Hola Amigos,
Well, I have to admit that I missed a few of the highlights last week, basically because I couldn't find the photos! They are a great reminder for me....I guess I "filed" them in the wrong place or something.
One of the items I missed was a look at construction materials and tools that are commonly used here. Some friends are building a new house in Vista del Mar, just in front of us, and we enjoy watching the progress. The other day, the workers had a ladder set up against the back wall so that they could put in a roof drain spout. It's a long, two story distance up, so they also needed to set the ladder on some scaffolding that was set up at the base of the house. Of course, this ladder was a home-built affair that is scary just to look at, let alone climb up on! Would you feel safe up there on this ladder? (I did notice they had a little rope tied around the top rung, which was maybe tied to something on the roof...)
The other thing I forgot from last week is a project that some men in our church undertook for the last several weeks. There is an old lady (probably my age!!) who lives alone on a ranch up in the mountains above El Coro. She never married, but took care of two brothers who have since died. Several other brothers are still around, and they do go up to visit her. All of her life, she has gone to the spring near her house and dipped up a couple buckets of water and carried back to her house. The spring happens to be about 100 feet in elevation below her house! This year, 4 men from our church (aged 65 and up to 80) went up there and installed a solar panel to run a pump to pump the water from the spring up to her house. For the first time in her life, she could have running water in her kitchen! That was fine with her, but she also wanted to be able to dip water out with a bucket! So they accommodated her! Ben took our friend Dalia up one day last week so she could interpret between the lady and the workers. Here are some photos from there...
Here is the barrel / pump down at the spring.
Two of the men who installed it all, and they dug a ditch down the hill to bury the pipe and wiring so the animals wouldn't break it.
They put the tank to hold the water in an existing pila (water storage tank) that had never been used, so that the animals wouldn't get into that, either. However, the lady insisted that her brothers were going to come finish this and put water in it, so they needed to move the tank! (That's why Ben took Dalia! To eliminate confusion....kind of!!)
She was extremely grateful for the help (as long as she could still dip her buckets!) There are a few more photos in our February Picasa Album of the ranch house, which is very typical of the ones we've seen.
On the home front here, I have a new desk top! We decided to replace our final piece of formica with granite that matches the kitchen counters, and it is lovely. Those guys do fantastic work! I haven't seen too much of "Techie Gecko" since it's been installed, since they sealed the back edge, he doesn't have as many hidey-holes!
Watch your fingers, Carlos!! They finished up one day at about 7pm! At least he came when he said he would!
The other project we are having done is fencing the "final frontier"! We hired a fellow to build a barb wire fence down the hill to the wash, and over to the other fence. He is using stout corner posts and 5 strands of barb wire. Most of the posts are in, and if he shows up today (he has a regular job with the water company) we might see some wire strung. He's having a bit of a problem getting the first hole dug up at the top, as he's encountering our famous clay and rocks. This is the 3rd day he's dumped water in it to soften it up!
Now, if we could just get folks to keep the little walk through gate in the corner by Peter's closed!
Ben cooked another pork roast on our smoker the other day, and it turned out delicious. No photos of that, but I did take a shot of the pineapple upside down cake that I baked. I haven't done one of these in years, but I did remember that it was one of Ben's Mom's standard dessert recipes. I cooked this one in my dutch oven, and it turned out delicious! And I got to use my Grandmother's cake plate, which doesn't come out of the china hutch very often.
The weather is improving day by day, and we are getting more sunshine days. My garden is growing; I'm harvesting beans, one at a time... and I strung my new crop. We've got zucchini and arugula and spinach. :-) Before too long, we'll be having our meals on our veranda out front, where we can enjoy evening views like this:
By the way, whale watching is at the prime time right now. Ben & I are thinking about a trip after March 1. Do you want to touch whale?
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey
Well, I have to admit that I missed a few of the highlights last week, basically because I couldn't find the photos! They are a great reminder for me....I guess I "filed" them in the wrong place or something.
One of the items I missed was a look at construction materials and tools that are commonly used here. Some friends are building a new house in Vista del Mar, just in front of us, and we enjoy watching the progress. The other day, the workers had a ladder set up against the back wall so that they could put in a roof drain spout. It's a long, two story distance up, so they also needed to set the ladder on some scaffolding that was set up at the base of the house. Of course, this ladder was a home-built affair that is scary just to look at, let alone climb up on! Would you feel safe up there on this ladder? (I did notice they had a little rope tied around the top rung, which was maybe tied to something on the roof...)
On the home front here, I have a new desk top! We decided to replace our final piece of formica with granite that matches the kitchen counters, and it is lovely. Those guys do fantastic work! I haven't seen too much of "Techie Gecko" since it's been installed, since they sealed the back edge, he doesn't have as many hidey-holes!
The other project we are having done is fencing the "final frontier"! We hired a fellow to build a barb wire fence down the hill to the wash, and over to the other fence. He is using stout corner posts and 5 strands of barb wire. Most of the posts are in, and if he shows up today (he has a regular job with the water company) we might see some wire strung. He's having a bit of a problem getting the first hole dug up at the top, as he's encountering our famous clay and rocks. This is the 3rd day he's dumped water in it to soften it up!
Now, if we could just get folks to keep the little walk through gate in the corner by Peter's closed!
Ben cooked another pork roast on our smoker the other day, and it turned out delicious. No photos of that, but I did take a shot of the pineapple upside down cake that I baked. I haven't done one of these in years, but I did remember that it was one of Ben's Mom's standard dessert recipes. I cooked this one in my dutch oven, and it turned out delicious! And I got to use my Grandmother's cake plate, which doesn't come out of the china hutch very often.
The weather is improving day by day, and we are getting more sunshine days. My garden is growing; I'm harvesting beans, one at a time... and I strung my new crop. We've got zucchini and arugula and spinach. :-) Before too long, we'll be having our meals on our veranda out front, where we can enjoy evening views like this:
By the way, whale watching is at the prime time right now. Ben & I are thinking about a trip after March 1. Do you want to touch whale?
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey
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