We had tree damage from high winds and also wanted to trim the hang-over into our neighbor’s yard, so the tree were pruned leaving more sun than we want, but looking neater even though bare.  The new leaves are coming back now.

The big fish bowl needed cleaning, so that was done.  The understone filters, aeration, and a little elbow grease seems to have cleaned it up.  We have four bigalgae eaters and over a hundred guppies.  We all enjoy them and Choom’s mother feeds them every morning.

We went to see the wat they’re building in Sikio and the progress is remarkable.  Still much to do, but great strides have been made.  We try to go about every six months and have the last five years.

We went to Seven Sisters Falls in Pak Chong.  Hit big traffic jam due to accident on the way back by the big lake and steep rolling hills.  That was no fun, but the visit to the falls was nice.

We went to another reservoir and the Korat Zoo.  The reservior looked like a nice picnic area and the zoo was fun, feeding the giraffes and watching the animals.  The zoo seemed dirtier than usual.  There is always consruction going on, so it must be hard to keep it clean.  We rode the zoo bus, but Choom’s mom did well with the walking.  The giraffes were funny.  They eat bananas and string beans. that is all but one who shook his/her head no to string beans but gobbled the bananas.

Also had an “animal week” at home.  Had a snake about the size of my index finger and a meter long on outside bedroom widow sill on the second floor.  Choom didn’t like that!!! Watch birds in the trees and thought I saw a squirrel; however, turned out to be a rat…  We also have a lizard with a blue head in our tree and birds galore.  We enjoy the animals, even the snake.  Only insects we don’t like are ants.  They too seem to get everywhere.

On March 11th I turned 65 and on June 14th my grandson was two…..

Been doing alot of experimentation with website and weather station.  Trying different maps, charts, flash pages, etc.  Will probably start on year end make-over soon, been playing with formats for menus, etc.

We are letting some friends plant rice on the farm for 20% of the harvest.  The guy who dug our second pond is working the farm.  He’s got it ploghed waiting on more rain to plant.

Been playing with Ubuntu Linux also…. just a good learning experience with new applications.

Yesterday was Father’s Day and heard from all the children which is always nice.

Well that’s it for now…

They came to see our home and the farm. After our home tour and farm visit we had lunch at Thai buffet at Sima Thani hotel.

It’s great when friends travel so long to visit. Long rides on plane and van.

I really enjoyed the visit.

The garden still brings surprises: new orchids, new plants and more baby fish. Leaves are falling and replacements coming in right behind them. The weather station got some new software (WeatherFlash) and added a webcam to the website. I spent some time finding the drivers for old Ezonics 305 and some freeware (FWink) to upload images to Weather Underground. Reinstalled some software for my notebook (PaperPort and Omnipage for Strobe XP100 scanner and BJ85 printer).

Had a house full of relatives for Valentine’s Day … any excuse for food and a party. The kids had fun and Choom’s mom enjoyed the company.

Took the truck in for 95,000 km check-up: replaced broken antenna (Choom and low wires and trees out a friend’s farm didn’t get along) and replaced one shock absorber that was leaking.

Got my cell phone fixed again. Can’t complain my Nokia is over five years old … need to shop for new one.

Replaced my everyday watch, another old friend broke. This time so I couldn’t replace the band.

More sorting my “stuff” in boxes. I’ve been through them four or five times, each time chipping away at my packrat pile. I chucked things I’m convinced I won’t ever need. Checked some things to be sure they still worked. And made the decision to trash some things after I had some time to check’em out again. You can’t rush when sorting your treasures from your trash … or is that your trash from your treasures.

In a nutshell, I’ve been keeping busy.

Five friends from Japan are planning a visit the beginning of March. A pleasant surprise. A long way to travel to see me, but glad they’re making the trip. Only a long weekend trip (four days). I’m happy visiting me was fit in the schedule.

That’s it for this one…

The farm got some new much needed fence. Need to keep cows from eating fruit trees and get ready for rice preparation. Also, lots of cleaning up in progress.

Fish bowl seems to be doing better with bottom filter added……. fish are increasing in size and numbers…. water clear.

Went to a nice house warming party just north of Non Thai. Met some new foreign guys and had a good meal. Band from local high school was decent and watching the kids dance fun.

21 Jan – Grandmom is off for few weeks to Ban Nuk to stay with her daughter Pen. She seems to like it here, but sometimes gets bored with routine.

The weather station software upgraded to Virtual Weather Station 14.01. Some issues with report formats after upgrade, but all sorted out. Just finished updating year end reports on website. Been trying little tweaks here and there.

Went to the petrified wood museum near the Zoo. Very interesting. 30 baht for Choom, her sister and husband, 100 baht for me. It was worth it. The museum is not that old 1995 and very well organized with video shows that have English subtitles. Most signs bilingual.

22 Jan – Had two inches of rain in forty minutes via Thunderstorm. Rained on 21st too, but drizzle was neglible until late night when we got half inch. We can use the rain, but don’t need heavy downpours. Weather has been cool, nice breeze, and a little humid after dry spell.

’til next time

First I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday and wish you a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year. 2010 is the Year of the Tiger (Thai Girl).
The holidays were good. We went to a church Christmas Party Church of Blessing in Korat) … singing, music, dance, games, food, and a genuine good time. Got to spend 40 minutes on Skype video call with our children and grandson. Avatar is getting big and into everything.

The farm – was supposed to be dormant during 2009, but my brother-in-law planted some rice, but the harvest was very poor. In fairness to him, maintaining the farm was not a top priority as he worked many jobs supporting his family. This was his last year and another brother-in-law will try to grow rice in 2010. This brother-in-law will plant and transplant in water, while the last four years they broadcast ans covered the seeds and waited for the rains to come. The first year was great, the next two okay and last year dismal. Putting in more fence and trying to clean up some. Choom was thinking of selling, but has changed her mind. We’d like to build a farm house when we have a few extra baht.

The garden – Things are going okay. We have to keep trimming trees, some plants are getting big and the orchids bloomed. Choom continues to rearrange to catch the sun or hide shade loving plants. Sun started back North on 21st. Fish are doing great … algae eaters nibble on Choom’s finger and Choom’s mom pretty much feeds them every day. My job is to clean the filter. Plants on water doing fine. No water lilies in the bowl as fish were digging in the mud, fouling the water. Acquired two little monks with infectous smiles to keep our garden gnome company. Just looking at them makes you smile too.

Smile

The website – decided on simple picture format. Easier to maintain. Just finished renovating backgrounds (went from dark brown to dark green)and getting ready for 2010 weather data. Accuweather has some good symbol maps which I’ve added to the website. Also added historic humidity data.

The weather station has been chugging along. Downloaded some software for sharing com ports so I can try another weather program and still keep the original running. Haven’t installed it yet. I use Ambient Weather’s Virtual Weather Station v14 and want to try FreeWx. The US snow storms are not missed. It has been between 65 F and 95 F every day. Could use some rain!!! Last rain was mid-October. We are just about even with 30 year average.

My computer – upgraded my bedroom computer to Windows 7 Ultimate. So far so good. I used PC Mover Win 7 Upgrade Assistant instead of clean install. It has worked pretty well. Only real glitch is that I still get outdated graphic files after clearing the cache. Don’t know where they’re hiding. When I get the graphic and use the compatibilty mode refresh I get the current graphic for use in the cache. It’s a pain as I check that uploads to the website have posted. I’ll continue to search and may wind up doing a clean install after backing up and gathering all my program CD’s and files.

Facebook — can’t “get into it.” I mostly use it to get pictures and loads of writing on the wall by friends, nieces and nephews.

New Year’s resolution — try to post on blog more (right!?!)

That’s all for this time. Have a safe and healthy holiday.

Off to the embassy tomorrow to get notarized statement I need for visa renewal.

Took some photos of garden, but still wrestling with best/easiest way to maintain photo section of website. Might just reduce size to most recent photos. Still thinking about it…

Had two days of heavy rain and thunderstorms. We’re about even for the year, but has almost twice the average for August.

Seems like lots of spam from internet drug sellers making comments on the blog.

Well, that’s it for now.
9 September 2009

We’re also replanting plants to larger pots. Spider Plants that spent most of year at farm unattended are doing great with a little care…surprised they survived. Replanted orchids doing great too. Garden a great source of satisfaction and appreciation of nature.

Weather Station plugs along regardless of cooperation by power, computer, software and the internet.

Website still needs work on photo section. As I was in the process of converting I have come to the conclusion what I had in mind is too difficult to maintain. I’m revising my plans before I proceed further. I’m probably going to simplify as much as possible one of the three formats I like.

22 July 2009 Solar Eclipse – overcast sky precluded trying to see. But television (BBC) and Stellarium (astronomy software program) provided a look at the event.

Haven’t been to the farm recently, but will get there eventually.

That’s all for now.

24 July 2009

Grandson’s birthday on 14 June.  Still working ATM card replacement, but looks good. PFCU is sending Fed-Ex, but I kinda like the Western Union route, less trips to bank/ATM.  Garden doing great, some new orchids.  Fish pond doing great too.  Put in a larger filter.

The 100 year old mother of a friend died this month.  The funeral at the wat was interesting.  Being a people watcher I enjoyed the great-great-grandsons’ becoming monks… Over 100 monks in attendance.  The western friends came as a group.  Last time I saw some of them was at the fish harvest at our farm.

Weather Station and Internet SOS (same old stuff):  Power outage cause by exploding transformer on the main road, software freeze (no idea why, just stopped) and the unpredictable internet.  When it runs smooth it really runs smooth for days.  I’m learning to just accept these interruptions as something I have no real control over and just get the station operational as soon as I can.

We spread sand to try a thicken our Malayasian grass.  Seems to be working.  Choom, replanted several of the baby orchids and they seem to be doing fine.  The philadendron is climbing one of the cement posts on the carport, so we help with some jute.  That too looks good.  The rain is about average for the year, but short for June,and never lasts longer than an hour or two, usually half-an-hour.

Well, ’til next time.

29 June 2009