The Adventures of Familia Bajaboy

One of the most asked questions about our decision to move to Mexico was if we were going to homeschool Mikayla and Gabriel.  After all, Tracy and I have been successful teachers for many years.  Well, we decided to make a video and share our thoughts and experiences after a few years living here.  Gabriel also has some great perspectives as well.  I hope you enjoy!

Pro-tips are a fun way for us to share little nuggets of information with each other.  I decided on this trip to Mexicali to share some of my tips for driving on Baja Mexico Highway 1 with Gabriel.  He is now 15 and will be driving soon.  In fact, Grandpa Gary spent a great deal of time on his recent visit teaching both kids to drive. Now in no way am I saying that I am an expert or that my knowledge is supreme.  But I've been driving in Baja for 38 plus years.  And over the past three years, I've been making the trip north almost once a month.  So I figured, it was time to share some of my wisdom nuggets with Gabriel.  We thought it might be fun to make a video and share it with others as well.   I recently bought a Go Pro 12 as I've wanted to tell our story with more than just words and pictures.  I started a YouTube channel  The Adventures of Famila Bajaboy  years ago mainly as a repository for our family videos.  But a...

  I have been drinking craft beer for most of my adult life.  It was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, still one of my favorites, or St. Stans IPA that started it for me almost 25 years ago.  I lived in Fresno, California back when I started drinking beer and back then the craft beer scene was non-existent.  But we did have some decent options at the liquor store.  Some of my early beers that I remember were Liberty Brewing, Russian River, and Stone Brewing. Over the years, I found myself gravitating towards pale ales and India Pale Ales.  I never considered myself a beer geek and still don't to this day.  I do love hanging out with friends and enjoying a good beer, though, whether it's at home, camping, at the beach, brewery, or dive bar.  Hands down, it's one of my favorite activities. So when we started seriously considering moving to Mexico full time, I knew that I needed to learn how to brew beer.  Now don't get me wrong, there is a thriving brewe...

Today I find myself looking out at the sailboats and thinking about where my dreams will take me this year.  I feel the need to challenge myself to move beyond my current ambitions and seek out new goals.  I feel the urge to continue on as a lifestyle entrepreneur.  I want to push beyond what is comfortable and create opportunities where I can grow, discover, and learn.  So today, my mind is a lot like the sail boats in the distance.  I am open to seeing where my dreams will take me just the currents and winds take the sailboats.  Time to raise anchor.  I hope you join me on my journey.  Cheers!

After a two year break, the Bahia Asuncion Traditional Festival is back in action.  Yesterday, the beach festival took place with all kinds of activities and competitions.  I was asked to help judge the sand castle contest which was a lot of fun. The festival has a variety of things to do.  There is a carnival area with games and rides.  Close by is a dance with top notch bands from Sonora and other states.  Last night, there were two bands and the music went until about 3:30am.  Here is a video from our deck: We woke up today and decided to get some chores finished.  I brewed up a nice Pale Ale and Tracy is doing some touch up paint.  The kids are busy filming videos as well.  I thought I'd share how we recycle our spent grains from brewing here: Later today, we are going to watch the horse races which are a favorite of ours.  I'll definitely post some videos and pictures.  Thanks for following along!

Most mornings, I walk through the garden and inevitably find myself pulling weeds or doing some other task.  I figured it's been awhile since I've shared any progress so here we go. Our garden seems to be happy and thriving.  We had a good summer crop of tomatoes, peppers, and squash but the dirt still needs a lot of work.  I keep adding spent grains from our home brews, torn up cardboard, compostable food, and yard waste, too.  Slowly but surely, the dirt is getting better.  We also break up peanut shells and thrown them around, too. In this bed, we have orange butternut squash, tomatoes, two types of lettuce, assorted bell peppers, arugula, and beets. Here is our tomato invasion.  These are all volunteer tomatoes. We planted a second round of spaghetti squash because it does great here. Super excited to see so many flowers on our mango tree.  Our blood orange and sapote have a lot of flowers as well Here we have butternut squash, a few varieties of t...

 Trash is a big problem in Mexico.  Fortunately, there is a growing population that is addressing pollution and taking steps to mitigate it.  Today, our village encouraged people to come out and clean up trash around their houses.  We took advantage of the opportunity to get out and do our part.  Here are some pictures from this morning.  Mika helped out as well but didn't get into any pictures. We decided to focus on an empty lot just to the east of our place.  Most of our neighbors do a great job of keeping their properties clean.  But this lot has been a dumping ground for many years. Our town is collecting the plastic lids from bottles.  There is a program that gives out money for the lids.  So we removed any lid we found before putting the plastic bottles in trash bags. Gabriel found an old carpet halfway buried in the dirt.  He finally managed to extract it. The city garbage truck will come by and pick up our haul.  We pi...

 This morning we ran one of my favorite routes nearby.  From our house, we head west towards the beach and run north about 3 miles.  Then we go up to Family Mountain.  Years ago, we found a natural pile of rocks on top of this mountain.  We started a tradition of placing a rock on the pile to commemorate a special person or memory.  Over the years the rock pile has grown.  From there we return south along the ridgeline and return along the Backbone trail behind our house and village.  The route is just under 7 miles with about 1600 ft. of elevation gain.  I hope you enjoy! Running along Long Beach Looking back towards Bahia Asuncion, Baja California Sur, Mexico San Roque is in the distance. Starting the climb up Family Mountain.  Boogie Board beach and the horse race track in the distance. The Family Mountain memorial.  So many great memories there! Running the ridgeline with Family Mountain in the distance. San Roque Island in the ...