Welcome 2021!

 So much to look forward to after this last year.  Welcome 2021!!  We are soooo ready for you!

Felices Fiestas!

 Felices Fiestas to you from our family in Sayulita!

Photo by Sayulita Life

Snow And Agave

Yes, it may be Mexico but it's not all beaches and palm trees.  It snows!

Alex Turns 15!

 

Alex turned 15 this week and stepped up to make her usual crazy awesome birthday cake.  It never matters who's birthday it is.  She always produces something made to order and always delicious.  This year it was 6 layers of rainbow cake with frosting in-between then topped with brownies and cookies with brownie/cookie sprinkles all over.  This monster must have weighed 6 or 7 pounds.  It truly was beautiful when she cut the first pieces and the rainbow colors were able to show themselves.  

Some extra paddle time will be needed this week for sure.  Pretty much anyone who comes over is asked to eat cake so we don't have to handle it ourselves.  Sayulita has it's famous "Cake Lady" but we have our Alex.  Feliz Cumpleaños!

Summer Break 2020 - COVID, Kids etc

It really has been a blur since March.  I write this on the day we were supposed to leave for all our summer 2020 adventures.  Travel, camp, family visits, SUP races and many other fantastic experiences.  Instead, we are home.  All the things we looked forward to this summer either cancelled or postponed.

We really have nothing to complain about.  Our family is together and healthy even though COVID-19 has made it's way into Sayulita.  We have family up north who have tested positive and friends here in town who have tested positive as well.  All of Mexico is a hot spot and we are seeing more masks where we did not see many masks before.  Signs have appeared at the entrance to business basically telling people not to enter unless they are wearing one.  Sorry all you "Karens" out there.  Masks are required.  Our state, Nayarit, is still shut down as far as beaches and ocean go but there are many days the town has plenty of tourists sitting under umbrellas or arriving before first light via tour busses from somewhere.  Our neighboring state, Jalisco, is officially open for tourist business with some restrictions.

The kid's SUP Team is back at it and participation is strong considering the Team usually does not practice this time of year.  No, officially we are not supposed to be paddling with the beach and water closures but a group of local kid's paddling around on 11-12 foot stand up paddle boards, maintain social distancing is a much smaller concern than a tour bus arriving with tourists for the day.   No paddling since the beginning of April has had a big effect on all our fitness levels and we have all been sore as our bodies remember what it is like to paddle again and try to shed the added "quarantine weight" put on since March.  So fortunate to have an activity like this down the street.

The response from the SUP race world to COVID-19 has been "Virtual Races".  These are races and events where paddlers follow some basic race course guidelines and use a GPS device to time themselves paddling a particular distance. The kids have begun competing participating in these kind of races.  It is fun and interesting to compare them to kids and other racers from places like Italy, the US or Portugal.  They have not done many of these races just yet but as they get into better shape we will be putting the stop watch to their efforts and see how they stack up.  Trace is particularly charged up since he is beginning to feel like his shoulder is feeling good enough to really participate again.  Some of these races are held over the course of a few days, a week or are ongoing for several months.

Trace got the "ok" from his physical therapist to not come for treatment any longer and he feels good to go.  We are stoked to see him happy again on his board.  In June he also became a teenager.  Yes, our Trace-man is 13.  WTF?  He is eating a bunch and growing but yet to really start getting taller in leaps and bounds.  Slow and steady is just fine with us since we won't have to buy bigger shoes as fast.

Trace with ANOTHER surfboard!

He has not mentioned basketball at all since school ended so we are not really sure where his interests  lie with that.  He has expressed some interest in working out with a trainer or getting in the gym after taking notice of another boy who paddles in the US and his workout routine.  Glad to see he is seeing what it takes to be good at something you like to do.  You have to do more than the next person.

Ashley received her second voluntary "leave of absence" from Delta.  This will keep her home until at least Halloween.  Though flights are rebounding it just does not make sense yet based on the amount of hours she can work to go back north.  As part of her taking a voluntary leave she qualifies for unemployment benefits and she is owed back pay of a full month so far due to system malfunctions.  Getting any kind of assistance with the overloaded unemployment system has been impossible.  She loves this kind of frustration and sitting on hold for hours only to be disconnected and told to try again later.  This is her favorite way to pass the time. 😁 All in all she has been able to remain mostly sane and keep busy with house projects and her plants but the urge to travel has started for her.  We were supposed to be off adventuring by now to cure that urge but here we sit.  Just not a good time to go anywhere.

Alex has continued to do her horse program and the beginning of SUP again has helped her keep moving 5 nights a week.  Something she needs.  She has been doing lots of art lately and may actually have some interest from a local ice cream shop to paint some signs for them.  She has done several for the horse stalls at her ranch and they get better every time she does one.

A while back we ordered a 14' race paddle board for her since it would be the next size up for her to train with as a 15 year old.  It is an older model and previously used but the price was right and a shipment from our rep was coming this way anyway to join with.  We have been trying to get it down here for a couple months now but anything coming across the border right now is a major challenge.  If and when the board arrives we hope this helps spark her enthusiasm to train and compete in the virtual races offered that I mentioned.  It will help her compete at an equal level as far as equipment goes.  It is hard seeing your times go up against competitors efforts knowing you are paddling a shorter and slower craft than they are.

We have heard nothing official as far as school goes.  Alex will be doing an online school program but Trace will be attending the same school, CVIS, here in Sayulita.  We have no idea what that is going to look like and we have already seen parents starting to scramble and strategize for the beginning of the school year.  Next month is the time when we would see new families come to town and CVIS would normally be the place where you would see the new faces.  This year who knows.  With the economy the way it is in the US and the virus situation being no better in Mexico we wonder if we will see shiny new first year families.  These families tend to have younger kids but they bring new energy to school and other activities that is welcome as well.

I think that is about it for now.

Sayulita Scenes - COVID 19 Sayulita

Wear your mask!

A New Casa - Casa PŌNO Sayulita - July Update 2020

With Ashley home for several months, the patience to sit and wait to do house projects and repairs has evaporated with the summer heat.  The stay at home orders are still in effect for most of Mexico the sight of undone things around the house has been harder to just ignore so the last couple weeks has been BIG for Casa PŌNO.

Earlier in the summer we completed the rooftop shade structure.  Though still really hot it allows us to enjoy the summer breezes and the view from the top of Sayulita.  Some of the projects we pushed to get done are small and just convenience things and others required a lot of thought and planning to get right.

For a couple things we enlisted the help of the former foreman who was the on site supervisor when the house was built, Antonio.  A super nice guy and has always come through for us.  He was the perfect guy to get back to the house to help us complete some things and repair some items that were causing problems for us.  He knew how the house was put together and it was good to see him again.

Bypassing the roof drain.

 The summer rains have always been a problem for this house.  The amount of rain we get during rainy season overloads the small roof drain that was installed at the back of the house.  It is a smaller diameter pipe and when the pipe cannot keep up with the rain or gets backed up the slow down causes water to pool up and rise enough that it exceeds the curb built to keep rain water out of the house.  When that happens we get a HUGE amount of water in the living room and kitchen one floor below and sometimes two floor below.  We have spent many hours on the roof in the middle of the night with buckets trying to bail water and keep our house from filling up when it is really gushing.  So, we had a secondary pipe installed to kick in if the primary drain is overloaded, becomes clogged etc.  We even redirected a good portion of the water coming off one of the roofs so that it never actually has to go through these drain opening at all.  During the pipe addition we found out that we actually had two leaks in the roof drain pipe in the front of the house and a leak in a water supply line coming from the street.  Small things but it will allow us to sleep at night and be away during the summer rainy months knowing that we will not have an unwanted indoor pool when we return.

Redirecting water to front of house.

Our garden space at the house is modest but we have never really tackled it and made it look like someone cared.  It was mostly dirt, covered with dead leaves.  The plants were few, random and needed time to grow.  Part of the garden was actually a rooftop area of our storage bodega below that leaked so for many months it stood empty of any kind of fill awaiting repairs.  It all looked like an abandoned lot and needed a solution...and easy and cheap one.  With Antonio here we got a truck load of grey pea gravel delivered and the bucket brigade began moving the gravel up the stairs and into the garden areas as a top dressing.  With the bodega roof area repaired we filled that area with almost 20cm full and placed another 5-10 cm of gravel in the remaining areas.  We all pitched in and  even had some neighborhood kids hauling buckets as well as Antonio and his helper.  What a difference a cheap and effective solution this was and if we don't plant anything for a while the garden will at least look respectable and maintained.

Better than just dirt.

The kitchen we have admittedly done "on the cheap"..."on the really cheap".  The countertops are stained and sealed plywood and have been extremely durable and functional for the $150 USD we spent on them.  A Home Depot DIY special.  The problem was that while we had countertops we didn't really have kitchen storage.  The reason for this is that we never put in shelving dividing up the under counter areas with a middle shelf.  The result being everything being piled up at the bottom of the space under the counters.  Soooo I cut, fit and supported the shelving while Ashley provided the staining and in three days time we had a totally new kitchen area where things we easier to get to and we didn't have to get on our hands and knees to look for things under other things.  Simple, cheap solutions that make a BIG difference.

The big project that took place recently was installing a deck in what we call the "garden" or the clear story area in the house that allows light and airflow..  Really nothing more than a dirt patch in our living room it sat neglected pretty much since construction.  It never had a floor since it, at one time,  was exposed to the summer rain, debris and iguana shit.  We had the polycarbonate roof installed but we never really had the reason to do the deck project until Ashley got sick of looking it.  I stopped really "seeing" it a long time ago so I was indifferent and was more concerned about cost.

Our dirt patch in the living room.

I went shopping for decking and we made the decision to use a tropical hardwood called Cumaru.  It looks similar to parota but better for things like furniture sliding back and forth on it.  Just a little denser and more durable.  Screws were another consideration since we were attaching wood to the metal joists we had installed several months ago.  Having had installed a deck in our house in Park City we knew what we liked and didn't like about it and used that to help guide us with this project.  We knew we wanted no seams and fortunately the Cumaru came in lengths that could accommodate that and minimize waste.  The next consideration was how to attach the boards into metal.  This project was part of our living room and we wanted it to be nicer than "just a deck" and after some fastener research I really wanted a hidden fastener system.  I found a few options online but the screws for these systems were not designed to attache wood to metal.  So, we had to attach pressure treated wood "sleepers" to the metal joists so that a hidden fastener system could be used to attach wood to wood.

Wood "sleepers" attached along side of the metal joists.

We were able to purchase online a very cool tool called a Kreg Deck Jig in addition to some appropriate screws and we were in business.  We have never ordered anything online here.  Though purchases like this are normal now it just wasn't a trusted way to get things for many years and we had yet have confidence to try it.  We couldn't use a USA credit card online with this particular site so we had to submit the order and receive a ticket with a code on it.  We printed the code out and brought it to the local OXXO, a Mexico 7-11 store, had it entered in their system and handed the money to the cashier.  Done!!  4 days later we actually had the jig and screws delivered to our door no problem!!  A new world was discovered!

The super cool Kreg Deck Jig.

I set up my tools and after two days of work plus another to sand and stain we had a deck.  No seams and no visible fasteners.  A beautiful extension of our living space and we are super stoked for our new space.  Lots of Ashley's plants have been placed in the space and the wood, concrete and plant combo is super sharp!

Ashley's books will find a permanent home eventually.

So we have been busy since March.  Some things only convenience for us and some things that are stunning additions to our home.  We love all of them!  I think the biggest things left to do are light fixtures, insulated shades for the west side of the house and some things like mirrors/frames.  Actually putting things on the wall would be an improvement as well since staring at white walls everyday is getting old.  Maybe some color.  We are not exactly worried about more projects just yet.

Alex Graduates Secundaria - June 2020

Well, that's a wrap.  The next level of school for Alex ended this week with a small, parent organized ceremony of the graduates, only a few parents and teachers.  "Secundaria" is considered 7th-9th grades and would be similar to Junior High School.  It is the last grade that Alex and her classmates are able to attend at Costa Verde International School aka CVIS.

Alex is standing 5th from the left.

Alex graduates with her good friend Ava, who she has been friends with since diapers.  Her friend, Luna, is also part of this class and has been with Alex during all her years at Escuela del Mundo and CVIS.  Some of these graduates have been together since beginning school and now everyone is going in separate directions for 10th grade.  Some are headed off to Canada, the US or other parts of Mexico. Some will attend school locally or commute to high school options between Sayulita and Puerto Vallarta.

Alex and her "sister" Ava.

Like everyone else the kids have been home completing the school year online due to Mexico schools closing in March.  During this time Alex was able to make up ground with her advanced online Chemistry course.  A course outside the normal curriculum that was recommended to a small group of students by a teacher who left school mid year.  This left Alex to make her way though a demanding online science course on her own with no teacher support and her parents 35+ years removed from high school Chemistry and math.  She busted her ass and finished the course just before this party began and we are beyond impressed.  In the last few months she learned so much about managing time and how to take courses online.  A daily struggle turned into a major success that will help her at her next school which will be totally online.

Starting at the end of August Alex will be attending Laurel Springs Online School.  A decision that was made mostly by Alex.  All the area school options required a minimum commute of about 35-40 minutes one way on a road known for it's slow truck traffic and accidents.  A commute twice a day that we were not really comfortable with.  Alex really wasn't prepared to spend upwards of 1.5 hours each day in a car either followed by sitting down to complete her daily homework assignments.  This would really make it tough for Alex to pursue other things she enjoys as well.  So, we will see how it goes this first year.  We have had good reports from some families who use the school in the area. After completing her online Chemistry course she is so much better prepared to take on a full course load via this format.  Until then she has a couple months off and enjoy summer without the stress of her studies.  Felicidades Secundaria Class de CVIS of 2020!!

Solidarity In Surf - Worldwide Paddle Out

Alex and I attended the Sayulita Solidarity In Surf Paddle Out this week.  Simply gut wrenching to watch what is going on north of the border but so inspired by other things that are happening at the same time.  Proud to be part of the surf community here in small town Mexico.

Photos by Spencer Harris and Laurita Polvorilla.

A New Casa - Casa PŌNO Sayulita - Early Summer Update 2020

The orders to stay at home have not been lifted and it feels like we have been looking at the same walls for far too long.  Unless we want to hang out in the bedrooms we really do not have more than the living room to chill out in or find a quiet place to read, work or have a drink. The rooftop was a place to go to hang out back in March but now when the morning shade is gone the sun and post sunset heat radiating off the roof's concrete slab make the space one to avoid most of the time.  The roof cooking all day long makes the interior spaces warmer and in turn chases us from the effected areas of the house or causes us to crank up the AC which is an expensive solution to the amount of heat dispersing into the house.

So, we decided to do something about it now that it appears being home is most certainly going to be the recommended routine for the months to come.  We would delay any other plans for finishing other punch list items for the time being and we have always wanted to finish the rooftop.  The view is hard to beat and a big reason we bought the lot back in 2007.  We considered buying a bunch of plants but the transporting that amount of soil, mature plants and large pots just sounded like a lot of work.  We considered rigging up some shade sails but we really didn't have good anchoring potential to keep the sails in place during the summer storms and high enough to be able to walk under them.  We even threw an old area rug down to keep the heat off the roof above the master bedroom.  None of the solutions really worked very well so we decided to get a proposal from our metal contractor who previously installed the metal/polycarbonate roof.

The goal was to provide shade for a seating area similar to our living room, a dining table area with chairs and the wet bar area which was already covered but was unfinished.  About 30-40% of the rooftop would be left uncovered so anyone looking to sit in the sun someday could do that.  We would also choose a polycarbonate that has a tint to it to help with the shade effort where we had chosen clear for areas allowing light into the house.  We would also be able to use the area during the summer rains and stay mostly dry.

Some before and after photos.

The improved space has already been given a "thumbs up" by everyone including the crew who assembled it.  The wide open space now has proportions that didn't exist before and feels much more comfortable to be in.  We will see what happens when we get more direct sun and how the tinted polycarbonate works and we know we may need some additional work to keep the radiating heat away from the new space.  Over time we will create a living area and build a bar/kitchenette area but that will be down the road.  Our collection of old beach chairs will be the furnishing for a while.  For now we are pretty excited to have a new place to be able to sit and enjoy and find a quiet spot if needed.

Sayulita Scenes - The SAYULITA Sign

Many Mexican tourists towns that we have visited have a block letter sign like this.  It provides a place for visitors to take a photo with it and post it over their social media and share the image.  It also provides an easy way for a town like Sayulita to market itself.  Rarely is there not a crowd waiting for their moment to take a photo with this sign.  Ashley took this photo the other morning while the normal gathering of tourists waiting for their photo opportunity were no where to be seen due to the Corona virus situation.  Our pueblo!