Cabo!

In January, we went to Cabo for a week with Mark's aunt & uncle.  Just in time for our next trip, I finished putting together the pictures from that trip!

I took a pic of the plane before we boarded, a selfie of our selves natch, and we got to watch our plane get de-iced from inside!  Also, some views (we still don't know which mountain, or what body of water).  And Tom Douglases hideous brisket.  If you're going to put your name on it, expect to be called out.

Happy Honeymoon from the restaurant at the resort.  We were soooooooo tired.  There was a wonderfully loud and bright wedding over the beach next to our rooms, a gecko on the wall, and a heart in the sand.

The view from our balcony, waking up, and the Magnificent Frigatebird.  I like to think there are an equal number of unattractive pictures of each of us.  Although I think all pics of Mark are attractive, he doesn't agree and it's a free country.

Waves and sunrise.  You're going to see a lot of waves, and a lot of sunrises.

Another resort in San Jose del Cabo, from every angle because it was very sunny!  And the Puerto Los Cabos Cross.  P.S.  While I was researching this I looked at a blog which literally copied and pasted the text from that link.  Bad form!

 The "pirate ship" and a helicopter.  The pirate ship was one of the dozens that went out every morning for whale watching, and came back every night a party boat.  We could see the whales from our room, and you knew where to look because of all the boats around.

So we walk up the beach before breakfast or showering.  This couple offers to take our picture seen here.  Then they ask us to take their picture, and another.  And another.  They probably have a dozen really good pictures!  Lesson learned.

Fishermen left dead fish on the beach, fish they'd brought for bait or fish they caught but didn't keep.  Mark threw one to the gulls, but they weren't having it.

 There's an invisible crab bottom left!  The cutest invisible thing ever.

 Seagulls!  Just like home.  

 The Brown Pelican counterintuitively has a very colorful face.

Sunset!  Sunsets were quick.

We even saw whales from the pool.

Pelican rock, right outside our rooms.

The fish spa.  I know it's not legal here, because we don't know if the fish liked it, but these fish really seemed to like it.

Our rooms, and the outdoor lobby at the resort.

Walking around town, and it started pouring.  Time for lunch across from the flea market!

The marina, and the Cashola machine.  Not to be confused with payola.

I'm taking pictures of pelicans like they're unicorns, and the fisherman just laughed and said, "Chickens."  Bottom right had a broken wing, but he seemed to get around alright.

A snowy egret!  And a cutie I haven't identified yet, bottom left.

Plaza Amelia Wilkes.  This guy on the street asked if I'd like to hold his lizard.  Mark would have bet money I'd answer gracias, no but instead I asked cuanto cuesta?  $2 to hold a lizard and let Mark take pictures.  But the lizard on my head was a surprise, and a freebie.  Later we saw our friend feeding the lizard, and feel like everybody won.  When we walked away, Mark told me now is the time to use my hand sanitizer.  To which I said I didn't bring any.  Bam.

I can't even describe everything here, except in person I could, but the Showgirls is what we like to call the saddest strip club in the history of ever anywhere.

What is that old building?  We thought it was the El Faro Viejo, the Old Lighthouse but now that I'm looking at it I think it has a really different roofline.  We spent eternity looking for and finally found Cabo Wabo!  And the promised party boats at night. 

Flowers and the beach at the other resort in San Jose.

This whale was right below our window.

A Mexican Woodpecker!  Maybe a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, but I haven't studied enough to put money on it.  I noticed him because of his call like a monkey.  And a Coke tree!  Known by its Coke fruits.

Bottom right, he's caught a fish, and there's a little fish tail flopping out.

This guy knew when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.  Constant construction outside, so here's a pic of one of the machines.

A dinner party with Chef Rene!  Trust me there was amazing food, but when two armfuls of liquor came out, I told Mark it was picture time.

At the pool with equally hideous bruises.  My perpetual joke, "You should see the other guy *points at Mark*".  And a huge cricket!

Lizards at the resort!  And an Argentinian steakhouse.  There's a table on top of a well with a glass cover and a light inside.

Our last day.  The flight was delayed, so lunch was on Alaska!  Yeah, Alaska Airlines!

Finch Frenzy!

We have a new bird friend, the House Finch!  And the House Finch's friend, the Pine Siskin!  And some old bird friends, the Black-headed Grosbeak and Dark-eyed Junco!  I am beyond ecstatic that I have a whole set of pictures where I've identified all the birds.  Woot!

Hugelkultur!

What the heck is hugelkultur?!?  First let me tell you how I stumbled across it.  Remember when we "trimmed" our behemoth Laurels?  More like a Saws-All massacre of the Laurels.  They blocked all the light, and took up tons of yard, and made the whole backyard shady and weird.  And then we had a sprint to the finish to make it look nice-ish before our potluck open house.  But!  I didn't want to get rid of all those branches, because free wood!  People pay money for wood to make crafts, but not me!  So we made piles of the trunky pieces, and the branchy pieces and just left them.  We also made a pile of grass clippings all summer, and just left it all.  For months and months.  Now all of a sudden it's spring, and time to get back at it, and our inside projects are under control.  

The denuded Laurels.

Our backyard was filled with Laurel branches.

Like literally covered in Laurel branches.

It was overwhelming for a minute to clean this up for our party.

But we did it!  Small branches in the yard waste cart, big branches in a pile in the corner, trunky pieces in their own pile in front of the fence there, and voila!  This is how we left it last spring, and then took lots of trips, and hung art and other inside projects, and hardly gave it another thought, and lots of little birds have made these piles part of their yard crossing routine.

So I'm googling crafts to make with branches, and found a zillion clever things, and equally as many weird things, and then I found hugelkultur.  One, it's fun to say.  Two, it uses branches and grass clippings to make a raised bed.  I have those and I want that!  And if you have dirt to spare, you can make it right on top of your grass -- no digging!  But we don't have dirt to spare, so we did a little digging.

The chosen initial hugelkultur area.

I used a pitchfork to dig up the area, and threw the sod to the side.

Then we shoveled out some more loose dirt, just enough to fill the wheelbarrow and wagon.

Union break time!

The trunky pile is on the left, branchy pile on the right, and completely camouflaged grass clippings pile to the right in front of the branchy pile.  And you can see the little Laurels in front of the fence, they came back quickly and happily.

We laid branches in the pit, and used loppers to cut any that stuck out crazy.  We wanted it flattish.

Then we put our grass clippings on top of the branches, and kind of mushed it around so it would fill in a little.

More grass clippings.

Leaves!  These all shook off the branches when we dug into the pile, and we just raked them up.

The branchy pile is a third used, and the grass clippings decimated.  Under all the grass clippings now is just beautiful dirt.

We took the sod, and laid it upside down on top of all of it.

The proud hugelkulturist in his natural habitat.

We took our wheelbarrow and wagon of dirt, dumped it on top, and smoothed it out.  This picture is the most focused of the pics I took at this point, because my hands are shaking lol.  Who needs a gym when you have yardwork?!?

After.  The hugelkultur is in the middle of the frame, in front of the fence.  

Happy to be using up that branchy pile.  The trunky pile is destined to making a different craft.

So that was last weekend, and yesterday we made a second hugelkultur bed the same way.  Today we'll plant little seeds in our two beds, and see what happens!  Mark has already remarked that while the bed we made yesterday has frost this morning, the bed we made last weekend does not.  That's because all the decomposition is making heat, and hugelkultur beds can be used to extend your growing season.  You guys.