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