mudgirl

I've always had inexpensive propane Mabe stoves in Mexico and I've never had any problem baking successfully in them.

Sounds like what your gardener is using is used diesel oil- used extensively here. Yes, smells terrible. You might want to use Watco Oil. Home Depot sells it, as well as some paint stores.

If you were trying to import a bunch of them, perhaps they would be scrutinized, but I doubt that they would bother to pay attention to a couple of guitars you own for your personal use.

Did you look at their calendar? There aren't any dates available in January, except for 2 non-consecutive days and Feb. is fully booked except for one week.

A well-educated Mexican I know, who is very knowledgable and says he's going to be a politician in his next lifetime, told me that under Mexican law, if you have been renting the same place for a full 10 years and always paid the rent on time, that the 11th year is supposed to be free. Hard to believe, but I can't imagine him saying that if it wasn't true. He said almost no one is aware of that law, but that it does exist.

Fabric stores like Parasina carry yarn. Whether it's the type of yarn your wife wants or not I couldn't say, she'd have to have a look.

I used to work for an arts organization in Canada that hired bands and put on dances. A friend was selling the bar tickets one night and told people $1.50 each or 3 for $5. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who went for the 3 for $5.

You know, ezpz, sometimes we were in the just the right place at just the right time and have wonderful memories, but going back isn't always a great idea. Even if there's nothing to be fearful of, many times things have changed to the point that it's just depressing and no longer has the same allure it did once upon a time. Luckily, there are plenty of new places to explore in the world.

I used to get irritated when Mexican tradespeople and workers wouldn't answer my texts. Yet they would always answer the phone when I called. I realized that many of them may be illiterate. And many who do answer spell everything much worse than I do in my imperfect Spanish. Yes, the cash register shows them how much change to give you, but when they can't count, that doesn't help. I've had the person behind the counter have to use a calculator to add 10 and 5.

You can call them rhinoceros if you like, but that doesn't mean they are.

I don't have any of these in my house, but I was sitting down weeding a a part of the garden that had just been watered and there were swarms of them.

Many, many years ago, when I was a poor single mom with 3 kids to support, our cat had already had 2 litters and I wanted to get her spayed, but couldn't afford it. The procedure cost what I spent on food for the family each week. (One might ask why we had an animal we couldn't afford to care for, but it had been gifted to my daughter as a stray kitten a friend found) I put a jar in our kitchen with "Cat spay contributions" on it, and all my friends and my kid's friends dropped change into it until in a couple of months, it was enough. I never mind helping people out who really need it, but if they need it because they decided to spend their money on a new car and then found they couldn't pay their other bills, that's just too bad. There was a woman where I live here who ignored her doctor's advice to get something taken care of for years, resulting in a medical crisis that she couldn't pay for, and people donated money. A week after she was well again, she was posting photos on social media of the great new haircut she'd just gotten (at the most expensive salon in town) yet never contacted any of the people who'd donated, thanking them, or asking if they'd like her to try to repay what they'd donated.

ezpz- Not a fraidy cat but not stupid either is a fine combination for safe travel. Speaking the language is a big bonus. I have heard about problems around Celaya as well as an area on the way to San Cristobal that should be avoided. But there's no guarantees that life is safe, anywhere, anytime. Some car could run you down a block from your home. Go, have a good time.

Was she walking along texting on her cell phone, sipping her Starbucks frapuchino, not looking where she was going? If we aren't going to use something because someone, somewhere had an accident when using or carrying it, everything will be banned or avoided. She could just as easily have fallen on her pen and had it go through her eye.

Well, if you don't eat, you eventually die. You could survive on a raw food diet, but most humans the world over, cook. So the vast majority of humans would consider a way to cook to be necessary. If you don't have a nice heat source to sit around outside, when you already have a comfortable home, you won't die. What is hard to understand about that? Necessary means something needed, which is different than something wanted.

Indoor heat and cooking are fairly necessary things for human comfort and survival. Heating the outdoors isn't.

I would assume that when independent testing is done, they use a variety of pathogens, minerals and metals to ascertain how well a given product performs. It isn't necessary, for instance, to test water in a place where high levels of calcium or aluminum are found, all that's needed is to add those substances to the water that is being tested.

What do you mean "for this area?" Lab tests for a product are irrelevant to the area where you are using the product. If you mean how often the filters would need to be replaced depending on the hardness of the water, the level of bacteria that needs to be filtered out, etc. that info is all available on a Goggle search- it's part of the testing.

Just like other methods, through filters. There are reports. Try Google.

I don't have one, but would like to get one. I know a couple of people who use them and they are very happy with them. And yes, the filters supposedly last for a long time, it's not something you have to replace every six months.

Christmas bonuses are due to construction workers just like for any other employee. However, if you are using a contractor, the workers are his employees and he is responsible to pay them their bonuses. He should have factored this into your contract, but the bottom line is that you will be charged for it one way or another. As far as the party at the end of the construction, this is a traditional thing to do. I only had 4 workers when I built my house, and no contractor. So I told the guys, during the last week, that I was going to throw them a little party and asked if they would prefer to do it on Saturday and bring their families, or whether they wanted to do it on Friday afternoon. There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence where they all looked at each other and there was some unspoken dialogue taking place, then my head maestro spoke up and said if they brought their wives, they couldn't get drunk 🙂 So Friday it was. I didn't make a big deal of it- just bought a couple of roast chickens, some sides and some dessert and beer (and don't forget the Coca-cola- they don't all necessarily drink alcohol). They were all happy.

I wasn't referring to walking into your NOB bank with US dollars to deposit. I was referring to walking in with a foreign curency to deposit, as you did when you went to deposit $1000US in a Mexican bank account. As for the bank not trusting its tellers, well, this a country rife with corruption. It's no different than having to go to the bank to pay for your residency permit or your yearly car registration here, rather than handing the $ to the office agent. It's an added level of security and while it can be frustrating, I'm grateful for it. But I do agree that some of it seems ridiculously elaborate. I can never figure out, for instance, why it seems to take no shorter than at least 10 minutes for a transaction at the teller, no matter how simple. Once I get to the head of the line in Canada, a simple withdrawal or deposit is effected in about 2 minutes.

My bank accepts my permanent resident card as ID. And I don't understand why you think it's weird, Harry, to have to let them know your account number, if you didn't go in with your bank card. When I do a deposit or withdrawal at my Mexican bank, I have to just put my debit card in the little card reader at the tellers window and show my ID. It's no big deal. And if you walked into your NOB bank with 20,000 Mexican pesos in cash to deposit would it really just end up being a quick and easy operation?

I drove many times with my car full of personal, used stuff. As a tourist, as a temporary resident, and then as a permanent resident. I never made any lists, they took a cursory look and just waved me on. Take any new items out of the box, and the messier it all looks, the better.

I once found a baby rattlesnake curled up under the dog bowl on the terrace.