In Search of the Perfect Virgen: There's No Place Like Home!

Of course, I don't have to travel very far, to find examples of the Queen of the Americas.  This one is sitting in the niche, in the Inner Patio of Casita Laberinto one of the two "GREEN" houses that we built and are selling.  This Virgen is carved from Cantara, a stone used for statuary and decoration around buildings.  We had been searching for a statue of the Virgen to put in this niche and found her in Dolores Hidalgo (along with numerous of her sisters).  Simply carved out of the pink cantara, we bought her, brought her home and added just a touch of color.  She, along with the plants and our fountain, make the Inner Patio seem like a mini-sanctuary.


Watch the Fountain @ Casita Laberinto

How To Care For A Simple Green Home.

    When we first came to Mexico to build, we had in mind a house with land around it that reflect our respect and love for nature and its beauty, the full ecological picture, and simplicity.  We built our house with many of the features that we had researched and envisioned.  Among those that we implemented in the house were, adobe construction, passive solar orientation and elements, photovoltaic solar energy, water catchment, gray-water plumbing, a compost toilet (to avoid extra water usage and black-water), and composting of both kitchen and garden by-products (i.e., peeling, etc., from the kitchen; weeds and clippings from the garden).
     We also let the garden evolve around the house, as we were building and first living out on the property.  Once walls and terraces were in place, we designated areas which sheltered the garden or exposed it to the elements.  And then we planted like an artist dabs color onto a painting, a flourish here, a few dots there, a splash in the foreground, a foundation in the back.  And once that had settled, we looked and "Painted" some more.
      One of the most important things to remember when building and living sustainably is that the house a surrounding garden require your participation.  The most important payment that you can make is to Pay Attention.  So, doing something everyday, we Pay Attention to our house and garden, so that it gets full and complete maintenance throughout the year.  By doing a little each day, nothing is too hard and nothing is neglected.
Things to Pay Attention to When Caring for a Simple, Green Home:

1.  Every day feed the Compost Bins.  Our Worm Bin gets the Kitchen by-products and our Green Compost Bin gets the garden by-products and orange peels (because our worms don't like a lot of citrus).
2. Every day, channel the gray-water to a part of the garden (trees, bushes, etc.) that needs a drink.  Some of our gray-water is stationary, permanently directed to a specific location.  Some is directed by hose, to various parts of the garden, as needed.
3. Everyday, water something.  Until the rains come, that is.
4. Everyday, walk through your garden and see what it needs, a branch clipped here, a tree well weeded there.  By walking and maintaining the garden daily, you are stuck with a chore that keeps getting put off.
5. Once a week, flood the gray-water drains with a bucket (approx 5 gallons) of water.  The pipes are simple and direct and the flooding keeps them running freely.
6. Every week, rake the the dry compost toilet, to turn the "soil" and promote the composting process.
7. Every week, turn the Worm and Green Compost Bins.
8. If you are a serious gardener then, you are already planning the next phase of your garden, as the present one comes to fruition.  Every week, keep the garden up-to-date in terms of planting, maintaining, harvesting, digging.
9. Every 3 Months, check and refill the water in the Solar Batteries.  They get thirsty, too.  We check and fill ours on the Solstices and Equinoxes.
10. Every 6 Months, raise or lower the Solar Panels.  We do this at the Equinoxes, right after checking the Batteries.
11. Every day of every year, take time to enjoy the combined efforts of nature and your nurturing.

     For more information on Green Stuff and to See a bunch more pictures about the place we live, the homes we built [Which we are offering for Sale] visit our Website: Las Casitas: Dos Arbolitos; and Laberinto
     Follow us on Twitter, for our EcoWord of the Day: Twitter

     Think Green.  Think Peace!

Chop Wood, Carry Water, Stop Wood Peckers!

     This is just a note about how living a Sustainable Lifestyle helps to create a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at things.  One of the concepts of Permaculture, one of the Sustainable Living Philosophies, is to use "Stacking," wherever possible.  Stacking is the only form of multitasking one should implement.
     Regular Multitasking, doing numerous things at once, like answering phones, cooking, Tweeting your latest recipe, and washing your dog, all at once, is distracting and doesn't allow you to........oops, I have to go check to see if the cookies are fully baked yet.  Just kidding!  Multitasking doesn't allow you to focus on each individual action, giving it the attention that it needs to be completed successfully.  Multitaskers will tell you that they CAN do five things at once, completing them all successfully.  However, when put to the test, multitasking individuals, if successful with their tasks, use as much or more time to complete them; it just seems that they are doing it all at once and, therefore, faster.  Usually, they just make mistakes along the way.
     Stacking is a form of multitasking only in that, when properly designed, a system does two or more jobs at the same time.  A classic example is a gray-water system.  If designed correctly, every time someone does the laundry or takes a shower, the water is then channeled to a plant well or green area.  This system creates a three-way multitask: washing; a reuse of water; and plant watering.  The system save, as mentioned in other posts, water and time.
     Today's multitasking event occurred as we were trying to stop the woodpeckers from destroying the wood poles that hold up our patio roof.  At the base of each pole, we have vines growing and have been stringing them up to encourage their vertical growth.  The woodpeckers are trying to make their homes further up the poles, above the vines, by testing various spots and making lots of holes.  On one pole that has fully grown to the top, the woodpeckers stay away.  To discourage their continued hammering and hole drilling, we looked around for something that might work.  To that end, we found some wire mesh that was leftover from the construction of the house.  By cutting strips of the mesh and wrapping them around the upper parts of the poles, we performed an act of Stacking.  We were able to accomplish three things: the close knit mesh keeps the birds from being able to peck the wood; the mesh will, when the vines reach it, give them a tentacle-hold; we were able to use most of the leftover mesh, thus not wasting it.
     So, there you have it.  Stacking.  The only form of multitasking you should be doing.  Now how are those cookies doing............?

Chop Wood, Carry Water Part 107.35 Still waiting for the rains.

     Because we chose to make a conscious effort of live a sustainable lifestyle, we built our house to function simply.  Our water is "captured" when the rains hit the roof tops and are directed to our cisterns.  The water is pumped up to a tank on the roof.  From there, gravity does the work and sends the water back down to the faucets and shower head, and outdoor spigots.
     Because we have a compost toilet, we don't use water to flush out human waste products.  These compost into a dry material which we use as a safe material to supplement the green and kitchen composts that we spread under trees.  By using a composting system for human waste, the water saved can be directed elsewhere, as needed.
    Besides saving water, we also reuse water.  All shower, dish and laundry "gray-water'' is directed on to plants and trees and bushes.  This second usage, save water (by not having to rely solely on first water usage) and time (the gray-water and gravity do the work; the water flows directly onto the intended area).
     While we are waiting for the rains, we are careful with our water usage, to avoid, where possible, supplemental water purchases.  Still, May is a month that we want our plants to get through without stress, so we are giving them what we can.  According to one of our campesino (a person who lives in the countryside) neighbors, Genaro, the rainy season has started, even if the rains haven't appeared, yet.  At first I thought that this was some country wisdom that he was passing on, but he clarified it and told me that he had heard it on television.  So much for romanticizing country living.....

Celebrating Mexico, One Day At A Time!

We are selling Our Homes in Mexico, just outside San Miguel de Allende and moving back to the United States.  People ask us why we are moving away and they cite such things as cultural differences, possible violence, their own perceived unknowns.  We look at the move differently.  Partially, we are moving back because that's where our children are living and making their homes, at present.  There, also are our oldest and dearest friends.  Beyond these relationship reasons, however, is the feeling that we have had an interesting and stimulating adventure, here; and now it is time for the next adventure.
That doesn't mean the adventure here is quite finished.  The homes are on the market, but the right set of adventurers has not yet appeared.  Until they do, we are looking at our time here with slightly new eyes.
A Zen Story:

  A man walking along a path, encountered a tiger.  He started to run away, but the tiger ran after him, getting closer and closer.  The man came to the edge of a cliff, with nowhere to run.  Just as the tiger was about to spring, the man grabbed hold of bush whose roots were growing it the wall of the cliff and jumped over the edge.  there, he was suspended just below the tiger and above the ground far below.  As he looked down, he saw another tiger waiting for him, if he could get himself down without falling.  Then, two mice---one black, one white---started gnawing on the root of the bush.  Just then, the man looked over and saw a wild strawberry growing on a plant near him.  He plucked the strawberry and ate it.  It was so very sweet!!

 As we spend our last months of living full time at our home, out here in the beautiful Mexican countryside, each experience seems sweeter, richer.

This isn't Kansas, anymore, Toto. Or how we got here.

The Short Version:  1977, my then future wife and her soon-to-be first husband are touristing around Mexico.  They stopped in San Miguel de Allende.  For my wife-to-be (after marrying and then leaving said first) it was a literal "love at first sight."  Over the years, she and he, then they (family and children), came for visits.  Then she bought some land in SMA with $$$ from and inheritance.  And then, in 1991, she met me.
And the me she met didn't seem like an SMA guy, so she sold the land.  And then we came to SMA.  It, high on the high plateau, the alto plano, seemed to me, a California coastal dweller, too far from seas, East and West; being, thusly, midway in-between the two.  But SMA has charm, to which millions attest.  And I became one.  And we found some land, just safely away from city noise, but close enough to go and play.
And we came and built and lived, and loved our home.  And love it still.  And still, California, beckons again.  And we put on the Red Slippers of Real Estate Sales.  And from our website, we click.
Click Here----->>>>   Ruby Red Slipper Heels  Once is enough (three times takes you to Kansas and Aunty Em).