Pic-of-the-Week for October 30, 2012

Hola Amigos,

October is winding down.... Halloween is tomorrow, All Saints Day is November 1.  Time keeps marching on!  Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving! 

You may know that one of our last BIG purchases in the US was a new Webber Smoker that Ben decided he must have.  (Thanks for that great recommendation, Mike & Anne!)  On Sunday and Monday, Ben did a test by cooking a 15 lb turkey.  That means 8 hours in a brine bath (soaking it in water with a mixture of sugar, salt and spices), draining it and letting it dry in the refrigerator, then smoking it for approximately 8 hours in the smoker kettle over charcoal.  Of course, we invited some friends and neighbors over to help us eat it last night, and I must say, it was very successful.  Moist, tender, smokey flavored.... it was a winner.  Now, who is going to come down to visit us for Thanksgiving for the next smoked turkey???  The photo above is the concoction of spices that Ben came up with for the brine.  And believe it or not, I forgot to take a photo of the finished turkey nor our guests enjoying the early Thanksgiving-type dinner, but it was a beauty!

Some other neighbors came to visit the other day, and I did get some photos of them.  There is a family group of 4 burros who roam our neighborhood.  They were over the other day for some gumdrops.  These guys are wild, but they will eat right out of your hand and let you pet them.

Hee-haw!!!!  We love our gumdrops!

Full moon was last night, so we have had some high tides.  Combined with several windy days to make some big waves, it made for some pretty sights on the beach.   The log below is one Sam ALWAYS has to sniff and mark...but he didn't even get close on this trip!  Guess he wasn't ready to get his feet wet!  Besides, I'll bet all the good odors had washed away! 

We are enjoying the flowers in bloom around us; cactus, and all colors of wild flowers.  The San Miguel is a wild vine that will grow up trees and cactus, and has a bright red bloom.  The photos I took make it look pink (maybe there are different varieties?  I don't know!)  Anyhow, it sure adds a splash of color to the desert scenes around us this time of year.

Our funny little cactus is blooming nicely, too.  I think it appreciates the rains that we've had.  

I've added a few more photos to the end of our October 2012 Picasa album. 

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for October 23, 2012

Hola Amigos,

We are enjoying the aftermath of Hurricane Paul.  It is lush and green, green, green here. We had no bad wind storms here on the Sea of Cortez side of Baja, just several days of heavy rain.  Of course, we had to drive into San Jose to deliver people to the airport on the worst day, but it was interesting to see what people have to deal with in the big towns.  There were some serious road washouts south of Loreto, however.  Here's a link to a YouTube video if you're interested.  Lots of water, and it closed Highway 1 for at least a day until they built detours around the washouts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6vtng50RHY&feature=player_embedded 

The photo below was from our drive into San Jose last Tuesday.  Yes, that is a river flowing across the main road, probably close to a foot deep, and moving fast.  I've often wondered what happens to all the businesses (nurseries, car and equipment dealers, etc) who are set up on the "high side" of the road in the middle of the arroyo.  The definition for arroyo is "dry wash".  It definitely wasn't dry that day!  

Anyhow, everyone got delivered safely, and the rain had pretty much stopped and the sun was out by the time we left the airport for the trip home!  And the suicide butterflies were out and about!  You've never seen so many pretty little butterflies in your life as there are in Baja after a rain.  They are everywhere, flitting around....usually right in front of your car!  Yes, sadly, here is a photo of a suicide butterfly who got stuck on our antenna.  I'm surprised I was able to get a clear photo of him through all the butterfly smears on the windshield! 

 

Now, we're enjoying scenes like this....calm seas and sunny skies.  By the way, this is the view from our new carport deck.  (Our guests "private" deck, because you have to go through the guest rooms to get to it!)

 

 "Mexican Time".... have you ever heard that term?  It is something we deal with here every day.  Mexicans do things at their own pace, usually a lot slower than us Gringos are used to.  Even after living here for over 10 years, we are still frustrated with that pace in some situations.  Here's a story for you as an example.  

While we were on our way down to Baja in early October, and still in California, our son Ryan was driving our white truck on yet another airport run. He was taking a friend to the airport, then he was going to take the truck to the shop in San Jose where we go.  It had been in for repairs of the front end a week or two before, but he said it was making some strange noises, so he wanted to have them check it out.  Well, as he was on the way to San Jose (is there a song in that?), the wheel fell off the truck!  Yikes!!!  He was on one of those rare stretches of road where there was a gradual, wide pull off, and the shoulders weren't straight down.  He managed to get the truck over in that parking area.  Here's the photo he took with his phone right after it happened.

 
 He even managed to find the wheel in to bushes (and cactus!) and called a tow truck to take them to San Jose (never mind the Federal Police stop down the road a ways where they were giving him a hard time about leaving the scene of an accident before a policeman was there).  He sent us this photo before we left our hotel room in Tracy, CA, Tuesday morning.  Whoa!  We were so thankful that he and his friend Ken were OK!  This could have been a disaster!  Anyhow, we told him to make sure to get a receipt from the tow company, because we were hoping the insurance would pay for that.  

When we got back into town, we e-mailed our insurance company, and yes, it would pay for the towing.  We just needed a receipt from the tow company.  We didn't think the one we had would suffice (no company name, just the price and a word that must have meant "towing"...I couldn't read his writing!) There ensued a two week process of multiple phone calls (mostly made by our friend Dalia) to the insurance company, the tow company, the insurance company, the tow company.  We needed an official factura for the insurance company.   The tow company needed an "RFC" number, which we don't have, to make an offical factura.  The insurance company told us to make it out to their RFC number.  It then only took about a WEEK for the tow company man to make out the Factura.  Then we had to figure out how to get it to us so we can take it into La Paz to the insurance company.  He was going to bring it by our house on Saturday (we were there ALL day).  He never showed up.  Dalia called him on Sunday, and he needed MORE information (which we gave to him).  Ben finally drove out to La Ribera and picked up the "official" factura from the man.  Ben will take it to La Paz, maybe manana, and then we'll see how long it takes for the insurance company to pay up!  It was over $300 US, so it is worth it to us to go to all this trouble.  Oh, and a new phone card for Dalia!!  
 
And finally, a success story!  About three years ago, our friend Karen, who lives north of Los Barriles up on a hill, told us about a pretty little plant she had found, and she wanted us to come up and dig it (shhhh....don't tell anyone!)  We dug it and transplanted it in our yard, and put a little marker by it, because we didn't want the gardener digging up the little grass like plant.  The next year, we didn't see any plant...just the marker.  The next year, no plant...but this year!  Eureka!  The plant is back!  It has a little bulb, so it may take large amounts of water to reproduce.  (We did plant it in our cactus bed, which we don't generally water).  It's a cute little thing, don't you think?

We always like to show you our bugs, too, so here is a Walking Stick we found by our kitchen door the other day.  (Mexicans call them Burro Killers.  Why?  No idea!) 

  
More photos are posted at the end of our 2012 October Picasa Album . 

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

 
  

Pic-of-the-Week for October 16, 2012

Hola Amigos,

We've been writing these letters using our "Multiply" blog sites for the last several years, but Multiply is going away in November, so we have started using  Google's "Blogger".  We then copy them to our e-mail and send them on out the majority of you who don't "blog".  That's why it is looking just a bit different.  If you have any problems seeing any of the photos, just let us know, and we'll scratch our heads and try to sound intelligent when we tell you why you can't see them properly!

For the last several days, Hurricane Paul has been blowing by on the Pacific side of Baja.  It is bringing a lot of rain to our area, which is a good thing.  Baja is very dry, and needs the rain.  Not much wind (yet), but it is now a major category 3 hurricane.  We're expecting more rain and winds on Tuesday when it actually goes by us.  Also, Sunday night we had a major power outage; power was out from about 8:30pm to 3am.   This is what is looked like most of the day on Monday... very cloudy and rainy (kind of like Oregon!)

 Check out this site if you want to follow this storm. 
http://www.eebmike.com/       Ben's brother Ken is planning on flying out on Tuesday, and I don't think he'll have any problems making his flight.  We've heard wind forecasts of 35 to 40 knots, so not too bad.  (Just a good kite surfing day!)

The photo above is what we'd  prefer our weather to look like.... this is the view from our friend Pat's veranda down in Vista del Mar the other day!  Hopefully, once Paul blows by, it will look like this again soon.
  

Many of these big moths have been flying around inside our house this fall.  Mexicans call them "Death Moths".  They have about a 5" to 6" wing span.  Seeing one in your house is bad news for them.  I wonder what 5 of them in our bedroom one night means? 

I've set up a "new flower" in my garden.  This is one I purchased at the Salem Art Fair in July, and in October, it finally found it's home in my garden in Baja.  I might have to get a few more next year, although Ben did object to bringing down the rebar stem!  Oh well....

Zoey and Sam  (this is Zoey) both enjoy the sunshine.  I had to do some serious "talking" to get Zoey to go out in the rain today to do her duty.  I guess she figured she'd melt if she got too many raindrops on her. 

We get together with Rebecca and her boys regularly using Skype, which is this Grandmother's joy!  Aaron is such a smiley little guy!  And David loves to type and write his ABC's.  Rebecca said it is starting to cool down a bit where they live.  Cooled down here today, too.  Our maximum temp Monday was 77.2!  Brrrr!!!   Low temp on Monday was 69.4. 

I've added some new photos to our  October Picasa Album.

Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey  

This is a TEST!

I'm going to test this site for Pic-of-the-Week.

Adding some photos from our Picasa album.

 

Zoey asking if we're home yet!  It was a long summer riding in the truck.

this is it!