If you remember, approximately 40 days ago, give or take a few days, I signed up for Leonie Dawson’s course 40 Days to a Finished Book. Well, guess what? I finished a book!
I’m pleased to announce that A Woman’s Guide to Making a Living in Rural Mexico: How to Find A Job and Create the Life You Want is available for preorder on Amazon! From now until July 14, it is available for $2.99 pre-order. Amazon has mixed things up and you need to click on the “Other sellers & formats” in order to see the sale price. Once you click there, you’ll see “New from $2.99.” Your ebook will be automatically delivered to your Kindle on July 14, after which the price will go up.
The reviews from those lucky ladies who received an advanced review copy are better than I could have dreamed of.
“This is like a primer on Mexico!! It’s a ONE stop guide to being successful/surviving Mexico. It’s an entire course. School is in session!” From Roxana Bangura of the Bangura Institute.
“I haven’t finished yet but so far, I LOVE IT!!! I’m learning some things I didn’t know. I’ve been taking notes.” from Margret Ruiz of Margret Ruiz Photography.
As you can see from the latest book, my mission continues to be to provide valuable information to women who have moved to Mexico so that they can create a fulfilling life despite the obstacles. So here’s my call to action for you! I’m positive that there is at least one book in this series that would benefit you personally, or a woman you love. If you would share this post (or a direct link to the series) on your social media networks, I would be exceedingly grateful (as will the women who benefit from my humble writing efforts).
Despite having limited outside options because of the rain, our little ranchito is growing by leaps and bounds. We’ve had two new sets of kids. The first set was another Biggie Small pair. The solid black male was literally twice the size of his black and white sister. The other set were both girls. All of the wee ones are doing fine and enjoyed their first foray to greener pastures yesterday with the herd.
Mama and babies with the Puppers looking on
The quiquiriqui (little hen) hatched some eggs this week too. Three little chicks the size of your thumb were born. One seemed to have been born malformed. There was something wrong with its leg and it died later that day. However, the other two little pinguinos (penguins) are doing fine. My son is a nervous wreck over them. He gets panicked when mama hen leads them out on an adventure. He’s concerned the Puppers might scare them and that Cocoa might chase them. Cocoa isn’t allowed outside unsupervised right now for that reason. He’d cause too much pandemonium.
My husband decided to sell Rojo, which sort of surprised me. It’s true we don’t have enough space for a young stallion, however since Rojo was born on my husband’s birthday, he’s had a special fondness for him that I thought might cause him to want to keep him. We still have Lady and it seems as if she has just begun her first heat cycle–so removing Rojo from the premises was a good move.
Rojo hasn’t gone far. He’s moved up the hill with Azul the vet. And my husband still sees him on the caminatas (group horse rides), which have now become a weekly event. Although with Lady in heat, I’m questioning his decision to participate this week.
Lady has moved into Rojo’s stall, which is more sheltered from the rain than the back pen. The Puppers have moved into Lady’s pen to keep out of the wet. We’ve had torrential rains most of the week and some flooding in the backyard.
My husband also sold the truck, which we affectionately named Butch, to another neighbor. He and I still have our motorcycles and my son has his bike, so we aren’t stranded by any means. My husband is looking for a replacement vehicle, but nothing has appeared on the horizon just yet.
We’ve also discovered that Fuzz Lightyear is blind or partially blind in one eye. He has had no eye injuries or infections since we took him in, but he’s always been a bit of a clutz. Now that we know, it’s obvious that limited vision in one eye would make him less than graceful. His impairment has become more pronounced in the last few weeks. Honestly, the vet in town isn’t skilled enough to do much to help Fuzz, so we’ll just manage his condition the best that we can.
And the construction project on the new lot is coming along, slowly but surely. The idea is to have a small front room with a cooking area and the rest of the lot dedicated to plants, plants, and more plants. My husband has already moved a few of our smaller fruit trees over and planted some corn, beans, and squash to take advantage of the new dirt fill.
Wednesday, I had a rather stressful day with the highlight being a rather funny (now that I look back on it) but weird conversation with a woman who claimed that her husband had built our house. So let me start at the beginning.
I was so excited about The Writer’s Toolkit bonus offers that I broke my own cardinal rule–NEVER use a site you are unfamiliar with to order something. One of the bonus items was a book that looked fascinating. I would have to enter my debit card information to pay for shipping on the author’s site which was off the Ultimate Bundles’ site. Since I had already ordered 4 other books without an issue for other bonus items and I have purchased bundles from Ultimate Bundles for the past 7 years, I naively went ahead and did entered my debit card information on Sunday.
But, the form gave me an error message. Hmm. I tried again. Nope. So I contacted Ultimate Bundles who said they would look into it. I didn’t think anything more about it until I checked my bank balance on Wednesday. AAAAHHHH! There were two charges to some market in Thailand that totaled nearly $400 (dollars not pesos or whatever currency Thailand uses).
I disputed the charges through my bank, which promptly canceled my bank card. The email from the bank assured me that I would receive a new card to my US mailing address in a few days. OH NO! I still haven’t recovered from the last bank card shipping fiasco.
I received an email saying that my account would be temporarily credited pending investigation for one of the fraudulent charges, but not the second. I decided to call the bank and ask. I was so flustered, I entered my social security number requested for identity verification wrong TWICE. I hung up and tried later.
The internet was spotty, so the call quality via Skype wasn’t the best when I called again. I finally was connected to a bank customer service representative who told me he was from Milan. I explained the situation and he did some checking. He shared that something similar had happened to him once and he was so stressed he didn’t sleep for 3 days until the situation was resolved. I certainly lucked out with him. He made a point to make sure that my account would be credited for the second disputed amount as well. Thank goodness!
After that call, I sent another email to Ultimate Bundles to tell them what had happened. They did further investigation and the issue (the site had been hacked) was soon fixed. I was a hero!
Before I recovered from all that, someone knocked on the door about La Yacata business. Remember, I’m still the acting representative, although I’m only officially the treasurer. Anyway, the guy wanted to know about a lot he was interested in buying. I asked if the seller had the blue certificate. It’s a waste of my time if nobody has any papers to verify the lot location and ownership.
The seller was over yonder as was a woman that I think was his sister. Those two, the original caller, and three other younger guys came to the door and gathered ‘round. The seller then pulled out the old cream certificate, not the blue certificate. When I tell him that the lot is owned by someone else, he says that Chuchi sent him to me to “fix” the situation. He says he bought the lot 20 years ago (the certificate said 2004, but whatever). The woman chimed in and said that she’d already talked to Chuchi as well.
Remember, Chuchi is the guy who was in charge of La Yacata until the community staged a coup and took control of the Mesa Directiva (board of directors). Then he sued La Yacata for money he felt he was owed. He lost the court case. You can read the whole saga in La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico available on Amazon.
The woman then said that her husband had built this house. I asked for clarification. Which house? Why the one I was living in. She even patted the wall affectionately. Really? I asked her if she was married to the man working on the next lot over (who was my husband). She looked confused. I told her that my husband, right there, had built this house. So unless we were married to the same man, her husband hadn’t built this house.
She clarified that her husband was a bricklayer and had told her that he had been working on a two-story house in La Yacata. There are 4 such homes, so there was no reason for her to zero on mine, but it is the nicest one of the bunch and I guess she thinks highly of her man’s skills or something.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. I told the potential buyer to NOT buy that lot until ownership had been established. Then I told the seller he’d need to speak with Super Prez because I couldn’t do anything more for him. The seller said he’d talk to Chuchi and if Chuchi didn’t figure this out he’d shoot him in the head. The woman reprimanded him saying he shouldn’t say that because if something did happen to Chuchi, he’d be the first suspect. True enough.
They left and a few minutes later, Azul the vet came with more La Yacata business. I told him I had just met my husband’s other wife and we had a good chuckle.
The posse came back in the afternoon saying they had talked to Super Prez who told him to work it out with Chuchi. Instead of the lot on the certificate, Chuchi said he could have a different lot. I have a name in the master list for the “new” lot, but since no one’s come forward to claim it, Chuchi may have “reserved” that lot for his peeps. Our records aren’t 100% accurate. Hopefully I won’t have to do anything more with this situation, but that’s a sort of ridiculous pipe dream on my part.
Although I was ready for a nap, the day wasn’t done with me yet. I had forgotten that my WordPress site (this one) was due for renewal until I received notification that my card was declined. Of course it was. The bank canceled it. After a few moments of panic, I realized I could use my son’s card which hadn’t been compromised to pay for the subscription. So I did. Then since he has a Teen Money Account through Capital One 360, it was easy peasy to transfer the money I used from my account to his. Whew!
The last bit of frustration on Wednesday was trying to get my son’s schooling wrapped up. He completed all the courses and the community service (I had him help me with La Yacata stuff for a month). Now he has to turn in these 3 documents. The first has been sent and accepted. He’s currently working on the other two, but the site kept going down. But it’s gonna happen–he’s going to get an official diploma this month! (I’m trying to keep that thought foremost in my thoughts in case the universe is listening and willing to bestow good fortune on him. You all know how official paperwork goes here in Mexico.)
So, finally, if you’d like to get the Writer’s Toolkit now that I’ve personally assured the safety of ALL of the sites included in the bundle and the bonuses, you can still do so until midnight tonight. Despite my little shopping spree in Thailand, it really is an amazing collection of resources for writers (including me). ProBlogger and Kindleprenuer are just two of the big names in self-publishing that share tips and tricks to make your writing a succes in this collection. (Ok, so this isn’t the best sales pitch starting out with disaster, but it is what it is.)
Surviving Mexico 