

People often make the mistake of taking a house from one climate and building in a similar way

obviously, Japan is not tropical, Thailand is, so it is a good idea to orient (!) the house away from the sun

Originally Posted by highlander

old monkey now the question is where do i get the seeds, if they are not readily available in thailand.

regards scotty

Where are you? Do you want to grow it? What quantities are you thinking of?

house in ubon area but in scotland just now, would only be needing a few seeds to see if they can grow in the ubon area but the oil sounds interesting if it grows ok here , do you have any links to the type of equipment used for crushing/pressing the seeds ..

regards scotty

Originally Posted by highlander

house in ubon area but in scotland just now, would only be needing a few seeds to see if they can grow in the ubon area but the oil sounds interesting if it grows ok here , do you have any links to the type of equipment used for crushing/pressing the seeds ..

regards scotty

I'm sure it will grow there, it even grew in my garden in Canada, although it did not have time to go to seed. I have four oil expellers at work now, one larger one ready for when I get electricity at the site, 12 km from here.

Interested to know more on how you intend to build this natural pool.

It does not look deep enough to keep cool enough to help stop algae growth. if it is to shallow, it will be warm all the time and algae will grow like wild fire.

Originally Posted by Nawty

Interested to know more on how you intend to build this natural pool.

It does not look deep enough to keep cool enough to help stop algae growth. if it is to shallow, it will be warm all the time and algae will grow like wild fire.

I am afraid you are right about the temp. and algae, I keep looking for solutions like shading, UV lamp maybe, faster or longer pumping in hotter temp, like now...
There is one deep end, usually on the left of the picture, more than 2,2 m deep, in the swimming part, with a shallow "beach" for the kids right besides the half wall. On the other side of the same white rocks wall, this is the regeneration zone, the filter. This is about the same size as the swimming area, actually a bit more in surface, but shallower. There are distributing (with holes) 4"drain pipes in the substrate, 10-12" thick(small rocks mostly), with plants' roots having to feed themselves on the passing water.
A pump takes the water in the swimming zone and pushes it gently into the drain pipes tru the substrate and the plants, the filtered water passes over the wall to the swimming zone.
Reeds will need their roots only in the water, water plants like lotus will need deeper water, 1 m more.
I am aware of the risk you mention, this is a first, I see it as a pond, but with a pump and a bio filter. About 20 m long for each zone. Suggestions?

Originally Posted by Nawty

1.5m should be ok to offer enough depth to keep the bottom cool.

under our climate, i would believe this is insufficient if water is recycled in a closed circuit. I believe Old Monkey is right to dig deeper than 2m. It's also the decision we took my my friend in Laos.

Then, I also think it highly beneficial to provide some natural water circulation in the deepest part of the swimming pool, between filtration and swimming areas.

Could be right, but it depends how the closed circuit is filtrated. If it is going through a large and suffiecient area that could keep it cool and filtered well, then it would be no different from the swimming hole we have in the river where a small but fresh flow is happeneing and the depth is 1.5m and we only have algae where it is very shallow and the wtaer heats up quickly.

I did not see that he has the whole pond at 2m, if he does and circulates it well, then it should be ok. But his photos did not look like it was 2m deep.

Anyway, hope it works cos I want one.