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 ???

The Peddler Cometh

Never before have I lived in a place where folks sold so many things  in front of their homes shops, also a lot of them take their wears on the road, and drive up and down the streets and by-ways peddling their wears.I love it and many times it saves me a trip to the market . It brings back childhood memories when my Uncle Oren use to talk his produce and put in  the back of his pick-up and take it to sell in the Big City of Union S.C., and in the streets and at the market place, and us kids would ride along with him, and go door to door and tell the people that the produce man was here , and we got to eat all the apples we wanted, what a side benefit that was for us kids that normally only got apples at Christmas in our stockings or when we could grab one off the neighbors tree on the way home from school.  I remember those days well.  I remember that later my Uncle Oren was the Watkins man and he sold all kinds of house wears and supplies. I remember my Mother buying from him plates and stuff and I can really remember the vanilla flavoring he sold , was in a big brown bottle , wow how these memories popped into my head ,when the peddler man came by . Do you have memories of the peddlers coming thru your neighborhoods , or do you still have a few that pass your way???
I took a few pictures of the Peddler Man and his truck , and you can see Sabu checking them out , hope you enjoy the pictures .

FISH ON!!!!!!!! sometimes

One of my favorite things to do has always been fishing , I really love it, and wither I'm catching fish or not , I still  just like being on the river or lake and having a line or two in the water and the anticipation of a fish running away with the bait on the hook and jumping up and yelling fish on and the excitement of fighting the fish to get it in and into my net. When  we lived in Alaska (a fisherman's paradise) Me and the boys were on the Russian River or the Famous Kenai River as often as we could get away . You didn't need to be a professional or seasoned fisherman to catch fish in Alaska , it is almost like get a pole and a line ,bait your hook, and cast it out into the water,  and you'll 75% of the time get a fish . That of course, does not hold true for the trophy fish and the hard to catch one's and I've caught a few of them too, but for the most part it was just easy and fun and I don't have to tell you how exciting it was to hook into a big salmon on it's way to deposit it's eggs in the creek bed ,where it was hatched and hell bent on getting there to lay her eggs , before it's life cycle was to end, and when you hooked one of these you had a fight on your hand and about as much excitement as a body could stand. I have fished in heat , rain, sleet , snow  and blowing wind and still loved every minute of it .
 Then here I am in Thailand and the fishing is a whole new ball game for me , . they use different kinds of bait and you cast your line into the lake or river and just sit there sometimes for hours and a lot of times you never catch nothing and then some days you may just hit it right and catch one or two. Fishing  the other day I hadn't got even a bite for 6 hours and then a fish just grabbed my hook and took off, I got it in with almost no resistance on the other end at all, maybe that's because it was so small  ha ha. When I got it home , Ciejay made Red Curry Pla ( a spicy and hot fish soup ), and was it ever good . My friend caught nothing and that was the only bite I got the whole day . A fisherman down the bank from us was having real good luck and landed a few nice one , He also lost a real big one by trying to bring him out of the water to fast , and if you can believe this ,a man way down the river from us put a whole small banana on his hook and caught a huge fish , I couldn't believe it .Guess I'll have to just keep trying everything I know to do to catch fish here in Thailand , some days fishing is like the ole song  "some days a diamond , some days a coal," and You know old fisherman " THEY NEVER DIE , THEY JUST SMELL THAT WAY".

This one didn't get away, if you look real close you can see a fish on the end of the line  ha ha

Jerry , trying for a small minnow to catch a big fish

Checking my  bait

Jerry , checking things out

we got some poles in the water now where are the fish

FISH ON

caught on another fishing trip, these were good fileted and pan fried

This is a big 73# salmon I caught in Alaska

If you need some time to just relax and get away , alone or with a friend, give fishing a try , you might just like it and get hook yourself, and if you are like me, I can't wait for the moment I can yell "FISH ON".