Author: iagardener55

Quite the productive day, today. I have gotten so much done, actually, yesterday, and, today. Here goes.

When I opened the bottle of kombucha, not much happened, at first. The mango, and blueberries all floated up into the neck of the bottle, with a small amount of fizz. Wow! Just what I was hoping. Just as it should be on day three.

I say floated, when, what I really mean is that they were jammed up into the neck with quite a force behind them. That “small amount of fizz”, was just the beginning of what was building up behind it, as well.

Fortunately, I looked into the middle of the bottle and saw how fast things were moving. I got the swing cap back on the bottle top just shortly after the geyser started to erupt.

I reached the sink, with just a slight spray to the face, inverted the bottle, (that sent everything that could move to the other end of the bottle, temporarily), grabbed a large glass out of the dish drainer, (another excellent reason not to rush to put your dishes away ;), opened the bottle into the glass, and, let it pour. Effervescence everywhere. Bliss.

Unfortunately, I could not take a photo while all of that was happening, and, in truth, it took less than a minute from open to pour. You cannot see any of the carbonization in the glass as the mango bits are floating all around. Trust me, though, they are there. My kombucha lives!!! Score.

I nestled the sourdough starter right up tight, with the kombucha, in hopes that they will help each other during their struggles to remain alive in this oxygen-depleted environment. It is the only thing I can think of to do for them both. If anyone has any ideas about fermentation at almost eight thousand feet above sea level, I am anxious to know what it is. It is absolutely nothing like doing this from whence we came. That sort of worked all by itself. Not so here.

Until I can get these cultures happy, and healthy, you do that for each other, will you? Stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones. Until next time.

I had a couple of hours, whilst I was supposedly sleeping, to contemplate how I should rearrange the kitchen. This afternoon, I did just that. Here are the results.

I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten a certain something in the produce tier, only to find it decomposing on the rack, in the back, of course. Yuck! So, now that I brought it over, in front of my eyes, I should have a bit better control over the beast.

In the new fermentation station, in the back, you will see the eleven bottles of newly bottled kombucha! They are just starting their second fermentation, all of them with mango, and blueberries. Hopefully they will taste better than the first batch I made.

In the little jar that is covered, is my second, actually my third attempt at a sourdough starter. Sometimes I find it full of bubbles, then, the next time, nothing. What the heck? I am not giving up. I will do this until we have a loaf of sourdough bread if it takes me another year to get it to live!

In the bowl, to the left, is the SCOBY (the “mother” that feeds on the tea, and sugar she is fed, thus producing kombucha in return), that developed in the second two gallon container. It turned to a sour vinegar, because someone was too lazy to deal with it, so I dumped it out this afternoon. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Until I better understand the fermentation cycle down here, I am limiting myself to only one two gallon container. The other container now contains drinking water. Convenient. Yay!

I ordered a new wok that will be here by Friday, in theory, so we will start doing some Asian style cooking. Unfortunately, however, we still have a freezer full of European meats- Bratwurst, for example. We have three packages of four brats, several packages of Italian sausages, British bangers, plus, thick cut bacon. I am sure they will be taken care of when we get back to that part of the world, on our food journey around the world.

Too funny! Even for me. Until we get back, so to speak, I know you know what to do. In case you are new here, however, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: wait until you see what I have planned for the pantry!

How sad!?

We drove by a whole street of small restaurants that have closed, and, not only do those people have to bear the grief of losing their livelihoods, but, as of just the past few weeks, the exteriors are covered in graffiti!

Not colorful, attractive graffitis, just ugly, black words, spray painted on their places of business. How sad.

Graffiti is springing up everywhere. What a shame. More, and, more on the outside of houses, as well. It is ugly, and, a bit depressing, too. Yes, it has always been here, everywhere, really. It just seems to be more of it now.

I hope things will turn around after the new year, and, in that hope stay healthy, stay happy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

It is overcast and sixty six degrees, at the moment. I am in Heaven. (Never mind. Within an hour, it shot up to seventy three degrees. Better than ninety three degrees any day).

As I have said, in other posts, this is, evidently the rainy season- June through September. Ok by me!

Really, the only downside is the puddles of standing water. That is not so much on the streets as in the lower level parking garages. They are, in some places, small lakes.

With all the potholes on the streets here, one needs to be ever vigilant, or one will lose a tire and rim.

The upside of warm weather is that my sourdough is taking off like a healthy, living culture should. Let me see if I can upload some photos I just took.

As I just started this culture three days ago, I have all the confidence that I will be able to start baking sourdough bread, or, buns, or, pizza sometime next week. These results, thus far, have come because I have finally figured out that the culture prefers the warmth of our oven, with the light on at night, which increases the temperature about five degrees. Of course you will be able to see the results of my baking, good, or bad, when I have them.

I believe that I have a recent post telling you that this culture is from here, in México City, so it should do well at this altitude. My kombucha, however, remains to be seen. Though I did get the SCOBY, or mother, here in México as well, it is still a work in progress. Trial, and, error. The only way some of us truly learn.

Until those results are in, keep happy, keep healthy, keep safe. Continue to wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

There is something special I need to tell you. We have adopted an elephant, from the Jabulani herd of African elephants!! Her name is Piza, and she is only three, or four, years old.

Ivan has been watching this herd of elephants, on YouTube, because, in their herd, they adopted an albino female, named Khanyisa.

Khanyisa, born at the end of the year twenty nineteen, was “injured”, by a snare, that cut about one third of her right ear off, and, slit her mouth open, very much like the “Joker”, so it looked like she had a huge smile. As she was so young, and, without a herd to look after her, she was almost dead when the people of the Orphanage of South Africa, found her, brought her into the Orphanage, and, began the process of healing her wounds, and, introducing her to her, hopefully, new “family”.

The matriarch of the herd, Tokwe, has, over the years, adopted several elephants into her herd. In fact, Jabulani, himself, was found, as an infant elephant, stuck in a silt mud “swamp”, dying of dehydration, after his herd left him to die. He was the beginning of the Jabulani “herd”.

The Jabulani herd is something special, a unique and close-knit family that originates with a little elephant orphan called Jabulani, who arrived at HESC (Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre) in 1997, and the original herd of hand-reared elephants rescued from Zimbabwe, where they were to be culled during the country’s land reformation process, in 2002.

If you want to see, and, understand more about this amazing family of elephants, go to YouTube, and search for Injured albino elephant Kyanisha. They took her in, after her surgeries, and, she is growing a little bit every day.

I hope you will take a moment, watch the videos available, and, send your love their way. Until then, keep happy, keep healthy, keep safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and keep your loved ones protected.

I was telling Ivan, just a few minutes ago, how much I loathe the words to “Rock-a-bye baby”. I said i did not understand how someone could sing that to a child. Let me refresh you on the words.

Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and, down will come baby, cradle, and all.

I said, what the heck does that even mean? He explained that, many years ago, when that song was written, (1765 London, to be exact), it was the “norm” for children to die at a very early age. Many did not live beyond the cradle, so, it was a sort of “set up” for the parent- do not get too attached to this child because even a small cough, or cold, or flu would kill the child.

How horrible!!! To think that, prior to effective antibiotics, decent hygiene, etc., the slightest thing could kill your child! Remember, people did not have proper diets, safe proteins, good sewage removal, like we have had for many, many years, and, take for granted.

There is even evidence to suggest the words had something to do with being on large sailing vessels, and, being up in the crows nest, (the cradle). When the bough of the ship broke, the crow’s nest would fall. Frequently, the crows nest was inhabited by the least senior person on the vessel, a youth. So, when there was a storm, and, the front of the ship was destroyed, so, then, was the main mast, or, the “cradle”.

I would like to put to you a different version of this song, using the same music, but, with more encouraging, and, I think, more loving lyrics. I wrote these words, on my lunch break, several years ago. They came to me while I was trying to relax, after a significantly stressful morning in surgery.

Please let me know what you think. If you like them, please, start singing my version to your little ones. I would be so very proud. This is what I would sing.

Rock-a-bye baby, in my loving arms. While you’re asleep, I’ll keep you from harm. When you’re awake, I’ll be here for you- to love you, to guide you, in all that you do.

And, while I await for your response, keep happy, keep healthy, and keep safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and, protect your loved ones.

Things are picking up marginally here. People are venturing out, but few have any real place to go. Few have jobs in which to go back to. Markets have closed, Mom & Pop shops have closed,

I cannot say it often enough- we got out at the perfect time, for us. If we had stayed, and, waited until this year to retire, we probably would have lost our home, our vehicles, our everything. We had no savings, to speak to, though, our credit cards had no balances on them.

People, here, are back, in small groups, trying to make some money in anyway they can. Homes are for sale, apartments for rent, all over the city. It is terribly sad to watch the degradation of this beautiful city, and its culture. I wonder where we will be in the following year.

Farmers have taken to parking their small pickup trucks, filled with their home grown produce, on the streets, in affluent neighborhoods. Pretty smart. Bring the green grocer to the people instead of hoping the people can get to them.

An little anecdote, in passing: We are on the way to Costco, and, just being outside, in the sun, is so invigorating. It seems like years in between the times we get to go outside. Every moment outside is a moment to cherish. Right?

On an entirely different subject, we have started going back to Toks, for the best cup of coffee in the area, plus a bowl of soup. It is close, inexpensive, and safe. The tables are designated as off limits within one and a half meters, one from another. The wait staff all wear masks, and the tables, even the empty ones, are cleaned every two hours, unless they have been used.

When we “get” to go outside, my mind, and, my imagination absolutely explode with things I want to tell you. Frequently, while riding in the car, or, walking through Costco, or Sam’s, I pull out my phone, and, start typing away at a thought I have, or an idea I want to put forth.

Funny. I have always wanted to have some sort of recording device, you know, one of those little hand held recorder, to record different things I wanted to tell someone. Well, I had one, but the grandkids got the most use ours of it- Serena especially. They all enjoyed hearing their own voices being replayed to them. Hah! What a memory.

We are not going out again tomorrow, as we went out today. Rarely do we go out more than one day a week. We are not interested in taking the chance that someone has not sanitized something. We have not medical doctor,yet, not since Dr. Arturo died.

We will find someone soon, but until that happens, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

One of the new double towel racks came today. Hopefully the second one will be here soon.

We are going to reconfigure the pantry area, expand its capabilities, if you will. As we face the cabinet doors, there is a blank wall on either side of the cabinets, begging to have pots, and pans, hanging from the racks. Yay.

Plus, if we take the bottom shelves off of the five tier cart that is currently on the opposite wall, we could put a small chest freezer there, and still have the storage above.(I thought of that in the middle of the night, when I could not find my sleep. Have to run it by my other half, but, at the moment, he has found his sleep).

Lots of little things to do, however, no real enthusiasm, or compulsion, to do them. We are bored more than I can say.

Oh, yesterday I got the courage to start one of my sourdough starters. The culture, itself, was obtained here, in México City, so I am guessing it should work. I learned, too, that fermentation, at as high an altitude as we are, is about one quarter to one half the time it takes closer to sea level. No wonder my kombucha tastes like vinegar- I let it sit too long before it’s second ferment. I am used to fermentation taking one to two weeks before being ready to flavor it, and bottle it. This is way faster then I care for.

I will persevere, and, I will prevail. While I am doing both of those things, do not fall back to your old, bad habits. Stay vigilant, stay healthy, stay happy, and, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, protect your loved ones.

We are without internet at the moment, so I am going to take a moment to post something. I really have no idea what I am going to tell you, so, we will see what happens.

I will tell you that I have started a baby blanket for Jesús and Lizbeht, and their little ”someone”. It is a blanket I made several years ago for one of the grandchildren.

I ordered a pastel mint green yarn from Amazon.com.mx. which I received just the other day. I am going to start with a pattern from RAVELRY.com, called Cuddle Me by Manuel. As I said, I made this same blanket, many years ago, for one of our grandkids, but feel it will give be a well needed boost in my “getting back to knitting”, campaign. It has stitch additions leaning to the left, and the same to the right. It also uses a cable needle to make beautiful cables all up and down the blanket.

I have not knitted a single stitch for over a year, and, probably, a half, since before I retired, and began the whole packing, and, moving part of our lives. So many of the different stitches I knew how to knit, now, I have to look them all up on YouTube again. What a bother.

I also came across the shawl that I have been knitting for half an eon, in the knitting bag of my grandmother, Momo. She was my mom’s mom. I even found some of Momo’s knitting needles, and asundry knitting things. How wonderful, to find them, a second time!

I thought that I could just pick up and go, dive right into the pattern, and be done in a few weeks. Then, I saw a video showing how to knit faster using the Continental style of knitting. So, I got some yarn, and tried knitting that way. Nope. Not for me.

I discovered that I do a form of this in my English style of knitting. I used to be a “thrower”, but have, after all of my knitting years, reduced my movements to almost doing a form of Continental knitting. I no longer “throw” the yarn over the needle, but “help” it over the needle. There is very little movement in my hands, which is always a knitters most efficient way of knitting.

It takes a lot of muscle movement to knit, not to mention ability to read a pattern, either in the typed version, or the charted version. When I was knitting my shawl, I got really good at reading the chart, which I thought a major accomplishment. Now, I can read it, kind of, but not like I could, say, two year ago.

No worries. By the time the baby is born, I should have a handle, once again, on all of the different stitches I came to know, and love. I will show you photos as I go along.

Until then, please, be happy, be healthy, be safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: have I mentioned that it is raining? Every night since the beginning of June. Marco says the rainy season is June through September. Yay, for me, anyway.

So, Ivan came up with a really good idea today. We are going to take down the really too long towel racks in our bathroom, (yes, I measured them, yes, I ordered them, but the idea was Bette in the mind than on the wall, if you know what I mean), and, put them in the pantry area, off of the laundry area.

We are going to de-bulk our five tier cart of all of the pots and pans we have hanging on it at present. Since we have no inch of space in the kitchen, at present, for anything to come off of the cart, we are going to put up the towel rack, as well as a second one, once I measure and order again. Let me show you what I am talking about.

When the guys get done with the condo, the “drawer” that contains the two garbage bins, will be another two drawers, that we can use to bring in the items we have hanging on the cart, with “S” hooks. This dang thing.

When we saw this, originally, there were no holes cut in the wood, so I texted Luis to ask why this drawer was put in upside down. We had never asked for this type of thing, and, to us, it is such a waste of our little space that neither of us can stomach it. If we had as large a kitchen as we did up North, well, it would be a completely different matter.

We need the space. We are going to have them make this into the same size drawers as to the left of it. Then, as I said, we can bring in almost all, if not all, of the stuff hanging on the cart. I will take a photo of the cart, and show you what I mean.

Until then, you know what you need to do- stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Cover your mouth, wash your hands, protect your loved ones.

Post script: happy birthday to my favorite older sister. Martha is the only older sister I have, and, I could not love her more than I do. Felicidades.