Pic-of-the-Month for December 2022

 Hola Amigos!

Happy New Year!  Feliz Año Nuevo! Were you wondering if I was going to come through with a final update for the year?  Well, I'm kind of surprised myself.  Time does fly, and things don't always get done in a timely manner.  By my clock, I have a few hours left to get this out to you all.

We have been busy, busy, busy!  Gardening, quick trip to Oregon, parades, car shows, company, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas concerts, ATV fun ride, Christmas dinner, major tree pruning, walking, multiple trips to La Paz to get things done, and at least one trip for fun (combined with the car show).  I hope I can remember the highlights but not bore you to tears! 

 

Karan and I on a morning walk.  Cousin Tom took this pic.  Nice job! 

 I took a quick trip to Oregon in early November to get two skin cancers taken care of, and expected cool, late fall weather.  Well, I got full-on winter!  Freezing temps, strong wind, snow, rain, and more snow!  The weather was bright and sunny several of those days (still very cold), but the day I left from Redmond airport, they had to de-ice the plane!  Thanks to my good friends Tony and Janet Kronemeyer, I got my appointments in Bend taken care of, (they dropped me off and picked me up!) and I managed to get a flu shot and Covid booster done, too.  And I snuck in a little bit of shopping  as well.  The Kronemeyers also hosted me at their lovely home in Sisters. 

The Three Sisters in Oregon after a nice fresh snow fall.

When I returned to Baja, there were a lot of things scheduled for the rest of November.  For the first time in 2 years, due to Covid shut downs, Mexico was ready to celebrate Revolution Day, November 20.  We have participated in the local parade here since Ben has restored his 1929 Model A pickup quite a few years ago.  That vehicle is a popular one for the Queen and princesses to ride in.  The 1928 Woody is used for the younger royalty.  I let my cousin Tom Malpass drive the pickup this year (my usual job) since they were visiting us for the week, and he just loves to double clutch!!  (Ha!)  

 

 

Tuesday of that week, the 22nd, was a

special event in town for all the Non-Profit organizations in the area, including the one Ben and I are part of, "Feeding the Hungry".  Fortunately for us, our neighbor Brian got involved and had a fun "The Price is Right - guess the cost of grocery" game, and Gordon Blackie, the FTH financial guy, invited all his neighbors from his RV park to come play the game and vote for us.  It was a great time, and believe it or not, our group won the vote for the most liked non-profit!  As a result, we won $2500 US from the local Real Estate company that put the show on.  That was a great benefit to our organization, which assists the needier people in town with regular monthly food vouchers.

 On Thursday that week the 24th, we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 of us.  Ben smoked a turkey that was delicious, as usual!  Of course we had the requisite pumpkin and apple pie and pecan bars, and all the goodies to go with it.  Cousin Tom said it was ALL good!  

That weekend was the car show in La Paz (the 26th & 27th), and the organizer, Hector Manuel Amarillas convinced Ben to bring his Woody, and Edgar Majalca, the man whose body shop restored the 1930 Roadster, asked him to bring that car to demonstrate his workmanship.  SO.... multiple trips to La Paz hauling cars on the car trailer, and figuring out where to park the trailer, and jockeying Model A's from here to there.  The show was at a different venue this year, the city Performance Theatre, and it was really quite nice, other than lack of shade and limited restrooms!  Anyhow, Ben got both cars there, parked in the "Model A" area (there were several others).  Then, as a surprise to us, Edgar Majalca proceeded to polish the Woody with his special ceramic finish.  Wow!  It was beautiful!  What a treat.  OK....it was worth it bringing both cars.  

 After the car show, Ben had to make several more trips to La Paz to haul Mel and Katie's car to a repair shop, and to get the "extra" Model A back home!  Thankfully, Hector Manuel let us store the woody at his house (which is very close to the Theater). 

Phew!  What a busy week in a busy month!

December has been slightly less busy, with a lot of work around the house, and a few fun things thrown in the mix.  Gordon Blackie, our Feeding the Hungry(FTH) financial guy, is also a great ATV trail maker, and organized another fund raiser for FTH, a 28 mile long fun ride up in the hills, down arroyos and canyons, on the beach, through areas with ditches you didn't think possible to cross, up beautiful arroyos with water running in them.  He had also set up rest stops where you could get a cold beer or soft drink or water, and even one area with a campfire where you could make a S'more!  Or have tequila shots!   You don't realize how amazing this countryside is until you can get up there and experience it in that way.  Anyhow, he did a fantastic job as usual, got lots of folks to help him with the Country Music theme, and didn't lose one rig!  Kudos to Gordon for a job very well done! 

On December 17th, I played the piano for the singing group at the Saturday Market.  We sang some good old Christmas Carols, and many folks got into the spirit and sang along.  Fun time, other than trying to keep my music pinned down with the wind blowing!  This was the view from my piano before the music started.  

The next week, I went to a Cookie exchange party (YUM!) and on Christmas Eve, to a Soup share party.  On Christmas Day, we again had a total of 10 for dinner.  Pic is of the cookie exchange.

 

 After all the celebrations, we've been very busy getting things done around here.  Ben got out his chain saw, and has been pruning (severely) some of our Mesquite trees.  He then clips all the leaves and little branches off, then uses his chop saw to cut the remaining branches into fire pit sized fire wood.  He has done an amazing amount of work, and finishes the work so it's all neat and tidy every day.  I help by dragging limbs to the pruning spot, or raking up debris, or holding a branch with a rope so we don't loose them over the bank.  We've both ended up with scratches on arms and legs, since Mesquite are very thorny.  But we have been enjoying the fires in the evenings.  

OK.  That's about it.  If you've got this far, congratulations!  You have persevered!  Oh, by the way, I managed to log 725 miles walking this year.  Hopefully, I'm a bit healthier, and can do the same next year.  

Have a great New Year, and we hope to hear from you whenever you get the chance.  

Picture albums!  November 2022   December 2022  I'm working on captions.  It may take a while! 

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

 

 

 

 

Pic-of-the-Month for November 2022

 Hola Amigos,

This is our first bunch of bananas this season.  All either frozen or eaten!

October was a strange month for us this year!  About a week after we got back home, the pump in the city well gave out.  The entire pueblo of Buena Vista was without water.  Not just for a couple days, either!  We figure it was about 21 days before we heard water running in our pipes again.  We've never seen anything like this in our 20+ years here.  Fortunately, we have a 5000 liter tank buried in our garage to hold our water supply.  So, our house had running water and we could wash dishes, flush, shower (quickly!),  our neighbors, who didn't have a pila, came over and showered, and I did one load of laundry during that time.  We watered our outdoor plants with that pila, a bucket or watering can at a time!  Ben had started garden seedlings, so we had to pay careful attention to those babies!  All our outdoor sprinklers are from city water, not from our pila (water tank).  There was a lot of cheering going on when the water started running again.  Fortunately, there were water trucks making deliveries regularly (for free), and we were scheduled to get water the day it came back on.  The good news, our tank still had 1/4 volume left after 21 days.  

Our first guests of the year arrived October 24 (when we were on water reserves!).  My sister Shelley FINALLY made it down here, and she invited her husband's cousin, Mary.  We had a great time visiting, playing Mexican Train, touring the countryside, and eating good food every opportunity we had.  (They also sampled quite a few Margaritas from various restaurants and bars around town!)  I also made them fans of our niece, Kendra Elliot, who writes mystery novels based in the Pacific Northwest.  I have three of her books in our library, and they each read all three!  I think they're hooked!  

Shelley and Mary.  They spent a lot of time enjoying this view from our veranda.

 They're not smiling in this picture because it was almost time to go to the airport and head back home!  

I mentioned in the last P-O-T-M that I was going to do the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer walk, with a goal of walking 35 miles for the month and raising $$ for ACS.  Well, I walked 75 miles and made $$$!  I had my friend Jill walking with me many days this month, and Shelley joined me a few times, too.  AND.... My walking goal for the year (of 600 miles) was met today on my morning walk!  TA-DA!!!   The great things about my walks is I get to walk on the beautiful beach here, and until Daylight time ended last weekend, I captured some gorgeous sunrises over the Sea of Cortez. 

Ben has been very busy getting our garden ready.  He's hauled cow manure from our Rancher friend Arturo's place, ordered limo (top soil) and has tilled much of our garden space.  We have several squash that are doing very well (thanks Carolyn S. for the seed!) and now have cucumber starts in the ground.  He's also made several trips to La Paz to get some oil changes done on the truck, and fix a boo-boo on the Roadster.  We have a car show scheduled in La Paz for the weekend after Thanksgiving, the first one in a very long 2 years.  

Speaking of Model A's, Ben was asked by our friend Evelyn, manager of our favorite restaurant La Playa, if he could drive her and her Mom to the church for her wedding, and her and the groom back to the reception.  That involved getting the '28 Woody ready to run (putting the battery back in, checking tire pressure, topping off the gas tank, dusting and polishing the whole thing, and a test drive with Shelley and Mary).  Everything worked as expected, bride was delivered at the appropriate time, and bride and groom delivered back to the reception.  

The reception was at the newly remodeled La Playa restaurant, and it was amazing!  Live music (a Cuban salsa band), then a Mariachi band, then a light show and DJ music until 3 in the morning. (We went home well before that!)  The drinks were abundant, and the food was delicious.   

The October 2022 album has pics of the wedding, walks, company, and other things that tickle my fancy.

Zoey is aging, not so gracefully.  She had a nasty infection in an eye that involved several vet visits and 10 days worth of medication....again!  She's doing much better now, and occasionally will go on a short walk with me.  She really WANTS to go, but man, is she slow!  Especially heading back home!  

Friends Katie and Mel showed up last night....in the dark....tired to the bone!  They traveled the length of the Baja Peninsula in 2 long days, driving her big old dually and towing a little car.  Turns out they said they'd cross the border on the 3rd, and I told them I'm flying out to Oregon for a week on the 4th!  So they hurried on down here to visit before I left town.  Anyhow, it's another new experience for them, as they have their Chocolate Lab pup Cocoa to get used to Baja.  She's doing pretty good so far! 

Pouring the roof with a pumper truck. 

Our neighbors house is going up quickly.  The roof is poured and they are doing the finish plastering now.  They hope to move in by February....maybe!  Amazingly, this crew doesn't play loud music!  Brian told them I loved music, but they resisted!  (Thankfully!)  They have a few of the crew living on site in a little plywood shack.  That's fine, except that now Zoey loves to go over there and check for any food or bones that might be laying around.  I had to go over there one midnight in my jammies carrying a flashlight to find her and drag her back home after she told me she was just going out to go potty!  

 

Yes, I will be in Oregon for a week, and of course, the forecast is for COLD and SNOW in the Bend area.  Good grief.  Anyhow, my trip involves a couple visits to the dermatologist and whatever else I can fit in, if I can get around OK!  Thanks to my friends Tony and Janet for A) putting up with me    OR   B) putting me up!  

In the meantime, 4 out of 4 Egrets approve of the fact that we are back in Baja and that I can take photos of them.

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos en Baja, 

Harriet, Ben & Zoey

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