self-sufficient home in Thailand

I just came back from visiting the home of a Scottish guy who built his own home in central Thailand. It is on about 100 acres of land at the foot of a mountain and is almost totally self-sufficient. The guy built the house using only day laborers which earn here the equivalent of less than 5 dollars a day.
It is a 2 story concrete and brick structure with a raised front porch under which is a huge water tank. All of the water he uses all year comes from rainwater collected during the rainy season. The water is collected from rain gutters onroof and goes into tanks under porch and then pumped to a 2 story pump tower. The excess is stored in 2 stone cisterns. There are 3 pvc pipes above ground which run back to the house. Two pipes are above ground and hot water comes from these pipes as they are heated by sun. He has electric generators but now is tapped into public electric service supplied by forestry department, in return for him letting them use his land for ranger station. he has pigs and chickens and a fish pond and grows all his own vegetables, and has 3 satellite tv dishes. Besides his own house he has a small house on the land for caretaker's family who help with farm. Excluding the land, he says the whole operation cost about 35,000 dollars in US money. Plus he makes money selling cassava, corn and other vegetables he grows.

How long did it take him to get that done? Sounds like a great set up. Are the disturbances in Bangkok bothering you up that way?

If you visit again I'd love to see pictures of how he set things up.

Gutter cysterns are awsome, a self providing homestead is what i am looking for. to be free of the electric company is the tough hurdle to get over. afordable wind generators are hand made by the user, but you can purchase elaborate wind or solar power systems.

there is too many entities out there with that want you to work hard to pay them money.to trim back the excess, is hard because they call some of those "MANDITORY" (like car ins. and having electricity for the "WELFARE" of children in your home.) if you dont pay the bills the state takes your kids instead.

Some of those mandatory "things" are really good. I sure don't want some uninsured motorist slamming into me or my family and leaving me with the bill. And...society has to look out for kids since they can't look out for themselves.

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Originally Posted by erunkiswldrnssurvival

there is too many entities out there with that want you to work hard to pay them money.to trim back the excess, is hard because they call some of those "MANDITORY" (like car ins. and having electricity for the "WELFARE" of children in your home.) if you dont pay the bills the state takes your kids instead.

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The state won't take your kids for having the electricity cut off. At least not here. That's just not a valid enough reason. And car insurance is pretty much mandatory, cause, if you hit my ride and are not insured you're going to be trying to digest your teeth when EMS gets there.

thats what i mean. more and more they move in too. in massachusetts, they just imposed the "MANDATORY" health ins. law. big fines and jail time if you dont pay. so in ma. you have manditory car, health,and work insurances or they squash you. but it is good to have though, even though this society is desighed for the whole family working hard to pay for a hole lot of stuff. (not saying that is bad or anything derogitory to its benifit to the community).now the american dream is "the money you could save with GEICO". so living off grid something is the buisness of america wants to avoid because of GDP. to live as a homesteader is becoming harder and harder because the buisness community wants every body to be responsible for thier upkeep. that has every citesen working for money for them instead of money for us.

your homestead would have to be a successful buisness to ststain its self as a member of the community. even the yearly taxes are enough to make any body scramble to go and get a job. so an off grid , self sufficient hometsead would have to be a money maker.

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Originally Posted by erunkiswldrnssurvival

thats what i mean. more and more they move in too. in massachusetts, they just imposed the "MANDATORY" health ins. law. big fines and jail time if you dont pay. so in ma. you have manditory car, health,and work insurances or they squash you. but it is good to have though, even though this society is desighed for the whole family working hard to pay for a hole lot of stuff. (not saying that is bad or anything derogitory to its benifit to the community).now the american dream is "the money you could save with GEICO". so living off grid something is the buisness of america wants to avoid because of GDP. to live as a homesteader is becoming harder and harder because the buisness community wants every body to be responsible for thier upkeep. that has every citesen working for money for them instead of money for us.

your homestead would have to be a successful buisness to ststain its self as a member of the community. even the yearly taxes are enough to make any body scramble to go and get a job. so an off grid , self sufficient hometsead would have to be a money maker.

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I think you're absolutely right. You must also remember the county tax assessors that can come on your land and dertermine how much the property is worth so you can pay a tax on that. There is no such thing as private property. If I buy a new piece of equipment, my taxes go up. Even something as trivial as hand tools are assessed and taxed.

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Originally Posted by Tennecedar

Even something as trivial as hand tools are assessed and taxed.

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Are you talking about sales tax?

I have some photos of homestead but don't know how to send them on forum, but if you could send PM or something I could send to email address. The whole project took about 3years to complete, but he was able to live in the house after about 3 months. Good thing about here is there is almost no land tax, and unless you earn a considerable amount of money selling stuff you don't have to pay tax on it. This project works here because of the local climate. There is plenty of rainfall in rainy season to orovide yearly water supply. Solar power is also efficient here due to the tropical sun, and it is always hot enough to supply hot water. Would be more difficult to do in many parts of the USA.

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Originally Posted by Rick

Are you talking about sales tax?

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Tangible taxes are what I have to pay every year for my tools.You list them as right-offs and then they tax you for having them. And they taxed me when I bought them as well as for repairs. We all dream of living off grid someday I suppose. One problem I see is a refrigerator. Thats about the only thing I need to keep running 24/7. Id like to rig up a bicycle to the TV for the wife. No pedal, no tube.

chiangmaimav - Here is a link on how to post pictures.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=1318

Snakeman - Are these hand tools or something like shop tools, metal lathes, etc.? I've never heard of tools being taxed.

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Originally Posted by Rick

Are you talking about sales tax?

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My business taxes. If I have a business liscense the county assesses the value of my business and taxes my tools and equipment. I bought a new computer a couple years ago for doing my books. taxed. As far as property tax mine went up with the addition of the chainlink fence. I paid 800 for the materials and put it up myself. They taxed me for a 3000 dollar increase in assessed value. Sorry to run the thread off topic everyone. I'm done fussin.

This is first time I tried to send photos so I am not sure it worked. I could only send one and this is the pumphouse. If it works I try to send more.

Thank you Rick, it worked but small. I will try send more photos.

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Originally Posted by chiangmaimav

Thank you Rick, it worked but small. I will try send more photos.

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Worked just fine. When you click on the thumbnail, it pops up as a larger photo. You should be able to attach 5 thumbnails per post.

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Originally Posted by Tennecedar

My business taxes.

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I'm with you. Of course the other side of that coin is you can depreciate your tools and equipment, giving you a tax break.

to answer question from Pal, the disturbances in Bangkok were much worse than where I live, though there were some demonstrations in Chiamg Mai, and some people killed as a result of all this unrest. This is the situation: There are 2 parties.the UDD or redshirts, which are followers of former prime minister Thaksin and are mostly farmers and poor rural people from Northern, andnortheastern Thailand. And PAD or yellow shirts who are mainly elite from Bangkok such as teachers and professional workers. Thaksin was ousted allegedly due to abusing his position for some business deals. There have been 3 actings PMs since he left, all chosen by PAD. Red shirts claim Thaksin did more for poor people. For instance, any Thai citizen only needs to pay 30 baht which is less than one dollar for medical care. Also farmers are able to obtain loans with very low interest rates. However the yellow shirts have support of the army which has a great deal of power here. I do not see any easy answer to this problem and it could conceivably lead to a civil war. The king has been in power for over 60 years here and is very much loved and revered here and many people think he is the main force keeping things from getting more out of hand, but he is old and in ill health so it remains to be seen what will happen.
Here is another photo of scottish guys house.

I am sorry photo did not send. I will try again.