Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Pic-of-the-Week for December 19, 2017

Feliz Navidad, Amigos!

We want to wish you all a wonderful Merry Christmas, and hope you get to celebrate with friends and family, and that you stay WARM!  Please remember the reason for the season.... 

Another two weeks have flown by, and in spite of the Fashion Show being behind us, we are still super busy with various and sundry things.  One of the main things is trying to get our insurance updated.  Of course, when you go to the doctor they manage to find "issues"...for both of us.  Nothing major, but Ben is sticking with our old policy for another year, and I'm going with a new one that covers more things.  And the older we get, the more expensive the insurance rates are.  We just have to console ourselves with the fact that we live in a beautiful place!  It's cloudy today, but this was our view from our favorite breakfast restaurant after church on Sunday.
 



Ben has made several trips to La Paz, one for another car show with his '28 Martin-Parry woody, and another to help our friend Dalia.  Her boyfriend is in the hospital with leukemia, and Dalia is finding people who are willing and able to donate platelets  to him from here in Los Barriles.  It's a sad situation, but she is doing her best to help him as long as possible.  On the last trip to La Paz, Ben stopped by our friends' the Amarilla's, and bought two servings of Chiles en Nogada (chiles in walnut sauce), one of Mexico's most popular dishes.  Ben and I shared one the other night, and it was delicious!  Rosi said she'd show me how to make it, and I just might take her up on it.  She even gave us mild Poblano peppers!







Our lime tree is still producing nicely.  We can go out and pick up a handful every other day or so.  I had to change to a bigger basket to hold them, and today I decided to go ahead and squeeze some for juice, since they'll spoil if left sit long enough.  

And then there are the banana trees!  We are having fun trying to keep up with the ripe bananas.  We gave the last huge bunch to Chuy and Lydia, who run the Jesus Cristo Pan de Vida food program that our church sponsors.  I just went out to take a picture of it and noticed part of it is really ripe, so I'm enjoying a fresh banana from my garden as I type!  I think Chuy might get a good part of this bunch, too!



The Fashion Show Ben and I headed up had abundant proceeds this year; in fact, over twice what was made last year.  Ben came up with a brilliant plan to have the local grocery store create vouchers for the participants of the Pan de Vida program, each for the value of $250 pesos.  That is about $14 US.  We made enough so we can supply the 28 families for most of the year with this monthly voucher   They can use the vouchers for basic food items that they may not be able to afford otherwise.  No alcohol or soda; but certainly cereal or coffee or tea or sugar or fruits and vegetables.  (The store owner had to sign every single one of these vouchers!)  We were very thankful for the results.  




We've been working since last spring with a mechanic here in town to get Ryan's 1976 Ford van restored with a working engine, (we supply the money ... transferred from Ryan, and he supplies the parts and work).  Man, if it's not one thing it's three.  We THINK MAYBE he'll be done with it today.  The soft brakes are the last thing he's working on.  Edgar the mechanic says the engine is working very well.  And I've been learning "mechanical" Spanish!  Then, maybe it can be sold.  We're hoping Ryan will be here in February for a visit with Charlotte.  We hope so; we're excited to meet her.  



This week is going to be busy for me at the piano keyboard.  Our community choir has been asked to perform this weekend at the Saturday market, so I'm practicing all the Christmas songs we do for that, including Jingle Bell Rock, White Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and quite a few others.  Then on Sunday, we have the normal church service, and that evening, our Christmas Eve candlelight service.    Good thing my piano bench is padded!  


Sending our Christmas blessings to you from Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey



Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Pic-of-the-Week for December 5, 2017

Hola Amigos,



Believe it or not, it has only been two weeks since our last "Pic".  The major hurdle is done.  Feeding the Hungry Fashion Show was held, was successful, and we survived!  Please check out this link from the professional photographer we used to see all our models, and a few of us.  Fashion Show .  All of these models are local ladies who had a great time showing off the fashions of local dress makers.  You can see by these pictures how much fun they had!

 I was the MC and the answer lady, and Ben sold drink tickets and raffle tickets and kept people happy on his end of the deck, while I flitted around and visited, thanked people for coming, and dusted off my Toastmaster skills for speech making.  I also spent some anxious moments trying to track down the DJ who had our sound system!  Yikes.  No way I could yell loud enough for everyone to hear.  We are hearing reports that people really enjoyed the show, had a good time, and basically the only thing they could complain about is that we didn't have enough seats (some waited to the last minute to buy tickets, in other words!)  We sold out, and I think there were a few sneaking in at the last minute anyhow!  



So, I figured after the show, this week, we could relax a bit and maybe get a few things done that have been on our list.  Well....the calendar is so full this week it's crazy!  We're trying to get a few time sensitive things done (like our new health insurance) before deadlines are reached.  Maybe next week we'll have a little time to relax.  Maybe.  

In the meantime, I have been doing a bit of gardening.  I saved and planted some squash seeds from friends in Walla Walla.  These need a bit of shade right now as they're developing, but I think they'll do just fine for a winter garden here in Baja.  I'm hoping the lizards don't find them once they set on fruit!  I have some onions started, and I'll be planting some other things very soon, now that the weather has cooled down some.  The rancher from San Bartolo stopped by soon after we arrived home and sold me two bags of compost, so I'm set for a nice garden in my raised beds.  I put the squash on the neighboring vacant lot.  I'm hoping they can spread out nicely there.  



Our bougainvillea is blooming profusely (see up top), and the lime tree just keeps putting out a few more of these wonderful sweet limes.   The banana trees have produced one very nice big bunch that we donated to the church food program, and we have at least three more bunches in the group!  Hard to say how long it will be before they get ripe, but it may be a while!  
 


OK.  Not too many pictures have been taken in the last two weeks, because our noses have been to the grindstone getting ready for the Fashion Show.  Hopefully we'll get a chance to get out and about and get more pics soon.  Speaking of out and about....we're trying to figure out where our Jeep is in the process of being painted and so forth.  Last time we saw it, it was in the Palmas Boat Yard waiting for a bit more fiberglass work on the firewall.  We are really ready for it to get done and use it!  (According to our painter whom Ben just called, he is retrieving it from the boat yard RIGHT NOW!)  Hooray.  The Model A is coming along, too.  Ben has done some upholstery (we have upholstery kits and new springs) and it looks very nice.  Today, the fenders and running boards are going to get sandblasted and taken to Caliman, the painter in San Bartolo.  

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