Tu Casa es Nuestra Casa

Six Months after arriving in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, to begin La Vida Buena of retirement in México, we were out of space and patience for the cute, 2-bdr, 1-bath cabin we had rented. During the winter, I called it "La Hielera de Michoacán", for the uninsulated cabin walls allowed cold drafts in to make us residentes bien frías.

It was also getting tiresome to have to dodge each other when we needed to pass along the sides of the dining room table. The dust, the electrical and water cutoffs from the nearly constant development at the fraccionamiento were a drag as well.

In February, we had a stroke of luck: an old acquaintance whom we knew from back in the Arkansas Ozarks where we used to live, also has a spacious house outside of Pátzcuaro. He and his mother needed someone to house sit for at least 3 months, beginning in April.

It all came about because of a Pumpkin Pie a few months before. His grown son was having a birthday and asked me to make a pie for dessert. Pumpkin was not available at short notice, so I used camote and carrots for an effective substitute.











We began our move the last week of March, making 4 or 5 trips in our Windstar van, with the passenger seats removed, and the penultimate trip with our greatly lightened cargo trailer attached.

By Sunday, April 1st, we were in the new house.















Our hosts left on Monday, a day ahead of schedule to facilitate arriving on time at the airport. The daughter-in-law to be, "Catalina", remained behind, waiting for certain immigration issues to resolve before joing her fiance in the States.

Susan and I continued to arrange our household articles, unaware that certain challenges lay ahead.

Challenge and Response, our Mascots




















Meanwhile, we reveled in the ample spaces, our bedroom here is probably larger than our living-dining room in the old cabin.
In fact, the living room is considerably larger than our old house. In fact, there is even a mini living room near the entrance hall. In most houses in which we have lived it would be most satisfactory.

The best part was having a large bathroom of our own, with tiled walls and a domed, brick ceiling. (I've always wondered what a brick schpritz house was like.) There is a seemingly unlimited and responsive supply of hot water, and I got in the habit of inundating myself with torrents of wonderfully scalding hot water.

La cocina, the kitchen is a tale in itself. I'll describe it in another installment.