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!