Tuesday - Sunday, March 1-6.
Happy March! We are getting closer to spring!
Today, the 2nd is our grandson E.J.’s birthday and he is 14!!!! Two more years and he’ll be taking driver’s Ed. Wow!!! Today Dave and I worked outside. We are priming the wood railing and trim on the guest house. The weather is perfect for doing that. It reminds us of a summer day in Seattle. As I was painting the railing, I stepped back and turned and my right knee gave out. I didn’t know if I had dislocated it or what. I tried to straighten it but it really hurt to do that. I could bend it though which I thought was a good sign. So I was really careful about walking and continued to finish priming. When I was done, I went upstairs and put ice on my knee and took some ibuprofen. It felt better but I didn’t trust my knee not to give out on me so I put a spandex knee brace on it. After Dave was finished, we walked away from the guest house and looked at it and liked the lighter color. Actually Larry had some light pink paint left over from his other house so that is what we used as primer. I think the Ivory color we will put over the pink is going to look nice. We were done for the day. When we finished it was about 3:00pm. If it is nice again tomorrow I’d like to start painting with the Ivory color.
Our ex-daughter-in-law, Teri, E.J.’s mom, has her birthday today. Hope it is a good one for her. I was going to play train today, but decided to stay home and paint instead. It is windy so we won’t be painting the Ivory color since the front of the guest house faces east and gets the brunt of the wind. So instead, Dave sanded the wood behind the guest house and trailer and then we primed it. I had to go into town to pick up my laundry, so I took the water pump back to Larry, then went to Diane’s where the gals were playing train, to say hello. They break for lunch at noon, so I got there just a few minutes before they broke for lunch. After visiting with them, I left and picked up my laundry then went home.
I forgot to tell you about our water mishap. Dave got water last week, right? Well I went out on Tuesday to turn the solar panel when I heard water running. I couldn’t think where water would be running, so when I finished with the solar panel, I walked to the pila and found water on the ground in front of it. It was an ‘aw shit’ moment!! I picked up the sight glass that fell over and stopped the water from coming out. What happened was the valve to the sight glass hadn’t been closed and when the sight glass fell over, it leaked a lot of water. About 300 gallons worth!!! Ouch!! We had duck taped the sight glass to the plastic tank which is our pila, but the tape got baked and lost its hold, and with the weight of the tube, it fell over. So I turned the valve closed and re-taped the tube to the pila, in three different locations. Then I had the unpleasant job of telling Dave what happened. He had actually left the valve open the last time he was checking the level of water. Oops!! He was working on a puzzle in the guest house, and when I told him what had happened, he came out and looked at the damage. The ground was so saturated when you stepped on it you sunk down. Dave got one foot covered in mud. But all was taken care of. This means he has to go back into town and get more water. Bummer!!
Wednesday, Dave went to Larry’s to pick up the water pump so he could get water on Thursday. That evening, we went to Mary Ann’s house for dinner and Larry and Lois were there too. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, a salad and dessert. It was a good meal and we had fun visiting.
Dave left this morning, Thursday, to get water and around 9:15am he was back. I helped him pump the water into the tank and that was that. Now we are full again.
The wind was blowing Friday and Saturday so we couldn’t paint. Sunday looks like it might be good calm weather. We shall see.
Sure enough, Sunday morning was a beauty. A little breeze came up in the afternoon, but we were able to get the whole front of the guest house painted in the Ivory color. It looks nice. I think we should put another coat on it, but Dave says no. What is on it now will protect it for at least a year.
Dave had another talk with Larry about the house, and Larry wants us to pay for lease and insurance AND on top of that RENT!! He wants to be able to pay off the loan on his San Diego home without any money coming from his pocket. Soooo. That puts us in a really tight situation. We don’t know when the boat will sell, and we tried to tell him we would pay for all the repairs to the house along with the lease and insurance. But he didn’t like that because he wants extra money in his pocket. So now we won’t be able to work on the house anymore. If something breaks or needs tending to, Larry is going to have to deal with it. We know he doesn’t want to do anything with the house, but we won’t have any extra money for that kind of stuff. So we figure we will probably be in the house another year, and if the boat doesn’t sell by then we will be moving back aboard and probably down to La Paz. Not what we want to do, but we will not be able to buy the house without selling the boat. So it is what it is and we will just take it one month at a time. We hate to think about losing the house because it is in the perfect setting, but what can you do. Money doesn’t solve all your problems but it helps!! So we will just have to wait and see what happens. We were going to paint the guest house but after April, when we renew the lease, we won’t be able to fork out the money for paint. Not our problem. We also found more termites so Dave got a replacement board from Larry to try and fix the problem. We really don’t know how bad it is yet because Dave hasn’t taken the old wood and frame off. That will happen when we get back from Santa Rosalia. It would be nice if we could sell our Vacation plan in San Jose del Cabo, but even that isn’t doing anything!!! Times are hard for everyone.
When we had finished painting the trim and railings of the guest house, we were pooped. We put everything away and it was about 3:00pm. I still needed to wash the rollers and pan, water plants, finish packing and get things ready for our trip to Santa Rosalia tomorrow. I did all that and all I wanted to do was sit down and rest. But still couldn’t as I needed to take a shower and burn our paper trash before it got dark. After my shower, the sun had set so I needed to turn the solar panel to the position we leave it in while we are gone and burn. I grabbed the keys, the burn bag and headed down stairs. I was going to unlock the garage to get the handheld radio that Dave left there, but figured I would do that after burning. So I dumped the bag in the burn barrel and lit the bag and stood for a minute to watch the fire. Then I walked to the garage and noticed I didn’t have the keys with me. Where were they? I went upstairs and looked and they weren’t there, I looked in the electrical room, not there. Then it hit me-------Oh NO!!! Yep! You guessed it. I had dropped them in with the bag without realizing it and now they were on fire. I waited for the fire to die down and I took a PVC pipe and stirred the aches. I couldn’t find them. I finally went back upstairs and told Dave I thought I dropped the keys in the burn barrel. He came down with me and stirred the aches and found them. There had been a plastic key fob that said ‘No Worries’ on the ring and that melted and covered the keys. What a mess. I couldn’t believe I did that-----and Dave couldn’t either. I guess I was so rummy, I hadn’t noticed I dropped the keys. Boy do I have a mess to clean up. I took the cooled keys upstairs and poured vinegar in a cup and soaked the keys.
Monday – Sunday, March 7-13.
We are in Santa Rosalia for the week. The wind was howling in Bahia as we drove through and then up in the mountains, but when we arrived in Santa Rosalia, it was calm and warm. Really nice. Arturo was cleaning the bottom of the boat when we arrived. We went ahead and opened the boat then went back to the jeep to bring down our stuff. After Arturo finished his job and unhooked the hose and electrical cord, we hooked up our water and electrical. Dave later inspected the deck and it looked terrible. It was back to being all spotted up again from the bird crap. Not good!!! Arturo hasn’t been doing his job very well. The birds are back in force and Arturo has been doing many jobs and hasn’t been devoting time to washing our boat 2 times a month. So Dave is going to have to talk to him about it. If he can’t keep the boat clean, then we will have to find someone else. We can have Arturo clean the bottom once a month. The problem is Arturo is doing many jobs and so it is hard for him to keep his commitment to our boat. We understand he needs to make money, but right now is a crucial time for keeping the boat clean. It is the season people are looking for boats. There is another guy in the marina that has been hired to wash a couple of the other cruising boats, so we can always get him to replace Arturo. So we will see.
This morning was devoted to scrubbing the boat on our hands and knees. I scrubbed with a little bit of Oxy Clean and it took some of the bird crap off. Dave wondered earlier if baking soda would work better so I thought I would try it. It does work better believe it or not. We had to scrub the areas affected twice, but it sure looks much better. We will need to do it again tomorrow, but for now a lot of it was taken off with the baking soda and pressure washer. After we finished the deck, I pressure washed the cockpit. Now things are clean again.
There are boats coming in left and right. There were 5 boats, not including us, and later yesterday afternoon 3 more arrived. Then this afternoon, Tuesday, another boat just came in. People that have been cruising south are working their way north to San Carlos to put their boats on the hard for the summer. So lots of activity. We were able to see our friends Steve and Kathy on s/v Lilly. The last time we saw them was 2 years ago in Escondido, Mexico, just south of Santa Rosalia. When they leave here, they will return to Escondido, then in another month or so start heading up the coast for Washington again. That is where they started. We met them for the first time in Newport, Oregon when we were held there for 2 weeks due to weather. Nice people. They have their family in the Seattle area and want to cruise the San Juan’s and all around the sound. They had told us they don’t do heat well so they had been leaving their boat in Escondido, Mexico, for the summer while they flew home for the summer. It is always interesting to hear the plans of our cruising friends.
It was windy last night, but we didn’t rock and roll too much because of 2 motor boats blocking the wind. It is blowing about 20 knots today. We finished the deck just in time because with the wind blowing that much, it just blows the water everywhere but where you want it.
Today is Mardi gras but there isn’t anything going on in Santa Rosalia. No extravagance of a weeklong celebration like there is in Mazatlan or Ensenada. Pretty quiet.
The town is preparing to open the mine again, north of town. They will be extracting copper. They are also building a dock for the ships to come in and take the copper away. There seems to be more people in town because of the jobs it is creating. That is good for business.
The wind started blowing early this morning so I don’t think we will be doing any scrubbing today on the deck. Actually the deck looks sooo much better. If we need to do more scrubbing I will do some tomorrow when the wind has calmed down. It is suppose to get lighter this afternoon and then be calm for the rest of the week. That will be nice. So on my agenda today was to check the water level in the bow thruster battery under our bed and then walk to town to do some shopping for food items. I ended up having to add a little water to the battery and then I was done. I turned the switch on so it could charge up overnight and I pushed the mattress back into place. Then I changed my clothes and headed to town. I filled my backpack and carried 3 bags of groceries back to the boat. Thursday, tomorrow I will go back to town and get fruits and vegetables. Then we leave on Friday to go back to the house.
When I returned to the boat from my shopping spree, I made us lunch and helped Dave with mooring lines. One of our lines broke and the marina found the extra lines we had on the boat and retied the boat. So Dave spent the day making new lines and putting chain on the dock cleats so there won’t be any more chaffing to the lines. When he was done with my help, I took off to walk the breakwater, but once I got to the point of entry, the gate was locked. It was too windy so they closed it to the public. Maybe I can walk it tomorrow since there isn’t suppose to be a lot of wind. I was disappointed, but walked to the little store just past the marina and got a small carton of milk and a bag of ice and returned to the boat. The rest of the afternoon I read and did a little crocheting of the glass covers I am making to keep bugs out of our drinks. I’m going to sell them at the art show in April.
I did get to walk the breakwater as the wind had calmed down. It is quite a walk. I would say at least 2 miles if not more. I felt good when I finished. There was a gentle breeze so I didn't get real hot.
I managed to get the keys all clean. I had to do some scrapping, but at least they will work now.
Monday - Sunday, March 14-20.
My eldest son, Ernie, turned 36 today, the 15th. He was able to go to the Sounders Soccer game in Seattle, but unfortunately they lost. Oh well. It’s fun watching though.
Not much going on but the normal. Getting water for the pila, my playing Train on Fridays, and I actually learned a new card game called ‘Hand & Foot’. It was fun. Some of the ladies prefer to play that instead of Train, so we have a table for Hand & Foot, and another for Train. A lot of the people who come down for the Spring, are arriving so I get to meet new people each week I play.
Our neighbors Smiley and John are adding a second story to their house and it will become their bedroom. I guess they talked about it for years and finally decided to do it. They had a lot of termites in the roof and one of their side walls so they had to replace all of that before adding the top floor. They almost have all the beams up for the roof and then they will start to cover it. It is neat to watch the process.
The boat hasn’t sold but we did get an offer on it. Unfortunately it won’t help us. They want to trade boat for land. That just isn’t going to help us. So nothing serious yet. Dave and I are kind of bummed about the whole situation because we have been in the house for a year and it is to the point something has to give. We had a talk with Lois and Larry and because of their finances with their new home, and the one in San Diego and some other things, they are tight on money and have to sell the house. They are listing it again and they told us they have a couple who are interested in looking at it in April. None of us know if they are serious about buying, but if they are then we will be moving back on the boat. Dave and I are naturally bummed about it all, but if we don’t get the house, maybe it is for the better. God only knows and it is always an adventure with Him. Like they say---when one door closes another one opens and I know it will be exactly what we want. It has been fun being here and we have enjoyed the view, beach, and quiet. But maybe it is time to move on and find something else. We can stay in the house, paying rent until it sells. We are getting tired of having to keep the boat clean and running and haven’t been able to take it out because every time we go to the boat the wind is blowing to where it makes it difficult to get in and out of the slip. Plus we just don’t like bouncing around on the waves any more. Right now is a hard time for us, and we are very frustrated in not knowing how much longer we will be able to live like this. I am praying the boat will sell before summer, otherwise it is another summer we have to do hurricane watch. But it is what it is and only God knows what will happen so we have to hang in there and just wait.
Monday-Sunday March 21-27.
Larry is getting rid of the palm fronds from the guest house roof. He said since they have to re-advertise the house, he wants to have a metal roof up. That way the guest house will be insured. Homes with palm fronds are a fire hazard so no insurance company will insure. Jose, a Mexican man who has done a lot of work for Larry, came over and took all the fronds off the roof in two days. Now it is necked! HA!! The metal roof should be delivered in the next day or two and then Larry will put it on. Here is a picture of the necked roof.
Well, my youngest son, Jon, just turned 34 today, the 25th. Wow!!! They sure are getting old!!!!
The metal roof was delivered Saturday late afternoon. Larry said he will either be here to put it on, on Monday or Tuesday.
Monday – Thursday March 28-31.
Dave just left to get water and shortly after that Larry showed up to put the roof on. Then his wife, Lois came over to take pictures of the necked roof and visit with a neighbor. THEN, a friend of Larry’s, Dennis, came over to help him with the roof. It is pretty noisy around here with sawing and hammering at the neighbors, and sawing and screwing the metal sheets on the roof. Yeesh!!!! The roof is going up fast though and they should be done in the early afternoon. Dave just returned with the water so I helped him pump it into the pila, and now Dave is doing what he can to help the guys. I’m just staying out of the way. One bad thing about the metal roof is when the sun gets to the west side of the house, it will shine on it and it will be blinding until the roof dulls. Well we will just have to see how it goes. Here is a picture of the guys putting the metal sheets on. It will be nice not to have all that sand from the fronds blowing around every time the wind blows.
An update on my knee---it is much better to where I don’t have to wear the knee brace. I have tested it walking for a couple miles and it has done very well. Yahoo!!!
Dave took the wood trim down above the door of the bamboo and bathroom in the breeze way and found it and the paneling to be eaten away by termites. So he cut the panel sheet he got from Larry to the sizes he needed and put them up and then we went to our ‘Home Depot’ to get boards for the trim. All repairs have been made and the trim has been painted. Looks good. What a mess though. With the white trim around the bathroom door, it really makes the door look tiny. Well it is, really. It is only a 20” door. Didn’t notice it when the trim and house were dark colored. The neighbors like the white color. It makes everything look so much better. I don’t know if Dave is going to get paint to paint the guest house. He did mention he might so the whole job would be done. All the wood needs to be protected from the elements. It wouldn’t be a big job to paint because we don’t have a bunch of corners and such to go around. We plan on going back to Ensenada in May, so we will see how the money situation is.
Dave attached the site glass to the cement wall next to the pila so we won’t have it blow over again. Remember we lost 300 gallons of water just after he filled it?!!! He also made a wood cover to go over the faucet and lines so the horses and cows won’t destroy them when they come looking for water in August. If there is any hint of water they have been known to kick in weak pilas or anything else that has water in it. So we have to make sure they can’t get to any of our water source. There was leftover green paint from when Larry and Lois painted the trim on the house, when they were living in it, so I painted the box with that. I put a couple coats on it and it looks good.
We are seeing a lot of stingrays close to the shore by the house. It’s mating season.
The other night we were burning some of the termite wood when we heard a whale blow close to shore. It was so awesome!! It blew a couple more times and then dove and went away. The night was warm and there wasn’t a moon so the stars were bright. Just a beautiful evening. We are trying to burn up all the termite wood we tore down before the snakes start to think the piles could be home.
My glass and bowl covers I made are all done and I have been priced. Now I just need to make some small signs. I hope I make money this time. This is a much larger show than we had in November. There are a lot of gringos and Mexican’s alike who come down during Spring Break. The show starts April 16 and goes thru May 1. Well wish me luck. Here are my covers.
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