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?