08/11/24

Rainy season in Mexico has been going on for about two months. It is incredible how green everything is now. Here in Nayarit, what they call “dry season” still has some green in the landscape. It doesn’t get completely brown, like Guadalajara does. But after it’s rained for a few weeks, the green in Nature’s color TV monitor gets turned up all the way. You really notice the difference.

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I’m still adjusting to hiking during rainy season. The dogs can tolerate a little rain and mud, but too much of either and they’re ready to go home. I do ok as long as I have a good pair of rain boots. I just ordered these beauties, so I’ll let y’all know later if they are as practical as they are cute. (04/02/25: yes they are! I don’t expect them to last more than a year, because they are cheap rubber boots and I am hard on shoes. But 8 months in and these rain boots are still great.)

The bigger issue is that Auggie is old, his joints are stiff, and he doesn’t want to do 2-mile hikes anymore. When he keeps stopping and looking behind him, I know he’s done. My daily Fitbit goal is 10,500 steps a day, but after 1000 steps I have to turn around and drop Auggie off at the house. Then Dutchy and I will keep going. This has worked fairly well, but rain/ mud has complicated things and I’m still falling short on my steps. My goal is to return to 10,500 steps a day, like I was doing before the surgery and rainy season threw me off my schedule.

Rainy season in Mexico means the plants are growing extra quickly. Great for the garden, but it’s a lot of work to keep the jungle from taking over. Outdoor work must be done in the morning, before it gets too hot. So after we walk dogs and have breakfast, I point to where I want Lurko to chop down the tall grass. We’ve let it go for too long, and some of it’s already taller than us. Lurko likes using this grass cutter – the long handle means he doesn’t have to bend over. After he finishes, I do the detail work — pulling weeds that have gotten too close to the house and garden. I use my hands (with gloves of course), but for the bigger stuff I love my Japanese sickle that I brought with me from the States. It’s smaller, but easy for me to handle and I can take out a bunch of weeds. We’ll have to do this again in a couple weeks, but hopefully we can stay on top of it so there’s not so much to do every week.

So with all the mud, I’m sure some of you wonder how we keep our house clean. It’s not easy! The morning ritual is:

1. Sweep the water out of the kitchen with a push broom.
2. Follow that with a squeegee.
3. Feed the dogs, walk them, then dip their paws in the dog tub and clean the mud off.
4. Clean the mud off my rain boots using the same dog tub.
5. Dump the water out (too muddy to reuse for anything else) and store the tub upside down under the trailer.

Upon entering the house, we use a “dog towel” by the door to wipe feet and keep out rain. And I sweep obsessively all day, because dogs and humans track dirt on the bed and floor. Lots of trips to the laundromat. I’ll still take a plunger to a smaller load of socks and shirts, but sheets and towels I leave to the pros. At $100 pesos a load it’s totally worth it. Plus I get to say hello to my neighbor’s mother Lupe, who owns the laundromat and is just lovely.

And finally, rainy season in Mexico has brought me a garden victory. I had ONE single cucumber that hid itself away from the sun and the grasshoppers and grew to maturity. It was a small Mexican cucumber, but big enough to pick, cut up, and turn into a tiny jar of “quickles.” I was able to flavor it with a few sprigs of potted dill, that has suddenly done much better with all this rain. The quickles are refrigerated (which during that first summer meant stuck in a cooler with ice) and should be ready to eat in a couple of days. In fact, I am now remembering that I planned to make cheeseburgers (no buns, because keto) — just to have something to eat the pickles with. Maybe I’ll buy some expensive blue cheese from the new chocolate shop in town. Looking forward to it!