Raising your own veggies VS buying at the market?????

It has been my experience that growing your own veggies constitutes a lot of back breaking work, I know there are those who say there's nothing like a home grown tomato or cucumber, and when I lived in the US, I would have to agree with them as most of the produce sold in the super markets there are from other countries or grown or mass produced in green houses , and the taste is just not home grown , sooo I grew a garden for the taste and so I could say or brag  " this came from my garden" , and many times to the envy of my friends , BUT oh the work and time and Yes money, I put into the moments of GLORY. I take my hat off to all who grow their own veggies , and always appreciated it when they left some on my porch when they had a abundance , I use to do the same .

When we moved to Thailand and I saw how the weather was so good most of the year and the rainy season was even a good time to grow a garden , I soon realized that anyone could have a garden of some sort 365 days a year , and most Thai's do . They don't plant in rows like we always did in America , in fact you would never know it was a garden till the fruit or veggies appear , they just stick a plant here and there and throw seeds to the wind it seems and  Wala , it's a garden.  Well I thought I would show them what a real garden looked like so I tilled the ground   put sticks and string so all my rows would be straight and uniform and planted my seeds of course I put little sticks in the ground at the end of each row  and put my empty little seed packs on them to show what I had planted , each with it's own little row or hill for the vine veggies and , them went about watering them till some of them started to come up. My neighbors would come by and admire or laugh I never knew which and Ciejay never told me what they thought , I guess to save my feelings .  Things were looking good until all of a sudden they all started to wither and die and nothing I could do could save them , so I gave up. And off to the market we went to by veggies , and it was then that I realized that being in Thailand is a" whole nother ball game " and that everything in the market is home grown and taste like it was just picked this morning ( most was )  and for a very small amount of money and no back breaking work , I could enjoy all the home grown veggies I wanted , and to top it all off I didn't have to stock up for a week , as there are fresh markets every day here in the LOS and Gentle people.
 I know that was a lot of rambing, but it was brought to my mind the other day when riding down the road Ciejay said stop here , "we need some Veggies", and I was sooo glad she didn't have to say " go out in the hot sun and pick some veggies".
Just another reason why I love it here and we are Retired in Thailand and Loving it.

The answer to the Question " I'm buying"

Fishing Lures and My friend Jerry

My friend Jerry has another hobby and this one is making handmade fishing plugs and lures , and when I say hand made ,I mean it . He starts by going up to the mountain behind our house and cuts bamboo to take home and saw into small pieces to start the tedious work of hand carving each lure , he uses the Internet sites of the lure company's to get his ideas and templates and carves and paints and puts the hooks and snaps for the line and all done by hand and a saw blade , a pocket knife, and sand paper and steel wool. He has a few finished and they look great and when Ciejay and Me make our trip to Alaska this fall I'm taking a couple with me to try out in the famous Kenai River on the Silver Salmon , I'll let you know how they work out . Jerry says it's a hobby and that he doesn't plan on selling them , but I'm sure a few will hang on my wall as a piece of art work. I snapped a few pictures so you could see them for youeselves , what do you think ???