Here we are...es mucho calor verdad!  Ya bastante...waiting for some rain.  The ants are marching profusely, looking for food. the plants have produced seeds and have dropped awaiting the arrival of rain....There comes a point when the humidity agrees with your system and I am actually cooled off  wearing jeans when I go riding or cleaning up the manure, watering and feeding the horses...that' sounds crazy but the sweat from my body actually cools me off. I always wondered when I first moved here how the Mexicans wore jeans or long sleeved shirts when working outside in the heat...hmmm, ..what a concept. There has been little to no breeze until yesterday evening...awe.  Thank you... phew. ..now today back to nil.  We have been sitting on the edge of lands end waiting for the arrival of rain, preferably life giving rains,...but at this point, I hate to say it...so I won't.  Any rain won't do...still holding out for the life giving rains.

The munchkins are back to school, so we are back to the daily coast rides, always a beautiful view.  They both have great teachers and we are so pleased with the community of La Playita/ La Playa.  It is obviously getting darker earlier and light comes later.  Fall for some folks up north must be near.  Down here we are waiting for our hurricane season.  You are celebrating labor day weekend and we are preparing for the big Aniversario de la Independencia on the 16th of September....200 years, should be a big fiesta.

Lastly I would like to share with you our yellow corn maiden we brought home from the Taos Pueblos made by a Hopi relative of one a beautiful woman in the Pueblos.  Her presence is a prayer for corns, she also honors Mother Earth and her continuing ability to feed her children.  She reminds us always to be thankful for the gifts we receive daily from Mother Earth.  On that note, bout time for a rain dance........anyone up for it?  May your lives all be blessed with good seeds, life giving rains and a bountiful crop.  May we always have respect in our hearts and give thanks.

After 9 years with my old red toyota, I bought her for myself on my 35th birthday...we'll finally let er go...traded her in for a horse and saddle and then some...now we finally have a few horses we can actually ride. 

Seems like more and more these days ..."less is more"  traded in what 145 horse power for 2....yep. The simple things in life continue to give our family great pleasures.  I tell Gene, we almost lost you last year, might as well act like we are semi retired and slow down, enjoy the life we have together.  A shift in perspective can sometimes create amazing things.  I can't seem to fit everything I want to do within the 24 hour period anyways...might as well enjoy what we have here and now.  I actually get more accomplished, imagine that.

This would be the man that encouraged me to take a leap of faith....Before I first set foot on Baja soil and waters.. I  do recall countless times saying to myself "I am ready for my destiny"  Wow, I had no idea what was in store for me...."Trust the Universe for it will provide"  ok , after we met he encouraged me to stay longer.."What's two more weeks gonna do?"...well, for us we got married after 5 weeks .......Ya just never know.... we are nearing 8 years since, and Bubba I've got to tell ya, you are still the man beyond my wildest dreams.......Happy Birthday Babe!  Thank you for being in my life..., there isn't another soul on this planet like you...Thank you for introcucing me to La Pura Vida.....  I love you bud.  "Awe the good life, is out there somewhere"  That's right!  And I do believe we have been circling it for almost a decade.....Gracias A Dios

Just recently a strong beautiful friend had requested that at some point I add in these entries as to how I ended up here...well, the short version...this post is also dedicated to you Diana.....

This is my eighth summer living here year round in Zacatitos.....my first summer here we had a little storm,...they called it a hurricane..man I thought..... that's it?  Damn if the winds were't stronger at times on the top of glory after getting off the tram to ski the bowl... 
but believe me, I was set straight from the start, not only by the few locals that lived here year round but by mother nature when she sent hurricane Marty our way shortly thereafter...yep..that rocked my world.  Humbling to say the least and a gentle class 3....wow..I remember laying in bed in the middle of the night holding my husbands hand just waiting for the tin roof to fly off...it sounded like a freight train...but all and all, we survived just fine....

Here we are, having an amazingly cool summer for these parts...thus far..getting a little gift for enduring the heat of last summer, received a little more rain this past week, bringing out the termite hatch, yet it's still undoubtedly dry, in need of a rain dance once again.

Not only is it the anticipation of the weather ...but the random gifts you recieve daily...Above photos the entrance to our casita..with a recent facelift from Gene's favorite CNC tooling; a green lizard... Ellie named princes;, our big iguana living in a hole on top of a cardon, only comes out in the heat of the summer; a dragonfly flies by to greet me, a snake skin left by a rattle snake...hmmm, was that from the one we got last week..or yet another nearby and a chipmunk, now I would of never thought there would be chipmunks out here in the desert, yet these little guys are tough, survivors....those are just a few random moments of this day..oh yes a frog at the other ranch..now that,s a genuine treat.

from our Dr. Liceaga we receive the words that...."The love of God is like the ocean,...you can see it's beginning, but not it's end" 

We've got the occasional bull or herd of bulls nearby...at times it's a bit of a challenge.  The burros are plentiful...then the rattle in my hand freshly broken off from the rattle snake we got last week near our outdoor shower.  I swear the thought did cross my mind to get a video of it coiled up with it's tounge out and rattling at me, I was in the position to close the door between us and go grab my camera...but hey, what can I say..I ran to Papa for a little assistance on this kill.  Maybe next time...for your viewing pleasures.
Meanwhile, here's Gene riding out the Dog Days of August...sometimes it's just plain loco round here...just gotta keep on keepin on...

 The cardon cactus are beautiful desert giants surrounding us on our ranch.  According to the link below...the tiny seed of the cardon cactus has the potential to grow as tall as 70 feet, weigh up to 25 tons, and live for 300 years....wow, right here in the palm of my hand contained as many as 800 tiny black seeds, a potential future giant.  ..what a concept ...this source states "In best of conditions, thousands of seeds must germinate to produce one cactus"  unbelievable...See above right photo where we have our native cardon nursery after 1 year of utilizing an occasional spray with our laundry water increasing the speed of their growth.  Here all this time I believed the seed was surrounding the fruit and just that one in the palm of my hand was it...just goes to show, learning all the time.  Always open for outside expertise.

From the words of Barbara Bash author of the Desert Giant  "Gila woodpeckers and miniature elf owls make their homes inside the saguaro's trunk.  Long-nosed bats and fluttering doves drink the nectar from its showy white flowers."  The saguaro is a different species than the cardon...but closely resemble one another.   I am also thinking it may be an elf owl that was our visitor, makes sense.  Never a dull moment around here, the Internet is an amazing tool.

 http://www.loscabosrestaurantguide.com/cardon_cactus.htm

One thing I still remember as if yesterday when I first came to the Baja pennensula October 2002..... Steve Crow asked me if I realized that these cactus as well as others have a wood structure inside..since his son Saul, who introduced me to this area and I were log builders he knew that I was intrigued.."really?"  Yes inside the plant is wood, when they die you will see it.  Yes...wow who would of thought and so it is..I was so green to this region...I also didn't know what an arroyo was.....classic

Here we have a potentially 300 year old cardon on our property, just this past year she has gone down...the end of her life cycle.   She was magnificent.  The end of her life cycle and the beginning of another...the circle of life goes on. 
Like the Tohono O'odham Indians we leave our fruit facing up towards the sky as an offering for rain...... 

Wow, here I am thinking we had a baby owl come visit us for 12 + hours (see previous post dated 19 July).  I stand corrected thanks to a couple good folks that spend a good portion of their year living here in our community.  These two different sources pointed me into another direction.  Turns out "Tricky" isn't a baby owl after all, but a pygmy owl.   ...Thank you for your input, guidance and support Tom K and also Anne of  www.annepopperwell.com
Classic, I had to google the pygmy owl and find out this species is also possibly endangerd...still waiting for a response from the owl research institute in Montana to confirm....the internet is an amazing tool...especially for us out here in the desert without a library access..gotta love it.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_cactus_ferruginous_pygmy_owls_endangered

Imagine that....
"In wildness is the preservation of the world"  Henry David Thoreau

As they say..."some of the best things in life are free"  no doubt......Simple pleasures is where it's at....welcome to our front yard where Fort and Ellie are growing up.