Horse Tales

The past week has been another hectic week, what with all of the festivals on going as well as bringing our two horses into their new home. The stables are very nice as you can see below.

After just three days both Moet and Chandon have adapted to their new location and routine extremely well. We have been riding them for several hours a day almost every day and they seem to enjoy trail riding very much. Both of these horses were previously involved in Charreada so they had lots of experience with riding in the ring, but not very much trail riding.

Here you can see Jo Ann is enjoying herself with Moet out in the compo.

We have also had a slight change in our animal family. Our ranch hand, Tomas, has a elderly friend who broke his leg this past summer and because of osteoporosis he is not able to walk any more and needed something to be able to ride to the market. So we gave him one of our burros that we had used to ride before (Pascale) and also one other as burros, like horses and dogs, are pack animals and we did not want to have Pascale leave a lone. So this week we also said goodbye to Pascale and Panchita, but it is great to know that they are going to a place that they can really make a difference and will be loved and well cared for.

We have one other horse story that we wanted to share. Last week as we were preparing to ride our horses from where we had been stabling them, we talked with our vet who also gives riding lessons. She told us that horses have great healing and development capabilities. She once was given the challenge to try to teach two young girls whose parent's had been serious drug users. These children had terrible learning and attention disabilities, and had recently been given to their grandparents to try to raise them. They required special tutors and schooling as they could not properly interact with other children and could not grasp the lessons at the public schools. After almost a year of riding lessons, these two girls are now competing in competitions for youth horse riding. But even better because of these sessions with the horses the girls have now advanced so that they are able to go to the public schools and have a normal childhood that they can enjoy. Now that is something amazing.

So as we pass 2006 and enter 2007, Feliz Año Nuevo y espero que usted tenga un Año Nuevo próspero!

Feliz Navidad at Rancho Viejo School

Last week we were invited by Agistina to attend the Christmas pageant at the Rancho Viejo school. This is an annual event were each of the various classes present a play, march or song that is based on Christmas and the nativity scene.

So we arrive at the appointed hour and start the usual process of waiting for everyone to arrive before it starts (remember patience). There are a large number of interesting piñatas, that will not be broken until the last day of school celebration before they break for the holiday season.

So about 40 minutes after we arrive, the pageant commences. First there is some dancing and singing by the second and third grade classes.

Then these beautiful angels take the stage and lead a session of dancing and singing.


The final part of the pageant commences which is a scene that starts with Satan leading a group of people down the road to ruin. There is a mixture of adults (the teachers) and the children. During this part of the pageant, I find it very interesting that the skit also addresses the relationship of alcohol and evil. During the part that Satan is leading the group, the adults are portrayed as drunkards and lazy, but then an angel appears and lead them to the Nativity scene where ultimately the three kings arrive with their gifts and praise.

If you want to see more of the images from the pageant please go to my flickr set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmiguelphotos/sets/72157594430003983/

It was great fun even for someone who does not usually partake in religious festivals. I also want to say that I am sorry that I have continued to be diligent with my postings. I have been spending a lot of time with the new Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom betas as well as preparing the new stables for our horses which now look to be arriving on Tuesday.

So there will be more postings as I start to free up more time. But in the meantime Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo.

Reflections

Wow it is hard to believe that it has been just over six months since I moved to San Miguel de Allende.  During this time I have only left my adopted country once for a short project and I can't say that I have missed much of anything of the life I left behind.  In fact I have an upcoming project that will take me to Toronto and New York and I am so not looking forward to going.

During this six months, much has happened to Jo Ann and I, we have completed a significant remodel to the house we acquired, commenced the reforestation project, adopted four burros and a compo puppy, commenced a project to stop the erosion on our rancho, became significantly involved as volunteers in the Patronatos por Niños organization, learned a new language, made many new friends (both gringos and mexicanos), had my first major biking accident in over 25 years, acquired two horses and added stables to the rancho and finally almost have completed a major landscaping project on the land that surrounds the house. 

Although we did not spend lots of money on these projects (we don't have it to spend) we did learn a great lesson about life in Mexico in general, and construction work specifically in Mexico, and that is patience.  The work is excellent, but it does not always go at the pace and schedule that you would like.

With Jo Ann up visiting her parents this past week, it made me start to think about how I compare living in Mexico to the other places we have lived .  This includes both So. Cal, San Francisco, Mendocino, Chicago and Northern Minnesota as well as comparing it to London, Paris and Southwestern France where we spent significant time due to my work commitments.  I have to say overall, I have enjoyed my time in Mexico more than all the others, although each has some wonderful traits and all of these experiences have been so enjoyable.

So what are the five things that I enjoy the most here in Mexico:

1.  The people who live here, their attitude to enjoying life, their desire to help you when you are in need and the culture of Mexico in general

2.  The food it is excellent and oh so diverse

3.  The climate

4.  The ability to bike and ride our horses in a variety of terrains and locations just by riding from our rancho.  Also not having to follow a road that we need to share with cars

5.  The vast amount of activities that always seem to be happening in and around San Miguel.  There are so many nights that we collapse into bed and say that we have never been so active in our lives.

However there are always things that we leave behind that we miss when we move to a new location and it is not any different here, so the five things that I miss about living in the US.

1.  The availability and ease to purchase just about anything.  It is much more difficult to purchase certain items like electronics, computers, landscaping supplies, etc. that were vastly available north of the border.  I never understood how good the people of the US have it as it relates to access to a multitude of goods at very cheap prices.

2.  The access to technology and the internet.  Yes I have broadband but it is not as fast nor as stable as it was nob and since I am a techno-wienie this upsets me greatly.

3.  Access to college football and basketball.  We don't have a TV down here so I do not get to see or hear much in the way of NCAA football and basketball.  Yes I get updates via ESPN and CBS on the internet, but I don't get to watch many of the games.

4.  Friends and family.  Clearly it is not easy to make visits to our old friends and family who still live nob and this limits our interactions to email and the telephone.  I do miss my almost daily conversations with Matt where we would debate college football and basketball, MLB (especially the Twins) and US politics.  These are just not topics that my friends down here have interests in so it is something I miss.

5.  Well I can't think of another items that I miss, so I will leave it at four.

All in all, I am very happy to be down here with Jo Ann and our pack of animals.  It has been a great adventure and one that I am looking to continue to explore.

Gran Charreada

I can't believe it was two weeks ago that Jo Ann and I with two of Agistina's niñas went to the Gran Charreada.  This is really the only true nationally organized sport in Mexico and is similar to the American rodeo.  We were prompted to go as the local San Miguel de Allende team was competing against two other teams, one of which took second place in the national finals last year.  To say the least it seemed like a good time to go to experience the national sport of Mexico.

So what is a Gran Charreada, it is a competition of nine different events that earn points both on skill and style.  It starts as any sporting event with a lot of pomp and ceremony, with all of the charros in formal attire and their caballos similarly decked out.

The Charreada is a family affair as many of the charros' families are in attendance and during the pre-competition events, will ride with their fathers.

After the opening ceremonies, the charros present themselves to the audience and prepare for the competition.

There are nine individual competitions, where each team is given points based on performance (time and success of achieving the objective) as well as style points, all of this based on experienced judges.

The first event Cala de Caballo is where a charro puts his horse through various exercises to demonstrate the ability of the charro and the caballo.  These exercises include a controlled slide, half, full and triple turns, a reverse walk among others.

The second event Piales en Lienzo is where a charro tries to catch a wild mare with a lariat by the rear legs of the caballo.  Points are awarded for the distance needed to stop the mare and the charro has three attempts to accomplish the task.

The third event is the Colas en el Lienzo where the charro rides alongside a bull, wraps the tail of the bull around his leg and tries to get the bull to fall and roll as he rides past. 

 

The forth and fifth events are grouped together.  It starts with bull riding where the charro tries to ride the bull until it stops bucking so that he can properly dismount.  The charro must remove the bull rope and the bell rope during the event for points. 

The fifth event  is the Terna en el Ruedo, where a team of three charros attempt to rope the bull, one by the neck, one by the rear legs and the last ties its feet together.  There is a maximum of ten minutes time allotment and points are given for rope tricks and time.

The sixth, seventh and eighth events are combined together.  The sixth is the Jineteo de Yegua which is similar to the riding of the bull earlier except it is on a wild mare ridden with only a rope.  Again the charro must ride it until the mare stops bucking and then properly dismount.

The seventh event is the Manganas a Pie where a charro on foot has three chances to rope a wild mare by its legs cause it to fall and roll once.  This and the next event were the two events that we did not enjoy as it hurt for us to see these horses fall as they did, but luckily none were seriously injured.

The eighth event is similar to the previous, except it is Manganas a Caballo, where the charro attempts to rope the wild mare from horseback.  The charro has three attempts to accomplish this and points are granted based on time and for rope tricks.

The final event is el Paso de la Muerte where a charro riding bareback attempts to leap from his horse to the bare back of a wild horse and ride it until it stops bucking.  It is clearly the most dangerous event of the nine, but also the most thrilling.

Through out the Gran Charreada there is a group of Mariachis playing in between the competitions.  Their music is so enjoyable and traditional.

So how did San Miguel do, well they performed well but only took second place.  That is very good considering the competition but I believe that they felt that they could have done better.  It was great fun and I expect that we will be back again before too long.

There are more photos in my flickr set which you can see here.

Luck and Hard Work

The campo area surrounding San Miguel de Allende is largely agricultural and has at times been called the breadbasket of central Mexico.  However in contrast to the US a lot of these small farms are extremely manual and do not have the vast resources that the corporate farms in the US process.

We have been told by our neighbors that for most of these farmers and the small shepherds whose herds graze in the surrounding areas that it is hit or miss on whether they can provide the necessary financial resources to make it to the next year.

So as Billie has been saying in her blog the weather here has turned down right cold and the growing season is quickly coming to an end.  Over the past week as Jo Ann and I have been riding around the campo I have been amazed at the degree of success some farmers have achieved compared to  others.

Here is a good example of two adjacent small farms.  One planted alfalfa and is harvesting probably the last of a successful harvest, the other planted corn too early in the year and will harvest nothing. 

A big difference between successful and unsuccessful farmers is the availability of irrigation.  Here in Mexico they still are using very primitive irrigation methods, but to have access to a well certainly improves your success ratio.  As you can see here, this farmer did not have access to irrigation and  planted his corn too early. 

Not only do some farmers not have access to irrigation, some don't even have access to mechanical equipment.  As you can see this farmer is still using a burro and a horse to plow his fields.

So on this day after the US Thanksgiving Day as most Americans head out to their local malls for black Friday shopping, please stop and consider how the majority of the world lives.  Here in the campo for many a day of giving thanks is just a warm casa with enough food on the table.  I love living here in Mexico, it has opened my eyes and mind to understanding what is important to us and the value of friendship and adventure.

Cacti Propagation

Tuesday started out a bit on the cool side, it was almost 50 degrees but not bad considering it was mid-November. We headed out to el Charco botanical jardín for a lecture and demonstration on cacti propagation given by Martin Smith, the curator of el Charco's cacti collection.

Martin is a most interesting individual who is British and was first introduced to the study of cacti at age four. He has dedicated his life's work to the study, cultivation and protection of cacti.

Martin began the class by giving us a background of cacti and succulents. First off, all cactus are succulents, but not all succulents are cactus! Another interesting point he made was that agaves (which are very plentiful here) are not cactus, but a member of the grass and orchid family, which is very interesting and not something I would have guessed. Needless to say most of us were surprised by this fact.

The first part of the seminar covered soil mixture which consists of two parts tierra negra (basically a fine silt that contains nutrients), two parts coarse sand, one part tierra lama (or river silt) and one part pumice gravel which can be acquired at a local building supply. This mixture is used for all propagation methods. Martin stressed that it is most important that the soil mixture be open and free draining.

Next he gave the group a demonstration of the different methods of cactus propagation. These included cuttings of vegetation such as leaf, stem or small side plant and planting from seed.

We finished off the class by being given a tour of the garden's collection of cacti from around the world, although most of the collection is from Mexico. The variety of the plants was astounding! We really enjoyed the lecture and demonstration and highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to attend a future seminar given by Martin.

To see more photos and commentary from this wonderful seminar, please check out the photo set at my flickr page here.

Welcome Moet & Chandon, plus a Frida update

As I mentioned last week, we have added a little more to our group of pets here at Rancho La Luz.  Last week we completed the purchase of two horses, Moet and Chandon.  Now you can probably appreciate that we do enjoy a little drink of the bubbly, but also Moet, which is Jo Ann's ride, is very bubbly and quick to canter.  Chandon is more of a love bunny, but is also a lot of fun to ride.

Here is Moet.

And here is Chandon,

While I am at it, here are two more, one of Moet and one of Chandon.

We are now in the process of building two new stables, a tack room and a place to store their alfalfa.  We had always planned on doing this, it is just that we ended up accelerating our plans to get the horses since the opportunity arose.

I also promised an update on Frida, our compo dog that we found two or so months ago.  She is doing wonderful now that we have been able to rebuild her immune system and get her better nourishment.  She had been covered with lice, maggots and fleas when we found her, but now she is doing great.  When we found her she weighed less than five pounds, but as of today she has grown to 18 pounds and as you can see below, she is very healthy and a lot of fun to have around.

For more photos of our animals and our travels around San Miguel de Allende and the rest of central Mexico check out my flickr page.

The Rains Continue

Here in San Miguel de Allende the rainy season is suppose to have ended and we should be moving into winter with the gardens and trees moving into dormancy.  However, what is suppose to be isn't and last Friday evening we had a fairly heavy rain, although most of it occurred while we were sleeping.

Once the clouds cleared Saturday morning, Jo Ann and I decided to take our normal Saturday bike ride, we had hoped to bike into San Miguel and have lunch.  This is a great ride, about 50 kilometers total since there is not straight line other than the main carrterra and we refuse to ride along it as there are no shoulders or bike lanes.

Riding through Rancho Viejo we noticed that everything was much wetter than we anticipated, in fact in several places we had to navigate around several major water holes.

When we got to the carrterra Palo Colorado, we realized that it had rained much more than we initially thought.  As you can see here, the road was under water in many places and we abandoned our initial plans and decided to take a shorter route through Taboada and then to Atotonilco.

Everything was a muddy mess but we continued a long our plan, when we were about half way to Atotonilco we found probably the only person or animal that was enjoying the muddy results of the recent rains.

It took us a lot longer to compete the ride given the weather, but it was a great ride, although as you can see below, I had a lot of clean up to do afterwards. 

Well at least I did not have to do the laundry!

Who Controls the Schedule?

The past week has provided a lot of challenges to my personality regarding schedules and appointments.  In the past I have been almost anal regarding the importance of being on time and achieving deadlines, however down here in Mexico, well it is just not the same.  Here are just a couple of recent examples.

First I have been dealing for two weeks in trying to get our plumber and electrician to come out to do a final days work.  This work is starting to get in the way of completing our landscaping project and the construction of the new garage.  We call and make appointments, but alas no one shows.  We will keep on trying.

Second, I had a doctor appointment last Wednesday.  I showed up on time (well within the norm for Mexican on time) and there was no one at the office.  I waited for a couple of minutes and then called my doctor on his cell.  He told me that he had an emergency at the local hospital and that his secretary was suppose to call me, but she had not nor was she there to reschedule my appointment.

Third, last Thursday we were told that the movers who were shipping our furniture from the US were going to be at our place in the afternoon to unload.  We were excited and got everything ready and waited.  By five in the afternoon we were deflated and called again to find out what was happening, well we were told that because it was the Day of the Dead, that the driver decided not to complete the drive and that they would have to come on Friday.  That was fine, but could someone please have called us.

Finally, on Saturday we were suppose to met the person who we are going to buy two horses from.  She is a trainer and gives lessons on riding but when we showed up there were two lessons going on and several people trying to talk with her.  To say the least we just decided to reschedule to a less hectic time so we could talk about the horses and complete the deal.

But there are also things that make living in Mexico even for a schedule fanatic like me.  Last Tuesday we had to go to a lab in Querétaro for a special test and we had never been to this place.  Well the road was under a lot of construction and we got lost.  We called the lab and told them where we were and guess what, they sent someone over to show us the way to the lab.  Have you ever heard of something like this in the US.

So living in Mexico the schedules and appointments are a bit more fluid and subject to change.  However the people are so friendly and supportive, you just have to laugh and enjoy the day.  But isn't that what life is all about?

Almost back to normal

The past couple of weeks have been very busy which has kept me from many of my normal activities including writing posts to this blog.  Hopefully I will get back into a more comfortable routine and will be able to get back to two or three posts a week.

So last Monday Jo Ann came back across the border after packing up the rest of our stuff from the US.  Her two cousins Matt and Jerry shared the ride with her so from Tuesday until Saturday we were heavy into the tourist scene.  On Tuesday we bummed around San Miguel as well as going to the weekly Tiengas for some shopping.

After the trip to town and the Tiengas, we then did a hike down to the arroyo and up the dry river.  Since we have not had any rain for the past two weeks, most of the river bed is dry.  However the dogs found one nice large pond and made the most of it.

 

On Wednesday we hiked from Rancho La Luz to La Gruta though the small town of Rancho Viejo.  It is about a five mile walk each way as we go through Atotonilco, which has this wonderfully restored church.

And of course a bunch of street vendors that are selling various religious artifacts.

The pools at La Gruta are from the thermal springs in the area and are so comfortable.  The grounds are very tropical, which is so different from the normal local vegetation, but beautiful just the same.

Thursday then held a wonderful tour at the Hacienda Las Trancas, which is a little north of Dolores Hidalgo.  There are so many wonderful images that I took at the Hacienda, but I will limit the posting to only a couple.

Here are the stables of the hacienda.

And here is one of the beautiful bedrooms.

After the tour of the hacienda we went into Dolores and had lunch and bummed around the town.  Of course no visit to Dolores can be made without some of the delicious ice cream that they sell at the central jardin.

Friday was another day of bumming around San Miguel and Saturday Matt and Jerry returned to the chilling state of Minnesota.  It was a very nice visit, but Jo Ann and I were exhausted from the activities.  We were a little upset though with Matt and Jerry, they seemed to have left their Minnesota weather down here.  Saturday night the temperatures dropped to 0 (32 for those of you in the US) and many of our recently planted native trees and shrubs were touched by frost.  This sure seems early but I am sure that Jo Ann will be able to coach them back to health.

This week is also one packed with many activities.  First and foremost it is the festivals for All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead. There is also a circus in town that we want to go see.  We also have our on going landscaping project and today we start our last project, that being the construction of the garage.  Then we stop!

So here's a big thank you to Matt and Jerry, they had a safe trip home but we hope that they will return again soon.  It wasn't our normal week, but we enjoyed playing the tourist, it is just not something we do often.

End of the Rainy Season, Not Yet!

Two weeks ago we commenced the final project related to the renovation of Rancho La Luz, this being the landscaping surrounding the house.  We had decided to delay this project until we had a good probability of the rainy season being over so that all of the dirt moving and the re-grading of the yard.  As I have commented in earlier posts, we have a problem when it rains, as the water runs down from the pasture and right onto our front porch.  Also we wanted to establish some more typical rancho style gardens, including a cactus garden.

So two weeks ago we commenced the project and started to reshape the yard around the house.  The idea was to establish some burms that would channel the rain water away from the house and to create some interesting elevations to plant on.

We were making great progress and had started planning on where the driveway, walkways and the new garage were going to be placed.  This work requires a lot of raw materials and a talented crew to select, place and secure the rocks into the cobblestone type driveway and walking paths.

As you can see we have plenty of the raw materials,

and a very talented crew. 

However on Friday afternoon we started to hear thunder and by 3p it was raining hard.  Other than a short break in the rain between 6 and 8p, it rained steady until 2a.  When I got up on Saturday, it looked like I was back living in Minnesota as it seemed that we were in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Here it new driveway, just don't stop or you may not get moving again.

And this is the new garage, yes it now looks like a swimming pool which Snickers and Frida are enjoying but it will someday dry out and we will have a place to park our truck.

It rained again on Saturday, almost as hard as it did on Friday evening and as I sit here on Sunday, I am wondering when we will be able to recommence the project.  Clearly the project is on hold for a while, I can only hope that we get some sunny and windy days which will help to dry out the soil.  The good news is that I did not have to water all of the native plants that are part of our reforestation project, but the bad news is that the landscaping is on hold and every time the dogs go outside, they come back a muddy mess.