Nevertheless everyone enjoyed their day, riding their bikes, playing ball games, sleeping and listening to music.

Sunday afternoon saw more Lamyai harvesting.

This time we got less money as the fruits were smaller and those left now we will just eat at home.

Once again Gu got the job of climbing the tree to get the higher fruits. Being a a worry wort I am always very nervous of the children climbing the trees but Gu was very careful and did a great job.

We are back to daily English lessons for all now and on Sunday the five eldest children all took a turn at being ‘teacher’.
For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.
For more video clips please visit our You Tube here.

Tai and Gu were both home 3 days this week, their school being closed due to testing.

That worked out quite well because they helped out on the two days I went out scouting for locations for our collection boxes.we would like to give big thanks to Tic Travel, Ratchadamnoen Rd and to Makro Chiang Mai(super highway), for accepting our boxes.

Local shops that have also accepted are our local pharmacy in Sarapee and the nearby Thai cafe located next to the railway line.

As usual the childrens spare time has been taken up by riding their bikes, games in the garden, doing homework and watching a little TV.

Right now the Lamyai buyers are in the village and on a couple of days Wasana has had the children helping to harvest our Lamyai. Not much to be made for us but it all helps with the childrens pocket money for school.

We have had a couple of very good English language sessions this week with the children learning Months and Days. Using his more advanced comprehension I got Tai to take a turn at being the teacher. This was partly to give him more confidence in actually speaking and also to show him that teaching is not easy for the teacher.

I have to say he did very well and now says he understands the difficulties teachers have when children don’t listen.

For lots more videos of life at Stratton House please visit our viddler account here.

We have a good group here who play well together most of the time.

Chess is still very popular and we might have to think about more boards and maybe even an in house chess competition.

The younger ones tend to play in the garden, making temporary dens.

This is one of the reasons for the “lawn” in our wishlist.

We don’t like to discourage such imaginative play but we need to cut down on the cuts and bruises that occur with the present rough surface in the garden.

These days Tai is mostly to be found working at the computer, with quite an extrodinary amount of homework to be done.

This week the Lamyai have benefitted from the heavy rains and grown significantly, so that the children get to benefit to by eating these delicious fruit everyday.

For more photos from the week please visit our photobucket album here.

Boon went at the Lamyai trees, chopping down a lot of the branches and I finished off my first bit of ground clearance.

We will keep the Lamyai trees but they need thinning out.

My work involved starting to shift a pile of rotten roof tiles. Back home it would have been a much quicker job, but over here, with the possibility of snakes hiding between the tiles, slowly slowly was the order of the day.

That said, I stopped after a while, deciding to wait until I have acquired a wheel barrow.

Taking care is one thing but moving a handful at a time is just too slow.

So it was demolition time:) No bulldozer, no sledgehammer, just me on a mission.

Remembering long past times in Plymouth, UK, where I put a hole in the wall of my flat at the end of a Tai Chi exercise, I exercised my Chi once more and down came the walls.

And our first home, Stratton House, is also closer to a reality as we sealed the rental agreement and picked up the keys today.

Now its lots of hard work to get it ready to be utilised as a Childrens Home.

The house sits in a little over 1 Rai of land. At the moment the grounds are being utilised by chicken farmers.

There is a large covered shed, which we intend to use as the cooking and eating area as well as for craft activities. This is presently occupied by a Lamyai seller.

We have asked that the chickens be moved as soon as possible in order for us to be able to start the big job of cleaning up the grounds.

With the lamyai seller we have said that they can have a little longer, if they need time to find alternative premises. This is because the shed is easily separated from the rest of the property, and the ground clearance and modifications needed inside the house will take a while, so there is no need to rush them. Foreseeing the need for good community relations, we have no wish to antagonise the local villagers.

As you will see from the photos there is ample room around the house for both recreation and to establish some reasonably extensive growing ground, to both help feed the children and keep them occupied.

I know that this will now become my life’s work and would welcome any assistance along the way.