Pic-of-the-Month for June 23, 2020

Hola Amigos,

This will be a short update to let you know our summer plans.  We are planning to leave our home here this next Saturday the 27th and travel up to Oregon, taking about 6 days to get there.  The hotels in Baja have opened up, so it is possible for us to get through the peninsula in relative comfort.  

We are doing well, staying healthy, and are finishing up minor projects in this last few days before we leave.  We have a house-sitter for the summer (Perla, our Mexican friend who has stayed here before), have promises from our gardener that he will be here before we leave, and Ben has the "Feeding the Hungry" program well in hand ready to hand it off to a friend who is here all summer.  I've finished my latest quilt project, and have it packed up and ready to go to Oregon to get quilted.  I will then put on the binding, and send it off to our daughter Rebecca.  (The pattern is called "Snails Tails).  I've made quilts for her kids, but never one for her, so I'm rectifying the situation!  

We will understand if you don't want us to visit you this summer.  We were a bit unsettled about traveling this summer, but we do have some doctor appointments scheduled for regular checkups (and that dermatologist visit is important!), so we will come and get settled in our little trailer and practice social distancing!  We will have our face masks with us, and if you would like to see us, please let us know.  Email or phone is fine.  

Since you haven't heard from us in a while, here are a few pictures of life in Baja.  Enjoy!

From my morning walk several days ago.  (It's getting hot for these walks at 7am!  80 has been the low temp the last week or so).  

New baby burro in the barrio.  So cute, and already friendly!  

I was fortunate enough to get into the Salon for a pedicure and haircut when they opened June 15th.  Of course, I had to wear a mask, as did the people working there.  How do you like my smile?  (I got a little creative with my mask-making!)  

Can't remember if I showed you a picture of our finished upstairs bathroom paint job.  We also added the mermaid picture our friend Katie gave to us.  I think it adds some real Baja character to the place!  

I've created a June 2020 album with a few more pics.  I'll probably add some travel pics as we go.  Enjoy!

Oh....and since it is officially summer, you may or may not hear from us for a couple months!  We'll see what we can do, but no promises!  

Your friends in Baja, soon to be in Oregon...

Harriet & Ben, Sam & Zoey (who are looking forward to nice cool green grass to walk in!)  

Pic-of-the-Month for May 13, 2020

Hola Amigos,
We hope this finds you all healthy, and staying healthy.  We can report that we, too, are still healthy, and still staying home.  Baja California Sur is in serious "lock down" mode.  Most every business is closed, including hotels and restaurants and no fishing boats are in the water.  Terminal 2 is closed at the airport, since few international flights are arriving. We do go out to get groceries, go to the bank, and once in a rare while, to the gas station!  We have seen a few friends, and appreciate the chance to visit; at the proper social distance!  We are enjoying having a meal brought in occasionally by a Mexican friend who runs her restaurant (take out only) in Los Barriles.  It's a real treat after all this cooking we've had to do for ourselves.  Today, just because I still have lots of flour and a few chocolate chips, I made cookies!  Now, since we can have no guests, I guess I'll just have to eat them!  Thanks, Katie, for the delicious old, tried and true recipe!

We can finally say that our house is all painted... and in only two colors!!  It looks really, really good, and we're very happy that job is done. 

This area was a real bear!  Our hired painters did a great job painting this section on the 2nd floor, but it was a 4 or 5 year old bucket of paint that just wasn't right.  So, we tackled it ourselves with the correct color.  I stood below and told Ben where to paint!  I also edged these things, and you really can't see what you're doing, except from below, or someone else holding a mirror. 

After he finished painting, Ben decided all our outside doors needed refinishing.  This house has 8 wooden outside doors!!!  He said the main double front doors and maybe one other didn't need to be done, but has finished all of the others.  Of course, they have to come off the frame, and be moved to a nice shady work area in front of the garage.  Upstairs, downstairs, these doors go where they're needed!   Ben has done an amazing amount of work. 




Zoey and I continue to walk daily, although Zoey does seem to be lagging behind a bit these days.  We did manage to get up to the Flag Monument on my birthday, May 4, just to prove this old lady could still do it!  Here's the view from up top! 

And the Pitahaya cactus are blooming now.  The flowers on these ugly cactus are large and beautiful.  It's always a pleasure to see them, and I usually have to stop and get a picture if I can get close enough!








I'm also making face masks for the community.  I may give them to Chuy Castro for the folks in our Feeding the Hungry program, if they need them.  I've made several for each of us, plus have given some to friends.  I was given the elastic, so many will go back to the community program that distributes them. 

Our plans for this summer are still up in the air.  We did just hear there will be no large gatherings in Oregon through September, so that means no Pendleton Roundup (😒) or car shows or fairs or swap meets.  If we are able to easily visit friends and family when we go up, then we'll do it.  Otherwise, we might just stay here.  We do need some things in the States, though, so we're leaning towards going north the end of June as usual.  And we do have a few doctor appointments scheduled for early July.  We'll try to keep you posted. 

I've created an album for May.  You can see more flowers, grandkids, paint job, etc. here:  May 2020

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus Amigos de Baja,
Harriet & Ben, Sam & Zoey
Please see the following note from Ben regarding the Feeding the Hungry Program we are doing here in our little towns.


*** A Feeding the Hungry Update from Ben 

Wow!  Thanks!  Those are two words that sum up Harriet and my feelings quite well.  As many of you know, we are not good at fund raising.  Our thoughts are always, “yes, a few will give a little”, and then we can move on and get over it.

Well, we put out the word that our annual fashion show was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Virus, and the real losers would be the people that we normally help who are the poorest of the poor in our community. 

The church that we attend donates some basic food items to some of these people weekly, but we feel that every family is different and has different needs.  Young families with babies may need diapers, and/or special food.  Others may need medicine from time to time.  Others may have young kids in school that need items for lunches.  This is why we feel that the food vouchers are very important to the poor families that we help. 

Our Feeding the Hungry program has been, and will continue to be, an ongoing program.  We don’t expect to help all the families become self sufficient financially.  We will always have a few families that need help with enough finances to buy food and other necessities.  Between donations, and the fashion show that we put on each year, we hope to have enough money to buy the food vouchers through the entire year.

Since about the 1^st of April the government has really clamped down on individual and group activities and businesses that are not considered to be critical.  The beaches are closed, out-of-doors individual activities are curtailed, and some of the small towns have closed to everyone except the local area people and those people generally need to have a reason to gain entry to the town.

Many people are out of work because the government has closed so many businesses.  Restaurants, hotels, time shares, rental units, schools, massage centers, sports clubs, and all construction work!  Many families now have no income since they cannot work so there is no money coming in to feed the families. 

We are truly amazed how many people helped us financially with the Feeding the Hungry Program.  These people have been so generous.  This is where the “Wow”, and “Thank you” come in!!  To all our supporters, again we say “Wow”, and “Thank you”!  We have been very fortunate to have Chuy Castro involved with the Feeding the Hungry Program from the start 4 years ago.  His knowledge of needs of the people intimately has been key in the success of this program.

Who would have thought that the COVID-19 Virus would come and turn the whole world up side down!  For now, we are glad that we can help a few very needy families.  If you would like to continue helping, our PayPal site is available with no fees attached at PayPal.Me/BHPurkey .

To all our many contributors, again we say “Wow”, and “Thank you”!  💖

Ben & Harriet

Feeding the Hungry Update - May 13, 2020

Feeding the Hungry Update

Wow!  Thanks!  Those are two words that sum up Harriet and my feelings quite well.  As many of you know, we are not good at fund raising.  Our thoughts are always, “yes, a few will give a little”, and then we can move on and get over it.

Well, we put out the word that our annual fashion show was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Virus, and the real losers would be the people that we normally help who are the poorest of the poor in our community. 

The church that we attend donates some basic food items to some of these people weekly, but we feel that every family is different and has different needs.  Young families with babies may need diapers, and/or special food.  Others may need medicine from time to time.  Others may have young kids in school that need items for lunches.  This is why we feel that the food vouchers are very important to the poor families that we help. 

Our Feeding the Hungry program has been, and will continue to be, an ongoing program.  We don’t expect to help all the families become self sufficient financially.  We will always have a few families that need help with enough finances to buy food and other necessities.  Between donations, and the fashion show that we put on each year, we hope to have enough money to buy the food vouchers through the entire year.

Since about the 1^st of April the government has really clamped down on individual and group activities and the businesses that are not considered to be critical.  The beaches are closed, out-of-doors individual activities are curtailed, and some of the small towns have closed to everyone except the local area people and those people generally need to have a reason to gain entry to the town.

Many people are out of work because the government has closed so many businesses.  Restaurants, hotels, time shares, rental units, schools, massage centers, sports clubs, and all construction work!  Many families now have no income since they cannot work so there is no money coming in to feed the families. 

In late March a group of individuals started another food help program, the Los Barriles Food Bank. The food bank was started here in the community when various folks saw the obvious need for food when sources of income for the local Mexicans dried up.  The Los Barriles Food Bank is doing a very needed help during this time of people not being able to work.  The food bank is supplying food to as many as 1000 families per week.  We hope that the government will let these people go back to work soon so they can once again provide for their own needs. 

We are truly amazed how many people helped us financially with the Feeding the Hungry Program.  These people have been so generous that we have been able help some additional families that are not receiving food from the food bank.  This is where the “Wow”, and “Thank you” come in!!  To all our supporters, again we say “Wow”, and “Thank you”!  We have been very fortunate to have Chuy Castro involved with the Feeding the Hungry Program from the start.  He has been helping the food bank with deliveries as well and knows the needs of the people intimately.

Who would have thought that the COVID-19 Virus would come and turn the whole world up side down!  For now, we are glad that we can help a few very needy families.  If you would like to continue helping, our PayPal site is available with no fees attached at PayPal.Me/BHPurkey .

To all our many contributors, again we say “Wow”, and “Thank you”!

Ben and Harriet Purkey

Special Pic-of-the-Month for April 12, 2020

Hola amigos,

This is a RARE letter, written by Ben, and it is from the heart.  We have been very busy in this time of "sheltering" here in Mexico.  We haven't just been doing daily walks, eating more home-cooked food, gardening, wood-working projects, or painting the house.  We've also been concerned about the local Mexican people who are now out of work and hungry.    Please read on... 

Ben built a drill rack out of some old Eucalyptus wood he had...turned out to be gorgeous wood!

From Ben...

As you may know, Harriet and I took on the task of organizing the “Feeding the Hungry Fashion Show” each year here in Los Barriles. We took it over 4 years ago from the lady that originally started it in 2012. It got to be too much for her to
do and we volunteered to carry it forward.

To put on the fashion show, we need to start about 2 months early getting people lined up to help with the various functions, and getting all the posters and handouts printed. We then start canvasing the business community asking for donations
which are usually items that can be sold in a silent auction or raffled off. Between those functions and the $20.00 USD that we charge to get into the fashion show we usually bring in $5,000 - $7,000 USD. That money usually lasts 5 – 7 months.

With that money we buy food vouchers at the local grocery store that are handed out by a local Mexican and his wife, Chuy and Lydia, who have lived here in the area all their lives and know the local Mexican community very well. He is hired by our local church to purchase some very basic food, like beans, rice, cooking oil, flour, etc., which get delivered to about 25 Mexican families each week. He also hands out our food vouchers to the neediest of that group. With the vouchers they can buy the items that they need the most like fruit, vegetables, diapers, medicine, and so on; no cigarettes or alcohol. Each voucher is worth about $11.00 USD.

What we never imagined in our wildest dreams was that in 2020 there would be a worldwide pandemic that would affect us here in Mexico. Our fashion show was about the first large function in this area that was canceled. It was originally scheduled for March 20th .

By March 20th our community was in the throes of social distancing. The governments were starting to regulate people’s activities and businesses. To the Mexicans, Easter is the biggest vacation of the entire year! The government declared all beaches were closed. To us living here is Los Barriles/Buena Vista that was a good thing as Mexicans from all over Mexico come here to camp and party for 1 - 2 weeks.

Beaches are closed in all of Baja, and much of the mainland.  That's a LOT of beach.

So, there are no visitors in the area because not only are beaches closed, but also many businesses. Restaurants, hotels, time shares, rental units, schools, massage centers, sports clubs, public gatherings or events, and recently they stopped
ALL contractor work! Many people are now out of work. Many families now have no income since they cannot work and there is no money to feed the families. Unemployment compensation is an unheard of concept in Mexico.  

Well, where does that put the organization named “Feeding the Hungry”? We were the only organization doing that kind of work in the area along with the local Christian Church. Our big problem was that our fashion show had been canceled,
so the income to us from that event was practically non-existent.

Two things happened at that time. We put out a local plea for money donations even though the fashion show was canceled, and others in the community started the Los Barriles Food Bank. As I write this the food bank is organizing and planning  to distribute their food and money. Our Mexican friend who distributes our food vouchers is coordinating his efforts with them so there will hopefully be no families receiving support from both organizations.

From our first request for the donation of money to help us buy the food vouchers, some people did make donations. One family in particular has been a great assistance and a wonderful moral support. Recently we sent out a second reminder that we still needed donations because all we were seeing was “support the local food bank”, which was fine, but we were there also to help and forgotten by many.  Actually, many people were confused about the two organizations.

The second notice had a much better response with a number of new people contacting us about how to give. Keep in mind that when the pandemic hit here in Mexico, many Americans, and Canadians left immediately! So, we set up a PayPal account that has been working very well for locals, as well as people who
have gone “home”.

With the generous donations we have been able to increase our number of families to whom we distribute the food vouchers. We hope that this will be a short period of time for this urgent need, but no one knows.

If you would like to donate the PayPal link is: https://www.paypal.me/bhpurkey  

One real life situation recently happened that I will share with you. Our Mexican friend who distributes the food vouchers always carries a few vouchers with him.  He was driving down the street and saw a young Mexican lady pushing a baby
stroller with a very young baby in the stroller. He had seen her before and knew she was a local lady who cut hair for a living, and thus, out of work. He stopped and asked her where was she going? She stated that she was going to her sister’s house to get milk for her baby. He gave her a food voucher and told her to get a few things from the grocery store to help supply

We hired 2 painters to paint the tall parts of our casa. 

food for her and her family. (She will probably be receiving more vouchers if the need is there.)

So, between fund raising for the Feeding the Hungry program, and repainting the entire outside of our house, we have been staying very busy during this time that we are practicing our home sheltering. (We hired 2 painters to paint the entire west side and the tall portions of the east side (seen here-->) of our casa.  We are doing the rest!!) No boredom in the Purkey household! When we took on the fashion show, who would have thought that it would lead to trying to help feed the community? 

Thanks for listening. We are praying for a rapid end to this disease, and enough funds to help feed the hungry in our community in the interim.

Your friends in Baja,
Ben & Harriet

PS.  Harriet has created an April 2020 picture album!  

Pic-of-the-Month for March 28, 2020

Hola Amigos,

What a difference a few weeks makes!  The birds are still singing and the fish are still jumping, and in our first post at the beginning of March, we were not too concerned about the nasty Corona virus.  But things changed rapidly here, as in the rest of the world!  

Seen on my morning walk the other day; a Pitahaya cactus bloom.

We took my brother Rich to the airport on the 17th of March, and since then, have been mostly staying close to home and avoiding social contact.  We canceled our "Feeding the Hungry" Fashion Show for the 20th of March (one of the first functions in the area to be canceled), and since then, every other social function has been canceled here, and around the world.  Thank goodness we still have internet and telephone to communicate with each other.  Even though we're "senior citizens", we've been trying to help others as the need arises, including several single ladies.  

Today there are 10 confirmed cases in Baja California Sur, 8 in Cabo San Lucas and 2 in La Paz.  The kite boarders are still out when the wind blows, but the Mexican Marine Board has closed the harbors; no fishing boats can go out, and no other boats are allowed to come into port or go out.  I guess if you're on a yacht on the high seas, you'll just have to stay there!  The airports are still open, but with a lot less flights.  Depending on how this plays out, we may just be here a good part of the summer.  We usually leave in late June.  This year, who knows?!  Will the border still be open?  Will it be better or worse in Oregon?  So, in the meantime, we're staying here and praying for the best outcome.  

A bucket of green beans 

We do feel that this is a very safe place, and it is our only "home", so we are very comfortable, and our fridges and freezers are full...especially when friends leaving town empty their refrigerators in our direction! (We even have plenty of toilet paper on our Costco shelf!)  My garden is also producing some wonderful green beans and tomatoes!

Now that we're home-bound, Ben is getting many "home improvement" or maybe just "home maintenance" projects done.  He's cleaned his shop, waxed his tools, and is building a wooden rack for his drills to hang from.   He refinished some old Mexican wooden chairs for our friend Pat, fixed this and that, and is just heading off to the hardware store for the 3rd time today to get a couple of new outdoor faucets for some that have broken recently. (Oops, I just broke one today!)    We go to town for groceries, to go to the bank to get money (they limit it to 3 customers at a time inside), and to help the local economy, we occasionally eat out at several different restaurants who have the tables set far apart.  I've been doing more cooking (since we're eating at home more often), and I've got several embroidery projects going.  I'm also wanting to start a new quilt, and have a few pieces cut out, but changed my mind about how I want it to go together.  So I'm still thinking about it!  


Zoey and I are still walking.  We haven't been going up to the monument, but still get in about 2.5 miles each day.  Oh, that bright yellow flower I showed you in the last letter, and am showing you again?  That is a Yellow Prickly Poppy, all parts of which are poisonous!  You can even get sick if you drink milk from a cow who ate the plant!  Our current orchid crop is doing fantastic.  These are all plants that are blooming again.  We've had them at least a year.  I keep them outside on my courtyard counter (shaded with a palapa roof) when they're not blooming.  They seem to like it! I'm also experimenting with our Dendrobium orchid, to see if I can start some new ones.  I chopped some stems up, and have them in damp sphagnum moss.  

Today, we managed to get a new project started, because it is pretty easy to maintain a social distance here.  We are having the west wall of our house painted.  It is BIG!  The workers showed up just before 8am, as promised, and immediately went to work power washing the building.  They are now patching all the cracks, and it's looking very nice.  Ben went to the store and bought plenty of paint for them.  They finished the cracks this afternoon, and are painting around windows and doors, doing edging. We are pleased with the work we see them doing. We got a price from several others for the entire house, and kind of choked!  But we might have this fellow do some more of the house if we like what we see.  By the way, the color should be very similar to what you see here.  (We hope!!)

  

Here's what it looks like as they're starting to put paint on around the edges of windows and doors.  We like it!  You can see the new paint especially around the window and at the bottom of the wall.

Crowded beaches of Buena Vista; Los Barriles in the distance.  Look!  A family of 4!

We wish we could invite you down to enjoy quarantining with us at our casa in beautiful Baja, but that is just not practical, unfortunately.  We hope that you are all staying healthy and filling your time with good things to do.  Our children are isolated in their parts of the world, and are all good right now.  Let us know how you are faring, and don't forget;  GOD IS IN CONTROL of this world.  

I leave you with this benediction from the book of Jude in the New Testament.

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

I have added some new pictures to our March 2020 album.  Enjoy! 

Hasta la proxima vez

Tus amigos en Baja

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for March 11, 2020

Hola Amigos,

We have a reminder on our Google Calendar for every other Tuesday that says "Write Pic-of-the-Week".  I usually just ignore it, but Ben mentioned today (in jest, I think) "have you written Pic-of-the-Week?"  "Nope!"  But now I feel a bit guilty, so I guess I'll get 'er done!  

Since our last missive, we've had three sets of guests; one set  of 4, one set of 3, and now my brother Rich by himself.  The first group was Ben's brothers John and Greg, and Greg's wife Cherlene and daughter Georgina.  It was a quick trip for them here at our place, as they spent the first part at a time-share in San Jose del Cabo.  Several days after they got here via Aguila Bus, Ben was able to take them whale watching at Magdalena Bay to a new place (for us), and it was quite successful.  So successful, we took the next guests there, too!  Those 2 day trips included an overnight stay in La Paz, so that was nice for the guests to spend a bit of time there as well.  Below is John, me, Ben, Greg, Cherlene and Georgina in front of La Playa restaurant, shortly before they had to leave.  

Our next guests were our friends George and Carolyn from Oregon and George's brother Paul from Texas.  They were all supposed to arrive the same day, but George and Carolyn didn't make it to the Portland airport from Salem due to a major truck turn-over accident on the I-5 freeway in Portland.  They had to reschedule and come the next day.  Paul made it in from Texas just fine, so we picked him up the first day, and then made a return trip to get the late-comers the next day!  See what lengths we go to for our guests?   

We had to go the the Round Bar at Rancho Buena Vista with them on International Margarita Day to celebrate properly.  Rancho makes some of the best Margaritas in the area!

I got to go on the 2nd whale watching trip and took some fun pictures of the whales.  We have never seen so many whales spy-hopping!  Over and over you'd see them popping up to get a look around!  

One whale came very close to the boat, and George almost got to pet it, but he said his wife and brother were holding onto his belt so he couldn't get quite close enough!!  Anyhow, our 2 hour trip was plenty of time to see an abundance of whales.  To see more whaling pictures, I've created a Sackinger Vacation album.  And, you get to see a few more things they did on their vacation!  They left here to spend the next part of their vacation on a Mexican Island, Holbox.  Never heard of it?  Me, neither, but they'd been there before, and it is supposedly very unimproved, but that's changing rapidly.  It's near Cancun on the other side of Mexico.  

Shortly after they left, my brother Rich arrived, and he is looking at a nice quiet, warm, two week stay.  We just need a bit more sunshine!  We've had quite a bit of cloudy weather since he's been here.  I took him on a walk down the beach to the Round Bar, and he only got his foot wet once!  (I told him not to stand too close to that rock!)  We have taken him to several music nights (another one Wednesday night) so it hasn't been completely quiet for him.  

I'm continuing my daily walks, and I've been getting up to the Flag Monument more often. I didn't make it up for the ceremony on Mexican Flag Day (February 24) since we had company, but we have a great view of the monument from our guest room balconies upstairs, so I got a picture of the flag while it was still up.

That's one big flag on a very windy day!  Notice the crowd is still there enjoying the ceremonies and dancing and speeches.  Next year, I hope to make it up.  One of the problems with getting there is no one seems to know when it's supposed to happen.  Our local "news rag" said "anytime between 9 and 2!!!  And that's exactly correct!  
  

Anyhow, when Zoey and I get up there, we always sit on a little wall and have a drink of water and rest a bit, but Zoey doesn't like to wait around...we usually are ready to go within a few minutes.  Besides, it is mostly downhill all the way home!!  👇

I also like to look around for interesting things, and some thistles are starting to bloom now.  They are rather pretty at this point!  
We also see the local burros regularly, and I saw the whole group of them not too long ago.  We met at an intersection in the roads, and they decided it was a good place and time for a dust bath!  They were so cute!

Ben and I are getting ready for our second "Feeding the Hungry" Fashion show this season.  We've moved the show to the springtime, so this year it's rather overwhelming.  At least we get to wait for a whole year for the next one.  We've been putting up posters and soliciting donations and setting up vendors and trying to find people to help with everything.  It's pretty amazing how it all comes together in the end, God willing!  We're trying to raise enough money so the hungry of Los Barriles (about 25 families are being helped) have funds during the summer for necessities.  Here's one of the large posters Ben put up (while I held corners level and handed him screws and washers and drills). 

The garden is doing fair

this year.  The corn crop is pretty much a failure.  I must have bought defective seed...the corn just isn't coming up like it should, and I'm very disappointed in the crop.  I think it need's cousin Tom's encouragement!  We even enlarged our garden area and added topsoil.  Fiddlesticks!  Next year I'll have better seed, I hope.  The beans are just about ready to start picking, and the tomatoes are getting huge!  We've enjoyed quite a few cucumbers (got rid of mildewed leaves and nasty bugs, and they're still producing.)  We've had a lot of cilantro, lettuce, and spinach.  So all in all, it's been a fair garden year. Guess I'll have to go to the Farm to get good eating corn next summer!  

He's saying "can't you grow bigger corn stalks?  I get to eat it when you're done with it, but can't it be a little taller??"

I've created a March album, and you might want to see more pictures in the February album.  

Hasta la proxima vez,
Tus amigos en Baja,
Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey

Pic-of-the-Month for February

Hola Amigos!

It's February already, and so far it has been a cool, wet, brisk month!  (For Baja, anyhow!)  Today it is not going to get up to 70 degrees.  Even though the sun is shining, the wind is whipping from the north and we have had our little heating stove going most of the day.  I'm waiting for the daily temps to be in the 80's, but I'd be happy with mid 70's if the wind wasn't blowing so hard!  I even delayed my walk this morning for about 45 minutes hoping it would warm up a bit... I did bundle up before I left and I was warm by the time I got back, thanks to the exercise.  

Sunset in Mazatlan

We are very glad we added this stove to our house plans!  We just found out that the window company is coming this afternoon to install our new bedroom windows.  We are replacing the old ones because they've always leaked so badly when it rains.  Doesn't matter if it's a windy hurricane or just a gentle rain...they leak!  So, they picked one of the windier days of the week to do it.  When they get here, we're going to close the bedroom door to try and keep the heat in the rest of the house.  Our bedroom is on the northeast corner, and that north wind is fierce there today.   

No windows right now!  Sure is bright!  

We were able to take a fun short trip to Mazatlan on the mainland to celebrate our 52nd wedding anniversary at the end of January.  We flew on a small jet from La Paz on a quick one-hour flight.  We were invited to stay with friends Doug and Marcy who have a very nice condo there, and they were gracious enough to give us some sight-seeing tours, too.  Mazatlan is getting ready for Mardi Gras towards the end of this month, and they have many large statues (Mogotes) built and placed around the city and on the Malecon.  Each one represents a different American country.  Here's one we saw downtown for Cuba that had a platform where you could pose for pictures, so of course we did.

One of the reasons we went to Mazatlan is because our friend Francisco Zepeda has started a new restaurant there.  Those of you who have visited us in the last 12 years or so probably ate at his old restaurant with us here in Los Barriles, El Barrilito.  He moved on about 3 years ago, and ended up in Mazatlan.  His food was delicious in the new restaurant, as usual, and we will be going back to visit again next year!  If any of you are going to Mazatlan, be sure to visit his restaurant Currican on the Marina at the north end of town.  You won't be disappointed.  

Karrie & Bruce

We've had some company, and are expecting more.  Karrie and Bruce spent a couple days last week.  I worked with Karrie at Vocational Rehabilitation in the 90's.  Two of Ben's brothers (John & Greg), one sister-in-law (Cherlene) and one niece will be arriving tomorrow for a few days.  Mid-month, our friends the Sackingers will be here for 10 days or so with George's brother.  Then, my brother Rich will be here for a couple weeks the first part of March.  (He would have been here sooner, but realized his passport was expired when he tried to get tickets!  Oops!  Don't forget to keep your passport updated if you want to come see us.)   

In the meantime, Ben is working very hard organizing our NEXT Fashion Show.  Another one, you ask?  Yes, we're moving our fall show to the spring for several reasons, and didn't want to wait a year and a half for the next one, because the people we  help are very needy in the summer.  This show will be March 20.  We have all the presenters lined up, the location and have designed the posters and tickets.  Ben is anxious to get them printed (in La Paz) and start posting them.  I'm looking forward to warmer weather and longer days at that time of year.

The garden is growing pretty well.  Some of the corn I planted didn't sprout, but some plants are waist high. I planted some more rows today.  I'm hoping that this planting comes up better.  The pole beans are doing fantastic.  I think every single old seed sprouted, so I've got them strung, and they're growing up the strings.  We ate our first cucumber the other day, as they recovered from the bug infestation, thank goodness.  Now I've just got to keep up with them!  The lettuce and spinach are doing great, as is the cilantro.  Yum!  The tomato plants are big and healthy looking, and I just saw one little tomato.    

I was fortunate to take another water color painting class last week from Herrera Gallega, a famous Mexican water color artist.  He is so good, and it is so fun!  I'm refreshing my drawing / sketching abilities, and the water color painting is a real adventure!  You wouldn't believe what colors we used to make those face tones believable.  

And I just have to post this final pic... I saw this on the beach the other day on my morning walk.  The truck is our old 73 Ford, now owned by our good friend Chuyito (remember...he said it runs like a Cadillac now!)  He was out fishing for Grouper.  I'm so happy he is using that truck, and enjoying it so much.  (Of course, he had the music going while he was fishing...that's why the door is open! 😉)

  

I have some more pictures in our 2020 February album, but most new ones are in the 2020 January album.  Enjoy!

Hasta la proxima vez,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Sam & Zoey