Pic-of-the-Week for December 25, 2012

Hola, Amigos!

Feliz Navidad from the Purkeys in

Baja California Sur, Mexico! 

 
We hope that your celebrations of Christ's birth are blessed with family and friends and remembering God's greatest gift to us!
I was hoping to get a "family portrait", but that didn't happen.  So we'll just have to give you a portrait of our local burro family.
They were here the other day dining on our cardboard boxes set out with the garbage, and redistributing the garbage!  Silly burros.  They'd rather eat cardboard than old iceburg lettuce.  So Ben gave each one a gumdrop, then shooed them away so we could pick up the mess.  (Why are the garbage men late on those days???)  These two were wondering if I had any gumdrops.... nope!  Just the camera!

 

The Christmas tree is trimmed, the turkey is ready to put in the smoker, and guests will be arriving around 4pm for our Christmas dinner.  We wish you could join us!! 

 
Our guest calendar is empty, so as you sit and stare out at the rain and snow, think about a Baja vacation!  The photo below is just a few yards from our house on a walk I take with my dogs. 

A few more photos are in our December 2012 album. This is the last post of Pic-of-the-Week for this year (WOW!  Where did the year go??)  Hopefully we'll have more exciting things to share with your in the year to come. 
Hasta 2013!
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for December 18, 2012

Hola Amigos,
One more week to Christmas, and we've been busy, busy, busy!  Not getting ready for Christmas, necessarily but there are lots of other things on our plate. Oh, I did finally get our tree (read that "stick") decorated.  And I bought a couple of Poinsettias.  That will just about do for my decorating efforts!

Ben spent most of last week getting ready for our church's move to a new location.  He spent TWO days in La Paz again last week (with a suitcase and his computer this time...and a toothbrush!) buying supplies; microphone stands, microphone holders, a large file cabinet, cleaning supplies, office supplies, paper towels and toilet paper, coffee pots, thermos pots for cool drinks, a water jug holder, cable and various cable ends for the sound system, large garbage cans.  And big fluffy blankets (20 of them) for the Mexican families for whom our church is providing food.  For each purchase, he needed to get a "factura", which is the legal receipt for book-keeping purposes here in Mexico.  That added about 20 minutes (at least) to most purchases.  He also managed to get a car cover made for his '29 Model A pickup, which involved hauling that vehicle there.  When at the upholstery shop, they pointed out a low tire on his trailer, so he had to take care of that, too!  Our red truck ran great, and he was able to get there and back, and all around (and around and around) La Paz in good order.  He does know La Paz very well these days, if you ever need a tour guide!!! 

While he was running around La Paz, I was helping at a Ladies Luncheon that several of us decided to have.  We held it at Hotel Los Pescadores north of town, which has a very nice open lobby where we set up everything. The quiche and salad were delicious.  The salad had pears, avocados, grapes, jicama, lettuce and onions.  What a yummy combination.

 I took my old piano which we'd had repaired recently and played some  favorite Christmas Carols. We made mistletoe swags out of Mexican mistletoe, had a Christmas devotion, and just enjoyed visiting with each other and having fun!  

We had so much fun, we're talking about doing it again next year.  Here my friend Lynn on the right is showing Sharon and Carlee how to make the swag.

On Thursday, I had to run Ryan to the airport (Ben was still shopping away in La Paz).  He had a 2:15 departure, so I was hoping to get him there before noon, and it's at least 45 minutes from our house to the airport, depending on traffic conditions (weather and trucks and slow drivers).  Well, he didn't know I had to be back in Los Barriles by 1pm, so he was quite relaxed about leaving until I told him!  "I have to be back by 1"!, I yelled upstairs.  "Oh, you didn't tell me."  He replied calmly.  I had him drive and he made very good time!!!  I made it back to my choir practice just 6 minutes late.  Of course,  on the way to there it rained buckets near the airport, and it sprinkled consistently all the way home.  In fact, it rained most of that day, and reminded me of an Oregon type rain:  steady and soaking.  I'm sure my garden loved it, and we'll now be having another new crop of weeds sprouting. 

Speaking of garden, I don't think I told you that I've planted some seeds over a week ago, and most things are now sprouting.  I've got Blue Lake Pole green beans, lettuce, spinach, arugula, yellow squash and zucchini, and sugar peas.  I haven't ever tried the peas before, so it's kind of an experiment.  The package says they quit setting on peas at 76 degrees F, so hopefully they'll be ready to eat in late February or early March when it is still a bit cool.  My beans are just about ready to string up to the wire, and I'm hoping for another good crop like last year's.  I just love to open and serve those jars of home canned green beans, and they're just about gone!

Sunday was the first day in our local church's new location, and everyone loves it.  Ben and I got there very early to set up the projector (loaned for use by Ryan) and to make the final touches to the sound system.   

We had the use of a borrowed portable amp, and it didn't do a very good job, but everything else went well.  We don't have a screen yet, so the light colored wall worked pretty well for the PowerPoint show of songs.  Eventually, we'll have the projector hung from the ceiling, a screen so we can see it well, and a  decent sound system.
 
In the meantime, I just used my piano's internal speakers, and Ray said the bass was nice and loud from that corner.  

One last photo for you, of the "wild life" inside our house.  We have geckos in here.  Can't keep them out.  We've decided they're OK, because they do eat bugs.  However, this gecko could not possibly get this critter down, but he sure looked like he was thinking about it very seriously.  He eventually gave up that night, but tonight...I don't see the moth!!! 

This is definitely an example of "his eyes are bigger than his stomach"!!!  

 OK...I lied.  I have ONE more photo for you, a historical one.  This is from February 1, 2001.  Ben & I and our friend Ellis stopped at the Tropic of Cancer marker south of us and Ben took a photo.  Many of you have stopped here and taken a photo of this old ball.  Well.... save your photos, because this ball is gone.  The government has put in a pretty new sculpture there.  Maybe I'll stop and take a photo of it when I go to the airport later today.  By the way, those of you who know Ellis...he had a slight stroke a few weeks ago and is currently in Eugene, scheduled for surgery to clean out his left carotid artery on Wednesday.  He and Marsha hope to be back here on Christmas day.  


More photos are in our December 2012 Picasa album.  

Hasta Navidad,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey (Ryan is still in St. Croix!)

Pic-of-the-Week for December 11, 2012

Hola Amigos,
Have you got your Christmas decorating done yet?  Are all of your gifts wrapped and sent?  Annual Christmas letter written and addressed and stamped?  .....  Me neither!!!  I must admit that we're rather lazy about decorating.  I haven't sent "regular" Christmas cards out since we moved to Baja, so if you're looking for one from us in your mailbox, you can quit looking now!  For my "gifting" this year, I had a variety of flannel material just sitting around in boxes, so I decided to make a quilt for a needy Mexican family.  Our church has started a food program called "Pan de Vida", or bread of life, where we provide the funds for a reliable and responsible Mexican family to buy a weeks' worth of staples for needy families in the area.  The families are provided with rice, beans, flour, oil, and milk, and they are all very grateful.  At this time of year, we add clothing, sheets, towels and blankets.  Here's a shot of the blanket I finished yesterday.
You can see from this photo, taken this Monday morning, that the weather is still very nice, although we've had a few cloudy days.  And it does get cool at night, so I'm sure this little blanket will be appreciated by some little person!  I still have more fabric, so I might be able to put together another one before Christmas....maybe!
Ben was able to get a hold of our carport contractor the other day.  They've got a few things to finish up, and have been pretty scarce!  He sent over a worker to install our gargoyle drains, and maybe now we can get some paint on the thing!  We weren't able to find any matching what we have on the original house, so we ended up with these....
They're cute and fun.
And we've come across so "real" iguanas lately.  Ben scared one when he lifted the lid on the propane tank to check the gas levels.  He was probably at least 1 foot long.  We often see them lounging on top of the tall cacti just beyond our fence in the photo above.
We visited some friends this weekend to check out their latest solar project.  They built a swimming pool several years ago, and have installed solar water heaters on their roof.  They also have a solar water heater for their household use.  This time, they're installing panels that will provide electricity to their house, and will eventually feed back to the grid and lower their bill even more!  We like that idea, and hope to do a project like that in the not too distant future. 
Our friend Paul claims that these panels are guaranteed to stay on the roof with winds up to 170mph.  (We do get hurricanes here)!  I imagine we would put something like this up on the guest bedroom roof, so when you come visit us, you wouldn't even notice them.
Ben had an interesting experience in La Paz last week.  Just when you think its safe to drive our 2006 truck, the serpentine belt breaks!  At least he was in La Paz when it happened, and not out in the mountains on the way to or from La Paz!  He had our interpreter friend Dalia with him, and she was due to a dentist appointment at 5pm, but the belt broke just before that.  She missed her appointment while calling a tow truck and riding along to the Ford dealer.  She was able to reschedule it for the next day, because she was already planning on spending the night with her niece there and catching the bus back to Los Barriles later that week.  5pm was too late for Ford to find a belt that day, so they said call back around 11am the next day.  Ben found a nice restaurant and hotel room (he had no suitcase, no toothbrush or comb, no contact solution!) and spent the night, and says the La Paz taxi services are great, and relatively inexpensive.  (Ben really misses you not living here, Barb!!!)   Fortunately, we do have cell phones now so he was able to call me and let me know what was going on.  The next day he called Ford and they said "we can't find a part in town.  We've even called Tijuana...."  At that point, he and Dalia went to the biggest parts house in La Paz, and yes, he had the part.  Ford doesn't buy from them because they don't extend credit!  GRRRRRRR!  Ben paid for the part, and they promised to deliver.  They did, eventually, and Ben was able to get home...long after dark, but safe.  In the meantime, poor Dalia had two dentist appointments that day; one in the morning for the dentist to examine her, and one in the afternoon to pull her tooth!  Ouch!  And believe it or not, Ben wants to go back to La Paz this Wednesday!  At least he knows where the parts house is located!!! 
So, we always look for the silver lining, and on Monday night, it was just over the hills! 
More photos are posted in our December 2012 album. 
Hasta la proxima semana,
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for December 4, 2012

Hola amigos,

Well....after all that excitement of the car show last week, Ben and I both came down with nasty colds.  He got his first (he claims he got it from his brother Greg), and he generously gave it to me several days later.  As a result, we haven't gone far from the house or take many photos.  That doesn't mean that the excitement hasn't continued!  

You just never know when I might grab a camera to try a different shot.  We bought a couple of solar hummingbird lights last summer, and I love how they glow at night.  They even change colors!  This was just hand held, so it's a little bit blurry, but not too bad.  This little guy will greet you near our kitchen door.

Our English speaking church will soon be meeting in a new building.  The search team found a brand new building available just down the street a ways from the old building.  This one was built to be used for quinciñera parties or weddings.  We'll start meeting there on the 16th of this month, after a few more changes are made (like more electrical plugs in strategic spots!)  There will be a lot of work to do to get it ready, but we have lots of volunteers!  Everyone is excited about it.  This photo is from last Sunday when we did a tour after church.  There is even a pretty nice kitchen area! 

 

 

  Monday should have been a fairly quiet day here at the casa, but you just never know when the excitement will begin!  CFE (the national electrical company here in Mexico) showed up at our driveway on Monday morning to clean the breakers on the electrical pole there. 

 It always amazes me to see this operation, and I had to take a photo of it for you to appreciate it.  I could get really close now that we have that new carport deck (although I didn't!)

Later, another Mexican crew showed up in official looking pickup trucks and vests.  They told me that they were the government citrus team.  They spray citrus trees for free to eliminate diseases.  I said "go for it!"  Then a few minutes later, one of them came to me and showed me a leaf from our lemon tree.  He told me it was diseased, and had Huanglongbing (really!!) disease (they gave me a brochure).  And it needed to be removed.  Oh no!  But what could I say?  I certainly don't want that disease spreading any more than it is (I did read up on it on the internet).  There is no known cure.  The best thing is to remove the entire tree and not replant in that area.  Fortunately, the lime tree right next to it seems to be OK.  And they did pick all the lemons off of the tree for me before they hauled off the limbs.   

 

So now, Ben and I are trying to decide how to best use that area.  That is near where I plant my corn crop, so it may expand into that area!  I did convince the fellow with the ax to leave enough stump for Ben to pull out the roots with his truck & winch.  They were just going to cut it down right to the ground, but I'd think you'd get suckers coming up from that forever.  Best to just pull the whole thing.

Since we haven't really been anywhere this week, I dug back in my files to January 2009 and came across this photo of drying chili peppers.  This is near the little town of Los Planes, north of us about 40 miles.  Need a little heat in your food?  Here you go!  

I have started a new December Picasa Album.  Not much there yet!  

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