Pic-of-the-Month for November 2023

 Hola Amigos,

Hey!  It's December 1st and I didn't get our November post out on time!  Oops.  So, maybe you'll get 2 in December, you lucky people!

So what happened with us in November?  (I always have to go back and look at my pictures to figure it out!!)

Our curly cactus, which only blooms at night, bloomed like crazy this year.  It had at least 30 bloom buds on it.  The only problem is ... it blooms at night, and we're usually asleep then, so I made sure to get up while it was still dark (which is when Zoey usually wakes up) and got some pictures.   Absolutely gorgeous palm-sized blooms!  This picture gives you an idea of how many were blooming at once.

We hadn't seen many burros in the neighborhood in October, but they are back!  There is a group of 3 who like to hang around here, so we've started putting out the water bucket for them.  No goodies from the garden yet, but someday!

We visited our neighborhood plant nursery and bought a bunch of flowers to brighten up the place; geraniums, petunias, hibiscus, and others.  It's looking really nice! 

 We needed to buy the hibiscus because the cows got in once last summer and they usually go directly to the hibiscus first.  They must be a special treat!  The plants usually survive, but they struggle to bloom after that. 

 

This is one of the new hibiscus that has been blooming nicely since I bought it.  

Ben has been working really diligently on our garden.  We have radishes, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, spinach, chives, squash, and some wonderful cucumbers.  The cukes actually survived over the summer, and they started producing nicely after we got back and started watering them regularly (lots of water!)  The other plants are still maturing, but we have harvested some radishes.  

Ben started a new area just outside our kitchen, and it's been a struggle.  That particular spot is where much concrete and plaster was mixed up on the ground.  And guess what?  There was a several inches thick layer of that stuff still there, under several inches of dirt!  Lots of digging and raking and wheelbarrows full of old concrete removed, but it is looking very nice now!  

My old washing machine died.  Fortunately, we knew its end was near, and had just purchased a new one from Home Depot in Cabo San Lucas.  And believe it or not, it was delivered the day the old one died!  It took Ben most of the rest of the day to get it unpacked and installed, but we did it!  Not an easy job, but Ben is very persistent!  And it works very well (the instructions are all in Spanish...good thing I'm getting more proficient in the language so I can choose the correct washing cycle!)

 

For those of you who know our dachshund Zoey, she's still kicking (barely) and going for very short morning walks with me.  She is pretty much blind now, and it seems she can only see shadows.  She still manages to wake us up early every morning (4am or so) for her first morning walk.  I let her out our bedroom slider by herself and she comes back in the dog door at the kitchen.  She's only gotten lost once!!  Obviously the old nose is still working quite well.  And she hasn't forgotten how to tell time.  She knows exactly when we should feed her, and isn't shy about reminding us!  She also still appreciates a spot of sunshine!

 

We participated again this year in the November 20 Revolution Day Parade in Los Barriles.  They said the parade starts at 8am.  We figured, as usual in the past, start lining up at 8, parade will start about 9.  We got there 15 minutes before 8, and the parade started exactly at 8am!  First time ever, that we can recall.  Wow.  It's also the first time since we started participating in about 2007 or 2008, that we didn't have any princesses or queens in our cars.  They had a fancy Corvette for the Queen, and a big float for all the other royalty.  This year, I actually got pictures of the parade, because cousin Tom Malpass was driving the pickup for me.  

There were 10 of us at our casa for Thanksgiving dinner.  Ben smoked a turkey (that he fortunately found in La Paz...a Butterball), and we had all the regular fixings that go with it; potatoes and gravy, 2 kinds of stuffing, cranberries, salads, green beans, pie and ice cream!  We were very happily "stuffed"!  It was nice enough weather that we ate outside on our veranda, which is always very pleasant.  

 

For the second year in a row, the non-profit Ben and I and others run, won the most votes as the "charity of choice" in the Los Barriles area!  We won $2500 dollars which will go a long way in feeding people in need in Los Barriles.  To read more about the program, check out this blog link:  Feeding the Hungry

We were very pleased with this outcome!  On the table, I showed what items could be purchased for $300 pesos or less (less than $15 US right now, as the exchange rate is going down for the dollar).  $300 pesos is the value of each voucher we give to the families, 4 vouchers per month. 

I made my walking goal for the year of 650 miles on November 27!  I really do love walking here in the pleasant weather and beautiful scenery.  I'm hoping to match the same number of miles (or maybe get a few more) as last year, of 726 miles.  (To keep me humble, my neighbor Hope is doing a run today, and the next 2 days, from the Sea of Cortez to the Pacific Ocean, over the Sierra de la Laguna mountains!  68 miles.  Here's the web site for it. https://maramartrail.com/en/  )

That's about it.  I've created a November Album where you can see more photos and I will make sure there are captions on the majority.  

My sister Shelley is coming to visit in just over a week.  It will be good to see her again.  We still have room for you to visit, too!  Come see us!

That's all folks!

Hasta la proxima vez 

Tus amigos en Baja

Harriet, Ben and Zoey

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for October 2023

 Hola Amigos! 

Here it is the end of the month and you're maybe wondering if we made it back to our home in Baja, and did we survive the hurricane that came through a little over a week ago.  Yes!  and Yes!  

Trip down:  We left as scheduled on October 4th from Fort Rock where we store our trailer at friends Katie and Mel's place.  It was freezing and foggy!  We have no ice scraper in our truck, so we started the truck and warmed it and the windows up until we could use the windshield wipers on the frost. It was foggy in patches all the way to Summer Lake, but eerily beautiful.  The pic below was our view until we got the windshield defrosted!  (While we were all bundled up in our warmest jackets!)

It turns out that we didn't travel with cousins Tom and Karan after all.  They were delayed due to some business issues, and we couldn't wait to get started back home.  So, we did another solo trip of 2000 miles on now familiar roads.  The Sierra Nevadas in California had some nice snow fall already, and the Aspens were starting to turn yellow.  The freeway traffic from Victorville to El Cajon was not too bad this trip, and we got to the border at a decent time of day (late morning).  Unfortunately, the border agent wanted to see what was in the back of our truck, so Ben had to crawl in there and take out and open any box the man wanted to see.  I think he was a bit disappointed in our second hand books and miscellaneous "stuff" that we need for Baja.  We were allowed to go without paying duty on anything, but it took a 1/2 hour of driving time!  Ensenada was foggy again, but just right on the bay.  A few blocks over, it was sunny and bright.  The major construction south of Ensenada is still on-going, so that slowed us down again, but at least we were on pavement the entire way.  It will be very nice when they're done with that project...maybe by next June?!  

We made it to Hotel El Jardin in San Quintin, and spent 2 nights there so we could visit a nearby winery on Saturday.  It turned out the winery was closed on Saturday, but we did find their tasting room open, and found some wine to our liking.  The winery is Becerra, which is one of the few in this area.  We visited with the winemaker on our visit there last year, and are sorry we missed him this year.  Another thing we like to do in this area is visit the Eucalipto Restaurant, since their food is excellent.  Our hotel's gardens and the restaurant make this stop an excellent one!  The slow traffic due to commuter buses on two lane roads is one of the disadvantages, but one we can live with...usually!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next travel day was very drippy and foggy Sunday morning until we broke into the sun near El Rosario. The 3 Military stops were no problem (one of the guys wanted to talk about the good wines in Valle de Guadalupe (we agreed whole heartedly), others just waved us through.) Very little traffic on our Sunday drive, and we enjoyed the scenery and unique flora. We stopped in Guerrero Negro only to buy some of our favorite Baja and Argentine wines and headed on to San Ignacio further south.

The only down side was a National Guard police stop south of Vizcaíno. He wanted Ben's Driver's license, our truck registration, and a "provisional permit" which we took to mean a temporary import permit. This was new to us! (We don't have one). Our police officer friend Magali was called, talked to the guy, and we eventually were allowed to leave (big line of traffic behind us!) We talked to others later who'd been stopped there as well. Several were searched thoroughly (we weren't) and another was only asked "where are you going". Strange!  Always something to become a new adventure!  Anyhow, we made it to San Ignacio with no other problems, and the next day, had a short drive to Loreto.  We had friends we met in San Ignacio who decided to drive home to Los Barriles from San Ignacio, and they ran into some heavy rain storms that delayed traffic somewhat.  We decided to hold back and take our time, which turned out to be the best choice.  By the time we got to La Paz on Tuesday, there were no wet roads.  We made it home early Tuesday afternoon.

Our home was in good shape, house and garden. Dalia and Marco had done a lot of work to get it looking good! My little red car had a very dead battery.  And it is an expensive one, not available here in town.  Fortunately, Ben found one at the Ford dealer in La Paz.  Also, we had no phone or internet... turns out our line was broken!  It took about a week, but we finally got a Telmex guy out here, and we now have Fiber Optic cable and high-speed internet.  Very nice!  The weather was hot when we got here, but it has cooled down nicely, with nighttime lows in the 70's and highs in the 80's.   Ben has spent a lot of time doing gardening, taking shutters down and putting them back up, then down again... We had a hurricane come through on about the 20th (Norma) but it wasn't too bad in our area.  La Paz, however, got the brunt of it, and many yachts and sailboats sunk in the harbor.  We've heard at least 30, some of them very expensive.  

Our friends Katie and Mel and another friend traveling with them, David, made it to our house on the Thursday before the storm and camped in our yard for a week.  They normally camp in the arroyo at Los Frailes, so they were happy to have a relatively dry place to park their rigs until the storm was over and roads graded!  

 

Our neighbors Brian and Hope showed up yesterday, so the neighborhood is getting back to normal.  Oh, the rains washed out our roads pretty good, and the road graders aren't doing a whole lot so far to help.  Quite a few 2 wheel drive cars have gotten stuck in the soft sand they've pushed around in the road.  Thank goodness both our rigs are 4x4.  

I've started walking "seriously" again since I got back home, and just this morning, made my goal for this month.  I'm still on track for miles for the year.  I also take the opportunity to take photos on my walks and have seen some beautiful flowers and sea views.  Photos for October 2023 are here!  (Lots of photos, mostly captioned, including some hurricane pics). 

 

There are many projects waiting for us here, but we still have time to show you around if you want to come see us.  Guest rooms are NOT booked for the year!  Let us know if and when you'd like to visit.

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for Summer 2023

 Hello, Friends!

Remember us?  We're your snowbird Baja friends who are in Oregon for a few more weeks!  We have been so busy coming and going here and there, that we didn't take the time to send out an update.  Now, at the end of our summer here in Oregon, we are going to be sitting in the same place for a couple weeks (Bend), so I thought I'd catch you up on our busy summer.  

June - We arrived in Fort Rock, Oregon (where our trailer is stored) on June 22.  After a few days there getting things organized, we headed to Harrisburg to deal with my brother Rich's RV.  It was a BIG job getting everything cleaned out, and cleaning the rig, then hauling stuff to St. Vincent and Goodwill.  I advertised it on Facebook, Craig's List, and parked it out front and put a sign on it!  It did sell after not too long for a decent price.  Phew!  During this time, I also delivered my latest quilt to my friends who run a quilting shop (finishing the quilts), so that I could display it in the Sister's Quilt Show at my friend Janet's shop in Sisters.  Friend June did a great job on it, as usual, in my limited time frame.  

June photos, which include our trip north, are located at June 2023. 

 

July -  After getting the RV cleaned up, we headed to Salem and our friends the Sackingers, who have a place to park our trailer.  It was time for some relaxing and visiting friends in the area.  We spent a few days there, then returned over the mountains to Bend, as we had our annual doctor appointments scheduled.   We didn't let the dust settle when we headed back to Fort Rock to go on a little camping / fishing trip with Katie and Mel to Deadhorse Lake, west of Paisley.  They had caught their limit there a little while before, and were sure there were more fish to be caught...and they were right!  We went out in Mel's drift boat, and got a nice bunch of Rainbow Trout that first afternoon.  The next day we caught a bunch more, so the guys had their work cut out for them filleting all that fish and packing it for the freezer.  Delicious!

Ben had another medical appointment in Bend, and then we went back over to the the farm at Harrisburg to welcome our daughter Rebecca and our 3 grand-kids.  We also held a Memorial Service and potluck for brother Rich that Sunday, and had a nice turn out of friends and family.  Rebecca is working remotely full time now as an architect, so she had signed the kids up for summer activities in Eugene.  Ben and I were the bus service, taking them and picking them up for 5 days!  They did have fun....mostly! Especially when they could use the family swimming pool!  They are becoming good little swimmers.  It was great spending time with them, hiking, picking blackberries and making desserts, and playing games.  They are growing up so quickly! We hauled them and their ton of luggage to the Portland airport on July 31.  (Good thing we have a big pickup!) Pictures are here for July 2023. 

August - Now it was time to head to southern Oregon!  Our old Salem neighbors had just moved to Grants Pass, and they had space for our trailer, so we found them and spent several days touring around the area.They took us to an Animal Rescue place near there that had some very interesting birds and animals.  We also visited a winery or two in the area and enjoyed some tastings.  We went on from there to Eagle Point to visit our friend Pat and her pup Button.  As usual, it was a very relaxing time.  We camped again this year at an RV park in Shady Cove, right on the Rogue River.  Beautiful!  We went to most of our favorite shopping places; Harry & David, Rogue Creamery, and a vineyard.  We ate well!!  When that visit was done, we drove from Shady Cove to Crooked River RV Park northwest of Terrebonne to meet our friends the Telecks.  We did a bit of touring around the area, and took them to see the Balancing Rocks near Lake Billy Chinook.  Amazing place! 

After that fun trip, we went back to home base (Ken & Bea's home near Sisters), and parked the trailer.  The next trip was without our summer suitcase (the trailer)!  We drove to Cathlamet, Washington to visit friends Debi and Sandy.  They live on a slough on a large island in the Columbia River.  Fun!  They have a boat dock, a boat and know how to show you a good time on the river!  Hwy 409 ends at a ferry terminal on the south end to take you to Westport, Oregon.  We used that to get to our next destination in Astoria, Oregon.

Our Baja neighbors, Brian and Hope, are in Astoria this summer as Hope is working for the hospital there.  We spent a couple days with them exploring Astoria, riding the trolley, shopping, and eating well (always!) and visiting.  We then went to Ilwaco, Washington, just across the Astoria Bridge, to visit friends Ray and Karen Hunt.  Karen did a great job of showing us around the Long Beach area.  We took a nice hike through the forest and onto the beach one day, and another day we did a boardwalk hike.  She took us to an ice cream shop.  I ordered a single scoop in a waffle cone.  He must have put at least a pint of ice cream in there!  Whoa!  I got to play some music with Ray...we've played together for a lot of years in Baja, so that was very enjoyable.  

We left there and headed back to Bend via the Oregon coast and Salem, since I had an appointment with my dermatologist scheduled to remove a Basel cell cancer from my cheek. 

Next destination: Fort Rock, again, to help Mel with the deck project they were doing.

September - We hung out at Fort Rock, helping with projects and running to town (Bend) for various doctor appointments.  My eye doctor says my cataracts are ready to remove...I told him next summer!  

We left Fort Rock and headed for a couple of our favorite places to camp in Oregon.  First stop was Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge at the Hot Springs campground.  We got our usual camping spot, but they've changed it up a bit this year.  It was a lovely, quiet time.  We were surprised there weren't more campers there (especially hunters this time of year).  We took a tour one day, and saw only 3 antelope!  The next day on the way out, we saw many, many more in large groups. 

 Next stop was the Steens Mountains RV park near Frenchglen, where we met up with the Telecks again, and a few days later the Sackingers joined us.  We drove up to the top of the Steens and oohed and aahed over the gorgeous gorges.  One of the neat things we saw near the top was two stock trucks full of sheep, and they were in the process of unloading them to pasture up there in the meadows.  Based on how many sheep would fit in one of those trucks, we were guessing 700 to 800 sheep!  We also toured the Round Barn, and I found a neat new wide brim hat at the Museum/gift shop there. 

From the Steens, we continued north up Highway 395 to the Pendleton Roundup!  "Let 'er buck!"  The Sackingers joined us for that adventure for one day.  Our nephew Mike had gotten us some box seat tickets, and for the first time since 2008, we were at ground level in some pretty cool box seats.  The next day, we used cousin Tom's tickets in the North Grandstand, right above the chutes.  Let me tell you, those bulls are HUGE!  Wow.  All in all, it was another great Round Up, and we'll be back.

Now we're back in Bend for just over a week, getting ready to head south with cousins Tom & Karan on October 4.  I had one more Mohs surgery, this time on my nose tip.  Lucky me, I get to wear a bandage for three weeks.  Right now, I kind of look like a clown, what with the extra padding.  You'll have to dig deep in my picture albums to find that picture!

Pics are here for September 2023.  I've tried to caption most of the pics in the albums.  Just click on the i in the circle.

I'll be posting pictures of our travels south in Facebook if you want to follow along.  And if we didn't see you this summer, come see us in Baja!  

Your Baja amigos,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey