Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Pic-of-the-Week for May 23, 2018

Hola Amigos!  

Wow!  I'm almost on time....just one day late.  I guess I've turned over a new leaf....maybe!  


Since the last post, we have had some delightful company (they played Pinochle AND Mexican Train with us, and enjoyed our wine selections!  They also brought a nice selection of NW wines to share with us!)  Lori and Jack will most likely be back, as they seemed to have a great time here, relaxing and enjoying the area.  Lori used to work with Ben at ODOT, and we were very pleased when she called on the spur of the moment and asked if we had space for them.  We did, so they came! 

We took them to Rancho Buena Vista (we went for a walk on the beach with the dogs, and somehow ended up there!  Go figure?!) 



And we took them to El Viejo for tacos....  they really got into the spirit of the vacation!  They also loved La Playa for beach location and food, and we got to listen to Miguel de Hoyos on guitar one night, too!  


 The day before they were scheduled to leave, we took them to San Jose del Cabo for a look around town and some requisite shopping (at least on Lori's part!)  We went to Jasmine's again for dinner, which is the same restaurant we went to on my birthday a week before.  As then, the food was excellent.  


On the day that they left, Ryan and Charlotte arrived!  Hooray!  It is great to have them here, and right now, they are working hard on spoiling me.  They do all the dishes (and empty the dishwasher), and last night they fixed a nice "home style" Chinese meal for us.  They did a great job.  It's hard for Ben to relax when someone "inexperienced" is cooking his dinner, but even he was pleasantly surprised that Ryan can cook!  


We had a "Meet and Greet" party for them last Saturday, and invited friends and neighbors to say hello.  Of course, we had to have a nice Carrot Cake and some munchies.  



 Since being here for a week now, they are pretty much over their jet lag after traveling from Shanghai to Vancouver, BC, to here (they did take two days to do that, with a night in Vancouver).  

Charlotte and Ryan will be going in to Hospital H+ this Friday to meet the Obstetrician and get set up for delivery of their baby in August.  And yes, this Grandma will be coming back to Baja this summer to help them out for a bit.  

In the meantime, our daughter Rebecca and her family have traveled to the East Coast of the United States from the Mid East, and are visiting friends there for a couple weeks before they go to Chicago for a month.  We won't be able to see them this summer, as they will be heading back to the Mid East before we leave Mexico this year.  Hopefully, they will definitely plan on an Oregon summer NEXT year! (And after we get there).   

I have been busy finishing up the quilt I'm making for Grand baby #4.  I plan to add more border fabric (I'll buy it in the US, since I don't have what I want here in my stash), and have it quilted by our friends at Quiltmasters in Brownsville.  Then I'll finish it up with the binding.  That hand sewing always takes some time!  Hopefully, it will be finished by the time I need to come back.  



Ben has dozens of projects that he is working on, or it seems that way.  We added Air Conditioning to the bedroom upstairs that Ryan uses, so that is available for them this summer.  We actually got it done in a timely manner, especially for Mexico!  We bought the unit at Costco the day we picked up Lori and Jack; Ben called Carlitos, our favorite electrician, and he made a special trip over to check it out, and another special trip back here that night to splice into a 220 line in the shop, with a neat conduit up to where the AC unit was located.  He recommended another fellow to install the mini-split unit, and he came the day after Lori and Jack arrived.  He spoke no English, so Ben asked Dalia to come over and clean up after the workers, as well as let them know where we wanted it and to pay them (since we were out for breakfast!)  They installed the drain line, but Ben and Ryan have reconfigured it so it doesn't show as much.  That turned out very nice.  The AC in that room will be great this summer.

Another project we did was some front porch / veranda improvements.  We took down the shade cloth curtains and threw away the clunky plastic grips we have been using.  Ben put a bunch of grommets in them, then we used carabiners to attach the curtain to the guy wire we have strung between the posts.  The next job was to stretch out the curtains and wash all the dirt and dust off of them.  Now, they look nice and neat AND clean and they are very easy to open and close!  This time of year, that sun goes down in the northwest, and the veranda gets too hot and sunny without them when we're having dinner or playing games out there.  Finally, Ryan strung a string of LED rope lights on the underside of the palapa which really improved the lighting out there for our game times.  It's so nice out there now, it's hard to come in at night!!  

I saw a fox running by on my walk the other day (no time for a picture), and the burros are reaping the rewards of our corn growing adventure this year.  (Isn't that fluffy baby a cutie?)


Our cactus garden is looking nice, especially with our Cochemiea  blooming (that Latin name was for my sister Sharon's benefit!)  The first picture is one Ryan took from laying on the sidewalk.  The second is one I took bending over!  (It's hard enough to get up from bed, let alone a hard surface on the ground!)  



 I love when this cactus blooms!  

I have added more pictures in our 2018 May album.  Enjoy!  

Weather report:  We've had an unusually warm May this year, several times in the 90's already, and it may be an indication of hotter weather to come this summer.  Glad we have AC in our bedrooms to sleep with! 

At this point in time, we are not sure when we will be leaving Baja to go north.  The 30 Model A is taking longer than the body shop expected, even though they are adding more people to work on it.  They are doing a fantastic job, and are very meticulous.  Ben then has a bunch of work to do on it, so he's thinking about doing as much as he can here before we leave, and finishing it up as needed when we get to Oregon. (We'll probably need shop space, Ken!)  That also means we won't be going to the Model A National Meet in Reno, most likely.  I told Ben that I have doctor appointments starting July 9, so we have to be there before then!  We will keep you informed!  

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Charlotte, Sam & Zoey  (phew!)






 


Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Pic-of-the-Week for May 9, 2018

Hola Amigos,

I think this is becoming a habit.... it's been almost a month again since my last post, and I really haven't been that busy.  Oh well.  I at least have a few pictures and things to report.  

The burros are happy that we are harvesting our corn.  They get to eat the stalk and any other left-overs.  Even baby was chewing on a leaf the other day!  



We get this part of it!  We had a pretty good crop, but it wasn't as sweet as I'd hoped.  That may be due to lack of water or good fertilizer, or just the variety of corn.  But it was fun to have and share with friends.  

Zoey and I are still doing daily walks (except Sunday, when I don't have time in the early morning).  I love making discoveries either in the desert, or the arroyo, or on the beach.  It seems like there is always something blooming!  This is the bloom from a Pitaya Agria, which produces a very tasty fruit.  The indigenous Indian population here staved off hunger by eating this fruit, and it's more popular cousin, Pitaya Dulce.  

The next picture is a Cardon cactus in bloom.  The tennis ball sized fruit are popular with lots of birds and iguanas, and animals who live on the ground when the fruits drop.  


I spotted this blooming plant close to the beach.  It is actually a reed of some kind.  I really liked the interconnecting star shape blooms and the buds waiting to bloom at the bottom.  


This is the bloom from a Palo de Arco, very common here in Baja.  The long straight sticks from this tree are used for many things; shade covers, fences, decorative arches (it bends easily).  This was growing in the arroyo.  

On the beach, I pick up beach glass, pretty rocks, and most of the garbage I see.  I usually have a plastic bag with me to pick up plastic bottles, bottle caps, old fishing line, etc.  Most people are good about picking up after themselves, but there is often evidence of parties on the beach with empty beer cans strewn everywhere, and sometimes the plastic bag they brought the goodies down to the beach is available!  I used one of those to pick up the "dead soldiers" from someone's party, and the next weekend, there was another batch of empties in the same (evidently popular) spot!  Grrrr!   The other day I picked up a Pacifico beer bottle, and didn't realize until I got home that it had tar all over it.  I didn't have a plastic bag that day, so just stuck it in my little fanny pack.  Was that ever a mistake!  Sometimes, though, I come across interesting things like this little star fish!


We have company coming later today, and they will be here until Ryan and Charlotte arrive next week, so we will be busy, busy!  The weather has heated up for May, and everyone is saying how hot it is already for early in the season.  It may portend a hotter summer.... or it may just stay like this the rest of the summer.  Hard to say, but our bedroom AC is very nice at night!  

Ben is making weekly trips to La Paz to check on our 1930 Model A Roadster.  It's coming along nicely, and they are doing great work.  They promise that it will be done by the end of May.  Then Ben has a bunch of work to do in June to get it ready for the show in Reno the end of June!  
















I managed to survive another year, and we went to San Jose del Cabo with friends to celebrate my birthday on May 4.  Had a lovely relaxing day and a delicious dinner.  It was low key and perfect!  


I have started a 2018 May photo album, so you can check that out if you'd like.  

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