My addiction......

After spending almost half my life in remote mountain top locations, where the quiet, the view and the tranquility was only interrupted by a static emanating from a radio loudspeaker, I still enjoy the views.
This is a view from Cerro Blanco, which overlooks the entrance to Patzcuaro.
Click on it and you should see the detail , maybe your house. Or maybe where you would like to have a house.
Just my addiction. I admit it, and they say that realizing the problem and accepting it is half the battle.......

My forest in my backyard.

When friends first come to visit, they are amazed that we don't have acres of cacti and sagebrush. After all we are in the middle of Mexico.

Then they see the lakes, the mountains, the pine forests and the quaint colonial towns like Patzcuaro.

If we have time we take them to lunch in Morelia or down to the more warm Uruapan.
If we don't have too much time we hang around the lake and maybe a afternoon trip to Tacambaro. There you go from the cool mountains to the gate way to the "tierra caliente" of Michoacan.

Some friends wander around our house amazed at the trees, the vegetation and the contrast of their preconceived notions of pictures of non beach Mexico.

We ourselves have only been exposed to the highways from the states as far down as Acapulco and Mexico City, then to Cuernavaca.

Never been to Merida, Never been to Cancun. About 15or so years ago in Sonoma County, a friend of mine who was a big time egg rancher invited me to "come on down to his boat" ( use your best Texas accent here) "and come on down to do some fishin" at our place in Baja. ( I never thought about Ba Ja, he pronounced it with a J like Jay bird! And there, that is the perfect Mexico I think all gringos have a concept of, Hot desert climate, lots of cacti, sand and not much else.
( I didn't care too much for BaJa....needless to say, something about trying to cool off in 94 degree ocean water.......but the fishing was great!)

I do know people that enjoy going to Cancun all the time, they are the ones that enjoy 28 hours of partying, too! We have our Cancun on the west coast called Ixtapa....a cookie cutter planned resort row with absolutely no character. You know one of those places where you could be anywhere, the beach in Honolulu, Miami, San Diego or Cancun......

I'm at the age where I am partied out......yep quiet and boring now.

I do have a promise to myself to go and visit the east coast next year and time the trip to consider running away from the path of some confused bulls.

A fellow blogger who lives on the coast ( east ) wrote about a annual event that after reading his blog, and in a moment of fantasizing some Earnest Hemingway or John Steinbeck, I thought to myself that instead of going all the way to Pampolna where the animals are real serious, I would seriously consider a alternative here in Mexico. After all when I make a fool out of myself, whats the sense of spending a fortune to do that?

2010 is the year!

After all, you only live once, and hopefully you would only get trampled once, ok maybe twice, it became a new entry on my bucket list.

Any other takers?

Check out John's blog, Viva Veracruz and see if you want to join me?

So Mexico's diverse land is a surprise to many, it's not only sand and beaches, it's beautiful mountains lakes, forests and rivers. You can toss in a big city in there too.

Big trip for 2010 or 11 is the copper canyon trek.......

Always need a goal, for the dreamer in me!

With water comes the green

One nice thing during the rainy season is I don't have to waste any water on the lawn. Yes, In know it is a hassle , BUT with this type of grass I don't have to mow it except once a month or so.

I was at one time considering ripping it out and putting in a pool.

That thought lasted about 45 minutes.

Each time I am stuck thinking of mowing it, I consider ripping it out, putting in grow boxes for vegetables.

Then I remember that we have raw dirt filled with old pine needles for that.

I think I was looking for a Badminton Net and rackets at Fabricas de Francias 2nd floor sports section about 5 or so years ago.

I don't remember if I purchased it or not.

Now it's not a priority anymore.

Funny how time marching on , changes the priorities.......

Hail , Hail , the gang's all gone.

Our little mountain area has a particular micro climate that is sometimes great , sometimes brutal.
The rainy season is now, but in places like Morelia it has only rained 3 or 4 times this month, but up here, our dismal corn crop and a majority of our chili manzana crop has been attacked by hail!

Mother Nature is to be respected and it makes me respect the farmer who daily works long hours to be able for us to buy almost anything we want to make or eat.

I grow a lot of my own stuff. And believe me, if I had to rely 100% on living off the land, I would probably have to devote 99% of my time to nurturing each and every plan and carefully picking each and every predator off of it.
A good example is one of my tomato plants which had a beautiful tomato cluster, with one, just one perfect orb, starting to turn red, so red that I could almost start tasting the succulent sugar sweetness with the cross of pepper and salt as I would be plopping a half sliced piece into my mouth..... Another day or two, it would be perfect.
But........
This morning as I came to inspect my future feast, I found that I had been beat to the taste test.
The dastardly culprit did not even finish the job, just a few bite marks , couple of incisor marks and my once perfect virgin orb was now debouched.

The culprit didn't even savor the whole fruit.

It probably wasn't ripe enough for him.

Well, I carefully picked the remain orb and washed it, removed the perforated portion, dashed some salt and pepper and savored every bit, bite by bite, imagining how the fully developed fruit would have tasted.....

So, either next year I will have to screen and net, or plant an excess or just get a dozen or two cats , letting them feed on the wild tomato bandits.

So between the corn damage, the meager chili harvest , I need to figure out what beside Duraznos (Peaches ) will survive the hilltop plantation. If anyone has some suggestions for me to follow I would love to investigate more.
I don't think there is a big demand for acres of weeds and pine needles............

Maybe I can cultivate truffles........

I doubt it!

I just had to.......

The Hair Cut...
One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut.

After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber
replied, 'I cannot accept money from you , I'm
doing community service this week.' The florist was
pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning,
there was a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for
him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to
pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I cannot accept
money from you , I'm doing community service this week.'
The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there
was a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him
at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went
to pay his bill, the barber again replied, 'I can not
accept money from you. I'm doing community service this
week.'
The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.
The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there
were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental
difference between the citizens of the great United States and
the politicians who run it.

Big Mexico Summit with Politicians

I see in the news today that Obama, is schmoozing with Mexican and Canadian heads of state! How the slate and integrity has changed over the years, I was very young when Harry Truman was president but all I read he was a different kind of President.

He probably made as many important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited

The house from her mother and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year..

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There were no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for a ll of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth.
Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (remember the Chicago boys-- Illinois )

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician.

And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

I say dig him up and clone him!!

Sad day today R.I.P. Jimmy.

Jimmy Bedford the man responsible for the taste and quality of Jack Daniel's for the last 40 years has died.
He retired just a few months ago, after spending 40 years working at the Jack Daniel Distillery at the tiny Tennessee town of Lynchburg

As the Jack Daniels brand's sixth master distiller, Bedford was responsible for making the world-famous whiskey . Tonight I will have to observe a solemn toast and bid his memory farewell for years of some of the best libations made.
Some drank straight and some with various mixers. Thankfully he had trained a new distiller and bestowed his profound wisdom on him.

Where there's rain & lightning, sometimes there's fire!

I love the rain and the rainy season starts in late May and usually lasts until mid October.

Last year it was a mild season but this one seems about normal.

My wife is always shouting at me to come inside when I go outside and look at the lightning shows.

There is something that draws me to the great nature show.

Last year I hooked up a new computer to act as a server for a web site that I have running and because it is located closer to my Internet connection, one hop closer to the source it sits most of the time just humming along, working tirelessly.

But during on of the nice crashes of thunder and the flash of lightning......

I had a lighting arrestor on the line that goes up to my antenna.

However the path to ground did not come down the antenna line.

It quickly traveled down the CFE line.
(CFE is the Mexico power Utility)

Now I have a new arrestor ordered.