Pic-of-the-Month for October 2022

 Hola Amigos,

We are back in Baja, and in spite of all the rainstorms that the peninsula endured during hurricane season, the roads were quite passable and well marked for our trip.  All in all, a pleasant trip with stops in our favorite places, and good food to enjoy on the way.  The house and property were in very good condition.  Our house sitter, Brian Generoux, was very capable and could fix anything that broke! 

We put our trailer away in a new spot this year; on the property of our friends Katie and Mel.  We cleaned the area, put down a load of gravel, smoothed it out, and "voila"!  A nice new spot.  We appreciate having this place to park it because it is on our normal route to and from our Baja home!  

We finished out the Oregon summer in style.  We did a couple of camping trips with friends to our favorite places, attended the Pendleton Roundup after an absence of 2 years, and managed to eat at the Cowboy Dinner Tree one more time!  

We enjoyed visiting with our son Ryan's good friend Mike S who was visiting his family in Oregon; he's living in Thailand now.  He and I got in a hike in Fort Rock, and also visited Hole in the Ground.  

 We then took a trip over to the Steens and joined friends Andrea and Dave.  They had never been there before, so we got to show them the magnificence of the place.  We even managed to see lots of wild horses near the south end of the loop drive.  

Unfortunately, Ben contracted a really nasty cold while there, so he wasn't able to join us in the second day's tour to the Round Barn and Diamond (population 3?)  The Diamond Hotel is for sale there, in case anyone is interested.  It's a very neat historic building in a beautiful setting.  

After that, we did another camping trip (after a few more doctor appointments!) to Hart Mountain with good friends George and Carolyn, and John and Marilyn.  It was a great trip; we got our normal camping spot, and took advantage of the hot springs and hiking and touring around looking for Pronghorn.  When we came down from the mountain, the smoke from a California fire was pretty bad, but we spent a day in an RV park in Lakeview just getting cleaned up and dumping tanks.  

After a few busy days in Fort Rock again, getting our trailer spot ready, we headed for Pendleton and the Roundup. We took the road north from Christmas Valley, which connects with Hwy 395, one of our favorite roads.  It was good to get back to see all the action, and the parade on Friday.  It's the largest non-motorized parade in the US.  

 

 Most horses and wagons move right along, but this one decided he wasn't moving.  Nope!  It took quite a while to get him to cooperate!  We think he didn't like the band in front of him!  (No reflection on the band, of course!!)

 It was great visiting with my niece Anne and her hubby Mike. We park our trailer in their yard during the Roundup.  They are so accommodating, and their dogs are a hoot.  Zoey again had to be reminded not to chase or bark at the "BOSS", their huge orange cat. Their NewfyDoodle has grown up, and doesn't look like the Muppet Animal anymore, but he's still huge!  Just a bit intimidating to Zoey, but he is gentle with her.  He just can't understand why she doesn't want to play with him!   

We got back to the "Purkey Ranch" (Ben's brother's place) for a few critical appointments (new truck tires and the trailer wheel bearings lubed, a pedicure(!), and dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant in Bend), then a very, very quick trip to Salem without the trailer for a truck repair job at the place where we bought the truck in 2018, and a very critical purchase from our favorite jeweler in Salem (Roy John).  

We then headed back and hooked up the trailer, towed it to Fort Rock, cleaned out the freezer (and everything else!) and put it on our handy-dandy new storage spot.  The horses next door were very curious about their new neighbors.  Thankfully, they can't get to it to rub on it or make beds around it like the deer always did when we stored it at Tygh Valley! 

We left Fort Rock on Monday, a week earlier than normal, and had a fairly easy trip back home, arriving on October 2.  We are expecting our first company on October 24, when my sister Shelley and her husband's cousin Mary will come visit.  

I have created 2 albums.  2022 September and 2022 October.  I will be adding more to October, but go ahead and take a look.   

We hope that you are all healthy and enjoying the fall weather.  It is still HOT here, but starting to cool down a bit.  We should be used to it by now, but I can tell you we sure to appreciate our air conditioner in the bedroom at night.  

 

By the Way, I am still walking most days, and am still on track to get in my 600 miles this year.  The view above is from my first day back walking in Baja.  (When I also came across a turtle path and nest!)  As of today, I have just over 538 miles recorded!  I'm also dedicating some effort this month to walking 35 miles for Breast Cancer, since it is very prevalent in our family.  

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos back in Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for July and August 2022

Hello friends,

Just in case you've been wondering, Ben and I and Zoey are still alive and well, visiting family and friends in Oregon, and getting a lot of shopping done!  We've had some very hot weather, and in August it is starting to cool down nicely during the nights.  We are about 1/2 way through our summer visit, and all is going well.

Our trip up was uneventful, for us, the best kind of trip.  Ben got to enjoy his clam feed at the hotel in Loreto and a lovely dinner in San Quintin on our way north.  We do appreciate fine Baja dining and look forward to going to the same places on our way south this fall!  (We are creatures of habit!)

Our first main stop in Oregon this year was in Fort Rock, where our friends Mel and Katie have moved to live.  They are enjoying the high desert there, and all the amenities the property came with.  They added a new little building, an art studio for Katie.  Mel is working like crazy, and hopefully it will be done soon.  Ben has been helping Mel whenever we're there.  Anyhow, it's a beautiful spot, with an excellent view of Fort Rock from their deck.

This was sunset over the Rock one night.  

We spent a couple weeks in Bend visiting doctors and veterinarians (for a Zoey issue) and friends (and shopping!) and returned to Fort Rock for Ben's birthday celebration.  We were fortunate to celebrate it again with our friends Tony and Janet and Mel and Katie.  It was also Janet's birthday, and it's fun to be with them and remind her how old she really is (she and I are the same age, so I keep her straight on the math!)

Our next stop was Eagle Point Oregon, where our friend Pat lives.  The trip over was beautiful.  We've taken the road from Highway 97 to Crater Lake, but have never continued on from that junction.  It goes by Diamond Lake, then on into Medford.  We were hauling our trailer by now, so we found an RV park right on the Rogue River in Shady Cove.  It was a lovely park on those hot, hot days, so we'll keep it on our "go to" list!  Our spot was on the front row, with a lovely view of the Rogue.  The day we arrived, many people were floating by on their rafts and drift boats.  The park had installed comfy benches right beside the river to enjoy the view!  Zoey also enjoyed her walks alongside the river in the plush green grass! 

  While visiting with Pat, we did more shopping (Harry & David and Rogue Creamery for Blue Cheese), and visited a few wineries.  

Our next stop was Eugene, and the Malpass Farm, my cousin's place north of Eugene.  We have a pretty nice setup here, with power and water outlets by his new pump house, and good internet signal!  We've seen a lot of seed harvested, straw bales made and stacked, and moved to the barn.  It's a very busy place.  But the best thing about it is that Tom and Karan made room for our daughter and son-in-law and their family for their time in Oregon.  (They sure wouldn't fit in our trailer!)  Our daughter and her husband organized several get-togethers with family and friends, and are just getting ready to head back to their home across the world from us.  We've enjoyed being with them, and doing some fun things together, including game playing, visiting Enchanted Forrest, eating at Mazzi's (required!!) and taking walks together to find blackberries, which are ripe right now.  Yum!  Ben got to ride on a combine for the first time in his life, so he was very happy!  

We plan on going to Salem for a short time next week before heading back to Central Oregon on Thursday afternoon.  We will be doing some of our normal wilderness camping with friends in the next several weeks, and help Mel and Katie as needed with their projects.  We are continuing to get all our shopping (for items we NEED in Baja) and are getting things ready to go.  

If we have time, we'll write another one of these before we leave Oregon.  We hope you are all healthy and happy, and if you want to see us, give us a call or send an email.  We'll do our best!  

There are pictures in three albums, June, July and August.  I'm working on the captions for July and August, so have patience!  I've added more photos to the June album to include our Baja to Oregon travel pics.

Until the next time,

Your snow bird friends in Oregon

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for June 2022

 Hola Amigos!

I'm a bit earlier than normal this month, since we are starting on our migration north this next Saturday, June 25th.  We're never sure how good the Wi-Fi connections are at our motels along the road, especially in Baja, so I'll get 'er done here at home where the connections are more reliable!

This is a pic of the beach at Rancho Buena Vista.  I walk by here daily.  In 1971, this was a premier fishing resort, the first one built in this area in the early 1950's.  Here's a photo I found a while ago that was taken in 1971, in it's prime.  That's also the same year that Highway 1 was completed for the length of Baja (1000+ miles).  The palm trees block the view of the hills in the distance in my photo, but its taken in almost the exact same spot as the one below. 

This month, we've been enjoying pleasant temperatures.  It has just started getting warm last week.  In fact, the temp got to 100F one day, but usually highs have been in the 80's, and lows in the high 70's!  Not much range, so AC feels pretty good at night when we're trying to sleep.  

We are getting our casa ready for the summer.  We finally found someone to house sit for us for the summer, thank goodness!  He is coming tomorrow to help Ben arrange our flotilla of cars in the garage and block the large garage doors for hurricanes.  

We've got cactus blooming in our garden.  This purply-pinkish one is the blossom on the Cholla cactus that is typical in this area.  You may remember the brownish one I posted last month.  (I like this color better, I think!)  

We also noticed two others blooming in our garden this month.  One is a Cochemiea poseigeri (Mammillaria).  It is a beautiful bright red blooming flower.  I love it when this one blooms! 

 

 

The next one we noticed was on our 20+ year old Cardon.  This is the first time we remember seeing it bloom.  One flower, one day!  You can't even see evidence of it ever blooming now, but it did.  Ben actually took these photos!  Notice that we can now see the ocean from the northeast corner of our garden!  Hooray!  We convinced the man next door with the chainsaw to cut down the big old Mesquite that has blocked our view for 20+ years!  I don't think it hurt that we gave him a substantial tip, either! 

 

 In the meantime, I'm taking photos of most of the Pitahaya blooms I see on my daily walks.  You're probably getting tired of seeing those, so I turned the camera on the photograher this time!  

Speaking of the man next door, construction has finally finished, for now, at the casa(s) to the east of us.  There may be more done this next year, but for right now, it is blessedly quiet!  Of course, our neighbors Brian and Hope are going to start any day now on their garage/apartment on the lot on the west side of our casa.  We'll give them a chance to get going on it real good by leaving them alone for 3 months!!  And trust that they can get it right!  Ben built them a little model, and their builder was very impressed and happy with it!  Even our architect daughter was impressed!  (Sorry, I don't have very good pictures of it...but it is cute!)  

Ben took one last multi-day trip to La Paz to get lots of things done.  One major task was new tires for our boat trailer.  I'm not sure how long those tires are supposed to last, but they hadn't been changed since the boat was new in 1990!!!  Two of the tires blew out, and trailer tires are almost impossible to find down here.  He ended up getting light truck tires, which were perfect for it.  Of course, he had to get a new spare tire, too.  Now, if we could just get the boat sold, we wouldn't have to worry about those trailer tires anymore!  It was quite a job for him jacking up the trailer (with the boat on it, of course), getting the 4 wheels off, hauling them to La Paz, finding replacements, and getting them back on.  PHEW!!!  What a guy!  Anyone interested in buying a boat?? 

I have created a June 2022 album with more exciting photos.  And I'll probably be adding more from our trip north, so check back after June 30.  

We expect to take 6 days traveling; three and a half days in Baja and three in California, Nevada and Oregon.  We hope to see many of you this summer.  We are also looking forward to seeing our daughter Rebecca and her family in late July and early August.  💖  We haven't seen them since January 2020.  

Drop us a note any time!  We are not sure if Ben will be willing to take on this task this summer or not, so not sure when you'll be hearing from us next.  

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

Burros are back in the barrio! 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for May 2022

Hola Amigos,

Yes, it is the last day of May, and even though I thought about writing this earlier in the month, it didn't get done until today.  We have had a busy month, and we even took time for a very exciting Baja adventure!

We have talked a long time about visiting the missions in the mountains of Baja, but never took the time to do it.  Well, we finally did it at the beginning of May.  We asked our friends Debi and Sandy Stoll to go with us, and they readily agreed.  We all traveled in our Ford 4x4 truck (a pretty comfortable ride).   

We traveled to Loreto the first night.  Now, these things take fine tuned planning.... we remembered that the Hotel Oasis in Loreto has a wonderful clam/oyster buffet on Saturday nights, so we decided to spend our first night in Loreto.  It's just less than 300 miles from our house, so it was a nice day's trip and we didn't have to leave too early, either.  We had breakfast in La Paz on our way, and discovered that EVERYBODY was out for breakfast due to the Mother's Day weekend.  It did take a while to get served and out of La Paz!  

The next day, we drove up the newly paved road from Loreto to Mission San Javier.  That's the one pictured above.  It's in pretty good shape for being started in 1699!  We toured the museum, and checked out the inside of the building.  They had a beautiful rose garden out front, too.  More pictures of the mission and our trip are in our May 2022 album.  

From there, we went on further northwest to the Comondu area, on the west side of the Gigantes Mountains!  It was only 42 kilometers.  It took us about 4 hours (that's 6 miles an hour!!!)  It was a very rough, very unimproved road.  I'm sure there have been races across this road, and maybe with the suspension and shocks those cars have, it would have been tolerable at a higher speed.  Not in our stiff truck!  Fortunately, we made it through to the west end at San Jose del Comondu with all our tires intact, and stayed two nights at a sweet little hotel in San Miguel de Comondu.  I can't imagine people traversing this rocky, steep, dry area on horseback or with burros, let along wagons.  Pretty amazing countryside; starkly beautiful.  

 That road pictured is to the west, where we'd been.  We figured our destination was just over this hill.  Well, maybe that hill or the 4th hill beyond!  It wasn't far, it just took forever! 

We were very pleased with our little hotel in the little town of San Miguel.  As far as we know, it's the only hotel in quite a large area.  They had a little restaurant attached and the food was basic, but good.  We even had internet!  And AC and a television (which we didn't use).  The good thing about our room is that it had a little kitchen with a fridge, which was real nice to have since we'd brought some snacks and drinks that needed to be kept cool.  

 

We did several walks around the little town, and I practiced my Spanish with some of the people we met.  They were very friendly.  This area is a huge oasis, and they export a large amount of palm leaves.  There is water flowing most of the year through here in a little river.  

We met these two sisters with their families at the hotel restaurant one night.  They are both in their 90's, and were born here in this community.  They live near Ensenada now, and were back visiting their old homes and families especially for Mother's Day.  They were great!  (I got to practice yet more Spanish!!)   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we traveled to La Purisima, another very large oasis in the center of Baja.  While there isn't a Mission here there is some beautiful landscape, including a hill called El Pilon.  There is a lot of water there.  It's very beautiful, too.  We decided not to go the 42 kilometers there on the dirt road, since we were told it was equal to the one we traveled on from San Javier to Comondu!  No thanks!  We took a paved road south west, then north to La Purisima.  Lots of potholes in this road, so we had to be cautious.  

The big letters spell out "La Purisima, but we were thinking it should spell Purkey!  We hope you can see that Harriet is pouring Ben a glass of wine!  

The next day, we headed back south to our home, and decided to spend the night in La Paz at our favorite Hotel, Catedral. 

Here, Ben is in the open air lobby of the hotel, sharing some wine with the 4 of us before dinner at a nice restaurant a few blocks away.  

The rest of the month has been busy with getting things done before we leave for the summer.  We've been trying to find house sitters for the summer, and we are now on our 3rd candidates!!  The first two couples did let us know right away that they couldn't do it, so I'm hoping this is a good fit.  (He's actually our washing machine repairman friend from Canada, and his wife).  We're thinking this will work out perfectly for us, because if my washing machine quits again, he knows exactly how to fix it!!  Likewise with any other appliance!  

We will be leaving here June 25th, and it will take our normal 6 days to travel the 2000 miles to mid-Oregon.  If you have any desire to visit with us this summer, or maybe go on a camping trip somewhere in the wilderness with us, drop us a note so we can put you on our schedule.   Our daughter and family will be coming to Oregon this summer, so we'll be busy when they're here, late July through mid August.  

Again, our May 2022 photo album has a bunch of other pics.  

Until next month....or maybe July, or who knows when!

Your friends in Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

 

Pic-of-the-Month for April 2022

 Hola Amigos

Another month has passed, and I am just as slow as usual!  I guess that's what retirement does for you...hones your procrastination skills!  

This has been a very interesting gardening year for us.  Some successes, and some failures.  Gardening in Baja just isn't the same as in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and you'd think we'd have figured that out by now, after spending 21 years here!  We do have plenty of tomatoes.  Believe it or not, some of those pictured above are Beef Steak.  Yeah, right!!  They just don't get as big as in Oregon.  They are still delicious, and we are enjoying them a lot.  We had some corn, but it was about the shortest cobs we've ever had.  Tasted good, what there was of it!  And my poor green bean crop!!!  Since the black cow got in and grazed on my bean leaves up to 5 times, they have been suffering.  We've eaten a batch or two, and there is one or two more bunches to eat, and they are still blooming.  I know I won't get enough to can, unfortunately.  We'll be missing those lovely jars of canned beans next winter.  Ben canned several batches of pickled beets.  The bugs got into those, too; ate a bunch of the leaves and were working on the beets, too.  He dug all the rest up a few days ago and processed them.  They sure turn out pretty!

Easter was this month, and for the first time in two years Mexican families were allowed to camp on the beaches here, and elsewhere in Mexico.  COVID-19 had shut them down for 2 seasons.  It wasn't quite as crowded as I've seen it in the past, but there were still plenty of people enjoying their vacation for Santa Semana.  

This is the first week since we got here in mid-October that there is no loud construction activity going on next door, nor the accompanying music!  It appears that the two identical houses built there are mostly done, other than a little finishing and cosmetic work.  They say they're going to build another one, or at least upgrade the little casa right next to us, but they haven't started yet!  We've seen and talked to our new neighbor.  He is spending some time in the new house on weekends.  

Photo below is the BIG truck removing some of the construction forms and materials from next door.  He went very slowly out over the cattle guard.  I'm sure he knew I was watching him, and we sure didn't want him to take out our "new, improved" fencing!!  

You may remember when I had my wallet stolen last October, then returned by a nice young Mexican lady whose mother had found it alongside the road.  We have been in contact with Maria since that time, and have recently found out she is in a tough situation.  She is a single mother with three daughters, age 8, 7 and 5.  She has Lupus, which was undiagnosed for several years.  She is on medication, and since her kidneys are not functioning properly, has to use a catheter every 3 hours.  Due to these problems, she can't work a regular job.  She helps her mother (who also lives with them) at her Hot Dog stand, which is open every evening.  She also bakes desserts which she sells via Facebook when she feels well enough.  Anyhow, we've added her to our Feeding the Hungry program for food vouchers, and after an appeal by Ben, others are helping her with medical issues.  The local East Cape Health Clinic interviewed her and is willing to help with many of her expenses, including the catheter probes (free) and doctor visits and referrals to other medical experts.  The other day, we treated her and her three daughters and a niece to a ride in the Woody, and some ice cream in Los Barriles.  A good time was had by all!  If you have any desire to help with ongoing living costs, such as house rental, you can give a donation to  paypal.me/bhpurkey   Just mention "Maria E" in the comments.  Please contact us if you want more information (purkeybh@gmail.com).

 We have two more months to enjoy ourselves here in Baja before we migrate north.  May is my favorite month here.  It's not windy, it's warmer, and it's just lovely!  In the meantime, I continue to walk every morning.  I am adding up the miles (270 so far this year), and seeing some pretty cool things on my walks.  Ben, of course, is busy with all kinds of projects in the shop and yard and garden and with cars and woodworking and helping other folks, and also fixing what just broke....again!   

We'll leave you with a picture of our Shaving Brush tree in bloom.  It's done now, but it is gorgeous in March and April!  More photos are in our April 2022 Album.  Enjoy!

Hasta la proximo mes

Tus amigos de Baja

Harriet, Ben and Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for March 2022

 Hola Amigos,

Well, it looks like it's getting to be a habit for me to wait until month end to write to you.  Not many days left in this month, so I'd better get to it!

Ben has been missing out on car shows for the last several years due to the pandemic, so he got his cars collection all cleaned up, and pulled them out of the garage for a little show in our driveway!  That's a '56 Willys Jeep, '30 Model A Roadster, '29 Model A Pickup and '28 Ford/Martin Parry Depot Hack.  The construction workers from next door appreciated seeing them!  (They were working on our extension to the cattle guard at the time).  We took the Woody to breakfast one day, and the pickup to church on another day.  We need to do that more often!

Speaking of cattle guard extension, we had to bite the bullet and add three more metal bars to the existing crossing.  The hombres from next door did it for us, and gave us a pretty good price.  It's nice not having to open and close our new side gate all the time to go in and out (we had to show the Mexicans how to use the Eastern Oregon rancher's latch!) We are feeling much more secure now with it being a really LONG jump for that guy to attempt to cross.  Hopefully, he won't tip-toe across!!

OK... do you know how to use this latch?   ---->

Our "Feeding the Hungry" organization did not do a fashion show this year.  It's a lot of work to organize the show, and we didn't want to have to cancel at the last minute like we did in 2020.  We did, however, hook up with the Lack Family for two of their concerts at La Playa and took donations and had 50-50 Raffles. We didn't raise as much money as we do at the Fashion Show, but made enough to support several more families for a year.  The Lacks were very gracious to let us do that, and we appreciate their generosity, as well as their fantastic music!  

Good friends Katie and Mel were able to attend one of the concerts with us before they left town, and they appreciated it very much!  We also took them on a La Paz tour day, and let Katie wander around downtown where she had spent some time quite a few years ago.  It was pretty much just like she remembered it, and brought a few tears to her eyes!  We had a nice dinner out, and spent the night in La Paz.  They spent the night at Maranatha Park in Centenarrio in their camper before heading north the next day.  

Cathedral in downtown La Paz, across the street from our hotel

Ben always has several projects going.  He rebuilt a cabinet for our friend Ruby.  She pointed out some termites in the frame (the cabinet door fell off!) When he took the cabinet home, the whole thing was riddled with termites, so it was a complete rebuild (except for the doors!!)  

He's cleaned up his cars and right now his shop is neat and tidy.  He's been playing around polishing and cutting some of the obsidian he picked up last year, and it's turning out very nice.  I made him a vinyl apron to wear while he's working on the polishing, since it works with water!  He's also got out his chain saw recently and has been doing some serious trimming.  We have a gardener that like to get out and cut and trim things, too, so we have plenty of fuel for our fire pit!  

I'm still walking and have kept up with my monthly goals so far this year, although I got a cold and pretty much missed three or four days this month.  I'm just a smidge away from 200 miles so far this year (195.8).  Zoey has pretty much given up on walking with me; she only goes a little way every couple of days.  It's a bit lonely, but is still a lot of fun to see what I can see on these walks.  I saw a Jack Rabbit yesterday.  A few days ago it was a seahorse washed up on the beach.  I even saw a buck deer about a month ago!  That was a surprise!   I'm thinking about starting a small quilt, but haven't had that "urge" yet.  I'm also practicing my Spanish daily with an online program (DuoLingo) that is quite good.  Not quite fluent yet!!  Give me a few more years.  (I still can't make out much of what the construction workers are saying next door, even though they talk (and yell!) plenty loudly.)  

The garden is doing well, in spite of that dang bull who ate my beans down to nothing.  Amazingly, he didn't eat the beans or the blossoms; just the leaves.  I've watered them well, and planted more seed in the row, and we'll see if I can get enough to can a batch or two.  Can't imagine not having some home canned beans in my pantry!  

Ben has canned several batches of his pickled beets.  They are so pretty, and tasty, too!  We've also harvested a banana bunch, and are trying to share them around a bit.  They are so good!  The Papayas are prolific, and we are also sharing them with friends.  Yum!  

Oh, and I just have to show you this example of Mexican ingenuity.  How do you hold up some droopy wires over a driveway?  Let's use that old ladder no one ever uses!!  Aha!  This is at Rancho Buena Vista.  I walk by here daily, and got a real chuckle out of this one.  (Some of the wiring around here is pretty scary!)  

More photos are in our March 2022 album.  It includes a couple grandkid pics. Enjoy!  

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja

Harriet, Ben and Zoey

  

  

Pic-of-the-Month for February 2022

Hola amigos,

It is again the end of the month.  I'm not a procrastinator....I've just been busy!  Kinda.  

Anyhow, this short month is done, and we have done some fun and interesting things.  

Here's a high point.  I only seem to have a few orchids that survived this year, and this is just starting to bloom.  It is making up for those I lost, I guess!  There are a lot of buds on it, so we'll be enjoying it for a long time.  

Cousins Tom and Karen spent about a week with us over Super Bowl and Valentines, so we did some fun things with them.  Katie and Mel came and went, and we did some fun things with them, too.  All 6 of us went to Rancho Buena Vista round bar to watch the Super Bowl.  We did manage to find one channel that broadcast it in English, so that was a plus!  We didn't get to watch the advertisements, but I hear they weren't that good this year anyhow!  We were the "crowd".  They did serve carnitas which were very good.  Tom took this picture... 

We were invited by our neighbors to go with them and a hiking group up to Flat Top.  We had done it a year ago, and that was when I fell going down the trail ...flat on my face!  Ben didn't want to go, but I went with them and made a successful trip...with my trusty Palo de Arco walking stick.  It worked great.  

Here's some bad news;  we've had a black bull getting into our yard, and he's been seen tip-toeing over our cattle guard to get in here.  Dang thing!  Ben and Mel did some work on it to try and keep him out so he couldn't use the edges of the cattle guard, but that didn't work either!  He's eaten some beautiful Hibiscus, some of my green beans, most of the lettuce (he couldn't get into our corn), and some flowers like Zinnias.  On the Saturday morning we were getting ready to go out to Frailes for a few days again, Brian came knocking on our door and said he'd chased him out again.  Since we were leaving momentarily, Brian volunteered to string a gate across the cattle guard.   And guess who was watching while Brian was doing this!?  

Somehow, when we were gone this Saturday and Sunday, Dalia said he was inside again. We may have to rebuild the cattle guard and make it a bit wider.  He has been seen jumping it.  So, if we have to do that, Ben made the corner gate easier to open and latch if there is construction happening in the main driveway.  And while we were out there doing that, we cleaned up outside the gates of our driveway.  It all looks neat and tidy now!  

We did another trip out to Las Frailes since Katie and Mel will be leaving to go north in a few weeks.  Ben and Mel caught some fish on the one day the ocean was fishable (too windy other days). These are White Bonita.  They cut up some for Sashimi on the beach, and froze the rest.  Good eating!  

See the whale?  No?  Me neither! 

Our final adventure this month was our annual whale watching trip to Magdalena Bay.  We invited neighbors Brian and Hope, and some Mexican friends Ingrid and Daniel.  We didn't see quite as many whales as we have in the past there at Puerto Chale, and our boat had 10 of us touristas in it.  One couple was seated in front of us, and I gave up after 20 minutes or so trying to get any pictures with my nice camera, since those two were always moving to the best vantage point, and standing in front of us!  Ugh!  He was also moving quickly from side to side of the boat making it list one way or the other!  I decided to act as the counter balance.  When he moved one way, I scooted the other!!  He finally stopped doing it when I moved up to their seat!  (His companion was standing on the seat in front, so there was room for me!)   Oh well, I've seen whales before, and maybe this was their first time.  (Next time, Ben says we're reserving our own boat for us and our friends!)

We spent the night in La Paz and had dinner at a very nice restaurant, Tatanka, recommended by cousin Tom.  We can't wait until they get their home built near La Paz and invite us up for dinner!  (Hint, hint!!)  

 More photos from this month are in our February 2022 Album.  Most of the pics are captioned.  

Some more good news....COVID is on the wane here at the moment.  And we are still healthy.  And happy.  And the grader is out there right now working on our road, and doing a very nice job.  (Small things make me happy!)  

Hasta la proxima mes,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey