Pic-of-the-Month for November 2025

Hola Amigos,

Happy 1st of December.  I didn't manage to get the Pic-of-the-Month out during November, but this is close for a short month! (Only 30 days in November, ya know!) 

We had another busy month.  Ben and two of our vehicles participated in the November 20 Revolution Day Parade in Los Barriles.  Queen Frida rode in neither of them...she decided on a horse!  (And all my pics of her and Ben's cars are on videos!  You'll have to look at the 2025-11-November photos album to check them out.)  This involved getting them both running and cleaned, which can be a big job.  They did fairly well in the parade, but Sandy had some trouble with the Jeep, so it's radiator is on the way to La Paz this week to fix a leak.  

Here's a bunch of high-school girls who were marching and dancing. These parades are very colorful!

 

Ben's 1928 Woody was full of "youthful" royalty.  Our friend Sandy drove the 1956 Willy's Jeep with last year's parade queen.  

Early in the month, I ruined my cell phone, and could not recover it.  We drove down to Cabo San Lucas and found a nice one at Walmart, and I switched in my original Sim card.  Unfortunately,  the new Mexican phone was locked to my AT&T Sim card and wouldn't work without wifi, and AT&T could drop service at any time.  Not good (and the locked Mexican phones was something I had completely forgotten about).  So, since I had friends coming from Oregon, I arranged for my nephew Bryan Purkey to shop for and buy me a similar new one, and my very good friends Katie and Mel Crabb brought it for me when they came on the 19th of this month.  I think I have everything working pretty well on it, and managed to get most of the data and apps copied over.  I am very thankful for technology, so that I can communicate with all of you from a 3rd world country!  

Speaking of Katie and Mel, the first full day they were here we took them to the parade, and while waiting for it to start, our friend Ruben drove by, and then parked and came back to give them hugs and chat!  They were thrilled!  This is the first time they've been here in almost 2 years, so are happy to see so many of their friends!  

They have been very busy cleaning up their wilderness camp, and were overwhelmed with all of the damage done by rats and mice to the 5th wheel parked up the arroyo at Las Frailes.  We have loaned them our little trailer, which is parked closer to the beach so Mel can go fishing (after he repairs the cow, mice and rat damage to his boat....getting close!)  So, they at least have a place to stay with a nice fridge, comfy beds, stove, an indoor toilet, and comfy seating.   

I've been walking with Gus and Pancho, and my friend Jill, and a few days with cousin Tom, who finally made it down here after dealing with some medical issues.  I did meet my adjusted November goal, and am going for a larger number for this month.  We'll see!  I have used an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my daily mileage since 2022, and I have noted when I reached 700 miles last year, and several years before.  Those dates are coming up, and .... well.... I'm not doing that much this year!  Right now I'm just over 576 miles.  I'm hoping for 625 miles this year, and I'll be glad to get it.  I could blame the dogs, who refuse to move when they find a shady spot, and it's been hot longer, and I get tired, too!  I'm just glad I can get out and make it back home! We see some beautiful things on these walks, and it's a blessing to be able to get out and enjoy God's creation.

Ben's garden is growing leaps and bounds, with a few set backs.  The dogs got into one of the fenced garden areas and completely dug up a row of lettuce that was just sprouting.  OUCH!  Bad dogs!  They do love to dig, and have gotten some pretty big holes going, but the garden is NOT the place to do it.  So, Ben has replanted, and started closing the gate!  

The tomatoes have started to bloom, we've had some nice squash, radishes are very close to ready, and cucumbers are blooming.  Some good eating is planned for soon.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Day dinner at our house.  Ben smoked the Butterball turkey we were able to get here locally, I made 2 pies, rolls, lots of mashed potatoes and gravy, and home canned green beans.  Friends brought side dishes and salads.  There were 10 of us here this year.  It was a great time with good friends.  (And a lot of leftover turkey!)

 That's about it for November.  Again, here's the link to the picture album for the month:   2025-11-November photos album .  Most of the pics have captions.  I must confess, the first picture in the album is from about 1994 or so, I think, and a photo I really love.  It's a pic our daughter Rebecca found in her files recently of Ben and I in front of our Salem home with the 1959 Ford Thunderbird that Ben restored.  We sold it after we moved to Mexico.  These roads are not conducive to driving a car that nice (and low)!  It was a very pretty car, and a job very well done (as usual) by Ben.

We are looking forward to this month with maybe a bit cooler weather (highs are still on the low 80's most days) and some fun activities, including a Feeding the Hungry ATV Fun ride on the 12th.  We talked Tom and Karan into going on that with us.  We are also planning a Christmas dinner with guests.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to bother with putting up a Christmas tree, because of the destructive pets in the house.  We'll see!  

We hope your Holiday Season is Merry and Blessed.  Remember that Jesus is the reason for the Season!  

Hasta la proxima vez.

Tus amigos,

Harriet, Ben, Gus & Pancho  

PS.  And Gus just came in with a chunk of cholla cactus stuck to his back, and rubbed my leg as he went by.  Ouch!  Part of the fun of having pups.

 

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for October 2025

Hola Amigos!

Happy Halloween!  I'm sitting here writing this waiting for some kids to show up for candy.  Sneaky Ben planned a trip to La Paz today, so me and the boys are all on our own tonight!  

We got back home here on October 5, after a nice trip down with no issues.  That's the kind we like best!  We stayed in a different little town in California, a town that had no restaurants to speak of, but we survived!  We ate our lunch at a Thai restaurant in Bishop, so we didn't really need to eat dinner that night in Independence, CA!  

Lunch included Tom Kha soup and other goodies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is our motel in Independence.  Quite nice!

 

We've got lots of pictures of our trip in our September 2025 Album and our October 2025 Album.  And I think I didn't get the link in for our picture albums in the last Pic-of-the-Month post, so will be sure to do it correct here!  Be sure to check out the videos of some of the roads, and the things that we see on those roads!  

It has cooled down somewhat since we got back, but it's still plenty warm, as most days highs are in the 80's, lows in the 70's.  Gus, Pancho and I go walking most days, and they both still like to stop in the shady areas and rest for a while.  Mostly, I let them do that, but I always try to convince them that the water is better and the shade cooler at home!  

He says "here's the shade, I'm not movin'!"

Ben has been very busy getting his garden going.  He has squash, cucumbers, radishes planted in the ground, and some tomato starts just about ready to put out.  He is very dedicated the getting everything right for the plants...compost, good dirt, shade, water.  It is coming along very well.  

  

 

I took the week from October 18 - 25th to fly out of La Paz back to Bend/Sisters area to have a medical test that I couldn't squeeze in before we left town.  I had an Angiography to take CT scan pictures of my heart.  We discovered early this summer that I have "Atrial Flutter", which is different, but similar to A-Fib.  I was certainly surprised, because I hadn't felt anything, other than a little shortness of breath when walking with the pups.  Fortunately, the Angiography shows my heart in OK shape, other than the rapid heart rate for the upper chamber.  I will have an Echocardiogram in June, pretty much as soon as we get back there, and another appointment with the Cardiologist to see where to go from there.  There are various "fixes", so we'll see what they come up with.  In the mean time I'm on blood thinners, and both my GP and Cardiologist said to carry on as normal and continue walking as was comfortable.  I must admit that I kind of wimped out this summer, but I'm trying to get back on track this fall.  I'm sure I won't get in as any miles as the last several years, but I'm getting my exercise! I did enjoy walking around Sisters and seeing the fall colors.  It was gorgeous!  (Thanks to friends Tony and Janet for putting me up for the week!!)  

By the way, it was a real treat flying out of La Paz, other than having to go through Los Angeles!  The La Paz airport is nice and small, and I landed at the Redmond airport, also nice and small.  Alaska Airlines flies out of there 2 or 3 days a week...maybe more!  Check it out.   

We are getting in the groove of things to do here.  Yesterday at breakfast, we were approached by Jimmy Diaz, whose daughter is the Queen for Revolution Day this year, and he was wondering if Ben still had his old cars.  We told him we have the 1928 Woody, and the 1956 Willy's Jeep, and Jimmy said he'd like us to have those cars in the parade so his daughter and the young "royalty" could ride in them.  We didn't participate at all last year, because the year before, everyone had been on floats, so looks like we will be involved again.  We've been hauling queens and princesses in that parade for a lot of years! (Ever since the 1929 pickup was restored about 2008.)  Should be fun!  

 This was from November 2022, which was the last time we had the queen in our pickup.

OK...that's about it for October.  We are looking forward to seeing good friends down here in November.  Book your trip down here soon!!  

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho  

 

 

  

Pic-of-the-Month for August and September 2025

 Hello Friends!

Where did the summer go?  We woke up to freezing weather here in Fort Rock this morning, and Ben and I are very ready to head south to warmer climates.  We are all packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning.  If you follow me on Facebook, I usually post every day's travels, so you can experience what we see and do every day (sometimes it's pretty boring, but those are the good days!!)

We did get in quite a bit of traveling around Oregon this summer, in spite of a few extra doctor appointments.  We did several camping trips with friends.  The first was to Dead Horse Lake with Mel and Katie, Lonnie and Kathy.  Mel brought his nice little drift boat with an electric trolling motor, and we all had a chance to do some fishing, AND, caught some nice trout.  They also released a lot of them, so they'd hopefully grow up more!  That lake is in the mountains west of Paisley, and it's a very pretty drive up there, as wild flowers were still blooming.  In the photo below, you can see that floating devices of any type are popular.

This guy in his little floaty was doing very well.  I even heard some of the music he was entertaining himself with!  Fun!

 The next camping trip was with George and Carolyn and John and Marilyn at the Steens Mountains.  The weather was nice and the scenery beautiful, as usual.  I didn't make it up to the top of the Steens, so no photos from there this time!  

Ben and Carolyn wanted to go to Glass Butte and look for Obsidian, but with the rain we were having, we decided to camp at Chickohominy Campground just west of Riley.  They all drove to Glass Butte from there.  I stayed at the trailer and relaxed, and dog sat!  

 I took this photo of the reservoir when the dogs and I were doing a walk.  

Next trip, we went up to Hood River to visit our friend Jerry Justus, whom we haven't seen for a while.  It was great to catch up and see the Museum there again.  We also took a day, since we were so close, to visit my sister Sharon and her husband Vincenzo in Vancouver, WA.  It was great to see them, and again, catch up with what's going on in their lives.  (Sharon and I also compared heart issues!  Thanks Dad!)  

 Sharon, who's 5 years old then me, also told me that she walks about 4 or 5 miles every day!!  I've been lucky to get 1 mile a day in this summer.  Ugh!  

Going back to Hood River that day, we decided to go on Highway 14 on the Washington side of the Columbia River.  Ben wasn't too crazy about the road (freeway is on the Oregon side!) but it was a beautiful drive to Bridge of the Gods near Stevensen, Washington.  

 So, where did we go after Hood River?  How about visiting our friends Paul and Carolyn, who live in Halfway, Oregon?  Why not! (Think not too far from the Oregon/Idaho border and Snake River!)  That was far enough away that we decided to take our time, and spent 2 nights at a sweet little RV park in Dayville.  We did some shopping in John Day, ate at a very popular breakfast restaurant in Dayville, and enjoyed the grassy and shady RV park there.  

On to Halfway the next day, through Baker City.  This is an area of Oregon where we haven't been in quite a few years.  There is a lot of beautiful country, many beautiful forests and vast plains.  We must say, Halfway is very remote and little, but what a cute  community! Paul and Carolyn are living in a small house that was moved there in the 1930's from a gold mining town further up in the hills.  They have remodeled it beautifully, and it is a sweet little place.  They had electricity and water for us, so we were very comfortable in our trailer in their driveway.  

 They supplied us with some pears and a few peaches from their trees, too!  And we played a bunch of hands of a fun new game.  Ben and I even won a few times!  Paul took us up to Cornucopia, the old gold mining town.  You can see pics of that in our August-2025 Album, as well as lots of other pics.  

From Halfway, it was back to Baker City to get a jack stand on our trailer replaced by another mobile RV service while we were camped in an RV park there.  This one wasn't quite as efficient as the first one this summer...they even needed to borrow a few tools from Ben.  But the job got done and we didn't have to take the trailer to a shop. 

We headed south, down one of our favorite roads, Hwy 395, and ended up a Crane Hot Springs.  And dang it, we didn't get in!  Should have, but maybe next time.  Then it was on further south on the other side of the Steens Mountains to Mann Lake.  Ben had tested our inflatable kayak, and it was good to go so he could fish.  But, the wind was blowing and he didn't think he could maneuver the kayak and fish, too.  Oh well... next time!   Photo below is the east side of the Steens, and Mann Lake.  We camped on the far side of the lake.  Very pretty, and very isolated!  

We also made it to Walla Walla for a few days, and to the Pendleton Roundup.  At the parade on Friday, we had our normal seats...one row back from the edge of the sidewalk!  They always start the parade with maybe 100 riders carrying US flags.  Always impressive! 

 This year, we had seats that were donated to us by cousins Tom & Karan Malpass, who couldn't make it.  We were right above the bucking chutes, so had a very close up view of the bronc and bull riding.  Thanks Tom and Karan!  

Lots of fun pictures of the parade and the Roundup in my September 2025 Album.   

Since the Roundup, we've been packing up, cleaning the trailer out, and getting ready for our 2000 mile trip back to our home in Baja California Sur.  We plan on taking 8 days this time.  We always enjoy spending 2 nights at one of our favorite hotels in Baja, and eating at a nearby restaurant.  And it gives Ben a chance to rest up a bit before the final 750 miles to home.  There have been quite a few rainstorms in Baja in the last month, and they've dropped a lot of water.  Hopefully, the roads will be in decent shape so we won't have trouble getting through.  According to our house sitter Dalia, they've even repaired the road going down from Hwy 1 to our house.  Good news!

Hope you enjoyed my newsy post.  Come visit us in Baja!  

Your friends,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho

PS.  The "boys" have been getting better behaved all the time.  They are good travelers, although I drew the line and said no more resting on the console in the front seat!  They take it over and then some!  We put up a screen so they can't get to the front.  They grumble about it, but they have the whole back seat!  In the photo below, Pancho is resting his chin on Ben's arm!  Not good!!  

 

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for June/July 2025

 Hello Friends!

Ben just realized a few days ago that the last time I sent one of these out was the end of May.  He couldn't believe I hadn't sent one out in June.... Ummmm.... where was he all this time?  Writing a post to all of you friends?  No.  He was strangely silent.  (Remember when he used to write these on rare occasions?  It's been a long time ago!!)

Anyhow, we left our home in Buena Vista BCS on June 20, and made it to Fort Rock and our summer home (our trailer) on June 26.  The trip up was uneventful, which is just how we like them!  The only problem was the extremely long line at the Tecate border.  We'd never been that far back in the line, and it took over an hour to get through.  The pups were good travelers, after they got used to it, and were pretty cooperative all along the way. 

 We never get tired of the views on this journey!  For those of you who know it, the picture below is of Buena Ventura on Bahia Concepcion.  The little bar / restaurant has been torn down, as well as a few houses on the right, due to a change of ownership.  It sure looks different now. 

 

We took our time, and since I'd been sick the week leading up to our exit, I appreciated the several short days at the beginning!  

At Fort Rock, we got our trailer ready for the summer, and discovered a leak coming out of the hot water tank.  Fortunately, Ben found Lucky Duck mobile RV service out of La Pine (which is the nearest "bigger town" out of Fort Rock), and they were able to come out the same day and fix it!  Hallelujah!  The fellow had all the parts and tools and the knowledge to fix it.  Much better for him to come than for us to haul the trailer to an RV repair place since we're living in it!  We were very pleased with their service and quick response!

It was great to get together with Katie and Mel, and to introduce our pups (again) to their Lab Cocoa.  It takes Pancho 3 days to get used to a big dog, but they were all playing by that time and having a great time.   

Ben helped Mel with various projects around their place, and Mel helped Ben build a lid-holder for our trailer.  Removing the lids from the pot cupboard made it much easier to deal with the pots in that space!

 While at Fort Rock, we had several nights with stunning sunsets.  I had to get up out of bed to take the shot below!  It was worth it! 

 

We went to Bend July 4 to do all our medical appointments.  I had a mammogram Saturday, a colonoscopy Monday, and with Ben on Tuesday and Wednesday, a visit to our GP and Dermatologist.  Phew!  Good to get them all done, but I found out on Monday at the colonoscopy, that my heart is not beating like it should;  I have Atrial Flutter.  I wore a heart monitor for 2 weeks, and will have a stress test next Monday, then probably a visit to a cardiologist.  So, that gives us something else to try and get taken care of this summer!  I feel fine, maybe just a bit more tired or easily winded.  

We stayed in Bend until the 13th, when we went to church in Bend to hear and fellowship with the Lack Family, who were doing the Worship Service music at Foundry Church as part of their Summer Tour (they are currently in Alaska).  They were very happy to see familiar faces!  We also saw our friend's daughter Sara and her husband Sean there, with their 2 grown sons!  Sara is the daughter of our very long time friends, Ellis and Marsha.  Ellis has passed, but Marsha still lives just down the street and around the corner from us in Baja.  

 

Sunday afternoon we loaded up the trailer and headed west to Harrisburg for a couple days to visit with cousins Tom and Karan on the farm.  We stayed with them until our daughter Rebecca and her family showed up on Thursday, when we moved on to our friend John H's house in Eugene.  We parked our trailer in his driveway, and the kids got to enjoy his beautiful guest quarters.  (Complete with small kitchen, bathrooms and laundry facilities!) We had a great time with them, although they were meeting with other friends and acquaintances, too.  We even got a dinner at Mazzi's in there (our favorite Italian restaurant ever!)  And we had a nice Purkey Family get-together at Ben's brother Greg's house, and people showed up from all over!  North Carolina, Abu Dhabi, Amman Jordan... and Mexico!  

 We are currently in Salem for a week, catching up with old friends, and enjoying our special Purkey Trailer Parking Spot in our friends George and Carolyn's yard.  (Hopefully, our dogs won't dig up too many more flowers, or chase too many deer, and they'll invite us back)!  We are hoping to be able to get some peaches to can (it was much appreciated having home canned peaches in our pantry last season!)  And, Carolyn gave us some of her excess home canned applesauce, which I love!  

That's about it so far.  We've already been here a month, and should get some camping and fishing in soon (Ben did catch some trout with Mel the one day they went fishing.) 

We have 2 photo albums with a bunch more fun pics, June 2025 and July 2025.  Enjoy!

Your amigos,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for May 2025

Hola amigos!

May is quickly coming to an end...already!  It has been a rather busy month, what with birthdays, major ditch digging (and filling), company, trips to La Paz and Cabo Pulmo....and eating at some of our favorite restaurants.  We have three more weeks before we leave for the summer, and we do have a long list of things to do to get the place ready for the summer and hurricane season.  And guess what?  Tropical Rainstorm Alvin is making an appearance tonight!  It's not a hurricane, but we have already received some very welcome rain from in front of the storm, and we're hoping we'll get a bunch more tonight and tomorrow.  Our tropical thorn forest (desert) that surrounds us is very dry, and the free range cattle have eaten everything they can reach.   

So, this is the earliest in the season that we remember a tropical storm happening...but like I said, it will be a Depression by the time it gets to us tonight, so bring on some rain!

My sister Shelley came to visit again mid-month (now that I've convinced her to come to Mexico, it's pretty easy to get her here....finally!)  She spent her birthday with us, so I got to spoil her a bit with birthday cakes and other fun stuff.  We walked together, did a tour of Cabo Pulmo (and had the mandatory fish / shrimp tacos at La Palapa restaurant there), and generally just let her relax and read books.  Since she is still a working woman, she very much enjoyed the down time AND the warm weather.

We sold a few things this month.  Several planned, one not planned!  

We sold our hot tub, which I personally had enjoyed for some years, but hadn't used it in a equal number of years!  So, a buyer was found and got together a crew to move it to their place.  $$$!

Then, even more exciting, our 1930 Roadster was sold to a man who has a Ranch restaurant near Cabo San Lucas.  He is using it for decoration, and just driving it around the "farm".  We did not get what we put into it, but we are happy with the final total.  When the buyer was talking with our friend and interpreter Magali, she showed him a picture of our 1929 Model A Pickup, and after a couple days, he called and said he wanted that one, too! (Sight unseen!)  WOW!  Ben said "YES", and he came to our place a few days later and picked it up on a car trailer.  We may have got what we put into this one, since Ben bought it for $75 when he was 13 years old, and got the major body-work done here in Mexico.  Anyhow, we now have room in our garage this summer for my 2018 Ford, and the Jeep, and the inflatable raft we still have.  Amazing!  

Ditch digging!  We replaced our water line coming into the casa from our meter, and also relocated the line on the far side of our west lot.  We hired a Backhoe to do that digging for us...this is hard, hard ground!  Ben also added a water filter in front of our pressure reducer, so that needs a little structure around it to protect it from the sun.  We need a pressure reducer because Ben has been measuring the pressure after many of our drip system hoses ruptured, and at times it was as much as 90 PSI!!  Way too much pressure per normal regulations.  We shopped all over La Paz looking for a 3/4" pressure reducer and there were NONE.  We did the "La Paz shuffle" that day, and each store sent us to another likely one, one after the other!  No luck.  But guess what?  We found one here in Los Barriles, and bought it "posthaste"!   Now at least the lines aren't popping when we water in our garden.  

Various cactus are blooming now and we sure enjoy them.  

This white bloom is a spiral type cactus that blooms at night, so you have to get up very early in the morning to catch the blossom open...and it only lasts that one night.

 

This is a Pitahaya dulce, or Organ Pipe cactus.  Love that shade of pink!

 

 

 

 

 

This is one I saw around the corner from our casa when I was walking, and it's a Pitahaya, too.  I haven't seen too many this year since it's been so dry, so this was a nice surprise.  

Gus will be 1 year old on June 2, and he and Pancho are actually improving somewhat in behavior.  If it hadn't been raining last night, we wouldn't have had those suspicious wet spots on several rugs!!  (They don't know what rain is, but they don't like getting wet).  I walk them both every time I go out, and if they poop out too soon, I let them rest, give them water, and drag them on home.  I can let them off leash on the beach, but I've got to watch them like a hawk.  I can't tell you how many dead little fish I've pulled out of their tough little jaws! Dang!  We all smell great by the time we get back home! 

They are pretty cute, and Pancho likes to rest on people's shoulders on the sofa (kinda warm for that right now), and Gus will snuggle right up to you and lick you to death.  Hopefully, when we travel for 6 days, they will settle right down into the routine and behave themselves!  

Speaking of travel, we plan to leave for Oregon about June 21, and will head directly to Fort Rock (6 day trip, 2000 miles), where our trailer is stored at our good friend's Katie and Mel's place.  We'll stay there for a while until we need to do doctor appointments in Bend, then our daughter Rebecca and son-on-law Tim and 3 grandkids will be coming mid-July to the Eugene area.  

Ben treated me to a 3-night trip to La Paz, a hotel stay, restaurants every night, and relaxation (no dog sitting!) for my birthday early in the month.  And we've been back for eye doctor and dentist appointments.  It's a regular trip, especially for Ben.  It's amazing how many things we NEED from La Paz.  This last trip, we went to Ace Hardware, and I said I need a new broom, but we walked out with a bunch more "needed" stuff!  Great store!  

As I wrap this up, the storm has pretty much died.  Hopefully, we'll still get a bit more rain.  We'll see!

Pictures for May 2025  <---  are here.   

You probably won't be hearing from us for a while, but if you are in Oregon or Washington and want to visit with us, let us know!  Just drop an e-mail or call us.

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus & Pancho

PS.  New home of the Model A's.  They each have a tent over them!

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for April 2025

 Hola Amigos,

We are already here at the end of April, and another month has sped by.  Less than 2 months until we head north, but it is so nice here right now, we are taking advantage of it!  

 This is what our beaches normally look like.  Gus especially, is always on the lookout for (what he thinks are ) edible bites on the beach.  Little bitty fish, Sea Slugs, fish skeletons, and any trash.  The noses on the pups are amazing, and they can hone in on these little treasures on the beach with no problem (unless I have them on leash and can catch them first before they gobble something down!) It's 6 of one (they find something to eat) to half dozen of the other (I catch them first).  Anyhow, all this to say that Easter Week is very popular for camping on the beach in this area, and after it's over, there are even more treasures on the beach for them to find!  

Hundreds of Mexicans camp in our area of Baja, and this is a very popular beach.  You can see that they have all the necessities, and the county provides port-a-potties and garbage bags, so it is actually quite a bit cleaner when they're done than it has been in years past.  And they have a fantastic time.  This year, the weather was very temperate, and not much wind at all.  I saw people fishing, kayaking and swimming and enjoying the beach to the fullest.  Anyhow, anything they left behind, our dogs are finding!  

We did another home improvement project this month that I'm sure we'll appreciate in June, and also next fall when we return.  We had an AC unit installed in our family room!  That involved the electrician Carlitos to get the electrical straightened around for the 220 power, a concrete guy to build a small pad on the roof for the exterior unit, and an AC technician to install it.  We got it done in pretty decent time, in spite of the fact that Ben was gone one of those days.  In this picture, the helper is holding the box to try to catch most of the concrete chunks and dust.  It kind of worked! 

 

We tested it out, and it works just great!  We are going to put a curtain up over the door between the family room and living room to keep the cool in the kitchen/ family room area, where we spend the most time.  

The garden is winding down.  Ben and I pulled the beans the other day, and put all the old vines in our compost pile.  We also covered it with plastic so the pups wouldn't be exploring and eating any leftover beans and pulling the vines all over the yard!  They do like fresh green beans.  Whenever we went out to pick, they wanted to go with us, and they'd get right in there foraging.  

They weren't always discerning, and Gus would sometimes end up eating leaves or stems!  Ugh!  

Anyhow, the beans, lettuce, spinach, radishes are done, and the tomatoes are close to finished.  We do have a new crop of cucumbers staring up, and we'll be trying to keep up with them, as well as the newer squash crop.  Anyone need some fresh zucchini?  Our new lime tree is putting on a lot of limes, and there are 5 bunches of bananas that we hope ripen before we leave in June.   

I've continued with my daily walking, usually with one dog at a time now.  Pancho has turned out to be a "Pooper-outer"!  He will just lie down in a shady spot, and refuse to move!  So, I either wait until he's ready to go, or pick him up and carry him, or if I need to be somewhere or doing something, I'll call Ben to come get him!  Anyhow, I take Gus first, and he's always willing to go the distance, especially if I give him a drink part way.  When I get home, I'll take Pancho on a shorter route (much shorter!) just to get him some exercise.  So, in spite of the shorter distances for Pancho, I'm reaching my monthly goals, as we continue to adjust to each others' foibles!  

We attended our neighbors Hope and Brian's 2nd annual Easter Brunch.  They know how to throw a party, and believe it or not, we had an egg toss (eggs are very reasonably priced here).  It was a lot of fun, with a lot of good food, and visiting friends and neighbors, as well as meeting new people.  Picture to the left was the start of the egg toss contest.  I was the "official" photographer, and didn't participate.  See a couple videos of the toss in the April 2025 album.

 

 

 

 

 

We hope that you are all healthy and happy, and if you're in Oregon, we'd love to see you this summer.  Send us a note or call if you're interested, and we'll see what our schedule can do!  (Pretty open so far, except that daughter Rebecca and family will be in Oregon mid to late July.)   

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho

Pic-of-the-Month for March 2025

Hola Amigos,

Another month is in the books for 2025, and we're already 1/4 of the way through the year.  Don't ask me how the time seems to go so quickly... especially as we get older! Of course, we've had a busy month here in beautiful Baja.

Now that Gus is almost 10 months old, and Pancho 8.5 months, we decided it was time to FIX them.  They weren't real happy about the FIX, but you can't believe how well they're adjusting to their cone heads.  The procedures were done a week ago Monday for Gus, and Tuesday for Pancho.  Hopefully the cones can come off in the next couple days, because our shins are suffering!!  They seem to be healing up pretty well.  

They are also getting better about sticking in the parts of the yard where we can watch them, although they do get carried away if the see a cow or burro passing by, or an extra fast and loud ATV.  This morning, they saw a Mama cow and her calf across the road, so had to bark at that from our side of the cattle guard, but they were blocking one of the neighbors from getting out!  She stopped and took pictures of them, because they were "too cute"!  This is the calf and cow they saw, who were just having breakfast outside our gate!  

I almost always see some interesting things on my walks.  Early in the month, I saw a sea creature right at the edge of the water that I couldn't figure out.  I finally decided, after watching the video that I took, that it was an octopus.  But a few days ago, someone posted a picture of the same or similar animal, and the consensus is that it was a squid!  I've never seen a squid here before, but I know they're common.  In fact, there's a place not too far off shore from us called the "Squid Hole", where we'll see boats jigging for squid. You can see the video I took of it in the March 2025 album, early in the month.

 Our major "home improvement project" this month was worth it, we hope.  We replaced the fence on the other side of the driveway so that the cows couldn't get in through (or over) the old rickety fence, and our dogs couldn't get out from underneath.  We think our fence hombre, Sergio, did a great job.  Ben did a lot of brush clearing before he started, but Sergio got in there and did a bunch more with his trusty machete.  We drug all the brush over to our yard, Ben clipped it all into fire pit sized pieces, and got out the chop saw to cut the bigger branches into firewood.  And the old fence posts, too!  We now have a very nice wood pile for next season!  The best part, our sneaky pups can't get out under the fence.  That wire mesh was a grand idea!

Meet and greet....or bark and moo.

Our Pseudobombax Ellipticum tree is blooming nicely! (Shaving Brush tree).  It's always beautiful in March.
 

The older lime tree that Ben threatened to cut down is now blooming!  Our beans have been producing plenty so that I can share with friends, and still have enough to can our supply for next season.  And the tomatoes are prolific!  Its a fun thing to try and keep up with all the produce coming out of our gardens!  Good thing I have a canner and lots of jars.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had company in March.  Our niece Chrys Purkey and her two boys love it here, and got to spend a week.  There was some nice calm, warm weather for them to enjoy their beach activities, including snorkeling, lots of walks and exploring, and some very good food.  It was very nice to have a human walking companion (thanks Chrys), especially when she helped with the pups walking. We had a great time with them.  Here's a selfie Jack took when we were out to Devon's favorite restaurant one night.  (We like it a lot, too!)

 We have three more months this season to enjoy our Baja home.  My sister Shelley is coming to visit for a week in May, but we still have room for you if you want to come see us and enjoy some wonderful weather.  We'd love to show you around, or just let you relax and enjoy the quiet!  The food is fantastic here (at our house and numerous restaurants and Taco stands). 

Again, the photo album is here:  March 2025

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet Ben, Gus and Pancho