Hola Amigos,
It's been another busy month for us, and we are getting a lot accomplished. The best news is that we got our 2nd Pfizer vaccinations, and had no reactions at all. We are feeling very good about that! Yes, we will still be wearing our masks when we need to, and are watching the numbers and waiting for herd immunity before we wander far and wide.
You may remember we had our casa built here in 2002. We had palapas (palm leaf roofing) installed on several outside areas of our home at that time. Amazing to believe, but they can last 20 years, barring hurricane damage and fire. The one on the north side of our casa covering our veranda had some hurricane damage in 2005 (Hurricane John) and survived several others that weren't quite as destructive as John. But after all these years, it was starting to get holes and leaked here and there. We got several bids from local contractors and chose Antonio Flores.
His crew came last Monday and removed all the old leaves, and cleaned up after themselves! They even hauled them all to the dump! They also removed the aluminum flashing at the top of the roof, as Ben wants that all replaced. The existing structure of palm beams and Palo de Arco cross sticks are in great shape, as is the leather that holds it on except in a few spots where it got wet. The next day a different crew came with pickup loads of palm leaves and prepared them to attach on the structure. They trim them with a sharp machete, wet them down, and attach a Datil tie (Datil is a very tough fibrous plant...the leaf is trimmed into strips). They then haul them over and hand them up to the master worker (Antonio's son, Antonio). He works in his stocking feet, and has an extra board to sit on for comfort.
I've included a video in our April 2021 album, so you can see how it's done. Looks like a lot of bending over to me! And yes, he's in his stocking feet.
They are almost done. We are just waiting for them to replace a board on the very top most of the way around the edge. (They had to cut it down, mill it, and cut it to length.) Then they will put up the final few rows of palm, attach the aluminum flashing, and put on a nice heavy net to hold it all down.
We can't wait to get out and enjoy our veranda again! We eat most of our meals out there this time of year, sit and watch the birds, and use the lounge chair for reading and naps.
The garden is still going like crazy. We have enough tomatoes (mostly little ones) to feed an army! I've canned a bunch of beans, but they're still producing like crazy. We're on our third corn crop, third or 4th radish crop, 4th lettuce crop, 4th Cilantro crop, who knows which squash crop of various kinds, and a few more cucumbers, too .... and there are a few more beets for Ben to process, too! Hope we have enough jars for him.
Another project that is "almost" done is that our new neighbor is starting to prepare for his construction project next fall. He had a power / water monument put in and Brian and Ben decided they could work together. The water company wants us to move our meter out of our "private property" (the meter isn't on private property, but we can't explain that!) Anyhow, Brian said we could use his monument for our water meter, too. All good! Anyhow, Fernando, who is in charge of the project, got the monument built, put in all the proper pipes and electrical fittings, hired a backhoe to dig a couple ditches, and we are now ready for the water company to come move our meter AND for CFE (the power company) to hook up the electrical for Brian. In the meantime, while digging the ditch the backhoe broke the existing city water line (oops!) and we had a flood. We also found another water hookup that they'd put in years ago for the lot next to us. We couldn't figure out what in the world that line was for until we thought about it a bit. But it sure didn't help breaking that one, too, when we already had a flood! Oh, and that was one of those days when Ben was in La Paz. Fernando, bare foot and wading in mud with shovel in hand, said "this is not a good day"!!! All was patched in the end, and we have some new water pipes and faucets on the west side of our new lot....just in case we want to water something over there. Just waiting for the water company to come move our meter and attach us to the correct water line.
The dog followed me home from Rancho Buena Vista this day!
There was an absolutely fantastic sunset the other night, and I'll share one of those photos with you here. The rest are in the April 2021 album.
We have no guests scheduled between now and when we head north in late June. If you want to brave some airports (or drive down)! we'd be happy to see you. We are missing our new good friend Maria who left for the US on a slowly meandering trip through Baja about a week ago. We loved her willingness to cook, and learned several delicious new recipes. We finally got the books back in bookcases, which Ben just finished building, in one of the upstairs guest rooms. And a new picture was hung in that room. So, we are set! Start planning your next Baja vacation!
We are still missing Sam, but Zoey is learning to make up for it by standing under the cutting board in the kitchen, and generally being underfoot.
Hasta la proxima mes!
Harriet, Ben and Zoey
