Rice planting in the country

Here we go.  THe rice is being planted for a new crop.  He rain is falling and there is water to flood the fields.  The muddy field is smoothed and the rice plans are spaced out so they have room to grow.

See the bundles of rice plant in the fore ground.

Here is what the field finally looks like.  To see other stages of rice planting follow this link.

Julian soccer player from Sweden.

Met this young man today.  He is visiting from Sweden for a few weeks.  He is only 15 but quite a guy I am sure.  We only talked for an hour or so but we discussed a lot about soccer/football and politics of the middle east.  Actually Julian is a Swedish citizen but his family is Kurdish from Iraq.  I have great respect for him from the one hour we talked.  I wish him luck in his soccer career and his life.

Electric fire

I was in the kitchen (outside) washing clothes when the washer quit.  I also noticed the hot water pot was dead.  I went into the house and smelled smoke.  I inspected the electric service panel and found a burnt wire.  I asked some women camped out front of my house if they knew a guy to fix the electric.  A guy showed up within 10 minutes.  He lives in the village.  He fixed the burnt wire and secured some loose connections in the service panel.  He also fixed 3 defective outlets for me.  It took him about an hour.  He asked for 200b (baht) for the work.  That is a little less than $6.  I know I really should have only paid him about $3 but it is Sunday morning.  So I gave him the 200b.  Now I can wash clothes again.

From the market

Here is some pictures of yellow chicken feet, shrimp and crabs.  Chicken feet are popular in Asia.  They can be in a soup or fried like KFC.

more market pictures BUGS

Here are more market pictures.  The 3 plates in the back are heaped with cooked bugs.  I could do an entire blog on the market and provide new photos everyday.  So here I include pictures of bugs sold for eating.

Fishing with a net

gather up the net

 Paddle slowly releasing the net.  It is raining here too.  The net is about 100 meters long with floats.  It is spread along the shoreline in about 1 meter of water

After the net is in place come back inside the net splashing the water

slowly gather the net to see if you got something,  As you pull the net the boat moves along.

I'll have 40b please

The local filling station for motorbikes.  This guy has a shack with a barrel of gas inside.  On the top is a hand pump and a glass so you can see what you are getting,  He pumps the desired quantity into the glass and releases the fuel into the plastic tube which is inserted into the tank.  You can see what she got for 40b or about $1.30.  I have seen these filling stations in the country before.  They look exactly the same down to the wooden shack with a window cut in it.  I did talk about buying bottles of gasoline before at convinent stores. CLick and see.

Nice lounge chair

Check out this chair made from some sticks and the plastic box strapping.  Again they are not wasting anything.  The plastic strapping is hardly ever thrown away.  I even have a piece that I am using for clothes line.

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We have a tree at the lake that is bearing fruit.  The fruit is in bunches attached to the trunk of the tree.  This thing is loaded with fruit.  Not quite sure what it is though,  It could be a langsat.