Visit to Las Glorias del Huerto

This past week we made a visit to the organic gardens of Luis Saurez which are located near Atotonilco. His rancho is called Las Glorias del Huerto and it is a magnificent garden where he grows using methods that are certified organic.

Many years ago his rancho was farmed with mainly corn. When he commenced farming the property, he converted all of the techniques to organic and ceased using any chemicals. He initially planted alfalfa which he continued for 15 years primarily to rebuild the soils. Alfalfa is part of the legume family so it feeds the soil and has VERY LONG ROOTS that also help to break up the hard pan. Thus he continues to use alfalfa as a rotation crop to regenerate his land.

Luis employs two full time gardeners and as summer comes with the increased production and of course the rains he employs more as need be.

He composts everything that the garden produces including pasture grasses and uses cattle, sheep and goat manure that he ages and works into the soil. He has primarily three different types of soil on his property and works at mixing them together since combined they make a very rich soil but separately they are not good growing mediums.

For pest control purposes he only uses artemesia and sages, which Luis believes work just fine and are totally organic.

The rancho will commence selling produce in the next two weeks, although it will be primarily salad related products, lettuce, radicchio and arrugula. He had to stop selling last year earlier than normal due to the very cold period in December but usually has to stop with the first frost. Luis is also hoping to employ more covered/protected growing areas so that he can extend his selling year round.

This coming year he will be planting fruit trees to diversify the microclimate of his property.

The Down to Earth Garden Club of San Miguel will be having a tour and discussion with Luis at his rancho on the 22nd of May from 9:30a to 11. If you are interested in attending, please register with the organization here. If you would like to see more images from our tour of the gardens, please check out the collection at my flickr portfolio here.

Almost Off the Grid

Yesterday commenced the final phase of our renovation of Rancho La Luz, this being the installation of solar panels and the electronics for moving the rancho's electric requirements entirely to solar power. We commenced the renovation around the first of April last year (I guess it was an April Fool's joke on me to think we would have finished this work by the end of September) and have completely renovated the buildings, the landscaping and now moving from the grid to the generation of electricity by solar.

We are using a local firm called Solar & Heating Solutions here in San Miguel de Allende to procure all of the necessary equipment and to install the system. Once I am done with this project, then I will be able to get rid of all my voltage regulators and UPS systems. That will be a real benefit.

I hope to have some photos of the transformation of the rancho once we are done. Trust me to say that it has been a major transformation of the rancho and we are really happy about the work that we have done.

Is it my Spanish or just a failure to communicate?

For the past two years Jo Ann and I have been working very hard on improving our Spanish. In fact for the past eight months we have been taking intensive language training. We can now have full conversations with the people who live near our rancho and are able to communicate very well with the construction and landscaping crews who speak only Spanish.

However over the past week we have had several "issues" where we either don't fully understand the culture/customs or we have the typical example of a lack of communication.

The first incident happened two days ago. Tomas, our ranch hand, has never really had full time permanent employment and has two boys in high school who we employ during their vacations from school (summer break and Navidad). However now the boys are back in school and Tomas has a lot of work to get done before the rainy season starts. So as the day was ending I told Tomas that I thought we should hire him an assistant to help with the work, such as mixing the concrete and carrying the heavy materials. Upon saying this I could see Tomas was not happy about this offer. I mention that it would only be until his boys are out of school for the summer in case he is concerned that we would not hire them again. I continue to back track saying that all we were trying to do was to help him and if he does not want the assistant that was fine with us. So was our offer viewed by him as criticism of his work, did he think that we would not hire his boys again, did I use the wrong words or tenses, or was this something that culturally we did not understand?

The second issue happened yesterday and is really a combination of two events. We were going out to Las Cañas primeria school to give some training on using the new educational software that we installed last week. We had asked the oldest child of Agistina if she could help us with training as she uses the software and knows how the programs work. So the prior day, Agistina tells us that we should pick up Alicia at their home at 11:15. However yesterday morning Alicia's father Aturo comes by and tells us to pick her up at the Rancho Viejo school at 11:15. So we go to the school at 11:15 and find out two things, Alicia is not there and the teachers from Las Cañas primeria are coming for computer training to Rancho Viejo. We are very confused to say the least.

We head off to Alicia's home to see if she is there, but alas she is not, her mom says she is probably out at our rancho, so we head off there. Yes she is there and we don't really know how our plans went astray, but we have found her so off to Las Cañas we go.

We get to the school and it is locked up tighter than a drum. We don't know what went wrong, but clearly the directoria of the school either forgot to tell us that they had a change of plans or did we not explain ourselves clearly.

It can be extremely frustrating to be in a land of extremely friendly people, who speak a language that you do not fully comprehend or understand. Sometimes my head seems to explode as I try to absorb all of the nuances and tenses of Spanish, but we are making progress. However, days like these past two really raise questions about your communication skills and your understanding of the new language. This is something that everyone needs to experience as it can be oh so humbling.

Arbustivas y Plantas Necesario Anónimo

Ok, I have having a little fun with the title, but when Jo Ann and I go to a plant sale, we usually go crazy. So over the past weekend we headed into San Miguel de Allende to visit the annual plant sale which is known as Candelaria. Usually held within the beautiful confines of Parque Juarez, this year it is being held in the parking lot on Cardo. Well, first impressions were that it looked like a typical flea market that we would visit when we lived in SoCal. However upon closer investigation we found some beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees.

One of issues that I have with Candelaria is that it really does not promote or market local or native plants. It is really focused on selling plants that have lots of color that will not necessarily do well here in the high desert environment of Mexico. But this is the result of capitalism, doing what will sell, not necessarily what is good for the local environment. The following is a good sample of what you can find at the various vendors.

One of the concerns that I have heard a lot from many locals who are very knowledgeable in plants and trees, is that the vendors stress the plants with fertilizers and other performance enhancing substances to have them in full bloom with fruits, just for the show. Thus in a lot of cases people will be very disappointed that the beautiful plants that they had purchased soon thereafter die or look significantly wilted. It is thus imperative that when you are purchasing plants here to really look at the root ball and the stock, and not look at the color of the flower or the fruit.

I am always amazed by the entrepreneurship of the Mexicans. I had been wondering how they were going to get power to the vendors for the dusk and evening hours, well as you can see, they solved that problem also.

We did find a couple of vendors who had great products and the plants and trees looked like they had been well cared for. So what did we buy, well we got two limon trees, one fig tree (I love figs), eight roses and a bunch (I really mean a whole lot) of herbs for Jo Ann's new herb garden. We also purchased several other plants that will be used to supplement our new landscaping.

Saturday and Sunday we spent planting the new herb garden and some of the trees. Well it was a great weekend to plant if you are the plant, but not so great if you are the gardener. We had drizzle and light rain all weekend, so out come the wellies. We would then end up the day with a cup of hot tea to warm up before settling into a delicious dinner. It was a great weekend!

If you would like to see more of my photos from Candelaria (and there will be more as I am sure we will venture in again for more plants before it ends, please visit my flickr collection here.

Garden Design with Cacti

This past week Jo Ann and I attended a wonderful lecture presented by Martin Smith, the curator of the cacti collection at el Charco Botanical Jardín in San Miguel de Allende. The purpose of the lecture was to discuss how you can use cacti and succulents in your landscape and garden designs in lieu of using the more traditional plants and flora that most people from the US are accustomed to.

During the lecture Martin covered many landscape design concepts and how the use of cacti and succulents can be both attractive and eco-sensible. The plants that are on display and for sale at el Charco are solely native plants to Mexico and so are able to handle the disparities of the temperature, the potential of draughts and the high winds that we can experience living here in the high desert.

Through out the lecture Martin also covered a number of key design concepts that he integrates when he is designing gardens both here in San Miguel as well as in his home country of England. These concepts include the use of the rule of thirds, complementary and contrasting colors (using the artistic color wheel), implementing odd numbers and using repeating patterns. All of these concepts can greatly enhance the ambiance and serenity of your gardens and outdoor living space.

As we walked through the various cacti gardens, Martin would demonstrate hands on how they had transformed the various cacti gardens. Here are two examples of gardens that they completely transformed into one of the most engaging gardens that I have experienced.

If the concept of learning how to use cacti and succulents in your garden and outdoor living space, and you missed attending this lecture, we are having a similar session for the San Miguel Down to Earth Garden Club on the 22nd of February from 3 to 5p. There will be at charge of 70 pesos for members of el Charco and 100 pesos for non-members. If you are interested please go to the group web page here.

Update on the Pozo

So we have good news on the status of our well. It seems that with all of the recent development in and around our rancho, there has been a lot of churning of sand in the aquifer. One of our filters for the well had gotten plugged with sand and other particles and the plumber on Sunday did not think of checking that when we starting talking about more significant problems. So the good news is that we now have again a good functional well and can proceed with finishing our landscape project.

The good news is that this problem allowed Jo Ann and I to talk further with our architect about water conservation and other eco-conscience techniques. We were again assured that what we are doing is very draught tolerant and after a year or so, will not require any significant water usage.

So I have finished installing the drip lines for the trees that have been planted and we will hopefully be done with the project in the next ten days to two weeks. ¡Esperanzadamente si los dioses sonríen en nosotros!

You Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone

Credit to Joni Mitchell for the title to this posting. It has been a very difficult weekend here at Rancho La Luz. On Saturday afternoon we noticed that the pump in the water well had been running almost non-stop for several hours. This is highly unusual so I opened up the access doors to the cistern and found that we were not getting much water from the well.

On Sunday this problem continued and our plumber came out to investigate. It seems that either our pump has failed or the aquifer level has dropped below the level of our well. Neither of these situations is good, but replacing the pump will of course be easier and quicker to repair.

What makes this extremely upsetting to me is that we are a week or so to finishing all of the landscaping at the rancho. Although almost all of the plants used are native and are very draught tolerant, however they need to be watered a lot during the first two or three years after planting so that they can get well established. My stress level is over board and I have been a very difficult person to live with this weekend (sorry Jo Ann).

Both Jo Ann and I are very eco-conscience, using organic fertilizers, composting and drip irrigation, but without water there is nothing that you can do. I only hope that we can solve this problem quickly and not have any permanent or lasting damage to the plants.

Today the plumber is coming out with someone who works exclusively with pozos so hopefully we can get our problem solved. If not, we will start buying water from a private source and using extensive conservation techniques that we learned living in Marin County during some of the draughts there. I hope to have some better news for everyone later today. Hasta pronto.

The Good, Bad and Ugly, a typical week in Mexico

The past week has been a wild week for me. As I sit here on Sunday evening, I am exhausted (and of course a little sore, but more on that later). The week started last weekend, when Agistina and Tomas (two people who work on our rancho) wanted to give my wife Jo Ann a surprise birthday party. Agistina prepared a excellent and extensive meal of mole, rise, frijoles negro, cerveza and of course tortillas. Tomas had arranged for a local band called Trio Dos Generaciones to play. So around 2 in the afternoon they showed up at the rancho with their families and we had a great celebration that lasted long into the evening.

Jo Ann had a great time and I believe that everyone else did also.

Then on Sunday, we went to the final fütball game of the year. Our local time, which is called Team Chivas (like the very popular one here in Mexico), had won the class C league here in San Miguel and was going to play the Class B league winner from Rodriguez. Well there is definitely a difference when you move from one class to another as the result was the ugly. Our team got pasted by a score of 4-0 but it was a lot of fun, even if the final run had to come to an end.

One Monday, I commenced a quick trip up to McAllen Texas. When we moved our belongings down here to Mexico, we had a complete inventory of these goods, that had been certified by the consulate of Mexico in Saint Paul Minnesota. When our movers got down to the border in October, they rejected one item on the list, a small garden trailer that goes on the back of the ATV. I use this trailer to move tools and supplies around the rancho and it is clearly off road. We argued over the phone but to no avail, the movers were not going to bring it as they were sure the Mexican customs organization Aduana would reject it and require it to be off loaded. The movers held this trailer for me at their warehouse, so the trip this past week was to pick it up, together with a bunch of drip irrigation supplies I had recently purchased.

Monday was spent driving up to McAllen, Tuesday was loading up the truck with the trailer and the supplies that I had purchased and then Wednesday was crossing back across the border. When I came to the Aduana check point, I had all of my receipts for the drip supplies and the certified inventory that included the trailer. Well, they wanted to see all of the receipts, but never even asked about the trailer. I paid my duty and headed south. That sure was a lot of time spent to get the trailer that no one even seemed to notice.

Thursday and Friday we spent riding the horses and working around the rancho. Most of the major renovation projects are getting close to being finished, I can't wait as I am tired of having the workers around all the time and not having a lot of peace and quiet.

Saturday we decided to go on a bike ride and headed out towards Galvanees. We were about ten miles from home when I punctured my rear tire. The puncture was very large so that the slime that I have in my tires could not stop the leak and I could not fix it while we were out in the compo. So Jo Ann gets to ride home and I start the long process of walking home.

Sunday arrives and we are looking to ride the horses over to Palo Colorado as the weather is just wonderful. We are finishing up our ride and Jo Ann decides that she wants to gallop her horse one last time, so we take off on a trail that we ride a lot. While in a full gallop, Chandon (my horse) gets spooked by something in the brush and decides, on her own, to turn left and jump over this large patch of brush. Well I was surely not expecting this, and I am far from an expert in jumping, so I hang on for dear life, but after we land, I loose my balance and fall of my horse. I am scraped and bruised, but nothing too serious, I just ache.

We mount up again and ride on home, this time very slowly. After cooling the horses down we turn the out in the pasture and head off to lunch.

After we finish our lunch we decide to walk up to the stables to see how everyone is doing. Well to our major surprise, Moet is running loose outside the pasture. It seems that the one of the burros had gotten between the fencing and some cacti and in a panic knocked down a portion of the fencing, the problem being that this portion was also attached to the gate, so there was nothing to stop any of the animals from walking out. We quickly (well as quickly as a person with a lot of aches and pains can) temporarily repaired the gate and got all of the animals back inside the corral. What a way to end up a very busy and active week. Now I just want to sit here and enjoy a glass of wine and try to forget the aches.

So how was your week?

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?