Instantly Green Farm: Thailand's Rainy Season 💦

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Good Saturday morning to you folks. Look how green the land is. Two weeks of rain and uh greenification is almost complete. Check out the drainage canal full as just seen a snake head attacking some small fish against the far far bank there. So, I think it's time that Lee tied a new um surface lure and started uh catching some food for me and ton loves the snake head. Uh goats are happy because there's so much fresh fiber for them. They don't eat this, but um I'm going to pull a lot of that stuff out by the roots. Uh there's a bit of a stronghold of it further along. So, uh Ton's gone into town. She's doing her good daughter um chores today. She's taking a mum into town and ka on the uh Benhur chariot or brown her chariot we call it now. So the back uh the bike is back and on the road. I wouldn't say fully repaired but it's uh it's in a good enough state to be roadw worthy and uh yeah it's uh getting a few supplies from town. Saturday is market day and main market day and um I think it's going to be quite busy early on because there's rain forecast in about an hour.

[00:01:20]So, I'm busy as a bee trying to get all these monkeys as full as quickly as possible. Uh, and then get them back in the compound. Yesterday, we took them down there. You see where the little trailer is that we used to carry their food? In the afternoon, we took pushed them down there. And if you remember years ago, we had the old original goat house behind the behind our farmhouse.

[00:01:47]And um they still got a a boundary fence in there and it was getting quite overgrown. So we had them in there for about four hours yesterday. We've done a video on that previously how quick they can um gain control back of the the land there. And yeah, although there's only 18 of them, they made short work of it.

[00:02:06]So that that's done and dusted. Uh it meant that we didn't have to cut food for them in the afternoon or stay out here with them. The reason I've been staying out here with them this last couple of months is because up until yesterday, that ditch there, the little canal, um was empty, so they could just jump across and uh they never stay where they're supposed to. Goats given the chance.

[00:02:32]So, we we'll back out up here. It's nice because goats don't like to get wet, so they prefer to stay on the high road.

[00:02:40]And although it is still wet up here, it's nothing like the deep undergrowth.

[00:02:44]You look across there, it's nothing like that. They get absolutely soaking wet going in there. You see too, in the last couple of days, she'd been cutting the other side of the canal there, cutting all the napia. And after she cuts the napia, she cuts the weeds down, which is again, it's it's this sort of stuff.

[00:03:04]Chill, chill, chill. Just a tractor.

[00:03:08]Not just that, they can hear someone talking behind the bamboo over there.

[00:03:13]Bamboo. No fresh shoots yet. Tim went in there for a butchers yesterday. Nothing showing, but it won't be long now. We've had that massive rain, flying termites all around last night. It was an absolute nightmare. So, we couldn't go in the house, so we thought we'd be sensible. And we got the karaoke out.

[00:03:30]And uh we had the last pack of salami that um Chris bought out for us when he came out with mom and some cheese. And uh yeah, we just uh nibbled had a few beers and uh we're singing till I think about 11:00. That's our latest night for a long long time. So we haven't cut food for the goats this morning. I just said to two, you you shoot off with your mum and kimuk and get what you need to get at the market and uh I'll just take these out. But while I'm out with them, the idea is they can go up to there without them being able to get across the canal. Unless they Well, let's show you down here. Unless they do the leap of faith, they won't make it.

[00:04:13]Not even the big ones can clear it. So, uh it's quite deep. The only thing is there's there's higher synin in there and some of the young ones that haven't gone subsurface before. They might try they might think that that's a terrairmer and and it's about 3T deep underneath it underneath the higher. So hopefully no one no one goes for it. As long as um goats like uh Natasha and um Vivian and uh Owenette, as long as none of them jump across, then uh the little ones won't even try it.

[00:04:49]Been in here, cut all this by hand, been giving it that to the goats in their compound. It's uh growing back so quickly now. But yeah, they like to go across here.

[00:05:01]I say it's been it's been dry for months and months. You can see all the old higher synth in there. Br. This is perfect for uh snake head fishing. So I use a floating lure that looks a little bit like a frog. And uh the points of the hooks are turned upwards and sort of like semiconcealed so you can pull it through the grass and weeds and it generally doesn't get stuck. And uh the snake head are in all the bits of weed underneath and they they jump up for it.

[00:05:31]It's a very very addictive and adrenalinefueled type of fishing and a lot of people don't like lure fishing. I used to be one of them, but once I caught my first snake head on a surface lure, that's it.

[00:05:42]I absolutely love it. So, uh yeah, there's still more to cut down there, but that's probably it for the uh for the dry season. Well, it is that that's it for the dry season now. So, there's just food and that for for the goats all over the place. So, we've gone from them eating the reserves now sort of like they won't be able to keep up. Even this bit along here from from where we've come from, I don't know how long that is. 300 m, I suppose. 400 m all the way from one end to the other end of the gate. Um, yeah, full on rainy season. 18 goats. They're probably not going to keep up with this because um don't forget Ton still does one trip a day for the lucina for them. So although we don't really need it, uh it's really good for the goats. It's a nice treat for them as well. Also, if it's heavy raining, um then we can't keep letting them out. So we we do still have to feed them. Although the although there's more food more than enough food out for them here, we don't we don't want them out here in thunderstorms. And I don't want to be out here with them either.

[00:06:49]You see the other side of the fence there? That's full now with eucalyptus all the way past the end of our farm down there. So that's one side that isn't sprayed or burnt right next to us. And up to about there on the other side of our boundary, that's all trees. Rice. Rice.

[00:07:16]Uh, and I think they're putting more trees in down there. Uh, at the back that is still a bit of an issue. An issue. It's not perfect cuz there it's tapioca or cassava's being grown there.

[00:07:29]So, that is sprayed unfortunately. Uh, but that's a long long way over there and uh hopefully it doesn't come all the way down onto the onto the land. So, this is the problem. Um, we have been asked are we certified organic? We're not. Although we do we are hellbent on being chemical free totally. Um yeah because we get runoff from uh other other neighboring farms. Uh it's just going to wash onto our land. So there's there's not an awful lot we can do about that. I know you can put buns is it bung and um canals and all that sort of thing but uh it's uh I think we've had the m we've spent enough on um excavators to last us a lifetime. So uh be different when the choke comes. The choke paper will enable us to um actually move soil off the land. So we'll keep top we in effect we can keep the top soil and uh shape them around more crayfish ponds and uh and then let the excavation company keep the subs soil and they'll take it away and basically you get all your ponds dug for free. And um yeah, that's still the plan folks. Uh we've got one more stocking to do uh as regarding our crayfish ponds and then every single crayfish pond that we've got is fully stocked. Um the new pond on the island is now producing babies. So it's self-replicating. All we do is trap now and we've been catching loads of little gung foy which are the little glass shrimps. Um and Ton sells them in the village. she just posts on Facebook and sells and buy the 100 g uh 30 B for 100 g and uh it's not even a handful. So I don't know I don't know what the current rate of exchange is but back in the UK 8 uh 30 B is about 70 80p I think. So um I wouldn't pay that for them. Um the ones that uh we don't sell Ton cooks up. So she makes sort of like a a little shrimp fritter just cook the whole thing. So, we do purge them in clean water for 24 hours. And the ones that um go over a little bit, uh we just throw them in for the crayfish in the um in the breeding tanks, which is pretty much the perfect diet, certainly for um our adult crayfish that that we use for selective breeding.

[00:09:59]Uh yeah, it's good. But we have to keep the numbers of the shrimp down because when you throw your pellet in to feed the crayfish, the shrimp get a large proportion of them and uh crayfish pellet, well, we use a sinking shrimp pellet for the for the ponds. Uh it's flipping expensive. So, our idea really is to um sell the little glass shrimp to pay for the shrimp feed for the for the crayfish. But we also put other food items in the in the ponds as well. Not so much food scraps from the kitchen because we got all sorts of sloppy things in the bucket that that normally just gets launched into the lake for the for the fish in the lake. But uh yeah, fruits and grasses and straw. Uh a lot of uh coconut branches as well or was it frs? Fongs. Uh yeah, we uh we throw them in there as well and they'll uh they'll nibble on them, but it also creates a good breeding habitat for them. So, I've been putting dozens and dozens of them in all our ponds, and it it certainly seems to be well, it's not it's not hurting them because when we when we trap them, we are getting pregnant crayfish. Certainly, the wand on the lake, which we dug a little bit uh shallower than the others. The others were originally uh dug for fish ponds, so we were we were growing tilapia basically and walking catfish.

[00:11:20]But yeah, it's uh it's looking up, folks. It really is.

[00:11:28]herd got dewormed two days ago, didn't you, Vivian? Eh, uh, still waiting for the right time for the goat man to come.

[00:11:36]He he called a couple of days ago as well, asking when we when we're going to sell. God loves a try. I don't know.

[00:11:44]He's ringing up every two weeks or so now. So, we're still waiting for um one M. Yeah. One M to be 20 kg. Uh and and then the another six are going with him.

[00:11:56]So, no change on the uh the goat front apart from they're going to squash this old fence down that we put up. Only temporary last year. Come on. Get out.

[00:12:06]Come on.

[00:12:07]Come on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Guo. Guo. It's one of my new karaoke songs. It's a joy to behold, guys.

[00:12:18]Lovely. Right. Um, what I am going to do the next time that the goats go back over there, I'm going to start yuk yoring in the canal. It's nothing naughty. It's uh my lift net. I've left it in there and I've uh squeezed some wet fish pellets together like a putty and thrown it on top of the net. It's a big square net that lays on the bottom of the of the uh the the canal. And uh leave it a few minutes. So fish come in, start eating the pellet, and then you lift it up with a big bamboo pole and you collect your fish and stick them in the bucket. So I've done that a few times. So so many wild fish in there. Um and so far I've just been emptying them into the lake as foder for the um the predatory fish. Uh I've kept a few for our marble sand goi that I put into the uh one of the tanks back at the house.

[00:13:10]Um I might have to eat them soon actually because um we need the more tanks available for the crayfish. It's just it's just well it's just gone off the scale really. So um yeah, what I was saying to Ton is what we might do is when we get uh catch some really big uh pregnant females here, we'll set up another another uh hatching tank area.

[00:13:32]Normally, we've been we have been putting the uh pregnant females back in the ponds, but there's so many uh I'd like them to to go in near the house and uh we can take care of the babies even better then. And we started selling the juvenile crayfish as well. So, it's another it's another facet of the uh uh what would we say sales plan, I suppose.

[00:13:56]How we doing Neptune?

[00:13:59]He's a good-looking boy. He is. where they're all good looking, isn't they?

[00:14:02]The goats.

[00:14:05]It's a bit It's a bit moist, not just from the rain, but it's very very humid.

[00:14:11]So, uh thankfully for you, you can't see see me or smell me. My right old state this morning. Look at them tucking into that. Isn't it lovely?

[00:14:23]Update on the uh lack of trees around the lake. Well, there isn't any more, folks. Starting from this side of the fence here, I would say about every 50 meters, I've put a neem tree in. And uh they range from sort of like six or seven in tall to about 2T tall. And uh since I put them in, it's rained three times. So hopefully all the ones that I've pinned in, the roots will have taken and uh they're good to go. Ton's also looking for kilick. I don't know the uh the fang name for them. It's um it's sounds has a bit it's a green leaf tree. Uh but the the leaves um the fresh leaves they're picked and you make uh a really bitter tasting curry. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I hated it the first time I tried it here in Thailand, but uh I don't know about you folks that have lived out here for a while. your your taste buds tend to change over time with a lot of the uh uh the sour and bitter flavors in a lot of the dishes.

[00:15:32]And it's it's one of my favorites now.

[00:15:35]So, um when Ton goes and collects them to to make a curry, um if she go sees any seed pods, she collects them. So, she got a load of seed for me and I've putotted them all up and hopefully we can grow our own. It's it's yet another tree the goats don't like. So the the neem trees that I was telling you about have gone all the way from over there round the back of the lake D and to the other side of the gate there. So really I only need about another four to fill in here. This is this is a neem tree here.

[00:16:13]Two wants me to prune that somehow.

[00:16:16]Not sure. Oh, actually I just remembered Chris is out in November and uh he used to do chainsawing as a living. So, um yeah, there you go, mate. Prune that for us. Wouldn't take you long before breakfast, I reckon. Um so, she eats the the flowers which are incredibly bitter, but you have it with a sweet chili um dip that's normally got pork skin in.

[00:16:41]Doesn't sound that great, but it is.

[00:16:43]It's a nice It's a nice balance of flavors between bitter bitterness and sweetness.

[00:16:49]Um, yeah. So, I reckon if we can get the kick, the bitter leave one that the goats don't like, we can intersperse them between the neem trees. Probably can't pick it up on the camera, but right down the far end called uh Macroman Point or Poachers Nook in the bay, there's some fish jumping in there.

[00:17:11]I can't get over the fence. So, we It's been wired shut.

[00:17:16]So, yeah, I'm uh I'm out here every morning still. Uh not really doing meditation out here. Uh I still doing that sort of like early afternoon.

[00:17:26]There's two nooknam flying across there.

[00:17:29]Every morning that I come out, I see them. The record so far, nook bednam are a wild duck. 12 I've seen all together.

[00:17:37]And it was like a squadron in a Vshape.

[00:17:40]But what they do, I think they are nesting in what we call the jungle or fangorn forest. Uh they'll circle and circle for oh a good half hour or so and then you'll see them swoop down disappear into the trees. So I think they're they're nesting. Look there's another two going past. Hope that I hope it picks them up. They're beautiful.

[00:17:57]They're not a huge duck but uh there's they make a lovely little squeaky sound.

[00:18:02]So um even when you don't see you normally hear them before you see them.

[00:18:06]Loads of king fishes about since we emptied the uh the ponds when ma Chris were here back in April. We put thousands and thousands of small fish in here. Oh, nearly fell over. And and of course with all the wild fish I've been putting in from the canal. Uh there's plenty of easy pickings for the um for the king fishes to take off the surface. So that's really nice to see. I don't mind losing a few little fish.

[00:18:34]Haven't done an awful lot of fishing.

[00:18:36]Ton caught a whopping um walking catfish the other day. They're the ones that we used to grow near the house and that were fed on goat remains. So yeah, it was a I don't know. It's hard to tell how how how big it was because tunes are so short, but yeah, it was a good 3 and 1/2t, I reckon. So Oh, there's a nice fish just come up there.

[00:18:59]Starting to see the uh the Chow Prior catfish, nicknamed the dog eating catfish. They uh they tend to roll early in the morning about an hour to two hours after sunrise. So I normally come out with me uh well I was going to say my coffee. I don't normally have coffee first thing in the morning now. I know it's it's all changed folks. I have uh freshly squeeed squeeed squeezed limes off our orchard uh with my Himalayan salt and I have that nice and hot sat by the lake contemplating and being thankful of uh what a lovely day um lays ahead and uh gratefulness for uh living in such a beautiful place. So I have that uh then I go back. We normally sort the goats out and uh then I have me breakfast and me coffee and uh if I'm a bit peaky later on, I'll have a second brew. Uh but yeah, I don't really have three Oh, something just splashed down there. So that's normally a a marble sangi or a snake head right near the edge.

[00:20:04]So they're picking off the the little fish.

[00:20:07]Uh still meditating every day. It's normally normally about 1 hour 20 minutes to one and a half hours. Um I don't intentionally have a a a start or finish time, but it it it's generally uh just after sort of like 12:00 or so. And uh whenever I feel I've had enough, I just um uh I just call it a day. But yeah, it's normally over an hour and uh getting a lot out of it. I know some of you have got in touch with me about the the things I'm doing, but is it binaural binaural beats? Probably said that wrong. Uh but use your uh I use earbuds and uh you have a different frequency in each ear in each ear and then your brain can uh pick up the difference in the frequency. So uh so if you had sort of like frequency of 50 on your left and uh 200 on the right, you you get a frequency of 150 in the middle. Uh I normally try and do it for 40 40 hertz.

[00:21:08]Um which is a gamma gamma frequency if any of you are into it. But yeah, I can uh if you're into your meditation, give it a go. It's transformed transformed my sessions and uh you get to go some wacky places while you're doing it. So yeah, uh uh you can ask me more in uh in um the comments or uh send us a message and uh I'll give you some links if you if you're interested in giving it a go.

[00:21:34]Certainly great way to uh uh expand the old mind, I reckon. Right, it's time I got the net out in it. I can't record it when I'm doing it, folks. So, um just believe me, I'm going to catch thousands when you're not looking. I hope you're fit and well and uh you're loving life.

[00:21:50]Take care.