Domingo 09 -
Sábado 15 Feb
We've generally had high overcast skies since our crew was here. But, sunday and monday were sunny again and our laundry was on the line by eight am. We did not want laundry hanging while the work was being done on the house. With the sun, the days are near 80ºF, but the nights are still cool. Tuesday it rained and was foggy all day. We need weather like this on ocassion, to keep our various cloud-forest plants happy. The plants then love the sun when it come back. We find this area has just the right variety of cool-warm, cloudy-sunny, wet-dry to keep us (and our garden), contented. Carmen did not need fresh
flowers this week, but when she saw what our flower man had in his
arms, she just had to have some of those gorgeous snapdragons!
We bought some salt
cod a couple weeks ago. It is usually available in the US only
around Xmas, but it's in the stores all year here. One of Carmen's favorite foods
that Dan puts up with. It smells the house up when cooked for hours
to tenderize it before making into a white sauce gravy to put over
potatoes, so she waited until after the crew was gone to prepare it.
Delicious as usual! Our doctor last week told us to come to the clinic tuesday and the papers for our eye exams would be ready. Surprise surprise, they were not ready -- they said come back friday, and maybe they will have been processed thru.
Carmen finished the ground prep for new plantings along the new front yard walkway. Took her two days to dig up and pull apart all the dirt to a shovel's depth, trying to get all the grass roots out. Had a mop bucket's worth of roots to discard, and this was after our crew had stripped all the sod off. Next Dan rototilled after Carmen added sand and sawdust to the soil. Lastly we added commercial planting soil from Home Depot and lightly tilled it in. People walking past were fascinated with our small Ryobi tiller. Carmen has put over 50 small plants in this ground, all with a goodly amount of fertilizer at their base. She figures we have ground space for 20 or so more plants from Carmelo. We have high hopes for a beautiful flower-filled yard. Colyn, who walks by at least once a day, said she has rarely seen flower gardens around here. She is right (although, with so many homes surrounded by high walls, it is hard to tell). Many flowering trees and shrubs, but not many smaller blossoming plants. Wonder which plants the insects will devour first? It would be quite a job to dig in systemic bug killer around every plant, which is what she does with all the potted plants.
Gardi cat has had a smoke gray cat visiting him through the gate, and now a short haired calico has come calling. They talk very quietly. The gray cat actually gets into our back yard area somehow, and leaves footprints on the top, windshield and hood of the car. The other, thinner, cat has been trying to squeeze thru the fencing out front, with no success. We bought a length of metal shelving to attach to our high wall at the spot where
Gardi walks around on a narrow ledge to get to the neighboring
roofs. Drove down to the Soriana hipermart and bought some
Chinese meals for lunch. Still no more of Scoop Away litter at
WalMart. The shelf is still bare after two weeks, and we hope it will be refilled before we really need it. Carmen always insists on being ahead on a
couple of all important items, like her favorite cat litter.
There is a visible security presence here, with frequent police patrols thruout town. Pickup trucks have two patrolmen in the cab, and two to four standing in the back with
their semi-automatic rifles, continually driving around. Some of
the trucks have a protective barrier around the (often masked) police standing in
the back. They pass our house several times a
day, and not at the same times every day either. Plus a few motorcycle cops sometimes pass by. A few days ago we were out front when we heard tires squealing going
around our corner. Police in a hurry -- wonder what they were after?
Recently we saw some new transito police vehicles in town – bright green three-wheeled motorcycles! Sure looked snazzy!
Mauricio was here
tuesday and wednesday doing measurements for our new bodeguita (little storage) cabinet out
front at the end of the porch. While we were out shopping Dan bought the two locks needed to weld into the cabinet doors. Mauricio did the door and panel framing and skinning in his shop and then the final fitting & assembly here. Everything will be primed and then it is our
responsibility to paint, at which time we will sand and repaint
some spots on our other cabinets, stairway and fencing that he made for us earlier. He made it back with the doors to install, friday morning.
Lots of noise from the porch, with the drilling, welding and
hammering! He does great work! While he was here he replaced the mirador's ridge-cap piece that we had lost to a high wind many months ago.
Recently, while Carmen was selecting thru the huge bin of fresh mushrooms at Walmart, another woman was standing next to her, examining the 'shrooms. Carmen filled her bag and walked away a couple of aisles. The lady followed her and started asking her questions about how to cut and cook mushrooms. Carmen did her best to explain, in her poor spanish, and answer the questions. The woman seemed happy and went back and filled her bag.
