Building a Hut

I was surprised last week when a friend stopped by and said that Ott our neighbor who owned the land we bought and still owns the 12 Rai  clear to the foot of the mountain , told him he could build a small hut at the end of the road that ends at the foot of the mountain. I was interested in knowing why he wanted to build a hut on someone else's land , he said he liked our area and there was lots of small trees and lots of bamboo to help with the material he will need and he said that also he liked the neighbors.
I ask him what he was going to use the hut for and when was he going to start building , the rainy season has already started here in Whang Pho, so I figured he would start in Oct. or Nov.  , to my surprise he said , "I'm starting today an before I knew what was going on Mac the fellow that works in my yard and on my house was here and said he was going to take a few days off and help to build the hut. He told me that the reason for the little hut was that he needed a place to get away on the week-in's after a long hard week at his job at the resort , and also he wanted a place he could bring his dog s so that they could run free and play in the woods and get some exercise (he lives in the city and they are in a pen all week while he is at work). He loves his dogs as much as we love ours .
Well off they went with a saw and a ax and a few hours later they were back carrying logs they had cut , then a day later, after they had the foundation and post up they put in the floor of bamboo and he had a load of log slabs that he got at a saw mill for the walls and a friend  wove the roof covering out of palm limbs and leaves and bamboo , and to my amazement it does not leak they worked steady on it and would you believe , in one week they had it done and have even planted some plants and flowers and hung flower baskets from the eves and he has spent a week-in already and his dogs love it there and to my surprise and our dogs get along well with his and they stay at their little hut and don't run up and down the road . I still have to say , that Sabu is still the alpha Male of this road and he made sure that they knew it right away I love this little hut and I have talked to B-bie and he is going to find me a place at a friend of his that has a piece of land on the River Kwai and Mac said he would go and build me a small hut just like this one , I think that maybe Ciejay would like it and we could spend a few week-in's on the river once in a while and also it would be available for friends that want to get away and back to nature so to speak for a few days .  What do you think?

Where else but in the LOS could you find a person to let you build a hut and not have to bother with building permits and best of all , get most all of the building materials right there from the land . I love it and  I guess this kind of freedom and these kind of folks, is just a couple of more reasons that make me say I'm Retired In Thailand and Loving It

WHAT IS THAT SMELL??????

I walked out back the other day to feed the dogs their lunch when this ,awful smell hit me in the face like a ton of bricks , the wind was blowing just right and the smell was coming from the back deck , I thought for a minute the dogs had dragged up something dead from the woods to roll in , their favorite thing to do of late , they both smell like a couple of skunks. I walked around from where I thought it was coming from and there in the dirt and grass looked like a scene from the ole Beverly Hillbilly's t.v. show (" up from the ground popped a bubbling crude") there was a bubbling , But it was not crude this was bubbling SH-- coming from the buried sewer tank under the poured deck and ground. When we remodeled the house 7 years ago we took a look at the system and (knowing nothing about them ) thought it looked ok to me , the contractor never said anything different, Sooo  we poured a concrete deck over it with a plug left to clean it out when it got full, this is usually about every 3 or 4 months ,I knew it was already old when we moved in but what I didn't know was that when they put it in almost 15 years ago they did not put gravel or rocks around the outside and did not seal the concrete top when they put it on and after all these years when the rainy season came the holes in the lid and between the two culverts  were letting it fill up with water and pushing the sewer water out the top holes , thus the bubbling stinky stuff. Well with nothing left to do but put in a new sewer system ,BUTT the only problem was that all the PVC pipes from the toilets were also encased in the concrete deck.Would you believe I had a dream as to how to fix the problem .  First ,we dug a 5 mete hole beside the deck and put in 2 huge concrete culverts and sealed them and sealed the cover as well , with the hole in the top we we put a 6in. PVC with a elbow and ,then where the old system came to the side if the deck , punched a hole in the side close to the bottom and ran the PVC pipe in there, and sealed around it good ,  sooo when the old system fills to the pipe the water and stuff them flow thru the PVC, from the old , into the new system that is lower than the old one  thus utilizing some of the old and also a new system , we then, back filled around with rocks and gravel and packed the top soil real good, . and  WALA  it works like I hoped and prayed it would , now instead of have the POOP sucker come every 3 or 4 months  and as if late with the problem , more like every 2 months  , hopefully it will be every 6 or 7 months , will cost more , because of pumping two systems  but will be a while in between pumping, that the truck does not have to drive on the grass  , which always takes a week or two to look normal again.Another thing that we did was to put a gas vent in the system to keep the smell and gas from coming back into the toilet when you flushed sometimes  , now nooo smell and gases stay outside and away from the house .I hope you understood all this high tec (dreaming)Thailand ingenuity, anyway life is never boring here in Wang Pho and especially at the Burgess's. Well at least I didn't just run a blue PVC pipe out the back and let it run into a hole in the ground , which most  Thais that live in the country side do , on the plus side of things here on Moo1 , is that since we have moved here and I have talked to all our neighbors about the importance of sanitation and  clean yards and surroundings  they have all installed sewer systems and I can really smell the difference when the wind blows from their way up to ours and I have also noticed that we have almost no flys and the mosquitoes are a lot less in the evenings ,when you are outside working or playing ..
Well that's an up-date on thing here at our house , the new project is a pathway with stepping stones from the carport to the side deck , which I will report and post pictures next time .. Hope you enjoy this post and pictures and are any of you taking on summer projects ??? if so  then what ??

ROOM WITH A VIEW

It's been a while since my last post , But , I have been busy taking care of my girl Ciejay. It seems that the meds they gave her from her last stay at the hospital were to strong for her little stomach, and it ate a small hole in her intestines, and caused her to loose a lot of blood and all her energy just up and left her. It was time for her normal check-up at the hospital , and when the Dr. saw her he said "you aren't going anywhere but here for a few days till we find out whats wrong and get you fixed up" . Well they didn't have a private room available at the time so off to the ward we go . Now a hospital ward in Thailand is not like a ward in any other country , folks are put in a bed if they have one and are rolled into any space they can find to put them sometimes over 100 folks in a small ward and 4 or 5 nurses to take care of them , this is where the Thai family comes in to play, a family member or several members will bring a mat and stay in the space with them (sleeping and sitting where ever they can , sometimes under the sick persons bed ) to take care of all their needs , feeding , washing , trips to bathroom , changing the bed cloths and emptying the bedpans when needed and anything else that is not of an emergency need, the nurses are there to check temp, hook up meds and dispense pills , all the important stuff. SOOO there we were for 3 days and 2 nights and I did my duty as Ciejay's private nurse and family member,the other folks showed me how and where everything was and how to do , they were all sooo gracious and genuine concerned that I could do what was necessary., I will forever remember the time there and the wonderful folks who helped me be a nurse for a day or two.Then a private room opened up and we were off to the 9th floor or the Pent House and VIP rooms ( and the room with a view), I would have stayed in the ward, BUT, the mosquitoes ate me and Ciejay up at night and I could not sleep in the bench that was there and it was soooo hot I almost screamed sometimes ( now I'm complaining ).  So I was glad to pay for the private room and be able to sleep and not be eaten alive at night by the mosquitoes and did I say that it was air- condition , private bath , Cable TV and a frig and a small bed for me to sleep on , and for our 7 day stay there the private room was all we had to pay , all the meds , the blood and all the other IVs they gave her the private nurses and all the wonderful care and the room was $20.oo a day American money  and they gave us the last day for free. And to top it all off the room had a view .

The view from our room

this is the right side view

this is the left side view

extreme left

Ciejay's brother came for a visit and made her happy

Ciejay in her bed in the private room

the door into our room

 the hall-way in the ward where Ciejay was  about 6 beds down

Ciejay in the ward

I am happy to report that they got the hole closed up and with the bags of blood and other stuff they they were pumping into her , Ciejay is home and doing great.She(reluctantly), rested easy for a couple days and now back at her normal pace , Me ,,,,,I have learned how to notice when she needs help and I jump right in and do things that I had not thought of doing before , I guess my nights in the ward taught me a few things and I am sooo glad she is doing good and glad to have her home , after all she's my whole life.                Malcolm