Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looks like my place with all the IBC's..... Great work!


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Tang Mo,i was lucky enough to find crushed granite,i was on a visa run to Measai and in one of the yards where they make cement there was this pile of stones i hadn’t seen before,on enquiry it was as i said crushed granite,i did the vinegar test on a sample and all was good,i paid 500 baht for a truck load plus slipping the driver a bit for the delivery.
In use no PH issues at all,its just a bit rough on the hands i moved my first four beds today,i now have no nails or skin left on the end of my fingers,i reckon its worth trying to find it rather than risking the builders stone.By the way great looking house,i reckon that will pay dividends for you....

Cheers Bcasey, I'm glad they're
lying away from the house, the missus would be nipping my head otherwise!

Cheers for the top-tip Dasboot, you've probably read about the stricter visa rules, I got married officially last week, the visa is a bit more difficult, should do it next time.
I'll put the feelers out for the granite, Aberdeen was never my favourite place btw!
The house is good for the sun and this being the rainy season makes things a bit more manageable, the pictures don't show the almost marsh like conditions away from the shelter.
I was interested in the temps for your winter, it gets colder here, we had 8 degrees last winter, unusual but still not that bad, a Scottish farmer who lives down the road has been here 20 odd years, he reckons he's seen 5 degrees here one time.
I don't think I'll have time to try the spuds this year but I will certainly try next (turnips too!).

We had 8c that was the lowest i recorded and believe it or not i thought that was f in cold especially on the motorbike,how did i manage in the -5c back home..... Chiang Mai/Chaing Rai actually have mountains high enough for ground frost,Thais think its fun to camp out in it,it normally makes the evening news as well as they wake to a dusting on the grass.The Thais start wearing ski jackets when it dips below 10c,what would they do in a good old -5/-7c as we regularly had back home.
After this wet season i am following your lead on the fish house and tunnel,hopefully i have come up with an ideal that makes the tunnel sturdy enough to survive the occasional strong wind,i have design it nearly a meter higher so as to vent the heat,fingers crossed.As for the fish house this will get a solid roof to cover the sump as well,hopefully keep better control rather than constant water changes from the huge amount of rain we have had this year,i took the tunnel down to start work and it rained almost solid for three weeks.
If you have 400.000 Baht in the Bank you can apply for a marriage visa,then all you need is to report every 90 days,not sure with your work how that would all tie in,or just apply for a Non O multiple entry,this will last 15 months if you skip the country just before it expires,again being married the same amount in the bank.I do the Non O route,i am so close to Mynamar its no problem to leave Thailand every 90 days,its just a 500 Baht fee.

Thanks mate, with regards to your future house design, may I suggest a high apex style? The Filipinos I work with battle a few typhoons every year and tell me this is the best shape to deal with strong winds.
I just get the odd squall before the rain arrives here, not too bad really.
I thought I had the visa sorted, the BKK office told me I could do it in Nakhon Sawan, I went there the other day and guess what?? They said I can only do it (as it is the first one) in BKK!

To be exact on the visa issue;

You can apply for non O visa at any Thai embassy/Consulate outside of the kingdom. In the application you have to state the reason, which is support of Thai spouse. (There is no such thing as marriage visa). With the application you also have to present proof of a. Thai Baht 400.000 for at least 2 months on a Thai deposit account or b. proof of monthly income of at least Thai Baht 40,000. Option a is easier to arrange, since b involves showing all kinds of papers of tax filings and payments.

On the Non O you can then stay for 1 year in Thailand, reporting every 3 months to immigration. After 1 year you can apply for an extension (basically repeating the same procedure you do for the Non O), and when granted, you report again every 3 months at immigration.

If you need to leave the kingdom regularly I suggest you get yourself a multiple re-entry visa, cost Thai Baht 3,800 (for a single you pay 1,900). When you leave, just inform immigration about it. That way your Non O and/or extensions stay intact and you don't need to re-apply for Non O.

If you have your paperwork done right, the Thai embassy in Vientiane does a good and quick job on the Non O. Apply today, receive it tomorrow.

At your local immigration office you should find all the necessary information for all procedures in Thai and English. It is a crystal clear thing, the confusion starts when people want to have a kind of custom treatment for their visa or extensions or try to avoid the costs of it. A great source of total confusion on Thai visa is the "great" website Thai Visa. Lots of dodgy lawyers posting there under various avatars and names to fuel the confusion and lure people into their web of crazy rates for things that don't cost that much at all and are pretty easy to arrange yourself.

And be sure you present a letter from your bank if you go the 400K route. A regular bank statement won't do.

BTW, at your local immigration office they can provide you with a check list of all the things you have to arrange for a Non O visa or extension. Just use that check list as intended and you will do fine.

They do seem to like to make things awkward at times and it dosent get any easier does it...
To late on the Apex style,i have already decided and am building wooden structure then 3/4 plastic pipe hoops with a centre steel pipe joice to tie it all together,i copied part of the ideal from the net after reading up on polytunnels in high wind,high snow areas,there will be uprights and everything this time so fingers crossed and as you say its maybe a squall twice a year.I thought wood was a good ideal looks good functional and F in expensive here in Thailand now,i don’t know how the locals afford it and we won’t mention the quality .....

Thai Marriage Visa

Thai Embassy


If you are married to a Thai or have a Thai child then you can live in Thailand on a marriage visa also known as an “O” visa which is a Thailand visa for a foreigner with a Thai family. The requirements for the visa are as follows including the financial requirements of the “O” visa in Thailand. Note that this is a 3 month visa when you enter Thailand and needs to be extended inside Thailand much like the retirement or “OA” visa in Thailand as listed on this website.


Thai Marriage VisaThe requirements are that you are married to a Thai citizen. This is proven by your marriage certificate. If you have a Thai child you need at show the birth certificate with your name on it. Both require a copy of their Thai national ID cards. This is what is taken by the Thai embassy when you apply for the 90 day or 3 month marriage visa. Note that if you are going to register you marriage in Thailand then you need to have a ‘Certificate of no impediment’ and each Embassy has its own format.


Hi Paul i copied this from the Royal Thai Consulate website in respect of a Thai Marriage Visa.

Any straight roof construction is less strong than round forms (tunnels or domes). So I guess you're ok Andy.

The good quality wood is sold for the premium price abroad. It will not be available in Thailand, since the poor buggers can't afford the greed of the wood men. What's left is the worst quality of wood I've seen ever. And that's not only with wood, many made in Thailand products are totally crap.

Later I will post a story on my thread about the nice setback I had recently with my workshop. Basically it comes down to stripping half of the roof of and redo it because of some crapy flashing tape that started to fall apart within 2 months!

My local wood yard has some of the worst quality wood i have ever seen,but as i am a regular there and the husband like to show off his limited english i am quite welcome in the yard searching through all the stuff they have,this gives me chance to sort through hopefully selecting the better bits,i quantify it but remembering its just a poly tunnel and it aint got to fly,looks more rustic anyway i think,wife as good as gold,but we did have a discussion the last time that 160 x 5 is not 880...as her calculator was telling her...

Well Andy, that certainly makes it not more clear. As you can see, even the people on the consulates seem to have trouble to get it in the right wordings in English.

Anyway. What does Non O means? It's just a short for Non Immigration Other. Other means "a reason OTHER than the reasons where they have standard visa for". There is also a Non Immigration Business, which goes under the short Non B.
It all comes down to governments that want to control the entry of aliens to their country and for that reason want to know who you are, where you come from, what you intend to do in their country and for how long you want to stay.

Basically you can enter a country with the intention to stay there temporarily or indefinite. For indefinite it's called immigration, for all other purposes it's NON immigration.

Non immigration includes tourists, hence the tourist visa.

The information given by the RTC website is not comprehensive enough, and therefore fails to give a clear picture for the applicant. It might be specific for the Nong Khai Immigration office, but I find that they give a thorough set of information to applicants there (checklist and full oral explanation if asked for!) and are very helpful in all matters. It's probably the same in other offices of the service around the country.

Nevertheless, despite the mentioning of a "marriage visa" on the consulates website, there simply is no such thing as a marriage visa.

It is a NON O with the purpose of joining/supporting Thai Spouse

If I go to the wood yard (which I rarely do, because of the horrible quality) I always pick my own wood. Never go for what they wanna give you, it certainly is the worst they have (of the worst that is available).

It seems that the quality in Laos is better, though. One of these days I might have a check on that.

Ok just to made confuse things more this is from the Royal Thai consulate in Hull UK... Royal Thai Consulate in Hull

Thai Embassy


The Royal Thai embassy in Hull will issue you a Thai visa if you are visiting Thailand. This embassy can issue multiple entry visas for British nationals. There are a number of options at the Hull consulate. There is the tourist visa which is valid for 60 days when you enter Thailand. There is the 90 marriage visa if you have a Thai wife. There is the 90 day business visa if you want to work in Thailand or start a business. There is also the retirement visa if you are older than 50 years of age. Speak to the staff in Hull about your needs and reason for visiting Thailand.


Note: All Thai marriage visa applications now need to be made at the Thai Embassy in London and not in Hull. These changes started in January 2014.

.

Talking about the quality of wood in Thailand. Look what I discovered after cutting a 4' x 8' plate of plywood, bought at Megahome in Nong Khai. It was sold as plywood interior quality for Baht 670/plate, with one B side on it.




Not plywood at all, not even furniture board which at least has a decent veneer layer on both sides.

So what do you call this? Still think that my view on certain Thai habits is not realistic?

Thanks for all the advice guys, hopefully next time back I should put this pain in the butt to rest.

As for the wood, I'm lucky here that the previous owners had a load of eucalyptus trees well established, I had them all cut down and made into planks!