The settlement, five weeks ago, of a long-standing land dispute has turned out to be a double blessing. It ended that nerve-racking episode and now, by focusing our attention of restoring the damage left behind, also has taken our minds away from the ongoing pandemic crisis here, and the other bad news from north of the …
Continue reading Reclaiming a piece of land and some peace of mind
Six months or so ago San Miguel went into lockdown, and since then we've been living in varying degrees of isolation, along with a relentless stream of news reports and opinions from both sides of the border. And yet, the still-unfolding catastrophe had remained one step removed from my experience: I didn't know any COVID-19 …
When Stew and I watch political conventions, award ceremonies and other long-winded televised events, the video recorder is our best friend. We fast forward through the blather and sometimes the commercials, and pause, even replay, moments worth remembering. Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention was one of those moments. Hard to believe, but her …
Two years, two months and eleven days after it began, the legal wrangle over a piece of land abutting our ranch ended with the two opposing parties signing an agreement to essentially split the disputed parcels. In a most unceremonious signing ceremony on the sidewalk in front of the civil courthouse—closed to everyone except lawyers and …
Spring is a fickle season around the ranch. Back in the States, we always heard that the spring equinox fell on March 21, give a day or two, and April showers punctually brought May flowers. The safe setout day for spindly seedlings grown indoors was around mid-May in the Chicago area, though if you didn't want …
I came to the U.S. in 1962, a month after my fourteenth birthday, and spent my first school year in America at the Joan of Arc Junior High School, a hulking, Soviet-looking public school on the upper West Side of New York. My first year was taken up with learning English, navigating the maelstrom of …
Continue reading The history I've learned during the Covid-19 lockdown
In the warm-up to the upcoming presidential campaign, President Trump has already fired salvos of his trademark insults and nicknames at his likely opponent, including calling Biden "Sleepy Joe."If I were Biden, I would welcome that as a campaign slogan: I, for one, am ready to take a little political siesta, a respite from the …
As people who always have had pets, Stew and I have learned, or should have learned, that sharing our space with an animal companion entails many hours of fun, when it's healthy and giving you its undivided love, but also at that inevitable moment when it dies, or worse still, when you have to "put …
Continue reading The daily circle of life and death at the ranch
Yesterday Stew ran up the Stars and Stripes up the flagpole at the ranch, as we usually do on the Fourth of July, along with the Mexican flag, but it didn't feel much like a holiday, with the United States under siege by a tragic trifecta of a pandemic still out of control, a sputtering …
Continue reading In battle against Covid-19, it's Germany 1, U.S. zero
According to our recently installed rooftop weather station, during the past two weeks we've received exactly four and a half inches of rain, an auspicious kick-off for our rainy season, which, if all goes well, should bring us about 25 inches of precipitation when it ends four months from now.The total could vary, of course, …
El Rancho Santa Clara 