Farm & Orchard / Sa Kaeo / Thailand / 2012-2023

My wife Khwansuda’s family farm & orchard is in Sa Kaeo province. From 2009-2013 she managed to save her income, build a second story on her mother’s house, and build concrete walls instead of wood. From 2013 we decided to invest a substantial amount in the farm & orchard and expand them together (See below for sequence).

Sa Kaeo Farm & Orchard Improvements performed on the farm
between October 2014-August 2018:

Upgraded the family’s old ramshackle farmhouse: 2009 – 2013.
Land measurement and government land survey registering: October 2014.
Tidied all the land, old concrete and rubbish and removed three old outhouses: September 2014 – March 2015.
First rice harvest: December 2014.
Building no I – Built a new modern farmhouse adjacent to the family’s old farmhouse and planted decorative trees: January 2015 – July 2015.
Building no II – Built an adjacent three-sectioned outhouse, store and first water tower: April 2015 – July 2015.
Removed the family’s old wooden house and donated it to Khwansuda’s niece. Rebuilt it eight hundred metres away: July 2015 – October 2015.
Started planting hundreds of fruit trees by hand, primarily mango and lime, amongst other types. Manual labour and excavators: July 2015.
Manually watered the hundreds of trees for the first six months: August 2015 – January 2016.
Building no III – Erected a new house on the foundations of the old family home for her mother and drilled two deep wells. August 2015 – November 2015.
Drainage ditches dug and purchased hundreds of tons of topsoil and expanded fields: October 2015 – December 2015.
Excavated and greatly expanded the orchard’s main water reservoir, thirty meters in width by fifty-five metres in length and nine metres in depth: November 2015 – January 2016.
Second rice harvest: December 2015.
Building No IV – Double garage with storage area and shelving, second water tower, incinerator and large compost bins: December 2015 – March 2016.
Built intersecting walkways, fences, and gates to interconnect the farm buildings: January 2016 – January 2017.
Purchased more adjacent interconnected farmland. Regenerated the soil and planted additional fruit trees: January 2016 – March 2016.
Building no V & VI – Built a sizeable elevated water gravity and pump irrigation tower and four large water tank silos with an adjoined pump room: December 2016 – February 2017.
Acquired additional smaller interconnected farmland plots and carefully hand-planted hundreds of fruit trees: December 2016 – December 2018.
Excavated trenches, installed sub-terrain irrigation pipe & installed a comprehensive modern irrigation system for the extensive sprinkler system in the central fruit field orchards: December 2016 – March 2016.
Building no VII – Built farm storage areas, fertiliser/manure mixing sheds and farm tools storage: March 2017 – April 2017.
Further irrigation ditches were excavated, and access roads were enlarged: May 2018 – July 2018.
Erected concrete fence posts and fenced in the orchards and surrounding properties: June 2018 – August 2018.
Concrete paved the main access road: July 2018 – August 2018.
Plan to acquire an additional 75000m2 of adjacent land and plant more orchards: 2023 – 2026.