From Getting Started to Paradise on Land

Frio in December for Mexico

2012-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

We had a visitor the other day. I discovered a stick bug on the planter at the bottom of the steps! They are fascinating creatures. Here are a couple pictures.

December has roared in like a lion!!! We had 61 mph sustained winds and gusts of 69 mph starting at 10:00pm November 30. The news said that San Diego was going to get hit with high winds, but it missed them and came down to us. The northern part of San Diego got hit with hurricane force winds, but the southern part got nothing. At least we didn’t have hurricane force winds but it was strong enough to have us sleep in the trailer. Usually it is a lot quieter and we can get some sleep, but this time it sounded as though our metal roof over the trailer and bamboo room was going to fly off. It might not have been as bad as sleeping in the house with windows rattling and the toilet vibrating, but let’s just say we didn’t get any sleep. The sand was blowing everywhere and rocks were hitting the trailer windows. The worst of it was before dawn. Dave got up and moved to the bamboo room across the breeze way from the trailer and I stayed behind because I was warm and didn’t want to move. After about an hour (at least that is what it felt like) Dave came back and said it sounded like the roof was trying to fly away and we should get out of the trailer just in case. So we trudged to the house fighting the wind and sand as we went. It was hard to walk up the stairs but we held on to the banister and took it slow. At least the wind was from the south west so as we walked up the stairs the wind was partially blocked by the house. By this time the sun was working its way up behind the mountains so I started perking coffee. There was no sleeping until maybe later that afternoon. After the sun made an appearance and started to warm up the air, the wind started to subside. We went outside to assess any damage we might have incurred from the wind, and were pleasantly surprised there wasn’t any. The roof over the trailer was intact and all was fine. We did have the two beach signs I made come loose from the post they were nailed into, but surprisingly they didn’t blow away. They just dropped down on the ground and stayed there. So Dave will fix them in a day or two. Because the house isn’t tightly sealed, there was a ton of it inside the house along the window sills and doors. I spent the day vacuuming the blinds, window sills and of course everything else. I figured as long as the vacuum was out and the generator running, I might as well clean it all. Surprisingly I never took a nap that afternoon. It has appeared that our weather has changed drastically so we are experiencing cold temps due to the north winds and clouds. At least the clouds don’t stick around for a long time. The people that have come down from the States for the fall are slowly leaving to go back to the states for the holidays. Then after the 1st they will all start trickling down again until May or June time frame. The new guard is working out fine and he seems to be enjoying his solitude. Our neighbor Joanne had inverter problems so Dave is over at her house trying to figure out what went wrong. This is the second one in a year to go south on her. Needless to say Dave couldn’t find anything wrong with it. He thinks there is a design flaw since it has only been 7 months since she exchanged the first one that went belly up. She is leaving here soon so is trying to order another one and have her son bring it down with him when he comes to visit. Poor gal. At least she has a small generator she can run for lights. The time is arriving fast to when we will be leaving here and going to Santa Rosalia to start the process of renewing our FM3’s and going to San Jose del Cabo for Christmas. We have a free week at our time share so we decided we would take advantage of it and join Ron, Noreen, J.T., Carolyn and their 2 sons. We are really looking forward to it. The temps will be in the 80’s and we will have a blast!!!Chores don’t seem so bad when you have a fun trip to look forward to, so I have been busy with defrosting the refrigerator, washing clothes and cleaning. John and Sandy Eltrich will be stopping here after the New Year so I have their room all cleaned and the bed set up. It will be nice to see them again. I made chocolate chip cookies to give to the soldiers that work the military search stops. There are a couple military stops on the way to Santa Rosalia so I thought it would be nice to leave them a little taste of home for Christmas. Yesterday, the 11th, there was a quarter mile race in the desert flats not far from our house. I watched through field glasses to see when activities were going to start and cars showing up. After awhile I walked over to see what was going on. Just before I got to the festivities, there was a race with 2 horses so didn’t get to take pictures of it. There were a few Americans that hadn’t gone north yet so I talked with them and was introduced to a couple I hadn’t met before. I took some pictures of the horses and some other things, but after an hour of waiting around for more racing, it didn’t happen.

The sun was going down and it was going on 4:00pm so I finally said goodbye and walked home. Apparently this race comes to Bahia about every 3 years. They travel to the different towns and I guess it is a fun thing. What I saw today didn’t seem very exciting, but at least I checked it out and got a walk in as well. Today is bathroom cleaning and packing for Cabo. We invited our neighbor Joanne over for dinner tonight as she is leaving to go to the states Wednesday and won’t be back until February.Dave took one of our propane tanks along with one from Joannes’ to town to get them filled. The propane truck came to town yesterday and started to head south to where we are, but turned around and headed north to La Gringa. By the time the truck serviced the town and La Gringa, they were out of propane. They told the people in La Gringa they would return next Sunday and service those of us who are south of town. Unfortunately, both Joanne and us will be gone so we had to take the empty tanks to Yolanda’s in town, and exchange the empty ones for full. Dave was hoping to get the jeep washed before leaving on Wednesday, but when he stopped by to see Sammy, he was really busy putting windshield wipers on cars since this is the first heavy rain we have had for a year. Sammy suggested Dave come back tomorrow. Little by little things both of us are getting things we need and want to get done, done. We got a little rain last night, but not enough to really wet anything. We are getting all the weather from the 4 corners, (clouds and wind) but at least it doesn’t stay for days and months like in Washington!! And it is still in the low 70’s!!We have received more rain in the last couple days then we have the 2 years we have lived here. We had rain again early this morning and we are still getting sprinkles from time to time. Dave took the jeep into town to get it washed and waxed. It looks as though it is really raining that way. The sun keeps trying to peek out from behind the clouds. I hope it does because I did a small tub of laundry and need it to dry today since we are leaving tomorrow, the 14th for Santa Rosalia. This morning we had a double rainbow and it was gorgeous!!! I took a couple pictures through the windows, so one is streaked with rain and the other one isn’t. It was raining too much to go outside and take the picture. The picture with the rain streaks is at the back of the house and the other is facing north toward town.

Just as I got my pictures downloaded for the blog, another rainbow showed up to the north so here are a couple better pictures. Rainbows are always beautiful.

You would have never known it rained yesterday. The roads for the most part were dry and the only indications of rain were puddles here and there. We left this morning for Santa Rosalia. We will be there until Monday the 19th then we will drive to La Paz. There we will stay for 2 days to check out availability for mooring our boat and the cost, among other things. Wednesday the 21st we drive to our timeshare at Royal Solaris, in San Jose del Cabo. It should be a fun trip. The boat looks really good and the stainless steel also. Alberto has done a wonderful job keeping it clean. We stopped at the bus station on our way back from dinner tonight and found out we won’t be saving any money taking the bus as opposed to driving. It will cost $1053.00 pesos for each of us one way and they don’t stop in La Paz. So Dave did the math with distance and gas and it works out to be about the same money, maybe a little less. That was the cost from Santa Rosalia to San Jose del Cabo. So we will drive to La Paz, stay a couple days then leave on Wednesday, the 21st for Royal Solaris in San Jose del Cabo. Since we are driving we can stop at Costco in Cabo San Lucas and get a few things. We went to the office of immigration in Santa Rosalia today and they were closed for an office BBQ, but Javier, the man we see for our FM3’s, was there and answered our questions. He doesn’t want to do FM3’s before January 9th, so we don’t have to worry about them right now. We will have a relaxing time on the boat before heading to Royal Solaris, and on our trip back we will stop for a night in La Paz then be on the boat the 29th. We will spend the night and head for Bahia and be home on the 30th. That means we will have to turn around and come back to Santa Rosalia on the 9th of January to process our FM3’s but that will be alright. Sandy and John Eltrich will be coming to visit us on the 3rd so now I can tell them we will be home before the 3rd. We weren’t sure what was going to happen until we talked to Javier and knew what we were doing with the FM3’s. So it is working out.We needed to get a new tarp to replace the one that is now on the boat and ripped to shreds. We walked down to the hardware store not far from the marina and as Dave was picking out the tarp, I snooped in the room where they have all the Christmas decorations and more. After Dave paid for the tarp we walked back to the boat and dropped it off and then walked to the other marina just up from where the hardware store is. Our friend, Jim has his boat there to have some work done on it so we stopped in to say hi and wish him a Merry Christmas. After talking for a few minutes we said goodbye and Dave walked back to our boat while I went on to walk the breakwater. The wind hadn’t picked up too strong yet so I got my exercise walk in. It was refreshing. This afternoon Dave noticed the bilge pump light went on and wondered if the bilge was full. I checked and it had a little water in it but not so much you would think it would trigger the switch to drain the bilge. We just blew it off. Well after getting back from dinner tonight and both of us sitting at out computers, Dave noticed the light go on again. This was a little unsettling because it doesn’t do that unless there is water coming from somewhere. So he checked all sources that water could drain into the bilge and they were dry. The next step was to check outside where the hose from the dock goes to the boat. He opened the back locker and found everything wet. Not a good thing to find. The hose from the dock is hooked into the water connector on the boat. This allows us to use dock water rather than draining our water tanks on the boat. Apparently water is leaking around the connection. So for tonight we aren’t using the water from the dock. We will either run from a tank on board or walk up and use the facilities before going to bed. Tomorrow we will empty the locker and let everything dry and then we will have a better idea what is going on. I get to clean sump pumps (2) tomorrow too. What fun!!!! Part of the boat life. Doing chores you really don’t want to do but HAVE to!!!! Dave found the problem to our leak. The washer in one end of the connector was shot. He put a new fitting on and also a check valve. It works great now. That was easy and it is really good that Dave bought a few of those parts to have on the boat. He also tried to fix the galley sink faucet from leaking. It is better but still leaks a little. He will need to get some sealant to put on it. We can get that probably in La Paz. I filled the forward water tank just in case of emergency if there is no dock water. That way we can still shower and flush the toilets and wash dishes. After doing that I cleaned the sump pump to the shower. It wasn’t really dirty, just needed the filter cleaned, so that was a quick and easy job!!! I didn’t need to clean the other one since it was clean. That is the one the refrigerator drains into.I walked to town and got a few groceries and stopped at the pharmacy to get Dave’s medication and my B-Complex pain killer. They had the medicine for Dave but not the pain killers so I will need to either go back tomorrow or Sunday. No worries!!! Dave talked to Alberto this morning and found out he won’t be washing the boat until around the 28th or 29th. So Dave pressure washed it to get some of the bird doo off and dust from the mine. We took the dinghy off the boat and put it on the dock and wrapped a new tarp around it to protect it from the elements. I think we are going to store it in the cockpit so Alberto can wash the deck where it was stowed. Since it sat in one spot for so long there is a stain on deck which we tried to scrub with oxi-clean and fiber glass stain remover but only managed to dull it. We will pick up some baking soda on our way back from Cabo and have it so to scrub the stain. That is what we used when we had the bird doo stains so bad before and it worked well. Of course it took a lot of scrubbing but it worked!!! I did a load of laundry today and will do another one tomorrow since we are leaving for La Paz on Monday. The dryers are hooked up to propane again so I don’t have to hang the clothes on the lifelines!! The tarp we bought the other day will be laid out and secured tomorrow, under the boom, so we can keep that area clean of bird doo. We are really pleased with the work Alberto has done on the boat. The cockpit was even clean to where I didn’t have to rinse it and the stainless steel has been wiped down. That was nice.After coming back from dinner and stopping at the crepe place at the head of the marina for desert, Dave was on his computer and I was reading when there was a knock on the boat. Dave went out to see who it was and it was Carlos the diver. There are some men here cleaning and painting the pilings and Carlos was one of the divers. He was bringing Dave back his car keys!! Talk about amazing!! Dave had gone to the jeep earlier to get his sunglasses and then stopped at the bathroom before coming back to the boat. Apparently he hung the keys on the hook of the door and walked off without them. Who says there aren’t good people in this world and in Mexico!!!!! I would have hated to have the keys fall into the wrong hands as we would be without a vehicle and that would suck!!! What a nice surprise!!Today is Sunday and the day to secured the tarp on the deck, shine some stainless steel, exercise, pack things up and do another load of laundry, as we leave in the morning for La Paz. Well things didn’t go as smoothly as we thought they would with the tarp. As it turns out we bought one that was huge, a 19x16. We needed a 10x12. So we ended up walking into town to the hardware store and getting one quite a bit smaller; but not a grey one which is the better quality. The blue tarps don’t last as long but for now it will have to do. Once back on the boat we laid it out and secured it. After the tarp was in place I cleaned the stainless steel stantions on the deck. It didn’t take long and at least they will be protected for another month or so. The laundry is done, so is the packing and all we have to do tomorrow is unhook water and power and close up the boat and we are headed south. Hooray!!!We are in La Paz and having a great time. We are staying at a place called Casa Buena, a Bed and Breakfast, which is a unique place run by some ex-cruisers. The place runs itself practically. Here are some pictures of the place and one outside our room.

They have Mexican maids and the guests help themselves to what is in the kitchen for breakfast which is included in the price of the room. The owners have 2 children, a horse, 2 cats, and 2 dogs, thus the picture of the play house, which Dave said I would be in 7th heaven along with the toy riding cars. Ha!!

The place is very relaxing and it has been fun mixing with the guests. One guest was a guy named Dave who used to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He is retired now and enjoying life. We ate at a restaurant tonight called Banditos. We had hamburgers and onion rings. Mmmmm!! Very good! Dave took a pair of his dress shoes to the cobbler to have the bottoms replaced and should pick them up tomorrow before we leave for San Jose del Cabo. Noreen, Ron, J.T., Carolyn, Christian and Nathan arrive at Royal Solaris about 5:00pm. We will be there much earlier and will enjoy just hanging out until our room is ready. We went to see Andrea at Palmira Marina today to find out what they will charge for our boat after March. It’s a bunch!! We will have to think this through carefully so we have 3 months to mull it over. We talked to our boat broker and even boats our size aren’t selling. The advantages of having the boat in La Paz is the availability for people flying in to look for a boat, getting things replaced or repaired, and the biggest of them all would be no birds pooping on our boat. Today is the day we leave for San Jose del Cabo and I am anxious to be on our way. Before we go we have to wait for the shoe repair place to open so Dave can get his shoes. He is supposed to open at 10:00am but since we are in Mexico it is whenever. Needless to say we ended up giving money to Susu and asked if she would pick them up for us and we would get them from her when we return. By now it is after 11:00am so we had to go. We decided not to go through Todo Santos as we heard there was a lot of road construction and it would take longer than going along the Sea of Cortez side. It took about 2-1/2 hours and it was a nice drive with beautiful scenery. The last time we came this way was on a bus and it was at night so we didn’t see anything. The further south we went the warmer the weather. We are really looking forward to warmer temperatures. We arrived at Royal Solaris and got checked in and had some strong margaritas!!! Our room was ready so we were able to go straight there after check-in. We are on the main level and have a room that is on the corner which looks out to the beach and ocean and also to the pool. NICE!!!! After we unpacked we went to the lobby to wait for Ron, Noreen, J.T., Carolyn, Christian and Nathan. I got a gin and tonic and did it ever pack a wallop!!!! Welcome to the world of all inclusive and powerful drinks!! When the gang arrived we were so happy to see them and gave hugs all around. Then we went with them as they checked in. Then it was time for them to go to their rooms and unpack and meet us later for dinner. There is a French buffet at our favorite restaurant, Panchos’, so that is where we will be having dinner. Everyone was freshened up and ready to have a good dinner and a good time. Happy Christmas vacation to us all!!!! Christian and Nathan took off on their own and had dinner together and were exploring when the rest of us were ready to eat. The dinner was great and Noreen was very happy to have French cuisine. After dinner we went to the lobby to listen to music and dance. The guys, Christian and Nathan, were trying all kinds of drinks and having a great time.

It is great to have Ron, Noreen, J.T., and Carolyn here and I know we will have a ball. It is also great to see Christian and Nathan and get to visit with them a little. Of course they didn’t hang with us much. Ya think!!!! The next day we had some early morning cloud cover and it was cold to us but comfortable to the rest of the gang. We were disappointed because we have never been there when it has been cold before. Needless to say we had about 3 days of the clouds which burned off by noon and then became hazy in the afternoon. Us gals still donned the suits and stretched out by the pool. Sure hope the weather clears up. Tonight we had dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant. The food was delicious and everyone had dessert except me. I was stuffed!!!!! They didn’t have my favorite, Crème Bruele, otherwise I probably would have had dessert and then suffered for it. We left the restaurant and went to the lobby to listen to music, watch people dance, and of course dancing for us!!! Oh and drinking!! We old folks stayed until the band finished, which was about 11-11:30pm and the boys found friends their age and took off to do their partying and mischief until the wee hours of the morning. Today is a walk to San Jose to do some shopping and tasting of tequila. J.T. was going to take a cab as his hip was really hurting, but then ended up not going. He was hurting too much. So it was Carolyn, Nathan, Christian, Noreen, Ron, Dave and I. All of us bought something to take back with us and then there was tequila tasting and purchasing. By the time we got back to Royal Solaris it was about 3:00pm. Just enough time to chill before dinner. We are going back to Panchos’ tonight. J.T. got a massage while we were gone and was able to relax a bit. I gave him some of my B-complex pain reliever and he is feeling much better. We all met for cocktails in the lobby then at 6:00pm went to Panchos’ to have a wonderful meal and our waiter was fantabulous!!! His name is Ventura. He made Mexican coffee for us with the flaming tequila and did a great job. We are glad that art hasn’t vanished. Everyone in the restaurant got to watch him make it. It’s quite a show if you haven’t seen it and the coffee is wonderful!! We also had dessert and then left to go to the lobby to enjoy music. After the band was packed up and gone we retired for the night. Another fine day was had by all.Today is Christmas Eve. For the Mexicans it is their Christmas and Christmas day not much is going on. We ate at Panchos’ and ordered off their special Christmas menu. Again we had a wonderful dinner and Carolyn couldn’t stop taking pictures of the food as it was presented very well. We all were having a really good time and it was nice to be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with good friends. After dinner everyone came to our room to exchange gifts; drinking brandy and almond tequila. Merry Christmas!!!! For us, it was a day of lying on the beach, reading, catching up with news about home, or snoozing. What better way to spend Christmas. And get this----the clouds have gone away and it’s warmer. It would be warmer yet if the wind would quit blowing. Tonight is what they call the Gala dinner where we will be outside. I sure hope the wind subsides. We all got dressed up in our finest and unfortunately we thought the wind was dying when it picked up again and we had to wear sweaters and jackets.

We had a fancy dinner and a band played music while we dined. Unfortunately we couldn’t wait for it to end so we could get somewhere warm!!! We had a good time and here are some pictures of the evening.

I did keep to my exercise program and even used the weight room to walk on the tread mill or use the elliptical. I had too as I was eating and drinking way more than I do. Hey----I’m on vacation from my vacation!!!!! HaHa!!!!Royal Solaris has a house tour for the owners and their guests so we went on a catamaran boat ride out of Cabo San Lucas. They take the boat out of Cabo San Lucas and motor to a spot for snorkeling. On the way you can drink all you want, if you could get through their powerful drinks. Upon arrival at the snorkel spot, those that wish to snorkel are given life vests, flippers and masks. The rest of us that don't go get first dibs on lunch. Nathan, J.T., and Christian snorkeled while the rest of us watched and took pictures and started lunch. Once everyone was back on board the engines fired up and we were jostling our way around other boats that arrived to do the same thing. Once out of the little harbor, we headed back to Cabo. Here are some great pictures as we were leaving Cabo.

The boat ride to and from the snorkeling spot was lumpy as the wind had been blowing for the last few days making the seas lumpy. I was glad when we were heading back to the marina. It was a fun trip but not as much fun as it had been in the past for us. They used a different boat than what they have had in the past and the cocktail tables were not bolted down so we had to be really careful not to push or pull on them and hold on to our drinks so when the boat rocked they wouldn’t go flying. We saw one whale but he was too far away to get a good picture. Unfortunately we didn’t see any more. The seagulls were out in force hoping to get some tasty morsels from the people on board.

As we got closer to the entrance of the marina, we saw people para sailing.

When we returned to Royal Solaris we recuperated in our rooms or by the pool until it was time to go to dinner. We met in the lobby for cocktails and then at 7:00pm we attended the Mexican buffet and show. There were some really tasty dishes and the show was on the history of dance in Mexico. Afterwards we went to the lobby for a while and then called it a night.Tuesday, Ron, J.T., Christian and Nathan got up at the crack of dawn to go fishing. Dave didn’t go since he has been 2 or 3 times before, and he wanted the rest of the guys to experience it on their own. Carolyn, Noreen and I agreed to meet in Noreen's room to watch the sun rise. So at 6:30am I walked over to Noreen's room, but no Carolyn yet. Noreen made coffee and we stood out on her balcony waiting. Finally Carolyn showed up before the sun rose. We got some really nice pictures.

After the sun was up and we chatted for a few minutes, I left and went back to my room to have coffee with Dave.The guys were gone all day and just got back in time to freshen up and change clothes for dinner. They had a great time and caught dorado. They released all but one and had that frozen. They were tired, sunburned, and happy fishermen!!! Tonight is Caribbean Night where we have dinner outside and it is a buffet with a show. It wasn’t as cold tonight as it was when we had the Gala dinner. The area where we are dining tonight is farther away from the beach and more protected from the wind. The food was delicious and the entertainment sublime. There was a band, fire twirling acts, a couple dancing and performing on stilts, drums, and dancing girls that could shake their bootie which pleased the guys!!!!

We received beads and masks and had a chance to get up and join the group dancing around all the tables. It was fun but really fun to watch Christian dance with the two dancing girls!!!

It was definitely a fun night and one everyone will remember. When the show was over, we headed for the lobby to enjoy more music and visit with the people around us. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!!J.T. and Dave made arrangements with Panchos’ matre’d, Juaquin, to cook the dorado the guys caught on Tuesday. This is our last night at Royal Solaris so we wanted to celebrate with the fish the guys caught. The matre’d, took care of everything for us. J.T. and his sons walked to San Jose together so the guys could show dad the town. Remember J.T. was hurting so he didn’t go with us the first time. Dave, myself, Ron, Noreen and Carolyn stayed behind and enjoyed a wonderful sunny warm day on the beach. The weather finally was like what we remembered it had been in the past. Of course we are leaving tomorrow, but at least we got a couple nice warm days in. Later in the afternoon we decided to go to the pool where it is only for adults. I needed to walk so I told them I would see them after I got back. I had a nice leisurely walk on the beach and when I returned to the pool I was told I had to get in. It was warm!!!! So I did and it was wonderful!! We had no idea it was a heated pool. Shoot we would have been hanging out by this pool most of the time. Oh well. It was something to file in our minds for next time. Dave didn’t join us at the pool as he had some things he wanted to do. That evening we went to Panchos’ and ordered a salad or soup, and then the fish came out. WOW!!!! It was so good!!! It was very tasty, flaky, and cooked to perfection. We asked to see the chef and when he came out we gave him a standing ovation. I gave him a hug and thanked him for doing a wonderful job. Then it was cheers to the fishermen!!!! We couldn’t have had a better dinner for our last evening here. We had dessert and ordered Mexican Coffee again with our favorite waiter, Ventura. While he did his act, we ooed and awed so that everyone in the restaurant was looking. We were drumming up business for Ventura. Most people don’t know you can ask for it. It isn’t printed on the menu. Actually for the owners it is a free service. Hopefully there were more people who ordered it. We said our goodbyes to Ventura, and Juaquin and told them we were leaving tomorrow. We thanked them for the wonderful dinner and service we received. Then we headed to the lobby one last time. Tonight is Karaoke and even though Dave hates it, he stuck around. Actually it wasn’t bad as most of the singers were kids. No bad singing this time. We hated to call it a night, but every good thing must come to an end. So we said goodnight and made plans to meet for breakfast.Well today is the day we go our separate ways. Dave and I need to leave around 11:00am to head back to the bed and breakfast in La Paz. Ron, Noreen, Carolyn, J.T. and sons leave around 1:00pm to catch a shuttle to the airport. While we were waiting for everyone to get together so we could have a group picture, Christian took pictures of the 3 hot Amigas!!!!

We had Mason, who was our concierge for our stay, take a group picture. Two of the pictures are with a Bell Hop. Mason didn’t realize until the 3rd picture that he was part of the group. Everyone is funny and great!!!

Here is the picture of the gang.

We said goodbyes in the lobby and then moved it outside as they were following us to our car. Carolyn wanted a picture in front of the fountain and then Nathan had to have his favorite picture taken. Needless to say, mom and Christian were not real happy to comply, but they did and here it is.

Then I got a great picture of the Thomas’.

We had such a great trip and were sad to say goodbye, but the good part is we will see them all in a few months when we drive to Washington State to see family and friends!!! So it is something to look forward too. Dave and I had a very nice trip back to La Paz. We decided not to go to Costco because it was closer to Cabo San Lucas and out of our way. Once back at the Bed and Breakfast Dave was able to get his shoes he was supposed to have picked up before we left for San Jose del Cabo. The man did a beautiful job and Dave is happy. For some reason I was really tired so I didn’t do much socializing. I went to our room and read and ended up falling asleep. Dave watched the Huskies play and lose, but he had a nice visit with the folks that stayed and watched the game. We were up early and since we were already packed, Dave paid the bill and we said goodbye to those who were up. We are headed for Santa Rosalia to stay the night on the boat. I know why I was so tired yesterday. I am coming down with a cold!!!! Blah!! Not too happy about that but at least I caught it at the end of our vacation. When we got to the boat, I washed clothes and we went into town for dinner then came back and went to bed early. It had been a long day in the car.I am looking forward to getting home. It has been fun, but it is always nice to come back home. We made really good time as it is New Year’s Eve and hardly anyone on the road. We extended our stay at Royal Solaris by a day as the rest of the gang made their reservations to end on the 29th. We had no problem keeping the room we had so it worked out just fine. We didn’t know until Noreen got there that they were staying a day more than us. No worries. We saw a truck that had driven off the road into an embankment which wasn’t a good thing. Luckily he crossed the road to the left instead of the right; otherwise it would have been very tragic. We did see an ambulance, but it didn’t have a siren going so hopefully the person or persons inside were going to be all right. Dave said the driver must have fallen asleep at the wheel, and commented about our lucky break when I did that. There is a God!! When we got home it was early enough for me to take a nap so I slept the afternoon away. We had hot dogs for dinner. Hey----at least they were turkey dogs and it was simple. I didn’t feel like cooking. We watched some T.V., had some brandy and about 10:00pm called it a night. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. This is an Osprey in our yard ready to take off.

May this be a symbol for all of us for the New Year. May our year take off and be productive and full of life.

Winter is on it's way

2011-12-05T15:40:00.001-08:00

Happy November!!! Fall has arrived in Bahia!!! So have the winds. It is typical weather for fall. The days are cooler and we have resorted to wearing sweats again. It’s nice to have the cool weather. Creela and Phil have arrived so Dave and I went over to help them unload their truck. Their nephew and wife followed them down so with all of us helping it didn’t take long to get them unpacked. Creela and Phil are staying for Thanksgiving, but the nephew is leaving before then. Phil’a Cousin and wife (Lee and Sheryl) will come down to spend Thanksgiving with them. Dave and I have been invited to Mary and Georges for Thanksgiving dinner. They have will have Mary’s sister and niece and our small community of neighbors. It should be fun. I am making pies, a pumpkin and apple, and other people have been assigned a dish to bring with George BBQing the turkey. YUM!!!!!It has been a busy month already!! Twice a week I play games with the gals. Then there is shopping on Saturdays with Penny, Mary Ann and Annie. Mary Ann drives us to town and we stop at all the stores to buy what we need. Sometimes we have lunch in town, but most of the time we just head home when we are done. There is a vegetable truck that comes to town every Saturday with fresh broccoli, green beans, onions, carrots, lettuce, bananas, apples, swiss chard, cilantro, radishes, cucumbers and more. I buy lots of green beans then blanch and freeze them so I can have them when the season is done. It is cheaper to buy vegetables from him than the stores. Plus it is a lot of fun. The guys get a kick out of us trying to speak Spanish, but it is all fun!!! We all learn from each other. Today, Monday the 7th, Dave and I drove to Ensenada to go to Costco and Walmart. When we got into town we headed for the hotel first, got a room then took off for Walmart. I had a few things to get at Walmart while Dave visited the ATM and then went to Home Depot to pick up some liquid nails for Mary Ann. The bank, Home Depot and Walmart are in the same plaza. When we returned to the hotel, Santo Thomas, we went downstairs to the restaurant and had a great meal.The next morning we went to see our insurance man to take care of the insurance for the boat. When we left there we headed to Costco. After Costco we left Ensenada and headed for San Quintin to spend the night. With the time change we wouldn’t have made it home from Ensenada before dark so we stopped at Jardines (Garden) Hotel. What a great place. It is like a tropical Oasis!!! There are all types of succulent plants, trees, birds everywhere chirping and flying about. We love it there. We had dinner at the restaurant and then relaxed in our room. Wednesday morning we got up and drove to town to make one more stop at an ATM. We need to have enough pesos for Bahia since there isn’t a bank in town. After that we headed for Bahia. In some places it was slow due to road construction and lots of trucks, but we made it to the house early that afternoon. I have been giving exercise classes to a couple of the women that asked me to work with them. We have set Sunday, Tuesday and Thursdays as our exercise days. So far so good. We stretch, work with weights, and motivate each other.Tomorrow, Friday the 11th, we have been invited to a Full Moon party. It is just like the one we went to in September when Lois and Larry hosted it. We get to guess where the moon will come up over the mountains and what time. It will be fun to get together with those people we don’t see very often. There is a birthday party this afternoon in Rincon (across the bay from us) this afternoon, but Dave and I aren’t attending. After the drive from Ensenada, we just want to stay home. We enjoyed our quiet evening.Tomorrow I play Hand and Foot with the gals and then Dave and I will attend the Full Moon party. Busy time!!! It is also the day my youngest son, Jonathan has knee surgery. Bummer!!! I hope and pray all goes well for him tomorrow and during his recovery!!! He tore his ACL playing soccer. Things here will start to quiet down after Thanksgiving when most of the people go back to San Diego for Christmas and New Year’s. The full moon party was fun and the only thing that didn’t make an appearance was the moon. We had cloud cover all day and it never went away, so even though we guessed where the moon would rise over the mountains and at what time, we didn’t see a hint of it until later on. So the people that had the closest time to seeing it that night and guessed the correct position got a prize. It was fun. This fall has been quite different from last year. We have had more clouds and rain. I’m not complaining as we always welcome the rain, but it is just interesting to compare one year’s weather to the next. Happy, Happy Birthday to our youngest grandson, David. He is two years old today, the 13th. It is times like this when I miss not being home.It is a sad day today, the 22nd, as Dave lost his youngest sister Kathy, to cancer. It goes to show you that life is short and live it to the fullest!! Be happy!!!We had Phil, Creela, Phil’s cousins, Lee and Sheryl over for dinner. Dave made carbonara and Creela brought a salad and wine. We had a wonderful dinner and great conversation. Unfortunately the 4 of them are leaving to go back to their homes in San Diego on Saturday. It was nice to see and spend some time with them. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! It is a beautiful sunny day with some wind from the west. It’s not too cold or hot. Wonderful!!! Dave is helping Phil bring his boat in from the buoy in front of their house. Phil is taking the boat home with him to do some repairs and bright work then bring it back the next time they come down.I made 4 pies yesterday. 2 apple, 2 pumpkin. We are having dinner at Mary and George’s house, joined by her sister, niece and another neighbor Joanne and Mary Ann. I am bringing one apple and one pumpkin pie, plus the whip cream!!! Yum!!! Today I am cooking our turkey to have tomorrow night. The house smells good!!!I started ordering on line for the grandboys for Christmas. Have to do it early to get the good buys. Plus Dave and I are going down to San Jose Del Cabo for Christmas, meeting Ron, Noreen, J.T., Carolyn, and their 2 sons Christian and Nathan, at the time share. It will be a blast and I can hardly wait. We have a free week so we figured now is the time to use it. We are trying to either sell or rent it, but no luck so far on either. I look forward to being with our good friends at Christmas.Jonathan, my youngest son, came through the knee surgery with flying colors and he is healing nicely. He has started therapy and doing very well. He almost has full range of motion which is excellent!!!! Kudos to Jon!!!I can’t believe in three weeks we will be in San Jose del Cabo enjoying great food, lots of booze and friendship!!! I have vowed to stay on my exercise program through that week we are there. Speaking of exercise programs, the two gals aren’t exercising anymore with me. One of them is experiencing really high blood pressure and I have told her not to do much until she sees her doctor and they find out what is going on. She is on high blood pressure medicine, but it isn’t working to well. I told her we can start again after the first of the year when she has a clean bill of health. Mary Ann won’t come without her so I’m getting more me time!!!! I am reading books, crocheting a scarf, and trying to learn Spanish. The learning of Spanish is such a slow process!! I am determined to learn it if it kills me!!!!! I have to remember that I have come a long way since entering in Mexico and knowing virtually nothing. So I have to keep positive about it. Little by little it is starting to sink in. My friend Penny is the one with the high blood pressure. For a while her blood pressure was scary and we were all concerned about her. She increased her medication and it is finally starting to work and her blood pressure is coming down. I am relieved and really glad she will be seeing her doctor soon. Mary Ann is driving to the states to visit her family for Christmas so Penny will ride up with her, stay with a friend until she is finished with the doctor visits, then walk across the border and catch a bus back to Bahia. The day after Thanksgiving I went on a hike to the top of Red Mountain not far from where I live. Emma organized the hike and at first it sounded like we would have a lot of women going, but as the day got closer, most of the gals fizzled out. So it ended up being Emma, myself, Pam, and Peggy. Here is a picture of, Pam, myself and Peggy.

The day was beautiful and hardly a breeze. We are supposed to get some winds later in the morning but for now it is perfect for hiking. I went to Emma’s house and she drove to the mountain which is about 2 miles or so. We met up with Pam and Peggy and started our hike. The hike was a gradual climb to the top of what everyone calls Red Mountain. We would stop from time to time to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and photo ops!! Here are some pictures looking to the north and seeing the town of Bahia and the bay.

Here are some pictures of the surrounding area and as you can see it is mostly desert and very barren. I love it!!! Also as you look at one of the pictures you can see like a line that curves, that is part of the road we travel into town and back. It is filled with tiny sharp rocks and bigger rocks which make for a very slow and bumpy ride. Hard on the cars but I guess those who have quads enjoy the ride.

The beauty of our little community and bay is astounding!!! You can’t really see where we live but we are close to where the bay curves around to the south.

Rincon, which is the next picture down, is another gated community which is across the bay and very hard to see from this far away.

Reaching the top of Red Mountain, we found a cement grave with a wood cross lying on top. Emma and Pam, who have lived here for many years, said it was a lady who used to live in the village but didn’t want to be buried there. She wanted to be buried on the mountain. They believe her son is also buried with her. Here are a couple pictures. The last one is a picture of Pam, Emma and Peggy.

The islands that surround our bay and town are beautiful.

Bahia and the surrounding area is beautiful and somewhat remote.

A lot of tourists come in the fall and spring to fish and hire guides to take them to see the Whale Sharks. Speaking of Whale Sharks, they are still here. As the water cools more, they will be moving on. They are awesome creatures.

October is always a fun!!

2011-11-20T11:32:00.001-08:00

Wow!!! It is October already!!! Where does the time go? The coyotes have been fairly quiet lately. What is up with that? They were serenading us just about every night for a while. Our neighbor Joanne has a cat so the coyotes like to visit her house a lot. Pour Duffy. He can’t go outside on his own anymore. Well it beats getting eaten. Monday, the 3rd, the gals and I went to Ruth’s to play train. When we broke for lunch, Ruth cooked some hot dogs and the rest of us had brought some food to share. Dave joined us for lunch then when we were finished, Ruth sent a pork roast and a package of cut up chicken pieces home with Dave. She is trying to get rid of some food because she and Ernest will be going back to Big Bear soon. She wanted to do something to thank Dave for all the electrical work he did for her to get her lights working again so she gave us the meat. That was really nice. Ruth and Ernest have been coming down to Bahia for 25 plus years and Ernest isn’t doing so well anymore which means Ruth ends up doing everything herself. They are in their 70’s and it is getting harder for Ruth each time they come down so they don’t know if they will be back again. I hope so, but there comes a time for all of us that live here, to be faced with that dilemma. Before Dave came for lunch, he tried to start our little generator and it wouldn’t. Plus it was backfiring like the one did on the boat. So Dave checked the carburetor and some other things, so he wasn’t having the best of days. We are back on the boat for a couple days. Our cruiser friends, Lynn and Cliff are going to be arriving in Santa Rosalia from San Carlos this week so we will be able to give them the items we have been holding for them. It will be nice to see them again. They spent the summer in San Carlos, on the mainland, and now will be heading south for winter cruising.The electricity is back on in the marina again which is good. But there is no water. They are working on getting that fixed. We need to wash the boat as we don’t have anyone yet to wash it due to the personnel changes that were made to the marina. So the plan is to pressure wash the boat tomorrow, hopefully the water will be back on, clean the stainless steel and do more waxing. The weather is cooler for doing those chores. The water has been turned on and we are in business now. So the work begins. Oh yea!!! Have I told you I hope the boat sells soon????? I know------patience!!!!I was looking forward to washing my dirty laundry and then drying it when I found out I can wash but can’t dry them due to any propane for the dryers. So I will have to hang my clothes on the boat. Some things don’t change. I’m back to doing what I always did when we were cruising and that was hanging the laundry to dry on the lifelines of the boat. I did two loads of laundry and took them down to the boat and we rigged a clothes line from the headsail (forward sail) to the mast. I had sheets and a mattress cover so I hung those on the clothes line and the rest of the laundry on the lifelines. The wind picked up so I added more clothes pins and kept an eye on everything to make sure my clothes didn’t blow away. We worked our fingers, hands, shoulders and a bunch of other muscles today cleaning stainless steel. I rinsed the cockpit then started on the stainless. It was pretty bad. Dave ended up having to go behind me and rub even harder to get the rust and water spots off. The boat is starting to look better, but it is taking a lot of rubbing and scrubbing. Dave pressure washed the deck and after he was done I wiped down the stainless around the boat. Tomorrow we will try to finish the stainless. We got all the inside of the cockpit done and one aft side of the boat on deck. Tomorrow is the other side aft then the stanchions around the deck. Dave also waxed the back of the boat, but it had been so long since the last time it was done the wax soaked in very quickly. We will have to do another coat. We have more waxing to do in other areas too. Our job isn’t done. We have hired a different man to wash our boat. I think he will do a much better job than Arturo. Dave told Arturo to wash the boat then wipe down the stainless steel when he was finished. Unfortunately it never happened. Dave and I feel better about Alberto washing the boat because we have seen him wash other boats in the marina. He does a really nice job. He will also contact the diver to clean the bottom of our boat once a month. So maybe all of this is a blessing in disguise. The boat will be better cared for.Lynn and Cliff arrived in the marina tonight. It was good to see them again. They had a rough trip over from San Carlos and their cat and Lynn got seasick. Yuck!!! They will be busy tomorrow washing their boat as it is covered in salt!!!! Oh the good ole days!!!!! We remember it well! After they got checked in, the four of us went up to a shop above the marina that makes crepes, milkshakes and more. Dave and I had a crepe filled with cream cheese and strawberries. Dave also got a chocolate milk shake. I just had the crepe. It was yummy!!!! The cruisers that have been in the Bay of L.A. for the summer are heading down to Santa Rosalia and they will love this place! The shop will do good business with the cruisers. This morning I walked to town and got some groceries and when I returned to the boat I took the last of the laundry up, washed it, brought it back to the boat and hung them to dry. It looked like a Chinese laundry, but what can I do? The wind is suppose to blow pretty good today so I wanted to make sure I got an early start so the clothes would dry before the wind picked up. Actually I did well in that department because they were either almost dry or dry enough to bring them in when the wind picked up. We are talking 20-25 knots of wind here!The stainless steel and some waxing have been done. She looks good again. I have been icing my right shoulder and putting heat on it to keep it from getting stiff. My mobility has been hindered a bit, but if I continue with the ice and heat treatment and moving it around, I should be alright. Just some of those old aches and pains you get from doing too much at one time. Oh well. Sometimes you just don’t have a choice. Dave was a big help when he came behind me and rubbed more on the stainless. We will need to do it again the next time we visit the boat, but it should be easier and take less time. We are headed for the house tomorrow so we have started packing up and putting things away. The wind has blown steady today. It was a good thing I did my laundry early. This evening, Cliff, Lynn, Dave and I went to have Chinese food. There are a couple restaurants in town and the one we are going to tonight is the better of the two. Cliff and Lynn will be heading south to La Paz and then to the mainland in a week, along with the other cruisers who have been in the Sea of Cortez all summer. Some will stay in La Paz; others will go back to the mainland and cruise south of Mazatlan. We said our goodbyes to our cruiser friends and headed back to the house. The weather has cooled nicely and we are finally able to sleep soundly. That is until the coyotes start to holler and yip outside our windows. We have counted 6 so far and they are youngsters.The people that live down here for 6 months or so in the winter are starting to arrive in droves. Pretty soon most of the people will be here until the holidays. Our neighbors, George and Mary just got home yesterday, the 12th. So the neighborhood isn’t going to be quiet anymore!! It was nice while it lasted. Monday I joined the gals to play train. There were 8 of us who played train and 4 who played hand and foot. It was fun. Dave took the head off the small generator and noticed the valves need cleaning. Nothing major. So tomorrow when he goes to town to get water, he will take the head over to Philipe to see if he could clean it up. Dave ended up having to leave the head with Philipe because his friend borrowed some of his tools so instead of waiting around; Dave just told Philipe he would come back tomorrow. I went into town to get some groceries, dump garbage, get gas in the truck, and pick up the head for the generator. I had perfect timing as when I was heading to Philipe’s shop, he was leaving and saw me and went back home. He had the head ready and I asked how much I owed him and he said nothing. He was happy to do it for his friend/customer. That was really nice. The next time we have work done; we will give him a little more so he can treat himself to a beer or whatever. When I got back to the house, Dave put the generator back together and started it and it ran nicely. Glad that was an easy fix. We have the really big generator, but it runs off propane, but for just vacuuming we don’t need to run it. The weather, during the day has heated up just a little, due to San Diego getting a big high pressure and heat. It will only last a couple more days and then it will start to cool down. The nights have been wonderful!!!!Something is in bloom which is driving my allergies crazy. I wondered why I was getting so tired and sleepy, and then realized that’s what happens to me when I am allergic to some plant blooming or whatever. So I take naps and my allergy medication. No worries!!Lois and Larry had an impromptu full moon party the other night. We had to guess where and when the moon was going to come up. I tied with Mary Ann so both of us won a prize for guessing the closest time it rose. I got a neat battery operated lamp and Mary Ann got some dish towels with cherries on them. That was cool. There were a couple other people that got prizes too for their answers. We had snacks and sat around and visited. This afternoon, Thursday, the 13th, I am playing hand and foot. There are going to be enough ladies where we can play partners. The game goes faster when we can do that. It will be fun. Here are pictures of my Train and Hand and Foot game ladies!!! They are a fun group.

Saturday, we have been invited to a birthday party in Rincon. Dennis, the birthday boy, is turning 70. He and Rainy are great people and we are looking forward to attending. The party was great!! He handed out small plastic shot glasses that lit up when liquid was put in them. Fun!!! His favorite saying is “Bite Me” so that was written on the outside along with the year. They had a huge piñata filled with candy which we didn’t stay to see Dennis bust it open, but we heard it was fun. Dennis made sure that whoever had the shot glasses got tequila in them. There was a Mexican band and dancing, lots of food and drinks. A fun time was had by all. Our gate guard walked off the job the other day. When the Mexican people get pissed at you, they don’t confront, they just leave and will not talk to you again. There was a misunderstanding on his part and instead of waiting for his boss, who lives in San Diego to come down and straighten things out, he just walked away. So now Leysl, the lady we pay the land fee too, is coming down to interview and hopefully hire a new guard. I sure hope the next one speaks some English and speaks Spanish where we can understand him. Nasario was hard to understand by even the locals. That’s how bad it was. We liked Nasario and thought he did a great job, but things started going sour the last couple weeks so now it is time to move on. Ruth and Ernest left Tuesday for their home in Big Bear. Pretty soon she will be teaching ski lessons again. She hopes she can come back down here next April, but it all depends on how Ernest is doing. Annie and Elwyn had their Halloween party on the 31st. Here is a picture of them.

What fun that was!!! Happy Birthday to Davey!!! I dressed as a bag lady-----and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Dave came as a Parrot Head (Jimmy Buffet fan) with his parrot shirt. There were a great group of people, lots of food and music and dancing!!! Annie and Elwyn throw this party every year. It always is a lot of fun. Their friend made the grave yard at the back of their house. It was neat. It was better when it got dark as he had green lights that showed dots all over the grave yard area. I didn’t get a picture of that, but did manage the day light picture. There was a San Diego Charger game airing that evening so some of the guys didn’t stay long but the wives stayed and had fun. Annie was so tickled the weather cooperated. It was a little breezy, but it was warm. Last year it was blustery and cool. We thanked Annie and Elwyn for having this party for Dave!!!! HA!!!

September Continuing to Bring Hot Temps

2011-10-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

It has cooled down some from the heat of the past couple days. I rinsed and scrubbed the port side of the boat to try and get more of the bird crap off. A little more was removed but not all of it. Oh well. That is the way it goes. After that job I rinsed out the cockpit while Dave went to town to price car batteries. We need to replace our start battery now. We have known it for a long time, but we can’t wait any longer in replacing it because it is on its last leg. I was almost finished with the cockpit when he got back with battery in hand. I finished my job and let everything dry. Dave hooked up the new battery and now it is charging. We will have to buy another one later on, because this doesn’t have a lot of amp hours, but it will do for now. Clouds started coming in and it looked like it was going to rain. After lunch I went out and waxed the port top side of the boat. Just the smooth parts. Dave took the old battery back to the hardware store while I polished. I finished polishing and had to quit. I have had enough of the sun for today. I had been sweating a lot and I needed to cool down and get some water in me. Dave returned and checked on the weather. We have a small storm cell above us passing by. I think it is moving south so we won’t see any rain. Dave is also keeping an eye on a tropical storm south of us on the mainland. It was churning and then headed inland and we thought that was going to be the end of it, but it is reviving and does not look too good for us here. Carlos, the marina manager, says that most of the hurricanes develop and come this way around September 1-15. He has lived here all his life so he should know what he is talking about. The tropical storm could generate itself again if it goes out to sea as the waters are warm enough to help it along. We were planning on heading back to the house tomorrow morning, but depending on what this storm is doing south of us, we may have to stay. Dave will take another look at it around 5:00pm when it is updated again. No sense leaving if we have to turn around and come back again right away.Dave and I made a decision about the man wanting to lease our boat for a year. We said no. Dave wrote our broker and told him that if he had enough money to pay the boat payment each month and the moorage fees, he would be able to buy it. The broker thinks this man just wants a cheap place to live for a year. I don’t think it has much to do with selling his boat. It sounds as if he has money. So we wait for the next offer to come along. We have plans to work a lot on the boat in the next 3 months to get her looking nice and protecting her from the elements. The weather should be much cooler. We have just scratched the surface in waxing her. Dave also is waxing the starboard hull where the fender has rubbed the wax off, leaving a black mark. As suspected, the little storm cell has blown away from us. The cloud cover has definitely cooled us off. Well it is time for a beer before I have to do a load of laundry. Toodles.We had dinner in town and when we returned we packed up for leaving tomorrow. We noticed the sky was getting grayer again and looked like it really might rain this time. We got everything packed and ready for transport tomorrow morning to the jeep. Before going to bed we heard thunder and looked out and saw lightning. We didn’t think much of it until it intensified and we had to put the computer in the oven to keep it away from the electrical charges the lightning creates. There is no pilot light on the boat stove so it’s o.k. That is the safest place for electronic devices during a storm. For about 3 hours or so, we heard it thunder and saw the flashes. You thought it was the 4th of July celebration!!!! It seemed as though there were several storm cells converging over us. It rained like crazy and all I could think about was having the jeep and foresail on the boat rinsed as we had a lot of dust flying last week in a 50-55 knot wind chubasco. Then we wondered how the road was going to be in the mountains. We had thoughts of roads being washed out. That is what happens when it rains hard here. We didn’t get a lot of sleep, but we did get up early to head back to Bahia. After securing the boat and saying goodbye to our fellow cruisers, we loaded the jeep. Then we found out that Carlos wasn’t going to be in until 9:30am. Dave forgot to give Carlos money for the diver and boat washer so we had an hour and a half to wait. We drove to town, parked and I waited in the jeep as Dave went to the bank to get pesos. When we returned to the marina, Carlos was just getting there. That was great timing!!! Carlos told Dave the roads were fine once we got out of Santa Rosalia. The majority of the rain fell in town. So that was good news. With all the heavy rain last night, the mud from the hills came down through town and they had backhoes and dump trucks taking the mud away. It made a big mess. We said goodbye to Carlos and headed home. He was right about the roads. No problems after getting through Santa Rosalia. We stopped to do some shopping on the way home in San Vizcaino and then came home. It was pretty warm coming into Bahia. We stopped for gas and then one more store and came home. The house was 106 degrees!!!! We opened all the windows and skylights. It took a while for everything to cool down, but it was just hot. We are back to normal again, in our home. It has been hot and humid, with the wind blowing during the day, but when you need it to keep you cool at night there is nothing. Good thing we have a big fan above the bed!!!!  We have had 2 thunder and lightning storms in the mountains south of us, but no rain here. While we were in Santa Rosalia getting all that rain, Bahia here, got a lot of wind. They had 50 plus knots of wind from a chubasco. It was enough force to blow some items off our storage shed where we keep the garbage can, and one of my rock formations at the beginning of the driveway, which never gets blown over, did!!! Everything else was fine. We seem to fair very well with the weather so far here. I heard from a couple people chairs came blowing off decks and all.Today, the 6th, Dave launched the boat and went fishing but didn’t catch anything this time. He did get a couple hits, but they didn’t latch onto the hook. The wind started picking up so he headed in. I met him at the boat ramp and helped him get the boat on the trailer. This time I resigned myself to getting wet!!! You just can’t fight it. The surf was up a little, but Dave said it was nothing compared to the way it was off the town. So no fish today. We relaxed for the rest of the day. Dave played his computer game and I read. There has been a nice breeze blowing but it is slacking off. We have gotten clouds over the mountains and we are hearing the rumbling of thunder. The clouds have covered the sun so we aren’t getting as much solar power any more. This happened yesterday and then around 4 or so the clouds went away and we had enough power to last all night. Just typical summer weather. We were invited to a birthday party at a friend’s house in Rincon. One of the cruising ladies was having a birthday so Mary invited all those cruisers that wanted to come and us too. Mary knows we use to cruise and we know some of them. So that was nice. It was a potluck and there was lots of food. It was nice to see those cruisers we had cruised with for a while and also to meet new ones and hear of their adventures and plans. It was a fun time. There is going to be a full moon party next weekend in La Gringa, which is north of Bahia and we have been invited to it.Happy 6th birthday Dominick!!!!! Our next to the youngest grandson is going to be starting 1st grade this fall. We were blessed to be able to see him while we were in Washington State. He didn’t remember us because he hadn’t seen us since he was about 2, but we had a fun time at Point Defiance Park with his dad, mom and step brother. Dave and I attended the La Gringa full moon party. We didn’t stay for the potluck, but we did get to see the floaties the cruisers had put together to float in and out of the estuary. They were all great and some were very, very creative. Every year they have this competition of who can make the best floatie and they are judged and prizes are handed out at the potluck dinner later that evening. I wore my bathing suit and got into the water with my noodle to join the fun and talk to some of the people. It was a hot day and the water was cool!!! I floated out of the estuary prior to everyone else so I wouldn’t be among them when the judging started. It was a fun afternoon. Just when you think the weather is cooling, you get another blast of heat. It has gone back up to the upper 90’s and even 100. Dave and I don’t exert much energy when it is that hot. So we’ve been reading and working on jigsaw puzzles. I’ve been trying to walk on the beach after the sun goes behind the mountains as it seems to be a little cooler. Dave has always wanted me to learn cribbage but it just seemed so complicated. But Mary Ann and another gal, named Penny, and I are learning together. As soon as I get a little more comfortable about the game, Dave and I will be able to play. That would make him happy. The gals and I have been playing hand and foot and also train to pass the time. It has been fun. Pretty soon the rest of the gals will be down here so there will be more people to join in. There are just 4 of us that are here all summer, give or take a month for vacation. Ruth, Mary Ann, Penny, and myself. Now we have 5 gals since Joanne has returned. The first part of October there will be more people returning to spend time here until the holidays, then they will go home to the states to be with family and then come back in January or February until it gets too hot for them. So the Bahia shuffle will start soon.  There isn’t going to be a pre-Christmas craft show this year. There wasn’t enough interest to go through all the trouble to put it on, but we are going to have a huge Spring Show. That should be interesting. We had a bunch of people last year and it was pretty crowded. Don’t know where we will fit all the tables-----but wait!!!! I’m not in charge so I don’t have to worry about it!  That feels so good to say!!!! Ha!!The weather is starting to get cooler again. I hope this time it stays cool. Our refrigerator is having a hard time trying to keep things cold. Just a couple days ago we got a west wind which blew very hot air down the mountains and across our area. The temp in the refrigerator was 57 which needless to say spoiled the milk. The inside house temperature was 107 and outside the temperature was 109. That is too hot! Running the fans really didn’t help much but we had to circulate the air somehow. The next house we have I want it to be cement. It is the best type of construction for this heat. Wood absorbs the heat and it takes a long time for it to cool down. If we don’t get a cooling breeze during the day or evening the house never cools down. Just when you think you can’t take it anymore, the weather changes. Just two nights ago it got cool enough that Dave and I had to pull the covers up over us. So maybe the cooling trend is starting. We have had some cooling breezes both in the day and night which is cooling the house down nicely and the refrigerator. I think the weather forecast for next week is to start getting into the 80’s. That will be soooo nice!!! Maybe then I can get back to my cross stitching craft. We got some news from a couple that has a boat in the same marina as we do and they live across the bay from us. They said they heard the marina was changing hands, which we knew, and Carlos, who is the harbor master right now, will be resigning on Friday, the end of the month. That saddened us as he was so good to us. His partner was offered a job at the mine so he left a couple weeks prior. There is no power to the facility so the boats that need power can’t get it unless they run their generator or engines. We are good because we have the solar panels working for us while we are off the boat, but we are going to the boat October 4, and I sure hope the power will be back on by then. It will be interesting to see how the marina will run in the next few months. All the personnel that worked there under Carlos and Evan are being laid off and being replaced with Mexico City personnel. If it gets too bad, we may take the boat down to La Paz, or bring it back to Washington State, in the spring of next year, if we haven’t sold it yet. Time will tell. Always an adventure!!! What would life be without all these ups and downs? Dave and I took the truck into town to the mechanic to have him take a look at the breaks. They are not holding like they should. Every time Dave launches the boat he worries if the breaks will hold. I followed Dave in the jeep and did some grocery shopping while he was talking to Philippe. Then I picked him up when I was done and headed home. Philippe said he would give us a call to let us know about the truck. Our gate guard, Nasario came by and tried to tell me the truck was done and asked if I needed a ride into town to pick it up. I really didn’t understand the truck was ready until after he had left and I was telling Dave about it. Ruth was over for a visit so Dave went to see Nasario and figure out if that is what he was saying, while Ruth and I visited. Sure enough, Philippe told Nasario to tell us the truck was ready. Dave told Nasario we would go into town tomorrow.The next morning we went into town and picked up the truck. Dave drove it while I drove the jeep. Dave said the truck runs really well. Philippe adjusted the breaks, changed 2 spark plug wires and plugs added brake fluid and it only cost $300 pesos. That is pretty cheap!!! Especially with the exchange rate at around 13.7.I played cribbage on Wednesday and hand and foot on Friday. Keeps my mind active and also gives me something else to do. Not doing much crafting stuff right now. Just reading and working on my cross stitch again. We heard the power is back on in the marina in Santa Rosalia so we will be heading down on October 4. I am glad that has worked out because I have some bedding and towels to bring down to wash. So life is good. It should be interesting to see what changes have been made.

Last of Vacation then back to Bahia

2011-08-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a busy week. Monday we had dinner with Laurie CoyKendall in Poulsbo at a new restaurant ‘The Hair and Hound’. We had a nice visit and the food was pretty good. We both came back to the marina as Laurie wanted Dave to check to see what type of batteries she had. Dave is going to be talking to our dealer friend, Tori, to see where the best place is to buy batteries for our and Laurie’s boat. We said goodbye to Laurie and came back to Ron and Noreen’s boat.

Tuesday I did some grocery shopping so I could make my Mexican lasagna for Ron, Noreen, Fleeta, Carolyn, J.T., and SaraNell and Clark. Clark is getting ready to pack up and drive to Florida where he and SaraNell will be making their home. SaraNell will follow in about a month. So it was nice to have dinner with everyone. It was my fairwell dinner as I am leaving Thursday night for California.

Wednesday I ran around getting the last of the things on my list before I have to pack. When I got back to the boat, Dave said he talked to Kristen and we are invited to her house for dinner tonight. I didn’t expect that, but I am glad we could do it before I left. She made a nice dinner and afterwards we played the game, Scattagories. We got a chance to get to know Ethan and Sam more and them us. Hopefully, Kristen and Dave will be able to get together one more time before he leaves to meet me at my sister’s house.

Today is packing day and then Dave is driving me to Jon’s house where Ernie and Eian, and E.J. will be waiting. I packed everything I thought I would need at my sister’s and then everything else went into my suitcase and to storage until Dave got ready to pack the jeep. Last night I said goodbye to Noreen as she has to work today. We are so thankful to have such good friends like them!!! We always enjoy staying with them!!! Dave and I needed to be on our way to Tacoma by 4:30 to avoid the heavy traffic from the shipyard in Bremerton. I gave Ron a big hug and thanked him for everything, then took off. Dave and I stopped at McDonald’s for dinner in Port Orchard then carried on to Jon’s house in Tacoma. When we arrived, the boys were eating pizza and Jon was packing. No one was looking forward to the long drive, but was excited to be going to California. Dave said goodbye and the rest of us were on the road a little after 7. The weather was nice and the back seat of Jon’s car, a VW Jetta, was uncomfortable in the middle as the drive shaft goes under the center of the back seat. Because I have a bad back, the boys took turns sitting in the middle. That was so nice of them. Eian got the middle for a long time to start and when we stopped for gas in Oregon, E.J. switched with Eian. There were no other stops and the grandboys slept most of the time, and I slept a little. Jon drove until Oregon and then Ern drove until we gassed up in California close to my sister’s house. We stopped at a restaurant near there and had breakfast and then Jon drove to my sister’s. We made it in 11 hours. That was a record I guess from last year. The boys said it took about 13-14 hours last year so they were stoked!!! My sister and Hig were waiting at the kitchen table when we arrived. After all the hugs and some talking, we all took a nap. Then the guys played pool and my sister and I caught up. During my stay at my sister’s, I got to spend a lot of quality time with my sons and grandsons. It was really nice. I went to the fair one night with them and watched E.J. play a couple games and Eian too. The water gun game was played by everyone but Ernie. He stood back and watched.

Jon won a rasta banana. That is a reggae looking banana. Bud, his cousins husband one one also. Here are some pictures.

We had 10 wonderful days with my sister and family and it was great!!! I hope I can be there again next year.

Dave arrived at my sister’s on Saturday the 13th, just in time for the family reunion. We had a family photo taken when we could round everyone up. Handsome family don’t you think?

An added bonus was a picture taken of my boys and the grandboys with Dave and I. Very special indeed.

From the left back to the right is Jon Dave and Ernie. Then front is me, Eian and E.J. The grandboys are handsome dudes!!!Sunday evening, the 14th, the boys left for the return trip to Washington and back to their everyday life. I will miss them terribly, but am so glad I was able to spend this time with them. My sister’s house was really quiet (whew) after that, because the rest of the family wasn’t popping in to see the boys.

Got a message from the boys saying they made it home safe. They had a good smooth trip back. Now it is back to work for Ern and Jon and the grandboys will be getting ready for school. Dave and I stayed until Thursday, the 18th, then headed for home. I was glad to have so many days visiting with my sister. She and Hig have health issues and they are getting up there in age so any time spent with them is good.

Our first stop after leaving my sister’s house was just north of Los Angeles. Tomorrow we will leave for Lois and Larry’s house in San Diego to pick up Dave’s computer. It was finally fixed so now we will be a 2 computer household again.

We arrived at Lois’ in time for lunch. She fed us soup and sandwiches and we had a nice visit. Dave checked out his computer to make sure it was actually fixed and running well, then we all left and Lois took us to the Costco since she had to get gas and we had to get some groceries. We said goodbye and went on with our shopping. After that we decided to stay in San Diego for the night as it was getting late to cross the border and drive to Ensenada. So we found a Quality Inn and relaxed. We had hoped to walk to a place for dinner, but when we ventured out, there was nothing within the 3 block radius so we drove to Denney’s.

We left for the border after breakfast and made it across without waiting. We stopped in Ensenada to use the ATM machine and to get a couple things at Walmart before heading south to home. It was a long drive as there were three places of road construction, that slowed us down considerably, but after that we made up the time and got home around 5:30pm, the 20th. Finally!!!! We unpacked the car and brought most of the stuff upstairs and then I made something quick for dinner. We had to start up the refrigerator and stove again since they run on propane. It took overnight for the refrigerator to get cold enough to put things in it. The house, being closed up for a month and a half, was very hot. The thermometer read 100 degrees. Everything was hot to the touch. It was a little over 100 outside. After a couple of days with the windows open and a breeze, the house will start cooling down.

Things are put away and we can assume life as usual in Bahia. While walking around the yard last night we noticed it had rained and one of my rock sculptures head was missing by the driveway which indicated some heafty winds. We must have had a storm come in with a micro burst of wind and short period of rain. We also noticed the head of the turtle was missing. Apparently the coyotes got hungry and the head still had some meat on it so it was a meal for them. Life for them in the desert!! None of our neighbors are here so it is nice to have the place all to ourselves. The guard, Nassario is happy to have someone here. He took a mini vacation after we got home.

The weather has been hot with some breezes during the day and a couple nights there hasn’t been any to speak of so we have had to run fans. No Worries. It won’t last long as it should start cooling down next month.

Dave got water on Monday, 22nd, so now our pila is full. We had a visitor toward the late evening. Dave spotted what looked like large cat on top of the carport. He called me to look at it. I told him it wasn’t a house cat it was a Bobcat!!!! What a beautiful animal. He was just lying around but he was very aware we were there. He left sometime after dark. Then the next evening he came back again to visit in the same place. I got several pictures of him but here are three. The first one I hope turns out because it shows his eyes from the flash.

It’s a good thing I took pictures as we haven’t seen him since. He must have found a new home. He looked young and he was skinny.

I went in to town on Wednesday and did some grocery shopping. The laundry is caught up and now I am spending my days reading and trying to learn Spanish. Lois and Larry left some Berlitz Spanish tapes behind when they moved out so I am listening to them and following the book. It is a slow process but I am confident as I talk and listen to the people in town I will be able to pick up more of the language and be able to communicate better. At least that is what I am hoping for.

I finally got in the water the other day. Boy! Did it feel good!!! It was lukewarm so with 90 degree weather it felt refreshing. Dave was on shore trying to catch fish.

Dave launched Mary Ann’s boat. The aluminum one she lent us, and went out in search of fish. The first time he didn’t catch anything but the second time he caught a 10lb dorado. He said there were a lot of them swimming around. So the fishing is good!

We got some clouds last night on the east side with thunder and lightning. That usually means a Cubasco with strong winds. We closed down the skylights in preparation for the winds, but we didn’t get much. That is alright. It is better to be prepared than not. We ran the fan above our bed most of the night since there wasn’t any breeze until the Cubasco came.

Dave is making bread this morning. We bought some bread flour in the states since you can’t buy it here in Bahia. So we will see how it turns out. I hope better then the last time. It was good just not a large fluffy loaf.

The bread did turn out really good. He made an Italian loaf. What a difference the right kind of flour makes.

It remains hot and the wind blows pretty good in the day time but when we want to go to bed there isn’t any to speak of. Thank goodness for the large fan above the bed. We are looking forward to it cooling down at night. Hopefully next month.

Dave went fishing yesterday, the 28th and caught another dorado. Not as large but enough to freeze some and give some to Mary Ann and our guard. I like to eat fish, I just don’t like all the other stuff that goes along with it. Like what you ask? Well launching the boat. It is light so when it is put in the water and there is any kind of surf, it is hard to keep the stern of the boat with the huge engine from turning toward shore. The same as when we are taking it out to put it on the trailer. With all of that Dave and I end up dripping wet because you have to get into the water to make sure the stern of the boat is straight when pulling it on the trailer. Getting in the water isn’t the problem---it’s the laundry I have to do later which uses lots of fresh water. Then------there is the fact of getting all the tools ready to fillet the fish. I guess I don’t have to help with this, but when we started cleaning fish on the boat I got involved so I’m stuck now. No worries!!  Actually I am learning when I help. It is just messy. Then there is the cleanup of the board, knife and fish along with vacu packing and putting it in the freezer. I guess I just needed to bitch for a bit about something. It is a pain in the butt, but looking on the bright side, we have good eating fish. Even in paradise there are times when you don’t like doing something. Actually if that is all I have to bitch about------I can’t be doing to bad!!! 

Happy Birthday to me today, the 29th. Next year is the big ‘60’!! We aren’t doing anything special. Just another day. It is nice to be remembered through Facebook!!!

Tomorrow we are taking off to Santa Rosalia to the boat. We need to remove the old batteries and put new ones in, pay moorage and make sure everything is running properly. We will be able to use our air conditioning, which will be wonderful, as it is hotter there than here in Bahia.

The other day, Dave got an email about a man in Canada, saying he is interested in the boat but the price is too high. Dave wrote the broker and said to convey to him to make an offer. Right now the payoff on the boat is 214,000.00. We haven’t heard back so I guess he isn’t that interested. At least we are starting to get some action on it. I hope and pray we will be able to sell it this year. It sure would be nice.

We headed out this morning for Santa Rosalia. It was promising to be a hot day in Bahia and after arriving in Santa Rosalia, it was as hot as home. At least it isn’t hotter. We are running the air conditioner which is really nice after carting all the stuff down from the jeep to the boat. It was like Dave and I ran through water, we were so dripping wet.

We found out the rates in the marina are going up $200 which means we will be paying close to $700 a month. YIKES!!! Dave is going to talk to Carlos and see what he has to say. Carlos is the marina manager. Well good news. Dave came back and said that if we put the amount on our credit card we can still have the rate we had been paying. So we decided to do that until January 1 of 2012. We will just pay on the credit card bill and not have to come to the marina each month to do that. That saves us some money and time. After January, if the boat is still here, we will have to pay the going rate of $700. Let’s hope we don’t have to worry about it.

Dave got an answer back from the broker in La Paz about the Canadian who is interested in our boat. He is interested in leasing the boat for a year with the option to buy and he would pay to keep the boat here in Santa Rosalia. He has a C&C 36 foot sail boat in Canada that he wants to sell. So he wants to have our boat for a year in hopes his boat sells and then he will buy our boat. At first we thought –Hmmmm!! Maybe that will work. Then I start thinking about the what ifs!! What about insurance in the event something happens to the boat while in his possession. And then if he can’t keep the boat then it is back in our hands again, plus while the boat is leased by this man, no one else can buy it. So I don’t think it would be a good idea. Dave is going to sleep on it, but I think he is thinking the same way I am. We don’t want to get screwed. I’d rather sell the boat outright and be done with it. We will mull it over and make a decision in a few days.

The house batteries have been switched out and the new ones put in. Now we charge them up. Looks like tomorrow is a pressure wash day for the boat. We didn’t watch for the cormorants’ last night and we woke to a real mess on the deck. What fun. We had to wash the boat anyway since we were told there was a chubasco a few days ago with 50-55 knot winds which blew a lot of dirt on the boat. When we look at the stainless steel, it makes us want to cry as it is in dire need of polishing. It does no good to polish each time we come because when the boat is washed the water spots on it and we are back to square one again. This trip is too hot to be doing outside work, so I will wait until October, November to touch up the stainless steel. Just about everything inside and out needs cleaning so when it cools off, I will start to work. If we could only keep the damn birds from crapping on the boat!!!!! I’m seriously thinking about getting something to put on the spreaders. Dave and I will talk about it because we have to do something or the finish on the boat will deteriorate. We are sooooo ready to be done with the boat. It was a labor of love---now it is just a labor I’m afraid.

One thing I am glad about---not just living in paradise and not having a job, but having a husband who can do just about anything on the boat!!! He is a God send and I thank the Lord for sending him to me. We have had our moments, but all in all, we are good friends and respect and love each other. I do not have the knowledge about electrical things like batteries and the system on the boat. So I am glad I have someone who does. O.K. Enough of this sentimental stuff!!! I had a weak moment—sorry guys!!! ;-)

See you in September!!

Vacation to Washington

2011-08-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

The wind has come up and is blowing pretty good. That is nice because it has been so hot and humid. We had to take our sun shade down because it got too windy and we have been running the air conditioner all the time which is so nice!! I’m glad we have it. Most of the other cruisers have one on their boat too. I walked to town this morning and got a few things and I was going to stop at the ATM but there was a long line. Today is payday for the Mexican people. So I went back this afternoon after we had lunch. Perfect timing as I was the second in line. We are leaving for the house tomorrow and then we get to start packing for Washington!!! Yahoo!!!

We made it back to the house. We didn’t do much until the next day. Riding and driving for 5 hours tires you out. Sunday was a busy day as I started to get things together and clean and all that kind of stuff. We are getting clouds and a lightning show to the south of us in the valley. It’s cool to watch. It is our first storm of the summer. We didn’t get any rain as it went to the east. I guess we will be having a couple cloudy days. It wouldn’t hurt if it rained. We need it. My windows need cleaning. Ha!

Dave and I are packed and things are put away that were outside. So we are leaving early Wednesday morning, the 5th. Creela and Phil invited us to stay overnight at their house in El Cajon, San Diego, so we will be at their house Thursday afternoon. We are looking forward to it.

We have left Bahia and arrived at Creela and Phil’s Thursday afternoon. Right after we arrived and went through hugs and handshakes, Creela took us on a tour of their lovely home. We took our stuff to the room we were going to sleep in then Creela and I spent part of the afternoon watching an episode of, “So You Think You Can Dance”. She taped it from last night. Dave and Phil went to town to do a couple errands. When they got back we all watched a little T.V. and then decided to take advantage of Happy Hour. Drinks were made and we took them outside on their deck and had a nice visit. Then we went to their favorite pizza place and had salad and pizza. It really tasted good. Mexico doesn’t make really good pizzas. Even though the pizzas in Mexico are edible, the States make them better!!! Yum!! After dinner we came back to the house and Creela showed me their garden and fruit trees. They don’t have a large yard, but it is big enough to grow what they want. That evening we sat and watched the next episode of, “So You Think You Can Dance”, then started watching another show and Creela and Phil decided to retire for the night. Dave and I watched a little T.V. but ended up going to bed early.

Friday morning Dave and I were up at 6:00am and packed. We loaded up the jeep and Creela and Phil weren’t up yet. We waited until 6:40am then wrote a note because we had to leave. We wanted to try to make it to Redding for the night. We left and called them at 8:00am. We had a really fun time and hated leaving before we said goodbye, but we didn’t want to wake them. No worries. They wished us a safe trip.

We didn’t make it to Redding. Instead we ended up in Woodland which is just north of Sacramento. Dave does the driving and he was a tired puppy!!! The weather was hot, but not as hot as Bahia. We relaxed for a while then went to Applebee Restaurant and had a good dinner. Then returned to the room, watched T.V. and went to bed.

On the road again and making good progress. We stopped just north of Eugene, Oregon for the night. The weather was cooling down but still nice. Tomorrow we will be at Ron and Noreen’s boat. We’ve had a great trip so far.

We made it to Ron and Noreen’s. Since we have been here the guys have gone out to set crab pots and then next day pull them. They have been getting a lot of crab.

Sunday’s seem to be our crab cracking day where Clark, SaraNell, Fleeta (who is the host on her boat), Ron, Noreen, us, and anyone else that wants to come. There is some drinking involved, a lot of fun and some sore cut hands and fingers but it is worth it. We’ve had crab fettuccini, crab quiche, and crab salad. Yummm!!! The weather has not been sunny, although the temperature has been in the low 70’s. There have been only a couple days of what we call cold.

All my doctor appointments have been done so I am in great health. My cholesterol is at 249 which the doctor was ecstatic about and me too. That is the lowest it has been for years!! Dave had an eye appointment for his cataract in his left eye and they are sending him for consultation on the 29th to see when he can have surgery. He is hoping he can get it done in August and not have to wait until next year. The cataract is growing and making it harder for him to see out of that eye. My fingers are crossed!!

Jonathan, my son, took me to a Sounders soccer game. I met him outside the stadium and went to our seats. What a great game and we won. There is a lot of interaction with the crowd, a lot of yelling, clapping and waving of scarves. I am now a proud owner of a Sounder hat! After the game Jon and I separated for home. I took the ferry back to Bremerton and Jon took the Sounder transit to Tacoma. I had a great time!!!

We have seen Michael, my step son, Dani, his wife and their son David. What a kick David is. He is almost 2 and constantly moving. He loves to play his guitar and dance. Notice the guitar is backwards?

We had a great time with them and hated to end the visit but that is how it goes.

On the 19th, Kristen, my stepdaughter, her two sons, Sam and Ethan, Dave and I went over to Ballard to a Norwegian Historical Museum. She is doing research for one of her papers for school. It was pretty interesting and it was fun to have spent the day with them. Those guys are getting big and growing up fast. We had a great time.

Our next visit was to Bre and Brent’s place in Anacortes. Jessica, their daughter just graduated from 2 years of college and high school on the same day!!!!! What an accomplishment!! Now she is readying herself for college at Western. Bre was diagnosed with breast cancer last December and has been undergoing treatment. Her chemo is ending soon and then she has radiation next. Not a great thought, but she is handling it very well and just taking a day at a time. She looks good and her hair is starting to grow in slowly leaving peach fuzz on top. Brent, Bre, and J.J. (Jessica) seem to be dealing with the difficulties well and going on with their lives. It was really good to see them and be able to spend time with them.

On our way back from Anacortes we stopped in Renton to see Teri, my ex-daughter-in-law, and our grandsons Eian, and E.J. The boys are getting tall. I got my needed hugs from them and gave them lots too. I’m looking forward to my trip down to my sister’s house in Ukiah, California with them soon. E.J. has braces and Eian’s hair is shorter. It was great to see them. We missed seeing Ben, however, Teri’s significant other, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. They will have to come and visit us!

We have been able to spend some time with our friends here at the Brownsville Marina, and I spent some time with my girlfriend Judy, so all is going well. The best part about being here in the states is I get to go shopping!!! Mostly I have just looked around because money is tight, but it is fun. I have picked up a few things that were on my list so that is good. Now Dave is going to get some of the things on his list, like zincs for the boat and other stuff. He will probably do that when I am in California. My sister and family are having a reunion and my sons and 2 grandsons wanted to go down there again. They went last year and I wasn’t able to be there so this time I will ride down with the ‘boys’, and Dave will get his stuff done and then come down to my sister’s to visit a day or two and then we will leave to go back to Mexico. That is if he can’t get his cataract surgery done. If he can get it done this month, I may be coming back with the ‘boys’ and then leave with Dave after the surgery. So we will know more tomorrow, the 29th. Speaking of tomorrow, Dave and I get to see our grandson, Dominick!! He is going to be 6 next month. It’s been a long time since we have seen him so it will be fun. Here is a picture of Dominick, and another one with his half brother, William.

Saturday, the 30th, we are going to 3 parties. One is a Hunter Rendezvous in Port Ludlow, the other party is at a friend’s house, and the last one is at the Brownsville Deli. The Deli is celebrating their annual Anniversary of the opening. So we will party ON!!!! Waahooo!! We will make an appearance at the rendezvous and hang with Gary and Laurie CoyKendall for a while, then leave and go to Bill Bailey’s home, then to the deli party!! What a busy schedule we have!! Finally the weather is starting to warm up and we are getting more sunshine!!!! That is terrific.

Thursday, the 4th is when I leave for California, not the 5th like I thought. I am excited!!! I get to ride in the back seat with my grandsons, Eian and E.J. I have already told them that I have elbows and I’m not afraid to use them!!!!!! HA!!!

Dave had his consultation with the eye doctor and he can’t have surgery until next year some time so he was bummed. We will take it one step at a time. Stay tuned for more vacation pics and tales!!

Living the Dream

2011-07-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Today Mexico is celebrating Mariner’s Day. It’s a big deal since there are a lot of fishermen and the Navy here. Since the wind isn’t blowing, we left our slip to go out of the marina to make water. Our neighbors put a line across our slip so no one else would come into it while we were gone. Once we got out and away from the marina, in 200 feet of water, we turned the engine off and Dave went down to start the generator so we could make water. He opened the sea valves and warmed the plugs and tried to crank the generator engine. The only sound it made was a clicking noise which is not what you want to hear. He tried it again with the same results. He checked the water strainer to the generator and it was fine. He checked a couple other things, but nothing helped. I started the engine and we idled while Dave got his tools out to see what was going on. Unfortunately he doesn’t have all his tools here. After about ½ hour, we had to give up and we hailed our neighbor at the dock to let him know we were on our way in so he could remove the line from across our slip. He and a couple other guys helped us into our slip and now Dave is taking the generator apart. There is another American guy here helping Dave brainstorm. He has worked on refrigeration and diesel engines, so hopefully they can figure out what the problem is. So far, Dave found a bent rocker arm. Not something we wanted to deal with, but can’t sell the boat without the generator working. So here we sit. We started and ran the generator when we were here last month and it ran great. We never thought we would have to check it before going out. Well-----guess again. So much for trying to make water. Welcome to the world of boating/cruising!!

To stay out of the way, unless Dave needed me to do something, I played games on my computer. There isn’t anything I can do. I figured it was better just to stay in one spot. There wasn’t any room to look over his shoulder anyway.

I will go into town this afternoon, when the stores open and do some food shopping. I don’t have much to get. Tomorrow I will get fruits and vegetables.

I never made it to town. I was so bummed about the generator I just didn’t feel like doing anything. Being it was such a shitty day----and both of us were feeling down, our wonderful cruising neighbors, Lynn and Cliff off s/v Taya, invited us to come to their boat for margaritas and then go with them and some other cruising couples to dinner in town. It was nice to get our minds off of the generator for a while. We had a great time visiting with everyone, had a wonderful dinner and we were able to walk around town and enjoy the festivities. They had a carnival set up and the kids were having a ball. There was a band that played (LOUD) and Lynn wanted to do some dancing, but in the end, we all went back to our boats. We had more fun watching the kids run around and the music really wasn’t much to dance to.

Today, June 2, promises to be a better day. Dave spent the whole day taking the generator apart to get the exhaust manifold/expansion tank off, and when he got that loose, he noticed the dry exhaust elbow was cracked.

Not good. Once all that was removed, he could get to the head and take the injector plugs out and take a look at no. 3 rocker arm shaft. We found out no seawater had gotten in, which is a good thing, but the valve and injector plug got so hot, it welded shut. So we have lots of parts to bring back to Washington with us to get replacement pieces for and the injectors and tank will need to be steam cleaned. Dave said that once we get all the parts it will be easy to put back together. It usually is. We did our normal maintenance on the generator and don’t have a clue why it was so gunked up. An end of the mixing elbow was almost clogged shut. Hmmmm!!! Dave finally finished with that job around 5:30pm. Thank goodness we had some nice cruisers who let him borrow some tools to do the job. We were planning on going back to the house tomorrow, but I think we will head back on Saturday morning. This morning when Dave first started the ‘JOB’, I went to town to pick up a few groceries and get some medicine from the pharmacy. When I returned to the boat, Dave had the ladder that goes below, bungee corded up so he could access the generator better, but I couldn’t go below yet. Eventually, I was able to. In the meantime, we had our starboard and port water tanks filled. A Mexican man was bringing down 5 gallon jugs of drinking water to fill the water tanks on all the cruising boats. Not a good idea to use the water from the tap as it has a lot of chemicals in it and it doesn’t taste good. We always buy drinking water when we come down to use for making coffee and drinking. It took 12, 5 gallon jugs to fill the starboard and port tanks. Now we can back flush the water maker. Since we didn’t get to that today, we will do it tomorrow morning. I will also do laundry and then we will be ready to leave on Saturday. Dave feels good about getting the generator apart and accessing the damage which he was relieved wasn’t major. It can only get better from here!!! RIGHT?!

Friday was a little more relaxing for Dave and I was going to get fruits and vegetables today, but with all the generator parts we have to take back with us, there was no more room for anything else. Such is life. We back flushed the water-maker and I packed things up and took a lot of the stuff to the jeep so we don’t have that much to do in the morning before leaving. It actually got a little warm this trip as the wind didn’t blow much. We only turned the air conditioner on once while we’ve been here.

We made it home safely. Now Dave is looking on line to price what we have to replace and find out where we can have the head magna-fluxed. He did check with the mechanic here in town and he was able to tell Dave who he could see in Ensenada to have that done. All the repairs aren’t going to cost us as much as we thought initially. That is a good thing.

Today- June 8 is my sister Colleen’s birthday!!! Happy, Happy. She’d kill me if I mentioned her age so I won’t. She’s just my eldest sister!!

Fishing is picking up. Dave and our neighbor Phil went out several times, but had no luck until the other day. They caught yellow tail and bonita. Phil is smoking the bonita. Even if they don’t catch fish, they have fun. The Whale Sharks have returned earlier than last year which is a sign the water is warming and the fish are coming. In another month or so dorado will be here. Now THAT is a good eating fish! We are starting to see pods of dolphins too.

We went to dinner at Anne and Elwins’ house last night, Friday, June 10 and had a wonderful time. Creela and Phil joined us. Then this morning, we went back to have key lime pie and coffee for breakfast. I had made the pie but everyone was so full Creela came up with the idea of having it for breakfast. So this morning at 9:00am we went to Anne and Elwins’, had breakfast and Larry and Lois came over to visit as well. It was fun! Then we left and Dave and Phil are smoking fish and I am baking chocolate chip cookies for Dave. The guys are going on a road trip Monday to Ensenada. Phil needs to pick up his FM3 and Dave needs to have the generator head magna fluxed and get a couple other things. They will return on Wednesday. So Monday afternoon I will have the ladies over to play the card game, Hand and Foot. Party Time!!!! Waahoo!!!!

Today, Sunday, June 12, we had another person come look at the house. A man and his grandson. When they left, Dave said he thinks it is sold. So now we wait to hear what Larry and Lois have to say. I think this man is looking for a summer house, not to live here year round. Right now I am glad if it sells so we won’t be in the state of limbo any more. But we’ll see.

The guys left this morning for Ensenada.

I have had some coral plants drying for a while. I found them on the beach a few months ago and last week I lightly sprayed each of them blue, leaving some of the white to show through. This morning I hung them and added a shell and they look great.

This afternoon I had 4 ladies over to play, Hand and Foot. I am getting better at playing. It was fun. I found out that the guy that came to look at the house yesterday isn’t serious about any of the houses he looked at so far. He is still looking around. So that made me feel better.

After the gals left I sat outside, had a drink, smoked a cigar and enjoyed the view. It was a warm day with not much breeze. Actually right now there isn’t any breeze and I am hearing the coyotes yip back and forth to each other. I guess I will need to get the fan out to keep me cool until the breeze picks up. It usually does that around 10-10:30pm or so. The coyotes are quite vocal tonight!

The guys have returned and Dave was able to get everything done he needed and Phil got his FM3. So all is well. Now Dave is going to order the rest of the parts for the generator and have them shipped to the bus station next to the marina in Santa Rosalia. This way we won’t have to take any parts with us or bring any back when we go to Washington. When the parts arrive, we will go to the boat and put the generator back together, test it and then come back to the house to pack for our trip to Washington State.

The weather is getting warmer and we are having to run some fans to keep cool. The breeze blows most of the time during the day, but when you really want it, which is at night, it doesn’t. Summer is truly here!!!

Dave and Phil have been going out looking for fish and have caught some which is a surprise because Phil doesn’t like to stay in one spot for long, it is hard to catch anything. Thankfully we have some yellowtail fillets in the freezer.

For the first time since I have played the Train game, I won 3 games!!! That was remarkable. So now I don’t need to buy quarters. It is all a game of chance!!

Dave and Phil went out fishing this morning, 18th. Dave had planned on getting water this morning, but when Phil asked if Dave would join him, you know Dave isn’t going to miss a chance to fish. I told Dave I would get the water. I need to learn to do it anyway by myself so around 7:30am I took off for town and when I got to the water place I had about 4 cars ahead of me. When it was my turn I backed the truck up to the hose and when the guy next to me had filled his tanks, he handed me the hose and I filled mine. I paid, and headed for home. I had to go real slow as there is a lot of weight in the truck and on the tires and I am going over rocks. I made it home around 10:00 or so, backed the truck up to the pila and figured I would wait for Dave and we could pump the water out of the tank in the truck into the tank inside the pila. As it got later in the afternoon, I decided to hook up the hoses and get everything ready for when Dave got there. When it got to be much later in the afternoon, I finally worked up enough courage to pump the water. I was nervous about doing this because if I didn’t do it right, I could blow the hose off the tank in the truck and cause us to lose lots of water. The other fear was losing the weights off the other hose that goes into the pila tank that keeps the hose from flying out of the pila. I knew when Dave got back he was going to be tired and really not looking forward to pumping the water so I decided it was time to learn. I attached the dive weights on the hose to the pila tank and tied the line from the weights to the ladder. Once that was secured, I got in the back of the truck and slowly opened the faucet on the tank so the water could run slowing to the pump. If you open it too much there is so much pressure on the hose that it can blow off. Once the water started to bubble out of the top of the pump, I opened the faucet all the way, got down out of the truck and started the pump. Waahoo!!! It worked. So I got up into the bed of the truck and took the lid off the water tank so I could keep an eye on the water level. Then all of a sudden the pump stopped. Oh no!!! Now what! I had to talk to myself and keep telling me to calm down and think!!! It took me a few minutes to realize that the lever to allow fuel to the pump was off. I flipped that up and started the pump again and all went well. I checked the other hose going into the pila and it was down far enough it wasn’t going to swirl its way out. I climbed back into the truck bed and kept an eye on the water level and when it was down far enough I moved the tank closer to the edge of the truck bed so I could tip the tank up to drain the water. When I couldn’t tip it anymore, I got down from the truck and tilted the tank more over the edge of the truck to drain more water. I couldn’t drain it all the way, but there was just a little left which I would take care of later. I turned the pump off, took the dive weights off the hose and drained both hoses and detached them from the pump. I rolled them up and put them back in the garage. I put the lid on the pila tank and turned the handle on the faucet to see where the water level came to on the site tube. Perfect! We have a black piece of tape which marks the full spot on the site tube and it was way above that. So we are good for a while. I turned off the faucet and walked back to the truck. I pushed the black tank back and closed the tail gate. I pulled the pump over to the bushes and let water drain out, then I capped it off and rolled the pump by the trailer in the shade. Then I backed the truck to where we normally park it, leaving enough room to drain the rest of the water out of the tank and then pull it off the truck to stow. I got almost a full bucket of water out of the tank which I will use to water plants. When the tank was stowed, I backed the truck to where it normally sits and I was done. I got the weights and put them away, then went upstairs to drink some gatorade. I was very pleased with myself that I was able to do that by myself. Unfortunately, I torked my back a little and got it out of alignment, but nothing that hasn’t happened before. I will just need to stretch and try to pop it back into place. When Dave got home he was surprised I did the water, but pleased. He really didn’t feel like doing that little chore. So we both were happy. I can’t remember if they caught any fish, but the guys had a good time on the water. Now I can call myself a true Baja gal as I can do things by myself!!

The other night Dave and I were watching T.V. and there were a couple bugs flying around. When I got up to smack them with the fly swatter, my eyes caught a shadow on the wall above the window close to where the T.V. sits on a desk. I had to really look to see what it was. Dave was out of his chair looking at it wondering what it was too. It ended up being a big hairy light brown spider. The two front legs curved out from the head and pointed toward each other and the other 6 legs curved back along the body. It had a lot of eyes. We didn’t waste much time looking at it because we didn’t want it to get away. We got the bug spray and Dave sprayed it, after we put our shoes on, and it bounced and fell down behind the window blind. We couldn’t see it from inside, so I went outside and looked in the window and saw it was up on the underside of the top of the blind. Dave sprayed again and it fell and was going in circles. Then I swatted it with the fly swatter until I knew it was dead. It was sure ugly and didn’t look as though it was a harmless spider. I cleaned up the mess and we both we relieved we found it before we went to bed!!!! I was still looking around after that to see if any more critters were going to come out and surprise us. None did thank goodness. We tried to find out what type of spider it was but when we looked up Baja spiders we didn’t see one like what we killed. I’ll keep looking. It was nasty!!!

Lois, Larry, Anne, Elwin, Creela and Phil are now gone. It is pretty quiet. Joanne is still here, and Mary and George went to the states until July 1. With the heat and humidity we’ve been having, I don’t think they will stay here long. They like to spend the summers at the Ocean.

We are back in Santa Rosalia, on the boat. Dave got his parts for the generator and is starting to put things together. He did forget a couple things from home, but luckily we have some cruisers here we know from before that can help us. It is not going together as easily as he thought it would, however, but little by little. We are hoping to leave before Saturday, but it all depends on how long it takes to put it back together.

It is hot and humid, more so here than at the house. We are getting some cloud cover which cuts the sun, but I think we will get more humidity. We’ve been running our air conditioner which is sooooo nice!!!

Dave was hoping he could put the head and parts together and put the whole assembly on the engine but that didn’t work. Not enough clearance. So he had to do it part by part which took much longer than anticipated. Tuesday night he had most of it put together and all that is left to do is connect some wires and put the cover back over the fan belts and start her. That is Wednesday’s job.

We were excited about finishing up the job of putting the generator together and starting her. Dave did some final things and then it was the moment of truth, we tried starting her. We have to warm the glow plugs for a few seconds and then push the start button. Dave did that but once he let go of the switches the generator stopped. Uh oh!!!! Well to make a long story short, he had some help from a fellow cruiser that has a Northern Lights generator so Dave did some trouble shooting with the oil censor thinking it wasn’t reading oil pressure. Well what happened was the nuts and bolts weren’t tightened down enough which caused everything to loosen up. So our fellow cruiser Jim, loaned Dave 3 lug nuts to help tighten the bolts to the head. Then Dave had to reset the heads and tighten down all the bolts and screws again. After all of that, he pushed the button and it sang!!!!! We were so happy we hollered “YES” and high fived each other. It sounded so smooth and nice!!! We loaded the generator up and ran it for a while to make sure it stayed running. It did. We are sooo happy that is over with!!! So now we clean up the mess and put the tools away. I walked over to the store and got a 6 pack of beer and took it to Jim and Diane’s boat to celebrate and thank them for their help!!! After that we left their boat and were invited to another cruisers boat for drinks which ended up having most of the cruisers on their boat. We had happy hour and then walked to town and got a hamburger at the plaza from a little stand that shows up every night. It was really good. One of the cruising ladies were taking pictures and she took a picture of the owners little boy eating a frozen ice cream and then showed the picture to him. It was priceless to see his smile. After a couple more pictures she asked if he wanted to try and take pictures so here you see him with a camera around his neck taking pictures of the cruisers and other people in the plaza. He was looking like a professional after a short time. It was so fun to watch him. He had a ball. I know what he would like to have for his Birthday or Christmas!!!!! After we were full of hamburger, we all walked back to our boats. What a fun night!!! It was nice to see the cruisers we haven’t seen for a while. What fun people!!!! Cruisers are a great bunch of people!!

Spring has Arrived

2011-06-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here it is, May 1. The Art/Craft Show is over and all has been put away and cleaned up. We had a meeting and after that went to Alehandrina’s to have lunch. The lunch was a choice of 2 fish tacos, or 2 Toastada’s, chicken or beef, with rice, beans, and salad. I was pleased to see all the Mexican Artisans show up. They thanked us for inviting them to participate and we thanked them for being part of our show. It was a fun time.

We made a Costco, Walmart and Home Depot run to Ensenada. We left on Monday, the 2nd and got into Ensenada around 2:30, 3:00pm. It was a very windy ride up and some of the time Dave had trouble keeping the jeep in our lane. There were only a couple semi trucks on the road and they were going very slow. You could see the wind was moving them side to side. I figured if it got worse, they would have to pull off the road and wait until the winds died down. It wasn’t a fun ride. But we made it safely and as soon as we got to town we got a room and then went to Walmart and did some shopping. I had a list of stuff I wanted in addition to what some of my friends needed. Luckily I was able to get most of the things they wanted. After Walmart, we went back to our room. We didn’t want a lot to eat for dinner and didn’t want to spend much so we had dinner at McDonalds. After dinner Dave got some ice for the ice chest since we had some things to keep cold, and once that ice was dumped we went to our room and chilled. No pun intended!! Ha!

We were up by 6:30am the next morning and walked to McDonald’s and had breakfast. Then it was off to Home Depot as they open at 7:00am. When we pulled into a parking spot and got out of the jeep, there was a Mexican guy who wanted to know if we wanted our jeep washed. Dave asked how much and he said 25 pesos, $2.00 U.S. So Dave told him yes. We ended up getting the paint to finish painting the guest house, and a couple roller pads. We snooped around a little looking for certain things and then left. When we came out the jeep was clean. Yahoo!!! Dave paid the man and we were on our way to Costco. We had to wait about 10 minutes for it to open. The crowd forms at the door just at it does at home. Just waiting to be the first ones in. We finished around 10:30am and headed out of town. Dave figured we would be able to make it home by 5. There was much less wind and more semis on the road, but we made good time. It started out as a beautiful sun shiny day, and the further south we went the more clouds were forming. Dave remembered reading about a pineapple express moving through which explained the clouds. When we arrived home it was cloudy, but after asking our neighbor about the sun he said we had half and half. That was good because that meant we had charged our house batteries. It was good to be home again and Dave was really glad he didn’t have to drive again for a while.

Happy 12th birthday to our grandson Eian, today, May 5th. It is Cinco de Mayo for the gringos and the Mexican people don’t celebrate it.

Dave left this morning to get water to fill the pila. He usually calls when he is at the top of the hill coming home. I heard him call Larry on the radio but got no answer. Then he called me. He told me he was stuck at the top of the hill with a muffler on the ground. There are 2 mufflers on the truck and one of them finally broke loose but was held in place with a strap. He couldn’t go anywhere until he could get the strap holding the muffler, removed to take the muffler off. So I told him I would call Annie and Elwin, our friends to see if Elwin could help. Dave needed a hacksaw. Elwin said he had a hacksaw and would go and help Dave. That was really nice. About 20 minutes or so later Dave was back with the muffler in the bed of the truck. Apparently nothing had been going through that muffler because when Dave grabbed a hold of it, it was cold!!! We were thinking about taking the truck to town tonight for the viewing of the old timers racing car exhibit, but now we won’t be. After we pumped the water into the pila and put things away, I walked over to Phil and Creela’s house and invited them to come with us tonight. Dave said we would take the jeep. So they are coming with us. It will be fun. When I got back to the house, I read my book, and Dave read a little then went outside. I didn’t know what he was doing, and when he came up he said he had been taping around the windows and doors of the guest house getting it ready for painting. So I went down and he showed me what he had done. He only has a little more to go and then we can start to paint. It is going to look really nice when we are done. Around 3:30pm Creela and Phil walked to our house and we left in the jeep for town. Some of the race cars were already parked and on display so we took a look at them. Pretty awesome! Here are some pictures.

More cars were arriving so we decided to have a couple margaritas while we waited for more to show up. Then we ended up having dinner and visiting with some of our friends and were able to hear some of the old timer guys talk about their trip. They don’t race any more, but they still like to do the rally each year. They come into town, stay overnight, and then start out early the next morning for Loreto. That is a long ride on a dusty bumpy dirt road. Not comfortable. After dinner we walked around some more and then went and did some grocery shopping and I picked up my laundry. We got home around 7:30pm. It was fun!

This morning around 8:00am the rally had started and you could hear the cars and motorcycles zooming by. Some of the guys zoomed while others just took their time. Dave and I joined some of our neighbors along the side of the road to watch and wave to the racers as they passed by. When we were done eating dust, and no more cars were coming, we left and came back home. The rest of the day was spent washing clothes, reading, making salad for dinner, and trying to stay cool. We have a breeze blowing but it still is a warm day. It is 89 degrees in the house and all our windows and skylights are open.

Dave and I painted the guest house finally and it looks really good. Dave’s choice in colors turned out to be great. The neighbors like it and Larry and Lois do too. At least now the wood is protected.

We have had some south winds the last few days and some strong gusts, but not enough to cause us to sleep in the trailer.

One day it was breezy and we had some of the skylights open, in particular one of the large skylight facing west, and I was working on my cross stitch and Dave was on the computer when we heard a crack or pop. I asked Dave what it was and he didn’t know, but I noticed a couple small pictures blew over on the shelf so I figured that was it. Later on Dave took my computer to the trailer so he could play his war game and I was still cross stitching when a breeze came up and then I heard a loud pop. I got up and looked around to see what made the noise and then I looked up and noticed the skylight lid was partially detached from the base. I went down to the trailer and told Dave what happened and he came to the house to take a look. We figured we could just climb the ladder and walk on the roof. So we got the tallest ladder we have and I climbed to the top and started to climb on the roof and determined I wasn’t going to be able to get to the skylight that way. The small portion of the roof was too steep to climb without support. To make a long story short, we ended up calling our neighbor Phil to help us and we tied a rope to the posts on the deck and Dave was able to get on the roof by holding onto the rope. It took a while but he fixed the skylight. He looked at the others and they looked fine. We will have to get some more rivets just in case it happens again. We told Larry and Lois what happened and they were relieved it was fixed. Thank goodness the wind wasn’t blowing harder or we would have lost the lid and ended up with a huge hole to cover.

The weather is warming nicely. One day it will be warm with very little breeze and then the next it will cool down with a north breeze. The birds are waking us up at 5:30am with their songs. Not appreciated at that time in the morning, however. Snake sightings have been reported, but we have yet to see one by our place. I did see a trail at the end of the drive, but no snake. Scorpions will be next to come out. Probably next month and for sure in July and August. We’ve had some coyotes hanging around, as they know our neighbor has a cat and they want it for a meal. Joanne had her cat roaming around her house and she noticed the coyote and called to him, and then went chasing after it so she scooped him up before he could get far and the coyote wasn’t happy. He stood not too far from her house just yipping away and letting everyone know how unhappy he/she was. We have never experienced anything like that before. The desert is full of wonders and surprises.

Now that I don’t have crafts to make for a show, I am back to working on my dragon/castle cross stitch. I finally finished the main picture and now am starting the back stitching, or outlining for those who aren’t familiar with the process. I have also started playing my guitar again. I have to start all over again, since it has been years the last time I played. I am putting music to a song I wrote, before we went cruising, about the San Juan Islands, in British Columbia. I am also reading a lot of books too. I have finished all the series books by Janet Evanovich, to Fourteen. That was fun. I have one Christmas story by her to read yet, but I am taking a break and reading book number 7, ‘Harry Potter, and The Deathly Hollows’. I read it a long time ago, but Lois let me borrow it so I figured it would be fun to read again.

We had some friends over for dinner the other night and it was fun. Rainy and Dennis are people we have been wanting to get to know better and when I found out they were heading home to San Diego soon, I invited them out along with our neighbor Creela and Phil.

What a thrill I got yesterday, May 21. It was mid afternoon and I was heading out the door with my book to sit on the deck and read, when I looked up and across the bay and saw a spray of water. I got excited and told Dave I thought there was a whale. I got my binoculars and looked and sure enough there was a whale and he/she had a friend. It was too far away to get pictures, but I sure had fun watching them play or feed or both with my binoculars. Dave watched for awhile and I told our neighbors so all of us were watching them. At one point one of them breached and then there was a lot of tail whapping on the surface of the water. It was thrilling. They must have carried on for at least 15-20 minutes. It was awesome!!!! I love it here!!!

Dave and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary today! May 24th. We invited Creela and Phil, Lois and Larry and Anne and Elwin to help us celebrate. They came over around 5:00pm and we had snacks and drinks. I shared our wedding pictures with them and after an hour or so, they said goodbye. It was fun. It doesn’t seem like it has been 20 years. I guess that is a good thing, right?! Ha.

Dave and Phil have been out fishing on Phil’s boat and they caught some bonita. It’s like a small tuna. Phil took his home and is going to smoke it and Dave and will have it for dinner in a day or two. After Phil finished smoking the fish, he invited us over to sample. It was really good. He covered one batch with a spicy rub and the other with brown sugar and dried peppers. They were both very good. That evening we cooked our fish and put a morroccan-style rub on it. It turned out delicious. I took a small piece over to Creela and Phil and they liked it. She wants the recipe.

The weather has been beautiful and warm. There has been a couple times when there was no wind and it was pretty warm. But thank goodness that doesn’t last long.

Sunday, the 29th, Larry and Lois invited us over for a Memorial Day party at their house. It was a small one and we got to see some of the people that live near us but don’t see much. It was a good time and we had turkey hot dogs wrapped in turkey bacon. They were good and it was nice they were healthy. Food was good and we all had a great time. We are leaving for Santa Rosalia in the morning so today I packed and made a casserole, and a macaroni salad to take down with us. That way we don’t have to eat out every day. Saves money.

The jeep is loaded and we are on our way to Santa Rosalia. Arturo has washed the boat and it looks really clean. The tarp we tied across the deck was clean and still in tack. All is good. Now we don’t have to scrub the boat this time. I will be washing the cockpit out tomorrow and that is all. NICE!!!! It was windy when we arrived but Dave looked at the weather forecast for the next couple days and the wind is suppose to subside tonight and be less tomorrow and Wednesday will be perfect to take the boat out and make water. We are looking forward to that. The boat hasn’t been out of the slip since we parked it here last year.

This is Memorial Day and I want to thank all the men and women who have served our country in order for us to enjoy freedom. The sacrifices that have been made have been great and all Americans should be grateful. My oldest son was in the Air Force reserve, but thankfully never had to be deployed, however, my stepson was and served his time in the National Guard in Iraq and it was one of our happiest days when he came home safe and sound. Then we had to live the nightmare again with his second tour of duty in Kuwait, and again the Lord brought him home safely. We hope he never has to go back again!!!! I think he has done his time!!! It is a true nightmare for all families when their loved one joins the service and has to go to war. It is a shame it has to be that way, but I am so thankful for these men and women who love our country enough to fight for freedom. May God continue to bless those who have served and those who are serving now. I am proud to be an American!!! Thank you again for your service!!!

The cockpit is clean and the sun shade is hung as there isn’t a lot of wind today so it will be warm. It brings back memories. Speaking of that, I was having my morning coffee in the cockpit and as I sat enjoying it and the weather, I started to think about our life aboard. It has been a really good one. I was feeling a little melancholy about the boat. It has been good to us and got us through some rough times. I really hope the next person is good to her and enjoys her as much as we did. I miss the adventure of cruising, but not all the work and up keep. I’m thinking it is getting closer to someone buying the boat with all these thoughts!!!! You never know!

Our neighbors, Lynn and Cliff, who are from Canada, started cruising in 2009. A year after we did. They also are in love with Mexico and want to find somewhere to settle on land. They had plans, as we did, to cruise the world, but things have a way of changing. They are a fun couple and we enjoyed talking to them. Their boat name is s/v Taya.

This afternoon should be relaxing. I am planning to get my exercises out of the way, then read for a while, and possibly work on my cross stitch. It is a beautiful day and I am looking forward to taking the boat out tomorrow morning. Carlos told us that tomorrow, June 1, is a celebration for the Mariners. They will bless the water, so we can’t leave until that is finished, and should have a festival in town. We will be out for about 4 to 5 hours, and after our water tanks are full we will return to our slip and join in the fun.

Spring in Bahia

2011-05-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

April Fool’s Day!!!
Today was a Train day. I won 2 games and had a low score. I only play half a day and then another gal who plays Hand and Foot in the morning, takes my place at the Train table in the afternoon. Well we missed winning the pot of quarters by 7 points!!! That was amazing!! It was a lucky day for me.  I was able to hitch a ride with another gal who only played half day and she took me to her house and then I walked home from there. Nice exercise.

We left on the 4th for Santa Rosalia. The weather was nice and when we got there a little warm breeze was blowing. Tomorrow we scrub the boat, check things out and pay moorage and Arturo for washing the boat, top and bottom. He actually did a great job this time.

We scrubbed the boat and power washed it. Even with Arturo washing the boat, the birds drop their stuff between washings so when we get there we have to scrub to get the dark spots off. After that little job was done, I walked to town and got some groceries, money, and came back to the boat. I will need to go into town again either tomorrow or Thursday to get a few more items as I had my backpack full and two bags to carry. While I was gone Dave took the opportunity to do a scan on my computer. He was done when I returned. Today was an absolute perfect weather day. It was warm but not hot, and just a little breeze. WONDERFULL!!!

I managed to post February and March blogs, and make some signs for my craft items. A pretty successful day in my book!

While I was in town I bought 2 large steaks, specially cut, and we will have them along with potato salad I brought with us for dinner. We have been eating out every time we come to the boat and this time we thought it would be good to save some money. I brought a casserole with me which we had for dinner last night and then tonight just bought steaks. Every little bit helps. The barometer is falling which means the weather won’t be as good tomorrow, but as long as it is sunny, no worries. I have to wash the travasak (it is like a sleeping bag with sheets that are attached by velcro to the top and bottom of the inside). That way you don’t always have to wash the whole thing, just the sheets. But sooner or later, the whole thing needs washing. I can’t put it in the dryer so I wash it in the wash machine and then dry it on the boat. Hopefully it will be warm enough and not too windy.

It is almost 7:00pm and we are on cormorant bird watch. Those buggers like to settle in while the sun is up, and if we are vigilant, and keep them off the spreaders and mast, they won’t land after dark. So we watch and when they come, we swirl the halyard so it flies wild and hopefully hits them and they fly away. Even if it doesn’t hit them, it scares them away. HA!!! Dave already got rid of one. Now it is my turn. I like that job!!

On my last trip into town, I got a small tarp so we can put it across the deck just in front of the windshield and behind the mast since that is the area that gets hit hard from the bird crap. We tied it down low so it won’t blow up and flutter a lot. It worked as we had some breeze and it stayed put. This way we will only have to scrub the tarp instead of the boat. We’ll see how it works.

Dave walked with me along the breakwater. As we walked we saw a lot of small red crabs and a sailboat come in. The weather was nice for walking and when we finished with the breakwater, we stopped at a hardware store to look at all the neat stuff they had for sale in a small room off the main store. It had things like candles, pictures, small appliances, vases, and more. It was fun to look. Then we went back to the boat.

The jeep is loaded and we are heading out in the morning, going back to Bahia.

As we were driving down our rocky road toward the house, we passed our neighbors, Phil and Creela. Hoorah!!! Phil is Dave’s fishing partner, and Creela is fun to have around. They will stay until the heat gets to Creela. We are budding up during the Art/Craft show so that should be fun.

Our neighbors Mary, George, Smiley, and John took off this morning, Monday, April 11, for Loreto for the week. At 6 this morning I went over and got their dog Alaura and brought her and her bed over, fed her and am just letting her do her thing. She spends most of her time at John and Smiley’s, even when Mary and George are home. So when she gets hungry she will be here to eat. I took her for a walk this morning and will again tonight before it gets dark. Because of her age they walk her twice a day so she will get exercise and limber up.

We actually had rain on Saturday early in the morning. It rained off and on throughout the day which was really good because we haven’t had any real rain since August of last year. The windows I can’t reach to clean are rinsed now and I can at least see out of them again. We ended up having to run the generator for a few minutes to charge up the batteries before the evening. We did get some solar power, just not enough to charge the batteries for the night.

Played Train on the 14th and then the next day Creela and I drove to the Museum to set up our tables for the Art and Craft Show. It starts Saturday, 16th and ends May 1. This is a good time to have it because a lot of the Mexican people in the next couple weeks will be on vacation and a few come to Bahia. We have quite a few Artisans this time and so there was a lot of confusion as to where tables would fit and where to place people. The social room, adjacent to the Museum, is a small room so it doesn’t take long before it gets crowded. It took a couple hours to get everyone situated and set up and then we all left and went our separate ways for lunch. Here are some pictures of the arts and crafts on display. Pretty good for a small place like Bahia, eh?!!

The opening of the show was a huge success. We had a lot of people come out to look. Of course it helps when you have goodies set up on a table just before you walk into the room. HA!!! The guys I think only come for that reason. They munch while their wives and girlfriends shop. Not a bad deal. I made $24.00 that day which is pretty darn good. The last show I didn’t make anything on the first day so I’m off to a good start. People liked my bowl and beverage covers
along with the rock and shell creations. You just never know what is going to interest people. The kids like my rock and shells which is nice. There is always something for everyone. The room was bustling with people until after the door prize drawings at noon, then for the rest of the afternoon we may have gotten 4 people before closing.

I don’t work the show again until Tuesday, April 19, and then again on Easter. Opening day is always the busiest, and then it gets slow after that. There is suppose to be 3 people on the floor everyday and there are 3 people per group so the groups split the days so none of us have to be there every day.

Today, Sunday the 17th, we were invited to Creela and Phil’s place for lunch. Creela went out at low tide this morning and got some clams and invited us and Joanne over for lunch. She made Manhattan Clam Chowder. I don’t usually like it, but she did an excellent job and it really tasted good. We visited for a few minutes after we ate and then we said goodbye. Dave and I went home and Dave read for the rest of the afternoon, but after I read for a bit I got tired so I took a nap. Ms. Alaura got me up at 3:45am so I was a bit tired. She didn’t do anything; she just wanted to be outside. Since it is dark at that time I have to walk her on a leash to make sure the coyotes don’t get any ideas. Alaura is old and doesn’t get around as well as she use to and coyotes know when there is a weak animal around. Luckily Ms. Alaura goes home tomorrow. No more dog sitting.

Alaura is back home again and everything is normal at the Jones’ house again. We had a couple days of really low tides so one of those days Dave and I went out and got a bucket full of clams and steamed, cleaned and chopped them up for when we get ready for clam chowder. As it gets closer to Easter, we see more and more people on the beach clamming and also in town. Good Friday, Joanne, Mary Ann and myself went into town to get some groceries and go to the opening of a new art gallery. There was a parade down the main street in town with children playing the part of Jesus and his followers, carrying the cross before the crucifixion. They were on their way to the church. The art gallery was absolutely beautiful, but the prices are very unrealistic for Bahia de los Angeles. Hopefully she will be able to sell a few things. If word gets out she may have some art buyers from other places come and buy. You never know. Here are some pictures.

The owner, Lucy, is in the flowered pink dress. It was a very happy day for her. The priest came and did a blessing and then a ribbon was cut.

I found another turtle on the beach, unfortunately it was dead. It looked as though she was trying to lay eggs and the coyotes must have gotten her. She was really big and heavy!! The vultures were having lunch when I came upon it. The turtles that come back to this beach are the ones that were born here. They always return to their birth place.

One night we went to an opening for a new Italian/Pizza restaurant in town. The owner is Italian and he made 3 dishes for us to choose from. Dave and I chose a type of lasagna. He also had fresh French bread too. It was delicious. His pizzas are good also. I hope he is a big success. The Mexican people in town like his pizzas. The restaurant is also a place where you can go and get expresso, lattes, and regular coffee. It might be fun to go there to get a latte in the winter. He has French bread for sale every other day, which will be nice to get a loaf now and then.

On April 29, I was working at the art show and it was about 20 minutes away from closing when an earthquake hit. It was somewhere between 5.0 and 5.5 on the riechter scale and the epa center was just a few miles from our house, so it was close. I had been sitting in a chair doing some crocheting when I moved in my chair side to side. The chair stayed put it was just me that moved. I waited to see if it was going to do it again, but it didn’t. I figured it was probably a good idea to move outside, so all of us gals went outside away from the building. There were two ladies that were sitting on a cement ledge attached to the Museum reading and knitting when they felt the wall move. Scared them!!! It wasn’t very long, but it was a roller. We decided that was enough of excitement for us so we closed up shop and went home. Dave said the upstairs of the house shook but nothing came off walls or shelves. At first he said it was hard to determine if it was an earthquake or the wind because when the wind gets high in gusts our upstairs shakes. The wind was blowing pretty well by that time. It was a west wind which was hot!!! Our house was like a hot house. The house was still pretty warm when we went to bed but we left the skylights and windows open. Just after I got into bed around 11:00pm, and Dave was turning off the T.V. we had an aftershock. The house shook and I was wondering if it was going to go on and get worse or settle down. Fortunately it settled down, but it unnerved us a little. We haven’t had any more since then thank goodness.

Tomorrow, April 30, is the last day of the Art and Craft show. There was a decision to be closed on May 1, even though they advertised it to be open. I didn’t think that was good to do, but they didn’t ask what I thought. We pack everything up tomorrow,have a meeting then go to lunch to celebrate. I made $70 this time. I was really happy about that. The ladies are not sure if they want to do a pre-Christmas show in November, so we decided to wait until August or September to take a poll to see who is interested.

Spring is on the way.

2011-04-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

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.

The Weather is Beautiful---wish you were here.

2011-04-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday - Sunday, February 1&6.
We finished raking the gravel from the paths into the rock lined areas and Dave is still trying to get all the wood from the stairs he tore down, cut up for the fire pit. He has just a little more to go. The whale bone we got from Rafael is in one of the rock enclosed areas. It looks good but will look better with some cactus planted. However, I don’t want to get to wild in planting cactus until we know we can build our new house. No sense planting a bunch of plants just to move them again. The rocks are no big deal as they can be used anywhere in the yard, front or back and it won’t be hard to move them. Unfortunately the bougainvillea I dug up and replanted isn’t doing well at all. I am afraid I killed it. I’m not giving up on it just yet. I keep watering it in hopes it will come back. They don’t like to be messed with, but of course I found that out after I dug it up. Oh well. I will eventually get another one, but for now don’t have a spot to put it. Don’t you wish you had such dilemmas? HA!!! If that is all you had to worry about----life would be grand right?! I know, I know-----shut up!!!

You know the cardón we planted in our yard? Well Wednesday I went down to get my clean clothes off the line when I looked out toward it and saw an osprey sitting on top of it. He was big and so awesome!! I wanted to get a picture but thought if I moved it might fly away. I turned and went back upstairs, got my camera and came back and he was still there. So I took some pictures. Here are 3.

We have learned the calls of Osprey, Seagulls (of course), Turns (like small seagulls but more obnoxious), Ravens, and Mourning Doves. Spring is just around the corner because we are seeing more of the little birds and Hummingbirds coming around. Plus the weather is warming up.

Monday – Sunday, February 7-13.
The water pump has broken at the main watering hole in town. There are two. One is in town where a lot of the locals get their water and the other, where we get our water, plus some of the locals, is just before you get on our road to come to the house. Dave took the truck in to get water on Tuesday. He wasn’t back yet when I left to go to town with Joanne and Mary Ann. We did pass him on the road and he said they ran out of water so he didn’t get any. He will have to try again tomorrow. Bummer!! He waited a long time for nothing. That is how it goes sometimes. The gals and I went on and did our grocery shopping and snooping in a couple shops, then came home later in the afternoon.

Dave managed to get a ½ tank of water this morning, Wednesday. They were limiting the water giving out only half a tank. No worries. At least ½ a tank is better than nothing at all. He will try to get some more in a couple days.

As it turned out, there was a local Mexican who came by the house asking if we needed water and Dave told him we did, so we got our water tank filled a little higher. Now he doesn’t have to go into town for a while.

I haven’t been doing much outside due to me torking my back and irritating the sciatic nerve. I had trouble walking, bending over and lifting so I gave it a rest and did a lot of stretching which helped a lot. Dave has moved some rocks to finish outlining an area and mostly has been working on making a new fire pit. The old one had rocks that were crumbling and it was a small pit, so he made it larger and moved it over toward the center where we can get more people around it. He did a good job. We had some pretty good size rocks in the load we got, so that was nice to have them to line the pit with. We are still trying to burn up the bad wood before summer.

We found out this weekend that the water pump in town has been fixed so now things will get back to normal again. People were waiting 3 hours in line to get their tanks filled. Reminds me of when we had to wait in line for gasoline in the States. Remember those days?

Monday - Sunday, February 14-20.
We left this morning for Ensenada. It was cold. The weather is supposed to be fairly decent in Ensenada but we packed for cold just the same. It is a long trip but once we get there it is nice to relax. Dave does all the driving and I try to stay awake which doesn’t happen often. It is nice to see how the desert changes from our last trip in December. Some cacti are blooming and the Cirios trees are green. Some of the desert plants are coming to life. On this trip I spotted a cactus I hadn’t seen before because it was a light green due to it getting moisture. It’s a cool plant and wouldn’t mind having one in my yard. Can’t dig them up though because it is illegal and I don’t have anywhere to hide it!!

Once we arrived in Ensenada, we stopped at the ATM and got some money. We are limited to a certain amount we can withdraw in one day so we spread it out. We are making a short trip, as usual, just to shop and then go back home. After stopping at the ATM we went to the Hotel, Santo Tomas. We like to stay there as it is inexpensive, clean and right downtown. After checking in we walked across the street to Baja Naval Marina to say hi to Roger and ask him a couple questions. They took good care of us and our boat when we stopped there on our way down the coast to Mexico, so we always like to stop in to say hi if we can. The last time we were there, he was on vacation so we missed him. During our conversation the boat came up and Dave told Roger we are trying to sell it. He told us there is a couple at the marina that just lost their boat in a storm coming down the coast and is looking for a boat. Dave just happened to read about this couple before we drove to Ensenada. They lost their boat December 28th of last year and still want to cruise so they are looking for a boat in Mexico. We showed Roger the web site where our boat is advertised and gave him Dave’s email address and mentioned that if he talks to the couple, have them contact us if they are interested. So he said he would. The couple wasn’t there that day so we didn’t get to meet them or talk about the boat, but hopefully they will at least look at the web site. Roger is also going to print out the ad and post it in the office for others to see. He said there are people coming in all the time asking if there are any boats for sale. So who knows? Something may come of this. Dave really doesn’t want to sail the boat up the coast to Seattle. So we are hoping we can sell it before he has to make that decision to do it in April or May. That was one of the things we were talking to Roger about that if we did bring the boat back up, we would stop and have them paint the bottom for us. So we needed a price list. So we shall see. At least another person or persons will know the boat is for sale. So keep your prayers and fingers crossed for us Dave doesn’t have to make that journey. Dave and I walked to our Mexican vehicle insurance office, but our agent wasn’t there. The lady in the office said he would be in Manaña. So we left and came back to the hotel and relaxed. Oh yeah. Happy Valentine’s Day. Dave and I had dinner in the restaurant at our hotel and it was delicious. The weather was pleasant and sunny so that was nice. It rained the last time we were here.

Today, the 15th, is our oldest granson’s birthday. Ethan is 16. It is also our daughter-in-laws’.

Dave called the insurance office and they said our agent wasn’t in yet but was expected soon and then he would be in all day. So we thought we would get our shopping out of the way first and then go see him this afternoon, Tuesday. We went to Home Depot first, got paint for the cement around the pila, and paint for the wood that is around the bamboo guest house. We looked around at other stuff just biding time until we could go to Walmart and be able to purchase booze. You can’t buy alcohol before 10:00am. When we left Home Depot it was a little past 10:00am. Next we went to Walmart where I started shopping and Dave walked over to the ATM machine. I also had a list of things to buy for Mary Ann, Joanne and Lois. I followed my list and got almost everything on it. Mary Ann wanted some cool whip but unfortunately they didn’t have it at Walmart. Once shopping was done there we went to Costco and finished getting the bulk items. We returned to the hotel and put a bunch of free ice, in the ice chest and would check it in the morning, draining it and adding more if need be before heading home. Dave called the insurance office again and asked for Tona, the agent and found out he had left for the day. What a bummer. We needed to pay and talk to him about the insurance but now I guess we will have to email him and work out a way to get him a check because we need to go home tomorrow. Dave was pretty bummed about that. He shot him an email but we never heard back from him. We repacked the jeep so everything fit snuggly and was secured and went back to our room to chill. We weren’t very hungry when dinner time came along so we ended up eating at McDonald’s up the street. It was either that or have pizza and have leftovers for breakfast on our way home. We decided to have a Mc D sandwich and tomorrow we would get an egg McMuffin sandwich before heading out of town. We went back to our room and watched T.V. and checked email, still haven’t heard from our agent, then went to bed.

We got up a little after 6:00am, got packed and loaded the jeep and checked out. We got some more ice to add to the chest and drained the water out of it. We were set to go. Before all that, we did walk to Mc Donald’s to have breakfast so that should hold us until we get home.

The ride home was o.k. It had rained over night and was still misting when we left Ensenada. The further south we get the better the weather will be. San Diego is having a series of storms coming in and Ensenada is in for more rain. Thank goodness we are going home today. We arrived home around 2:00pm, unloaded and I decided I would put the majority of the stuff away tomorrow. I was tired and just didn’t feel like doing much. We had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, watched T.V. then went to bed.

What a difference a day makes and a good night sleep. I was ready to dig in and start cleaning up the mess from yesterday. Once that was done, I had time to read. I want to finish the book I am reading about an Autistic boy. I want to be able to pass it on to another lady when I go to train tomorrow.

I did finish the book so now I can pass it on. I walked to Mary Ann’s house for train this morning, Friday, and had a nice time talking with the ladies and playing. Then after lunch I walked home. I only stayed half a day this time. Last week I got stuck playing the whole day and it is just too long for me. When I returned home, Dave had put the primer paint on the pila and it looks nice. When that dries and the wind stops he will put the final coat of paint on it. It will be an ivory color. When Noreen comes down to visit again, we are going to have her paint a desert mural on the pila wall. That will look soooo cool. We will have to measure it and send the measurements to her so she can draw it all out at home and bring it down with her to paint.

We found out that John and Sandy Eltrich, are going to be here, Wednesday the 23rd. Their daughter Angie had a baby boy and so they got some quality time with him. Sandy and John are heading back to their boat in La Paz and since they will be passing by our area, thought they would stop and visit. That will be nice. It is always good to see them. So now I need to get busy and clean. Oh yay!!!

I was going to vacuum the house this morning to get the sand up from our last wind storm, but guess what? We are having another one. It doesn’t do any good to try and clean it up until after the wind has stopped. So instead I cleaned the bathroom adjacent to the bamboo room and the trailer. Tomorrow I hope to vacuum the bathroom floor, bamboo room and trailer. I will need to get the mattress and sheets from Mary Ann again so John and Sandy will have a comfortable bed to sleep on. Dave took the puzzle Mary Ann gave him after she finished it, down to the bamboo room and has been working on it most of the day. Once he starts he stays with it. I laid down for a while since I was really tired. Didn’t sleep but did rest. The wind is still whipping out of the south with some strong gusts. Because of the weather in San Diego, we are getting wind and clouds here. It is warm though so no complaints. I managed to get the January blog at least on my blog site today. Now I will have to put the pictures in and then post it. I will try to do that in the next couple days. I am behind. I hadn’t even started the February blog until today. Been busy or Dave has been on my computer playing his war game. No worries. It gets done eventually.

Monday - Sunday, February 21-27.
Today is President’s Day. Happy day off for those of you who get it as a holiday.

Wednesday, John and Sandy came to visit. They could only spend the night, but we had a wonderful visit with them. They are anxious to get back to their boat. It has been 3 long months in the states. We caught up on news, walked the beach, had cocktails, dinner, played a game of train, cruiser style, had dessert chatted a little more then they retired for the night. We did too shortly thereafter.

Thursday morning was sunny and warm and John and Sandy were so happy to be back in warm weather again. I fixed breakfast and after saying goodbye, left for Santa Rosalia. They are working their way to La Paz slowly. Actually by Friday they will be in La Paz. It was nice they came to stay with us.

Friday, Dave went into town and got water. I walked to Mary Ann’s house to help load some things she has for the yard sale tomorrow. Then we went to the area where the sale is taking place and set up. I was home by 2:00pm and was able to help Dave with the last bit of water to be siphoned from the tank in the truck. After that I helped clean up and that was our exciting day. Tomorrow we need to be at the yard sale at 7:30am as it will open at 8 and close at 11.

Dave and I got up around 6:30am, got dressed, made coffee then headed for the sale. There already were Mexican families lined up waiting to get it. We told the gate keeper we were there to work the yard sale so he let us in and closed the gate behind us. I didn’t have much to sell, just about 5 tops and 2 pairs of sandals. I managed to sell a couple things and Mary Ann sold a lot of here stuff which was really good. As the morning was getting on and the people were slowing down coming in, we were able to browse. I found a couple treasures so that was cool. Just a little before 11, Mary Ann and I packed up and left. There weren’t as many people this year as last year. Money just isn’t flowing in the town like it was this time last year. It was a good sale anyway and a lot of the gringos got rid of most of their stuff.

Mary Ann drove back to her house where we unloaded what was left over from the sale, and then she drove me home. It was a fun morning. The rest of the day was spent reading and I managed to take a little nap. The wind was blowing pretty well when I came home and Dave said it had just started. Thank goodness we didn’t have any wind where we were. There were people in the yard sale that said the wind was howling at the north end of town. That system that is hitting San Diego is moving our way. So the wind blew hard all afternoon and also early evening then it quit. We were planning on sleeping in the trailer again if it had kept up. So when we went to bed it was calm.

Well the calm didn’t last all night. We were awakened by howling wind and the screens and windows rattling at 2:30-3:00am. We laid there for a while then decided it wasn’t going to let up for a while so we grabbed our pillows and went to the trailer. We were able to sleep. Dave woke first and figured it was well past 8:00am, but to his surprise it was only 7:00am. We had to get up because the propane guy is suppose to come today and Dave needed to bleed one of our tanks down and I usually watch for the truck. We hadn’t heard anything announcement it was in town so Dave called our neighbor Mary and she said it was over in Rincon. So we would hear when it left there heading back this way. Well the guys that live over there in Rincon forgot to alert us the truck had left Rincon and before I knew it the truck was behind our house going to Mary’s. Luckily they were watching and saw him coming. So we got our bottle filled and announced to the people south of us the truck was on its way. The clouds have thinned. Oh yeah. We got some sprinkles this morning but really not enough to do much but dirty the windows and solar panel. Now it is sunny and the wind did calm down and it was nice, but it is blowing again, this time from the north. I was able to wash the solar panels while Dave went to take the water pump back to Larry, and I washed a couple items of clothing, stripped and changed the bed, gathered the dirty sheets and clothes to take into town on Tuesday to be laundered. Dave was able to get another puzzle from Mary Ann so he is down in the bamboo room working on it. This afternoon is a reading one for me.

Monday February 28.
The weather is getting warmer which is nice, that is when the north wind doesn’t blow. We are starting a new month and more birds are showing up singing or squawking to each other. I’m sure they are starting to search out places to build nests. The doves are already calling early in the morning with their monotone, never changing call. It can wear on your nerves. During the day they are flying around and then when the evening comes they are back again talking before they disappear for the night. I truly understand now why some people hunt and kill doves!!!! Actually they are good eating!!

Dave started sanding the wood trim on the outside of the quest house and the railing above the deck. We got some very light pink paint from Larry to use as a primer so that is what we will treat the wood with before putting the Ivory color on it as a finish. Thursday, the 3rd we spent all day painting the front and south side of the guest house. Actually the light pink doesn’t look bad, but the ivory color is going to look really nice. Tomorrow we hope to maybe start with the ivory color. The weather was absolutely perfect today for painting. Only a small breeze and it was warm but not hot. The best weather ever so far this year.

I ended up torking my knee this morning somehow. All I did was step back from what I was painting and my knee gave out. I didn’t fall but I couldn’t straighten my leg all the way. I could bend my knee and it didn’t hurt but when I straightened it, ouch!!! I had to stop painting for awhile to elevate and ice my knee and take some ibuprophen. I had a spandex knee brace so I put that on and I was fine. Weird!!! My back got out of alignment also so I had to try and pop it back into place. So I was uncomfortable in the afternoon, and then I iced my knee again that evening.

The wind is supposed to blow today so no painting with the final color on the guest house. Instead Dave sanded the wood beams and posts on the west side of the guest house and then I came behind him putting the primer coat on. When Dave finished sanding and wiping, he started painting too. I had to quit just before 11:30am so I could get the water pump into the back of the truck so I could take it back to Larry, and I also have to go into town and pick up my laundry. I cleaned up and put my roller to soak and left for Larry’s house. Today is a train playing day, but I skipped it so we could paint. I did stop by on my way into town to say hi to the gals and chat for a few minutes. Then I went to town, bought milk and got my laundry and headed back home. When I got home Dave had used up all the pink paint and pretty much had all we wanted to paint done. Tomorrow is supposed to be windy so we probably won’t do any major painting. I think I would like to take a brush and paint around the posts and places where the roller wouldn’t fit. Then all we will have to do is roll on the ivory color. With both of us painting it doesn’t take much time at all. The job isn’t as overwhelming either. I put laundry away, had lunch and started the Janet Evanovich book series. Everyone here passes books around and I have read a lot of her books, just not in order. So I thought it would be fun to read them in order. We have lots of reading material now!!! I finished a book titled ‘Gringo’s in Paradise’. It was an interesting book. We are familiar with the town they were having a house built in. Dave is in the guest house putting a puzzle together. I thought this was a great time to catch up the blog because when he comes up he will want to play his game on my computer.

My knee is feeling better; however, when I am walking or working around the house I wear the brace. I know I have arthritis in that knee, but it also feels like the tendons were stretched. So I will be wearing the brace just so as not to damage it any more. When Dave and I come to Washington to visit, I will have my knee looked at again. The last time I was home I had an x-ray taken and all looked good, just normal wear and tear. So don’t know what this is!!!

Monday we are going to Santa Rosalia to check on the boat, pay moorage and make sure all systems run well. I need to do a little cleaning as well.

Another Year Living the Dream

2011-02-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Or better yet, Feliz Años Nuevo!!

The wind has started to calm down a little but it is still cold due to it blowing from the north. We are definitely acclimated to climate in Mexico because we are COLD!!! HA!!

Mary, our neighbor, called us this morning to wish us a Happy New Year which was nice. Not much is planned for the day. I read most of the morning and then worked on my cross stitch project. Dave didn’t do much either. We did watch some football in the spirit of New Years Day. The wind is still blowing and it is too cold to be outside so my plan to take down the lights on the deck will have to wait for another day. I would have to go to the garage downstairs and get the ladder then fight the wind coming up the stairs with the ladder and I just didn’t want to do that. The wind is suppose to start tapering off each day so tomorrow, hopefully will be better. We also need to get all the deck furniture off the deck and move it to the breezeway between the trailer and bamboo room.

We did manage to get a little reprieve from the wind for a while this morning so we took that opportunity to take the deck furniture down to the breezeway and take the ‘ornaments’ out of the bush. I even managed a walk on the beach to gather more shells until the wind picked up and sand was blowing around. We have so much sand in the house from it getting in through the cracks that when I clean, I will need to vacuum everything!! Usually I sweep then run over the floor with my swiffer broom, but this job calls for more desperate measures!

I started back on my exercise routine again since I am not working out in the yard. It actually felt good. I don’t believe in making New Years resolutions as they normally get broken, but I figured it was a good time to get in shape. Before I started moving and lifting rocks and digging and all that kind of stuff, I exercised with my 5 lb weights every other day and stretched. I stopped when I started doing all the outside work as I worked every part of my body!!!

It’s Sunday, and Dave was downstairs in the garage creating a rack for his fishing poles while I washed some clothes and hung them on the line. I folded the inflatable mattress we borrowed for Ron and Noreen to sleep on and made the sofa bed back into a couch. I gathered all the sheets, towels, and heavy clothes so as to take them into town tomorrow and drop them off at Yolanda’s.

I spent some time putting some rock and shell creatures together in the art room and then came upstairs to get warm and have something to eat. Dave had finished as much as he could do with his fishing pole holder. He needs smaller nails. After that he went to the bathroom next to the bamboo room, and started messing with the tile floor. He wants to start laying the new tile soon. Well so much for our exciting day.

Monday – Sunday, January 3-9.
I drove into town and dropped off the laundry, had Sammy check the air in the tires and add some and then came back home. Didn’t do much today. It is cold outside so we want to stay inside where it is warm. I finished the “IKE” book that took so long for me to get through. It was interesting and I enjoyed it. Now I am starting to read Herman Hill’s book again titled ‘Baja Treasures’. I read it once when I first got it so it has been a while. Now that I have been living here a while, I will enjoy reading it that much more.

Dave has read all the books I was able to get for him from neighbors, so maybe when we go back to Santa Rosalia he can get more.

It has been cloudy, cold and windy. We have resorted to drinking cappuccino with a touch of Kahlua. Not every night though! It tastes so good and warms the soul.

Tuesday it was so nice I had to take a walk. I had wanted to walk to the furthest estuary so that is what I did. There was a little breeze and I’m glad I took a lightweight jacket as it got a little chilly. Wow!!! What a beautiful sight when I got there. There were some cranes on the shoreline waiting for food to come by. But to look out across the estuary was just fantastic. I will have to go back and take a picture. I didn’t bring my camera this time. I was gone for 2 hours so it was quite a walk. I walked on the beach and did manage to collect some more shells. The only thing I got from walking that far in tennis shoes were a couple blisters. I was surprised the next day I wasn’t sore.

A couple named Lynn and Tom Mitchell, came down for about a week to enjoy their stay in Bahia, and then go back to the U.S. They are in a hiking club and they asked if we wanted to hike with them and a few other people on Friday. I told them I would like to but I would have to see how my blisters were doing. They are planning on hiking Pulpo Arroyo which isn’t far from our house. I love exploring so I would hate to miss it.

Wednesday, there was a Mexican Train game at the home of Dottie. She comes down and stays for a couple weeks then goes home and sometimes comes back in the spring or fall. There were 6 of us and Dottie fed us lunch which was nice. We played until lunch time and after we were finished with lunch and chatting, we all went home. While we were there, I asked about the hike and was told it was on Thursday instead of Friday. We meet at Lynn and Tom’s place and then carpool to the spot we park and walk from. After I got home I put my hiking boots on and walked around in them for a while and it didn’t bother my blisters so I am going tomorrow. Dave wants to go too. Hiking is something he enjoys as well. Dave had been checking the weather and I noticed the sky was getting darker and wondered if it was going to rain. He said the rain storm was moving up the Baja and it looked like we would get rained on. So we didn’t know if we would be able to hike tomorrow or not. The morning will tell.

The storm went around us so we didn’t get any rain. So the hike is on. We rode in the back of Mary and George’s truck to Lynn and Tom’s place, and they and their two dogs, Murphy and Maggie, piled in the back of Mary and George’s truck with us. We drove about a mile or so up the road and turned off and parked. Another couple named Theresa and Jason followed us in their truck and parked behind us. We had a group photo taken and then we were off up the arroyo.

It was a gradual climb up the arroyo maneuvering around rocks and sticker bushes. It was a beautiful day for a hike. There were some clouds in the sky but it was sunny. The temperature was great for hiking. We are headed to the base of what they call Mike’s Mountain. Here are some pictures of the group.

Saturday - Sunday, January 1&2.
I was up with Tom in the front, and Davey was back with the rest of the group chit chatting all the way!! We got to where there were suppose to be railroad tracks that brought the ore down in cars from the mountain, but they have long since been covered over with soil and rock. There are a few mines that were worked for gold. There is still a lot of gold in the hills and mountains of Bahia, but now it is illegal to prospect and mine for it. We were half way to the top of the arroyo when we stopped to rest and have some water. Then we continued on. Lynn and Tom’s male dog, Murphy is a good hiking dog and since they had traveled that route many times before with him he led the way. Maggie was just trying to keep up. They are great dogs. We finally made it to the end of the arroyo, well as far as we could go because there had been a landslide and many huge boulders were blocking the rest of the way up the mountain. We stopped to rest and have something to eat, stretch, explore the area and take pictures.

Then when everyone had caught their breath and was ready to head back, we walked down the arroyo to the cars. What a wonderful hike. I was able to get a sample of a couple plants and a small Barrel Cactus. I can’t wait to get them home so I can plant them. We said goodbye to Theresa and Jason, and then the rest of us piled in Mary and George’s truck. Poor Maggie was pooped and Murphy was glad to be going home. We dropped Lynn and Tom at their place and we said goodbye and then went to Mary and George’s place. We thanked them for the ride and Mary said maybe one of these days soon her and I can walk up Red Mountain. I told her I would like that. That one is more of an incline hike. We walked back home and Dave went upstairs while I planted my plants. We were tired, but it felt good to get out and enjoy the fresh air.

It’s Friday and today is cleaning day. I vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom, then dusted. Monday we are going to Santa Rosalia so I want the house to be clean for our return.

Tonight Mary and George are hosting a neighborhood potluck and bon fire at their house. Lynn and Tom, Joanne, and we are going to be there. I baked Au Gratin Potatoes, Mary made soup, Lynn made salad, and Joanne made a carrot cake. Everything was delicious and we had a nice visit. After dinner we gathered around the fire and enjoyed its warmth and glowing embers. Lynn and Tom are leaving on Sunday, so they will be packing up tomorrow. They will return in April. All the people we have met down here from the States are really nice. It’s great to get to know them.

Today was another cleaning day as I need to wipe down the blinds. I managed to get 5 blinds cleaned and the other 3 will have to wait until tomorrow. The blinds in the kitchen were really dirty. Once those were cleaned the rest went pretty fast. All that is left now are the last 3 blinds and wiping down the counter tops in the kitchen. That is tomorrow’s project.

Dave and I watched the Seahawks play in the first game of the playoffs and to our surprise they WON!!!! Wow!! It was a good game. We thought during the second half they were going to blow it because they were missing the ball or dropping it, but they held on to win. That is so terrific. Hopefully they will be able to win the next one.

Everything is clean now so I won’t have to clean for a while after getting back from Santa Rosalia. We need to pay moorage and renew our FM3’s. We plan on being there for a week. If it takes longer to get our FM3’s we’ll just go home and come back when they are ready. We will know more on Monday or Tuesday.

Monday - Sunday, January 10-16.
We had a nice drive down to Santa Rosalia. It is a little warmer here but not by much. As usual we hooked up the water and electricity, then toted all the stuff from the jeep to the boat. The boat was really dirty and Carlos said that Arturo had been sick but he would be washing it today. There was a cold breeze and I guess it is suppose to stay windy for a few days. Arturo washed the boat and it really looks nice now. The birds are back so they are making their messes again. Darn!!! We walked to town and visited the bank, had our pictures taken for the FM3 and stopped at the immigration office to see how much it is to renew. It is 1,294 pesos per each FM3 or $106 per FM3. It’s the same as last year. That isn’t bad. We went back to the boat for a while and then went to dinner at our favorite rotisserie chicken restaurant. Yum!!! After dinner we returned to the boat and relaxed. It got so cold in the boat we had to turn on the heat!!! Ahhhhh. It felt good!! We got on our computers and around 10-10:30pm went to bed.

We didn’t run the heat all night so I got cold. I will need to throw on another blanket tonight! The wind is blowing and it is cold. Carlos is typing letters for both of us to add to our paperwork for our FM3’s. When he was finished we walked to the immigration office and gave it to the gentleman that helped us last year. He is a friend of Carlos. He remembered us too which was nice. We handed him the paperwork already filled out. He looked through it, got the bill to take to the bank to pay for the FM3’s, and left for the bank. We didn’t have to wait long to see the teller and we paid for the FM3’s and took the receipt back to the immigration office. We signed a couple papers and were handed one to bring back with us when we pick up our FM3 cards. We asked when it would be ready and he said Monday. Then he said maybe Friday. So we will go back on Friday to see if they are done. Then we can leave and go back to the house on Saturday.

I brought laundry with us to take advantage of the washers and dryers here, so I got the laundry done. After the laundry, I needed to take a walk so I walked to the hardware store north of town. I have wanted to go there each time we have come to the boat, but for one reason or the other never did. So today is the day. They had some interesting things and a lot of materials for construction. It is just another source we can utilize when we can’t find some things in town. It was a good walk for me as I had to loosen up my back. With hiking on Thursday and sitting for 5 hours yesterday in the car, I was stiff and sore. The wind had picked up half way to the hardware store and it was blowing dirt around. It wasn’t too bad walking back to the marina. When I got back to the boat I told Dave some of the things they had at the store and did some stretching then I went out in the cockpit and read for a while. I came back down stairs and watched a DVD on my computer. One Dave wasn’t interested in seeing. ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ with Jim Carry.

We ate dinner at a new restaurant. It was really good and we knew the waiter from another restaurant we frequent each time we come to Santa Rosalia. He worked at the other restaurant for a year and when this one opened he started working here. After dinner we walked to the convenient store just up the street from the marina and got some milk. I was there this morning but what milk they had was out dated. I was glad to see they got a shipment in. Once back on the boat we sat and relaxed. Dave and I were both on our computers for a while and then we read before going to bed. Dave hit the jackpot for books this time. The marina had a lot of books by authors he likes.

Today, Wednesday, I rinsed the cockpit out, washed my chair and ottoman pads and then walked to town to buy some groceries. The wind hadn’t started blowing yet so I took advantage of the calm to get my stuff done. When I got back to the boat the wind was hooting. It is blowing harder today than yesterday. It is suppose to continue to blow for another day or two.

Friday around 11:00am we went to the immigration office and found out that our FM3’s were done. We were then further processed with finger prints and signatures and then we were done and they laminated our cards and we left. It was pretty painless and now we can leave tomorrow morning. After we left the office we walked to town and got some more money to last us for a couple months until we either go to Ensenada or back to Santa Rosalia again. I think I mentioned before that there are no banks or ATM’s in Bahia. So you have to plan ahead for food and gas money. I got some fresh bread rolls and a couple other items and then went to the boat. I packed, washed clothes so we would have all clean stuff when we got home, and started packing up the jeep. It makes it so much easier to have most of the stuff packed the night before.

Barb and Alan invited us to go to dinner with them and Alice, Bill, and Jim. All cruisers. We went and had the famous bacon wrapped hot dog. Dave and I had that last night, but it is cheap and very good. After we had hot dogs, we went across the street and had ice cream. It’s funny how we can get almost any flavor in town now, being it winter, and in summer there is a small selection!!! I wonder why?!! Heehee! It was a nice night as the wind had calmed down a bit and it wasn’t as cold. We walked back to our boats and said good night. We wished the cruisers well in case we didn’t see them in the morning. As it did turn out we did see them all in the morning and was able to say goodbye again and wish them a safe journey.

We are home again and glad for that. I was soooo looking forward to sleeping in our big bed. The one on the boat is suppose to be a queen size, but because of its shape doesn’t seem like it is and Dave and I barely have room to turn over. It’s nice to be close, but we both have gotten use to the room. Ha! We were told that the wind blew here too while we were gone, but today seems to be a nice one. It was good to be back!

Sunday was a kick back day so very little was done. Dave and I spent the day reading and doing odds and ends.

Monday - Sunday, January 17-23.
Today is Martin Luther King Day. When there is a holiday like that I always think of the grandkids being out of school, having a play day.

Not much went on this week. Dave went to town and got water. Joanne and I walked a couple days on the airstrip behind us. We are trying to walk since the weather is cool. On Thursday, Mary rode with Joanne in her jeep and we followed her in the truck to search out a couple dead cardons (cactus) Mary found the other day. Mary rides her quad and searches out new paths and finds neat stuff. It will be nice when we can do that also. Joanne and I are both looking for a nice cardon to plant in the garden for decoration. As we followed Mary and Joanne, the path was getting narrower and it’s a good thing we don’t worry about the truck getting scratched!!! There were a lot of sticker bushes along the path and we did have to go by them. I am glad when they stopped as we weren’t sure we could go much further, as the path was narrow and the truck is wide. A really nice cardon was lying on its side already cleaned (rough bark taken off) and the tips were cut off to make it look smooth and clean. Mary and Joanne were standing next to it and I thought it was for Joanne but they said “no” it was mine. Wow!!! What a find!! So Dave backed the truck up to the cardon and all of us lifted it up and laid it in the truck bed and pushed it all the way in. It fit perfectly!!! We could even close the back. We didn’t have room for another cardon, but I told Joanne that we can come back sometime and get one for her. I guess she saw some that would work for her as we were driving home. Joanne, Mary and I dug up small cactus’ to add to our garden, and there were some animal bones lying on the ground as we were heading back to the road, that Joanne got for her granddaughter when she comes to visit. It was a successful morning. We pulled the cardon out of the truck and laid it on the ground. Dave parked the truck and came back with the wheel barrow. He lifted one end of the cardon while I pushed the wheel barrow under it, then he let it down into the wheel barrow and went to the other end and lifted it up, holding the other end while I was pushing the wheel barrow toward the spot we want to bury it.

Friday, Dave sat on the deck with his coffee this morning and all was well until the bees started to show up. It was almost disastrous as when he took a sip, he had gotten a bee with it. He immediately spit the coffee out on the deck and the bee with it. Luckily he didn’t get stung!!! Then after spitting out the coffee it was like a siren to the other bees, there was liquid there. After trying to kill them with the fly swatter, he resorted to insect spray. That did the trick!! It’s getting that time of year again when the insects are coming out. Bummer!! Joanne gave me a ride to Diane’s house where 6 other ladies played train for half a day. We had a good time and a nice visit. The wind came up strong while I was there so there won’t be any digging a hole to bury the cardon today. I would be eating sand the whole time. When I got home I did some cross stitching and read.

The Seattle Boat Show started today. I am hoping we might get someone interested in buying our boat. Our good friend Tori at Signature Yachts said she was going to advertise it on the Hunter Home page and also at the Boat Show.

This morning, Saturday, we awoke to a beautiful day. Of course the sun was shining but there was just a hint of a breeze and it was warm. Oooh la la!!! Dave had walked to the beach and I sat on the deck with my coffee. I was lucky as no bees came buzzing by. Today is a perfect day to dig the hole. When Dave returned from the beach, he saw George take off on his quad to go down to the boat ramp to clear some rocks since it was low tide. Dave got his gloves and walked to the boat ramp as he told George yesterday he would help him. So while Dave was gone, I dug the hole. Yesterday, Dave had cleared the spot where we wanted to bury it so all one of us had to do was start digging. When Dave returned he saw the hole and I told him he should get something to eat first before he started to help. So he did and we both decided I needed to dig a little deeper to make sure the cardon will be buried enough to withstand the high winds we get from the north. As it turned out it was too deep. When we placed the cardon in the hole, I felt something drop on my foot. I looked down and thought it was a big spider. I squealed and started shaking my foot to get it off. I took my sandle off thinking it went inside. Then I saw what it actually was. It was a small scorpion. It fell out of the cardon and landed on my foot and bounced off onto the sand. After all that excitement we decided we needed to lift the cardon up a bit so Dave added some dirt under the trunk and it raised it enough to where we were satisfied. Then we filled in the hole, burying the scorpion and stomped down the dirt as we finished. It looks nice. It isn’t so tall that it will obstruct our view when we get around to building our house. Dave and I discussed making some more paths that go to and around the cardon, so he came inside when we were done and sketched it. It will look really nice when we get finished. We will need to get a couple loads of rocks to line the paths, and probably more after that to help keep our sand bank from receding. There is enough work outside to keep us busy for the next few months. All work stops when it gets hot though. Next month we will start painting under the eaves of the house and the electrical room as it is peeling off. When we go back to Ensenada, we will get some paint to redo the wood trim outside the bamboo room. Lois and Larry never repainted it and now it is in dire need of protection. So there are lots of projects. We don’t mind. It keeps us busy.

We had a wonderful fire last night as we need to burn all the termite infested wood we tore down. There was a gentle breeze and it was warm. The stars were shining bright and we could see many of them as the moon hadn’t come up yet. When we got down to the last little bit, I went back inside to read until Dave was finished tending to the fire. He came up and we watched T.V. then went to bed.

We were spoiled yesterday with the nice weather because today it is blustery again from the north. Not an outside day. South of us you can see the haze from the sand blowing everywhere. I had thought about taking a hike today, but when the wind came up I knew that wasn’t a good idea. So instead, I baked a cake, made a bean soup and finally caught up on the blog. Dave spent the morning just messing around pounding nails from boards and cutting them to burn size. It’s a day to be indoors and enjoy the view of the waves rushing to shore. It’s time to either read or do some cross stitching.

Monday - Monday, January 24-31.
Dave has started scraping off the old paint from under the eaves of the electrical room in preparation for painting. I went into town this morning taking my neighbor Joanne and Mary Ann with me. We did our shopping, dumped garbage, refilled water jugs, had lunch, stopped at 2 more stores and came home. We had a very busy morning. By the time I got home it was about 2:00pm. I put the groceries away and then sat and read for a while.

I have been trying to get Mary Ann walking as she needs to lose weight and I talked to her about walking 2 times a week. So today is the first day of our walking. Joanne was going to join us but she had Dave over messing with the boat engine. Dave was going to start it today, but unfortunately there is something else wrong with it and it wouldn’t start. Joanne said she is done with the boat and George will get the motor to fix and use on one of his boats, and the boat will go to Nasario’s nephew. So she needed to stick around the house. So I drove over to Mary Ann’s and we walked. Unfortunately we stopped to talk to a couple of her neighbors so we had a long respite between the walk starting out. But we got to the last house on our walk and turned around and headed back. This time we were able to walk the whole way back to Mary Ann’s house without visiting. When I walk it is for exercise and I don’t like stopping until I am done, but Mary Ann is just starting out walking again and she hasn’t seen her neighbor’s for a long time so it was good for her. I need to chill and take it on her terms. I can always walk on my own at the pace I like. No worries. When I returned home I did some cross stitching.

Friday was a Train game and a birthday luncheon for Lois, our landlord. I had a nice visit with the ladies and it was fun. When I returned home Dave had already painted under the eaves on the south and most of the west side of the electrical room plus the door. He was just finishing up when I came home. I told him I would help tomorrow if he needed it. While I was at the party, Rafael dumped 2 loads of rocks in our yard. He had come by the house looking for work so we asked him for 2 loads of rocks. He said he had a big whale bone in his yard that he didn’t want and he would give it to us so we could add it to our collection. How nice!! So I am either painting or moving rocks or both tomorrow.

It is a beautiful day and perfect for painting. Dave needs to finish scraping the eaves on the north side of the electrical room, while I start to paint in the crevices and corners with a brush as the roller can’t get that close. So my job was to do that and after Dave finished scrapping he would come after me and paint the rest of the wood with the roller. With both of us working it didn’t take a long time so we were done before lunch time. My last job was to paint the trim on the window to the north and then when it is dry and closed, Dave would paint the rest. I cleaned up my brush and container and came inside to make lunch. Dave was finishing up with his painting and then cleaned up. Now that job is complete. After lunch I went out in the front yard and started moving rocks to line the paths we outlined. I only lined one of the areas as I was tired and my back was starting to hurt. It was time to quit and relax. We got a lot accomplished today and it always feels good.

I was going to go into town yesterday, Saturday, to drop off laundry and get a couple of grocery items, but I wanted to help Dave and get my rocks positioned. So instead I went in today, Sunday. I had heard a couple stores got some fresh vegetables in so I wanted to get there before it all got picked over. I learned that the best time to go is later in the afternoon. Joanne and Mary Ann went in around 5:00pm and found all kinds of fresh vegetables. So I will need to do that next time. I managed to get the items on my list and they did get fresh milk in so that was good.

When I returned home and had all the groceries put away, I read for a while then did some cross stitching. I am almost at the end. The next step is to back stitch around the areas to outline it.

It is the last day of January. It’s been a good month. It started out cold but now is starting to warm up a little. Every time we get a north wind it is cold. We haven’t had any rain at all yet, where last year just before we moved in it rained hard and the ground took 3 months to dry out completely in some spots. It is hard to believe we have been in the house for a year now. We are still loving every minute of it.

Another Month in Paradise

2011-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Wednesday - Sunday, December 1-5.
Now that the Art and Craft show is over, I can concentrate on the yard again. I got more rocks so I could make a couple rock sculptures, mainly to represent Dave and me. When I finished balancing the rocks I decorated them with items I had in the yard and also each of us got an empty bottle of wine.

So basically the middle circle has been created as a focal point and past that is the BBQ pit and paths leaving the guest house to walk to the house, beach, or fire pit. I really like the way it turned out. It is sooo much better than what was there. Here is a picture of what it looked like before.

And now.

Little by little I will get plants and cactus to plant but for now I have to stop working in the yard and do some cleaning of the guest house as Ron and Noreen are coming to visit us for Christmas. We are excited. They fly into San Diego on the 22nd and will spend the night in a Hotel. They will pick up their rental car and cross the border to Ensenada where we will meet up with them. We plan to leave our house on the 20th for a leisurely ride to Ensenada, spend the night in San Quintin and be in Ensenada the morning of the 21st. We want to shop at the Mega store across from Costco, Costco, Walmart, and Home Depot. Then we will meet Ron and Noreen in Ensenada on the 23rd and they will follow us to the house. Depending on what time we leave Ensenada and the road conditions (as there is road construction being done and depending on time of day) we will either go straight home or stop for the night and continue the next morning. Their visit is short as they have to be home before New Year’s Eve, but we will enjoy their visit that much more.

Happy Birthday to our grandson Sam!!! He is 13!!!!!

One day last week as I was going into town, I passed a place where a Mexican couple live. I noticed 3 of their trees/bushes in their yard had sparkly things hanging in them. I slowed down and looked and they were aluminum cans slit and pushed down to create an ornament. How cool was THAT!!! I thought that was really great and would like to copy the idea. So I did. I have a waste basket full of uncrushed coke cans so I will do some experimenting to see if I can create the ornament. Dave went out fishing with Phil so I stood in the kitchen and slit the sides of one can but I didn’t cut down far enough so it didn’t turn out too well. I tried another and figured out you have to make the slits starting from the top edge of the can to the bottom. Then you can push down on the top of the can which will bend out some of the sides. Once that happens, you take a small screw driver and go behind the other strips to bend them outward. Once all strips are bent out you push a little harder on the top of the can to set the strips so they stay bent out. I got some twine and attached enough to the can to hang it with. After I finished with all the cans I had I went out and hung them in a bush by our driveway. They sparkle nicely but I need a lot more cans if I’m going to cover the tree.

Thursday, I went over to our neighbor’s house to see if they had any uncrushed cans. They had a few and said I could have them. It was getting late in the afternoon and I wanted to take a walk on the beach before the sun went behind the mountain so I told them I would be back tomorrow to get them. I had a nice walk and found some interesting shells along the way. I walked to the first estuary and turned around and came back. On my way back I was still looking for unique shells and sea glass but I happened to look up over a small sand dune and noticed what looked like a turtle shell. We were told Coyotes killed two turtles a couple of weeks ago and I wondered if that might be the remains of one of them. So I walked up and took a look and sure enough it was what was left of a turtle. She had come to shore to lay her eggs and the Coyotes got her and also ate her eggs. The same fate happened to the other turtle. I was so excited to add a turtle shell to my yard! I took it home. As I was walking near Mary and George’s house, Mary hollered out that I had her turtle. I laughed and said “no—I found it first”! The shell still had a right front leg and a rear left leg barely attached. I laid it down near the rock sculptures and went upstairs to tell Dave of my find. He told me Mary and George had found it shortly after the Coyotes attacked it. I had no idea so I went over to see Mary and mentioned what Dave said. Mary said they were waiting for it to dry before getting it for their yard. She told me how they found it on the beach and drug it up on a dune to let it dry. The next day, they found the shell on the beach again so they drug it back up to the dune. That is where it stayed until I spotted it. I told her I had no idea and she could have it if she wanted. She said it was alright, I could keep it. It’s a nice size. I really did feel bad about taking the shell when they had their heart set on it. Mary also said there was another turtle and the remains are in the first estuary further up the beach that Jay and Jan laid claim to. Mary said she will have to go get it as Jay and Jan have left in their boat to go south. So for now I have the shell in my yard. Eventually the fins/feet, whatever you call them, will disintegrate and all that will remain will be the shell. Part of the upper shell is missing as the Coyote’s chewed into it to get the head. Pretty interesting stuff here!!! Nature is definitely interesting.

Friday, Creela and Phil invited us to their house for dinner. We had BBQ pork, stuffing, salad and lots of wine!!!! After dinner we sat outside next to a bon fire and talked. We had a delightful time. They will be leaving to go back to their San Diego home in a week. We are leaving for Santa Rosalia on Monday and they will probably be gone by the time we get back. They will come back down to Bahia in the spring.

Saturday I cleaned, washed clothes, and went over to Mary and George’s house to retrieve their aluminum cans. There were a few but I will still need more. I did my trick with them and hung them up and the bush is starting to get fuller. It looks festive!!! My neighbors love it and so do I. I told them that was our poor man’s Christmas tree. Simple things really are fun and add a lot of joy!!!

Sunday was a day to pack and get things ready for Santa Rosalia. Dave watched some football, and I did some cross stitching. It was a low keyed day. We had some high cloud cover today and we had to run the generator for a while. Just can’t get enough solar power when that happens. Good thing I didn’t wash clothes today. They wouldn’t have dried.

Monday - Sunday, December 6-12.
We left the house around 7:30am and traveled to town where we dropped off our laundry with Yolanda and told her we will be back on Thursday to pick it up. Then we were on our way to Santa Rosalia. We had more of those high clouds and it looked like a non solar day. I guess we are supposed to have this type of cloud cover for a few days. The ride was uneventful. When we arrived at the marina we went down to the boat to check it out and open it up. We hooked up the water and electricity and then went back to the jeep to bring down all our stuff. The weather is a little warmer here than in Bahia, but it still is cool in the morning and night.

We went to dinner at our favorite chicken place. There we met Mary, whom is a cruiser. She was eating by herself. She said she just got back from Escondido and came there to have dinner. Her husband and children were back on her boat. She invited us to join her so we did and had a nice conversation. It was good to see her again. After dinner we said goodbye and Dave and I walked to the bank and pharmacy. It was a pleasant evening and we enjoyed the walk back to the boat. We were both pretty tired so bed time wasn’t far away. I got on my computer and started searching for gifts for the grandsons.

Today, Tuesday, I was able to finish my shopping online for the grandsons, so now Christmas shopping is done. I also managed to vacuum the floor and clean the bathrooms which needed it badly. Then I went outside and rinsed the cockpit as it was covered in dirt. It is just a given that job has to be done when we come down to the boat. Arturo cleans the decks and the cockpit is not included in his job. It only takes a few minutes to rinse and then the sun dries it all. Later I go back and put everything away. I was going to walk to the hardware store this afternoon, but it was getting late so I decided not to. One of the cruising couples here in the marina invited us to a potluck gathering of the other cruisers in t he marina tonight so Dave and I went to the store and got some chips and dip.

At 5:30pm Dave and I walked up to the marina big room to join the other cruisers. There were 3 other couples beside us and we shared experiences found out where they were from and what places they had been to. It was fun. After awhile we said goodnight and went back to our own boats.

Tomorrow is laundry day, walk to town and maybe the hardware store and pack up to leave on Thursday. All systems were working just fine on the boat which is always a good thing.

Didn’t make it to the hardware store but did walk to town to get a few things. Laundry is done and the jeep is packed except for the last minute things in the morning. I am looking forward to getting back to the house to prepare for Ron and Noreen’s visit.

It is Thursday and we are back at the house. It was a non eventful trip. As we came into town, we stopped and picked up our laundry and headed to the house. After everything was unloaded from the jeep and brought upstairs, I put it away and then Dave and I relaxed. You don’t realize how much energy is taken from you after riding in a vehicle for 5 hours. Well maybe you do! Tomorrow I start cleaning the bamboo room.

Monday - Sunday, December 13-19.
Today is a cleaning day. The Honda generator was started up and I vacuumed the bamboo room. I cleaned everything so it looks really nice now. That is where Ron and Noreen are going to sleep.

They will be able to wake up and have the sun shine in the room and see the view! Next came the cleaning of the bathroom and then the trailer. Of course I didn’t do all that in one day. I like to spread out the work.

I have added more ornaments to the bush in our yard and it is looking rather festive!! I am going to save them for next year and even add to what I have so I can decorate a couple more trees/bushes.

We have 2 strands of lights which we will figure out where to put them so at least we have a little holiday cheer on the house.

The bougainvillea plant that is in the yard isn’t doing so well so Dave and I dug it up and relocated it in a less windier place. Hopefully it will flourish there. I hauled some dirt from the arroyo to plant it in which is much better soil than where it was. So we shall see. The plant I pulled up alongside the road a while back is starting to show signs of life. Yahoo!!! If I’m lucky it will bloom.

I need to get some more rocks to outline a couple areas and then I will take a break from rock hunting. My neighbor Mary asked if I wanted to rock hunt with her on Thursday and I said “sure”. So we both will be able to get the rocks we want. She is going to line her driveway with, hopefully, purple rocks. Really!! There are purple rocks here. They are awesome. She has permission from a man who happens to be a natural born Mexican, and a doctor in San Diego, who has rights to the quarry.

Dave spent the last couple of days disassembling the tower that was built next to the bamboo room. We got permission a long time ago from Larry to tear it down as it is all rotted from termite infestation. He got the roof off and I took the palm frawns off as they were all nailed down. There was nothing to be saved so I ended up with 4 full garbage bags and will end up with another 4 bags as Dave still has 2 roof sections on top of the carport. He finished getting the rest of the roof down yesterday, Tuesday, and I started to pull nails out of the boards. What a great view we now have from the house. It is nice to have that tower out of the way. Today Dave is planning on tearing down the stairs and then he will be done. He went and got water this morning, Wednesday, and when that little chore is finished we will be cleaning up our mess in the front yard. I told Dave that his ‘yard art’ wasn’t exactly what I had in mind!!!!

Dave ended up having to build a brace for the carport roof as it is sagging quite a bit. He did take the stairs down and put a railing across the end of the deck where the stairs led to the tower. He spent most of the morning taking nails out of the wood and stacking the wood out of the way to either burn or use for another project. There are some good pieces of wood.
Mary and I went to the quarry and got a bunch of purple rocks for her and I got granite rocks for me. I was able to line up the rocks in front of where I planted the bougainvillea and a couple other places as well. Now I am done in the yard for now.

Dave and I hung our two strands of Christmas lights. They look awesome and are really bright. We hung them on the posts and rafter right outside the sliding glass door from the living room. Here is a picture.

Everything is ready for Ron and Noreen’s visit. Today, Sunday, I went into town to get a couple things and fill up a gas can. Tomorrow we are leaving for Ensenada. It is suppose to rain in San Diego and Ensenada so we figured if we left tomorrow, we could have a leisure ride up and if the road isn’t good we can stop for the night and continue Tuesday morning. Then we will have all day Wednesday to shop at Costco, Walmart, Mega, and Home Depot. We will meet Ron and Noreen in Ensenada on Thursday and start our drive home. I hope the weather is nice while they are here and not too windy. Right now it is nice with very little wind so it is fairly warm. Well it is what it is and at least we are spending Christmas together!!

Monday - Sunday, December 20-26.
We left this morning for Ensenada and drove all the way. The weather was good and the roads weren’t too bad. We were really glad we didn’t stop overnight as it rained all night which would have made the roads terrible, on Tuesday, especially where construction is going on. We didn’t do anything after getting to the hotel as it was around 3:00pm. We recuperated from the long drive and then went downstairs to the restaurant to have dinner, and then back to our room.

It was cloudy all day on Tuesday, but didn’t rain much. It was cold enough to wear a turtle neck and sweatshirt. We went comparison shopping and figured out what we wanted to buy. We went to Home Depot first to look at stick on tile for the bathroom floor by the Bamboo room. Sand has gotten under the tile and every time you step on it it crackles. Today was a look day not a buying one. The next stop was Mega department store, then Walmart and finally Costco. We made comparison notes between Mega and Walmart and decided Walmart had better prices. So tomorrow we will go to Home Depot to get the tile squares then Walmart and finally Costco.

Ron and Noreen are flying into San Diego this evening and we will meet them tomorrow morning. Dave and I did our shopping and the weather has been clearing out nicely so we won’t have to worry about the roads going home tomorrow. We did call Ron and ask if they could upgrade their rental to a 4 wheel drive vehicle just in case. So they will check into it. This is just so they will have plenty of clearance under the car for rocks and if the construction roads are muddy.

Ron and Noreen couldn’t get a 4 wheel drive vehicle but they did get a nice Chrysler van so that will work. We met them Wednesday morning in front of the plaza in downtown Ensenada. After greeting them, we decided to stop at Costco to pick up some wine and cheese. Then we were on our way to the house with Ron and Noreen following us. Dave and I knew that since we got a late start leaving Ensenada we wouldn’t make it to the house before dark, so we stopped at a place called Jardin’s. It means garden in Spanish and boy does it live up to its name. We had heard a lot about the place so we thought we would try it. We stopped early enough to have a margarita and catch up on stuff, after checking in. The rooms are really nice and the owner has a garden where they grow their own vegetables and an orchard of oranges, limes, grapefruit, and apples. There were a lot of plants around the place to make it inviting and pleasant. It was beautiful. Now we understand why a lot of the gringos stop there on their way down from and back to San Diego.

We were on the road around 8:00am on Thursday, and made it all the way to the house. The weather was nice and the roads also. Upon arrival at the house, we took Ron and Noreen to where they were going to sleep and then gave them a tour of the place. Dave was tickled to show Ron his work area, the pila and the generator room. Afterwards Ron and Noreen got unpacked while I put groceries away. Later, Ron and Noreen walked on the beach and enjoyed the serene atmosphere.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! We were awakened early this morning with an earthquake. To us it sounded like something hit the house. Maybe it was Santa Claus!!!! There was a bam and then nothing. Ron said they had the bam and the ground swayed a little and then that was it.

Ron and Noreen presented us with a gift from the Brownsville Deli, back home in Bremerton, Washington. That is where Ron and Noreen have their boat, they live aboard, and where we used to moor ours. We got a good laugh from the gift. Here it is and here is a picture of them in use!!!!

HA!!! You men out there didn't think I would actually 'WEAR' them for a picture did you??? Sorry to disappoint!!!! Well not really!!! Ha!

Ron took a picture so he will have it to give to the gals at the Deli. What a hoot!! By the way---that is a sweatshirt I am wearing in case you hadn’t noticed. The north winds are blowing and it is cold!! Not as cold as Washington, but still cold.

This afternoon at 4:00pm, Joanne and her daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law are coming over for dinner. They are bringing a spiral ham and sweet potatoes and we are cooking a roast, scallop potatoes and serving a green salad.

It was fun having them join us, and Mary and George stopped by after dinner to have a drink with us. It was a nice Christmas!

The weather has been chilly, but sunny. Ron and Noreen thought it would be warmer than it was, so they didn’t have a lot of warm clothes, but they managed. It was still warmer than Washington. They got to hear the coyotes yip, and wake up to sunshine in their room, and listen to the birds.

Noreen and Ron had fun walking the beach and collected small shells and rocks. All of us went for a hike so we could show them the abandon ranch not far from the house and Noreen took some pictures of the large Cardon cacti, well she thought she did until she got back to the house and discovered there were none. That was too bad.

The wind had been blowing all day and we thought it wasn’t going to die down after the sun went down, but it did. We ended up having a bonfire in the front yard and as we watched the fire burn, we drank cappuccino with Kahlua in it. Yumm!!!!

It was a perfect evening. After that we called it a night. The Christmas lights on the deck looked bright and festive from the front yard!!

Monday - Friday, December 27-31.
Today, Monday, we took Ron and Noreen to town. We showed them the typical Mexican tiendas (stores), Ron and Noreen bought a couple shirts and we visited a tourist shop and the little craft shop. We stopped and had lunch and then headed back to the house.

Dave has been watching the weather because there was some indication it was going to rain on Wednesday. If that was the case Ron and Noreen would have to leave on Tuesday to avoid driving in mud at the construction sites. But as it turned out, Wednesday was suppose to be o.k. for travel. We hate the thought of them leaving, but are enjoying every minute of their stay.

After dinner we played Cruisers Mexican Train and had a ball. We finally ended the game at 12:00am. Good thing we don’t have to get up early in the morning!!!

This morning, Tuesday, Ron and Dave went to town to get water. When they got back Ron and Noreen witnessed our system for pumping water from the tank on the truck to the pila tank. After that was done I made breakfast and after cleanup we took off to explore Las Flores, an old mining town, south of the house. Noreen and I rode in the back of the truck and had a blast.

It was a little dusty, but not too bad. Upon arrival at Las Flores, we explored the jail which is the only building intact.

We got some pictures of the jail birds, Ron, Noreen,

and then we walked to a cemetery which Mr. Daggett descendants were buried.

The Daggett family now owns a lot of the La Gringa area north of where we live. We saw the remnants of homes and another building I’m not sure what it was. It probably was a home at one time.

I got a cutting of a cactus to bring back and plant in the front yard somewhere. The ride back to the house was better as the dust was blowing away from us. When we got home we had lunch and then Noreen and Ron did a little packing and getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning.

Well the time has come to say goodbye to Ron and Noreen. We enjoyed their visit very much!! There were a few clouds in the sky but the morning was nice. They left here around 6:00am. They are driving all the way to the boarder today as they have reservations in a hotel just on the other side of the boarder in San Diego. After they had been gone awhile, we noticed that the sky was getting cloudier and looking north it didn’t look pretty. We are hoping they don’t have any problems. As it turned out, we had heavy cloud cover and high winds. It is a good thing Ron and Noreen left today because it got nasty here. The wind blew about 44-45 miles an hour, sand was blowing everywhere and our windows were rattling. It was not a day to be outside. Dave and I read I took a nap and later cross stitched and watched the wind storm out the window. The wind continued into the night. We were hoping it would calm down before we went to bed. It did for awhile.

We were awakened by one of our plastic chairs getting blown on the deck. Then the back of one of the chaise lounges came off so I drug that and the chair inside. We still had the rest of one chaise lounge and another one plus a table on the deck. I moved them closer to the house and thought they would be alright. After going back to bed, a little later we heard a crash from the deck. When I looked out the sliding glass door I found the table in pieces and about ready to be blown off the deck. Not a good thing. I brought the pieces in to the house and had to retrieve the other 2 legs that blew off the deck. Dave tried to see if it was salvageable, but unfortunately, Mother Nature made it such it can’t be repaired!!! The wind blew around 45-50 miles an hour all night. We didn’t get much sleep. I ended up stacking the chaise lounge chairs on top of the other and that seemed to keep them from blowing around. The wind finally calmed enough we could sleep. About 8:30am it started up with a fury and hasn’t stopped yet. We got a few sprinkles yesterday, Wednesday, but no rain to speak of.

We received an email from Noreen saying they made it across the border at 4:30pm. They made good time. They had a 6:00am flight out of San Diego so they were up and moving really early this morning.

The wind has died and has switched out of the northwest!!! Thank goodness. The wind started in a flash and ended the same way. Whew!!! We moved all the furniture off the deck so we won’t have to worry about damaging any more stuff. We walked the yard accessing the damage and the only thing we found was one of my tall whale bones fell. No worries, I will fix that when the wind isn’t blowing so hard. What a wild day and night yesterday. That is winter in Bahia!!!

Dave and I are staying home tonight to watch T.V. and ring in the New Year. Some of the gringos that are here went into town to have dinner and celebrate early then return home. It’s been cold and we just wanted to stay where it was warm and relax. There were a few fireworks but nothing compared to what it would have been in Mazatlan!!!

Winter in Bahia

2010-12-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Monday-Sunday, November 1-7.
We had a busy morning. We left the house around 7:30am. Dave had to stop at the house where the Halloween party was last night to get his sunglasses. He drove the truck and I the jeep. We left the truck with Philipe, in town and will get it on Friday on our way home from Santa Rosalia. Today is a Mexican holiday called the Day of The Dead. So one of the gas stations was closed, but there is another one in town which was open so we got our tank filled and off we went.

When we got to the boat it looked good. Arturo has done an excellent job in keeping it clean. We unloaded the jeep and got settled on the boat. Everything seemed to be in good working order.

We walked to town for dinner and Dave didn’t fall this time. Yahoo!!!! After dinner we made a stop at the bank and then went back to the boat. Some of the cruisers that were in Bahia de Los Angeles are in Cingular Marina so we got to chat with them a little. The North wind has been blowing so they are waiting until it passes. The wind is supposed to start dying down on Wednesday.

We had a great sleep last night and even with the wind still blowing we didn’t rock and roll much. I was going to scrub the grey part of the deck with Oxy Clean to try and get up the bird doo stains, but it is too windy for that so I will hopefully do that on Wednesday. I did wash out the cockpit and got rid of the dirt that blows in. So at least I did some cleaning today. I walked into town this afternoon to see if anything was open, as we were told a lot of the businesses would be closed due to “Day of The Dead”. Monday was to remember children that had died, and Tuesday is for the adults. I was surprised to see that most of the businesses were open. I walked through town and then came back to the boat. Now we just have to figure out where we are having dinner tonight. It is kind of nice when we come here as we eat dinner out. It gives me a break from cooking. The food is not expensive so we can afford to do that.

Wednesday is here and the wind is still blowing but not as much as the last couple of days. Dave got the power washer out and I mixed some oxy clean and scrubbed the port side grey strip. After letting the oxy clean sit for a few minutes Dave used the pressure washer and surprisingly the oxy clean did take up some of the stains. We will need to do it again next month and keep doing it until the stains are so light no one can see them. The majority of the cormorants that land on top of the mast seemed to have flown south. There aren’t too many of them around now. That is good because maybe we will be able to clean the boat enough that the stains will go away. So we shall see.

Dave and I walked to a hardware store to see if they had tarps. We have to replace the one our dinghy is rolled up in. Sure enough they had the size we were looking for so Dave paid for it and we started walking back toward the marina. Dave continued on to the marina and I turned and walked to town to get some groceries. My backpack was full of heavy stuff and my back didn’t appreciate the weight, but I was able to make it back to the boat. Dave was getting things ready for a lady named Laura to go up the mast. We had talked to her husband yesterday and he said she would do it as long as it wasn’t a complicated job. What we needed was for her to go to the top of the mast, take the wind indicator off and bring it down. She is much lighter than I am so she would be easy to haul up the mast. Her husband Patrick and Dave hoisted her up. She got the wind indicator off and was down in about 15-20 minutes. I gave Patrick and Laura a bottle of wine for helping us. Dave is going to rebuild the indicator and we won’t put the new one on until we have a need to move the boat. Speaking of looking at the boat, we did have a guy from the Tucson Sailing Club look at the boat. He is with another guy sailing to Conception Bay. That club comes to Mexico every year at this time for vacation. They cruise down to and around Conception Bay, which is south of Santa Rosalia, then go back home. It’s a time for several of them to travel together and have a good time. I don’t know if this guy will buy the boat, but he was interested. Like we said, time will tell.

Before going to dinner, I took a shower and watched to make sure no Cormorants landed on the mast. They didn’t. We walked to town, had dinner, and then came back to the boat. I called and talked to my youngest son, Jon, for about 20 minutes and called my oldest, Ernie, and the call was made short as I lost my internet signal. I will try to talk to him tomorrow. That was a bummer.

Well tomorrow is our last day here. I have laundry to do, go into town again and get some more groceries, and start packing up the jeep. We will be out of here early Friday morning. The weather in Santa Rosalia is absolutely perfect. It is warm during the day and pleasant at night. Don’t need a jacket or sweater when we go to dinner. We ended up running the air conditioner today as the inside of the boat got a little warm.

The jeep is loaded, clothes are washed and food has been bought. Tomorrow we will take the last minute things to the jeep, secure the boat and we will be on our way. It was a good trip this time. I even got to talk to my oldest son, Ernie, until the internet signal got weak.

We are heading back home. There was hardly anyone on the road which surprised us. But we aren’t complaining. We had a good trip and stopped for more groceries in Vizcaino then came home. As we entered Bahia, we stopped to pick up our laundry and then went and picked up the truck. Dave drove it while I drove the jeep.

After getting home we unloaded the jeep and carried things upstairs. I put some things away but will do the rest tomorrow. Just don’t feel like it today.

Today, Saturday, I put everything away and now things are back to normal again. George, Mary, Smiley and John, our neighbors just got home from a month at the Pacific Ocean. They were camping.

The propane truck came this morning so we have plenty of propane. The guys did good business since they went over to Rincon (La Mona) first where there are many gringos living there, then came to us and worked their way back to town.

I raked gravel to make a path that goes to the fire pit and the beach. Once that is done I will start lining the path with rocks.

Monday-Sunday, November 8-14.
Today, Monday, is a working day for both of us. Larry had had some rocks dumped in the yard when he use to live here so I started to dig them up as the sand had buried a lot of them. I hauled them to the front yard as I want to make paths that go around the yard, to the fire pit and then the beach. Eventually plants will be planted but for now we just want to work on the paths. The path starts at the guest house and goes out from the steps toward the fire pit. I lined one side of the path. Dave came out and took a look at it and said he had a different idea. I told him what I was thinking and planning and we discussed what Dave had in mind. We weren’t on the same page. So we talked and Dave said we should draw it out so we will know what it will look like. I decided to quit for the day as I had been at it quite a while. While I was working in the yard, Dave was draining the water out of the cement pila into two of the plastic tanks. Then he plumbed the water from the tanks to the house. Now he can work on tearing part of the pila down. After I had finished in the yard for the day I came over to help him. I made his job easier by being the gofer. I didn’t mind. Every little bit helps and we didn’t have the luxury of a lot of time since we turned the clocks back over the weekend. It would get dark sooner, plus we were supposed to go into town with a gal named Susanne. Her husband Pete had already left to go home in the states and she is planning on leaving here to go home on Wednesday. She wanted us and Maryann to join her for dinner at Costa del Sol so we said that would be fun. We did manage to finish hooking up the water from the tanks to the house in time to get cleaned up and meet Susanne at her house. She is giving us and Maryann a ride into town. She has a Hummer which is nice, but I wouldn’t want to own one. Down here it is looked upon as a drug car or belonging to a drug lord. She didn’t know that. Anyway, we went to dinner and had a nice visit. I was very disappointed in my dinner as I ordered breaded shrimp and they were over cooked. Oh well. Victoria has had a hard time getting good cooks. After dinner we came back to Susanne’s place after dropping Maryann back at her house. Dave and I said goodbye to Susanne. After we got home we relaxed and watched T.V.

Dave and I worked on drawing out the plan for the yard. I liked his plan and now I have something to work from. I tried to dig up some rocks but the wind is blowing the sand around. I did manage to get one load to the front yard and then I had to quit. I didn’t want to be breathing or eating dirt and sand. I will have to wait for the northern blow to go away. Here are a couple pictures of the waves off our beach.

It is suppose to be windy today and tomorrow. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. In the meantime, Dave and I went into town to get a sledge hammer. We don’t have one here. He is starting to tear down the pila by working from the top down. After our jaunt to town we had lunch and Dave went to work outside and I took a nap. Our water pump is going flaky. It is running more and Dave is having a heck of a time trying to find out where the leak is. He did find it and now it is a process of elimination of things. It is very frustrating!!! He wasn’t able to figure out why the pump keeps running so what we have decided to do is keep the pump off until we need it, run it long enough to do dishes and whatever else we need the water for, then turn it off overnight.

Wednesday, my neighbor Joanne and her friend Jackie and I went and played train for half a day. After lunch we came home and I tried to work outside but it was way too windy again. I did some reading. I am still trying to finish the Eisenhower book.

The wind is still blowing but I managed to haul some more rocks to the front yard and place them. Now the only rocks left in the pile that Larry had are too heavy for me to lift. I am quitting for the day. Dave worked all morning on the water pump. He has been trying all kinds of things, but in the process of trying to fix things he broke our new water pump. We have two other rebuilt ones so he is seeing if any of those will work. He was suspecting the pump may have been bad. He finally got one of the rebuilt pumps to work so the pump is not cycling all the time. We still don’t know where the leak is but at least the pump isn’t running continuously. Now he is knocking down the top of the pila. We were supposed to have a Mexican man come out to help him today, but he never showed. He was doing a project for someone else so maybe he wasn’t finished yet. While Dave is pounding on the pila, I will read a while and then work on my cross stitch.

Dave has the top of the pila knocked down and is attempting to try and find a weak part in the side wall so he won’t have to pound so much. No such luck.

I finished the first area I wanted to rock off. I still have a lot more to go. It is still windy, but I will work until the sand starts blowing then I will quit.

Rafael showed up this morning, Sunday, at 7:00am. He told Dave his truck wasn’t running and that was why he didn’t show on Friday or Saturday. He started to work right away, pounding on the wall. I made breakfast for Dave and Rafael and by noon they were finished with knocking the wall down, cutting the rebar and hauling the broken cement chunks to a gully on our property. Wow!!! We were impressed with Rafael’s work. He is a hard worker. He will be back in the morning to start cementing the existing walls of the pila.

After Rafael left, I dug up some rocks to make a circle in the yard. Then I will fill that circle with soil and decorate with the bones I have. When I get it done I will have pictures.

Monday-Sunday, November 15-21.
Rafael showed up at 6:30am ready with cement, sand, shovel and a willing spirit. Dave had just gotten out of bed when we heard Rafael drive up to the house. Dave got our wheelbarrow for him to mix cement in and a hose to hook up to the faucet to make it more convenient to get water. After an hour or so I made breakfast for the guys. Rafael was hoping to finish the job today, but he ran out of cement. Dave got another bag for him, but by this time Rafael’s back was hurting. He had been working pretty much non-stop since he got here. The cement is still wet so it needs to cure a little before he can do the opening of the pila area. So he will be back at the same time tomorrow morning to finish the job. Dave said it will take probably 2 hours and then it will be finished. After the cement cures we will move the large plastic water tank inside the pila, then Dave will connect the PVC pipes.

Things were going well and Rafael was almost finished. I was sitting at the dining room table cross stitching when I heard a distress sound from Rafael. I hollered to see if he was alright, but he didn’t hear me. I went to the window and saw that part of the entrance wall fell. Rafael was looking much discussed. On the left side of the pila, Rafael had put a lot of cement and rocks to fill the area, but it made it too heavy. So now Rafael has to make another batch of cement and fix it. I felt sorry for him but he fixed it and now everything is curing. It looks really nice. After the cement has cured, Dave will move the large black water tank inside the pila and get it ready to hook up the pipes that go from that to the house. Saturday we are having Pepito deliver water and then we will be done.

Dave talked to Rafael about getting some rocks for me and he said he would deliver a load on Wednesday morning. After those rocks are used up I will get more myself. The yard is starting to look really nice. I’m pleased. My neighbors have commented on how it looks and I guess I have inspired them to work on their yards. I’ve been offered to be paid for working in their yards, but I declined. I told them if I did it, it would be very costly to them!!! HA!! Doing the work in my yard is fun, and I can work at my own pace, but to work for someone else, not good.

The Baja Rally 1000 is happening on Thursday and there have been a lot of free runners on the road going past our house. Today, Wednesday, is a good day to go into town since most of the free runners are traveling to Ensenada where the race starts. So guess what I am doing today? I have a bit of shopping to do for Thanksgiving and I need to take our garbage in and dump it, so I have a lot of running to do. Dave is staying home to work on getting the tank into the cement pila.

Another neighbor just arrived yesterday. They brought me romaine lettuce and a turkey. Hooray!! They also brought an alternator for the truck so Dave was up early putting it in so I could drive the truck to town. After he was done, and I got some things accomplished, I took the truck and went around our little neighborhood inviting them to come to our house around 3:00pm for a neighborhood cocktail social. Of course they had to bring what they wanted to drink as no one here has a lot of alcohol to offer up. The alcohol is usually brought down from the states or Ensenada as it is cheaper there. It is too expensive here in town to replace. So we call it the Baja way and it is also the cruisers way too. When I got finished with the stuff I had to do I drove to town. Just as I was almost to town, there were several racers on quads coming at me. I pulled to the side of the road and let them pass. I waved to them and a few waved back. That was kind of neat. I was surprised to see so many as I thought they would be heading for Ensenada. Oh well. I just have to keep my eyes and ears open for them. I completed my grocery shopping, trash dumping, and then headed home. Once home I unloaded the truck and carried it all upstairs. While I was gone, Dave had moved the large black water tank into the cement pila.
Our neighbor Tom came over to help him which was nice. Dave was trying to figure out how he was going to hook the tank up to the existing house line. He needs to get more fittings to make that happen but can’t do that until Friday afternoon as the race will be going on until then.

Rafael delivered a load of nice rocks Wednesday morning so guess what I will be doing tomorrow?

I was suppose to go over and see Smiley so she could dig up part of a plant she has growing profusely in her yard, but I forgot until just before my social get together. I rushed over there, we dug it up, planted it in a pot and I was back in time to welcome my guests. I had set everything up on the deck and after everyone arrived we were sitting outside talking and the wind came up and it got cold. We moved inside to much warmer conditions. The guys sat on one side of the room and talked while the gals were on the other side. It’s funny how that works. Same thing happens when we are all together at parties. Smiley, John, Mary and George are leaving tomorrow morning to go into town to watch the race. The pit crews are already set up and ready to get to work. I guess a few people are taking their campers to town to get positioned for the race, stay overnight then come back home on Friday. It sounds like fun and I wish we could do that, but another time. The Rally 1000 happens every November so if we stay here, we will eventually get in on the excitement. For now we will just have to watch from our house or go to the road to see them pass. The motorcycles arrive first and then later on Thursday afternoon come the cars. That is what I would really like to see and get some pictures. So we shall see. There is another local Rally that happens in the spring which we have seen and it is fun so that is something to look forward to.

Anytime now, the motorcycles should be zooming at ludicrous speed and the dirt will be flying!!!!

Thursday has arrived and the first motorcycle rider didn’t come by until 1:00pm or so. Dave and I took the truck and parked on the side of the road. We had our patio chairs in the back of the truck and a cooler full of beer and our lunch. We waited a long time before the first rider whizzed by us. After that our neighbors, Joanne, Jackie and her husband John joined us as well as Phil and Creela. Phil got there just as the first rider past by so he wasn’t a happy camper he missed him. Oh well. Shortly after the first rider passed, a second and third one came by. Then nothing. After waiting for an hour or so, Dave and I decided to go back home. More riders passed by but we had decided we would stay home. We really wanted to see the cars but by the time the first car arrived it was starting to get dark so you couldn’t see them anyway or get good pictures. Oh well. The end of the race is in La Paz. There was a lot of dust kicked up and it was a good thing we had closed our windows. Friday there was just a hand full of stragglers cars that came by. Then it was quiet.

Monday-Sunday, November 22-28.
Today was set up for the art show. Creela rode in with me and we decided she would work Tuesday and Wednesday and I would work Friday and Saturday with Sunday everyone being there for breakdown. I will be there on Tuesday morning as it is opening day and I want to experience the first day. After all the artisans got set up, we went to lunch. Here are some pictures of the tables. My table is the first one.

Afterwards I had a little shopping to do and got gas.

Dave rode in with me to the art show this morning, Tuesday, and stuck around until noon as he had some errands to run after I was done with the show. Creela stayed the rest of the afternoon and so far I hadn’t sold anything. Hmmmmm!!! We got the hardware items Dave needed for the pila hookup and headed home.

After arriving home I went over to Joanne’s house to pick up the turkey Creela and Phil brought down from the States for us. I let it set out to thaw and tomorrow will be a busy day getting things ready for Thanksgiving. I have invited Phil and Creela to Thanksgiving dinner, but they won’t be able to make it as they had another invitation. I also invited Joanne and her friends, Jackie and John who are staying with her. I also invited Mary Ann. So we have a nice group for dinner. Creela and Phil will come over for dinner on Friday to have leftovers.

I was so glad to have the full day Wednesday to prepare for Thanksgiving. I didn’t think I would be as busy as I was and it worked out great. The turkey was thawed so I removed the giblets and cooked them for broth, and then I rinsed the turkey and salted it with kosher salt, then seasoned it with poultry seasoning, wrapped it in foil and put the turkey in a bag and set it in the refrigerator. After that I cut up celery, onion, and garlic to mix with the stuffing tomorrow. When all the chopping was finished I placed them in a container and put it in the refrigerator until tomorrow morning.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! The turkey is stuffed and in the oven cooking. I have set the table, using my crystal wine glasses, cloth napkins and a white table cloth. It looks festive.

I prepared the yams and potatoes so all I would have to do is cook them later. All the prep work has been done and the turkey smells really good. Mary Ann was the first to arrive and we played a game with dice called, ‘How Greedy Are You’. It was fun and it helped pass the time until the rest of the gang got there. Once Joanne and her friends arrived, I started cooking the potatoes and had already taken the turkey out of the oven about an hour before, so Dave spooned the stuffing into a dish and put it in the oven along with the yams. Mary Ann brought a raspberry/strawberry Jell-O mix salad with cream cheese, pineapple and cranberries in it. She also brought a pecan pie and Joanne brought the pumpkin pie. We had dinner and everything was really delicious. We were all stuffed and even though none of us had the room for dessert, we ate it anyway. Mary Ann left me with the leftover pecan pie, her cranberry chutney, and some salad. Yumm!!! We sat around and talked for a little bit and then everyone went home. It was a very nice Thanksgiving. By sharing the holiday with friends, it made it easier to be away from family.

I was at the museum, where the art and craft show was being held, at around 9:30am or so. I helped with putting the signs out and getting prepared for people. There were 4 of us working the show. We had a couple people come in, in the morning, but no one bought anything from me. Actually I did sell about 4 of my rock creations and 1 small purse on Wednesday so I was excited. At noon we broke for lunch. I hadn’t brought my lunch, and Lois had, so she was staying at the Museum. The other ladies, Teri and Veronica left to go home since they live closer to their homes than I do. I left and got a few groceries and something to eat and went back to the museum. When I arrived, Lois warned me there were people in the art show looking, and she was tending to the people who were in the Museum. The art show was held in a room adjacent to the museum. There must have been about 15 people looking at things and picking things out. It was one big family and they come down every year and drop a lot of money in the museum as well as the town. They bought quite a bit. I was the only one there to help them, so I got stuck trying to keep the artisans items separately documented so each one got the money that was sold. Let me explain. Each artisan is responsible for their own table and each buying customer is to pay that artisan for her things. Since no one was there to watch their table, I had to collect a total for the items, write down at each table what was sold, and then when the ciaos was over, the money was divided between the artisans that sold their items. After that there weren’t any more sales. We did have a couple people come and look but no one bought anything. When I got home, I started getting dinner ready. Dave helped and his biggest help was defrosting the freezer. It needed it badly and I was VERY happy he did that.

Phil and Creela came to dinner and we had a wonderful time. They are really nice people. They will be going back to their San Diego home around the 12th and then return here in the spring. After Phil and Creela left, I set the dishes aside to do in the morning and Dave and I watched T.V. then went to bed.

Today is the last full day of the art show. I doubt there will be many lookers, but you never know. I brought my lunch today. A turkey sandwich, yum!! When we broke for lunch, I went and picked up my laundry and went back to the museum to eat. The art show was closed from 12:00 to 1:00pm, so a few minutes before 1:00pm I opened the doors and waited for people. It was a very quiet day. There was only one artisan that sold an item today. It wasn’t me, however. Oh well. At 4:00pm the doors were locked and tomorrow we all show up to hopefully sell something before 12:00pm when we tear down.

Last day of the art show and no one came to visit. So no one made any money today. We added up our total sales and donated 10% to the museum and kept the rest. I made $147 pesos, which is $12.25 in U.S. dollars. So basically I didn’t make any money. But the experience was good and I learned not to have my table as busy as it was. They wanted it to be bright and Christmassy, but the table cloth I bought, ended up distracting from my artwork. No worries. I will do it again in April when we have the Easter, spring show. I am planning on selling what is left over from this show, add some photos framed in mats, and maybe some different rock/shell sculptures.

We had a meeting to discuss some changes to the next show, broken down the show. The museum room was put back to normal, and then we loaded our cars and trucks and closed up the room. We decided to go to lunch and the ladies went to one restaurant and the guys went to a different one. After that we said goodbye and went home.

Monday and Tuesday, November 29-30.
This morning I went over to Annie’s house to play Mexican train. I had a really good time. Most of the ladies are heading home either on Tuesday, or the weekend coming up. They are going home to do some shopping and decorating their homes for Christmas and get ready for family. Some will be back in January, others in March or April. These are a great bunch of ladies!

Fall is Here

2010-11-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

Friday-Wednesday, October 1-6.
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.

Not Fall Weather

2010-10-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Wednesday-Sunday, September 1-5.
The saga of the truck continues. We still haven’t been able to contain the leak in the radiator so there is no driving it to town. Dave talked with Jay, next door, and he said that Philipe is a good mechanic and is located by where we get water in town. Jay suggested we talk to him. So Dave went into town and did that. When he got back he said that Philipe will come out to the house to take a look at it tomorrow. Well tomorrow came and went and Philipe didn’t show. Maryann and Ruth were going into town so Dave asked if they could stop by Philipe’s shop and find out when he would be out. He finally came out mid afternoon to take a look at it. He had to wait to get a ride as his car doesn’t run right now. He is waiting for a part which is coming from Ensenada. So Francisco drove him out and they ended up taking the radiator out of the truck, drained a lot of gunk out of it. No wonder it leaked. They said they would take it to the shop and have Samalito flush it and then see what needs to be done after that. Here is a picture of Philipe, Francisco, Dave and our guard Nasario, looking under the hood.

On Sunday, Maryann picked me up and we went to Ruth’s to enjoy the water and play Train and have lunch. By the time we got home it was already around 5:00pm. We had no idea it was that late. We had a great day and Dave was able to get Larry’s dinghy that was rolled up on the shelf, down, inflate it to see if there were any leaks. He is planning on using that to get to the fishing boat Maryann is letting us borrow. His plan is to moor the boat on the buoy in front of the house.

Monday-Sunday, September 6-12.
Last night we had a visit from a herd of cows, in the wee hours of the morning. They were looking for water. We scared them off, and then they were back around 6:00am. There was a lot of mooing going on. I think Jay and Jan will tell the rancher that brings water for the horses and cows, when they go into town, that they are out of water and coming by our homes looking for some.

Philipe is suppose to come out today with the radiator, but because we have no communication with him we don’t know when he is coming. We want to leave on Wednesday for Ensenada, but it all depends on what happens with the radiator project. I have to go into town and get a few things so I will stop and talk to him. When I got there I asked to see him but Francisco said he was in Ensenada. So I asked Francisco when we could expect the radiator and he said that Samalito was waiting for water to flush the radiator and then they would bring it to us tomorrow. So that was good news. I did my shopping and went back home and told Dave the news. So we will see.

Jay and Jan are having their Net Controller party today, Tuesday. All the cruisers who were net controllers were invited. We got to see some cruisers we haven’t seen since last year, and then our favorite cruisers, Marni, Pete, Sandy and John. We were able to catch up with many of them to see where they were headed next. Most of them are still planning on staying in Mexico so there is hope we will be able to see them next year when they come up the Sea. That will be nice. We had a fun day and had our eye out for when we would get our radiator. I played darts with most of the cruisers while Dave visited with some of the guys and then he ended up watching us play. I didn’t even make it to the next round. All I could do was hit small numbers and for that game you had to hit the bull’s eye, #’s 20, 19, 15, 16, 17, and 18. Well for not being a dart player I can only say I hit the board more times than not so I was doing really well. We showed the house to people who wanted to see it and Jay grilled hot dogs wrapped in bacon for lunch, and then there was a variety of food to choose from so no one went hungry. We were still full when it came to dinner so we just had snacks like cheese, crackers, celery filled with peanut butter, and apple slices. Needless to say the radiator never showed. So we can’t go to Ensenada tomorrow. We will wait to see if they show today and if not we will go into town and talk to them about when we will have it back. We may be off for Ensenada tomorrow morning or we will wait until next week. First things first.

I am almost finished with the tote bag I have been crocheting. I sewed the lining and fitted it inside the bag last night. Now all I have to do is stitch around the top to secure the lining to the bag. That is today’s project, and then I will do some cross stitching. I am making good progress on the dragon and castle.

The last couple of nights have been cool for sleeping. It is nice. We have had south winds and Dave’s head actually got cold early morning Tuesday. I had to pull up the comforter as we got chilled. I’m not complaining, it just tells us the weather is cooling off. It is suppose to be cooler for about 10 days then go back to low 90’s then after that it will start cooling more. So it has been pleasant not to be sweating so much.

Most of the boats that were anchored off the beach have moved on, either to the village or further north to explore. The cruisers are having another full moon party soon and that will be over in La Mona at the estuary. We won’t be going to that one. After that party is over, most of the boats start to prepare to go south again and back to the mainland. Most of them leave around the middle of October. It has been nice to see the sailboats moving around out in the Bay. Next month is when the San Diego people come back down as it is cooler. Most of them will be here until December, go home for a while and be back in the spring. The VHF radio will be buzzing soon with all the chit chat of the ladies being back. Oh I can hardly wait!!!!! NOT!!!

Francisco arrived after 1:00pm with the radiator. He said that Philipe would be in Ensenada for a couple more days. The radiator has been put back in and now the truck is running to check for leaks. Dave put some stop leak in it along with antifreeze and water, so now all we have to do is run it and see what happens. So it looks like we will be going to Ensenada tomorrow and be back on Saturday. Life is good. Well life has a snag in it. The radiator is leaking in a new spot now. We won’t be leaving for Ensenada tomorrow. Looks like Thursday now. The radiator will have to wait until we get back. We need to get to Ensenada before next week as it is Mexico’s Independence Day and a lot of people will be drinking and all just like what happens on our 4th of July. So we want to avoid being on the road and in Ensenada.

Thursday has arrived and we are on our way to Ensenada. We decided to stop and see Francisco before we left town to let him know about the radiator. He offered to come to the house and pick it up while we were gone and take it to Samalito’s to see if he can repair the leak. We told him we were heading for Ensenada and be back on Saturday. So we will settle money matters when we get back. Nasario, the guard, knows Francisco so there won’t be a problem with him getting in to get the radiator.

It was a long drive to Ensenada. We ran into road construction as it is being resurfaced, so it was slow going. We had a lot of big trucks going north too. We made it to Ensenada around 3:00pm and went straight to the hotel, checked in then went to Home Depot and Wal-Mart. I got a few things there while Dave went looking for replacement parts for the pressure washer. He didn’t buy anything as we needed to talk about whether we should replace parts or buy a new unit. We decided to go back to Home Depot tomorrow and price it all out to see what to do. In the meantime we went back to the hotel and relaxed.

We decided last night that it might be cheaper to buy a new pressure washer if the parts are going to be expensive. We really can’t afford the new one, but we need to have a pressure washer for the boat. We are going to Santa Rosalia in a week and want to be able to use it then. Besides the pressure washer we bought in Santa Rosalia wasn’t an expensive one and isn’t rated very good so we are looking into getting a Kracher. So we shall see.

We got up early, had some breakfast and went to Auto Zone to get some antifreeze and a radiator cap for the truck as it is cheaper here than in Bahia de Los Angeles. Then we went to Home Depot and compared prices and ended up buying the Kracher. In was more economical to do that. I had fun looking around in the garden department, and looking at tile, rugs, blinds, wash machines, refrigerators and much more. I love going into hardware stores. Anyway, when we got finished there we went to Costco and got what we needed this trip and got out of town. We are going to try and make it home today. If all goes well we should be home around 5:30pm.

Wow!!! Not many cars or big trucks on the road today. We managed to zip through the road construction and made it home around 5:30pm. Much better trip going home than going to Ensenada. We will have to make another trip back there to get more food at Costco, but that won’t be for another month.

Our neighbors, Mary and George have returned from the states and will unload their truck, load up their Toy Hauler and then depart for the Pacific coast. Then they will be back around the first of November or so.

While we were gone to Ensenada, Francisco came and got the radiator as promised and we should be getting it back, if not Saturday, then Monday. We will see what he has to say. We know we will have to buy a new one, but if we can get a little more driving time out of this radiator long enough to where we can better afford getting a new one, that would be perfect.

Saturday came and went and we didn’t get the radiator back so we figure it will be Monday as they don’t work on Sundays.

Sunday, Maryann came and picked me up and we went to Ruth’s house to play train and visit. We had a nice time. We didn’t go swimming this time as the sting rays are laying their eggs so it won’t be safe to even shuffle out to deeper water. Actually it was a nice day, not too hot so we didn’t mind not getting wet. As Maryann drove up to Ruth’s we noticed smoke coming from under the hood. She turned it off and it was so hot we couldn’t open the hood to see what was going on. So we decided to look at it before we left. We did do that, but she wasn’t sure where water was supposed to go as there were two reservoirs. She didn’t have a book on the jeep, so I suggested we fill one of the reservoirs as it looked like the place to put water. After doing that Maryann started the jeep and decided to make a run for home. She thought we should have put water in the other reservoir, but I told her if she didn’t know if water was suppose to go there we shouldn’t do it as it could cause damage. So off we went with Maryann driving FAST trying to get to my house before it overheated again. Too late!!! We were maybe a ½ mile from Ruth’s and the gauge was already above the red. She wondered what to do. She wondered if she should try and get home or go back to Ruth’s. I told her we should go back to Ruth’s. We didn’t make it. It was already smoking so she stopped between the road to Ruth’s and the main road that goes between where we live and La Mona. We were able to call Ruth on the VHF and explain what happened, Ruth called Dave and asked if he would come out and take a look at it. So Maryann and I waited by the jeep while Dave was on his way and so was Ruth.

Ruth got to us first, of course, and we were trying to figure out how we could tow her back to Ruth’s. Unfortunately, Maryann’s jeep didn’t have anything we could hook too. So that plan was out. Dave arrived and he looked under the hood and said we needed to add water to the reservoir that is the one Maryann thought needed water but wasn’t sure. Ruth went back to her house twice to get enough water to fill the reservoir and get water to the block. After that Maryann started the jeep up and ran it for a few minutes while watching the gauge. It was reading normal now. Ruth went back home, Dave and I followed Maryann to make sure she didn’t get stuck again. We called her after enough time had lapsed to see if she make it home o.k. She had. She said when Philipe came out to put our radiator in, could we ask him to take a look at her jeep. So we said we would do that.

Monday-Sunday, September 13-19.
Just when we thought we weren’t getting the radiator, Philipe and Francisco showed up with it. They said it is really old and we will need to get a new one before too long. We knew that, but if we can get some more out of this one, to buy us time to get more money in the bank, that would be good. They put the radiator back in and ran the truck. The radiator didn’t leak but now the transmission is leaking more than it was, so that has to be repaired. Dave asked if it could be fixed and Philipe said yes. So Dave will drive the truck to town tomorrow, get the transmission leak fixed, then get the tires that Larry brought down, off the rims and put on the truck. Hopefully after that we can drive it back and forth to town and I can go to the dump as I have lots of trash. We’ll see.

Dave told Philipe about Maryann’s jeep and he said he would pick it up and drive it to his shop.

Dave left this morning for town and actually made it all the way to Philipe’s shop. I stayed home and fixed a leaky faucet, and other necessary things. Dave called me on the VHF around 11:20am to tell me everything was done and he was on his way home. Yahoo!!! I hope it all stays together for a while.

The weather has turned warm again and we are back to sweating and carrying sweat towels with us wherever we go. It won’t last long. The nights are still cool, except for last night as it was a little humid. You could smell it in the air.

We are planning on leaving next Monday, the 21st, for Santa Rosalia, and be there for a few days. That will be a nice change. No bites on the boat yet. No worries!!! Oh speaking of no worries, Mary gave me a shirt and key chain that said No Worries on it for watching her plants. That was really cool.

So far the truck hasn’t leaked anything!!!! That is GREAT!! Dave drove it to Maryann’s to put a shelf up that fell down and to see if he could launch the boat. Maryann is a widow, living by herself in a house next to Larry and Lois. She doesn’t know anything about tools, parts, or how to fix things. Her husband didn’t want her to do any of that. Her job was taking care of the kids and cooking. So now she needs help from the guys or gals who have that knowledge. Thank goodness she asks for help.

While Dave was at Maryann’s I washed out a few items and finished one crochet washcloth and starting on another. They are pretty cool. When Dave got home he was hot and tired. He put Maryann’s shelf up then took the boat out of her garage to look it over and discovered the plug in the boat was gone. Oh!!! Not a good thing!!! So Maryann is going to email her son to see what he did with it the last time he used it. In the meantime Dave is checking out making a plug from a wine cork. He will see. If that works or if Maryann finds the plug, then Dave can put the boat in the water and see if it runs.

Mary and George left this morning for the coast. They took their toy hauler and will be going to Abreojos for a month. They are really looking forward to the cool weather.

So far the truck is not leaking. Hope it stays that way. I would like to drive it to the dump on Friday. We shall see. Tomorrow, September 17, is Mexico’s Independence Day so we will probably see a lot of fireworks from town. That would be cool.

We didn’t hear or see the fireworks on Thursday night. Everyone else seemed to see and hear them. We had all our windows open too. Oh well. We slept right through it.

Thursday, Dave and I went over to Maryann’s to see about getting her aluminum boat in the water. After getting there, Dave was checking out the engine and had a question about it. Maryann either couldn’t find the manual or she didn’t have it so Dave went online to get answers. He found what he was looking for and then we filled the portable gas tank and put it in the boat. Dave had to pump up one of the tires on the trailer then he was ready to put it on the hitch and move it to the water. While Dave was searching for his engine information, Ruth had come over to use Maryann’s computer to check email. Us gals talked for a bit and then when Dave was done, we followed him to the water and after the boat was launched, held onto the boat while he backed up the truck and parked it. Dave came back, got into the boat and saw there was some water in the bottom. He had made a plug for the back of the boat and he thought that maybe it wasn’t tight enough. It would work until he got it to the beach by our house. The engine started up and because it is a 4 stroke, ran quiet. Dave was off and I walked back to the truck and said goodbye to Maryann and Ruth and started home.

When I got home Dave had the boat already on the beach. I joined him and helped try and pull the boat further up the beach away from the water. Didn’t make it very far. Dave remembered that Phil had some rollers he used to move his boat, so Dave walked over to Phil’s house and found the rollers and brought them back with him. Nasario was walking behind him as he was coming to help. That was really nice and I was glad another person was helping to move the boat. We got it far enough on the beach that the tide would not come up to it. Dave secured the boat in the sand with the anchor. He now has to figure out where the water is coming in.

Friday he took the boat out for a spin to see if he could detect where the water was coming in. He had adjusted the engine a little as it was having difficulties yesterday. That seemed to work well. So he was out running around and he saw a Dorado and a couple other fish. Didn’t catch anything though.

Marni and Pete anchored out from the house and came in to use the internet. We visited for a while and Pete helped Dave tighten the makeshift plug. After they left they went back to their boat and later pulled the anchor and headed back to the village.

Saturday morning Dave launched the boat and took it for a spin and discovered there was a small leak in the bow of the boat. While he was out running around in the boat, Marni called and asked if we could meet them earlier than noon as there is suppose to be a Norther blowing tomorrow and they have decided to leave Bahia and head south. They have had engine problems and they want to be able to use the wind to get places more times than using the engine. I called Dave on the VHF and asked when he was coming in and told him that Pete and Marni wanted to meet earlier. So we set a time of between 10:30-11:00am. They said that was perfect so we will meet them at Guillermos to take them to the gas station to get fuel.

When Dave got the boat in and secured on shore, he was talking to Jay about the hole and he said he had some stuff that would patch it. That was nice. He would give it to him tomorrow. Dave changed his clothes and I had loaded the back of the truck with garbage and two water bottles to get refilled and we were off. We met Marni and Pete and also another couple, J.C. and Harold, from s/v Sea Bear. Marni asked if we could give them a ride to Yolanda’s so they could drop off their laundry. We said sure. Then it ended up where the guys, Dave, Pete, and Harold rode in the truck and did the errands while us gals went and played. We walked across the street to a gift shop and looked around then went to the craft store. It was fun. Then we walked back to Guillermo’s and waited for the guys. Dave had to find places to dump the garbage as the bin that is normally in town had been moved. When the guys met up with us, we went and had lunch and had a nice visit. Maryann and Ruth came by and joined us for lunch. J.C. and Harold finished their beer and had to get back to their boat so we said goodbye. After lunch Dave and I said goodbye to Marni and Pete and wished them a good trip. We might see them in Santa Rosalia. We said goodbye to Maryann and Ruth too and headed home.

Since we are leaving Monday for Santa Rosalia, we have to figure out what to do with the boat. We had two ideas. One was to get the trailer from Maryann’s and bring it to the launch ramp by the house. The other was to move the boat to the arroyo to where it wasn’t in open sight of everyone. Dave decided he would get the trailer from Maryann’s in the morning, park it at the launch ramp near our house, then drive the truck back to the house.

It is Sunday and we have a bunch to do today to get ready to leave in the morning. Dave went to Maryann’s and got the trailer and parked it like he said he would. Then when he got back to the house, he parked the truck and we both went down to the boat and he turned the bow to the water and we both pushed it in to where it was floating and Dave got in and started paddling out to deeper water so he could start the engine. I picked up the rollers and put them high on the beach then walked to the truck and started heading for the boat ramp. When I got there Nasario was right there to help put the trailer on the hitch and I drove the trailer in the water. Dave was already there so I stayed in the truck while he and Nasario pulled the boat on the trailer. Then I got out of the truck to let Dave back the truck up. He had to do it slowly so the trailer wouldn’t come off the ball and I didn’t want to take a chance of messing it up since I’m not experienced in that area. We got the boat out of the water. We thanked Nasario for his help and I gave him a handshake and a kiss on the cheek. Then I got into the truck and Dave maneuvered the boat to the house. He parked it under the carport and then backed the truck up to it. Perfecto!!!! Oh I forgot. Dave used whatever Jay gave him to mend the hole in the bow of the boat and it worked great. No leaks this time. I packed and got things ready for our trip after that was done.

Monday-Sunday, September 20-26.
We were on our way to Santa Rosalia around 8:30am. Very few vehicles on the road. We were surprised as we thought everyone would be going back home or work from the long weekend. It worked out great though. The wind was blowing and there were white caps on the Sea as we got closer to Santa Rosalia. The wind had switched from the North to the Southeast. We got to the boat and hooked up the power and turned on the air conditioner. It was warm inside and hot and humid outside. After unloading the jeep and taking the stuff to the boat, we walked to the store to pick up a couple of things and came back. We sat and enjoyed the air conditioning. We did stop and talk to a couple from s/v Sea Raven. They had just come down from Bahia. They are heading for La Paz. There was another boat there as well from Bahia, but he was down below enjoying his air conditioning so we would see him probably tomorrow.

After checking emails and looking at weather, we decided to go to our favorite chicken place for dinner. We crossed the street to get to the plaza where the restaurant is across from, and Dave stepped up on the curb and the next thing I see Dave picking himself up off the curb. When he got up his left leg had a gash in it and he was bleeding pretty well. All that was on my mind was getting help for him. I blanked out where the hospital was so I asked one of the ladies just sitting at the plaza and she pointed up the street. We walked a little further and Dave was bleeding more. I wanted to get him to lie down and get his leg up to slow the bleeding but all he wanted to do was get to the hospital. We saw two gentlemen standing in the plaza looking at us. We asked if they had a car. After a few minutes one of the guys asked if we had a car and we said no. He offered his car. We walked a short distance and Dave didn’t want to get in as he was bleeding all over the place. He asked the man if he had something to put on it and the man got a rolled up piece of cloth and gave it to Dave. Dave put it on the gash to help keep blood from getting all over his car. It was a small car and there wasn’t time for me to try and get in the back seat so I said I would meet them at the hospital. I ran up the stairs along the hill that lead to the hospital and when I got to the top, out of breath; I looked to see if the car was heading up the hill. I didn’t see it so I waited a little longer, then finally decided I would walk to the hospital just a few steps away. I still didn’t see the car so I walked around to another side of the building and noticed it was parked out front. I went in but it didn’t look like a typical hospital setting. I finally noticed the blood trail up the stairs so I followed them to a second story where it looked more like hospital rooms. I couldn’t see where he went so I panicked a little and walked up to a man that had been watching me and asked where my husband was. I guess I looked like I was going to cry (but didn’t) so he took me to another flight of stairs and walked with me, and then I saw the blood trail. We got to the room where Dave was lying down and the man that walked with me happened to be the doctor that was going to sew Dave up. As they prepared his leg for stitches, I went outside and found the man that gave Dave a ride and thanked him and told him they were getting ready to sew him up. After some difficulty, I finally understood what he was trying to say. He was telling me he would wait and give us a ride to where we needed to go. I explained we were here on our boat at the marina. So he said o.k. I went back inside and by now I was a little calmer and watched the doctor and assistant clean and sew him up. They had already given him a local. The doctor spoke some English which was great. He did a very good job of explaining things and said Dave would be just fine. The cut wasn’t very deep, but like the head, when there is a cut, it bleeds profusely. Dave ended up getting 25 stitches and after the bleeding had stopped, the doctor wrapped his leg and typed out a prescription of what to get. When that was done we thanked the doctor and everyone else that was there. Get this----we didn’t have to pay for anything!!!!! The Good Samaritan was still waiting outside, ready to take us to the marina. He pulled the seat forward and I got in the back and Dave in the front. What a nice man!!!! He talked to us as he drove us to the marina. Once there, we got out and offered to pay him for gas and his time and he refused!!!! Wow!!! God Bless him. I believe his name is Raoul. So many of the Mexican people we have met are willing to help you and don’t expect anything in return. After Dave was settled on the boat, I walked to town and got all but one of the prescriptions. The antibiotic couldn’t be given out without an official doctor prescription. So I will need to go back tomorrow after we talk to Carlos at the marina, to see what he says that need to be done. After getting the prescriptions, I walked to the chicken place, ordered our dinners and brought them back to the boat. Dave was feeling no pain which was great and he was resting with his leg up. He took the medicine prescribed and went to bed around 11:00pm. The boat rolled a little from the wind wave coming in the marina, but nothing bad. We slept well. Dave got up a couple of times, but not because he couldn’t sleep. He was doing great. Thank goodness for that.

Well now that Monday’s excitement is behind us, what is in store for today? Dave took the bandage off and everything looked good. It was still bleeding a little, and we washed it like we were told to do and then Dave put a little hydrocortisone cream on the wound. The doctor said to keep it aired and there were no restrictions. We went to the office to see Carlos and he said he would be able to get the antibiotic we needed. So he took care of that for us. Of course we gave him money to get buy it.

Dave was going to pressure wash the boat today, but when he looked at the weather found that a tropical depression named Georgette was on its way up the Sea. It was due to make landfall at Cabo San Lucas and if it kept moving northeast would come up the middle of the Sea of Cortez. Something we didn’t want to happen.

Pete and Marni had arrived last night after a very rough ride from San Franciscito. They left there at 4:00am and got to the marina around 10:00pm or later. We talked to them briefly and they mentioned their lovely ride with southwest winds and green water over the dodger. It was the trip from hell. I remember our ride last year from there to Santa Rosalia. It wasn’t fun, but we didn’t have a lot of green water over the dodger. We are glad they made it in safely.

It was cleaning day for Pete and Marni and they found a tear in their main sail when they inspected the boat. They cleaned their boat and started preparing for winds that might come from the storm. We talked with the other cruisers and Dave was informing them that if we were to get the brunt of Georgette, we all needed to tie to the pilings and get off the cleats on the dock. We would know more around 5:00pm whether we needed to do that and also if we needed to strip the boat. So in the meantime we just wait and watch the weather. We decided to post pone the cleaning of the boat until after the storm passes. It could stir up a lot of mud and dust. I walked to town to get some grocery items for dinner as we decided to have dinner on the boat just in case we needed to get things ready for Georgette. As it turned out, we didn’t have to strip anything off the boat, or retie the boat as the storm was tracking to the east. We figured the most winds we would see would be no more than 35 knots and we would get rain. So we were confident Georgette was going to move away from us. No Worries. We watched the sky darken but everything was calm.

We woke to clouds and sprinkles and calm conditions. Dave was looking at the top of the mast this morning, Wednesday, and noticed our wind indicator is broken. Another causality of cormorant birds that love high places. He went on line to find a replacement, found it, ordered it and we should get it in a couple weeks when Lois and Larry come back to Bahia. The best part about all this is it was only $30.00 as opposed to $500.

The rain has arrived and our boat and jeep are getting washed. Yahoo!!!! We just made contact with another cruiser we met last year, Jesse on s/v Francis Lee. He spent the summer here in Santa Rosalia so we didn’t get to see him. We had no idea he was here anchored in the bay north of the marina we are in. We are going to get together probably tomorrow along with Pete and Marni. We are going back home Friday. Jesse said he couldn’t make it up to Bahia this year, but plans on doing so next summer. So we told him to call us when he arrives so we can visit.

Looks like we will be indoors for most of the day today. I brought crocheting with me and my book so I’m good.

The sun managed to make an appearance around 3:00pm. Dave checked the water level in the batteries and we needed some more battery water so I walked to the store and picked up some and when I came by the jeep I got the garden hose out of it so when I get back to the boat I can wash the cockpit. The rain got some of the dirt off, but of course not all. Dave finished with the batteries and I went outside to do my rinsing. When I was done I came inside and took a shower then sat and read for a while. Dave’s leg is healing nicely. We only bandage it at night to keep the covers from rubbing against the stitches and raw skin. Here is a picture of his leg. The while is medicine in case you were wondering.

Incidentally, the leg he cut is the same leg he has his varicose vein problem. The skin on that leg is very thin so it’s no wonder it split like it did. You think he was a walking pharmacy with all the drugs he is taking plus the hydrocortisone cream. As long as it keeps infection out that is the most important thing. Surprisingly enough, his leg doesn’t hurt. That is good. After the rain left it was very humid and hot. We were inside with the air conditioner on of course. Tomorrow Dave will pressure wash the boat, I will do a load of laundry, go to town and get a couple of things and then we will be ready to go home Friday morning. I also am going to have my cholesterol level checked to see if the medicine is working well.

Marni asked us today if we wanted to go for Chinese food tomorrow night with a group of the cruisers here and we said yes. It should be fun. Hopefully Jesse will be able to make it so we can see what he has been up to.

Dave pressure washed the boat and because he wore his waterproof pants, didn’t get his leg wet. We still have spots leftover from the bird crap baking on. I hope that won’t hinder the boat from selling. Next month when it is cooler, we will try Oxy clean on those spots to see if it takes them out. I sure hope so. Then we will need to wax the boat too. So we will be doing all that until the boat sells. It’s a lot of work but it will pay off in the long run. After Dave was finished with the washing, he took it easy and put his leg up. I shined the stainless steel wheel as it was showing a lot of rust. That was a quick job which was nice then I could go down and enjoy the air conditioning.

Here is it Thursday, our last day. Dave is doing well and his leg doesn’t hurt. That is good. He is taking his medication like he is supposed to and being very careful with the leg. I walked into town to pick up my cholesterol results but no one showed. So I ran errands then came back thinking someone might be there, but no one showed. So we will have to stop in the morning before we leave to pay for the test and get my results. No worries.

Ten of us cruisers walked up the malécon to the Chinese restaurant and had a fantastic meal. It was the best Chinese food we have had since we’ve been in Mexico. We all had a fun time and laughed a lot. After dinner we walked back to the marina and stood around and talked a bit and did cormorant bird watch so they didn’t land on the masts. We said goodbye to everyone and told them we were leaving in the morning and wished them all a safe journey.

Friday AM - All things are packed and loaded in the jeep and the boat is secured. We are on our way. We stopped at the clinic to pay for my test and get my results. They remembered me which was nice. My results were the best they have been in years. The medicine is working. It has gone from 289 to 175!!!! Yahoo!!! We left the clinic and headed for home. We stopped in Vizcaino at the super Mercado to get some groceries then the next stop was to a Similars pharmacy to get the last of the medication Dave needs as they were out of it in Santa Rosalia. Next stop home.

George and Mary, our neighbors are supposed to be coming back tomorrow, Saturday, to off load stuff they brought from the states, and rest for a day or two and then leave for the coast for a month.

George and Mary got home and we welcomed them back and they said they would be leaving for the ocean on Wednesday. If the fishing is good they will be at the ocean until first part of November.

We were hoping the propane truck would come today, but it didn’t. We will have to wait another month I guess. Looks like we will have to take one of our tanks in and exchange it. It costs more to do that but we don’t have a choice. I guess there are new guys delivering, so we don’t know their schedule yet. We had a quiet day today.

Monday-Thursday, September 27-30.
Dave is a little concerned about his leg as he isn’t sure what the coloring means. When he fell, several layers of skin came off so that is going to take a while to heal. So in the meantime he is washing it and putting medicine on it and airing it then covering it at night before he goes to bed.

We needed to get water so today, Monday, is the day. Last night I helped Dave load the tank into the back of the truck and secure it. All we had to do this morning is get up and go. We did that and when we got there, there was a long line. Dave said he will never come on Monday again. We had to wait about an hour, but in that time we talked with a man named Rafeal, that lives near the water place. I had met him in Xitlali shopping one day. He remembered me. We introduced ourselves and then he talked to Dave about a tire. He has the same truck we do and he needs tires and can’t get them. Same problem we have been having. We told him next month we will have a spare that he can buy. He said o.k. and said don’t forget. We finally got water and Dave went across the road and talked to Philipe about the truck. We were suppose to drop it off on our way to Santa Rosalia, but forgot. So after Dave talked to him, he said we could bring the truck in this afternoon. Ruth called this morning inviting me to go into town with her. I told her we were getting water and I would call when we got back. I usually don’t go with Dave to get water because there isn’t anything for me to do, but today I didn’t want him climbing in and out of the back of the truck and taking a chance on hitting his leg. So he handed me the water hose while I stood in the truck and filled the tank. We came home and drained the water tank into our pila and put things away. I called Ruth to see if she still wanted me to go with her and she said yes. I asked if she could pick me up at Philipe’s as I needed to drive the truck in to have him work on it. She said no problem. So I took off for town and she met me at Philipe’s. I guess you know by now he is the mechanic. He does good work. He is the one that had the radiator and our transmission leak fixed. After talking with Philipe and letting him know things that needed repair or replacing, I left with Ruth. When she was done with her chores, we went to Guillermos and Herman, the gold mine man, a sweetheart, bought Ruth and I a margarita. We sat and talked a while, and Ruth and I were going to eat lunch there, but they were not open to serve food. So we had chips and salsa for lunch. Ruth paid for 3 large cylinders of propane and would need to come back with her truck to pick them up so she took me home and left to load up her empty tanks and take them in for exchange. While she was gone, Dave said we should get one too. But we weren’t able to get a hold of Ruth on the radio to ask if she would get us one. So when she got back from getting her tanks, we talked to her and she said that Yolanda only had 3 tanks left. Ruth offered to drive back into town to exchange one of our tanks. We felt bad she had to do that, but we had no choice. The tanks were going fast. So we called Yolanda and said we were coming in. Ruth came by with her Brat Suzuki, and got our tank and I rode with her to town. We got the tank and I paid Yolanda and now it was time to go home and have Ruth relax for the day. She had been running all day. This is what the people down here do for each other. When you need help, there is always someone that will be there. She said we helped her with her trailer, so this was turnaround for that. That was so cool!!! So now we have propane and so does Ruth.

Tuesday, Jan, our neighbor came over to look at Dave’s leg. She suggested getting some saline to wet the gauze pad and then put that on top of the wound and rap it. It should help it heal faster and also help with the oozing. So Wednesday morning I drove the jeep into town, went to the clinic to see if they had saline and some gauze pads. They had the saline but not the pads. We will have to use the ones we have in our medical kit until we can get some. I stopped to see Philipe and ask when the truck would be done and he said today at 4-5:00pm. He wanted to go to Ensenada tomorrow. So I will need to come back into town later. I told Dave about the truck and figured he would want to go in with me to talk to Philipe but he didn’t, so I told him I would ask Ruth if she would take me in. She had offered anyway. Well Dave thought about it and decided he would go in so he could talk to Philipe. We left the house around 3:30pm and when we got to the shop, Philipe was still working on the truck. He said he won’t go to Ensenada until he is finished with it. He asked if we could give him another day. We said sure. He offered to bring the truck out when he gets done, but we still need to drive him back to the garage as he doesn’t have his car working yet. So we will get the truck tomorrow, Thursday. That trip wasn’t a lost one as we stopped at Xitlali’s to get limes and see if they had any gauze pads. They did so I got 12. That should last us for awhile. When we got home, Dave put some Neosporin on the wound then applied a pad soaked in saline and covered it.

Well here it is Thursday, September 30. Summer weather is still hanging on. We have had some thunder storms to the south of us, in the valley. It is cool to watch. We haven’t had much in the way of rain here but we can watch it pour in the valley. Cool!!

Dave’s leg is slowly healing much to his dismay, but with a gash like he has it is going to take a while to close and heal. At least he can walk and get around, just can’t go fishing!! Here is an updated picture of his leg.

I have been busy making things for the bazaar in November. I made 3 purses

and plan on making kitchen towels using material instead of crocheting the tops for hanging. I should have those to show in the next blog.

Paradise has Heated up

2010-09-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday-Saturday, August 1-6, 2010.
Today, Sunday, we let Nasario know where to get water to water the plants and I also gave him some fruit. We will leave around 6 or 6:30am tomorrow so we can get to Santa Rosalia before the real hot time of day. Luckily we have air conditioning on the boat. All that is left to do here is make sure everything is locked up tonight and give the plants some water. It will be nice to be on the boat again. Don’t take that to mean that I am missing boat life. I’m not—but it is nice to have a change. Maybe we will see some of our cruiser friends at Santa Rosalia and probably meet new cruisers. I don’t know if we are going out on the boat this trip. We will have to see how it goes. We need to be back to the house on Friday. We don’t like being gone a long time when there aren’t any neighbors to keep an eye on things. We have the guard, Nasario which is very good, but it still is nice to have another set of eyes besides his.

The water was refreshing today. I took my noodle with me and just floated around for a half hour or so. I couldn’t talk Dave into joining me, darn. Sooner or later he will be in the water to cool down!!

We left the house Monday, headed for Santa Rosalia and as we got closer the temperature was 105. We are so glad we have air conditioning on the boat. We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the boat as there wasn’t a musty boat smell that boats get after being closed up for a long time. Keeping the bilge dry and the heads pumped helps. The outside looked pretty good. We were planning on power washing the deck when it got cooler, but that didn’t happen. We just chilled. I took a nap as I was so tired from not sleeping much Sunday night due to no breeze to cool things down.

There was a couple who wanted to see our boat so we invited them aboard and talked with them a little. They are from Calgary, Canada, and are both school teachers. They are here on their boat for a couple weeks and then have to go back home. They aren’t interested in buying they just wanted to look. After they left we walked to the store to get some drinking water and a couple other items. After we had a cocktail we went to town to get dinner. After dinner we came back to the boat and went below to enjoy the cool air and relax.

We are running the air conditioner all the time as it cycles on and off. When it cycles off just the fans run so air is still circulating. It is nice. We got a good rest last night. When we woke it was already 9:00am and hot outside, but Dave needed to rinse down the deck with the pressure washer. He unfortunately managed to break the nozzle. Calcium deposits collected in the nozzle which caused a blow out. Dave was able to duck tape it, but it still didn’t seal the leaks very well. He managed to wet down the deck and get some bird stuff off. He will have to get another nozzle when we go to home depot in Ensenada. After the deck was rinsed I put the canvas cover up to shade the forward stateroom. That will help a lot to keep the hot out of the boat and the bird crap off the deck. My job is to rinse down the cockpit and do laundry. One nice thing is I get to use the washers and dryers here at the marina. Not much else planned for the day or night. We are just trying to stay cool.

It is hot here in Santa Rosalia and cruisers are doing what they do. There are a couple of people who have taken their sewing machines to the air conditioned room below the office, to sew side curtains, screens for their boat and make some clothes. Others are washing their boats and having a diver clean the bottom, while others stay out of the sun and read, take a nap or get in the pool. So far everything on the boat is working great. Two boats left the marina this morning. They were headed for the island, San Marco, to try and beat the heat of the marina. One of the boats, s/v Windward Bound, had Jim and Susan aboard. They are very nice people and working their way north. She will fly to the states on Tuesday for a wedding and then on her return they will head north and we will be seeing them in Bahia de Los Angeles.

It is Wednesday already and it is still hot. We are staying indoors enjoying the air conditioner and then go out when the sun goes down and it is cooler. We go into town and have dinner and maybe an ice cream, walk around a little and then back to the air conditioned boat. Ahhhh!!!

Barb and Alan, who live across the bay from us in La Mona, are on their boat and plan to stay for a while. They were going to bring their boat up and moor it off the beach from their house, but Alan didn’t think that was such a good idea as he would worry about it when the wind came up and everything else that goes along with having a boat at anchor. Barb didn’t understand and she made a comment that Alan has lost interest in the boat. I told her I wouldn’t want to have our boat anchored off the beach from our place as we wouldn’t be able to relax. I also told her you can’t wash it like you can when it is in the marina. She doesn’t understand that part of having a boat as Alan does most of the work. But Alan did win this battle and they decided to keep the boat moored in Santa Rosalia.

As I did laundry I went upstairs from the laundry room to sit by the pool and look out on the Sea. I watched a boat come in and it was Jim and Susan on s/v Windward Bound. They developed refrigeration problems and had to come in to get repairs done. They are still having problems and they have a refrigeration guy there to hopefully make things work again. The boat isn’t going anywhere as Jim will be on it while Susan goes to the states for a week or two.

We heard from Barb and Alan that in Vizcaino, which is one of the little towns we go through, had really good meat and vegetables at the Super Mercado. So I decided I would do my shopping there instead of Santa Rosalia, that way it will be fresher by the time we get home.

Thursday we packed and put things away in preparation for leaving in the morning. We are leaving the awning up and spoke to Ivan, at the marina and Jim on s/v Windward Bound to take it down if the wind comes up and just put it in the cockpit. They said no worries. There hasn’t been any wind, so I don’t think it will be a problem and it would sure help keep the bird crap off the deck. It is bleaching out the grey. Not good. After we had finished packing and getting things put away, we relaxed a little then went to bed. Early in the morning I heard the wind pick up and it was blowing pretty well so I got up and stuck my head out just to make sure it was the wind I was hearing and sure enough it was. I woke Dave and told him the wind was howling and we needed to take the awning down. It was 3:00am. I went out and started to unhook the bungee cords that secured the awning and Dave came behind me and helped roll it up. We were the first to show on the deck and then the other cruisers were on their decks taking their awnings down. Half the dock of Santa Rosalia was on awning take down. It was a good thing we took the awning down as after it was gone I noticed 3 hatches open. Dave had opened them the first night when the sun went down to check the seals on them and didn’t latch them again. So once I secured them, I stood by as Dave had to climb off the side of the boat onto the dock to check out our lines. The wind was blowing the stern away from the dock so we couldn’t get off the stern of the boat. The deck was slippery from the humidity, but he made it safely onto the dock. He adjusted the lines but still couldn’t get on the stern of the boat. One of the new cruisers had come down to ask Dave something and off he went to help. I stayed on the boat just to keep an eye on the lines and make sure everything stayed o.k. Well I have to tell you that this experience brought back the memories of being awaken in the wee hours of the morning, due to high winds, taking down awnings and being on anchor watch. This time it was just taking down the awning. We actually were experiencing a Chubasco and the winds were about 35 knots there in the marina. It lasted at least a couple hours. We stayed up for a while to make sure we and the others were good, then I was the first to go back to bed. I didn’t get right to sleep as the wind was howling and the boat was jerking back and forth from the dock. Eventually I did fall asleep but Dave said it was 4:30am and he had the alarm set for 5:30am so he was going to stay up. I was concerned as he was doing all the driving. He finally did lie down and when he awoke it was 7:30am. We gathered all our things and made a trip to the jeep to pack it and then returned to the boat to put the power and water hoses away and lock up. After the boat was taken care of and the jeep was packed, we left and went to the store to get ice to put in our cooler. We had a couple things we needed to keep cold plus when we stopped at the super Mercado, we would need to keep the hamburger meat cold. It was around 8:30am when we left. It was actually an hour earlier in Bahia de Los Angeles due to a state time change, so we were doing well on time.

When we arrived at the super Mercado, it reminded us of a small costco. They had some bulk items and the prices weren’t too bad. We got a kilo of hamburger meat and some fresh fruit and vegetables and left. We got home around 2:00pm or so. The temperature wasn’t nearly as hot and humid as it was in Santa Rosalia, plus there was a nice breeze blowing which made it comfortable. We really do like the weather here in the summer as opposed to Santa Rosalia.

Nasario, our guard, informed me that 2 of the plants didn’t make it and there were a lot of bees. Because we weren’t here to keep water in the bucket, placed in the arroyo, the bees went to the other water source which was the plants. I couldn’t water them for a couple days until the bees got the idea there was another source of water. They are still coming to visit the plants, but not as many of them.

We had heard that s/v 2 Pieces of Eight, with Pete and Marni onboard were in the bay so we gave them a shout on the VHF. We talked to them and they invited us to have lunch with them at Guillermos around noon. So we told them we would see them there. They also asked if they brought in their gas and diesel jerry jugs if we would take them to the gas station so they could fill them up. We told them no problem. It was good to talk to them and we are looking forward to seeing them again. They were the couple that took us under their wing last summer and helped us get here.

Saturday around 10:30am or so, we took off in the jeep and headed for town. We needed to get a few groceries so we decided we would get them first before seeing Pete and Marni. Dave could only fit Pete and the jerry jugs in the jeep so we wanted to get our groceries, then meet them for lunch, then the guys could go get the fuel.

We met Pete and Marni at Guillermos and they suggested we go to Victoria’s to have lunch as Guillermos is too expensive. So Marni and I walked there while the guys rode in the jeep. The back seat was folded down so there was only room for the jerry jugs. We had a wonderful visit and lunch at Victoria’s and then the guys took off for the gas station and Marni and I walked to Xitlali’s, as Marni needed a couple grocery items. We met the guys back at Guillermo’s. We wanted to look in the store and see what booze they had and their prices but it was closed. Fortunately the owner was out front helping a friend or relative with a boat trailer. I asked if the store was going to be open soon and said in 15 minutes. When the store was opened, we went in and got some gin and rum at a decent price and then we helped Marni and Pete load up their dingy with the fuel and said our goodbyes. We invited them to dinner tomorrow night so we will be able to visit some more.

Sunday-Saturday, August 7-14.
Pete and Marni brought their boat down to the end of the bay and rode their dinghy in. We showed them around then went upstairs to the house. We had a great visit and they thought the house was great. Dave BBQ’s tuna steaks and I made coleslaw to go with it. It was dark by the time they left so we walked down to the beach with them with our flashlight, as they forgot theirs. We helped push their dinghy back into the water and Dave shown the light on the buoy so they would know to go around the outside of it because on the shore side it was shallow. They made it safely and let us know they were back to the boat. We told them that now they know where to find us they are welcome to come back. They stayed the night anchored in the bay and headed out the next morning to anchor off the village again.

John and Sandy Eltrich are here and anchored in the bay off the village. They will be around until October and then head back to the mainland. It was good to hear from them as they gave us a call.

It has cooled down a little which is nice. We still haven’t had reason to run the air conditioner yet. The fan over the bed works just fine. We usually only run that a short time as a breeze kicks up. A lot of the bees have gone back to the bucket in the arroyo so there aren’t many by the plants any more. I can now water the plants when they need it.

We had another tire go south on the truck. It was the right rear. We have one spare left so Dave replaced it, but it isn’t new and eventually that will go south too. There is only one more spare for the front and that is it. Dave had planned on getting water Monday, but after changing the back tire it was already 8:30am and the line for water would be long. Dave wasn’t sure about driving on that tire yet, so he wants to see if we can have water delivered. He will have to go to town and speak to Ramon, or Pepito, as he can deliver 1200 gallons of water for only $50. That is pretty cheap. So he went into town and I stayed behind to work on a purse I am crocheting. When he got back, he said water was to be delivered around 9 or 10 the next morning. That was great. We were getting pretty low and I had clothes to wash. Well needless to say when 9 and 10:00am came around there was no water delivery. We were wondering if Ramon forgot. I figured he would show up sometime before the end of the day and he did. He showed around 2:00pm. We now have plenty of water, but the sad thing is we have to use a lot of it so we can get the level down in the pila so it doesn’t seep out. The pila is falling apart slowly and if it is filled to almost half, it leaks. This isn’t a good thing because that brings bees, horses, coyotes, and cows. And the horses and cows will kick at the walls to get to the water source. So I have been doing laundry and should be finished by tomorrow. I have been freely watering the bigger plants and will get the hose out to wash off the chase lounges and the pad as they are really dirty. We just want to get that water level down below the leak point and that should help. We may even wash the jeep!!!!

John and Sandy brought their boat down to the end of the bay and anchored and brought their dinghy ashore. It was so good to see them and get caught up. It was great news to hear that Angie, their middle child, is pregnant and expecting in January. That is so cool. She and her husband Dave have been trying for a long time. We gave John and Sandy the tour and then went up to the house and sat outside on the deck to enjoy the breeze and view. As it got closer to dinner time, I invited them to stay and told them we were having hamburgers. They said they would be much better than the ones they had in town last night at Guillermo’s. Both she and John said they were terrible. So between the 4 of us we had 4 bottles of wine, great hamburgers and chips, and a wonderful visit. We invited them to come back and even said that when they come back in February, from visiting their new born grandchild, they could stay with us for a while if they wanted. Unfortunately when they return to Mexico it is already half way into the cruising season for south Mexico. Sandy wants to explore the Baja side, so we just put that offer out in case they wanted to take that time to see some things. It would be fun to do a road trip with them to Todo Santos as her and I have never been. So we shall see.

Here it is Wednesday and it is heating up again. I am almost finished with the purse I am making. I have the lining to sew in and put a shell on it so it closes and that will be it. I think I will have to go in the water today to cool off as it is that warm. Well I have a shower to clean and chaise lounges to rinse off so I better get to it. There is a wonderful breeze from the north and we are enjoying it. After the chaise lounges were washed and dried, Dave helped me move them up to the deck so we could enjoy star watching tonight. We were all geared up to see a great show but there were only a couple large ones and the rest were really small. It got humid outside and it was warm inside the house, so we turned on a couple fans. There wasn’t much of a breeze so it will be a night of being warm and sweaty.

It is Friday and Dave and I took the truck to town so we could exchange a propane tank and I could get a few groceries. When all that was accomplished we headed back to the house and stopped at the home depot to check out prices for another water tank, larger than the one we already have, and the fittings that go with it. We can take the top off the cement pila and put the 1250 gallon tank inside and then fix the outside so it looks good, or we can tear down the pila and put the tank on the cement pad that will be left.

Dave talked to Larry yesterday and he will be bringing down 2 16-1/2 inch tires with rims when he comes in a couple weeks and then 2 more when they come back down in October. So the truck will have some decent tires on it for a change. We are splitting the cost with him. Ruthie, Snow Rabbit, that is coming from Big Bear, California, will be bring the fans Lois bought for us. That will be really good. We just have a little one now so the bigger size will be great to have in cooling us down. Only a month more of heat and then it will be cooler. January and February are cold months here, but cold to us is 60 some degrees!!!!! I am looking forward to getting my hiking boots on and exploring the country side. After we got home from going to town, we were sooo hot!!!! We had bought Gatorade while in town, but we were sweating as much of it out as we put in. We drank a lot of water and nutrients to get back what we lost in the drive to and from town. We both took naps and enjoyed the nice breeze that was blowing across the bed. As the afternoon progressed we noticed clouds building on the mainland side. We wondered if there was going to be a lightning show tonight. There was one the other night, but it was so far away it was faint. We sat outside for a while watching for meteors, but there were only a couple real small ones so we came inside. It actually was pretty decent in temperature inside the house. We watched some T.V. then went to bed. There was lightning to the east and we wondered if it was going to stir up some wind, so just for precaution purposes, we brought all the chairs and chaise lounges closer to the house just in case the wind did pick up. We couldn’t see bolts of lightning but did see the sky light up. The wind was blowing from the north which was nice. Dave managed to fall asleep but I didn’t. I tossed and turned and kept an ear out for wind. In our experience on the boat, anytime we saw a convection starting in the east with lightning later that usually meant wind in the wee hours of the morning. So with that thought, I was vigilantly listening. Sure enough at 2:00am, the wind picked up. We had to close some windows as the wind started from the north and then made a switch to the south which brought high winds. Those winds funnel down the mountain range from the south. We had to close the skylights and most of the windows which made the house hot and humid. Dave then thought of the solar panels and whether he tightened down the bolts enough, so he took the flashlight and went down to check it out. When he got back he was out on the deck listening to things being blown around, especially at our neighbors’ place where they had plastic chairs and a table out. Then I remembered I had plants exposed to the south wind and that wasn’t good so it was my turn to take the flashlight and move some of the plants out of the wind. These are the plants I am babysitting that don’t do well in wind. When I was done I came back up to the deck and Dave and I stood looking around and watching the lightning. It was an impressive show but the wind kept howling for hours. I finally went inside to try and get some sleep. I turned the fan on above the bed and tried to sleep. Dave finally came to bed and the wind died down enough we could sleep. We woke up at 6:00am this morning, Saturday, and opened the skylights and windows back up. I stayed in bed until about 9:30am as I was really tired. All is well but just because we are on land doesn’t mean that our experience on the boat doesn’t apply. Actually for not getting a lot of sleep, we both are doing well. I managed to wash clothes, dust off a pad for one of the chaise lounges, make a crochet towel and read. Dave started the refrigerator down in the trailer to see if it is worth running and having some items transferred from the kitchen to there. We found out it sucks too much propane so not a good idea. The refrigerator and freezer in the kitchen are struggling against the heat just like the one on the boat did. Because the propane that operates it isn’t vented outside, it keeps the kitchen warm and sometimes hot. We have been running the fan in the kitchen and it helps but it is so warm it is hard for it to keep up. Like I said----only a month more of hot. Dave is looking to buy bigger solar panels so we can get a bigger refrigerator and run it off of electricity. That will keep the house cooler in the summer. By the way---I did finish the purse so here is a picture.

Sunday-Saturday, August 15-21.
It was a humid day today, Sunday, and we watched a thunder and lightning storm move up from the south and head west to the mountains. It was kind of cool. The last couple of days we have had to run the generator to charge the batteries as we have had quite a bit of cloud cover. But no worries. We are doing just fine. Saturday night we slept outside for a while and when the wind came up we moved inside and were pleasantly surprised it was fairly cool. Since the weather is humid we are starting to get mosquitoes. That shouldn’t last too long as when the humidity goes away so will they. We are keeping the bees away with a full bucket of water in the arroyo but unfortunately we have a few around our pila due to the water seepage. I am trying to wash what I can to get the water level below the leaks but it is slow going.

We had a nice breeze for most of the night last night so both of us slept pretty well.

We finally got smart and used the method on our refrigerator/freezer as we did on the boat. We are running a fan 24/7 with it aimed at the back of the refrigerator so it sucks up the hot air and blows the heat up and out the skylight that is above it. It is keeping the temperatures down. Why we didn’t think of that before is beyond us, but at least we did think of it!! We now can make ice cubes.

Last night I mentioned to Dave that it would be nice to go to the ocean for a couple days to get out of the heat and humidity. He thought that was a good idea. We don’t know exactly where to go, but we know there is one place that Alan and Barb go when they head for Ensenada, so we might go there. I will do some online searching and see what we come up with.

I am making crochet topped towels for the kitchen. Here are the ones I have finished. They are quick and easy and I can make a lot in a short time.

I did do some online searching of a motel on the Pacific side in Guerro Negro, but wasn’t impressed. We can’t leave here anyway until the Propane guy comes. He is expected to arrive the last Sunday of the month.

We finally got a little relief from the humidity, but a weather system is moving from the mainland east toward the west and us. We have watched the rain and thunder and lightning showers move up from the south, but we didn’t get anything until Saturday, the 21. The system brought heavy showers and it was awesome. We moved the jeep out of the garage into the rain so it would get washed off. It looks so much better. It was nice to have the down pour to wash the deck and solar panels and water the plants. The rain lasted for a good 30 minutes and then the clouds continued to move west over the mountains. The sky cleared late in the afternoon so we were able to get a little bit of solar power but Dave still had to run the generator for a little while after the sun went down.

Sunday-Saturday, August 22-28.
The propane truck came out to our neighborhood today. We wanted to get one of our tanks filled but unfortunately when we went to bleed it down, we discovered it had more in it than we thought. The guys assume the tanks are all the way empty as they put 80 liters, or 20 gallons in. After our neighbors got their tanks filled, our tank wasn’t empty yet so Dave asked the guys to stop next month. We have actually 3 full tanks. One for the big generator and two for the house so we are in good shape.

The sun is shining and it doesn’t seem to be as hot as it has been which is really good. We even had a nice breeze most of the night from the north which kept us cool. Our refrigerator and freezer like the cooler temps.

Larry arrived yesterday afternoon so Dave called him this morning to see if he had the tires for the truck, which he did. Dave drove over there and visited with Larry and picked up the 2 tires and paid him for them and the fans. Larry is only down here for a day or two and then will be going back to his house in San Diego. Lois didn’t come with him.

Dave needs to take the two bad tires from the truck with the 16.5” rims in with the ones Larry brought, which also have 16.5” rims and have Samelito take the rims off all 4 tires and put the newer tires on the old 16.5 rims for the truck. The other rims fit a newer Chevy Truck so we will give them back to Larry so he might be able to sell them on Craig’s list. When Larry comes down in October he will bring 3 more tires with him and we should be set for a while with tires for the truck. Life is good.

The full moon party was fun. We went to La Gringa to watch the cruisers float in on the incoming tide of the estuary and then when the tide turned, watched them zip by on the floaties they either made or bought. Prizes were to be awarded after the potluck. Here are a few of the pictures I took. If you know Sandy Eltrich, she is the one in the yellow green lycra suit. She is a Beer Bee. It was a really cute costume.

We hadn’t planned on staying for the potluck, but we got an offer we couldn’t refuse. Sandy and John invited us to their boat and as their guests for the potluck. We had a wonderful visit and then it was time to go ashore for dinner. The sun had set and we figured it was time to go since we still had some daylight. We wanted to be able to find our way back to the main road to town. We said our goodbyes to everyone and we came back home. It was a fun day. Dave and I will have to go back to get some clams and I can walk the beach. Needless to say Dave and I will have to come back to get clams and walk the beach.

Here it is Wednesday already and it is still hot. Last night there was no breeze at all. I had the fan above the bed going at medium speed; don’t want to suck the batteries down too much. It pushed the hot air around. Needless to say Dave and I didn’t sleep much. Dave is over at Maryann’s checking out her little fishing boat. She offered to let him borrow it for working on her solar panels/batteries last week. So he is going to find out if everything works on it and whether it would be worth putting in the water. He is itching to go fishing. It doesn’t sound like good fishing weather today or tomorrow as the wind is suppose to blow from the north, but after that it should be fine. Well he has returned so I will find out about the boat.

He needs a long line, an anchor and some chain. We have an anchor here that Larry left behind but we still need a line and some chain. He won’t know if the boat works until he can get it in the water.

Phil our neighbor is coming down with some fishing buddies for a week to see if they can catch some fish. He is supposed to arrive late Friday.

Friday is here and Phil and his buddies showed up around 7:00pm or so. He stopped at our place to let us know he was here and to ask us to pass on to Creela, his wife, that they made it safely. Dave asked him if he had any extra line and he said he had lots. So Dave is going over there tomorrow to check it out. After Phil left I sent an email to Creela.

Nasario, our gate guard, came by this morning asking for some gas. He had a medium size water bottle with him to put it in. He offered to pay Dave for it but Dave said no. So Nasario was a happy camper. He called to me so he could ask if he could go to town today and be back tomorrow and also needed some money. I gave him the amount he wanted and told him it was fine for him to be gone. We keep an eye on things even when he is there and there isn’t anyone around so it is good to give him a break once in a while. He needed to get gas, water and food. He was gone when Phil arrived but he will know he is there when he comes back tomorrow.

Saturday, Dave went over to Phil’s and brought back some line. He stopped and talked to our other neighbors, Jay and Jan, and asked if they had some chain he could have. They have a big anchor with lots of chain wrapped around a small sand dune just in front of their trailer. They said he could have some so that was good. It won’t be long before we will have a fishing boat out in front of the house.

Maryann stopped by for a few minutes to talk to us and ask Dave a couple questions on the batteries she needs to get for her house. We had a nice visit.

A little later Nasario came home and stopped at our place. Dave went down to greet him and when he came upstairs he had a large cantaloupe and 2 torta’s (sandwiches) in hand. Nasario thanked us for the gas and letting him go to town by giving us those items. That was really nice. The torta’s were really big and good!!

Sunday-Tuesday, August 29-31.
Today is my 58th birthday!!! I have been invited to spend the day with Maryann and Ruth at Ruth’s place. She lives at the end of the bay. She has a nice sand beach in front of her house and we will go swimming and play the Train game and have lunch.

Maryann picked me up between 10:30-11:00am and headed for Ruth’s. When we arrived we were greeted by her two dogs, Lucas and Brieta. Maryann brought her dog, Deto too. We visited for a while then went swimming. It was nice. Then we played Train until lunch, and afterwards played a couple more games then went swimming. It was a nice afternoon and it is nice to get to know these two ladies. Outside of Jan, next door, Maryann, Ruth and I are the only women here. The rest are in the states to escape the heat. After the last swim we dried off and thanked Ruth for a great afternoon and Maryann took me back home and we said our goodbyes and she left. Dave spent the day doing whatever. He said he just messed around. It was a great day.

I made burritos for dinner and took a couple over to Nasario for his dinner. I thanked him for the torta’s. He is a good man. He has a dog named Blanco, and now a puppy but she has round worm and is hugely bloated. Jan, who is a veterinarian tech started treating her with medicine but it will take a while for it to get her unbloated to the point she feels like eating. She is nothing but bones. Poor thing.

Jan gave Punta, the puppy another dose of medicine today, Monday, and said she wasn’t as bloated as before but Jan is really concerned about her not eating. I sure hope she survives. There is no veterinary services in town so if a dog gets really sick, they end up dying. We will just have to pray she makes it. She is such a happy little thing.

Dave went over to Maryann’s to help her put up a rod in her closet. It fell. It wasn’t secured well so Dave put a molly screw on the wall and that helped a lot. When he got back he noticed the radiator was leaking on the truck. Not a good thing. We have to go to town to see if we can find any radiator fix stuff. So we got in the jeep and went into town. While there we picked up a couple grocery items, found the leak fix stuff and looked to see if anyone in town sold chain. They didn’t. When we got home he did ask Jan and Jay again about the chain and they told him go ahead and take what he needed. So he did and it was a short chain about 8 feet long hooked to an anchor. Dave took the anchor off, returned it to its spot in their garden and now he can add the chain to the line. He is almost ready to check out Maryann’s boat. After that he worked on the truck to see if he could stop the leak. Well it stopped for a short time and then started leaking a lot. We don’t know what we will do if we can’t get it to town to get it fixed. We have been invited to join Marnie and Pete off the s/v Two Pieces of Eight, for lunch tomorrow. They need gas so we will help them again with that.

Dave worked on the truck this morning, Tuesday, and the leak hasn’t been fixed yet. So when we go to town to meet Marnie and Pete, we will pick up some more of the leak fix stuff and put more in when we get back. Dave needs to be able to get it to stop so he can get the truck to town. Then we can figure out what the next thing is in repairing or replacing the radiator. Don’t know if we can replace the radiator as the truck is old, but we will see what the mechanic has to say. We also have to get the rims off the tires Larry brought down so we can get them on the truck. Always something!!!!