Pic-of-the-Week for March 26, 2013

Hola Amigos,
After all the activity of car shows and parades last week, it has been fairly quiet this week!  Ben did take another trip to La Paz for a doctor visit on Friday (he's fine), and errands.  It took all day and then some.  He had to spend the night again, but at least he had his toothbrush this time!  He has done his La Paz trips so often that he now has a spread sheet that lists the places he needs to go, the shopping list of things to try to find and buy, and how much time it should take to get there, and how much time for the shopping.  When he adds it all up and it comes to 15 hours total, he tells me "I'm going to be home late tonight!"  He actually didn't get home from his Friday trip until about 3pm Saturday!  In the meantime, I stay home and water my garden, pull a few weeds, read my books, play on the computer, sew a few seams on my quilt, and walk the dogs on the beach.  It's a rough life, but someone has to do it!

Oh, I've also been picking beans from my bean row!  The beans you see in the photo below are the new crop (near) and the old crop (far).  I think I'm going to have enough to can some!  Hooray!  The leaves have all grown back where the cows stripped them, and they are producing nicely.  The new crop is blooming and I should be able to pick some from there very soon.

Our new neighbors down in Vista del Mar, Craig and Mary, invited us over for hors d'ourvres the other day, and they have a nice view of our casa from theirs!  We could also hear our dogs barking everytime someone went by on the road!  The little stinkers!  I went up on their roof one time (they do have a stairway!)  and yelled at them to be quiet and get in the house.  I could watch them as they heard me and obeyed!  At least for a little while.  We finally had Ryan go up and shut them in the house (closed up their little doggie door) so we didn't have to listen to them any more! 

This is the view of our house from Craig and Mary's roof.  Not bad!  
And here are a few views from their new house.

  
 
This is the view from their veranda.  Not bad, huh?









The spring art show was last weekend, and I enjoyed visiting that.  I even found a few things to purchase.  :-)  But no furniture (locally made with local woods), nor any paintings.

We are enjoying our spring weather... we still have a windy day or two, but it is changing directions.  Instead of coming from the north, it is now often from the east or south east, which is the direction from which summer breezes blow.  We've had more meals out on our veranda, and are again enjoying watching the birds who visit our garden.  We saw some rare ones the other day (no camera in hand, so no photo); the Pyrrhuloxia (don't ask me to pronounce it, just click on the name for photos!) They look a bit like a Cardinal with a top knot, and are also known as the Gray Cardinal. We've also had the Black-Headed Grosbeak, and all the normal crowd; White Wing Doves, Cardinals, Orioles, California Quail, Finches, Flycatchers, Woodpeckers, Cactus Wrens, and Thrashers.  They appreciate our seeds and water.  Of course there are the hummingbirds, too.  Can't forget them!  They can provide hours of entertainment! 

There are a few more photos posted at the end of the March 2013 Picasa album.    

Hasta la proxima semana!
Tus amigos de Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey (who are getting bark collars later this week!!!)   
   

Pic-of-the-Week for March 19, 2013

Hola, Amigos,

We are just a bit late today....it is still Tuesday, isn't it?  We've had a very busy, full weekend with a car show in La Paz, and today, Ben decided to take his 1928 Woody for the parade in San Jose.  We left this morning shortly after 7am, and arrived in San Jose about 8:45.  We drove through downtown, instead of through town on Highway 1, because the car wasn't running real smooth when Ben first started it.  As we went through downtown, we saw that the parade with floats and some cars were already lining up where we have lined up in the past....not anywhere near Mega as we were told to do last Thursday!  We drove on over to Mega anyhow, and saw no one, so went on back and lined up with everyone else.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more!  I'm getting more practice with my Spanish now when folks ask questions about our car.  And we had plenty of time to answer questions. 

We enjoyed people watching, and seeing all the costumed kids who were wandering around looking for their floats!  

 The parade finally started at about 10:30 or 11, then we spent a lot of time sitting in line waiting for the floats in front of us to move.  Everyone loves this car, and the oogah horn.  There must be thousands of photos of this car here in Baja!  I even held babies in the window while their parents snapped photos!  There was no car show this time, so it was just a quick (Mexican time!) day trip. When we finished the parade, we loaded up the car and headed over to our favorite Carnitas restaurant (we hadn't had breakfast before we left home), and it was delicious, and fortified us for our trip home.

Like I said, we spent the weekend in La Paz at the 8th Spring Car show (Festival de Primavera VIII) .  Ben took his '29 Pickup for this one.  We  were in a parade Saturday night, and spent all day in a park on the Malecon on Sunday so people could walk in and inspect and admire all the cars.  That parade started a little more promptly, but we did get slowed down by a garbage truck doing its rounds on Saturday evening on a narrow downtown street!  The nice thing about this parade is that it goes down the Malecon at sunset time, so I was able to get some very nice sunset photos.
 

Here's the '29 Pickup, read to go in the parade.

Please check out our March 2013 Picasa album for many other car show photos, including some very pretty 64 1/2 Mustangs, and lots of Jeeps.  

This was another successful show for Ben, because he came away with the prize for the most antique vehicle, and ....TA DA.... BEST of Show.  I survived spending the day there all day, usually sitting on a concrete bench.  I should get a prize for that!!!  Oh yeah.... the Quaker State girls were there, handing out prizes and posing for pictures with the winners.  (Ben always likes this part, for some reason).  


Here's Manuel handing Ben his plaque for Best of Show. 

  















My prize for that long day was a very nice dinner, with a nice bottle of wine, at the Bismark.  We convinced Manuel and his wife Rossy to join us, along with their two daughters, Maria Jose and Maria Margarita (twins, and both world class water polo players).  They work so hard putting the affair on, we thought it would be nice treat them to dinner...and Rossy agreed! 

I'm hoping for a little bit quieter week at home this next week.... we'll see!  Ben did say we need to get the cars out to run more often.  I noticed during the parade today that the '29 had 25 miles on the odometer!  I guess he's right!

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

Pic-of-the-Week for March 12, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Can you believe we've had two adventures in two weeks?  Ben has been so busy running to La Paz on various errands and appointments for the last 6 months, it's hard to get a day out of the week for him to have some fun!  We introduced our friends Tony and Janet to one of our favorite old and well known adventures...a trip to the Santa Rita Hot Springs just out of the teeny pueblo of San Jorge.  Of course, we had to take the "scenic" route, which involves leaving Highway 1 at Campamento, going through Arturo's ranch (where we get the farm cheese).  We had to get a quick photo of the Pig-on-a-rope.  Yep....laying there just plumping up!  (Ranch life is not for the feint at heart!)

 
We continued on past the ranch on the arroyo roads to Santiago, and did a tour of the town, ending up at Palomar for lunch.  This little old hotel and restaurant was built in the 50's, and had famous guests back in the day, including John Wayne, who would come for the dove hunting and deep sea fishing.  Now it is just a restaurant, but the food is always wonderful, the drinks cold, and the garden setting is so peaceful.  It's not every place where when you ask for a drink that includes grapefruit, that they'll go pick it off the tree for you!  

Tony and Janet, who are new residents to our area, were appropriately appreciative of all the new things they were seeing and experiencing.  Those of you who have been to the hot springs with us know that it is a rather obscure route to get there on those back roads, but when you get there..... AHHHHHHH!  It's like you've found paradise.  Warm water, sandy bottom, beautiful scenery... There were a few people there when we arrived, and we met a lady currently living in Canada who knew and had worked with friends of ours in Whitefish, MT!!  Talk about small world. 

We love the scenery on the drive to the hot springs... this area of Baja is described as a "Tropical thorn forest", and the Elephant trees and fig trees (which are two trees that DON'T have thorns) are outstanding.  This is a beautiful example of an Elephant (or Torote) tree that is on the road to San Jorge.  (The fig trees are closer to water sources).

 Other than that adventure, we've been staying close to home.  We've had a windy weekend and are looking forward to 4 or more days of calm weather.  Our garden is doing well, and in spite of the cows stripping my bean row of leaves a month ago, we've had several batches of fresh green beans, and are anticipating a lot more.  And I planted our corn the other day.  We should have fresh corn on the cob by the end of May!  Hooray!  Ben and Ryan loaded and hauled off all our yard debris last week, including a bunch of tree trimmings from our fence building a few weeks ago.  Our old '73 truck is still good for a few things, but Ben did admit the other day that he should sell it. That will be the day!  There are a lot of people down here who have shown interest in it, and it looks great, and even runs most of the time!!  He's had it so long now, though (since before our kids were born!) that it's almost part of the family.  

For more photos from around here, check out our March 2013 Picasa album.  

In the meantime, we're looking for more days like this one.... calm enough to kayak or paddle board!  And no blowing sand on the beach at Dachshund eye-level!

Looking forward to the nice calm, longer days of spring,
Tus amigos de Baja
Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Week for March 5, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Sorry we're on Mexican time today.... un poco tarde!  We didn't have electricity until 9am.  So...no computers, no internet, no lights or water pump.  We did manage to get our cups of tea and coffee since we have a gas range, so that was nice!  We sipped our hot drinks and read our books by the morning light.  It was a quiet morning!  

We've been having a lot of long power outages lately.  Not sure what is going on; maybe CFE is making improvements to the system????  Power went off while we were in church on Sunday morning, and since I have an electric piano, and the congregation reads the words to the songs from the projected image on a screen, we had to skip a couple of the songs in our service.  It eventually came on, and we finished up with a song.  You've just got to be "adjustable" here!  (And have candles and matches close by when electricity goes out when it is dark!)  When the sun is out...it is plenty bright...and pretty.  

This photo was taken last Saturday when I was attending our church's Women's Conference.  We had a half hour before lunch to sit outside and enjoy the beauty of the place.  Very peaceful!  (This was from the terrace at Hotel Palmas de Cortez, where we had the conference.)

On Thursday, we had an ADVENTURE!!!  We finally had a free day and coordinated with our tour guide Harold (who found this place several years ago) and two other couples to visit a remote ranch.  This one is located east of Miraflores, and not far from Las Frailes, as the crow flies (22 km).  What a great tour!  The countryside was gorgeous, and the ranch was a treat.  There was something new and interesting around every corner!

 We use the agave blooms like this one here for our Christmas trees when they finish blooming!  We'll have to remember where this one is located (there were several more, too). 

 The Barrel Cactus above was growing horizontally out of the side of the cut! 

We saw this Red Tail Hawk alongside the road.  We finally got to the ranch, which is named Lengua de Buey.  I knew that lengua means tongue or language, but I had to look up "buey" in my trusty Spanish dictionary.  It is OX.  Aha!   Tongue of Ox Ranch.  We drove down their road to the  casa, and were welcomed like old friends.  Harold had made a wrong turn (or maybe fortuitous turn!) several years ago and ended up here.  They treated him well, served him some cold beers (and he shared his), and he admired their display of fossilized shark's teeth!  Yes!  Fossilized shark's teeth and shells and whale bones.  

That display was truly amazing.  There was a meeting going on when we arrived with the ranchers and a few neighbors and some government employees, who were there with their computer and a plot of the property.  As I understood it, they were trying to firm up the property lines.  

We also got a tour of their kitchen (with a two burner stove....wood burning, that is!)  They had just butchered a goat, which was hanging in the kitchen, and he gave us a sample of the just cooked, hot out of the pan meat.  Very good!  This fellow was doing all the cooking.  I asked him where were the women of the ranch?  He told me the younger ones were in school in San Jose, and others were shopping.  That roof is covered with palm leaves (its a palapa roof) and is completely blackened from smoke.  I've seen these in other ranch kitchens...there are no chimneys on those fires...the smoke just escapes where it can.  This one is open around the edges, but others are walled all the way up.  

Many more photos of the ranch are in our brand new March 2013 Picasa Album.

After we left the ranch, we continued on in an easterly direction, through some more beautiful countryside with some plants we'd never seen before, and ended up coming out on the coast road just south of Las Frailes!  We stopped along the way while still in the mountains and had a picnic lunch.  After they finished their sandwiches I surprised everyone by pulling out fresh strawberry shortcake for all!  This isn't the prettiest presentation, but it sure tasted good!

 When we got home, I got out our Baja Map (that I forgot to take!) to see if I could find our route on all those dotted lines.  I'm not sure if I found our route, but I found the ranch!!  Maybe we can even find it again some day.  (Of course, I also forgot to take my GPS!)  I circled the ranch there in the middle of the page.

I'll leave you with one of our regular visitors... a hungry cardinal.  The birds are all appreciating the food we put out for them.  In fact, they got fed twice this morning!  Ben left on an errand and I saw some quail in the yard, but didn't see any seeds on the ground, so I fed them.  When Ben got home, he told me he'd fed them earlier!  They certainly finished his serving up quickly!  

 

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey

 

Pic-of-the-Week for February 26, 2013

Hola Amigos!

It is already the last week in February, and we are hoping that it is also the end of our winter windy season!  We had a seriously windy day yesterday, with wind speeds over 20 knots most of the day.  Of course the wind surfers and kite boarders loved it.  The day was sunny, and I did manage to find a sunny spot out of the wind to enjoy while I read a book.  It was also windy enough on Sunday, Mexican Flag Day, to get that huge flag unfurled up on the flag monument.  That is the only day they fly the flag up there, and they usually have a ceremony with music and speeches.  I wish they'd fly it more often!  It is quite a sight, and we have a nice view from our house.  This photo was taken from our new carport deck.

Ben stopped by Arturo's rancho near Campamento the other day to get some fresh farm cheese, and Arturo hesitated a bit, acting like he didn't have any.  But then, he asked Ben if he'd like to buy some eggs (Ben said yes) and he suddenly had cheese available, too!  They were those cute little green eggs we've seen before.  It is a neat ranch, right on the edge of the Santiago Arroyo;  he raises cattle, horses, pigs, goats, chickens, and lots of dogs!  Here are a few photos from the ranch.
 

A dirty pig is a happy pig!

A handsome rooster

The ranch house

 It is a very busy place.  This is on a main "back road" from Campamento to Santiago, but the highway department quits maintaining the road through ranches, so it often looks like the road has ended, and you'll end up in someone's private yard!  We discovered years ago when we were here on vacation that the road went right on through, and was maintained again on the other side of the ranch!  We've gotten cow manure compost from here, and we discovered about 5 years ago that he made cheese available for sale.  Yum!

More photos of the ranch are available in our February 2013 Picasa Album.

I'm slowly getting my new quilt put together.  I finally have all the squares made, and now just need to put them all together and attach the quilt edges.  Should be easy-peasy!  I laid it all out on our bed the other day before I joined any squares, and this is what it looks like now...

Friends Ellis and Marsha are back in the US for some medical checkups, and Ryan is pet-sitting.  We decided to take their dog Cola for a walk the other day with Sam and Zoey, and she did just fine, but she was mighty tired by the time we got back!  She doesn't get out of her yard much, and she had had a thorn in her foot a week ago, so she was limping just a bit, too, but I think she enjoyed getting out and about.  We walked all the way to Rancho Buena Vista.  Half-way done with the walk, Cola!  You can make it!

  Sam and Zoey are good walkers, but when you've got black fur, it can get real hot on sunny days in Baja!  They're always looking for the shady spots!  (Sam can see some enticing him up there, but we need to turn left!)

  
Our church is sponsoring a Women's Conference this weekend, and I will be very busy the rest of the week getting ready for everything.  I'm responsible for the music, and a bunch of other stuff, but the co-chair is coming back to Baja from Alaska today, so I'm glad to have her back!!  

The other day when I was in Los Barriles, I heard a Mexican Vendor going by (they love their loud speakers!)  I did understand a few words he said, including "naranjas" (oranges).  I thought to myself...he's selling something orange, he said it so often!  Well, it turned out to be fresh juice oranges and navel oranges!  Ben, also in town at another location, heard him, too, and bought some of both.  Yay! Fresh orange juice for breakfast!

 I have a great juicer that we found at a thrift store one summer, so I can make your fresh orange juice in a snap!  Come on down and try a glass!  

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

Pic-of-the-Week for February 18, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Well, I have to admit that I missed a few of the highlights last week, basically because I couldn't find the photos!  They are a great reminder for me....I guess I "filed" them in the wrong place or something.

One of the items I missed was a look at construction materials and tools that are commonly used here.  Some friends are building a new house in Vista del Mar, just in front of us, and we enjoy watching the progress.  The other day, the workers had a ladder set up against the back wall so that they could put in a roof drain spout.  It's a long, two story distance up, so they also needed to set the ladder on some scaffolding that was set up at the base of the house.  Of course, this ladder was a home-built affair that is scary just to look at, let alone climb up on!  Would you feel safe up there on this ladder?  (I did notice they had a little rope tied around the top rung, which was maybe tied to something on the roof...)

The other thing I forgot from last week is a project that some men in our church undertook for the last several weeks.  There is an old lady (probably my age!!) who lives alone on a ranch up in the mountains above El Coro.  She never married, but took care of two brothers who have since died.  Several other brothers are still around, and they do go up to visit her.  All of her life, she has gone to the spring near her house and dipped up a couple buckets of water and carried back to her house.  The spring happens to be about 100 feet in elevation below her house!  This year, 4 men from our church (aged 65 and up to 80) went up there and installed a solar panel to run a pump to pump the water from the spring up to her house.  For the first time in her life, she could have running water in her kitchen!  That was fine with her, but she also wanted to be able to dip water out with a bucket!  So they accommodated her!  Ben took our friend Dalia up one day last week so she could interpret between the lady and the workers. Here are some photos from there...  

 Here is the barrel / pump down at the spring.

 Two of the men who installed it all, and they dug a ditch down the hill to bury the pipe and wiring so the animals wouldn't break it.

 They put the tank to hold the water in an existing pila (water storage tank) that had never been used, so that the animals wouldn't get into that, either.  However, the lady insisted that her brothers were going to come finish this and put water in it, so they needed to move the tank!  (That's why Ben took Dalia!  To eliminate confusion....kind of!!) 

 She was extremely grateful for the help (as long as she could still dip her buckets!)  There are a few more photos in our February Picasa Album of the ranch house, which is very typical of the ones we've seen.

On the home front here, I have a new desk top!  We decided to replace our final piece of formica with granite that matches the kitchen counters, and it is lovely.  Those guys do fantastic work!  I haven't seen too much of "Techie Gecko" since it's been installed, since they sealed the back edge, he doesn't have as many hidey-holes!  

 Watch your fingers, Carlos!!  They finished up one day at about 7pm!  At least he came when he said he would! 

The other project we are having done is fencing the "final frontier"!  We hired a fellow to build a barb wire fence down the hill to the wash, and over to the other fence.  He is using stout corner posts and 5 strands of barb wire. Most of the posts are in, and if he shows up today (he has a regular job with the water company) we might see some wire strung.  He's having a bit of a problem getting the first hole dug up at the top, as he's encountering our famous clay and rocks.  This is the 3rd day he's dumped water in it to soften it up! 

Now, if we could just get folks to keep the little walk through gate in the corner by Peter's closed! 

Ben cooked another pork roast on our smoker the other day, and it turned out delicious.  No photos of that, but I did take a shot of the pineapple upside down cake that I baked.  I haven't done one of these in years, but I did remember that it was one of Ben's Mom's standard dessert recipes.  I cooked this one in my dutch oven, and it turned out delicious!  And I got to use my Grandmother's cake plate, which doesn't come out of the china hutch very often. 

 
  The weather is improving day by day, and we are getting more sunshine days.  My garden is growing; I'm harvesting beans, one at a time... and I strung my new crop.  We've got zucchini and arugula and spinach.  :-) Before too long, we'll be having our meals on our veranda out front, where we can enjoy evening views like this:

By the way, whale watching is at the prime time right now.  Ben & I are thinking about a trip after March 1.  Do you want to touch whale?  

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