WHO'S KILLING ALL THE BIRDS AND BUGS

Inspiration for this post comes from the latest post by My Thai Friend,about birds and dogs .I have always loved birds as long as I can remember, altho some of my memories or not from just seeing them and taking pictures as I do today .My first memory comes from as a five year old kid growing up in rural South Carolina, in the 40's . My dad was always teaching my Brother and me about life and living, every occasion he got , this time he was showing us how to make a sling shot from a tree branch and rubber from a old tire inter tube, he made a good one and to show us how it worked he said" see that bird in that tree" ,he shot a rock and Bonk, he hit the bird and killed it , now another lesson in life comes quickly , and "remember that whatever you shoot and kill you have to eat" well we ate that little bird after Mom cooked it , and cried the whole time . But needless to say we ate lots of little birds and frogs and squirrels,and rabbits.My brother and our friends loved to play in the woods in our forts and tree houses , and we always had our trusty sling shots with us . When we were teens we moved to Florida for a few years and I can clearly remember early in the morning walking or riding to school ,seeing the power lines just filled with wild parakeets of every color ,I read a few years later, where the last male parakeet that was in captive died ,gone forever. During my adult life I had lived in Oregon for a few years and can remember driving along the country road and seeing ,red winged black birds sitting on all the farm fences, and wild pheasants,running thru the rye grass fields, now they are no more or very few , gone now or soon ,forever.I could talk about memories and birds forever , but then it would be a book and not a post.
Well, you might ask "what happened to all these birds that caused them to disappear",well I have my theory, and here goes > The state road crews used DDT to keep the grass off the sides of the roads and ,farmers use pesticides to kill the bugs from their crops and people use weed killer and pesticides to control the insects and unwanted grass around their house and this has resulted in the killing off off many species of insects, the beautiful butterfly's that used to visit your gardens and flowers and many, many birds.We have a beautiful yard and hundreds of plants and flowers growing , if the grass gets to high or in the flower beds or around the rocks for the walkways , I get off my lazy a-- and pull the weeds and cut the grass with a blade , not a mower to kill lots of bugs and insects in the process and never use any kind of pesticides to control anything , and be careful of all the fertilizers you use these can kill too, but if you use these thing go ahead, but don't cry when no birds come around to sing you a love song and you look up in one of my trees and see a bird nest with a couple little heads sticking out saying " the next worm is mine ",and yours are empty of birds, And you look over and my yard is full of birds , butterfly's , and my pond has frogs and snakes and winged visitors all the time , and I don't even feed them. they eat the bugs if the population gets out of hand , altho they do love some table scraps every once in a while , and you have no visitors to your yard all I can say to you is SOM NAM NA. And stop being one of the problems and save the birds. Here are a few pictures of a couple visitors to our back-yard hope you enjoy them.
"This is my post and I'm sticking by it" as the song goes Malcolm

THIS IS OUR HOME AND MY CASTLE

THIS IS THE HOUSE WE BOUGHT

The first time we saw our house it was anything but a castle , in fact, it was in really bad run down ,forgotten shape,and it was the subject of bad Karma ,so to speak. The couple that had built it had split up ,even before they had finished the house and so as far as all the village and neighbors were concerned it would just sit there empty till it fell down.When we saw it for the first time it had sit empty for eight years and the bathroom roof ceiling and part of the unfinished kitchen roof and ceiling, had already fallen in and it was in really bad shape .Ciejay and me had decided just a few days before that we wanted to retire in Thailand and we had been lots of places in Thailand while on our vacation , but we just didn't  feel right about any of them , well on our last day before going back to BKK for our flight back to America , we drove down the mountain into the valley to a little village called Whang Pho and our hearts said to each other "this is the place ." We didn't get off to ourselves and talk about it, we were with two other couples, we just knew this was it.It was already five o'clock in the evening and we looked at a piece of land a friend of Ciejay's brother had for sale , but it was to far out of town and no utilities run anywhere near it, so we said we would come back another year and look around, as it was getting dark and the others were in a hurry to get on the road , well out of the blue I ask Ciejay's brother if there was a piece of land in town with a house already on it for sale , I was thinking we could tear and old house down and build what we wanted , as long as it was close to town and had water and electricity available. To my surprise he pointed up the road, fifty yards away and said that old place there belongs to a friend in BKK he might want to sell this place, because he is married again and his new wife will have nothing to do with the house and none in the village will buy it as it is full of bad spirits and bad Karma.( they all being Buddhist of course)being Christians that didn't bother me at all.

It was dark , the doors were locked and all the windows had bars on them and were tinted and we could not see in at all , but my brother -in -law said it had three bedrooms and two baths and a room to be made into a kitchen and a huge living room the full length of the house with the bedrooms off to the side and he drew it with a stick on the ground , Me and Ciejay walked around it and said to each other it has strong foundation and walls and the major roof is in good shape , we can make it a home with a lot of hard work . We called the man while standing there, in the overgrown yard with the car lights shining on the front ,with a gecko telling us this was his place now, and Ciejay and my brother- in -law talking with him and in about five minutes we bought ourselves a house in Thailand , I felt like the opening lines to the movie Out of Africa , when she said"I had a home in Africa."I can remember saying to my self "I have a home in Thailand." That was one of the most emotional moments in my whole live , except when each of my boys were born.

We took a couple of pictures , it was already dark ,to take back home to America.We showed them to our friends and family and they thought we had lost our minds , and if you had seen it before we remodeled it, you would have said the same thing.We had one more year to work before I could retire with a social security check coming in every month, I knew nothing about Thailand , except what I had seen as a tourist for three weeks , and nothing about visa requirements , I thought we would just pack everything up and move to Thailand , was I ever in for a big surprise, And as I read and ask questions I found out a lot and it scared me a little to be honest with you . So we planned and saved and set our sights and hearts toward Thailand , the almost forgotten house as far as Thai's and anyone else were concerned on the other side of the world thousands of miles away in a land that I had only visited for a short time , but we did not forget about our dream , for one day, and we talked about what we were going to do every night after dinner and things were done for the day and readied for tomorrow. I made a cardboard model of the house with a removable top so we could see what we were going to do , inside and out , we put a huge calendar on the wall and begin to mark the days off . That was the longest year of my life ,but it finally did come (a lot of stuff and preparation happened in that year, but that is another story) and on October the 6th 2004 we arrived in Whang Pho and got the keys and walked into the house for the first time ,at six o'clock in the morning on October the 7th,we were shocked to say the least ,it needed more work than we thought,but we had a dream and before the day was over we had a crew cleaning the property and cutting down trees and bushes, and we found a wonderful man named Piak, that said he would make our house a home , I knew not one word Thai and He knew not one word English , him and Ciejay talked and when me and him shook hands I knew I could trust him completely.What a wonderful person he turned out to be , he told me what we needed he would go buy or order and give Ciejay the receipt and she would give him the money , five years have almost gone buy and I have learned a little Thai and I have learned a lot about Thai folks and Thai workman and labors and I can say that Piak never took advantage of us for nothing , even his final bill for all the labor and labors was well under what I was prepared to pay, five years later (almost) and we have not had to redo are repair anything he and his crew did . And I want you to know that I have read and heard so horror stories from farangs that have built houses in Thailand, (most of the time unskilled relatives of their Thai wife or girlfriend) using Thai contractors . And of course we have done a lot of work ourselves , adding a patio and gazebo and carport and a deck all the way around the house, landscaped and planted lots of trees and plants and flowers and "oh ya " built a pond with a water fall out front and got us a dog. We have made the dilapidated ,forgotten , cursed house into a HOME and also into my CASTLE.

And I can say for certain, that the thing that makes this King to have a home to call a Castle is the QUEEN that lives there with him. Malcolm

Growing Old gracefully

Getting old is not all bad and there are lots of pluses and benefits to getting older , and if I can remember some of them I'll share them with you , just can't think of any right off the top of my head . ha ha ha

A friend of mine, Stan found these somewhere and sent them to me , I laughed a little and then relaized that most were true and good advise , hope you get a laugh or two also , after all whats a day without a little laughter. See if you can relate to any of them (just for fun )

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra,and carrying out the garbage , and cleaning the yard every Saturday , before your folks would let you go to the Sat. movie picture show(as we use to call them ) .

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Tenth ~ Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf

And finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old. Whats a day without a little laughter.

I'm sooooo glad that Ciejay is younger than me and tells me all the time that I'm not getting older , "I'm getting better" and she plans on keeping me around for a long time , and thats just one of the reasons why , I'm RETIRED IN THAILAND AND LOVING IT . Malcolm

Retirement and relocation

LIFESTYLE HEALTH GUIDE FOR 55+ Guest post by Mary Albert

Traveling Versus Temporary or Permanent Relocation

When it comes to retirement, you've got a lot of options out there waiting for you. I love to travel the world, but I also love my home in California, so I always come back. However, I do hear about a lot of people who choose to relocate for their retirement. Some choose to move away permanently and live in paradise, whatever that may mean for them. Others choose to move for a year or two, or even five, to a destination where they've always wanted to stay.

Moving across the country or around the world can seem a bit intimidating, to say the least. I'm a fan of anyone who chooses to follow their heart in retirement and live somewhere new. However, you have to remember that these places can be visited just as easily. Some people might enjoy the newfound freedom and culture that comes from retirement relocation. Others might prefer a more temporary hiatus to an area rather than packing it all up and moving there.

If you're ready to hit the road, good for you. If you're still wondering or questioning whether you should move to the backcountry of Alaska, the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean, or anywhere else in the world, you have to think about a few things. Can you stand to leave your life behind? A lot of times, people have too much attachment to their current life, family, or circle of friends to move permanently. Remember, though, you can always visit whenever you'd like. This is a big decision and some people are better suited for it than others.

If you're dreaming of retirement a world away from it all, you literally have the whole world in your hands. Of course, it doesn't hurt to take a little holiday first and make sure that you'll really enjoy where you're going. I love my home, and I wish everyone else the same success in finding a home for their retirement, no matter where in the world that might be.
"senior lifestyle and senior health" to link to http://www.happyhealth.net/
"medical alert reviews" to link to http://www.happyhealth.net/medical-alert-reviews


Contributed by Mary Albert, a blogger for a senior lifestyle and senior health web site that provides advice for the 55+ age group as well as medical alert reviews . You'll find the link to Mary's web site on my side bar (good stuff)
Malcolm

It's market day again YEE HAA

 Thursday morning ,and I can hardly wait to finish my cup of 1,2,3 coffee and jump on the Honda Wave, and head on down to the edge of our little village near the rail road tracks, to a open field and watch it transform into a unbelievable fresh food and sellers market.Vendors will come from all over the country to set up their tables of food and wares,and bar-b-que grills,and fry pots,and fresh fish stands and pork and beef butcher tables. What a sight to behold , just like a well orchestrated band all tuned and set up and ready to go at the same time .I have spent many a hour just watching them do the same old thing everyday of their lives to make a living for themselves and their families moving from village to village on certain ,set days , bringing with them all the necessities of life to the people who look forward to them every week. and the most amazing thing is that they do it with a smile.

Ciejay and me had already decided that market day would be my house whole duty. She hates the dirt and dust and almost every time you just get there it will start to rain.
But what she does'nt know is that market day are the high-lite of my week.

I am amazed at the never ending variety of food and anything else you can think of for sale. Fruits,vegetables,meats,cloths, cell phones , dvd's ,pots and pans and furniture and tools of all sorts , just to name a few of the things for sale or trade.
Pork and beef cut to order right before your eyes, fish cleaned and scaled for you on the spot.All of this done without any worry about the hot weather or the fly's and bugs, not to mention the half dozen or so dogs wondering around under foot looking for a handout.

I remember my first trip to the market, Ciejay went with me to translate(really a little hand signs and a few fingers 1 or 2 and tow rai and you're all set)Well I saw this really fresh ,live, big fish on a table in front of me and commented to Ciejay that we couldn't take the whole fish , but I would love to have a couple center cut steaks . Ciejay said something in Thai to the ladybehind the table and the next thing I know , I see this big knife coming from under the table and with a chop ,chop I had 2 of the nicest center cut steaks you have ever seen and the head of the fish was still alive and flopping around on the table.Something you would never see in the good ole US of A.

There are live eels , and live frogs and birds and fried and dried bugs and insects , and anything else you can think of . I even saw one vendor with roasted scorpions on a stick , and to my udder amazement people were buying them. All of this to cook ,clean, fry ,grill, boil , whatever ,and put in a plastic bag or on a stick for you to take home and enjoy.

I can't believe that back home we use to worry so much about sanitation, temperatures,refrigeration and fifty other things so much. We had to worry about salmonella, e-coli and anything else that they our friends and family and the good ole health department could scare us with. Why is it that no one seems to worry about those things here in Thailand , it doesn't take long till all us transplants stop worrying too, or knowing things are not going to change in the near future , just go with the flow or so it seems to me. I don't hear to many complaints, just a lot of" man this Thai food sure is good."

Didn't take me long to figure out that a good hot stove and lots of spices and a whole lot of praying that all that worrying was a big waste of time .

The market I love it , the vendors , I love them, and what a great place to see and meet people. And maybe just maybe if I'm lucky , there just might be a visiting tourist that speaks English and I can loosen up my tongue and get my brain back in the right gear and have a good ole English conversation, what a real treat that would be .And who knows what new surprises might be in store for me next week at THE MARKET. 

Market Day in Wang Pho

Market Day in Wang Pho,
      Most of these veggies were growing out behind his house just the day before , he has a huge garden. I swear this pork is so fresh , I thought I heard a loud squeal These eggs are so fresh that when they start to run low they run out to the truck where the hens are laying more on demand. After all the eggs are laid they then are sold here , minus all their feathers of course Believe it are not , but some of these fish are still flopping around on the table . It's been a while since I posted anything about one of my favorite things to do here in Wang Pho , doing the weekly shopping at our fresh fruit and veggie market and oh ya I don't want to forget the fresh meat and fish market too . I can't wait for the net to get sooo advanced that we will have scratch and sniff available on all the pictures . The one great thing about the fresh market is all the wonderful smells all mixed together . I would be amiss if I forgot to mention that on market days there is also a lot of already cooked food vendors at the market about 25% of the market is fast (Thai style ) food to take home to eat. Ciejay and me talked about it one day and we both agreed that if we really wanted to we would never have to cook at home ever, and fresh cooked meals are within 5 minutes ride or walk from our home , something to think about as we get older , ha ha .. Sorry no scratch and sniff , but hope you enjoy the pictures .
 Malcolm

 Do you have a fresh fruit and veggie market near you and do you visit it often ???? We have a huge Tesco Lotus that we could buy our fruit and veggies if we wanted to , but not only are the local markets stuff fresher , it helps our local farmer to sell their stuff and get a little income from all their hard work and it also keeps our little town from being a poor village

14 years and still Loving It .

Today is our 14th anniversary, in Thailand , we got here the 6th ,of October ,2004, started remodeling the house on the 7th , and moved in on the King's birthday December the 5th , it's been 14 great years and we love our little home, and small piece of paradise here in Thailand , if you want a vacation of a lifetime come on over we have room for you , and we'll pick you up at the airport , or better yet take the train ride (3 1/2 hours) to Wang Pho train station , 3 blocks from our house, and we'll be standing there when you get off the train

 2003

 Today