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

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for February 2025

 Hola amigos,

It's the end of February already, so here's another post about life in Baja with the Purkey's.

This month, our Hibiscus flowers started blooming again, after our cow invasion last June, I think it was, when our neighbor's ripe Mangoes enticed one in (tree branch hangs over neighbor's wall into our yard).  While she was already visiting, she decided to chew on the Hibiscus plants as well.  It's taken them 8 months or more to recover.  Sigh.  All the ones with nice growth have put out a flower of two this month.  (You can see them in our February 2025 album).  

However............

Another cow got in a week or so ago and ate every single nicely growing Hibiscus plant.  No more flowers for another year, if they survive!  Rats.  The cow also ate just a few leaves off my green beans (not as sweet as Hibiscus, obviously), then wandered over to the neighbors yard, where they chased it out.  

So, we have decided to re-do the fence line where we believe it got in.  The fence is very old and wobbly in a lot places, so we talked to the man who is in the process of buying that property and he said he's not planning on building any walls in the next couple of years.  We are going to put out the pesos to get it done for 2 reasons.  1.  No more cows in our yard from that way.  2.  No more pups under the fence to chase the cows and burros on the other side of the fence. We will be using a small wire mesh.  (Can you guess which dog, who is predominantly black, that would be?)  Does he come when called?  No.  Not when there's a cow or burro to chase.  Grrrr!!!  Still working on that one! They do like to come when we have the correct treats in our pocket (if the chase isn't too exciting!)  

So, yes, Ben has been clearing even more brush (on the fence line) and pruning Mesquite trees all over the property.  We have a lot of brush-y burn piles, so whenever it's calm in the evenings we've been enjoying our fire pit fires.  We will have Sergio, a local who's done quite a few fence jobs for us, rebuilding that fence line, too.   

Master bath shower

 

 Our home improvement project for February was to hire a tile guy, and he did 3 things for us.  He replaced the floor in the outdoor shower, he put new mop board tiles around the edge of the veranda (many of the old ones were falling off), and a new floor in our master bathroom shower.  We love all of it!  He did a fantastic job.  

Ben has a tile saw, and this guy had never seen or used one before!  But after he used it for a while, he was very pleased with how easy it was. 
 

Outdoor shower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gus and Pancho continue to be a "bit" of a challenge to train and train and train!!  I walk them over a mile every day, they still eat any poop they can find before I can yank on or shorten their leash, they bark at any dog they see, jump up on people they meet.  I've occasionally been letting them off the leash so they can run on the beach, but the disadvantage to that is that their sharp noses can find every single fishy smelling thing on the beach.  The other day, Gus ate a tiny 2" fish, a sand crab, and would have tried a puffer fish if I hadn't got him and Pancho away from it.  (The liver of the puffer fish is deadly to dogs).  So, I have to keep an eye out for them all the time.  It's not the most relaxing part of my day!  One thing I started doing for both dogs is having each of them wear a harness to hook them to the leash, instead of their collars.  I decided to do that when Gus slipped out of his collar on the leash to bark at and bother a cow, and would not come when called.  It took me over 5 minutes to get him back in leash.  I was not a happy dog walker that day! 

 They do love sunshine, and our front door is often open so they can rest on the rug and enjoy some rays.   And they are awfully cute.  And they do keep us on our toes.  Chairs in, things put away, doors closed... Will we survive this story?  Keep tuned!

Our garden is doing fantastic.  Beautiful lettuce and spinach, beets and tomatoes.  The beans will be ready to pick in a few days (as long as the cows stay out!) The corn is doing very well, and Ben just planted our next squash crop.  (The old crop was getting tired!)  We give away a lot of it, and enjoy eating the rest.  Just today, we went to our rancher friend Arturo's place and picked up more bags of cow manure to use in our garden.  (And some yummy ranch cheese and 18 beautiful brown chicken eggs.)   

We took a drive through the neighborhood the other day in the '56 Jeep to see some new casas that have been built on the hills of Buena Vista.  Beautiful view from up there!  In this photo you can see our house, right in the middle of the picture.  It's slightly pink in color.  

For those of you who want to come down here and build a vacation home, there is property available very near us!  Also, our neighbor Brian is selling off half of his lot, where his container houses used to sit.  You could be our neighbor, on the other side of Brian and Hope!!  

In this sign, our house and property is just at the bottom right (out of sight).  $90K for a lot!  Grab it up quick!  

Weather is warming up a bit, and while we're having temps in the 70's and not too much wind, it will be getting warmer and days longer quickly.  We don't do Daylight Savings time in Mexico any more, so we'll be the same time as Pacific Time when you guys change. 

Enjoy your March.  I think our March will be coming in like a lamb, and hopefully, going out like a lamb!!  

Again, this month's picture album, with captions to explain on about every one of them, is at February 2025.

Hasta la proxima vez

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho  

 

Pic-of-the-Month for January 2025

 Hola Amigos!

Can you believe the first month of 2025 is almost over?  Me, neither!  Time to get out a Pic-of-the-Month!! 

It's been a pretty quiet month after all the excitement of Rebecca's family visit at the end of December.  Partly because we both came down with the cold that they generously shared with us!!  Ben got it first, and I held off until he was pretty much over it, then I got sick for a couple days.  Interesting thing was we were mainly just congested, but didn't feel sick or achy.  Ben cut a lot of brush in our yard and worked in the shop during that time, and I continued on my daily walks except for 2 days. 

The picture is from our newer lot (next to our casa) where Ben spent the most time cleaning up brush.  There are a few areas that are pretty overgrown, but Ben is now getting a handle on it.  We also have plenty of brush to burn on our outdoor fire pit... we don't haul any of it off to the dump.  It's either burnable or composted.  The pups are enjoying exploring this area.  We're surprised they don't pick up more stickers in their paws, but they seem to do just fine.  We also like to watch them racing around this area now, doing the "zoomies"!  You can't believe how fast a dachshund can run!  They've also found a few nice places to dig holes, and we don't care!  Gus seems to have a nose for ants, and has pointed out several serious ant holes to us.  We are letting them outside of the restricted courtyard area, but we have to watch them closely.  They do tend to wander if allowed, especially over to a brush pile in our neighbor's driveway that had a snake carcass on it for a while!!  Ugh!

The garden(s) are doing quite well.  As you can see, the tomatoes are starting to get ripe, and Ben has been picking one or two yellow squash daily (we give a lot away!)  The beans have been strung, a second planting of corn has been done, we enjoyed our first lettuce picking yesterday, and have been eating radishes for quite a while.  We are also enjoying bouquets of roses from our rose garden.  This is the time of year they seem to do best here.  I remember the first time I saw a rose garden here in December or January and was amazed that they were doing so well.  (We're still trying to figure out what grows best and when here in Baja!) 

Ben's woodworking project this month was to make a Lazy Susan for our dining tables.  He glued together various pretty wood that he had, got his lathe all adjusted and built a stand so he could work on the end of the lathe, and smoothed out the glued together wood.  It turned out beautiful!  

The wood used, from the middle out, is Black Walnut, Palm, Eucalyptus and Maple. 

We took a trip to La Paz earlier in the month to do our Dermatologist visits.  Ben goes quarterly, i go bi-annually.  She zapped quite a few spots on me, and wants me to come back to check on a few of them next month.  It's a good excuse to spend the night and go and visit Tom and Karan, and eat with them at one of their favorite restaurants, KM14, and have a delicious dinner!  

Ben took the '28 Woody to a little car show in town (Los Barriles) last week, and the guy in charge said if they were giving out prizes, he would have won the grand prize!!  It is a lot of fun to drive around town!  

Ben has had the '30 Roadster in La Paz now for a while.  He took it to our painter friend, Edgar Majalca, who took it to a car show at the end of November.  At the car show, he found a buyer for us, but at the same time, something broke and the fan hit the radiator and ruined it!  (Not anyone's fault...it would have happened if we were driving it, too.  It was equipment failure in an almost 100 year old car!)  In the meantime, Ben found our friend Mike in Bend had a radiator for him; he ordered parts and had them sent to Baja friends who would be in California over Christmas and driving back, and Ben had his nephew and brother pick up the radiator and box it really well (great job on the packaging, Bryan & Ken!) to send to that same friend in California.  However, the friend got sick, and sent the parts with another Baja friend who was having a bunch of stuff sent down, and today, the radiator finally showed up!  The other parts came a couple weeks ago.  Now, he has to get the new radiator checked out at a radiator shop in La Paz, and then install the radiator and water pump.  In the meantime, the buyer said he wasn't ready to buy it yet....maybe this spring.  So we're hoping that happens in a timely manner.  We are enjoying the extra space in the garage, and don't really want to haul it back here if we don't have to!!   

We celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary on the 27th of the month!  It really is hard to believe it has been that long... neither of us feel that old!  We had breakfast and dinner out at a couple of our favorite restaurants here in town.  Got free Mimosas for breakfast, so that was nice!!  

My walking partner Jill left for a few months, so it's just me and my dang dogs walking now, or me by myself after their 1 mile daily walk.  They are getting a little bit better, but still try to eat every poop pile they see, the fresher, the better!  That's a good reason for a short leash!! I'm on track to make this month's goal, in spite of a couple sick days.  (But, I've also decided that my goals are very changeable when they need to be.)  

I've created a January 2025 picture album with a bunch of pictures of our quiet month!  

We have company scheduled to come visit a week in March, but the rest of the time is pretty wide open if you want to come see us.  Just think about sunshine and a beautiful beach, good friends and good food! 

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for December 2024

 January 1, 2025 

Hola, Amigos!

Feliz Navidad y feliz año nuevo!  It has been a busy December, but I'm going to be short and sweet!  

Our daughter Rebecca and her family visited us here in Baja for the first time in 5 years, starting on Christmas Eve, and it was great.  Quite a bit more activity and noise than we're used to (but the pups have been training us to anticipate the unexpected!)  We ate very well, played games, did lots of hikes together, played with the dogs, and enjoyed our rare time together.  Hopefully, they'll be back in Oregon this summer so we will see them soon again.  Today, we are heading for La Paz with them to visit with cousins Tom & Karan and watch the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl.  Go Ducks!  (We had a great visit with Tom & family, but the Ducks didn't to their part.  Sad faces all around).   They will fly out of La Paz to Tijuana on the 2nd, then visit friends in San Diego for a few days before flying back to their home.

This was our Christmas Eve dinner with pork tamales, and other yummy Mexican food.  

Ben got out the Woodie and took everyone to church on Sunday, followed by lunch at La Playa. On one day, they rented an ATV and traveled up on of the arroyos to a little water fall and running water, and did some hiking up the stream.  

We are eating produce from our garden now, including cucumbers and a lot of squash!  The tomatoes are getting bigger and the lettuce and spinach is coming up.  

I reached my walking goal for 2024 of 700 miles; by December month end I was at 785.  So, on to a new goal for 2025.  After yesterday's hike up to the Flag Monument, I didn't think I'd make it up that last little hill before getting home, but I did it.  Phew!  Both Jill and I were feeling our age.  Grandson Aaron (just turned 13) and Rebecca had no problem... Aaron could run circles around me!  

 

 

 

 

 

The pups are growing, and getting a little better behaved.  Given the opportunity though, Gus will still jump up on a chair and get on the dining room table to see what might be there.  Pancho looks sweet but he instigates most of the dog fights!  They do OK on their walks, but still look for fresh cow pies every chance!  

Ben surprised me and took them for a walk the other day.  That my be it for the unforeseen future!  (Aaron was practicing rock skipping.  He was getting pretty good!) 

Click on  2024 December  to see last month's album.  Lots more pictures there!

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho

  

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for November 2024

 Hola Amigos, 

I'm just a few days late getting this out, but we've had Ryan here and are enjoying spending time with him. 

November cooled down nicely, and morning temps have been in the 60's, and the highs in the 70's, and few windy stretches, just to get us used to it, I think!

The turkey just fit on the smoker!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner; Ben smoked a turkey again, and it was so delicious!  We made pies, mashed potatoes and gravy, Brussel Sprouts, and our friends brought rolls, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie, roasted vegetable salad and squash.  Yum!  I forgot to take pictures, because my phone was attached to our stereo playing dinner music!  Friend Jill did take one that got most of us here at the table.  We were very happy to eat out on our veranda as the weather was nice enough to do that... just a little windy.

We didn't participate in the November 20 Revolution Day parade with our Model A's this year.  Ben was in La Paz running errands, so I went to town and got to enjoy the entire parade, not just our little section!  It's mostly school kids of all ages;  marching, dancing, singing, doing acrobatics, and looking patriotic!  It's a big holiday in Mexico, and the streets are closed down for several days for carnival and dances.  Lots of fun for the kids! 

Ben's expanded garden is doing great.  It has a fence all the way around, with wind protection and bird netting.  He's been harvesting yellow and green squash daily, and the tomato plants are just starting to bloom and growing taller every day.  He started them all from seed when we got here in early October, so they're doing great.

I've planted some new geraniums and petunias in pots around the
house to add some color.  Hopefully, we can keep the dogs out of those
things! (They seem to eat many plants, maybe just because they're puppies.)  

We took advantage of Ryan being here,  and he helped Ben cut down our rather large Neem tree that was putting too much shade on Ben's original garden plot.  They tied a rope to the tree, and the other end of the rope to the pickup, and when Ben had sawed the tree through enough, told Ryan to slowly back up to pull the tree in the correct direction.  It was successful!  Tree down with no damage to anything, and Ben is almost done pruning up all the branches and stacking the firewood.  

Our pups, Gus and Pancho, are still puppies.  Meaning, they eat stuff they shouldn't, like charging cords (at least 4, maybe more), head phones (2 pair!) and ear buds (Ryan's just got eaten... :-(  ), my shoes (3 or 4 pair) that I have put up, but obviously not far enough, and books or papers (they LOVE shredding paper).  They're also working on eating my woven straw waste basket.  Gus is a jumper and can get things off the table if a chair is available. He gets stuff down, and Pancho helps him rip things up!  Grrr!  I have been walking them on a leash with 2 leads attached, and that works pretty good when I'm by myself, although Pancho tends to have to go wherever Gus goes!  Anyhow, every day I take them 1 mile, then I continue without them on the rest of my walk.  (Check out the video of them walking on the duo leash in my picture album.)  

 

By the way, I reached my yearly walking goal of 700 miles on November 30.  I still have one of the most beautiful places to walk.  God has blessed us richly to live here and enjoy this part of the world.  

 Ryan will be here for just over a week, and Rebecca and her family are coming just before Christmas for a little over a week.  We are doubly blessed with our children visiting this year!  

Oh!!!  The non-profit charity that Ben and I run won 2nd place this year in the 3rd annual Signathon, put on by a local real estate company.  Our prize was $1500!  That will help feed two families for a year.  Our partner, Gordon Blackie, got the idea to invite one of our participants (she receives grocery vouchers monthly) to set up her hot dog stand at the venue.  She managed to sell almost 120 hot dogs at 50 pesos each that afternoon!  (And they were delicious!)  We were pleased with the outcome, and were afraid if we won top prize 3 years in a row we wouldn't be invited back!!  (Just kidding!)  Contact us if you'd like to help Feed the Hungry in our area.  

Sad news for the Purkey family.  Our sister-in-law Sirrka Purkey passed away from cancer this last month, leaving her husband John, Ben's younger brother.  She will be sorely missed. 

I have created a November 2024 album.  Click on it to see what else we've been up to!

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for October 2024

Hola Amigos!

We have been home here in Baja for almost a month now, and it has been a HOT month!  Phew!  It is finally cooling down (high today was mid-80's and lows in the low 70's) and we are appreciating that a lot.  We have gotten a lot of things done since we got here.  Ben has a lot of the garden planted with tomatoes and squash and cucumbers, and he recently planted some sweet corn.  We have helped many of the local restaurants by going to check out their menus and food.  We are eating well!  The dogs are adjusting, and we finally have them cured of their Giardia that they each came home with from the breeders!  Thank goodness!

The trip down was good.  We left earlier than originally planned, because our travel mates couldn't leave yet due to some truck issues.  Also, we felt like we needed to get the dogs HOME to deal with them and their illnesses.  Their Giardia episode resulted in diarrhea, for both dogs....often!  Ugh!  They traveled during the day like champs.  Settled right down and didn't fight each other too much, and Gus would warn us when WE NEED TO STOP FOR A POTTY BREAK!  

The hotels at night were another story.  They weren't potty trained yet, so we had pee pads, a little wire pen to contain them, paper towels, wet wipes; you name it, we had the stuff to clean up after them!  And they christened every floor around.  Any rugs?  We picked them up!  We shortened up our planned stops near the end to just get home, although we spent two nights in San Quintin at Hotel Jardines (tile floors in Mexican hotels are wonderful!)   We visited a very nice winery in the little town just north of San Quintin... and bought a nice supply of Baja wine for our wine cellar.  

We were stopped about 15 miles north of Loreto by a long, long line of traffic due to a traffic accident, but noticed various people and cars leaving after having little discussions among each other.  So, we got brave and pulled out to pass the stopped traffic.  I asked a man "que pasa?"  He said "you're 4x4, you could take the arroyo and bypass the accident."  So, off we went!  We took the first arroyo exit available (have no clue if it was the right one or not!?!) and bypassed everything.

 

 It was a beautiful drive, and we had another vehicle following us.  We stopped and talked, and let him know we didn't know what we were doing or where we were going!  Hopefully, to Loreto!  I was using Google Maps, and he had an app with a much more detailed map so we compared maps often. 

We eventually got to a nice housing development north of Loreto.... and a locked gate!  So, being polite, we asked around to see if someone had a key.  No key, but a nice worker did give us a hack saw blade!!  Instead of trying to saw through the lock, Ben and our new friend Brian dismantled the fence on the unlocked (hinge) end, and we drove through, then re-assembled the fence!  Then continued on about 4 more miles to Loreto!  Phew!  

We cleaned house (thank you Dalia and Isabel), cleaned out our new fridge, had an AC guy in to clean our 2 air conditioners (which needed it badly!), picked up rugs that the pups might pee on (all of them, mostly!)and settled right in.  The AC guy was great.  He had a pressure washer to clean the unit, and an apron to go around it with a hose attached which went out the window!  Very little water in the casa.  He did such a great job on our bedroom unit, I told Ben to hire him for our upstairs unit, too, and he came and did that one a few days later. 

I've been walking, and reached my miles goal for October, and am above goal for this point in the year.  I recently started taking the dogs for a walk (one at a time, thank you very much).  They are on leashes, and go every which way, and try their hardest to sample every cow pie or burro dropping that they see (and there are a lot).  On the beach Gus will try for fish bones, crabs, lots of icky dead stuff!  They do not like the water, so stay plenty far away from it.  Gus has also learned where to stop for treats when we go through Vista del Mar!  They learn so fast!! 

We are entertaining (very low key!) our first visitors of the year.  My sister Shelley has returned to visit with her husband David.  They enjoyed horse-back rides this morning, and a pedicure and massage yesterday.  We are taking them to La Paz to show them around there, and meet up with cousins Tom & Karan, who finally have arrived here in Baja California Sur after a week long hiatus in Palm Springs getting a new transmission in his 2018 4x4 truck!  (They were the ones we were going to travel with, leaving Oregon Oct 1. Maybe next year!!) 

We were able to watch all the World Series games, and even some of the University of Oregon games (Go DUCKS!) FYI, my teams are winning!!  ;-)  This is the only time of year I wish we had a TV and access to sports. 

I've created a 2024 October album with more scenery and events.  All the pretty pictures are there!   

Good news!  We get to see son Ryan for Thanksgiving for a week, and daughter Rebecca and her family for Christmas for a week!  We are so happy to be able to have them here for that time.  Just wish granddaughter Olivia could come, too. 

Other than those times, our guest rooms are available.  Please consider coming down to see us.  We'd love to have you.  And you could walk the dogs with me!!  

BTW, we had one batch of Trick or Treaters, and I didn't get a picture, and now it's time to go to dinner!  Chinese tonight!  Yum! 

Hasta la proxima vez!

Tus amigos en Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Gus and Pancho 

PS.  Pancho is the nickname for Fransisco (Frankie), so that's what we've been calling him, just in case you're confused.  Of course, his dog tag and embedded chip say "Frankie", but oh well! 

Pitahaya cactus bloom

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for Summer 2024

 Hello Friends,

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn, and you know what that means!?  We are busy packing up and getting ready to head south, like any sensible retired person would do!  We have had a busy, but not too busy summer and are anxious to get back home.

The big news this summer is that Ben got his wishes granted, and now has two (count 'em....TWO) new Dachshund puppies.  Gus is the typical Black and Tan like we've had in the past, and Frankie is what we hope will be a Silkie.  He's a cross between long hair and wire haired dachshunds.  The coat is very soft, and right now, he's smaller than Gus, so usually loses the fights!  They are both adorable, but Ben is finding out that it is a LOT of work.  These are his pups, and he is doing the majority of the maintenance, including vet visits.  I have taken Gus for several short walks, and he may be trained to go with me on my beach walks in a month or so.  Here you go... a new era of Purkey pups, Gus and Frankie!

 

We kept pretty busy this summer with maintenance tasks.  Our trailer is now 16 years old, and always needs repairs or improvements  of some kind of the other (including two new tires tomorrow).  Ben is great at taking care of fixing things.  It is a very well built trailer and is holding up well.  We have added a new "feature" this year to keep clever Gus out of our bed, which folds out on top of the sofa.  It works, but is not real convenient for us old folks, climbing in and out over that board!  Hopefully, we won't need them next summer. 

We spent time in the Willamette Valley visiting friends and relatives, mostly in July and early August, when we picked up Gus.  I found some nice ripe blackberries, and I also canned peaches for the first time in over 20 years.  They will be going home to Baja with us, and I'm looking forward to having those as breakfast fruit.  Yum!  I did the canning while we were house/dog sitting for our friends the Sackingers, who were on an Alaska cruise.  Gus got trained very well by their full size Poodle, Sandy! 

We enjoyed Sackinger's garden produce while there, too, including boundless zucchini, blueberries, green beans and tomatoes.  

In late August, we went camping with the Telecks at Crooked River near Prineville.  While there, I spotted a wild Mountain Goat on the cliffs across the river from our campsite.  What a sight!  He was very big and healthy looking, and spent a lot of time roaming back and forth across the face of the cliff, and then down for a quick drink at the river, then up again.  I was thankful for my "good" camera, because my phone's zoom just didn't cut it!

Here's the view from our campsite with my phone camera at maximum zoom.  Do you see him?? 

Dinner at Diamond Hotel included Tomato Pie! 

In early September, we did our annual camping trip with the Sackingers near Frenchglen and the Steens Mountains.  It is a beautiful area, and we took day trips to various places, including to the top of the Steens, the Riddle Brothers ranch (which is now a museum), Hart Mountain (which had a serious fire this summer and campgrounds are closed until next spring...first time we haven't camped there in many years), and Fields, Oregon.  We had two dinners out; one at the Diamond Hotel, and one at the Frenchglen Hotel.  Both very good, but we gave more points to the dinner at Diamond Hotel.  Worth the effort to go over and do it if you can manage it! 

After the Steens camping trip, we headed north to the Pendleton Roundup, which is always a treat.  As usual, we parked our trailer at my niece Anne's house.  Gus really enjoyed her big yard (it was a little scary the first day with that BIG DOG, but the next day he was doing fine!)  We met up with cousins Tom and Karan Malpass and watched the parade together, and did lunch and dinners, too.  Lots of fun.  

After the Roundup, we headed back to Bend, where we are packing up and trying to get organized for the trip back south.  We are also getting some last minute things done, like flu shots, vet visits, and truck and trailer maintenance.  We will go to Fort Rock on Friday and spend a couple days putting the trailer to bed.... and visiting with Mel and Katie.  Oh yeah, and we got another puppy!  

I must admit, there are a few advantages to having two dogs.  Frankie slept a whole lot better than Gus did from the first night here.  And, there are disadvantages.  This guy is not close to being potty trained.  Rugs are picked up, mop is out!! He does pretty well riding in the truck, at least for several hours at a time.  We'll see how he does (or maybe how we do!) on the long ride home!  

We plan to leave Fort Rock October 1, and be home by October 6.  I'll probably post a daily progress report on Facebook if you want to follow along.  Time for another appointment now!!

Albums of our summer adventures are here:  

   July 2024

   August 2024 

   September 2024 

We have several guests already signed up to come visit us in Baja this season.  Don't wait too long to add your name to the list!   

Until the next post,

Your amigos from Baja

Harriet, Ben, Gus (Gustavo) and Frankie (Francisco)