The Adventures of Familia Bajaboy

 Yesterday we went to a neighbor’s birthday party.  It was a fun afternoon of laughter, food, and of course lots of cold beer.  My neighbor, Tarraya, was busy cleaning a crate of radishes, or rábanos in Spanish.  I asked him where he got them and why would anyone want a crate of them.  He began to tell me a story that only seems normal for here. He said he got a call from a ship’s captain.   The ship was headed for Hawaii but was sidelined due to a hurricane or poor weather, I don’t exactly recall which.   The ship was full of produce that was spoiling and the captain asked Tarraya if they wanted to make a trade.   I’m not exactly sure of the details but it involved cases of beer in exchange for the produce and diesel fuel.   I guess late at night the exchange was made.   I noticed about five crates of produce in the back of Tarraya’s truck.   It was spoiled and he was going to take it to the dump.   I suggested I would take it off his hands.   He agreed in disbelief.   This morni

 We have been pretty consistent with our daily workouts.  Most days we hike, run, or mountain bike.  And now, most afternoons we boogie board and get in some swimming, too.  Today we drove out to the mostly abandoned fishing village of San Roque for our hike.  The loop starts with a climb of about a mile before the trail heads west to a small house used by the vigilancia.  Our town has two fishing cooperatives.   Each one has people who patrol the coast looking for potential poachers and to keep an eye on their fishing grounds.   There are fishing cooperatives up and down the coast of Baja and Baja Sur.   It’s reassuring knowing someone is around especially when in the middle of nowhere.   If you come across one of the vigilancia, I recommend saying hola and maybe offering up something cold to drink.   I have been rewarded more than once over the years with a bit of kindness. Once at the house, the trail loops back to the village.   The coast here is so beautiful and reminds me a l

In the 14+ years of owning our casa, we have longed to have a thriving garden.  We have had mixed success, though, primarily due to inconsistent watering and harsh, windy weather.  Now that we live here full time, we are up the challenge. Good dirt is really difficult to come by and is definitely one of our biggest challenges here.    In order to get decent dirt, we drive out to the desert and up an arroyo looking for a mesquite tree.   Normally, the dirt underneath has nutrients although the dirt can still be sandy or full of clay.   We bring the dirt back and place it in our “dirt” planter.   We mix in seaweed, pieces of torn up paper, compost, spent grains and hops, and worm tea from our worm composter.   We water and mix up the dirt a few times per week.   Trust me, this is very time consuming but so far is paying off. This morning, I planted some seedlings into one of our new planters.     We have a variety of tomatoes, orange butternut squash, and lemon drop melons.   We also

 

  Wednesday, July 14, 2021 Before I start, I wanted to address the reason I have not posted the past two Mondays. The reason is that there was not much interest. I have found that as things have slowed down, it would be smarter to write when things of interest occur and that is what I will do. Monday, July 5, 2021 We had invited some of our friends over and we gave them some of our beer. We thought that our beer was average, nothing to get excited about. But everyone seemed to like it a lot. Later some of our neighbors came by and also really liked it. We were not sure what the reaction to our artisanal beer would be but it was a good sign that it was well received. Thursday, July 8, 2021 My father and I woke up early that morning as we were heading back to the states. We were recently informed that our new license plates had arrived and we decided that my father and I would head down. We decided to get a hotel in Ensenada that my parents had stayed at in the past. After a quick

Today Zeus and I ran the trails behind our house.  Thought I'd share a few videos of my favorite spots. EVERYTIME we run the trails back to the house, Zeus stops to take in the natural air conditioning at this spot.  It cracks me up because I always sing the opening song to Lion King because he reminds me of Mufasa on Pride Rock.   (" Nants ingonyama bagithi baba  Sithi uhm ingonyama"- Circle of Life.   Who knew these were the lyrics?  Mine are just a tad bit different!) Zeus will NOT continue on until we run past him a bit, then say something to him. like. "Good job, Zeus!".  It's always like he's looking for a little validation from us!  

We are nearing three weeks of living in Baja.  I can honestly say I haven’t been this relaxed in a very long time.  I’m sleeping better than I’ve slept in well over a year. We still manage to be very routined.   We are going to bed earlier here and waking up earlier (Zac consistently gets up early, I'm hit or miss!).  I like to slowly rise, have my cup of tea, and start the day by practicing my Spanish on Drops and Duolingo.  (Gabriel and I have gotten very competitive using both apps.  For Drops I am on a streak of 470 days, and for Duolingo I have 375 days in.  How many do you have Gabriel? :)  Afterwards we tend to do some sort of exercise - either hike, run, or bike.  Then we return for a nice brunch, prepared daily by Zac.  Lately this after-brunch time consists of yard work, housework, or any combination of the two.  I find that I clean the house much more regularly here- mostly due to the amount of sand/dirt in the air.  But I am proud of myself for keeping things clean and