Home for Christmas

A week ago I woke up on my sister's couch in Sebastopol, Ca. having traveled up north for Christmas week. I was very happy to be here and feel so lucky to have the family and friends that I do. Even after a short time of being away I miss my people here so very much. I realize that this is something, as I embark on this new adventure in my life, that I will have to learn how to deal with.
There are things that I bring down to Yelapa to make it feel homey and familiar, family photos, music, cooking utensils, my teddy bear, clothes, etc. I often wish I could bring all my favorite people with me as well.
I am trying to look at my time down there in a sort of semi permanent way. I will be back and forth between the States and Mexico, but even that does not always make my leaving easier.
Today I sit in the airport, thinking about my week here. I was lucky enough to get to see most (sadly not all) of my best girls. Christmas was excellent and obscenely full of gifts (good thing I left lots of extra space in my bag). My family is really really good at gifting. One of the best was the entire bee keeping outfit and and tools by brother got me. Get ready for my Jungle Bee Keeping 2.0 blog, coming soon to an interwebs near you. My family is also really good at just being great company. We have fun cooking, crafting, decorating, bickering, eating, and just sitting around. I am a lucky girl to have so many wonderful people close to me, even if not always close in proximity.
I am off for the long leg of this trip and am looking forward to more interesting experiences to come. I will miss my people here, but I know I will see them again soon and they are always in my heart and mind.
On that sentimental note, happy holidays and may you be blessed with loved ones as wonderful as mine!

Never Pay a Mozo Mid Week; A lesson in Mexico's culture

This last week has been full of things that don't work. Power, phone, stove, ways to keep the Tejones (tropical raccoon like things) out of my food, etc.
My ever faithful mozo Eduardo (groundskeeper among many other things) has tried to help with all these things. I appreciate him very much, and I like him as a person.
That said...I learned a good lesson yesterday. This is one of those lessons you actually know but have never had to learn directly.
Yesterday was Wednesday and I had just come back from changing some dollars to pesos in PV, so I decided to pay Eduardo for the week before and the rest of this week. Also, gave him the pay I owed his wife. This was at about 11am. I had a list of things to do for the rest of the day but had to go out for a bit. And left him cleaning the plastic on the roof.
When I returned about 45min later, he was no where to be found. At that point a distinctly familiar cigarette weathered New York accent entered my mind "Never pay a mozo mid week!". Now I can't say if this was a memory, a ghost, or just my own imagination, but it is great advice!
Peggy had a few mozos that, no matter how hard working and loyal, were drinkers. I remember sometimes they would party all weekend and not show up Monday morning. Or show up drunk still.
At this point I thought, well maybe he had to leave urgently or something is wrong with the water and he went to check it...he must have a good reason. All the while resonating in my mind is "Never pay a mozo mid week!"
I decided to head to the beach and meet up with some friends. On the way I ran into Eduardo's wife. I asked if she had seen him and she said no. But with a sort of "no, but I might have an idea" look.
When I got to the beach the first thing I see is Eduardo and a group of guys and a case of beer. I was walking with a friend and they asked if I was going to go talk to him. I said, no and that it was my fault cause...you NEVER PAY A MOZO MID WEEK!
When I woke up this morning I waited hopefully for Eduardo to ring the bell at precisely 8am as he does Monday through Friday. Worried that I lost him for the rest of the week. 8am passed and no bell.
Then at 8:15am the blessed bell rings and a few minutes later I hear sweeping. I smiled, and got up to say hello and talk about the days work. Glad to have learned my lesson but also very glad to have Eduardo who, even though he bailed for an afternoon, showed up ready to work in the morning.
Things here don't always work perfectly or quickly or when you think they should, but it really makes you appreciate when they work at all.

Blogging sans internet

Here I am in Puerto Vallarta borrowing internet from a near by hotel. It's been a while since my last post. Starting last Weds. we had no power at the house, when that returned on Fri. the phone/internet line went out. I have borrowed internet from a neighbor in Yelapa but it was spotty there as well.
I have made a report but not sure if it'll be fixed when I get back there, hoping so. It's an automated system and I don't really trust it.
This is a way of life that is not, for me, surprising or unusual in Yelapa. I have become spoiled though (just like the chicken and milk I bought before the power went out!) and it makes me wonder about my priorities. Until about a decade ago there was no electricity in Yelapa and only a pay phone in the middle of town. It is startling how quickly we adjust to technology, and how quickly we lose our minds when it doesn't work.
I remember when the World Wide Web was starting to be popular and I thought, "What is this 'web' they are talking about and HOW does it cover the WHOLE world?!"
Well it does, and it is amazing, and I miss having it at my finger tips...even in a tropical paradise. But I am learning how to let go and I think this is a good general lesson, as I am having to let go in many ways right now. Life doesn't let you hold on to anything forever and I'm trying to be zen about that. But man, I hope that damn phone is working when I get home!
So, I will write more soon. I will be back in the States with my family for Christmas and I am so happy about that. This adventure has and will be great but I do miss my people in the north. Again, with the letting go.

Adventures in Bee Keeping 1.0

I arrived last Thursday in the water taxi to Yelapa with 4 pieces of very large luggage (really less than I wanted to bring) at the pier in town. I am lucky to have the best mozo (grounds keeper and sort of guy friday) Eduardo who also has a sweet macho (mule) named Colorado. They met me at the pier making my schlep to the house much less...well, schleppy.

I've been back in the house less than a week after it being mostly unoccupied for the rainy season. Its is full of critters who have made it their home. I like to say I am the 1% and the insects are the 99% and I am doing some foreclosing.
Now, some, like the 5 inch spider that I discovered living in the rafters above my kitchen table pretty easy to deal with, by which I mean Eduardo is cleaning all the rafters as I write. (That discovery came one morning when enjoying a cup of coffee I heard a loud bzzzzzz, and abrupt stop, and a few drops of brownish liquid dropped on to my hand and in my coffee, aaaaaahhhh!).
Others such as, smaller spiders not living over my kitchen table, cacoons, termites, beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, flies, etc. I can have a relatively harmonious life with (the Cutter ants are another story, but we'll get into that later...I think ants will deserve their own post).

Some who know me know I only champion for the bees. I am by choice not an activist of any sort. I try to live a responsible human existence, buy organic, not drive gas guzzlers, recycle, etc. But my most important cause is the bees, my name is Jesse Rose...I speak for the bees, bzzz.
I have wanted to learn about bee keeping and have mildly studied the apiary arts. I even thought maybe someday I will have some bees in Mexico and we will eat honey and be merry.
Well, I got my wish. We have a wild colony of bees. They live in the loft in the main house and have commandeered one of the large wooden trunks for their hive. A few issues here, one being there are actually valuable masks in that trunk. Also, you can't just have bees living in your house!
So I am now trying to find someone who can help me move these bees, teach me how to keep them and hopefully do that before the hive gets even bigger.
I may have a home for them at our friend Johnny's as he has a huge garden and lots of fruit trees. If I can just get them there I think we will all be very happy together. I even have a organic co-op in Puerto Vallarta that said they would buy the honey! Now just to learn how to get that honey. (They didn't know what to do either, but gave my info to the head gardener who happens to be from Yelapa, go figure!)
So as soon as I have more on this I'll write the 2.0 version of this post.
Wish me luck!

Adventures of a Technical Mexican

Adventures of a Technical Mexican, a set on Flickr.

Blogged for the very first time.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jesse Rose Roberts. I have just arrived to my place of birth Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico. I do not have Mexican blood in my veins. I am blond and blue eyed. I am however, technically, Mexican.
This blog will follow my adventure in homesteading here. I've got an amazing house to start with but it will take a lot of work to get it up to my standards.
I will also be venturing into other various projects, but more on that at a later date.

A little back story:
My parents Mary Beth and Jerry, who are mostly Caucasion and from the USA (hereafter referred to as "the States"), moved to Yelapa in the late 60's.
They were working artists and lived a bit like gypsies but with a home base in Yelapa. They had 3 towheaded children of which I am the youngest. We were born and were raised there until our father passed away from Dengue fever in Yelapa in 1985. At that time we moved to Western Sonoma county where we, for the most part, have lived since.

One of our parents closest friends, and our godmother, was named Peggy Muendel.
Peggy lived in Yelapa when my parents moved there. She was an extraordinary woman with exquisite taste who loved art, food, animals, Mexico and most of all great company.
Over the years after we moved back to the states we stayed very close. She would fly us down for Christmas and visit in the States.

Peggy grew up in New York and loved Manhatten where she had been an interior designer after graduating from Oberlin College with an art history major. She fell in love with Mexico while traveling in the early 1960's. Through a friend, she found Yelapa, not so easy in those days. She loved it and chose to make Yelapa her home.

Using the lush jungle surroundings as inspiration, her talent for creating beautiful spaces, and her patronage of the arts she built a masterpiece of a lifetime.
. My family has been so lucky to be invited back to make improvements and breath life into it again.
So I start my adventures here making this house that once was a home to us, home again.