Rice is all put away

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Geo: 16.392, 103.924

I think that the farm is finished with for a while but Jai wants to take some rice out to Pad so that he can have some breakfast. We arrive to find the truck bogged down in one of the still damp paddies with wheels spinning but no traction. Pad keeps at it for a while but it is obvious he is just digging the truck in deeper. Pad disappears on my bike for a while and returns with a friend and a tractor. After another hour or so they finally get the truck out of the rice fields and we all return to the house.
There is still quite a bit of rice left from last year and this needs taking out of the rice house so that the new rice can go in beneath it. Well, that was my idea anyway. Instead all of the new rice is carried out to the back garden and stacked against the house wall and in front of the back door and they are off - thanks.
John pops in to say that they are off on holiday to the beaches down south for a couple of weeks.
After lunch Jai goes into Phon Thong to sell the majority of the boiling rice. The sticky rice is said to be selling at 8Bht per kg, pretty much what it costs to grow, and the boiling rice at 13Bht per kg. The rice station also takes 10% of all monies as their commission. Regardless of the price most of the villagers have to sell their rice now to pay off debts that have been guaranteed by the rice crop. There is only one rice station in the area so there is not even competition to give them any choice at all. The new 'prime minister' appears on TV every night - they take over every TV station broadcast in the country - to tell everyone what a good job they are doing and how they are helping the poor farmers especially. As usual, none of the good ideas ever seem to seep as far down down the system as here ! Jai actually sells about 600kg at 12.3Bht (25p) per kg.
Late afternoon the two of us empty the rice house of last years sacks, load in this years, then return last years to the front and top so that it will be used first. I dont remember 30kg being this heavy before ?! At least it made my bottle of cold beer taste that little bit sweeter.

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