Wanna see my sore toe?

Opps, it may seem I have abandoned you all, but that is not so, I have just been a bit preoccupied with getting my house ready and also been taking the time to sit down and actually study Spanish. I also have a friend that is helping me a lot. I have had a few adventures as well but of course didn't have my camera with me. I just don't pack it around with me anymore, maybe because I feel so at home here...we don't carry our cameras around at home do we?...well not always. The first time I came to Stone Island was 12 years ago and I took a picture of a little house like this (it wasn't this house) I carried it around in my daytimer (back when I still had a normal people job) and when my life got a little hairy and scary I would flip to this picture and imagine how some day I would leave the rat race and live here. I always joked saying "I just want a hut, a sack of rice, a sack of beans and a donkey to carry me around". When I get back to Canada I will dig that picture out and post it for you all, but it looked something like this; this place is adorable, evenings here would be absolutely enchanting.......way beyond magical must be a place called enchantment and this is it...I think. Can you see yourself here?

Enchantment 

This is my neighbor a few door down, I've walked by it a few times and I have been meaning to get a really artsy shot of his ladder but as of yet (because of a fence) I have just sneaked this one;

At what point do you throw your broken ladder away?.......never is the answer

 I love this house, I have watched it evolve over the last few years, people here build their houses as they have money. At home it takes 20 years to pay for a house, here it can take 20 years to build one, but once it's built here it is paid for, you are not a slave to your home here. Plus, most people here do not build more than they need...like us.

Really, ,who needs a home bigger than this? Isn't it cute, I'll bet next year it will have a fence or a patio. 

With that in mind, here is another peek at my new house, which will also take me a few years to get all cute looking, oh, I have many plans. This is just the beginning.

The front

 This is the back of it, it needs paint on the outside and it just so happens that I hate this kind of painting, so I will only be painting the inside for now, plus I have plans for a back patio, and a rooftop patio (next year) so I think I will wait to paint the outside until all that is built and then paint it all at once. Unless of course family comes to visit, then we'll bring out the paint cans right promptly, I am also guessing I could Tom Sawyer someone into painting it for me as well, I do have a sore toe to show off....isn't that what the first guy offered to Tom in exchange for painting the fence? (pause while I Google this, because I am a geek)
Here you go, right from Mark Twain himself. I love Mark Twain.


Say, Jim, I’ll fetch the water if you’ll whitewash some.”

Jim shook his head and said:

“Can’t, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an’ git dis water an’ not stop foolin’ roun’ wid anybody. She say she spec’ Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an’ so she tole me go ‘long an’ ‘tend to my own business – she ‘lowed she’d ‘tend to de whitewashin’.”

“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket – I won’t be gone only a a minute. She won’t ever know.”

“Oh, I dasn’t, Mars Tom. Ole missis she’d take an’ tar de head off’n me. ‘Deed she would.”

“She! She never licks anybody – whacks ’em over the head with her thimble – and who cares for that, I’d like to know. She talks awful, but talk don’t hurt – anyways it don’t if she don’t cry. Jim, I’ll give you a marvel. I’ll give you a white alley!”

Jim began to waver.

“White alley, Jim! And it’s a bully taw.”

“My! Dat’s a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I’s powerful ‘fraid ole missis – ”

“And besides, if you will I’ll show you my sore toe.”

Jim was only human – this attraction was too much for him. He put down his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing interest while the bandage was being unwound.

So, I have a sore toe if anyone is interested, I went to the mainland a few days ago (to buy paint) and I wore a pair of shoes (you have to wear shoes when you go to the city), these shoes aren't my friends yet and I have one big blister for a toe now, ,yes there is more blister than toe......nothing that a few walks in the salty tide won't fix.

Imagine a fresh coat of paint and a cute patio

Back yard, also has so much potential, Check out my banana trees

Bananas...this excites me, believe me when the day comes that I can step outside and pick a banana and eat it you will all hear about it.....I'm generous that way

There have been a few classic Mexican style remodeling blunders, this little house had a dividing wall right down the middle of it, 2 families lived in here, one a family of 4, I know this family because they had a taco stand, I don't know the people that well but I did have a close relationship with their tacos for a few years, and the other half was occupied by the lady that owns this house, imagine a family of 4 in half of this house. Humbles me a bit to realize how fortunate I am and makes me realize how grateful I ought to be for every thing in my life, I have such abundance of everything. Gratefulness seems to flow so much easier here than at home.
Anyway....Check out the spot where my fridge was to go, the space is short by about 3 inches, space on the left is reserved for my stove (that I will have someday)
But....I have a friend that has a small fridge and she would like a bigger fridge and we have decided (after extensive measuring) that we will swap fridges. I really hope I don't regret this. So "operation fridge move" is being organized as we speak. This will not be easy because she lives on top of a hill and has about 89 corners that  these fridges have to clear....should be exciting. We will of course hire us some fine Mexican muscle....want pictures?

Imagine some nice bright Mexican tile on this back wall and some tile shelves in this counter. You can see my fridge on the left but it is blocking the one shutter on the window from opening...can't have that, I need to spy on the neighbors, and they need to spy on me. 

And somehow, I am not sure how this happened, they ended up with a window in my closet, with the amount of dust that we have here a window in the closet would mean my clothes would forever be dusty, so it was suggested I put an air conditioner in it.....to keep my clothes cool? I opted to have it cemented shut. I really hope I don't regret this. Watch....we'll have a stifling hot winter next year and I'll wish I could cool off my underwear. 

Like i said in my last post I am not going  to buy a lot of furniture this year, check out what I call "Mexican Ikea" If you're Canadian you will get that, if not you can Google it. What you see here is a book shelf unit, a coffee table, a night table and a linen closet......and my shorts drying in the sun.

Mexican Ikea

But....I couldn't help myself, I have ordered a chair like this, it will be delivered on Sunday, right from Concordia where they make these. Seldom have I gone into a Mexican home that doesn't have one of these, usually it;s on the front porch or deck. 1600 peso delivered.....I couldn't afford not to...hahah.

That's all for today, now I must go paint, I am painting the interior of the house this afternoon....whhaaaa! Wanna see my sore toe!?

New Furniture

I ordered some furniture last week and it arrived today. I need furniture for my new house but don't want to spend a lot (or any) money this year, I want to live in there first to see what exactly I will need and figure out exactly what I want. I am not the kind of person that rearranges the house and buys new furniture every few years. I feel if you take care of furniture it can last you forever...except mattresses, they need replacing once in a while. I don't even like new furniture I like old furniture, I feel it has more character and class. Luckily for me the fruit and vegetables still come in wooden crates here, I had 20 of them delivered to my house today. I washed them up today and will get to work tomorrow painting them. What you see here are, coffee tables, a night table, a linen closet, book shelves and a shoe shelf and who knows what else I can come up with. Pretty clever I thought......doesn't get classier than this.

My child's inheritance

Did I ever find a treasure today, I scored big time. I also think it is a funny coincidence that I wrote about it yesterday. Cotton Sheets, real 100 % cotton, soft as silk and thin as paper, just like the one's I told you about in my last post. I am not sure what makes this cotton so soft, it seriously feels like they have been washed over and over, like the ones in your grandma's closet. It's a vintage cotton, but these sheets are new, they were in a sealed package. I found them at the Juarez market today and I actually even needed sheets, I bought a new bed last week (a double bed) for my house and now my twin sheets don't fit, they of course will get recycled into cushion covers or tables cloths, napkins...the possibilities are endless. 

After I got  home and ripped the package open and draped the flat sheet all over me and pranced around the house like a major crazy sheet ghost I realized that I had been so excited when buying it that I clearly wasn't thinking straight.....why on earth did I not buy another flat sheet to make curtains with? Imagine these white feather light curtains with a little redwork embroidered on the bottom edge flying like sails out of my windows (that have no screen or glass), they are so light they would move by blowing on them. I must go back....some day. 

The Juarez market only happens once a week, on Sunday mornings...yes, I played hookie from church to go to the market today. Surely I can't do that two weeks in a row. I will just cherish these for now, they will after all be my child's inheritance....along with my harmony knitting needles. 

I know you can't feel the softness .......

The price for these sheets, 50 pesos for the flat and 60 or 70 for the fitted, I always mix the numbers 60 and 70 up so I am never really sure, it's the difference of $1.00 so who cares.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the Juarez market, it's a crazy place, full of new and used stuff, it's takes up a whole block. All the booths are side by side and back to back, so side by side that sometimes you have walked yourself stuck....you know what I mean. Mexicans have no sense of space, not your spare or their space, there's is always more space to squeeze in one more booth, one more person on the bus, one more person in a car, one person on a quad.....there is always space. When you get to the market and you first get off the bus it looks like there is no space for you there....but there is.

To get to the market you have to first get on a boat to get to the mainland....a boat like this

Because it's 7:30 am the fisherman are just all coming in with their nightly catch

The fish cleaning table....one of many

Of course I stop and buy one of these hot deep fried yummies for breakfast

Check it out 2 kilos of Chilis for 10 pesos.....

A mount of grapes and strawberries

The radishes are unreal here, huge but yet not woody tasting

Of course I had tacos

There is everything here, food, clothes, groceries, tools, appliances, electronics ....everything, except a mop pail, I was looking for a mop pail

Another boat ride to get home. 

I had a shopping list that looked like this;
A mop pail
A toilet brush
Coffee grounds

I came home with this;
A sheet set and pillowcase
1 Rosemary plant
1 Lavender plant
1 Toilet brush
One can of coffee
A bunch of Cloves....really much coves...like lots
2 hair thingers, by the way, the word thinger does not translate in Spanish, when you say thinger they know not what you talkin about like at home.
2 cloth Napkins (stamped to embroider)
2 balls of embroidery thread ........because that table cloth that I started embroidering 10 years ago will soon be done and I will need another project.....not likely.

I must go outside now and enjoy the magic, and dance around in my new sheets.

I was wrong

I thought the evening would not be magical because it was cold and grey all day, but as soon as the sunset it warmed up and it is now hot (but not) the magic is just beginning.

Do you remember when....

I am going to try to explain to you what an evening on my patio in my hammock is like, just as it is hard to explain the word "magical" it is hard to explain the peacefulness of a hot tropical evening, but here goes; it is magical, not in the scary black magic like voodoo like magic but in the unexplainable magic way.

Do you remember when you were a kid how hot it got sometimes in the summer? It doesn't seem to get that hot anymore, or maybe it's because most people have air conditioners now, or because our homes are built differently as well, I'm not sure what it is but it just doesn't get that hot anymore....except here, it's still that hot, even when it's not overly hot....got that? Remember laying in bed thinking it was so hot but you weren't hot, you laid above the cool cotton sheets and watched the curtains move in the breeze. It's that kind of a warm feeling that is in the air here, hot but not...got that, do you remember that? That feeling doesn't exist anymore at home. I think it's because the sheets aren't cotton anymore and the curtains don't move anymore. I'm thinking the curtains don't move because they are usually not made of cotton, cotton that has been washed over and over and over again making it light as silk and just as soft and thinner than paper, the slightest breeze moved them. Most people have blinds now, and usually the window is closed (because they have air condition) or the curtains are made of some heavy fancy expensive fabric and I've even seen little weights sewn into the bottom seams to prevent them from moving....well the curtain here still move, and the sir is still hot...but not. So picture this if you could;

On a hot (but not) evening all windows and all doors on my street are open, most windows have no glass or screens, curtains can fly like sails, we live side by side and back to back, not much privacy (privacy? whats that?) It's after 6 pm and almost everyone is outside either on their front decks, or in their front or back yards, under their palapas, some of us are sprawled out in hammocks, some are lazing on plastic furniture, sometimes there is a bed full of kids under a palapa or under a makeshift roof, babies are being rocked in rocking chairs, young girls are huddled together on a front step giggling at a cell phone, men are leaning up against trees, moms are stirring pots on open fires, kids are sitting on the ground watching a television that sits on plastic table in the driveway. In the distance the tide is rolling in and out, mesmerizing us all so that we barely hear the roosters, a horse neighing 2 doors down, the sewing machine next door humming away, a cowboy whistling a tune to anyone that will listen, someone is practicing playing the trumpet up the hill, a fire is crackling in the yard behind me, a baby cries somewhere, a motorbike drives by, it's rider is chatting on a cell phone, a gecko clicks his checks above me somewhere, a kid peddles by on a bike with a bag of tomatoes swinging from the handle bars, he is barefoot, and the crickets, always continuous like the waves. So much going on but yet it's peaceful and quiet, the peace and quiet survives through the neighborhood noise. Once I am in bed the curtains move and I smile, it's a dream and I am 6 years old in my bed and I have no worries or cares, what does a 6 year old worry about? Not a lot, but I am not 6....thank goodness, I am in Mexico and here, the crickets are alive and well, the curtains still move and moms can still sent their kids to the store..barefoot....and coke is still made with sugar and hot chocolate is still made with milk and we still use pretty Pyrex dishes.......Remember these, everyone had these, what happened to them, I blame Tupperware.
Check out this site to look up your old Pyrex dishes, http://www.pyrexlove.com/vintage-pyrex-pattern-guide/  There were so many beautiful patterns. This bowl is from the Spring Blossom collection # 401 and was manufactured in the 1970s. Would love to know if you have some vintage Pyrex dishes. Do any of the patterns bring back memories. I am heading off to the Juarez Market tomorrow, maybe I'll score some Pyrex....or some cotton curtains.
I stick my tongue out at you Tupperware, can't believe I bought into you during my youth...foolish youth.

All this magical stuff did not happen today because it is cold and grey out today....not complaining just sayin is all. 

Random things

A few weeks ago I had a hankering (yes hankering) for homemade yogurt. Once you've had homemade yogurt you are spoiled forever, and once you know how easy it is to make you feel like a dummy for eating crappy store yogurt for so many years. There are many ways of making yogurt and the web is full of all kinds of instructions, here is how I made yogurt last week with limited supplies. First you need  a starter, so I went to the health food store in Mazatlan, it's on Zaragoza and I can't remember the name, across the street from the little Zaragoza plaza. Once you find your way there you buy a small container of their homemade organic yogurt which  you will use as a starter. Your starter has to be plain yogurt, no flavoring or sugar. You take 2 heaping Tbsp of it and put aside, the rest you eat. If you don't want to make yogurt right away you can freeze your starter until you are ready ready. I checked the weather forecast and picked a day that was supposed to be hot. I heated up 3 cups of milk in a pot on the stove...you must stand there and stir so the milk does not burn, heat the milk to about 180 F (never boiling) try to hold that temperature for about 5 minutes at least, maybe even 8-10....I usually get tired of stirring at about the 5 minute mark and call it good.   Now I put some cold water in my sink and put the hot pot in the cold water to cool the milk off fast, cool it until it is about 100F, then you put your 2 tbsp of room temperature starter into the milk and whisk to make sure it is stirred. Now you need an incubator, be creative. I pour the milk into a mason jar and put a loose fitting top on it (a little bowl turned upside down on the top, then I wrapped it all in a tea towel and put into a plastic bag and tied the bag shut. Then I set it out in the hot sun (on top of my fence) like so 

Yogurt incubator 

 The longer your yogurt is incubating the tarter the yogurt, I find 6 hours is perfect for me, I don't like it too tart at all. Ideal temperature for incubating 32 C. Once done put it in the fridge, warm yogurt doesn't taste very good. If you want some flavoring you can add it at the same time as you add your starter, honey is nice if you like some sweetness, vanilla is good, play with it...remember if you use any flavoring you now can't use it as a starter, always save some for a starter. If you like your yogurt firmer you can add about 4 tbsp powered milk when you add the starter, I usually do but I didn't have any.
Now on to some other random stuff.....

I'm doing a little knitting in the evenings in my hammock 

 Went Geocaching in Mazatlan with a friend, not sure what that is? Check it out here http://www.geocaching.com/ One day we ended up in  graveyard, graveyards here are like museums, full of art, full of history and beauty.

Petra lived for 99 years. 

I see this bus all the time parked in front of an orphanage on Zaragoza, it was donated by the Rotary club in Grande Prairie a few years ago. If I remember right they also donated a fire truck and an ambulance. I saw a school bus today from the Lethbridge Rotary Club at the La Vina Church. Way to go Rotary Clubs! 

Now on to the singing/whistling cowboy that lives 2 doors down. 

This is Cowboys everyday riding horse,  here he is giving his grandchildren a ride. He rides with them almost everyday. 

This is the horse that he is training, when he rides him he ties a handkerchief  (remember those) over his face

He is completely blindfolded and must trust cowboy completely to guide him.....it's been an interesting process watching the bonding between them. 

This is the horse he is teaching a lesson, from my understanding (he took his time explaining this to me) this horse likes to put his head down and his bum up, I didn't understand that all because even with the tree around his neck it looks like he could still put his head down and his bum up. But I pretended that I understood him.....don't want to appear to be too stupid. 

Moving on.....told you this would all be random. Do you remember Orange pop, the real orange pop, made with real sugar instead of corn fructose, in a real glass bottle? They still have it here, and the Coke is made of real sugar too. 

The real deal

 Now just some random shots

an artsy one

Misfortune 

Done for the day

  

Why it's called Stone Island

Workin hard on the deep blue sea

Hope

How could you ever have a bad day if you start it off like this, gratitude flows so easily at sunrise 

Pozole.....the reason for the pig

I don't eat a lot of pork, I stopped buying pork that was raised for commercial resale (most pork in all grocery stores) after I read Dr.Rex Russel's book "What the Bible says about healthy eating" and Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures", both these books changed my eating habits a lot. I do not follow all the recommendations in both these books because I am just not that disciplined. Removing pork from my diet was easy because I never ate much of it to begin with......until I met Mexican Pozole. I can no longer ignore pork. I would like to believe that the pork raised in Mexico is not full of toxins like our pork at home, I"m imaging the pigs are in a large pasture and are lazily grazing and resting in freshly turned straw every night after being fed a late evening snack of organic matter like watermelon rinds, orange peel, apple cores and some oats. That's my fantasy, let me have it please. I believe the sole purpose of the pig is pozole and he is honored to sacrifice his body to it. Every Wednesday is pozole day here on the Island. There is a lady (can't remember her name) that cooks up a big pot full over the fire. She is located across the street from the carniceria. Her pot is ready at about noon-ish. Bring your own container, if you forget the first time like I did they will scramble around and find you a container, when you bring your own make sure it has a handle to carry it because this stuff is coming right out of a hot hot pot and you need to be able to carry it. It always comes with a baggie of hot salsa....oh that stuff is soo good, seriously this salsa makes the pozole do not skip this, she also gives you a little baggie of shredded lettuce. Then stop at the tortilleria and pick up fresh tortillas and at the super for a container of sour cream...do not skip the sour cream either. When you get home cut up an avocado put it in your bowl with some salsa and some lettuce, a dollop (or 3) of sour cream, pour in some soup and enjoy. I love this stuff. I love it, so please do not send me emails telling me all the reasons why my piggy fantasy is wrong, untruthful, and that I am delusional and hypercritical....I know  it's wrong which is why I call it a fantasy. Every Wednesday I am choosing to be delusional and hypercritical. Try it...you might like it too. 

All this for 40 pesos, this is 1 litre of pozole, you can easily feed 4 people with this