An Isaan Pond

[armstrong]

Who calls it a compound FFS

[Reg Dingle]

^ American folk with more than 2 square metres at the front

[helge]

The Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad


Stumpy's looks better kept


Number of creditors at the gates seems similar though

[Stumpy]

Jay running another poster off the board with his abuse. :/

That's pretty rich coming from you LuLu. I have never ran, badgered, pestered, stalked anyone off this site but you have a lonnng list.

[Stumpy]

The Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad


Stumpy's looks better kept

Thanks Helge the cement walls are the same but those seem a bit taller. Compound is just a term Armstrong.

[ootai]

Stumpy
You have probably answered my next question somewhere a long time ago on here but how big is your "compound"?
I am just curious. My compound here, that is the area that is enclosed so the dogs can be kept in, is 2 rai and if that was all I had to keep "tidy" I could almost manage and still be a lazy fat fukker. However this year the Missus has not put in a cassava crop in the remaining land and she dug a couple of ponds so I have been busy digging canals to capture the water to fill the ponds then trying to install culverts and then with the sheer amount of rain I have had to upgrade some of my drainage system. I have finally just about finished tidying up the mess that was left after having the MIL's funeral here. Everyday I have the dogs, cats and chickens to look after so I have to keep doing shit or give up and die. Luckily the BIL brings his cows over to eat some of the grass otherwise the land would really be a jungle. My latest project is to try and get the weeds under control and I have been trying to make an attachment for the digger bucket but it keeps breaking because my welding is crap. I did take your advice and bought a auto helmet for Global House, it is fabulous and I think my welding should improve(it can't get any worse).

Maybe I should have put this in the daily moan thread?

[Mendip]

Where's our Mendy?

This thread needs some serious 'getting back on topic' input. I caught a nice pla nin tonight with the dogs... I may post a picture later!

I'm a busy guy. I've been busy filling out the application form for British PM. I reckon I can fit in the job between my six week offshore rotations and so long as I do and say nothing for 44 days the economy won't crash and all is cushty and I will be a comparative success. Easy. I know nothing about about economics but I do know how to become non-resident in the UK so why not? Six weeks 'work' for a 115k pension, what's not to like.

But anyway and back to reality. I have a lot on right now. I am busier than the busiest person I know and it pisses me off. I hear and completely agree with the comments about having a gardener, or 'factum' as he now seems to have become. I agree 100% in not having hired help... never have before... but I have an 11 year-old daughter and my work takes me away for months at a time. Therein lies the difference. If I continually lived at 'home' then I wouldn't need a factum (or a wife for that matter). If I was to organise WFH, which is quite obviously impossible in this bloody country, that would mean 10 to 12 hour work days which wouldn't leave much time for anything else. It's all horses for courses, of course.

Anyway, I've forgotten my point now. But I do know that my dogs are good, my hygiene is exemplary and on the rare occasion we eat as a family, the dogs don't sit on our indoors mahogany dining table. And my apologies for over-reacting last week JP, it caught me at a bad time but also I don't think you see the difference between a garden concrete table or a family dining table?

Outside is Isaan... it don't matter... it's rural and country. The last time I ate on that table was 15 months ago... with Ootai. OK, so the conversation wasn't too highbrow but the food and hygiene was out of this world.

Don't you agree Ootai?

[aging one]

glad to see you back and in good form mate.

[ootai]

This thread needs some serious 'getting back on topic' input.

Outside is Isaan... it don't matter... it's rural and country. The last time I ate on that table was 15 months ago... with Ootai. OK, so the conversation wasn't too highbrow but the food and hygiene was out of this world.

Don't you agree Ootai?

As for getting back on topic please tell us what it is. In my last post I mentioned building some ponds and I am in Isaan so what's not "on topic" ?
As for eating on your concrete table a few bacteria is good for the digestive system, I firmly believe the world has become too sterile and that's the reason so many people have allergies.
As for the conversation I have to tone it down a bit when talking to a Geologist.

So as your daughter is at home all this week I hope you are setting a good example and showering every day and night, not getting into the Ya Dong at night so she doesn't have to put up with alcohol breath in the mornings.

And I would firmly suggest you get in a housekeeper as it would free up some of your time in not having to cook etc. It might however take up some of your night, if you got lucky.
But I suppose the downside might be the chickens having your willy for breakfast.

[Edmond]

Yayyyyyyyyyy


Mendy is back from his wittle sulky-wulk.

Top stuff.


We want peas! We want peas!

[Mendip]

^ you can stick your peas up your arse.

This is a pond thread.

[Edmond]

This is a pond thread.

I get up when I want
Except on days ending in Y
When I get rudely awakened by the nagging
(pondlife)
I put my wicker-undies on, have a cup of yaa-dong
And I think about leaving the wife's house
(Pondlife)
I feed the dogs, I sometimes feed ootai too
It gives me a sense of enormous well-being
(Pondlife)
But then I sulk for the rest of the day
Upset in the knowledge there will always be
a dining table with dog balls and my hair on it




Alllllllllll the places
So many places
And I haaaaaaad to end up here
with ootai in this stinkin', pondlife.

[Edmond]

you can stick your peas up your arse.

Shall do sir.

[DrWilly]

^ you can stick your peas up your arse.

.

I'm not sure that's what you're supposed to do with them...

And I would firmly suggest you get in a housekeeper as it would free up some of your time in not having to cook etc. It might however take up some of your night, if you got lucky.
But I suppose the downside might be the chickens having your willy for breakfast.

Wold be a nice option

[Reg Dingle]

^^^

Nice to see you back, Flouncey

You'd get my vote for PM, mate

[Stumpy]

how big is your "compound"?

Our "property" (don't want to upset Armstrong..haha) is just over 2.5 rai as my wife said years back. We bought 2 additional adjoining parcels from the original land after deciding to build our house. It's not that big quite frankly but now being fully landscaped keeping it in order and not letting it become over grown takes work ( which again I enjoy for a variety of reasons). I dispensed with live stock years back. No chickens or pigs. I decided that the smell and flies wasn't worth the headache ( grew up with cows, goats, chickens, ducks and Turkeys as a kid). Nowadays it is to easy to ride 5 minutes to the local market to buy eggs and pork and all the veggies we need. My wife agrees and even moreso now because they recently opened a mini CP and Big C store near the local market so its just convenient.

I would however consider buying the 2 rai plot next to our land. There is an old lady who lives there alone and I help her occasionally when she needs it. Her property is completely run down and the area is a jungle. Not sure what I would do with it but it's a nice parcel. Maybe an Isaan Pond with Alligators.

As for push mowers, Honda will be my next one. Although I love my Husqvarna, the ones available here are quite pricey. Btw, glad the welding helmet turned out OK. I still weld for shit even with it but at least my eyes are safe

And my apologies for over-reacting last week JP, it caught me at a bad time

Never a worry Mendy. I like you, have been incredibly busy. With Covid basically a forgotten issue, the automotive business sector is cranking up, especially the electric car segment. We are launching 2 new systems for 2 major car makers and why I haven't been posting much. Upside though, I can still work 100% from home.....for now.

And btw, I understand your "gardener" situation. I would likely do something like that if I was off on assignment for extended periods. Only way to keep it somewhat in order.

[ootai]

Our "property" (don't want to upset Armstrong..haha) is just over 2.5 rai as my wife said years back. We bought 2 additional adjoining parcels from the original land after deciding to build our house.

I would however consider buying the 2 rai plot next to our land. There is an old lady who lives there alone and I help her occasionally when she needs it. Her property is completely run down and the area is a jungle. .

Well that's a bit like what happened here the Missus bought a small block, then another next to that one which added up to 1 rai and we built a little house on that land. 6 years later when we were planning on moving here the missus said she wanted to build her new house but I hate being "confined" and so we bought the adjacent 4 rai and built our house. We later added 3 more adjacent blocks so now we have almost 16 rai which is nice but can be daunting if you want to try and keep it tidy. I just do what I want to try and keep busy but don't stress about all the stuff that needs or should be done. As for the chickens they free range and I give them a little bit of bought food but that's getting bloody expensive at over 500B for a 30kg bag. So I put some of our paddy rice through the little mill I have and feed them that more often than the bought stuff. I really like having the dogs, cats and chickens around.

Unlike Mendy I can let the dogs and chickens mingle and not have issues though the Missus gets them to chase any that wander into the house compound. On that note any place that is walled in is a compound in my vernacular, if it a small house property bounded by an open fence I would call it a yard not a compound. I had better stop waffling or Mr. Mendip will again accuse me of going off topic.

[Stumpy]

Yeah Ootai. It's easy to keep buying up adjacent parcels. I put a stop to it after I saw how large it could become. I did at one time consider a "Lampang" Pond like Mendy but steered away from it. Just didn't really want to deal with it. Again having grown up on a farm in the mountains, I just didn't want too manage live stock. Originally my FIL had chickens in a coop but the smell got pretty ripe after rainy season and the relentless flies. So we off'd the chickens and ate them and the coop was torn down. I had considered some free range birds but my wife said they will slowly migrate to living under the house and that plan was binned. We do however have five 100lb tortoises roaming the place which is always interesting. Like you I love the dogs around the place and we have such a huge variety of birds nesting around the place that I find extremely enjoyable and relaxing. Pigeons however are shot on sight. Just capped one 2 days ago as it made the mistake of resting on my roof. No love for pigeons.

And I agree with you on compound. Our entire property has a perimeter wall. But we all have various names we call it so whatever works. My Dad calls it the "Resort" as does my neighbor friend.

[Mendip]

I had better stop waffling or Mr. Mendip will again accuse me of going off topic.

No problem Ootai... but would you want me discussing my splendid cock in your garden thread?

As for chickens... they are hard work to keep clean and this wet season was the first time I've known them to smell a bit. The ground just became saturated. I still get a lot of pleasure from keeping them though and the daughter used to love watching chicks hatch and grow, although less so now that she has Youtube, Tik-Tok and God knows what else competing for her time. My next plan is go try and breed some genuine jungle fowl from Nelson with eggs from Fanny and Emma.



Anyway, one of the things that riled me so much the other night was that when I returned to the pond after doing a Hong Thong run to the house, my fishing rod had disappeared from the jetty. I had spent the evening catching tiddlers and as soon as I left the rod unattended I must have hooked a whopper which had pulled it in.

The gardener tried to help out by ineffectually dragging the mango-picker through the pond.



He soon gave up and disappeared. I think he was worried that I was going to ask him to get in and swim along the bottom. As has been mentioned before, he is so much more than just a gardener.

After he disappeared I had the idea of tying a prototype mango picker I made some years ago to the end of a length of rope and dragging the pond. I made this mango-picker from the bent head of a garden rake which I attached to a bamboo pole and it worked well although was maybe a bit cumbersome. But anyway, second throw and the rake head came off the rope and now also lay on the bottom of the pond. This did nothing to improve my mood. This nylon rope is hard to tie decent knots in and I should have used a fishing knot.



Not to give up, I drilled a hole in a different garden rake pole and tied it securely to the rope.



And then spent a couple of hours dragging the bottom of the pond.

I couldn't remember where last I had cast my tackle, so worked methodically around the pond.

A throw to the far bank...





And then slowly retrieve the rake which I could feel was dragging along the bottom most of the time.





And again...



Dragging a pond with a rake in the rain for hours on end may seem like a slightly monotonous way to spend a Friday night... but this is Korat, and after all, the options aren't great.

And anyway, after a couple of hours I lifted the rake from the water and it had snagged some fishing line.



With great anticipation I grabbed hold of the line...



... and pulled it in. Lo and behold my fishing rod was on the other end!



It is small victories like this that make life worth living. There was no sign of float or tackle on the other end of the line but I only use barbless hooks and hopefully the fish shook the hook and will live to fight another day.



And this is what it's all about... a fine brace of fish caught today in the early morning sun with the rescued fishing rod.



A nice pla nin and some other fish I don't know which I think the wife must have stocked in my absence. Maybe Nev knows?

[DrWilly]

Have you ever considered welding a small rod holder for this eventuality?

[Mendip]

^ I think you could be on to something here.

My initial plan is to keep the Hong Thong bottle in the sala so I don't have to leave the rod for top ups.

[DrWilly]

[David48atTD]

A nice pla nin and some other fish I don't know which I think the wife must have stocked in my absence. Maybe Nev knows?

Pla Too is our best guess

[Edmond]

Me Too.

[Mendip]

Pla Too is our best guess

You mean pla two? or pla song as we call it over here?

I'd get me coat if I had one...

It's a real mystery. I remember many years ago when I was still alive, back to my coarse fishing days in Somerset on the River Kenn, when we used to catch these strange fish... which turned out to be bream - roach hybrids (although the offspring are often viable). Bream - rudd hybrids were also a thing. I wonder if something has happened in our overcrowded pond? The silver skin and small scales of this fish looked a lot like the skin of our pla sawai. Bugger knows.

Anyway, I've taken KW's advice and looked into fashioning a proper rod holder. It won't be as fancy as his video but I found a length of metal tube which should suffice.



The plan tomorrow is to weld it along this diagonal beam, and Bob's yer aunt.



It's obviously a smaller girth than I'm used to but I think this could work OK?