My wife's niece (or maybe it's my wife's younger sister) decided it would be profitable to raise some chickens. We went out of town quite a long distance to where some cousins live, and bought about a dozen female chickens and a rooster. They are now living (some of the time) in a coop a dozen yards from our house. During the day they range free. Nobody collects the eggs, so now, after three months we have another 20 or so baby chicks.
Now I don't really have anything against people trying to get enough protein in their diet. When I first came back to Thailand 27 years ago we went to live with my then wife's older brother in the boondocks in Nakhorn Ratchasima province. When I use the word boondocks I mean what the Thais call /baan nawk/ "outsice the village". At the time there was no road connecting our neighborhood with the highway going to Khorat. There was also no electricity or water. Well, there was water, but not in pipes -- we got out water from a pond on a neighbor's land. Made me appreciate unpaid child labor.
Now the people who lived around there were Thailand's rural poor. They were getting along, at a subsistence level. They even had some cash income. There was a television set in one house in a ten-family village a couple of miles away from our house. Someone in the neighborhood owned a tractor, and earned a little supplemental income by exchanging batteries and recharging them while he worked during the day, so you could have appliances running of a 24 volt battery.
Anyway, it gave me an opportunity to appreciate the economics of subsistence living. Fish is a major source of protein, because they grow in the streams and only need to be caught. Every house had a few chickens running around, because they could feed themselves but would also scarf up left-over rice if anyone actually had any left over after a meal. A few people had a pig or two, but they needed feeding, and it could be a choice between feeding your kids or feeding the pig. Most Thais never eat beef, because the buffalo or oxen are too valuable as beasts of burden (this is changing now).
Anyway, I don't know exactly what the niece's plan is, but her husband is a car salesman and she earns a salary clerking in a small convenience shop (not one of the 7-11 chain). The thing is, the damned rooster crows, starting early in the morning and continuing all day long. I really don't like it.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
It's Hot!
One thing about living in a tropical country, I don't have to worry about cold weather. Do I? Well, after 27 years living in Thailand, I can feel pretty cold when the temperature drops below 25 Celsius (78 deg. Fahrenheit).
In Thailand, the year has three seasons. Or maybe it would be better to say that the Thais divide the year into three seasons. Farangs (European-descended foreigners) sometimes say the seasons are Hot, Hotter, and Hotter Than The Hinges of Hell. The Thai names for the seasons are Dry, Rainy, and Cold. I've seen other names for them, like Hot Dry and Hot Rainy, but the Thai names are single words.
I think my favorite is the Rainy season. You have to understand that during the Rainy Season it doesn't rain every day. Somewhere I read an anecdote about Winston Churchill visitingBelize. As he descended from the plane it was raining, so he asked the Governor if it was the Rainy Season. The Governor replied, "In Belize we have two seasons. In one season it rains every day, in the other it rains all day."
In Thailand during the Rainy Season it doesn't rain every day. It just rains more than during the Dry Season. It is not the case that if never rains during the Dry Season, it's just that it rains a lot less than during the Rainy Season. The Dry Season, which the Thais also call the Hot Season, it might rain two or three times during the period from the end of February to the end of May. In recent years the season has actually been ending about the middle of April, with rains two or three times a week.
During the Rainy Season, from about the end of May until the end of October, it mostly rains four or five times a week, with more rain coming in September and October. October is notorious for the floods in Bangkok, but the last few years have seen flooding earlier in the season in provinces farther north, even in Chiang Mai province as early as May.
Anyway, there is good reason why the Thais call the Dry Season the Hot Season as well -- even somebody who hates cold as much as me has to admit that it gets uncomfortably warm. I get uncomfortable when the temperature goes over 36 deg. Centigrade (96 F.). Since I'm retired and don't have to actually labor out in the sun I can tolerate it, even though I sweat.
I used to wonder about novels I read which described characters who had spent many years in the tropics. When they returned "home" (usually England) they were cold all the time. Well, I can simulate that by going any place that has air conditioning in Thailand (such as my own bedroom since last week). If the temperature goes below 27 deg. C (80 F) I feel chilly. 25 C (78 F) is downright cold. After a couple of hours I can't stand it.
In Thailand, the year has three seasons. Or maybe it would be better to say that the Thais divide the year into three seasons. Farangs (European-descended foreigners) sometimes say the seasons are Hot, Hotter, and Hotter Than The Hinges of Hell. The Thai names for the seasons are Dry, Rainy, and Cold. I've seen other names for them, like Hot Dry and Hot Rainy, but the Thai names are single words.
I think my favorite is the Rainy season. You have to understand that during the Rainy Season it doesn't rain every day. Somewhere I read an anecdote about Winston Churchill visitingBelize. As he descended from the plane it was raining, so he asked the Governor if it was the Rainy Season. The Governor replied, "In Belize we have two seasons. In one season it rains every day, in the other it rains all day."
In Thailand during the Rainy Season it doesn't rain every day. It just rains more than during the Dry Season. It is not the case that if never rains during the Dry Season, it's just that it rains a lot less than during the Rainy Season. The Dry Season, which the Thais also call the Hot Season, it might rain two or three times during the period from the end of February to the end of May. In recent years the season has actually been ending about the middle of April, with rains two or three times a week.
During the Rainy Season, from about the end of May until the end of October, it mostly rains four or five times a week, with more rain coming in September and October. October is notorious for the floods in Bangkok, but the last few years have seen flooding earlier in the season in provinces farther north, even in Chiang Mai province as early as May.
Anyway, there is good reason why the Thais call the Dry Season the Hot Season as well -- even somebody who hates cold as much as me has to admit that it gets uncomfortably warm. I get uncomfortable when the temperature goes over 36 deg. Centigrade (96 F.). Since I'm retired and don't have to actually labor out in the sun I can tolerate it, even though I sweat.
I used to wonder about novels I read which described characters who had spent many years in the tropics. When they returned "home" (usually England) they were cold all the time. Well, I can simulate that by going any place that has air conditioning in Thailand (such as my own bedroom since last week). If the temperature goes below 27 deg. C (80 F) I feel chilly. 25 C (78 F) is downright cold. After a couple of hours I can't stand it.
Friday, January 23, 2009
What's it all about, Alfie?
A few months ago I got put in touch with a cousin whom I haven't met since we were young children. Among other things she asked me was why I decided to retire in Thailand. I gave the usual answers: when I was on active duty I was stationed in Thailand and married a Thai lady; the cost of living, including basic medical care, is much lower here; I love the food; I grew up in Ohio and Michigan, and I hate cold weather. But this morning as I was standing on my front porch, I realized there was another, more important reason. Butterflies.
Growing up in the United States, I basically knew only what we call the Middle West. I was a child of the suburbs, but spent time during summer vacations at my grandparents' farm in Iowa. My grandparents were interested in bird watching, and I learned a little about birds from them. But I don't recall ever seeing a butterfly that was any species other than the black and orange Monarch.
Back in 1973 I was reassigned from Thailand back to Washington, D.C. For the next several years I used my annual leave to come back and visit my wife in Thailand for 30 days at a time. On one of those visits, Lek decided one day to go fishing. We packed up a lunch to take along, with a couple of bottles of beer for me (it was before I quit drinking alcohol). Walking through the uncultivated meadows to the stand of woods where her fishing spot was, we passed a small tree. I guess it was only about fifteen feet high, and the foliage formed almost a sphere, maybe seven or eight feet in diameter. When I first noticed it I couldn't understand at first why it seemed to be covered with jewels. After I got a little closer I could see the whole tree was covered with butterflies! Certainly hundreds, maybe thousands of them! The glittering effect was caused by their wings opening and closing. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I have never seen anything before or since that struck me more.
I can't tell now whether the butterflies on that tree were all of one species or not, but I am sure they were not all Monarchs. This morning as I look out from my porch I can see eight or ten butterflies. Three are fairly small, a bright yellow. One or two are a little larger, very pale yellow, almost white. There are a couple of small, dark blue ones. And there's even one with the same black and orange coloring of a Monarch, but smaller than the ones I remember from the states.
There are also a variety of birds living nearby. We've got a flock of a dozen or so pigeons. They're the traditional grey and black, less variation that pigeons I've seen in cities. There is also a flock or doves that comes around from time to time, and a flock or two of sparrows, maybe thirty or forty altogether. There are also some swifts that come around in the morning and evening. I can tell they're swifts because of the distinctive shape of their wings and the lack of the swallow tail.
But it's the butterflies that really warm my heart.
Growing up in the United States, I basically knew only what we call the Middle West. I was a child of the suburbs, but spent time during summer vacations at my grandparents' farm in Iowa. My grandparents were interested in bird watching, and I learned a little about birds from them. But I don't recall ever seeing a butterfly that was any species other than the black and orange Monarch.
Back in 1973 I was reassigned from Thailand back to Washington, D.C. For the next several years I used my annual leave to come back and visit my wife in Thailand for 30 days at a time. On one of those visits, Lek decided one day to go fishing. We packed up a lunch to take along, with a couple of bottles of beer for me (it was before I quit drinking alcohol). Walking through the uncultivated meadows to the stand of woods where her fishing spot was, we passed a small tree. I guess it was only about fifteen feet high, and the foliage formed almost a sphere, maybe seven or eight feet in diameter. When I first noticed it I couldn't understand at first why it seemed to be covered with jewels. After I got a little closer I could see the whole tree was covered with butterflies! Certainly hundreds, maybe thousands of them! The glittering effect was caused by their wings opening and closing. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I have never seen anything before or since that struck me more.
I can't tell now whether the butterflies on that tree were all of one species or not, but I am sure they were not all Monarchs. This morning as I look out from my porch I can see eight or ten butterflies. Three are fairly small, a bright yellow. One or two are a little larger, very pale yellow, almost white. There are a couple of small, dark blue ones. And there's even one with the same black and orange coloring of a Monarch, but smaller than the ones I remember from the states.
There are also a variety of birds living nearby. We've got a flock of a dozen or so pigeons. They're the traditional grey and black, less variation that pigeons I've seen in cities. There is also a flock or doves that comes around from time to time, and a flock or two of sparrows, maybe thirty or forty altogether. There are also some swifts that come around in the morning and evening. I can tell they're swifts because of the distinctive shape of their wings and the lack of the swallow tail.
But it's the butterflies that really warm my heart.
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