Happy October 1. Each Day Dave’s leg looks better. It is stinging a little and there is a dull ache, but we figured as hard as he fell against that curb, he must have bruised the shin. Poor guy. The main thing is that it is healing.
The weather is supposed to be cooling off, but so far it isn’t happening. Sailboats are starting to leave the bay and heading south. One good thing about the weather is there aren’t any tropical storms forming as that weather has moved further south toward Panama. Hooray!!! It is a good thing we didn’t get a hurricane up here with 40 boats in the bay. Not all of them would have been able to fit in Don Juan. It was close when we were in there last year for Jimana, and there were 25 boats.
Not much going on here. Yesterday, Tuesday, the weather changed and it was very comfortable. I would say it was in the 80’s. No humidity and no sweating. We even had to pull up the comforter and close some windows as it was pretty cool.
I worked on sewing tops on kitchen towels for hanging. Here are 2 of them.
Now I want to start on some small purses made from variegated Christmas color yarn.
People are starting to show up down here from California. Now that the cooler weather has come they are coming back. Larry and Lois should be here on Friday, the 7th.
Tomorrow Dave and I are going to a birthday party for a guy named Andy who is turning 80. I met his wife Sammy last year at the garage sale, Maryann had at her house. They are only down here for a short time to take a break and then will be going back to the states again. Nice people. Also tomorrow morning Dave and I will get water from town again because we are going to have to give Larry back his pump this weekend.
It is a wonderful day today. It is actually cool outside. The wind is blowing and it is a cool breeze so it is nice. I think I can now take the towels off the chairs in the living room as we aren’t sweating anymore. Fall has arrived!!!! Pretty soon I will be working outside making the yard look better and cutting back some of the bushes and lining the edges with rocks. I want to start leveling the ground by the house and go hiking for plants to add to the garden. I will be able to go for walks now that it is cooler, which is awesome.
Thursday-Sunday, October 7-10.
Larry and Lois arrived late this afternoon, Thursday. We talked to them on the radio but will see them probably tomorrow to take back the pump and Lois’ plants. Thank goodness the plant sitting is almost over.
We have heard more people on the radio that have arrived from the states. Pretty soon everyone will be down here.
Dave is taking it easy as if he is on his feet too long his booboo starts to hurt. I have been busy crocheting and trying to finish up with things for the Bazaar next month. I want to make one more wash cloth and hopefully a couple of lightweight open weave scarves for ladies. Then I have to start listing what I have and pricing the items, tagging them and figuring out how I want to display them.
Saturday, the 9th, Dave and I went and visited Larry and Lois. We stayed and talked for a while and when we left there we stopped by Maryann’s to unload batteries from her truck. Her new neighbor, Susan, was unloading boxes of tile so we helped her and then Dave unloaded the batteries and set them on wood until he can come back and hook them up for her. After that we came home and Dave propped his leg up. It was hurting.
Sunday the propane truck finally came around and everyone was busy calling everyone else to alert them. There isn’t any warning as when they will come, but it is always on a Sunday. So we were able to fill the last tall tank we had and also a couple small ones that Larry left behind. So we are good for awhile. Yea!! So that is the extent of our weekend. Pretty exciting eh?
Monday-Sunday, October 11-17.
It is a holiday today for the states. Well for some. The kids at least get a day off from school. I walked over to Ruth’s house to bring her some ceviche. Nasario, our guard brought a bag for us, our neighbors and their friends, but their friends had left so I figured Ruth and her husband Ernest would love to have some. I walked along the beach and it took about 30 minutes or so to get to her house. It was nice to be able to walk without getting over heated. I will have to do more walking now that the weather is cooler. They were thrilled to get the ceviche. Ruth and I visited and went upstairs on her deck to watch the scenery. A big semi truck got stuck trying to deliver sheetrock to Ruth’s neighbor. So there were several trucks there to help off load the truck and Dave was among them. Ruth and I walked next door and watched the action. Ruth ended up helping make sandwiches for the workers and I stayed out of the way and talked to some of the guys and met Mike, his wife Yolanda, thier two boys’ ages 6 and 4, and her mother. They came down just to receive the shipment and will head back to the states on Saturday. They are having some work done now and the rest when they return in the spring. After the work was done and the crew was fed, Ruth and I walked back to her house and Dave met us there. He came over to look at her boat. She showed it to us, but unfortunately it isn’t a boat for this water. It is more like a lake boat. Nice looking. It is a go fast boat. It has rod holders for fishing, but the bad thing is you have to stand up on a platform to fish and with the water that is here, meaning we get wind waves a lot, it would not be safe. So we aren’t going to even consider buying it from them. After that I said goodbye and Dave and I headed home. The sheetrock had been unloaded and delivered to the house, and the truck was pulled out of the hole one of the tires was in. So all worked out well. That was a busy Monday.
Ruth and Ernest will be leaving around the 20th to go back to their cabin in Big Bear, California. They like the summers here but not the winters. She is a ski instructor and she loves to ski. Since Ernest isn’t in the best of health, she is looking forward to getting him back home close to doctors. They may or may not be back in the spring. They have had their house here in Baja up for sale for a long time and even lowered the price, but I think when she finally is ready to not come back, she will lower it to where someone will be able to afford to buy it. Slowly the old timers that have been here for 25 years or longer are getting too old to maintain their places down here and they either die here or go back to the states to never return to Bahia. Plus things are changing and some of them don’t like it. If they pave the main road out to our homes, there will be a couple of people who will not return. They like the seclusion and quiet. But with everything there comes changes and Dave and I would welcome some of them. It is just one of those things.
Today, Wednesday, I transplanted a couple plants and will be crocheting a wash cloth. Tomorrow the ladies, I’m one of them, are going into town at a restaurant named Alihandras to play train and have lunch. After lunch I will come home. Philipe, the mechanic wants to finish working on the truck so he wants us to bring it in tomorrow morning. I will take it in but will need a ride to Alihandras. I can probably hitch a ride with Ruth or Maryann when they come in. I will talk to them. Then I will have to find a ride home. It all depends on when Philipe is going to be done with the truck. Man!!!! So many things to think about. HA!!!! I’m just kidding. If that is all you guys had to worry about you would trade places in a heartbeat I am sure!!!!!
Sunday, Dave and I are going to Ruth’s to teach her and Maryann how to play cruiser train and then Dave is making dinner for everyone. We wanted to make dinner to thank them for all their help when we needed it and also since her and Ernest are leaving in another week, it will be a farewell dinner as well. Dave is making carbonara. It is a pasta dish in case you didn’t know.
I drove the truck to Philipe’s and dropped it off. I will pick it up tomorrow morning. I got a ride with Maryann to the restaurant and we were the first to arrive. She had Ruth and another gal named Susan with her. We set up the tables for playing and the other ladies started to arrive. I met some new ladies and was able to talk with the ones that come down every year. We had a good time playing train and I even won a couple games. Wooohooo!! Then we had lunch and visited with everyone then I hitched a ride with a gal named Rita and Phyllis. I got home around 3 and shared my day with Dave.
Friday, Dave and I went in to town to pick up the truck. Philipe forgot to change the hoses or fix the fuel gauge so we will need to bring it back another time. After getting home, Dave went out to the beach and started casting. He managed to catch a fish. We aren’t sure what it is but it is a firm white meat fish. Dave filleted it and we are freezing it for later. He was very happy he was able to fish and not get his leg wet. He tried to get some more but they had moved away from shore.
I went into town this morning, Saturday, and bought some groceries. We are running out of our Costco supplies so we will need to go to Costco soon. We have to go to Santa Rosalia first, then around the end of November we will go to Costco. While I was gone Dave tried to catch another fish but had no luck.
I finished crocheting a scarf and now I am starting another one. This will be the last of the items I made for the bazaar as I have to start pricing them and make a list of what I have.
This afternoon Dave and I are going over to Ruth’s house. She and Ernest will be leaving to go back to Big Bear next week when their renters get here. It should be a fun afternoon.
Joanne arrived late yesterday afternoon, so another neighbor is here. She brought some friends with her.
Before going over to Ruth’s we visited with Joanne and her friends and picked up our wine. Yahoo! We aren’t wine less any more. After coming back home from Joanne’s we gathered the food and things we needed at Ruth’s for cooking and headed over to her house. Shortly after we got there Maryann showed up. We taught Ruth and Maryann how to play Cruiser Train and then it was time to cook dinner. We got a chance to visit with Ernest which was nice. Dave cooked the carbanara and Ruth heated the bread and plates on the BBQ. Then dinner was served. It was really nice to share a meal with them. After dinner I washed the dishes and then we had to say goodbye as it was starting to get dark. You don’t want to be on the road at night from Ruth’s as we don’t travel it enough to know our way back to our house when it is dark. There are tracks all over the place. I will miss Ruth. This may be the last time I see her down here as Ernest is not moving around so good any more as his health is failing. So we shall see what happens in the spring.
We found out what kind of fish Dave caught the other day. It was a White Sea Bass. The meat is really good and it is the best firm white fish around. Even better than Dorado they say. We shall see as that is what we are having for dinner tomorrow night.
Monday-Sunday, October 18-24.
There are clouds hanging above the mountains, which mean we will be getting some strong winds. It was windy today, but not as windy as I thought it would be.
I priced all my craft items for the Bazaar next month and made a spread sheet so I can keep track of what I sell. After that I worked on my cross stitch. I haven’t worked on it for a long time. When I got tired of doing that I started to crochet a scarf for Nasario, our guard. He doesn’t have much meat on his bones and gets cold quickly, so since it is starting to get cooler he could use a scarf. I was going to wait and give it to him for Christmas, but decided he might need it before then.
We ate the White Sea Bass for dinner and it was really good. Dave wants to catch more, but they have moved further away from shore where he can’t reach them just by casting off the beach. Oh well. At least we got to catch one and now know how it tastes.
This morning, Tuesday, we went into town and got water. We didn’t have to wait long as there was only one other person in front of us. After we filled the tank, we stopped at the store to buy milk and chicken breasts and then before we came home, stopped at Larry’s to pick up the pump. We had to wait a little bit as he was pumping water out of his tank into another one. He got water yesterday but didn’t empty the tank. We called him on the way to town and asked if we could borrow the pump and he said sure. We left Larry’s and went home. I put the groceries away then helped Dave with the water extraction of the tank to the pila. He will take the pump and hoses back to Larry this afternoon, as he plans on stopping by Maryann’s to start preparing the new batteries to be hooked up to the inverter. We enjoyed a cup of coffee and some breakfast when our water deed was done and Dave washed his leg and changed the bandage and put his leg up for a while.
After lunch Dave went over to Maryann’s and stopped by Larry’s to drop off the pump.
It is not a solar power day today. We will need to run the generator to charge the batteries. We woke to clouds and lots of them. Now it looks like they are starting to descend the mountains and come down to the valley. This is just one of the beauties of this area.
It is windier than yesterday and we had to close down some of the windows. One nice thing about being down here where we are, is it can be cloudy one day and sunny the next. We don’t get endless days of clouds like we did in Washington. It has cooled off so much at night now as Dave and I are wearing our flannel pants!!
The temperature is dropping as it is only suppose to be 80 today, Wednesday. We had sunshine this morning but now it is getting cloudy again. A front is moving in from Ensenada which is bringing us clouds and wind. No rain yet. San Diego sure has been getting the weather lately. They didn’t have much of a summer and now they are getting thunder and lightning storms with lots of rain.
Dave and I cleaned out the rest of the metal shed Larry left behind. Dave wants to move it so he can put the large water tank there, but he isn’t sure how we are going to do that. We have a Mexican man named Ponsonia, who would like to take it off our hands, but he won’t be able to get it for a couple weeks or so. The shed has been screwed down to a wood platform so we are thinking if we unscrew it, we might be able to move it and then move the wood bottom after that. We’ll figure it out. After we were finished with that project, I washed clothes and Dave messed around in the garage for a while. I washed the counters in the kitchen and then made lunch for us. Dave needs to go over to Maryann’s this afternoon so he can see what kind of screws she has for him putting in her new batteries. He had to put his leg up to rest it because it starts to hurt when he has been on it too long. I am getting ready to cross stitch and Dave just left for Maryann’s. He should be back soon.
Ruth called this morning to say goodbye. Her renters, Bev and Greg came in on Monday so Ruth and Ernest and their two dogs, Lucas and Prieta, are leaving today for Big Bear. She doesn’t like the cold here, but she doesn’t mind being in Big Bear in the winter as she loves to ski.
Tomorrow I am going to Maryann’s to play train for half a day. I should be able to see some more of the Baja gals I didn’t see last week.
This morning Dave noticed squid along the shore. For some reason they beach themselves and die. I wanted to get some pictures so I walked down to the beach. These squid were a lot smaller than the ones we saw last year. These look like baby Humboldt squid. I thought I would share these pictures.
Pretty interesting and the squid come to us!!! We didn’t gather any this time. Dave likes to get the tentacles for bait, but we don’t have any room in the freezer for that. Maybe next time.
Train was fun and I did get to meet some new ladies. I was the only one who played half a day and after visiting with the gals during lunch I left and stopped at Sammy and Andy’s house to visit for a while. She showed me the rock walls she is building and the unusual rocks and drift wood she has collected. After that I went home.
Friday, Dave and I went to town. He needed to get some electrical stuff to finish Maryann’s set up for batteries to the solar panel and I needed some groceries. So that was our adventure for the day.
The weather is perfect for working in the yard so that is what I did. I took all the whale bones that were lying down on the ground, surrounding 2 garden areas and moved them to create s better look. Here is what I did with them. I like it much better.
Monday-Sunday, October 25-31.
Another beautiful day to work in the yard. I started digging up the rocks that encircled the garden areas that Lois had created when she lived here. I started filling in a trench created by rain and Dave was smoothing out the dirt on the road and driveway. He was taking the bumps out of the road. When he was done with that he asked me what I was doing and I told him, and then he came over and started to rake the ground to make it slope gentler and also piled some rocks to help keep the soil in place. Then I got 2 wheel barrow loads of gravel from a pile near the house that Larry had left over from his last order, and brought them to Dave. He raked the first load and while I raked the second load, Dave got another load and dumped it. Once that was raked and smoothed over the area we had filled in, we quit. Our backs were hurting. Dave complained his right side of his back was really hurting. He strained his back somehow and now has a hard time sitting and getting up again. He took some ibuprofen and I gave him my back magnet belt to wear. We also put some pain reliever cream on it. He laid down for about an hour or so and it still hurt when he got up but at least he could sit. So now not only his leg hurts but his back too. I told him he needs to exercise and strengthen his back and walk. He hasn’t been doing much since he injured his leg. We will keep administering the ibuprofen and keep the belt on and with doing a little stretching of the lower back and walking he should feel better soon. We are supposed to get water on Wednesday, but we may have to do it later in the week. We are going Monday, November 1, to Santa Rosalia for a week, and when we get back Lois and Larry will be gone for a couple weeks, camping. We borrow the pump from Larry so that is why we have to get water before we go to Santa Rosalia.
We have found more dead squid on the beach. I’ve been using the shovel to pick them up and throw them back into the water. Don’t want them lying on the beach to stink.
Dave is taking ibuprofen on a regular bases, and it is helping. He is also wearing the magnet belt and is able to bend and sit more easily. He took a walk today which is really good and he is also stretching a little. Poor guy. He told me he wasn’t going to get roped in to working in the yard today!!! I was raking the gravel along the patio by the house since when we drive on it, it gets pushed out. After I finished that, I finished trimming the bushes that I started late yesterday afternoon, and then pulled out all the dead branches from a plant. Dave mentioned last spring he wanted to do it, but then it got too hot to work in the yard so it was put on hold until today. That has opened up a nice spot to plant something in its place. I will have to figure out what I want to put there. I dug up some plants that were growing here and there in the yard and replanted them where I want to keep the soil from eroding. Hopefully the plants will take hold and grow and keep the soil together. I am going to have to go looking for plants to dig up and plant in my yard. Now is a perfect time to do it. I have finished the yard work for today. Little by little the yard is looking better.
We were going to get water today, Tuesday, but Dave’s back still isn’t good enough to be lifting and twisting and all that kind of stuff. So we will see what Wednesday brings. I just want to give him another day of recovery. He is taking his walks, which is good, and is stretching. The muscle seems to be loosening up a bit so we are planning on getting water Wednesday.
Wednesday is here. Dave will have to be careful about lifting so to ease his pain, I went ahead and loaded the plastic water tank on the truck and secured it. It is awkward to move but not heavy. All Dave had to do is drive. We were surprised that we were next in line to get water. We didn’t have to wait long at all. That is really surprising!! Dave checked with Philipe to see if we could drop the truck off next Monday on our way to Santa Rosalia, and he said yes. The hoses need replacing and the fuel tank gauge needs to be fixed. After getting water we stopped at Pepito’s “Home Depot” and he already had the large water tank ready for delivery. We told him tomorrow, Thursday, would be good in the morning. So he will deliver it sometime tomorrow. We paid for everything already. We told him we have a metal shed we want to get rid of and asked if he was interested. He said he might be. He will look at it tomorrow when he comes. We left “Home Depot” and ended up at Larry’s to pick up the water pump. We will keep it until he gets back from camping, as we need to use it while he is gone. When we got home, we emptied the water from the tank in the back of the truck to the pila, and then put everything away. Dave called our friends Sue and Peter, and asked if Peter could come out and help him move the metal shed. Peter was getting ready to paint, but we caught him just in time, so he said if it didn’t take long he would be over. Dave and Peter were able to move the shed on a wood pallet which was hooked from there to the truck. Pete pulled it off to the side of the yard and they were done. We thanked him for his help and he went back to his house to do painting and Dave and I smoothed the ground where the shed was. Shortly thereafter, Pepito showed up and unloaded the tank and said he was interested in the shed and would be back later to get it. He needed to bring another person with him. So things are coming together. The shed will be gone and the big black tank will be in place and when we get back from Santa Roslia, Dave will drain the pila into the big tank so we can start tearing down a wall or two of the pila so we can put either the big tank or the one we take to get water in and put it inside. We will have more water this way and the walls left up of the pila will be a barrier for the water tank so it isn’t an eye sore. We will have to re-cement the existing walls of the pila so it will look nice.
After lunch, Pepito came back with his son and the 3 guys loaded the shed onto Pepitos’ flatbed truck. Here are pictures of it leaving our place. Dave told Pepito it was a Mexican camper!!! They both thought that was funny.
Friday, I went into town to double check with Philipe, the mechanic, to make sure he was going to be in town next week so we can drop off the truck on our way to Santa Rosalia. He said he would be so I told him we would bring it in early Monday morning. Then I dropped off laundry with Yolanda and told her I would pick it up on Friday, on our way back from Santa Rosalia. While I was in town, I got a call from Lois asking if I would pick her up a dozen eggs, and pick up a kilo of ground meat for Maryann. I told her sure. We all try to help each other out when someone needs something from town. I did the shopping and then delivered the goods to Maryann and Lois. Then it was time to go home and recoup from the long bouncy ride.
Sunday has arrived as it is Halloween AND Dave’s Birthday!!!! There is a Halloween Party tonight so I baked brownies to take. I will be a Pie-Rat, and Dave a Pirate!! He really wanted to be an aquarium, but couldn’t find a big cardboard box. We don’t have all our Halloween costume stuff anymore, darn. Well imagination is a wonderful thing. As a Pie-Rat, I had a picture of a pie on my chest, I was dressed like a pirate but with ears and a tail. Here is a picture in case you are having trouble picturing it.
The party was fun and I got to see some of the gals I hadn’t seen since the spring. There were more people dressed in costumes than I thought there would be. Fun! Fun! Dave had a good birthday. Here are some pictures of how Baja does Halloween.
Well tomorrow morning we are on our way to visit the boat in Santa Rosalia. Since it is cooler now we can work on it without sweating to death or burning up in the sun.
