Rising shyly above a hill visible from the main bedroom of our new house is a tiny church with no name or date of construction--the neighbors think it must be at least a hundred years old--and where you can attend Mass but only once a month, on the third Saturday to be exact. Even then …
Author: Alfredo Lanier
My husband and I live on an off-the-grid ranch outside San Miguel, along with the challenging but dear company of four off-the-street dogs and three cats. My interests lie in politics, writing, photography and sundry forms of spirituality.
Return of the Velador
The departure of Luis, the velador or watchman, at the construction site several weeks ago was disappointing and upsetting. For some reason we felt like we'd been had. Initially he seemed like a hard-working guy, with a pleasant wife and a lovely baby daughter, all of them living in dire poverty. We tried to help …
Almost Show Time?
During the past month construction speeded up to the point that the architect triumphantly announced, a couple of weeks ago, that the house would be finished...a month ahead of schedule? That would be a landmark event in home construction probably anywhere in the world and certainly in Mexico. If the house in fact is finished …
Construction site justice
On Monday, Stew and I paid a visit to the construction site and noticed that the velador, or watchman, was missing, and so were the blankets on his bed and the few articles that personalized his corner of the tar-paper storage shack where he occasionally spent the night with his wife and four-month-old baby Maria.The …
Picture Show
Below are some recent pictures of the progress on the house, which has accelerated to warp speed, as the architect now promises delivery by mid-November. That would be a month ahead of schedule or approximately nine months from groundbreaking. "Completion" is a relative term: We're open to moving in even if the whole place isn't …
Back in the U.S. of A.
Contrary to the dictates of reality and common sense we tried to delay the date of occupancy by the buyers of our old house so that it would more or less coincide with the completion date of our new place. The transition from old to new would flow as smoothly as a waltz. Naturally our …
Ave Maria
Can't tell you a heck of a lot about Luis the velador, or watchman, at the construction site. He's a man of very few words indeed at least when he's talking to his gringo patrones. Questions make him only more fidgety and tongue-tied.One early morning Stew and I showed up unannounced as Luis and his …
Landscaping dreams
Encircled with police-type yellow tape, my gardens right now probably look more like crime scenes. The only thing missing is the chalk outline on the ground of some unknown stiff. Actually if you look at the gardens up close they are not that bad at all. This morning Stew and I (and Lucy and Gladys, …
And now, a rant
Construction seems to be going along well, so why does everything look so chaotic at our new house, and Stew and I feel ready to reach for the Prozac (or the Valium, depending on where we are at on the depression-anxiety spectrum)? The crew just got finished tarring the roof, and the old Spanish-style shingles, …
Mr. Fungus, Meet Miss Bacteria
The miracle season has started in San Miguel. It's raining almost daily, sometimes in shy, intermittent drizzles or like last night, in hellacious rainstorms, frightening in their intensity and suddenness. Almost overnight, arroyos, culverts and even cracks in the ground that had lain silent for seven or eight months are whooshing and gurgling again, in …
El Rancho Santa Clara 