Pic-of-the-Week for January 3, 2017

Hola Amigos!

Feliz año nuevo!  Or, Happy New Year 2017!  We wish the best for you and yours in this new year.  Now, the first challenge for all us is to write 2017 instead of 2016!  I hope you're up to it.

Zoey is looking forward to more mobility, and getting in and out of this dog door in our kitchen screen door all the time instead of just once in a while!  She often comes in and goes out when the wood door is closed and she goes through both dog doors  She goes out this door.  But coming in?  She'll sit there and whine at us until we open it for her! Silly dog.  At this point she was thinking she might want in, but the sun felt pretty good laying outside the door.

I'm thankful that my garden is doing well.  The lettuce, onions and spinach continue to grow nicely; I planted my favorite Blue Lake green beans last week, and they are already popping up.  Ben said I should string them now, but it is just a bit too soon!  We should have beans to eat by February some time.

It is about time to put my soaker hose out, though, now that I can see the plants.  

On Sunday afternoon, we picked up our cousins Tom and Karan Malpass from the airport.  They said there was snow at the Sea-Tac airport, and a runway needed to be cleared and the plane de-iced before they could take off, so there were very thankful to get here where there is no snow in sight!  (Just white sand beaches!)  They are spending the month here, renting a house nearby us.  We had a rousing game of Mexican Train last night after dinner, and I'm sure there will be many more.  

Ryan is heading out for Thailand next week, to spend several months or more with his good friend Mike S, a college buddy of his.  Mike lives there and hopes to start a couple of enterprises with Ryan's assistance.  (The east room will be available!)  I think Sam is really going to miss him.  His lap is just the right height so that Sam can sit on it and rest his chin on the table...one of Sam's favorite places to be.  I don't think he tells him which cards to play.... Oh yeah, we'll miss him, too!!   Then we'll have our children all around the world.  Good thing for Skype and What's App to keep in touch!  I'll be anxious to see pictures of Thailand.

With those modern communications, we get to see pictures like this of Eleanor getting her hair cut.  (Or Aaron doing his own haircut.)  And pictures of David writing Arabic and Korean letters on the sidewalk to "make people think" as they walk by.  







We helped our friends Mel and Katie last week clean up the lot they will be moving their RV(s) to soon.  They spend about 5 months dry camping at Las Frailes, and this year they are going further up the arroyo almost to the ranch where there is a lovely spot available for them to set up, and keep it set up.  They do an elaborate camp every year, and they will be able to keep a lot of things in place at this spot.  

Katie is sitting about where they want the front of the 30' 5th wheel trailer to be.  She'll back it into here after winding her way up the arroyo and the road up the side of the hill to this camp spot.  We hauled brush Mel had cut previously, moved rocks, and picked up old garbage.  There used to be 5 or 6 little trailers parked here, and they were recently hauled out (lots of little bits and pieces left behind!)  They'll be getting a backhoe in to level some ground and dig a septic hole soon, and we hope to go back out to help them put things in place.  (I want to see her manuever some of those corners and skinny spots and be properly amazed at her driving abilities!)

After our work party we had lunch in Cabo Pulmo, and it was a windy day with very rough seas!  It looked like the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, except it was still the tropical turquoise color of the Sea of Cortez.  Oh... and you couldn't sit in an open air restaurant in December in Oregon and feel comfortable!  You can be sure no one was snorkeling at Cabo Pulmo that day!

Ben built a new platform for our bird feeder, since the old one was termite ridden and falling apart.  I'm sure the birds appreciate it (as long as we keep it full of seeds!)  The post is called Palo Brazil, which grows only here in southern Baja and parts of Sonora and Sinaloa. It is so hard, it is often used for fence posts.  I think the termites bypassed it, and just worked on the platform instead!  





I have created a January 2017 photo album just in case you want to see more...

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