March 15: Our well has begun to dry up. The rains came late last year and the season was short. We are in the process of deepening the well. We have already seen new water and are hoping that another three meters will put us back in the green. If we had been drawing water just for household needs, we probably would have been alright but we have over forty trees that also need water. We have been able to maintain water for the house from the water that is being pumped out daily to facilitate digging. Trees are being watered by filling a tinaco from the old well below the house.

March 19: Stopped the digging, considered having a machine come in and bore a deep well, but decided to dig on. Felipe brought in two men from San Baltazar. They worked one day then noticed a problem. The rings on the top of the well were supported by two cement posts. The workers located breaks in the cement posts. If the posts broke, the rings would fall to the bottom.

So... all the rings had to come out. I bought two, two inch rolled steel bars which we installed in place of the cement posts. The rings were then put back into place. We used a chain hoist to remove and replace the rings. It was very scary especially with the bottom rings. I decided to photograph the removal of one of the rings. Not sure what everyone thought but I could of sworn I got some "what the hell" looks for not participating.

The gentleman in the orange shirt is my neighbor.

March 26: Next Monday we'll start digging again. Back to the chisel and sledge hammer.

I mentioned in one post how the men at the blacksmith shop work in tandem putting an edge on a tool. I took a chisel to be sharpened and remembered I have a video camera on my phone. Here are two men working in rhythm. I've seen as many as four working together. When the man holding the piece turns it, he often hits the anvil instead of the piece so the rhythm is not lost. The man in green is the owner. I'm guessing he must be sixty but he keeps busy.

Here in the valley Nissan pickups are often used as taxis. The other day while driving to Tlacolula Beth and I saw the truck on the right so crammed with people a man had to stand outside on the bumper. We couldn't resist sticking a camera phone outside the window to record this event that would undoubtebly land the driver in jail or at least have his license taken away in the states.

I also mentioned once the difficulty buying peanut butter in a large container. This store in Oaxaca is owned by Walmart. Choices are very limited and prices are high. You can divide by ten to get an idea of the prices. After we took this photo we were approached by security and asked what we were doing. After I explained that we were used to seeing a greater variety of peanut butter and wanted to show our friends back home the difference, she was ok. She did ask me though to not take any more photos.

 Beth and I took a day off to visit a couple of hacienda sites. Then surprisingly a couple of days later a couple of Americans from Oaxaca de Juarez showed up at our home asking about our hacienda. Linda and Allen are photographing and gathering information about the haciendas here in Oaxaca. We had a great time talking about Don Pedrillo (our hacienda) and hearing about their project. Once again it was a treat having an extended conversation in English. Hopefully later on everyone will have access to their work. There are a lot more hacienda sites here in our end of the valley than we knew of. More places to explore!!!!!!

Beth and I spent years in Brownsville being critical of people that mixed their sentences between English and Spanish. I even scolded a few students for continually doing so. Well we owe everyone an apology. It seems as though your mind picks out the word that you remember the easiest. Sometimes we can no longer remember the word in English (old age?) but the word in Spanish is right there immediately. There's probably some laziness involved; anyway, sorry for being so critical.

For years Beth and I read stories about Mexicans crossing the desert into the US and perishing for lack of water. A year ago a young man from Union Zapata died trying to cross. When immigration found him he was still alive but died shortly after in the hospital. I don't remember the young man (twenty eight years old) but am friends with his brother and parents. I was going to Union Zapata the other day and offered the mother a ride. The subject of her son came up. It was extremely painful listening to the mother recall her son's life and his subsequent death. The tragic part is that no one knows what happened to him. Was he abandoned? Was he trying to cross alone? I wish there was some way for this woman to know. I'm sure it would help her with closure. A friend I worked with in Los Fresnos works with an organization that drops off water in the desert for folks that are trying to cross. Larry happens to be against an open boarder but doesn't want people dying that try to cross. My hats off to you Larry. Maybe if your group had more support this young man would still alive.

Before we left Brownsville Beth bought an attachment for her Champion juicer that grinds corn. She got to use it the other day. Corn meal is very difficult to find here so we bought some whole kernels and had them ground at a grain mill. It wasn't quite fine enough so we ran it through the Champion and it came out perfectly.

Last night we attended a birthday party for Beto in Tlacolula. I think it was our best fiesta yet. Beth is becoming more confident speaking which makes gatherings more enjoyable. I was too lazy to take photos but did get this video of Beth shaking her booty with Juan's grandson.