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  1. #326
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoganInParasite View Post
    I like the look of those tools Airportwo but quite reluctant to buy sight unseen. So much garden tools and a lot more sold here are inferior quality and last a very short time. And almost all of our land is hard fill containing rocks. Not sure if I posted this before but a steel rake I got in Thailand had a tooth break off. I kept in and had the wife take it to the local metal shop (I stayed in the car to avoid a farang pricing opportunity) and had them weld an additional cross piece and weld the teeth to it and strengthen the welds to the original cross member. I can't quite remember what she paid, it was one of 100 baht, 160 or 200. Even if 200 it was money well spent and I can use a bit of force with the rake now confident it is not going to fall apart too quickly.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6287-jpg

    No disrespect,
    but don't you want to learn the lingo?
    Not have to rely on the wife to get things done or purchased?
    IMO there is no Felang price.
    Not round here in the boondocks, and especially not sorting things yourself without the wife, if you speak the lingo with a local dialect.
    They love you for it, and it makes interaction and living here so much more pleasant.
    Try it sometime.
    HNY.

  2. #327
    Thailand Expat Airportwo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by thaiguzzi View Post
    IMO there is no Felang price.
    I agree 100% with that, reckon a lot use it as an excuse? Reality is I can buy things cheaper than my wife in some circumstances, especially markets as I have no fear of 'losing face'

  3. #328
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    Quote Originally Posted by Airportwo View Post
    I agree 100% with that, reckon a lot use it as an excuse? Reality is I can buy things cheaper than my wife in some circumstances, especially markets as I have no fear of 'losing face'
    Yep, i'm often sent in on a mission to car sales, building merchants etc by friends of the missus who are too shy to barter or ask for a discount.
    Been involved in 2 S/H purchases of pick up trucks in the last year for the wife's friends whose Thai husbands are working abroad.
    I check the vehicle out, confirm if the price is half decent, work out the finance % interest, and then start haggling. 40k off a 430k truck is better than a kick in the teeth.
    Builders merchants - they send me in on a big order, because i know the (female) boss well, can have a good laugh and joke and get 10k knocked off a 130k bill.
    Lunch and beers all afternoon on them.
    It's not difficult to integrate and it makes everything more fun, enjoyable and you become a part of the community.
    Nothing worse than a Felang here long term that can get nothing done without his wife in tow, or rather they are generally in tow after the wife...
    Can't speak the lingo
    cant get his car serviced alone
    cant get car insurance updated on his own
    cant buy and compare products on his own
    cant pay an electric bill on his own
    cant do immigration on his own...
    The list is endless, i see it all the time, friggin' embarrassing.
    Still each to their own.

  4. #329
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    Interesting few posts on Thai language skills. I don't speak it and don't intend to learn. The wife was never keen preferring that when we are together we spoke English. I don't have any trouble getting things done with the locals here. Google translate works on the iPhone, pictures work a treat in the local hardware stores and if struggling, just call the wife. I'm reasonably loyal to the local shops even though I know I could generally save some money in Nan. Even where we have no common language I've struck up a rapport at the local stores I frequent from hardware through to the recycling centre. Do miss out on the opportunity to haggle at the local markets but really don't care since I'm frequently paying less than half of what I would at a supermarket for the fruit and vegetables I buy.

    Anyway, to passionfruits. The one on the left is what we have been collecting to date from the Thai passionfruit vines. They are having a bit of a spell now but I'm seeing a second crop coming along. The one on the right we collected this morning from the place we planted both Thai and Australian sourced vines. Maybe this is the first Aussie vine fruit. We generally let them sit in the kitchen for 3-5 days after collecting so will be able to comment on flavour closer to the NY.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6492-jpg
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  5. #330
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    Nice BiP i like them. We've put up a roof grid over the spirit house and stuck a load of wooden poles atop it. The passion vines seem to like it and you get the fruit hanging down inside.

  6. #331
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    A pretty good idea NPT. I put in a vertical trellis for the place we planted Thai and Aussie vines and the fruit falls into our garden. The wife planted Thai vines along the boundary fence and we are losing a percentage into the adjacent properties. Every now and then when I remember I do try to rearrange the location of the growing fruit to fall our side with a degree of success.

  7. #332
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    The thing i like is you get a good return quickly with minimal effort unlike our coconut, the first of which took 9 years to produce. Its a waiting game at time and people ask why bother, just go to the market but its the pleasure i get from watching a sappling grow and eventually produce for you every year. Got a few Teak too and i'll never see them fully grown but hopefully in 60 years someone will appreciate them.....probably won't make it to 30....

    Another thing i've done is leave an area of a few square meters of that elephant grass. You get allsorts living in it and the weaver birds come in and land, cut across it and fly away tearing a strip off it - love watching them do it but initially the Mrs couldn't understand why you'd turn garden over to something non-edible. Bless her.
    Last edited by NamPikToot; 24-12-2019 at 04:52 PM.

  8. #333
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    I might struggle convincing the wife NPT. We are pretty well planted out now, just waiting for everything to grow.

    We've also been active in making the front of our home a bit more guest friendly. We decided we wanted some form of fixed strong seating on the east side of the carport. Originally was going to get the carport builder to put in a strong set of seat level horizontal rails between the carport steel uprights but after looking at it a bit we realized it would be too high to comfortably sit facing into the carport. Great the other way because the grass is higher. The wife came up with the idea of using concrete blocks just on the inside of the carport and sitting against the same blocks that provide the boundary of the grass. We set that up a few weeks back. I then decided to get our teak shelf guy to build a teak cover for them and put skirts on both sides for aesthetics, comfort and to prevent horizontal movement. He delivered it today and we are quite chuffed with the result. It is practical, looks good and is solid...3-5 people can sit of it. A bonus is we can move it elsewhere if we decide.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6493-jpg
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6494-jpg
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6493-jpg   Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6494-jpg  

  9. #334
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    Merry Christmas folks. Pretty quiet here on the Christmas front. Eleven years in a row the Thai Buddhist wife has resisted the urge to get me anything...thankfully.

    We use a lot of fruit in our homestay and the wife eats a lot too. We always have fruits of various types in the kitchen either waiting to be cut and served and/or maturing. Over the last couple of weeks a lot of those small flies/gnats came into and stayed in the kitchen. They seem immune to fly spray. So in desperation I hit the internet yesterday and found several tips on dealing with them. One suggestion gave me an idea. I put some red wine cooler left by a homestay guest in a small bowl, added a tablespoon of sugar and then a small amount of dish washing liquid. Didn't see any interest in it yesterday afternoon or this morning but looking at the dead bodies in it there was obviously carnage last night. Still a few left so will leave out a fresh brew tonight.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6503-jpg
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  10. #335
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    The Chrisrmas Eve Massacre...will go down in fruit fly folklore

  11. #336
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    Shortly after we moved in in February the wife planted papaya trees in the back garden. They are thriving and all full of fruit. After what seemed like ages we finally got some colour on them and picked them. A few more days in the kitchen to ripen more and then we started eating them. Quite nice, maybe not the best I've ever eaten but good nonetheless. Have had favourable feedback from our homestay guests as they appreciate we have grown them ourselves and completely organic, no chemicals of any type.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6628-jpg
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  12. #337
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    BIP
    Around here they never get to go that colour as they get eaten in "Pawpaw salad" way before that.

  13. #338
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    Expecting that will be the fate of the majority as well ootai once there are too many coming through to be able to use as a fruit salad. Looking at the six trees out back it looks like we may 20-30 coming through on the same timeframe atm. Might barter some with the local restaurant we use for our homestay Thai style breakfast.
    Quote Originally Posted by ootai View Post
    BIP
    Around here they never get to go that colour as they get eaten in "Pawpaw salad" way before that.

  14. #339
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    Have some nice colour and in the case of two of them some nice fragrance in the garden at the moment.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6816-jpg
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6817-jpg
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6818-jpg
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  15. #340
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    The garden yielded some useful fruit this morning. Have been getting a second flush to passionfruit as well, four yesterday.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6853-jpg
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  16. #341
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    Surprised to see two colours in the flower heads of the hydrangeas. In the back of mind is a notion that colour is determined or at least influenced by soil PH value. Nice surprise though. They've suffered without direct sunlight over the past six months and are starting to perk up a bit with more light creeping closer start and end of day.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6864-jpg
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  17. #342
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    Nice!

    When I get to the PI, I plan to start a little garden and both the wife and I can't wait.

  18. #343
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    We lost several ripe tomatoes to something that was boring a tiny round hole and based on the maggot subsequently hatching after being picked, laying an egg in it. Both the wife and I were too lazy to make another batch of white vinegar with citrus peels in it to spray so we decided we would pick the tomatoes a few days after they showed some red. Then into a paper bag with some bananas to ripen. Here is the first batch after spending 4-5 days in the bag at room temperature. We tore the bag open to check for maggots and pleased to say there were none, thus validating our pre-inspection and washing of each tomato to make sure there were no holes.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7059-jpg

  19. #344
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    ^ congrats to Mrs BiP, we usually just grow the cherry toms which seem to grow well and aren't seemingly prone to attack. just takes a handful to one of yours. Not as good in Salsa too.

  20. #345
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NamPikToot View Post
    just takes a handful to one of yours. Not as good in Salsa too.
    Christ, stanley's off again.


  21. #346
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    Anyone knows what the white stuff is on the smaller stem to the bottom right of the green papaya. Looks like a mildew type substance. Is it a problem and if yes, how to treat? Thanks in advance.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7103-jpg

  22. #347
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    Last year the wife had spectacular success with lettuce growing in the month we moved into the place...February. Unfortunately her follow-up lettuce growing was nowhere near as good, bad in fact. So I negotiated a patch back in the vegetable garden and decided to try my hand at it. Got a couple of packets of mixed seeds and followed the instructions to soak the seeds in water for 24 hours. In that time maybe 50% started sprouting. Then moved the seeds into a seedling tray then transplanted into the actual garden. Started harvesting and eating about two weeks ago, just five weeks after the seeds first got a soaking.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_6730-jpg
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  23. #348
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    This was the lettuce six days ago...24 March.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7163-jpg
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7164-jpgGreenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7165-jpg
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  24. #349
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    Lunch a couple of days ago...our lettuce and tomato.
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7180-jpg































    Today's lunch lettuce before prep. No issues with any pests this crop. All organically grown.
    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7185-jpg

  25. #350
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    Starting to get some nice mulberries from two trees we planted just on a year ago.

    Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province-img_7194-jpg

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