Moving to the Moo Ban - Permanently????

[El Gibbon]

Lily and CG

Yes, the flowers are 'frilly' and soft, no noticable smell that I noted.

I'm not sure but the bark is not thorny from recolection.

I'll check both these questions next time I'm there.

E. G.

[hillbilly]

I love these kind of threads. Excellent work El Gibbon!

[El Gibbon]

Thanks Hillbilly

Now to get caught up some. Its been awhile since I posted any orchid pix. Mainly because most of them are not flowering at the time.



They are a little difficult to see since I wanted to get the whole bunch in but there are several small "Chantaburi" orchid tied to the old piece of wood in the center of the photo.



This photo shows a couple of the very delicate buds that just "popped" out the other day. This orchid is only found in this area of the world from all that I'm told. There were many for sale, large large plants, at the recent orchid show that were selling for thousands of baht.



After one day's heavy rain the flowers just opened right up. Beautiful delicate white flowers.



I managed to get this one snap before the rains started again. Good thing too since the next morning they were all gone. Destroyed by the heavy rain. These are quite nice, I don't know what family they belong to and cant find anything in the literature that I have at hand.



I grabbed this baby cattelya during one of the downpours and brought it under the carport. It opend up to a nice well defined cat. Really pleasant coloring.

Speaking of rains, remember the photo of the water pipe crossing the drainage ditch? Well here is one from the other day.



If you look close you can see a fish trap tied to the "new bamboo structure" in the photo. Of course all the weeds from the next shot get hung up on our water pipe... duh... the asshole took the supports that were there for the pipe and used them to ankor the end of his f.... fish trap. Idiots. But, hey the flocking trap is well supported.



I previoiusly showed them cleaning and burning the ditches around the area. Well its good they did! The water from a small valley has breached a 1 meter sandbag damn the neighbor put up to "hold" some of the water. This is now running full time like a good sized brook. The water is about 3/4 of a meter deep. Nice thing is I can hear the gurgling of the water going over the dam from the porch. Kinda pleasant. B T W there are fresh water snails in this water......

Gots more of snakes and butterflies too when I get a chance to sort them out and post them.

E. G.

[El Gibbon]

As I've said before the durian season is getting underway. Here's another truck slightly loaded.



Nothing like a little surprise when putting on your slippers at night-time.



I noted an 'odd' appendage to the young un's slippers when I stepped outside for a smoke the other nite. As I watched this guy made himself more noticeable.



Looks to be a small water snake from the bog beside the house. The closest thing I can find in the books and on the net is a Jagor's Water Snake or Ngoo Sai Lei. With the flash you really can't tell there are colored stripes running the length. Fast little bugger too, and when he was at full tilt and jumping you could hear him splat on the cement as he headed for the bog.

Also saw a fairly large rat snake but have to find the photo.

I have yet to get a decent book on Thai birds into my library, does anyone recognize this? CG?



I looks just like a black fly/bee catcher but has these extra tails trialing behind it. You can barely see the connection to the outside of the tail grouping of feathers.

Now another one that I can't get ahold of yet. I was only able to grab two pix before he blew the coop STS. Both head shots so the detail is lacking.



I'll keep hunting him until I get a shot that at least gives the indications of a family to search.

And finally this beauty. Note the left FW. It has been damaged by a bird strike.



Even the camo of four sets of eyes didn't help him fend off his persecutor. A really beautiful example of The Peacock Pansy, a member of the Nymphalidae family.

Got a few more butterfly shots the afternoon running around in the jungle. Maybe I'll start a butterfly thread.

E. G.

[Curious George]

^ I think you've got an Asian Paradise-flycatcher.
นกแซวสวรรค์ (Terpsiphone paradisi)




They are not very common, so are protected in Thailand.

[corvettelover]

Great thread loved the pics and commentry,a great work in progess and very informative.
In regards to cockroaches in north queensland we use the peelings from cucumbers, and scatter the peel around drains, kitchen area and the fridge, and stove, The roaches eat the peel and in the morning the floor of the house is normally covered in cockroaches, lying on their backs and the body is swollen up. Dont know what causes it but is dammed effective.
Another bug deterrent is tea tree oil. small amount of tea tree oil in a dish with a candle under it. smells the house for a while. But you wil see the house come alive with the bug life that lives in it and tends to wipe it out.

[Lily]

^About the cockies; where I live on the NSW north coast, every morning there are heaps on them dead whether you put anything out or not. I dont mind finding the dead ones, but when you just find a leg that has fallen off, really gives me the creeps.

In hot weather they are a real pain.

[El Gibbon]

Well, I finally figured out the bird mentioned above. It always sits real high in the tree and always looks black/dark against the sky. Wallalala, it is black. It is a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



We have actually had two days in a row with about an hour or two of sunshine, finally, after about 3 weeks. Taking advantage I went "hunting" and ended up being the hunted!

After an hour or so of wandering around the 'back 40' I was relaxing with a cool glass of water, when this guy came to visit.



THis is a very common variety in Thailand and a female of the Tawny Coster family (Nymphalidae). You can see the detail of the proboscis and the leg structure very well.



In this shot you can see the underside of the HW with the black areas with white spots. The underside of the FW is hidden. You can see the top of the FW directly above it. This shot also shows the 'bulbous' ends of the antenae that make it a butterfly rather than a moth (one of several distinctions).

While out and about I came across these guys, again common but none-the-less quite pretty.



This Yellow Pansy is a very active critter, I chased her all over the back, finally getting a decent shot. Even with the grass covering part of the tail it shows enough detail to make the ident.



This is the male of the species, very colorful. You see the males showing themselves much more than the females. They tend to stay in one spot with wings spread more than a second, which is unusual. The undersides are pretty dull without a lot of detail worth mentioning.



Next up we have Dark Blue Glassy Tiger, again fairly common, but a real beauty in flight. This specimen is not as brilliant as some others and the day was overcast so the colors aren't as bright as I would like.



This shows the Underside of the HW pretty well, its a dusky brown and in combination with the blue in flight makes for a startling color combination. This specific species is found in Chantaburi.

I got more to classify and catalog, will post some later maybe.

E. G.

[Marmite the Dog]

Lovely pics, EG.

I guess your folks think you're a nutter chasing wildlife around with your camera.

[El Gibbon]

Mammers, yea but they would really flip if they had seen me in the durian orchard today during the harvest... Pix tomorrow.. But then I've been surprising them for over 50 years.

My dad took me deer hunting when I was thirteen. He taught me how to sit still and observe nature and how to read what it was telling me. Nothing like spending several hours alone, in the middle of a cedar swamp to get you used to 'seeing' whats going on.

Initially I hated it, but was too afraid of him to move. Taught me to relax and see my surroundings. Have been an observer of wild life ever since.

Finally I came to understand what he was trying to do. Now I am thankfull he force fed me. There is not a lot on this earth that is more beautiful or interesting than nature itself, just look.

After nine years of hunting together I think each of us used one tag apiece. But the 'hunt' was everything, even if your just sitting on a stone wall on a beautiful autumn day in Vermont.

E. G.

[caller]

Okay, pages 1- 16 covered this evening. Excellent reading accompanied by a nice bottle of red. I will get up to date tomorrow in the same way.

Excellent, well written, funny and informative thread - many thanks.

I guess I'm heading for the boonies myself in due course and coming from suburban London, will need all the help I can get!

------

Tomorrow arrived and I'm now up to date - and still half a bottle of red left!

Look forward to dropping in from time to time.

[El Gibbon]

Well, its been awhile since the last posting, got lots of pix and stuff backed up so will start with the harvesting of durian.

There has been some discussion on various threads about durian and how and when they are ready to be harvested.

The BiL sold his durian "on the tree" to a broker from Bangkok. His representatives in the local area showed up to do the harvesting, grading etc. All we, the family, had to do was to get the durian from the ground to the staging area, this accomplished by three-wheel push trucks. Think bicycle tired three wheeler about 4 ft. long.



This guy is one of two brothers involved, the youngest one and his nick name is 'the Terminator'. He is 68 years young and can climb like a monkey on 'roids.



After cutting the durian from the tree he tosses it down to the older brother (71 yrs young!) who catches it with a burlap bag. Cool, the sharp spikes on the durian grab the burlap like it was velcro, sparing the fellas from bleeding all over the place. (most of the time)



Brother then rolls it out onto the ground where we picked them up and transported a couple of hundred yards to the staging area. Amazingly the older dude only had a few minor cuts and gashes from miss catches. Some of these suckers weighted 7 kilo and were dropped from heights of up to 50 ft.



After about 5 hours its time to grade and load the product. Here in this shot the process is well underway. The guy in the black tannk top inspects each fruit, looking for blemishes and tapping on it to insure ripeness and they are all sorted for being number 1s. (must be over 2 kilo and perfect)



After sorting out all the number 1s they are weighed, (approx. 50 kilos go in each basket) and loaded. After going through the pile he had decided that there were 1947 kilo of #1 durian. He placed a phone call to the 'boss' in Bangkok to discuss prices etc. and then proceeded to go through the rest of the pile.



These are all #1 durian neately packed. Only one guy packed, he was the expert and very choosy as to where each and every durian was loaded.



All of this under the watchful/recording eyes of SiL and the broker's dad. A very interesting process to observe and enjoy. No disagreements at all even when there was a discrepancy between the two. Obviously these folks have done this together more than once.



While loading and inspecting the stems were cut exactly at the first joint by younger bro. while the older bro would test weigh any thought to be smaller than 2 kilo and substandard in any way and mark those with yellow food coloring on the cut stem.



Now this appears to be a standard 1/2 ton pickup at first glance. Note the helper spring stack on this baby. Real sturdy wheels etc. and under the hood the biggest turbo-deisel you can buy.



Just about done loading, this truck is set up to do just duria by the looks of the steel rack, individual rack bars in the back (obscured by the tarp) allowing almost perfect packaging when done and wrapped. After about 10 hours from start to finish 3568 kilo of durian was on its way to Talat Thai in Bangkok.

That's not a typo... I watched it all, 3568 kilo on this sucker. Note the springs are hardly depressed. This truck had some balls as evidenced by the climb up to the street getting out of there.

All in all a decent harvest, with almost 2000 k of prime durian that fetched something north of 24 baht per kilo. Overall a good day considering the BiL probably netted something north of 80,000 baht.

E. G.

[Marmite the Dog]

Excellent. Your posts in this thread were sorely missed.

[El Gibbon]

Tiime for another session, this is about rebuilding the shack in the newly planted rubber orchard. After DAD had sold off the old rubber, the mess was cleaned up and new trees planted. This was all accomplished a couple of weeks ago. During this time a 'hut' was built on the peak for a place to rest and observe the plantation. Yep, they gotta be watched especially if you've got product laying around waiting to be collected or taken to the warehouse.

You will recall my writing about some severe storms some time ago. Well, one of them had really heavy winds and blew down the original shelter that had been built. So, it was up to the "farm"/hill and build another. This time a little more robust.

Previously the BiL and DAD and a nephew had gone up and installed bigger cement posts that were really buried deeply this time. So, when we arrived the posts had set and the ground had settled. So on with the building.


Herw we are laying out the long members for the edges, ridge and supports for the roof. The tools consisted of a hand saw (crosscut), a hand borer (for making the holes for bolts to hold the members to the cement posts.)a couple of hammers and a big roll of string. Pretty amazing what can be accompolished with a big length of string/cord. From squaring things up to plumbobbing, to measuring to alignment of sheet edges. Simplicity in its base form.



In the mean time the ladies were supervising.



This is facing N N west.



S S west



North, a beautifull spot I wouldn't mind having a house on. Prollllem with water and elect though.



Of course no Thai outing is without its food... must have been 5 or 6 different dishes served under this shelter. Me? I had brought a couple of ham and cheese samiches... lol The Boss, (mom) and the four girls relaxing after lunch.




Ahhhh gotta get that last little bit of durian.





Pretty much done for the day. Next will be to put up those cement blocks at the right, install some windows and finally pour the floor. Since this orchard is just starting out this shack will likely be in use for the next 35 to 40 years.


when we were relocating the rain collection barrels we found this guy under one of them. Nasty looking dude. Far as I know he is still residing under the barrel. he is about 5 inches in length as he sits in the photo. Thought we had a crawdad at first... the pincers are LARGE.



E. G.

[breezer1]

Brilliant read and thanx for the photos .

[dirtydog]

Far as I know he is still residing under the barre

Dead I hope, maybe send it to stroller

[a. boozer]

Great thread and some superb pictures, can't wait for my next 'fix'.

[El Gibbon]

Far as I know he is still residing under the barre

Dead I hope, maybe send it to stroller

Naw, left alive and kicking. Hopefully he'll find a partner and have some offspring and we can set up a scorpion circus...

My eyesight has gone bad and its getting awfully hard to see the damn fleas.

E. G.

[Jet Gorgon]

Great dialogue and snaps. Thanks for the read!

[El Gibbon]

Well, it's been another lengthy absence from posting. Have done a lot but haven't taken the time to do up the pix. Without pix a thread like this is just a bunch of idle blather.

I've not been to busy to enjoy the evening sunset period with my beverage of choice though. After all the rain it is quite green except where I've defoliated the weeds.



View facing due south, both the ponds visible were just about dry a few weeks ago, at least two meters below their current levels.

On a wander around the house one evening checking pepper plants, makua and tomatoes I found this dude watching me.



check out the dark 'spot' in the cloud, this is just to give you a perspective for the next shot.


Taking into consideration the perspective of the last shot and the span of this dude you can see he is HUGE. At least 6 or 7 inches across. He hasn't moved out of his web for a week now. I noted tonight that the web is so strong that a vine is growing across the top. The web has collapsed a little but not what you would think.

*****
We took a songtaew into town the other day to buy mom a coconut grinder to help Mom out a little. On the trip in I stopped counting pickups beside the road buying fruit when I got to 100 and we were still a couple of Kl from Chantaburi. It remined me that I had not posted the pix of the fruit guys in the village that I had taken a week ago, so here goes.

These folks deal in just mangosteen basically, maybe some longan but no durian that I could see.



All those empty fruit boxes piled up can hold about 45 to 50 kilo of mangosteen.

On the other side of the street, directly opposite is this guy. Does the same thing.



Oddly enough there were not trucks parked in the travel lanes as normal. The Thais on the way to sell the stuff will stop in the travel lane and negotiate the price with the buyer on the spot. Makes a totally crap deal to drive around. A kid on a motobike was killed two days ago passing a stopped truck and ran head on into an oncoming gravel truck.. Yuck



Finally got to take a pic without two tractor trailer refer trucks sitting and blocking the view. For at least a month now there have been generally two backed in here, usually with containers from Evergreen or a Korean company. This is a huge sorting/buying operation, employes about 50 people every night sorting the various fruits into grades... Pay.... 20 baht per hour.



At the general store/village social center, this lady sells Lao beef. As you can see folks line up every day to get this stuff.



Nice folks that run this place. Everything you need for survival in the orchards. From pails to charcoal, miner lights, batteries, soap, cigs, paper pens, pet food, gas by the liter, ice cream, wire, LaoKao, 100 Pipers, soups, snacks, and a whole lot more, and oh, yes, the cooler you see there is ALWAYS well stocked and cold. The kids think my name is Leo, wonder why.



Check out the fruit boxes.... the shop next to the market is a hair saloon, except in fruit season. Then she buys and sells fruit. BIG business in this area.



More fruit negotiations going on as we head home.

It can be a real hazard being on the road after noon. These folks don't really give a shit where they park or when they pull out into traffic. Takes some getting used to.

As I mentioned earlier we were headed into Chantaburi town. I had to pick up some flour for bread and we had a couple of items to grab at Tops Supermarket.

Those of you with good memories will remember I could not find Rye flour anywhere. Well, when I went to get some hard wheat flour (Aus import), much to my surprise they didn't have any. All they had was Rye, so grabbed some Rye and some regular Tops stuff and off we went.

I love Rye bread, but, I am not a real fan of the true rye bread that is normally baked. If you use a standard recipe it generally calls for a 50 50 split of reg wheat flour and Rye flour. This give you a real stiff sturdy bread that is better used for toast or being used as an open face deal with say smoked salmon or cheeses. I like a rye bread that is suitable for samiches....



So first thing I whipped up a batch and could hardly wait for it to cool so I could slice it and check it out.



Almost perfect the first shot here. Pic is a little fuzzy, I had had a couple of gins waiting for it to cool... sorry

Turns out my alternate recipe works here just as expected. Great flavor, texture and slices like a dream. Next time, now that I know for sure I've got it hacked I will add some instant oatmeal and just a touch of honey. THAT should be really edible.

Other than spending a whole lot of hours doing some research on a very starnge butterfly I've observed and running around taking butterflly photos that I won't bore you with, I also did some construction labor. Shhshshs don't tell anyone, I don't have a work permit.

In a previous post I showed the raising of a roof for a shelter for the rubber orchard. Its gotten quite a bit differenct since then. The BiL layed up the block walls and asked I would provide a back for the bucket brigade for pouring the floor. OK mai bpen rai!

Of course the cement is mixed on the ground outside and then bucketed in and spread. Before the spreading though a series of ridges are layed down about two inches high and leveled off, these act as guides in the smoothing process. One BiL is an expert at this and didn't measure a thing until the layout was complete. It was perfect.

As the cement is mixed we lugged it inside and poured it. The one BiL did the finish work I did the pouring/spreading. I"ve seen Thai homes with floors that are not this good.



The streak is water left on the surface in the smoothing operation. Another view from the front.



I was standing on the mixing spot taking this shot.



Just about finished.



Of course we had to eat! While they finished their repast I gobbled a chicken sanwich and was off with the camera chasing buttflies.

So that's about it from the orchards.

Oh, yeah, Google Earth has just upgraded the swatch we live in and I have also been looking at land plots. Just getting an idea of what the locale has to offer. Amazing program, I can see the house the ponds and the trees in the yard. Hi Def. for sure.

E. G.

EDIT: DD, I did check out the scorpion, he's still there but only one... so don't look good for the scorpion circus at this point.

[a. boozer]

As ever, some great pictures and good reading.

[Marmite the Dog]

Oh, yeah, Google Earth has just upgraded the swatch we live in and I have also been looking at land plots. Just getting an idea of what the locale has to offer. Amazing program, I can see the house the ponds and the trees in the yard. Hi Def. for sure.

Can you post the grid ref?

Great posts as ever.

[El Gibbon]

THe red line approximates the property boundaries, the yellow arrow points to the spirit house. Pretty good detail as the spirit house is less than a meter square.

E. G.

Damn... can't get decent detail with these small pics... suppoosed to be 750 pixels wide..

12"38'54.49" north 102"12'59.53" East

[El Gibbon]

A sad but true insight into the Thai frame of mind.

This morning Ms. E. G. was told of the death of her cousin. The lady was 40 something and passed at 2:30 this AM.

The Ms. hadn't seen her in years even though she lived about 2 kilometers from our current location. I didn't even know she existed!

Seems she contacted the HIV virus some years ago. Exactly how I don't know and it really doesn't make any difference. After the diagnosis by the docter she was never seen again in the light of day. Never left the house, never saw any family other than her sister and bro-in-law that she lived with. They never mentioned her, neither did any of the other family members.

She was totally shamed, refused to take medicines or any kind of treatment, just gave in and died of AIDS. Sooooo sad.

She was not the only family member to be in such dire straights. There are two others that have the virus, but they take a prescribed regimine of treatment and live very normal lives. I see them both on a regular basis, they just continue on with their lives and raising their son.

The cousin decided, apparently, that her life was over the day she was told she had the virus. She just succumbed to the virus and let it have its way with her body, never once trying to fight it off. Even though there are living examples of living with HIV in her extended family, she chose to become a recluse and wallow in her own problems. The sister and bro-in-law did what they could but she refused all efforts to treat her.

She just sat in that house, no contact with the outside world and just waited to die. It took years!

I can't imagine what it was like to live in that house knowing the futility and helplessness of the inevitable. The two of them took total responsibility for her existence, food, clothing, shelter etc. never ever complaining.

Totally befuddling and irrational to me, but apparently not to her.

E. G.

[El Gibbon]

How much do YOU know about septic systems?

I am no expert but the general rule of thumb is when your toilet doesn't flush properly you gotta ploblem. Especially since the toilet is only 8 monts old.

I noted early in the week that the toilet flush just didn't seem right. I watched it closely the next couple of times and sure enough, no swirl suction stuff going on.

Toilets work on a suction principle, at least most normal toilets do. Toilets are designed to create a vortex which inturn causes a sucking / syphoning thingy to happen, which actually drags the refuse up and out of the toilet bowl.

Well, ours didn't do anything like that, just kinda built a big puddle that eventually drained away.

Now, begins the saga. I told Ms. E. G. that we needed to find someone to pump out the septic tank (located outside the bathroom wall thankfully - instead of in the floor of the bathroom as I've seen in other places). Her first call was to the landlord -cheap charlie she calls him - to see if he knew a service we could use. (We never mentioned anything about who would pay) He claims we shouldn't need it since it was a large (three ring) system and he had never known any problems with it. Yeah.... right!

A trip to the obatoor office and no one knows of a pumper.... they suggest we go into Makham to the district office to find out any information. One of the recommendations was to flag down one ... they are "always" going by on the main road. Yeah... right!

Several phone calls to folks we think might know and still no luck. I mentioned that 'maybe' the folks at the general store (village social center) might be beneficial.. The look I got was ???? Stupid Farang!????

OK so I know when to retreat to the shadows.

After dicking around all afternoon and coming up with nadda I stopped at the store for a cold beer. I insisted the Ms. check with the owner and sure enough she had a phone number.... Stupid farang my ass.

Ok the guy is in Chantaburi, call to make an appointment for the next day, Wednesday. Wednesday comes and no pumper, we got a phone call, "truck broke, need repair". Ok. Thursday the dude calls again, truck is still broke.
Friday morning for sure the man says, we wait all day Friday and no truck.

This morning the dude calls and wants to know if we still want him to come out. Ms. asks me... duh, sure we still need the damn thing emptied and I ain't about to shovel it out myself.

Truck comes, here about 15 min. Max and done. Charges 150 baht per ring and they check the rings. Aha, its a five ringer... 750 baht and the toilet empties like a charm.

Life in the moo ban goes on.

E. G.

EDIT: forgot to mention the flocker was full, within 3 inches of the top cover... Dumb farang....