Stuck between a rock wall and bamboo
The Great Wall of Tita is a success! She has gone up her usual way several times but she can’t get beyond the spot where the bamboo fencing starts.
She’s trapped in the yard and we are very happy about it. We can now leave the doors open with only the screen and she can go in and out but not up. She’s safe and that means everything. A big plus is that the dogs don’t notice the feral cats walking behind the bamboo very often so they don’t race back there and bark as much. We also enjoy greater privacy in the yard and the pool, the growing bamboo plus the bamboo fence addition have blocked the view from the hotel on the block behind us.
Now, she spends a lot of time sitting and staring up at the wall. I think she is watching lizards or maybe feral cats or maybe she is plotting her newest escape attempt.
She saw something up there that I couldn't see
The bananas and ginger are growing well and I’m getting the line of sight separation I wanted from the terrace to the back of the yard. No blooms, but I have lots of growth.
lots of green
No pictures, but Mimi and I went to a lumber store that our friend Terrence recommended today. We bought (2) 2″x8″x3 meter boards of Zapote to support the roof pond. The guys at the lumber store were really nice and steered me to zapote as a cheaper hardwood, more durable outside and from Mexico and not imported. Turns out much of the hardwood here is actually imported from Peru. It grows here but it is protected, good for Mexico but sad for Peru. They delivered it, hauled it up to the roof and then lifted the pond up onto it. I did tip them $50 pesos each, total cost for both boards with tax, delivery and tip was $57.42us. I was able to really fill the pond, it is level and off the roof. We need to add some roof paint to the area that the kiddy pool used to be and we might put some on the outside of the pond tank as well. I’ve been checking the water temps and even with the level really low it has stayed under 90°F. This project is a success too!
Plus, I will leave you with one last crime photo. This upstanding young man used the weapon in the picture to break and enter a pawn shop. He made so much noise that the geriatric guard came and caught him. I am hooked on these daily crime stories in the Diario, this is the REAL crime in Mexico!*
*Not really true. There are major problems in this country I’ve come to love, it just isn’t here in Yucatán. While I despair that my Spanish is going nowhere, I realized the other night that I understand too much of the news to enjoy watching it. I stopped watching US news a while back for the same reason, it’s depressing. What is on the national news here is not all of it either, one of the real tragedies is the heavy intimidation of journalists. They are murdered at an alarming rate and obviously that has an effect on what is reported.
Come to Monterrey and use your green thumb on my yard. I need a new hobby.
As for crime, don’t you wish all crimes were limited to that level?
I love your wall of Tita, and all your landscaping – so very different than ours, which tends to be on the wild side. But all beautiful. And glad Tita is safe, I can’t agree more – peace of mind is so important. I can put 4 of our 5 cats out on the back terrace and they don’t climb the one plant that would get them freedom – but Cappuchina knows how to climb it, because before we allowed her to live her that was how she came down onto the terrace to steal food, and that’s how she went back up – just like a monkey, using her claws to hang onto pieces of vine. She’s a pro – our other cats just watch her, but I’m hoping they don’t watch too much and try it themselves – then we’ll be in trouble and will need a “Tita” wall.
They make inverted cone “squirrel baffles” for bird feeders. I wonder if a similar design would thwart cat escapes? Our squad of kittens would likely respond with trampolines and parachutes..or more likely…a catapult!
I think the wood that the Mayans used for their door lintals was Zapote, at less than $2.25 a board foot, a rot resistant wood like that has to be a good wood for outside exposure. At $2.25 a foot , was it planned smooth, any knots? I’d be interested in how fast your boards weather over the next few years. I have some benches I built about ten years ago out of a rot resistant wood grown here in Ohio, they are holding up well but have changed color-no rot yet.
Can you tell me which variety of bamboo is “safe” to plant in the garden near a wall to hide what’s beyond….or is there such a thing???? We don’t want the roots to undermind our terrace but would like the screening
Yes, bullies, thugs, and murderers have stolen freedom of speech in Mexico! How long can it be before they own the society? Without a truly free press, and without journalists willing to risk reporting facts of interest to everyone, society falters and civilization vanishes. Someone has said ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.’ The owners of speech are slaveholders. What does that make those who dummy up and live under such constraints? (But who am I to ask such outlandish questions, when I don’t live there, yet?) ~eric.
Here is a powerful article on this problem:
http://www.thenation.com/article/37916/who-behind-25000-deaths-mexico?page=0,0
Love how your courtyard has come along!!!
Linda
Isla Chica
Love the comments.
Norm, the zapote planks were planned smooth and to make the width even so the pond sits level. They really understood what I needed and did a good job.
Bettye, there is clumping bamboo and there is running bamboo. Most of the large, tall, timber bamboos are of the clumping variety. That’s what we have. We will keep an eye out for errant corms coming up where we don’t want them but it is a slow process and it is relatively easy to remove the ones that are out of bounds. Running bamboo, on the other hand, will go down as much as 3′ and under concrete to come up elsewhere. I wouldn’t plant that unless you have a good barrier.
Eric, I read that article and it strikes me that it is written to support a pre-existing point of view rather than to inform. There are definite problems with the Army and there is corruption but – and this is large but – the successes are great and there is progress. Calderón has said, recently in fact, that the violent response of the cartels will escalate and it is a result of the successes the Army (and often the Navy) have had. I happen to agree with him. It is a toss up here in Mexico whether people prefer to let the cartels run the country and perhaps have less killing or to fight back and not give up their patrimony. I don’t think that the relative peace of a cartel run government is worth the loss of democracy, freedom of the press and freedom in general that will result from letting a bunch of low life criminals be in charge. I think Calderón is very brave and I support the legalization of drugs here in Mexico. Let the US fight this war, they are the market.
Jonna,
I agree that this is a US problem inflicted upon Mexico. The item that stood out most to me in the article is that the dead are nearly all being termed participants in the cartels, rather than investigated as “collateral damage.” This presents a picture of a war between rival gangs and the government, leaving the public out. Yet it is the public (and Mexican society!) which is paying the highest price — and mostly getting no credit for the price paid. Journalists and upstanding politicians are being murdered. Anyone who speaks out is a target. Reporting deaths of public citizens as being gang members is a huge travesty largely due to the cloud which has been hung over the media by the gangs. “Live and let live” is not an agreement that can be made with these thugs. The media has been shut down by intimidation. Drug cartels now own the press, by default. ~eric.
It is hard to know whether most of the victims are truly involved or truly bystanders. Both sides have a reason to lie about it and I don’t see either this article or the government being completely honest about it. It is my feeling from reading some of the reports that many of the victims are low level drug sellers and runners, that also there are many deaths that are retaliation aimed at govt or military but taken against their family members – siblings and parents. That is particularly cruel and also effective. I see no easy solution, there is too much money and too much horrible violence. I watched Calderón last night remind the country that the offenses are from the criminals not the government. I think mostly he is right, certainly the glorification of these cartels is a monstrous affront to my sensibilities.
Jonna, I just noticed this link about how a blogger is filling the journalism vacuum by providing a forum for reporting on narco issues. Amazing what a courageous kid can do with a computer!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/12/blogger-beats-mexico-drug_n_680942.html