Checking In

[pierredekat]

Hey guys, just checking in to say hello.

Adriana, Brenda and I have been in the process of moving to Mexico for about two years, and we finally made it down here about a month ago.

Any move can be quite laborious, but one that involves taking pets, furniture, housewares, automobiles, and about a ton of tools through international customs is an absolutely Herculean task.

It was like, the more that we prepared, the more preparation we realized needed to be done. And that is why I have kindof fallen out of the loop lately.

Hopefully, though, I will have a lot more time to get back into things, now that we have the worst part of the move behind us.

So now we are living in a valley nestled in the Sierra De Los Cardos mountains, approximately 2,000 meters above sea level.

We are just a little South of the Tropic of Cancer, which would theoretically mean that it would be fairly hot year-round, here, except that the higher altitude keeps the temperatures and the humidity quite moderate.

It's almost like perpetual Springtime, really.

Adriana inherited a little bit of land down here when her father passed away, and it seemed like a great opportunity for us.

We're currently exploring the possibility of setting up a vineyard and winery, since the soil and climate are well suited to least a few varieties of grapes.

Of course, that will take years, if it ever happens at all. It's really more of an idea than a plan, at this stage of the game. I think this little piece of land that we're on will grow a pretty good crop of grapes without a lot of irrigation, but not much else.

And naturally, I'll continue to make pipes, just as soon as I finish getting my workshop set up.

Thus far I have my little Atlas 618, two drill presses, and my smaller air compressor up and running.

But I'm really missing my Atlas 10D, which will have to wait until I can build a good solid workbench to set it on.

And my big compressor needs 220 volts, which we don't even have, at present. I'm guessing that will have to wait at least a month or two until we can arrange things with the power company.

We have three-phases running right next to the casa, but we will need to install a new wire drop, meter, and so on.

Cheers,
Robert

[SWM]

Hi Robert,

I wish you good luck in getting started!

Best,

Steffen

[KurtHuhn]

Cheers Robert! It sounds like a wonderful place to live.

[pierredekat]

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, Kurt, it's amazing here. I am going to try, sometime in the next week or so, to bounce some pictures down to web-size and get them online. It's really cool.

[kbadkar]

... I think this little piece of land that we're on will grow a pretty good crop of grapes without a lot of irrigation, but not much else....

What, no tobacco?! I think you could manage some wild tobacco varieties, at the very least!

Congratulations on a successful move and a future pregnant with possiblities!

[Charl]

Great to hear from you again! And best of luck, wish I was you!

[pierredekat]

What, no tobacco?! I think you could manage some wild tobacco varieties, at the very least!

Yes, tobacco is definitely on my list of things to grow.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the nearest place to buy pipe tobacco of any sort is Guadalajara, about four hours drive away.

It almost makes me want to consider setting up my own pipe and tobacco shop locally: buy and/or grow tobacco and sell it, make pipes and sell those, etc. But where most tobacco shops would have somebody sitting around twiddling their thumbs when there's no customers, I would have a satellite shop set up to make pipes while I'm waiting for the next customer.

Something like that anyway.

hmmm...

[pierredekat]

Well, I finally got a few pictures together, but they really don't do this area justice. I guess I will have to post some more later, as I take them.


This is a view from Adriana's uncle's place, which is just adjacent to ours. I could have taken an even better picture of this particular mountain from our place, except that we have some fairly large trees in the way.


And as you drive up into the mountains, you start seeing this kind of stuff here.






This is one of my favorite pictures, thus far. Up on the mountaintops, the rocks jut out of the ground, and many of them look a lot like people standing around.


And this is a reservoir that provides much of the local water, which looks brown in the photo, but the water's actually quite clear. It's just that the soil underneath the water is brown.

[TRS]

Awesome!

[Walle]

What a beautyful place, Robert.
I´m afraid I envy you a lot.

Cheerio!
Walle

[KurtHuhn]

Wow! What a great place!

[pierredekat]

Thanks, guys.

[Abi Natur]

Some late good wishes by me,never the less i wish you all the luck and it really is a beautiful place to live and work and grow ...

Best,
Abi