Pic-of-the-Week for July 7, 2016

Hello Friends,

The last Pic-of-the-Week we left off on our trip north at Santa Rosalia, an old copper mining town started in 1884 and operated until 1954 by the French.  One of the interesting things about the town is that most of the old building are constructed of wood instead of stone.  This is because they would ship the ore to the state of Washington, USA, for further refining, and then return with lumber for construction.  It is said that there are hundreds of miles of tunnels to retrieve the ore which was hauled out by trains.   Below is one of the steam engines used to haul the ore out of the ground.  I can’t imagine how dirty the air was in those tunnels with steam engines running in the tunnels.

Further north there are 3 non-active volcanoes known as the Tres Virgenes, or the three virgins.  This is the largest of the three, and the closest to the highway.  This volcano, the furthest one south, has the official name of La Virgen.  There is not a lot of vegetation in this immediate area.

 

 

Further North from Tres Virgenes is the Catavina area.  I think this is a beautiful area.  The flora is quite varied with many kinds of cacti, 2 different types of elephant trees, and the Cirio trees.  Also ROCKS!  Rocks, and more rocks.  All sizes of rocks!  This is a typical scene from that area.  Lots of cactus and Cirio trees.  The Cirio trees are hard to see, and they are mostly in the background, but they are the real slender ones in the photo.

 

 

Here is a photo of Cirios in the foreground and agave cactus in bloom.

 

 

The last place on the Ben travel log in Baja California is “Hotel Jardines Baja” near San Quintin.  It is not just a hotel, but also a wonderful restaurant and the grounds are like a beautiful park.  It is now one of our “must stay” places when we travel north, or south.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed photos from our 2^nd half of our trip through Baja.  We think that these are some of the highlights of the trip.  Until next time (whenever that might be!)

More from Harriet:  We are currently at the Malpass Farm (Harriet's relatives) near Harrisburg, Oregon.  Also here is our daughter Rebecca with her husband Tim and their children David, Aaron and Eleanor.  We are having a good time getting re-acquainted with the kids and getting our share of Grandma and Grandpa time.  

 Aaron and David posing in front of a BIG fire engine that was in the Harrisburg July 4th parade.

Eleanor enjoying the abundant candy handed out by parade participants.  Wow!  We gathered a large bag full of the stuff! I am sporting the head piece that Eleanor didn't like.

I was also able to spend some time with my brother and sister, Rich and Sharon (sister Shelley is in Montana).  It was real nice to see them.

This Saturday is the Purkey get-together while Rebecca's family is here so she can catch up with all her aunts and uncles in one place!  That should be fun, too!

 We hope to see many of our Oregon friends while we are here.  Send us an e-mail or call us at 541-854-5303 if you want to get together.  We'll be in the Eugene area until July 18th when we will travel to Bend for a while.  

Oh....Zoey continues to improve.  She can stand, and walk a few steps at a time.  If she wants to get somewhere in a hurry, she will scoot.  I still use the sling most of the time for her "walks".  She looks rather like a drunken sailor when she walks...those feet just don't want to cooperate!  But like grandson David says when she takes a few steps, "the message squeezed through to her feet that time!"  (He's learning about nerve damage!)  

Hasta la proxima vez,

Your friends enjoying an Oregon summer (although it is raining right now!)

Ben, Harriet, Sam & Zoey

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Week for June 23, 2016 - Through the Windshield

Hello friends,

A few years ago a friend posted photos in her blog with the above title.  I knew they had been traveling on vacation, pulling a big 5^th wheel trailer, and I immediately thought, “Oh no, what went through their windshield?  Was it a rock? A big bird? I hope they, and their vehicle are OK!”  Well, I need not worry, she took the photos “through the windshield” because her husband was like me and did not stop for her to take photos.

The topic of this blog will mainly be our trip North through the Baja Californias.  The trip has both very beautiful areas, and very boring areas.

There are always construction areas as they are constantly improving the roads, but I think there were fewer areas this year.  

Here is an impressive hill south of the town of Loreto.  As you can see, Cardon Cactus are not endangered.  There are plenty most of the length of the Baja California Peninsula.

A  typical scene throughout the drive in the desert areas.  A very primitive house with palm trees (palm trees equal water, which is why the house is there) and a beautifully rugged ridge line in the distance.  Of course the sky is always clear blue.

The Bahia de Concepcion south of Mulege is one of the beautiful areas in Southern Baja California.  There are many bays and the highway goes along the water for many miles. 

This bay with a hotel and restaurant is where we used to plan on staying the first night of our trip.  It is 1/3 the way north from our house to the Mexico/USA border.  The last couple years the hotel has been closed.  There is a big fight over the ownership of the land.  A person from Tijuana claims to own the hotel, as does a Mexican Ejido.  An Ejido is similar to an Indian Reservation in the USA.  It is too bad that the ownership is in question as it was a beautiful place to spend a night.

The town of Mulege is at the mouth of the Rio De Santa Rosalia.  I think the river only flows when there is heavy rains, or a hurricane.  The rest of the time this area looks like a flowing river, but is really water controlled by the tide.  This area has flooded a number of times since we have moved to Mexico wiping out houses and businesses.  It seems to us that they have short memories, and rebuild again in the same areas.

We drove a little further than we really like on the first day, and arrived in Santa Rosalia the first evening.  Hotel El Moro is on a high bluff overlooking the Sea of Cortez (or the Bay of California for you purists).  The hotel is good, and pet friendly, with a wonderful restaurant attached to the hotel.

Sunrise at El Moro.

Well, we made it a little over 1/3 the way in this first blog, and will try to do better with the next blog.  Oh, nothing bad came through the windshield, and we never saw any banditos!  As they say in southern Baja California where we live, “No Bad Days!” 

From Harriet:  Zoey has been a trooper, and did very well on this leg of the trip, although we're very glad there were tile floors in the hotel!  (Easier to clean up!) 

I've started a June 2016 Picasa album, and I will add captions as I get a chance.  FYI, we will be going to the Oregon Coast with daughter Rebecca and her family today for about 6 days, then Florence a few days, then back to Eugene area.  

Until Ben is feeling literary again....
Ben, Harriet, Sam & gimpy Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for June 7, 2016

Hola Amigos!

This is it!  My last POTW this season.  Ben takes over writing this while we are in the US, and I get a vacation from this literary endeavor!  Of course, he's on vacation, too, so don't expect anything regular.   

We plan on leaving Friday, taking 6 days to travel 2000 miles and get to our primary destination in Bend, Oregon.  We could do it in 4 or 5 days, but we're in no hurry, and hope to enjoy the drive.  Zoey is finally at a point were she has some pretty good bladder control, so it looks like we'll be able to travel with her without too many problems.  She's still not walking on her own, but we've got the sling thing down pretty well.  As long as I can get her outside for a potty stop FIRST THING in the morning, we'll do fine!  Ryan returned from his 2 week visit to California and Oregon and Washington on Saturday, so he's ready to take over and hold the fort while we're gone.  Last year on this same day, we had our "BAD Baja road adventure" where we hit a nasty bridge abutment and broke a U-bolt on the car trailer.  Ugh.  At least we're not hauling a car north this year, so won't have to worry about that happening again.  

You know we get all kinds of birds in our yard, and we enjoy watching them very much!  Yesterday we had a Roadrunner visit our bird bath for a drink.  We see them here and there as we're driving the roads, but this is the first time I've seen one in our yard.  

He was real happy that our bird bath was full.  It was a HOT day.... in the high 90's with 80% humidity, and there was a hot wind blowing a good part of the day.  The AC in our bedroom felt very, very nice when we went to bed last night.  Supposedly it will be getting cooler by Friday by a few degrees.  It's feeling pleasant this morning, with the current temp at 70.  Ahhhhhhh.....

Ben has been quite busy getting some last minute things done around here, putting up storm shutters for a friend, making a last trip to La Paz for some boat parts and other items.  Ryan did bring back some major boat parts with him when he returned, and Ben got some pipe clamps (minor, but important!) While waiting for parts, Ben has cleaned up and painted the engine so it is looking very nice. Chuyito will work on it this summer while we're gone, and hopefully finish it by the time we get back.  

I won't show you what the rest of the garage looks like during this process!  

Ben also pruned our Mesquite tree.  Yep, it's looking pretty stark right now, but we'll send an "after" picture next fall, and you'll be amazed.  In the meantime, it's two BIG loads worth of stuff for the dump!  Hopefully the dump will be open again soon!!  

Our baby Orioles have hatched in the nest in a banana leaf right outside our bathroom window, and they had the ride of their lives yesterday!  Mama sat in the nest most of the day hanging on for dear life, holding them in.  The wind was really whipping that leaf!  They all survived, and will have stories to tell, I'm sure!  It's hard to get pictures of them...with the extra weight in the nest the leaf is hanging lower so we can't see much but a glimpse of open beaks sticking straight up now and again.

We've found a new "favorite" restaurant, and we're not sure why it took us so long.  La Playa (the beach) is tucked into a spot on the north end of town, right on the beach (obviously!), and they cook some delicious breakfast food.  We'll try them for dinner, too, next fall when they're open for dinner.  They're ready to close down for the season now, but we got to enjoy eating here for about a month.

This is Ben's favorite thing to order: Burro la Playa.  It is excellent!  I can order a chicito burro (same thing, much smaller) for about 20 pesos, or $1.25.  

The value of the peso keeps going down, which is a good thing for us.  Right now it is around $18.50 pesos to $1 US dollar.  Hopefully for the Mexicans, prices of goods won't go up much so they can still afford to buy groceries and gas.

Ben finally found my birthday present...a doormat.  I like it!  (It should say "if you forgot the red wine", though!)  

Counting down the days until we travel....
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam and Zoey

PS.  I have not started a Picasa album for June, and I forgot to tell you about May's last time, so just enjoy the few photos in this post.  

Pic-of-the-Week for May 24 (or 25), 2016

Hola Amigos,

It's a cloudy, rainy day today, and we are hearing some thunder rolling.  Kind of refreshing after some rather hot and humid days.  The last two weeks have passed in kind of a blur.... a car show to attend, boat parts to get fixed and/or ordered, finishing my latest quilt top, spending lots of time dealing with Zoey and her injury.  We've also been busy getting things done here that need doing before we leave for the summer, including some major gardening and cleanup. Ben-Hur came over and cleaned up our biggest palm, and it is looking very trim and tidy.  (He hauled everything away and cleaned up all the bits and pieces from our driveway, too!)   Ben-Hur is a young man we've known since we moved here; his Dad has been the local palm tree pruner for years.  The good news is that Ben-Hur has higher aspirations, and has graduated from High School and is going to college in July.  

Ben is still working on pruning our Mesquite tree, and it is a bugger to work on, and clean up after (it is very thorny!)    We had our gardener over to do some weeding and a bit of pruning, and she's dangerous (to palm trees!) with those pruning shears.  All of our palms now have their "summer" hair-dos!  

One of our showiest cacti bloomed this spring, and I managed to get a shot of it in the early morning light.  I've never seen so many flowers on it at once!

Here is my finished quilt top, which is on the way to Oregon today to get batting, backing and machine quilted.  It should be done when I get to Oregon and ready to put the binding on.  

Zoey:  She is actually improving.  I can go a day or two without doing a laundry now, although we do get the mop out pretty regularly!  She is requesting to go outside to pee, and she can stand for long periods of time with very little support, although her legs do get shaky.  She is very mobile with her skootching on our slick tile floors, and walks pretty fast with the sling I made to hold up her back end.  We can see her pushing herself up sometimes with her back legs, and swinging them in coordination with her front ones, at least for a while, but not doing any weight bearing on them.  I'm still doing the electrical stimulation daily, and she doesn't mind it at all (unless I turn it up too far!)  Anyhow, I'm much more optimistic that we can do a 6 day drive with her without too many problems.  (And then travel all summer!)  She has lost a lot of weight!  She was about 22 pounds, and is now around 17.  Here she is getting her "spa" treatment.  Zap!  Zap!  Zap!

Ben attended another La Paz car show.  He had the 29 Pickup all ready to go and loaded on the trailer when he got a call from our friend Hector Manuel, who said "I hope you're bringing the  28 Woody, because I've been promoting it on TV and radio, etc.".  So.... he needed to switch cars.  Not an easy process, because we only have one working 6 volt battery!  He unloaded the pickup from the trailer and parked it out of the way of the Woody, but where we could push it into the garage later, put the battery in the Woody, backed it out of the garage and washed and polished it, and loaded it on the trailer.  Then we pushed the pickup into the garage!  Phew!  And it was a HOT day.  He did well at the show, and again won the prize for the oldest vehicle there.  (I stayed home to take care of my dogs).  You can see why Ben likes going to these shows.....

We have a couple of bird nests that we're watching in our banana grove.  The Ground Dove babies hatched a while ago, and they're pretty cute.  Nice and snug in their banana bunch!  (There is another one behind the one you see).  

The other is an Oriole nest in a banana leaf, right outside our bathroom window. The Mama is sitting on the nest in this picture (tail towards me), and I hope they hatch before we leave about June 10.  (Taken through our screen with my phone camera!)  

Ben was successful in getting some of the bad boat parts repaired/remade in Cabo San Lucas, and it was MUCH cheaper to do it here, and the parts are now stainless steel!   Ryan will bring the rest of the needed parts back with him from Portland when he returns next week. 

You won't get a picture of our dump run yesterday (I didn't take a camera).  The cows who were roaming the dump were very grateful for our mostly fresh palm leave and tree trimmings.  We're going to wait a while before we make another trip (yes, we have more stuff), since the dump is very, very full, and they need to get a bulldozer in there to work it in.  Ugly.

Our time here this spring is winding down.  We expect to leave around June 10, and we will be spending some of our early time in Oregon with our daughter Rebecca and her family.  Can't wait to give those grandkids some hugs!  

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

Pic-of-the-Week for May 10, 2016

Hola Amigos!

Another beautiful day in the barrio, AND another family birthday.  Today is Ryan's 38th!  Happy Birthday, Ryan.  Whoa.  How did that happen so fast?  Of course, I'm a year older as well, since my birthday was last week (May the fourth be with you....I've heard that a few times!)  Today is also Mexican Mother's Day, so I get to celebrate that twice!   We were also invited to a Cinco de Mayo party at Rancho Buena Vista by some neighbors, and we enjoyed a lovely evening around the pool with friends, a pig roast and great music.  Our friend Mark and his band Skeleton Key played some rockin' songs.  

Of course we are NOT partying all the time.  I have been spending a huge amount of time with rehab for Zoey.  No, she is still not using her hind legs, but we are trying all the tricks of the trade to strengthen them, including this rack that Ben & I put together for her.  It lets her stand and put some weight on those back legs.  Her tail just keeps wagging!  The best place to use it is outside, where she can piddle freely, instead of inside on my tile floors!  Sure is a good thing they are tile, because it is easy to clean.  We've made weekly visits to the vet in San Jose, and he was actually a bit encouraged yesterday.  We did have a bad spell a couple weeks ago when she was throwing up all day and some other bad symptoms.  We took her back to the vet, and he gave her Vitamin K, Antibiotics, this and that, and prescribed some different dog food (easier to digest), and she is doing much, much better.  Now, if we could just get her to tell us when she needs to go potty, and wait for us to get her outside to do it!  Thank goodness my washing machine is still working well!  I've also sewed together a sling to use to walk her outside.  Her front feet work just fine, thank you very much, and she goes lickety-split, usually trying to go under a truck, or through a bush.  It sure doesn't work for me to follow her too close!!  

We won't be putting the boat in the water this spring... it has some mechanical problems, and Ben is hoping to find the replacement parts down here instead of ordering them out of the US.  Of course nothing is easy about repairing boats, and he has hired a local Mexican, Chuyito (or is that Chuito?) to do it for him.  He hired a fellow with a tractor to pull the boat out of its parking spot near our driveway, then pull the engine to get to the bad parts.  Ben then built a dolly for the engine and he and Ryan (with a smidge of help from me) got it up on the dolly so we can move it around as needed.  

So, this is an ongoing project, waiting for parts to show up!  

Another project I started today is drying bananas.  Our first stalk of the year is ripe, and I probably put about half of the bunch in my dehydrator this morning.  I used every tray in the thing, which is 5 layers.  

I've also started another quilt that I hope to get put together before we leave in June.  I'll then take it to my friend, June, in Brownsville, and she'll quilt it for me, and I'll have a summer project to work on putting on the binding.  It's not quite half done, as I'll do 12 squares (or 12 pinwheels).  

The last "current" project we're hiring done!  Mario is here today putting tile around our laundry tub and washing machine.  It was on Ben's list of things to do, but I think it's pretty cool that he's willing to hire someone to do it instead!  A lot less frustration on his part!  (Pictures later!)  We even scrubbed our laundry tub when we took it out this morning so Mario could put in the tile, and it cleaned up quite nicely.  

We have a month left here this spring until we migrate north for the summer.  We'll be leaving early enough to spend some time in late June with our daughter Rebecca and her family at the Oregon Coast.  Sure hope we get some decent weather for that!  (Or that the house they're renting is real big for active kids!)  We're hoping to get our projects completed and get Zoey a bit more ambulatory (other than her skootching, which she can do remarkably quickly!) before we head out.  

I've started a 2016 May Picasa album.  

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