Day Three

Day 3 on the ranch.  I can say that because they actually do call it a ranch.  I am not sure why exactly, surrounding the fence that encloses the house and flower gardens, they do have a couple of acres in which to plant corn and about 30 chickens, but that is all.  They have no other animals besides their 3 dogs and a few cats that Sra. feeds (with dog food) even though she says they don't belong to her. I've always wondered why Sra. doesn't grow vegetables.  Maybe because it would be such great manual labor to prepare the soil, to maintain it, and then to keep the chickens away from the produce.  Or maybe she doesn't know how? I found it interesting that she didn't know how to make tortillas either until 20 years ago when they moved here because they always bought them.  They also didn't have electricity for the first few years here either.  Wow am I glad to have both of those things!  Homemade tortillas about 60 seconds off the stove are like no other.

And speaking of tortillas, today I made my first four ever! I told Sra. that I was glad they were for me because they were ugly - and they were. Sra. had already made the dough (out of their own corn) ahead of time.   I've never actually seen her making it, just that there is Always a pile of it in the fridge, I wonder how long it keeps for.  I think the ingrediants are just ground corn, water and calcium.  So make to my cooking, she brought the dough out of the fridge, broke off a chunk, wetted her hands and kneaded it, adding a splash of water twice. Then she made four perfect little balls, the size of the small round doughnut holes.  My job was to take each ball and smoosh them between two circular sheets of wax paper that were placed on the "tortilla maker", an iron press.  Then you close it to press it once, open it and press again. Then peel off one piece of wax paper...up to now has been the easy part, what is hard is to put the sticky tortilla on your hand just the right way to enable yourself to put it just the right way on the hot pan. I failed each time, but I was really close with the last one. I *hope* she'll let me try again tomorrow.

I also watched Sra make "tacos" for their lunch...er, not like Taco Bell type tacos. Instead you take a tortilla and put about a heaping tablespoon of whatever you want in it. Then you roll it up, like a fruit rollup. Today she made eight with just tuna in them for her and eight with beans and cheese that smells like old socks for Sr. Then...are you ready for this? In her pot (that was just big enough to put the tacos in in a single layer), she dumped in 2 cups of oil, enough that when it was hot enough it almost covered the tacos, but by the time all 16 tacos were done there was no oil left! I almost couldn't watch.  How is it that they haven't had a few heart attacks each yet?

After I lunched on my 4 tortillas with cheese, we picked mandarin oranges. I don‘t usually care much for oranges, but these are delicious. I used the ladder and Sra. used a contraption that she had made from a 15 foot long bamboo stick, some string and a smaller stick about 6 inches long that knocked the oranges off. We ended up with 2 full buckets and at least that much left on the tree. They were so ready to be eaten that they almost peeled themselves. Really, when they fell, the skin on some of them would split open. They look like little orange brains because the skin is lumpy, but inside they are all perfect. One bucket went to the store for people to eat while they sit there and play dominoes, the other is for us.  Maybe Sra. will make juice out of them? Or they will be eating them for all 3 meals of the day for a week!

Today is very warm, the shade is pleasant but the sun is intense. It didn't rain last night unfortunately, that helps to cool things down. Another indication that this is the place where years seem like weeks - Sra. Still has a bottle of soy sauce I brought 5 years ago and yeast that expired in 2005. She asked me if they were still good, I said I wasn't sure, sometimes yeast works and soy sauce is mostly salt, which is a preservative...and so they are both still in the fridge.  I'd try the yeast but Not the soy sauce.  I didn't want to tell her that she'd kept them all these years for nothing.  I bet they will still be there the next time I come to visit.  Something pretty neat was that I brought some grapefruit back from Toluca one time, I barely remember it. But Sra does because she planted some seeds and now has a grapefruit tree about 5 feet high! She said it hasn't flowered yet though, maybe it's not mature enough? One of the many things I will look up when I am home.  Like do earthworms really eat rose plants? I'm pretty sure they don't and that they are very good for gardens to aerate and to fertilize. But Sra also does not have live plants in the house because "they take away the air".  So I really don't know who starts these rumors.

Outside the birds and butterflies are beautiful, too bad they won't sit still for me. I think I forgot to mention how everyone is awfully surprised that I am not fatter (though I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing) and so very white. Then they must put their arms next to mine for the contrast - and yes, my skin looks like a cloud in comparison. That's thanks to frequent use of sunscreen, I'm happy it's so effective, like when I was outside in the sun from 2-4 yesterday. I thought my nose and shoulders would be sore and pink today, but I think they are the same shade of pale. Somehow though, my shoulders have more freckles than when I left the States.

This evening I "wasted" time by visiting with Sra. and then her sister-in-law, Sra. Eva, who lives next door. I am very pleasantly surprised (almost shocked) at how much they seem to understand me and how much I can understand them. I know sometimes we are both faking understanding, it's forgivable, but I am convinced that our ears are tuning to each other's voices.

Move on to Day Four...