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