Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Pic-of-the-Week for October 25, 2016

Hola, Amigos!

We have been back home for almost 3 weeks now, and it has been our hottest October ever!  Temps have been in the 90's every day but a couple, and that's what the weather forecast is looking like for the foreseeable future.  Ryan says it's hotter now than it was all summer!  Crazy.  We are very much appreciating the AC in our bedroom at night so we can sleep!

I was so anxious to tell you about our trip home last time that I neglected to tell you about our final camping trip with our friends George and Carolyn.  They hadn't been to Hart Mountain yet this summer, and they asked if we'd like to go along.  Well, sure!!  Even though we'd get back just a day or two before we needed to pack up and head south, we don't pass up opportunities to go to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.  We even managed to sneak in a dinner at Cowboy Dinner Tree near Silver Lake, since they'd never been there before.  There was a cancellation, so we were lucky to get in. (The plan was to get enough food here so we didn't have to cook for several days!!  It worked!)



We camped with our trailers just across the street and had freezing temps that night.  Unfortunately, G & C's furnace wasn't working!  But with a little ingenuity, and the correct part at Ace Hardware in Lakeview, George was able to get the furnace to turn on; he just had to do it manually, so he still had to get up several times every night to turn it on and off.  

We camped at the bottom of the mountain for two nights and did some exploring down at the base, including the petroglyphs and the glass house that Ben & I visited last year.  The road out to these "attractions" is very rough (it included some serious mud puddles this year due to some heavy rains a few days before), so although it is a short distance (6.5 miles, mas o menos) it takes quite a while to get there and back!  The house is built up on the peak of a hill, and it is all plexiglass!  Really!  Roof and all.  It is abandoned now, and the property is probably owned by BLM, but it is fun to go check this out, and imagine trying to live here!  The original builder had an elaborate water system and a generator to run his electrical.  I imagine solar would be a good idea if you were going to live here now.  But golly, it sure is a long, hard drive to the grocery store for bread and milk!



Here is a good sample of the petroglyph art.  This critter (antelope?  goat?) has a little baby attached!

Ben and Carolyn spent a day back at Spectrum Sunstone mine, and this time they did it the "easy" way.  They spent an hour on a moving belt, pulling the pretty sunstones out.  They probably got as many in one hour as Ben and I did working it with the shovel and screen for 8 hours!  Live and learn!

 Here they are dividing the spoils.  What fun!


Of course, Hart Mountain is an Antelope refuge, so we did take a drive to check out how many antelope we could see.  Numbers seemed to be down, at least where we were looking, but we did see about 40 or 50 on our 20 mile drive.  And yes, that is patches of snow on that mountain peak!  It had snowed up to 6" on the mountain tops a few days before we got there.  


  OK.... back in Baja.  Ben has been busy as usual helping other folks get their houses in order.  Our friend Ruby is back for the first time in 4 years, and found her rental house in pretty bad shape due to various reasons.  Ben has helped her seal a leaky sink, look for batteries for her ATV, taken a termite ridden chair to the garbage (first to a carpenter to see if it could be repaired), arranged for a gardener to come clean her yard.  She is very appreciative!  Then our friend Mary also had a dead battery in her car, so he was her chauffeur for a day as she had commitments here and there the day she needed her car to be running.  I've been enjoying the quiet here in our casa, although they are building yet another new garage in Vista del Mar right in front of our casa.  This is the view from our roof.  At least these buildings don't obstruct our view of the ocean.  Ryan thinks we should "rent the roofs" to put solar panels on for our house!  If they wouldn't glare back in our eyes, it might not be a bad plan!  

 

We are happy to report that our newest "favorite" breakfast restaurant is open again for the season, and they will be serving dinner, too, starting on Friday.  This is La Playa, with great food and a wonderful view of the beach.

 My latest crochet project is this little beanie, which I made for our church's Christmas Shoebox gifts for the poor kids in the community.  The pattern is called "Brain Waves", and it's a good way to get rid of bits and pieces of yarn!  I hope to make a few more before the deadline.  

Had dinner at Tio's with friends last night, and they are ready for Halloween.  Look at this spider they have hanging in there!  It's not quite as big as the one I killed in our bedroom the other day (just kidding...but ours was big....and fast!!)



You may have noticed that I haven't directed you to any albums lately.  Since Picasa went away, all our photos have been migrated to Google Photos.  I've tried several various online photo sites, and it seems that Google is the obvious place to go.  I'm still working out some bugs, but I do have an October album if you want to check it out.  Just click on this link: 
October 2016 Purkey Photos.


If you want to see the captions, click on the individual picture, then click on the "i" on the top right (info).  The caption will then show up on the right.  You can also scroll through the pictures from that point with the arrow on the photo's right or left side.  (Move your mouse cursor over in that area if you don't see it.)

If you're a real glutton for photos, I also have a September 2016 album.

OK!  That's it for several more weeks.  We hope you're thinking seriously about coming to visit.  We may have guests for a week in mid December, but everything else is quite open.  And if you like HOT weather, the time to visit is NOW.  (If you've voted, you might as well check out Mexico!)

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



Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Pic-of-the-Week for October 11, 2016

Hola Amigos!

We're home!  Hooray!!   We had a busy summer; fortunately, not too many things needed fixing on the truck or travel trailer.

We took our trailer to Tygh Valley on September 30th and put it away for the winter, then got our truck all packed up on Saturday, October 1st at about 3pm, and Ben said "Let's go to Lakeview".  So we did!  We got into Lakeview at about 7pm, and had dinner at our favorite restaurant there, Mario's.  Delicious!   The next day, we drove to Bishop, California, through the Sierra Nevada's.   Beautiful as usual, with lovely fall colors and sunny skies with some clouds to the west.  (There was a pretty stiff wind blowing, but we weren't hauling any trailers, so no problems.)  Turns out there was snow in those clouds!  Friends at Lake Tahoe reported snow that day!

The next day, we went from Bishop, all the way to Ensenada, Baja California!  We got to San Diego where we usually spend the night, and it was only about 2pm, so Ben said "let's cross the border and go to Ensenada".  So we did!  No issues crossing the border....we drove right through in the "Nothing to Declare" line.  We had another lovely meal that night at a French restaurant across the street from our hotel.  I know, I know...we were in Mexico, but that food was delicious!  The woman who started the restaurant in 1947 actually was born and raised in the mining town of El Triunfo, near our home, and went to Cordon Bleu school in France.  Here' a happy Ben with his seafood dinner.  (Not showing the piece of Swordtail fish that came with it)!  



The next day was a short one.  I actually got Ben to stop at about 1pm and stay at the hotel in Catavina.  The hotel has been upgraded from previous stops, and has electricity all day.  (They must keep the generator running all the time).  We had siestas and caught up on needed rest from our long driving days.  The next morning, it was rather foggy, which they get from time to time in that area.  Actually, it was kind of nice having the fog instead of having the sun shining in our eyes that early in the morning!  (That isn't raindrops on the windshield...Ben had just sprayed the window washer to clean up the bug spots a bit).



The Baja Peninsula is narrow enough we can get weather from either ocean, the Pacific or the Sea of Cortez.  I think the fog is usually from the Pacific side.

That night we made it to Loreto.  Ben had looked up a hotel recommendation the night before, and we were determined to find it.  We drove into the center or Loreto, and we drove north, and east, and west, and south, and asked various people "donde esta este hotel La Damiana?" and for the most part got blank looks.  Several people did give directions, told us the color, and we drove right by it at least 2 times before we finally found it. (There are big trees on the curb that hide it).   Turns out it is just a block past the intersection at the traffic light and grocery store, on a street to the right, and down just a few buildings.  It is an old, old Mexican house that an American lady has fixed up very nice.  Lovely gardens, and room for us to squeeze our truck in behind the gate to park at night.  


Our very large room was just to the left of the front doors, which was convenient for me and my two dogs!  Those two signs above the vacancy sign were awards for best hotel the previous two years.  It is definitely a place we'd like to visit again (especially when the Uruguayan restaurant on the corner is open for dinner!)


We made it home on Thursday afternoon at 3pm, after shopping for groceries in La Paz and getting some pesos.  It looks SO good here.  The temps this past few days since we returned has been in the high 80's and low 90's, but according to the weather forecast, it's going to be warmer this week.  Thankfully, we have AC in our bedroom at night, so it feels really good!  Ryan survived the summer (it wasn't too hot, according to him) and kept the place neat and tidy (by calling the gardener and house cleaner when needed!)  The dogs are happy to be here, we're happy to be here, and we're ready for your visit!  



The trees in our entry garden are getting big!
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 Our flowering tree is blooming (don't know it's name).


And Zoey is waiting for your arrival.  (We padded the dog door in the screen so she doesn't scrape her hind legs going over).  She is walking wobbly, and I took the dogs down to the beach yesterday.  She was exhausted when we got back, so it may have been a bit much, but she was anxious to go again today! Maybe maƱana!

We hope that you are thinking about coming to see us.  Just give us a call (541-854-5303) or send an e-mail.  The guest room is ready and waiting!  

Tus amigos de Baja
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey