The palm trees are planted and very, very thirsty

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The relocated palm trees and the new palm trees have all been safely tucked into the rich soil here, and now are screaming for water.

Ever hear a palm tree scream?

I haven't either, but they make me feel so guilty just looking at them. Neighbor Chon and I are hauling water and setting up a drip irrigation system. The big trees need a lot of water to survive the move and without it won't make it.

So today, we are dripping and hauling, hauling and dripping.


Transplanted palms outside the back wall on Calle Sin Nombre


New palms inside the fence

After Chon and the workmen dismissed the idea of using the quad and trailer to haul the trees around, they moved a few with the handtruck and suddenly the quad and trailer were pressed into service to move the trees.

I learned from Chon that if you are hauling a very heavy load with a quad, be sure to go very slow and put the quad in 4-wheel drive. It's a lot easier on the engine and transmission.

Local knowledge saves the day here, every day.


Quad gets pressed into service

We also had a nasty surprise when moving two palms on the trailer side of the palapa - fleas. The workmen jumped around like they were doing a St. Vitus dance when they moved the last three woven straw mats we had on the property.

They sprayed the ground liberally with Raid and said the problem was solved. But after thinking about it for about, oh, 10 seconds, I hauled the mats out behind the wall, sprayed them with a good dose of diesel, and burned them (and any fleas and eggs, I hope).


Burning out the last of the flea army

All through the morning, Chon's youngest daughter Juliette stayed with me and helped move the quad around. She's almost big enough to start driving a quad and was eyeballing the controls a lot. But I think I will let her dad teach her how to drive a quad with his less powerful unit.

But if she asks me to drive our quad, well, it will be very hard to say no.


Juliette with her favorite palm

We go to war with 'las pulgas' in Arroyo Seco

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - We returned home from Puerto Vallarta tired, but happy to see that our neighbors - the best neighbors in the world - had done their magic again and cleaned everything, even going so far as to rearrange our outdoor kitchen so it made more sense, organizational.

But as soon as we arrived, Chena and Chon ran across the street and told us it was war - war with las pulgas.

War with fleas!


Enemy combatant

It seems that when the exterminator did his magic a few days before, he managed to wake up every sleeping flea in the property (a last set of living presents from the late Lucky Dog) but not kill them. Earlier on the day we arrived home, when they started cleaning, Chena and Chon had to avoid several areas (favorite sleeping spots of the dog) because there were literally hundreds of the little bastards. And then can jump about 18 inches off the ground.

Chena and Chon - and their children - all got chewed up some before we came home and Chon said it was time to go to the nuclear option, Mexican-style.

That nuclear option was to spray gasoline on the ground, light it on fire, and fry the damned fleas right in the ground. The other reason for the gas was to get rid of any eggs that were likely in the dirt.

I doubt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have approved of the maneuver, but it worked - at least outdoors. Our trailer (the Grey Goose Express II) had a light infestation, so I went in with two cans of Mexican Raid blazing in either hand to route out the miscreants. Watching all those Clint Eastwood westerns paid off as I sprayed to the left, then the right, dropping fleas like, well, fleas.

I did wear a bandana soaked with water as protection, though it took a very long hot shower to get the smell out of my nose.

This morning the trailer was flea-free. And as luck would have it, the original Grey Goose Express did not have any fleas yesterday and provided us with safe shelter to sleep, while we waited for the poison to abate in our normal digs.

Here's some footage from Battlefield Arroyo Seco.