Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Pic-of-the-Week for June 20, 2017

Hola Amigos,

Yes, we are still in Mexico....enjoying the quiet!!!  This cactus flower bloomed in the quiet of the night last week while we were sleeping.  It only blooms at night, and only one night, so you've got to watch them closely so you know which morning to get up early to see it still in bloom!




The grand kids are gone, and peace and quiet has returned to our home.  We love 'em to pieces, but they sure make life interesting, sometimes more interesting than we can imagine.  Anyhow, we all survived, and had some great times and hopefully made some great memories for them all.  



We all enjoyed going out to eat, and the kids appreciated their chocolate milk in tall cool glasses!  With straws, of course, so you could also blow bubbles and get into trouble with Mom.


And sometimes we had little accidents, so had to have a pretty pink ice pack wrapped in a soft towel to put on our heads.  (Let me see that picture, Grandma...see if I'm looking sufficiently hurt, but still pretty!)  

Anyhow, they are now in California, and will be migrating to Illinois soon to spend the rest of the summer there.

Ryan is getting ready to head back to Shanghai, China.  He seems quite content there, and has become quite the continent hopper! 

We will probably leave for Oregon next week sometime.  The Jeep is not driveable right now, (no gas tank yet, and a fix to re-position the radiator needs further modification), but Ben is hoping to be able to get it ready for body work and paint before we leave (he'd like that done by our reliable body-man Caliman this summer).  We'll see!  Also, the 2001 white truck is in the shop.  The electronic accelerator is not working, so the shop ordered the needed part from Arizona.  Time for the part to arrive?  7 to 10 days, business days, probably.  That makes it maybe this Saturday, but probably early next week....we hope!  We put in some new windows in the house, and now our old hurricane shutters will not fit properly, so Ben went to La Paz today to get plywood to modify the necessary shutters.  He's also been going around cleaning out all the "bee goop" in many of the anchor holes, and putting in the bolts to keep the bees out!  

I did some closet cleaning today, and discovered that termites had done a number on some of my picture files; nice cardboard boxes that were quite tasty to those nasty termites, and many of the pictures were ruined, too.  (SAD FACE).  I did find a nice picture that I haven't seen in a long time of me and my three sisters, and it was in good shape.  This was probably about 1998, back when we were all much younger!  Sister Alice has been gone since January 2004, so it was nice to see her typically smiling face.  


I have finished my latest quilt (or at least as far as I can go), and it is ready to haul up to Oregon and mail to my friends who will put on the backing, insert the batting, and quilt it for me.  It has been a fun project, and I enjoyed working in all the bright colors.  I'll put on the binding after I get the quilted blanket back from Quiltmasters.com.  This is obviously one for Ben, since it's his antique car featured on it. 

We hope to see many of you this summer.  Let us know if you want us to visit, and we'll put you on our list of "places to go and people to see"!  

This will probably be the last Pic-of-the-Week from Baja this spring (Happy first day of summer manana!)  You'll have to rely on Ben for news of our summer fun.

More pictures in our June 2017 album.

Until the next time (who knows when?)
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey 

Thursday, June 8, 2017

PIc-of-the-Week for June 8, 2017

Hola Amigos,

Yes, I missed Tuesday.... and Wednesday!  Somehow, with three active grand-kids visiting here, time just gets away from me.  We have been having a very busy time, and we're hoping that Ben will survive the chaos and noise that he's not used to.  I believe the kids are having a great time.  They have a BIG wading pool,



 a sand box, and lots of books and toys to keep them busy here at the house, as well as two dogs to pet and pet and pet and get kisses from and pet and pet and pet some more!!  The dogs are actually pretty tolerant, and I've told them to stay away from Zoey or we'll get wet spots on the floor, so they're pretty good about that.  Sam has nipped Eleanor when she persist on being in his face.  She doesn't seem to get the message to back off until he's nipped her pretty little nose!  (Everyone has survived!)  Those of you following my Facebook page have seen many of these photos, but for those of you just getting this bi-weekly letter, these will be new.

Of course, one of the more exciting things to do down here is feed our local burros.  Eleanor called the "beeros"!  She and Grandpa gave each of the burros a couple gumdrops, which are much appreciated (by the burros!)  



The kids got to go swimming with their Uncle Ryan.  He took them out into the "deep" water, and they had a grand time; especially David, and he can hold his breath and dive underwater and paddle like crazy.  And Eleanor loved being held out there by strong Uncle.  And the water is feeling pretty good and warm, and no little stinging jellyfish....yet!  Last night their Mom and I took them swimming after dinner, and I've got to say, the water was a wonderful temperature and it was very enjoyable.  

Eleanor has become Grandpa's helper.  He is cleaning out the bee goop from our hurricane shutter holes, and putting in the shutter bolts.  She insists on knowing what he is doing, and then she helps.  She hands him the bolts one at a time (with a washer) and he puts them in (after cleaning out the holes).  

We've also taken a ride in Grandpa's Woody....no seatbelts, no carseats, no windows!!!  And everyone survived.  We took a ride to El Viejo and had a nice taco lunch, and the kids really loved the fresh air and no restrictions!  In fact, Eleanor was very disappointed when for the next ride we had to take the pickup with the car seats.  :-(   Check out our June 2017 album for a video and other pics of the ride in an antique car.  



We've also been working on cleaning out the freezer.  Although the kids, except for Aaron, don't eat much, we are managing to get rid of quite a bit of stuff.  (It helps that we have two more adults here to help us eat!)  That is nice before we leave for the summer, as we'd like to shut down at least one of our 3 fridges!! 

The troops are leaving on next Tuesday to meet up with Tim (their husband and Dad) and spend some time traveling and visiting friends in the US.   We will be starting to wrap things up here and getting ready to travel to the US ourselves.  Since we drive, we're not sure when we're leaving... it will depend on the weather (getting too hot!) and our task list.  Ben has some unfinished projects he needs to track and figure out what to do with, like the boat, and the Jeep (which will be runable but not perfect).   And then there's the tires on the car trailer, which need replacing (3 years ago these were brand new...remember our broken u-bolt in the middle of Baja on that trailer?  Those memories are coming up on Facebook right now!)  Ben did some research and found out those tires, one of which is going bad, were manufactured in China and had a recall.  That may be why the tire guy in El Rosario had them available for a decent price!?!  Anyhow, he called and found out that Les Schwab (tire store in Oregon) will replace them at no cost.  So we'll take two or so at a time up to the states and swap them out.  (What you call a "long range" project, in more ways than one!)

OK...If I'm ever going to get this out, I'd better do it now.  Like I said, more pics in the June 2017 album.  

I'll leave you with a cactus flower blooming in our courtyard.  It is getting tighter now, so it is evidently a night-blooming cactus.  I managed to spot it before it closed completely.



Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam, Zoey, Rebecca, David, Aaron, Eleanor and Ryan!!!