Village Life

The creek rose significantly higher after raining most nights for a week or so. But we have had a few dry days and the mushroom stalls have started popping up at the intersection at traffic lights.

But it has been a funny wet season. Sporadic showers after an early start. Thereafter mostly rumbling thunder, a bit of lightening and then little to show for it.

The termite mushrooms aren’t that exciting either.

Smaller, scappy and the ones I have seen have already opened. Hopefully more to come.

Despite this cars are now beginning to line up. Hopefully with more to come.

 

A World Heritage site, the Thung Yai Naesuan and Huai Kha Khamin Wildlife Sanctuary covers an area of over 600,000 hectares.

Access is limited to a few hides and walking trails around the administrative centre. Although there are accommodation facilities these are only available for research and study purposes rather than casual visitors.

More than half of the total population of the Indochinese tiger survives in Thailands Western Forest Complex, with Huai Kha Khaeng as its core habitat. This a story of Huai Kha Khaeng, a story about Seub Nakhasathienva the superintendent whose work and death at the sanctuary was largely responsible for it being declared a World Heritage site.

A struggle and commitment best expressed by the solitude and simplicity of a bench near his cottage that overlooks a bend of the river at the Sanctuaries Headquarters. A testament to the memory of a man who dedicated his life to preserving something he believed in passionately.

Phian has 12 rai just off the main road. It is a good long term investment. But she hasn’t had much luck getting it to pay for upkeep. She dug a dam and tried sugar cane. Only to get hit by the drought. Last year she planted rice but had difficulty getting into the lands, as bad drainage made it difficult harvesting. She then decided to dig a borehole and plant sugarcane again.

They found water. But the flow was not nearly strong enough to irrigate the lands.

In desperation she made the decision to excavate and dig a bigger, deeper, better dam.

The crew consisted of a macro mechanical digger, two dumper trucks, and a tractor equipped with a grader blade and ploughs.

The two trucks carried the soil from the dam to the landfill site, dumping it for the tractor to shift and level.

 

There was much excitement when they hit water. A small spring virtually in the middle of the dam. And another in the one corner which trickled out of the dams wall.

 

Concrete pipes were lowered over the spring in the floor to create a well. Not sure how this will work out. But will wait and see.

 

After the rains, once the soil has settled, the landfill will be used for building well out of reach of any flood water.

 

The trucks shuttled back and forth for two days. After which the macro was loaded onto a low loader and off to the next job. And that was when the skies opened and the rain came bucketing down.

 

Leaving us to wake to a few large muddy puddles in the driveway.

 

Which required a bit more digging and filling. But by hand this time.

 

Not one of the easiest thing I have ever done. In fact applying for a family visa for the UK  has to be one of the most stressful thing I have ever attempted.

In part due to  the hefty price tag that comes with it.

It is costing us two thousand pounds each for my wife and two boys plus a further two thousand each for the Immigration Health Surcharge.

 

We are not farmers by any stretch of the imagination. Nor are we strictly organic. But I am constantly reminded of the practical necessity of growing organic produce as we browse the local market where all the vegetables look crisp and perfect.