The Things I Wanted to Tell You

I had difficulty getting any photos to upload with Border Crossing Two and I wanted to tell you about much more than just the border crossing.

So, finally, a few photos have popped up out of the blue Mexico sky...............

SO you get to see my NEW TOY!!!!!!

THAT IS MY NEW WASHING MACHINE!!!!!!

It is in the house's old kitchen, which will one day be my new bathroom. We weren't going to get one, they are very pricey here, and the viejo senora lady at the end of our street does laundry, so we thought we would just keep using her. BUT I haven't been getting back all of my laundry...and when I go there looking for it, the viejo senora lady that does my laundry is on a viajo...

We saw this machine at the grocery store in Navajoa, and we bought it for $3,350 pesos (roughly $335 US dollars). We brought it home, hooked it up and I did laundry right away. I hung all the clothes to dry on the line out under the plumeria trees and 10 minutes later I looked out and the line had collapsed. I salvaged all the clothes, brushed them off and rehung them just in time for the huge monsoon that always floods the room that used to be the old kitchen that will one day be my new bathroom.

So the machine works great. You just have to have good timing and good clothesline rope for the end result.

Below the clothes are hanging nicely like they should on the clothesline. Obviously, I wasn't going to photograph them all lying on the ground...

then, the sky darkened.....this is looking onto our backyard (notice we gave our palm tree a haircut)in the photo below, it is about 3pm and shortly thereafter, came the monsoon......the adobe wall is at the very back of our property...there is a small gate that we have closed up. The gate leads to a little man's one room casa. in the photo below, you can see the rain pouring out of the canali (the drain spout from the roof)this last photo was taken about 6:45, after the rain and right before dark, which is now around 7pm....Bill has just popped into the internet cafe to see if I am ready to go. I sent him to the market for an avocado which will cost him 5 pesos. I asked him what he had been doing back at the house...laundry, he said.......

ADIOS.

Border Crossing TWO

I want to talk about alot of things, but in particular, I want you to all know that I really worked hard last week on the list. I had it hand printed in English in great detail and then, with great difficulty, I translated it all into Spanish. And I had several copies....

When we got to the Nogales border, to cross into Mexico, the truck in front of us got a red light and pulled into the stalls to the right. The light just stayed red though after that vehicle moved. So we just drove right on through and kept going. We don't know if that was a red light for us or a light just stuck on red for the driver before us. No one came screaming down the road after us.

At KM 21, aduana (mexican customs agent) was working on something with someone. They were occupied with what appeared to be a big metal object, maybe his truck transmission?
He yelled out to us only when Bill rolled down his window (I keep telling Bill to stop rolling down his window.)
Where are you going, he yelled to us. Mexico, Bill yelled back to him. I just know at this point the way Bill said it was like, duh, where else would we be going here at the US/Mexico border....I am thinking now aduana is going to come over here and hassle us. Thank God, I have this list.....I feel trouble brewing.... The agent turns back to the big piece of metal and I am yelling my head off to Bill to get going, get going, get going.... By this point I am in fear that he will want to pull over to the side and go and help them look at whatever this big metal thing is.
So, there you have it............Border crossing Two...believe it or not........me? I still can't believe it.

The Gate Photos and a Day in My Life

HERE ARE THE GATE PHOTOS........

At the top of the large open grills on each door you can see the smaller grills on the top. We are still waiting for the small chino wood inserts that will go in the smaller openings. Daniel, our gate maker, had to go and buy another tree up in the mountains in order to get the 2 pieces of wood. We do not have to buy the whole tree. He has lots of other customers....

TODAY WE ARE IN TUCSON......we will get more things out of the storage unit tomorrow morning and head south for Nogales and the dreaded border crossing.

You will not believe this. We don't even have the canopy on our truck. Bill says we can get more stuff in the truck if we just keep piling stuff on top of other stuff and put blue tarps over it and strap it all down.

Good grief.....we will look like an IKEA truck with Washington state plates. I am nervous about this, but trying not to think about it at all...sort of...I mean, I have to get the list together (please, no comments, I AM serious about this list) and organize what we will take and what we will leave behind.

I am in charge of the visas, (the FM3's), the passports, the Mexican car permit, the Mexican auto insurance, the US auto insurance, blah blah blah..I am a nervous wreck, but I am not thinking about it.....

So, I am going to tell you about some other things.

We have had a fabulous week!!!

KD and Ian came down to visit. It was extremely hot and humid and buggy (not a single raindrop at the casa) and we still had a remarkable time. It was great for them to see our casa in such primitive shape. Bill stressed to them that if they ever think they have problems, remember this......

I do think they developed an appreciation of our situation by the time they left, but they really seemed to enjoy the overnight we made in San Carlos with an air-conditioned hotel room and Charlie's Reef across the street where they shot golf balls off the deck of the restaurant.

Alamos is not easy to get to.

KD had 3 flights from Denver and Ian had 4 from Seattle. They flew in and out of Hermosillio (4 hours from Alamos) and we picked them up there and returned them there. It was returning them that prompted us to decide to keep going north to Tucson and so here we are.....today I shopped at the Foothills and La Encantada Malls and replenished my CD collection; we both got hair cuts at Supercuts, then I went and bought silver shampoo which is designed for gray hair which I seem to have more of now that I have a haircut.You know what? I think these are the first photos of me on the blog.

See me blog. My face is soooo shiny...

Okay, now on to a day in my life in Alamos.......

Every morning I wake up at 5:30 am. It is day break at 4:30, but I pretend it isn't and try and doze for awhile. But at 5:30 (I know it is always 5:30 because a 7 year old tortilla driver comes by daily at that time on his motorcycle) I am out of bed and on my walk to the soccer field and track which is about 1/2 mile away. After 5 times around the track I go into the free fitness center which is located near the field. The equipment is rusted and most of the weight pulleys don't pull. All I do is ride one of the 3 stationery bikes. Two bikes don't have pedals and if I get stuck with one of those, I have to keep lifting my foot to stay on the metal where the pedal should be. There are usually only 16, 17, and 18 year old boys in the fitness center. I think they are laughing at me but no problemos. I ride for 10 minutes, tell the guy in charge gracias, bueno, manana??? I almost think he will tell me NO GRINGAS MANANA !!!! But he doesn't, so I keep going back.

On the walk home I sometimes stop and get a bottled water at the little store on the corner. I pay 5 pesos and it is gone by the time I get home.
When I get home I usually take a shower which is cold because we don't have any hot water and then I sit in my chair for awhile and think about what I need or want to do.

On this particular day Bill and I and the kids went to the Mercado to buy groceries.

In this photo Ian was walking with Bill into the Mercado. He said it smelled fishy and it does. But going to the Mercado is something I might do every other day. In the photos below we have driven up to the Mirador (lookout) while the kids were here. On any other day, I might take a walk halfway up the road to the Mirador after going to the mercado. Or I might just take the backroads up to the casa.
On this day we took KD and Ian to the Internet cafe. That is something I need to do more often because it seems that I am not blogging enough. But the computers there are difficult to use; I know I can somehow change them to function in English, but I just don't want anyone to be able to see anything I do online..... We are still trying to get our phone and internet at our casa, but our phone jack is on our roof and we haven't figured out how to use it yet. I am not inclined to climb up on the roof to make a phone call.
Anyways, 8 pesos for KD and Ian to use the internet cafe for 1 and 1/2 hours.....Ian is the one wearing the cap that looks out of place in a small internet cafe in a small Mexican town.
On this particular day, after shopping alone at the Mercado I went to the Plaza de Armas (the plaza near the church) and took photos. Once in awhile I will then go to the Terracotta (where a man has an espresso machine and baked treats in a small cafe) and ask him for a mocha. Then I sit for awhile and read a Martha Stewart magazine from 1995 and drink his mocha which is honestly more delicious that anything I ever made or had at Starbucks.


Some of the grounds at Plaza de Armas in the photo above and the gazebo below.

The roof of the gazebo is above and below is the alley I walk through to get on the street to head home. It is called the Kissing Alley.



When I get home I put away my groceries and check out what Bill is up to. Sometimes I will help him with a project or I will begin an ant killing project of my own or I will make the bed or start sweeping the rooms and then, the dirt outside. I will make sure the cats feel good and know we still love them even if we are crazy. I might talk to my neighbor for a few minutes as she rides by on her horse. Or I might yell to Bill that the bulls are loose and we might run out to the gate and look at the bulls as they mosy up the street to a new pasture.

Once in awhile we might hop in the truck and drive to Navajoa to buy something very important. Last week we went to buy an electric weed trimmer. I fought it because I don't like the sound and besides, I offered to let trimming all that yard be my responsibility. I am eager to keep busy. So we went to get the trimmer.

Back home I got bored trimming the weeds after an hour and Bill took over. After awhile he said we had a new mower...

and for a day we had our very own horse. Isn't she pretty????? She ate a lot of grass and weeds. I was excited because I might not have to use the trimmer. And she was better than the goat that Ramon tried to get for us. It was awesome until she started pooping and peeing and I said, she is outta here. So Bill started chasing her around the yard to get her out. And we had our very own rodeo show.
It was very entertaining. We think one of the gate workers let her in and then, Bill took a break from chasing her and suddenly, she was gone.

Around 10 or 11am, I will reluctantly do the dishes. The blue bin holds the soap and then comes the rinse and lastly, in the black stock pot, the bleach rinse. Very, very boring.. I don't have enough light to do the dishes the evening before, so basically, I am doing dishes that we will use later that evening. There is a dove nest in the mesquite tree over the dishwashing area and sometimes things I don't like the things that fall on me, but this is where the faucet is so it's not like I have a choice.
Just another lovely shot of the dishwashing area. Now if we are grilling that evening, dishes are clean and good to go. But most often, we are slow cooking in the crock pot. So, by now I will get that going. And I will say we have had some incredible crock pot meals. In addition, we also have a small electric hot plate. When I get back home I will give you the title of the crock pot cookbook we use. I bought it in the Denver airport years ago and it is a vital part of our Alamos living. All southwest cooking recipes by a couple of ladies who studied crock pot cooking in Mexico, it is a fantastic book!

The area below is the food preparation area. We keep our water there (10 pesos for the large purified water jug you see on the table, 11 pesos for delivery, but we like the experience of taking the empty jug to the water purifying house )and the crock pot and hot plate are there as well. Clean dishes are there, coffee and tea stuff.. we also have a pantry cupboard in the room that is not our bedroom and keep lots of canned and dry food there.

After I get the crock pot going, I might work in the yard, work on a painting, or make some fresh limonada from the limes I bought at the Mercado that morning. Or I might study the 501 verb book for awhile or write in my journal.

Sometimes I will just take a two hour nap...........by early evening we are sitting around watching the bats fly and petting the cats, or walking around taking a yard tour.

If we are not crock potting, we are grilling. In the photo below you will see the grill. Bill is in charge of grilling and he is the best .....It is dark here by 7:30pm and before we eat we might take a few photos of the sunset and talk about what we plan to do the next day............

Subtitled Blog........

GATE RAISING........



Today we had a gate raising. Our new gate went up between the new brick wall and now we will have more privacy...the only problem is I do not have a photo to show you because I did not know I was coming to the internet cafe today. And I didn't bring my camera adapter to be able to upload the gate raising photos.



We are in Navajoa and I have been practically shoved out of the truck and into the internet cafe because I was making things difficult in the hardware store.

Hardware stores here are not like home depot or even small Ace hardwares. The main room is very small and you have to know what you want because all of the tools and things are either hidden in the back room or hanging on the walls upstairs....where the customers don't get to go.



Now in Alamos, the hardware senors already know Bill very well, they just let him roam around all over the place. They know him in Navajoa also, but their rules are stricter.

So, after watching the guys work behind the counter and the little bugs on the concrete floor go one way and then another, and appearing terribly bored, I have been dropped off to blog...

I have so much more to tell you before he comes back to pick me up!



Our new gate was made by the local iron worker, Daniel. It is made of chino wood (sort of like mesquite) and beautiful iron. It has two open iron grill windows in it and a big latch to keep people and things out. Lots of senors came up the street to watch our gate being raised.



You will never know how much it means to have this gate up.

because.....all kinds of things have been coming into our yard. For instance, Dumb Dog. He lives across the road out in the agave ranchland. But he loves our cat food and since day one he has been coming to try and get it. He will do anything to try and get that food. And we throw everything but the kitchen sink at him to try and get him to go away. If we had a kitchen sink we would throw that too.

We aren't inhumane, we don't throw on him, just at him. And he LOVES it, he rolls over, he wags his tail and tongue. One of our workers said he is ours. Over my dead body is he ours.....so now, the gate will hopefully keep out dumb dog.



And it should keep out people as well. One afternoon I was in the back bedroom napping and I woke up to an elderly senor sitting at the foot of my bed. He started taking woven baskets out of his burlap sack. He was a basket vendor...that was very startling for me.....no problemo for him...no gate, just walk right on in.

Another time I was cutting vegies in the back and a whole family showed up to try and sell me their wooden carved birds.....And before the wall went up a man saw me in the window and wanted me to buy his used mexican cookbooks. He kept trying to shove them through the iron grill window. I just kept pushing them right back through again.

I am thrilled to have this gate.



This should also keep out little girls who are scared of Dumb Dog. One afternoon we came home and our neightbor told us she saw a little girl up on our roof. Dumb dog chased her up there. Do not ask us how she got on the roof or how she got down. Our neighbor went to call for help for her and when she came back, both dumb dog and the little girl were gone........



BEDROOM

This is the before photo of one of the two livable rooms of our casa. Here is the after photo. It took me two days to hand sew the curtains....(Bill just came back from the hardware store and I told him to go away). We bought the bed and base here in Navajoa and they delivered it one afternoon right before the rains came. Sheets are from the local grocery store.......A few added things that we brought across the border and voila!

very cozy.......not long after this Bill got alot of our electricity up and running and we now have ceiling fans going in both rooms.
Now in the photo below you can see where we spend alot our time. It's where we go to get out of the sun, where I have coffee in the mornings, where Senor Bill works on his architectural drawings of what he is doing to the house, where we eat our lunch or dinner, where we sit and throw things at Dumb Dog.....note there is a fan above, which Bill installed. It is great and really helps to keep out the gnats.......




GNATS...
are terrible here right now.

We have been told they are worse in August when the no seeums arrive to help them feast on all of us who are here in Alamos. We also understand that the gnats and no seeums, along with the scorching days and high humidity, are the main reasons foreignors return to their homelands for the summer. Well, see, we were told there was very little humidity here, up in the mountains of the sonoran desert, in the fact the guide books will tell you that. They could be talking about a different desert. We also thought the rains rolled in every afternoon, with thunder and lightning and cooled everything down and made it very pleasant.....
The exciting thing about that statement being wrong, is the rains come any time they very well please and thunder and lightning are sooo exciting here, it is beautiful. Often there is lightning all night and no rain.....When it rains, it absolutely pours. And it makes everything very humid.......
and makes lots of new baby gnats be born......
So what I have quickly learned is that you have to have rags...you can see my current assortment below.

I have have some pretty pink and purple ones that aren't shown in this photo..

The point of having a rag is to swat gnats. And swatting gnats takes talent. I have spent alot of time watching Mexican women swat gnats. Some swat very slowly and some very quickly. I have actually developed a gnat swatting rhythm to different songs. If it is a fast gnat day, I flip my rag to the tune of Clapton's Layla, a medium gnat swatting day might be Hotel California, a very slow day could be Nat Cole's Unforgettable. You just really have to get a song.

Once we began sleeping at our casa, I started getting up and walking to the soccer field track about 5am, 3 mornings a week. Alot of Mexicans are there, walking the track and swatting gnats with their rags. It is there, on the track, that I really leaned the art of gnat swatting and as I watched the people, especially the women, I realized how important it is to have an assortment of rags. Now when I am shopping I always am looking for new rags and styles.

well, you know who has pulled up in the parking lot and I think it's time to go. I have blogged myself out. BUT, still have alot to tell you about, so next time..hasta luego.....

Streets, Rain, Wall and Sunset

Today we are getting the leftovers of the Texas gulf hurricane. Heavy, heavy rains are pelting the outside. The thunder and lightning have subsided for awhile and I think I am safe on the second floor of the internet cafe down near the Alamos alameda.

I also think I am safe in here because for some reason the cafe is full of federales, with their big guns and all that other stuff they have..... They are standing around eating grilled chicken and a few are using the internet. They don't seem too concerned about anything but their chicken and whatever they are viewing on the computer screens....downstairs is a video store and Monsters, INC, is playing in Espanol. That is one of my favorite movies and I know alot of the lines by heart, so between the movie and the federales I am somewhat DISTRACTED!

Here is a photo of the rain rushing down our street toward the alameda. That water is about 6 inches deep. Our street, Calle Durango, was only paved last year and it actually has fairly nice even pavers. But that is rare here. The norm is cobblestone..everywhere. It is not real easy to walk on. I have to watch every footstep I make..which is hard to do sometimes, because there is soooo much to see here. Especially in the evening, when people open their windows and like any small town, they sit outside and watch people walk by and call hello, buenes tardes, com esta....walking here is great fun....
the pavers below are on our street and only a few others......
most of the streets are like the one above......
I took the above photo from the truck, but if you don't watch where you walk, you will walk right into one of these......

There has been alot of activity at our casa over the last three weeks. In the photo below, we have begun our grill area.
We are laying the concrete below....we will not have a kitchen for quite awhile, but we'll be grilling....now we are grilling on top of three bricks...the two photos above show the wall is almost done and the photos below are across the street and the sunset across the street from the house....

PHOTOS

Laying the foundation for our BBQ in the photo below....

Running of the bulls through our yard.....
Laying the foundation of cement and rocks for the brick wall....
more later....

Unable to post a few blogs

Hola...
I have not been able to post a few blogs lately. The error message reads:
Your HTML cannot be accepted, your tag is not closed....I have tried to fix the issue and can't...
So I am going to just give this post a try and see what happens.
There is so much to tell you.........so many projects going on, so many pictures to show you..we have lizards in our yard that are bigger than Ashes, our smallest cat.
We have had cows and bulls in our yard.

Lots of work is going on.
Eduardo and his boys are building the brick wall in front of the house. Bill and I are building the bbq grill where we are going to do most of our cooking. We have water, but no electricity.
we have rented a small casita on top of a hill, but hope to be in one of our bedrooms in the middle of next week.
The monsoon rains have begun. We walked across the cobblestone street to our neighbors last night through a foot of running water.
That's all for now, until I can see if this post will go through.