Recently I started the online course 40 Days to a Finished Book by Leonie Dawson, and so far, it’s amazing. Leonie is somewhat like SARK, whose book Succulent Wild Woman I enjoyed in my 20s, but Leonie isn’t PG-rated. She’s not above using some Australian crassness to keep her students focused on the goal–which in this course is to finish writing a book.
Although I have several books started, I decided to focus on a book designed for working women living in rural Mexico for this course. As you might know, there are some substantial obstacles to overcome to working in rural Mexico. Hopefully, the finished manuscript will help ladies find a way to make a living despite those challenges.
Normally this course is $199, but I got it as part of The Writer’s Toolkit from Ultimate Bundles. So for just $97, I have access to Leonie’s quirky motivation PLUS 38 more resources worth over $5,000. What a bargain!
If you are a writer or would-be writer, I can’t recommend the Writer’s Toolkit enough. It’s an excellent investment in yourself and only available from June 7-11, so don’t wait too long!
The neighbor’s roof! Not a great picture but I wasn’t going outside!
The month of May was blazingly hot, as it is every year. At the very end of the month, we had a shower or two that sent the campesinos out into their fields to ready the rows for planting. Then June arrived and we’ve been hit with not one, but two, terrific storms. The first storm was so strong that the neighbor’s roof blew off, metal support beams and all.
The rain brought out all the critters. We’ve been inundated with scorpions in the house. Every night we try to do a thorough wall check for these little buggers. Having been stung before, all of us wish to avoid that painful encounter completely.
Then the mice have been out and about. Fred does his part in the back to try and keep the mouse population under control. George takes credit for Fred’s kills in the morning, as any respectable head dog would do. And delightfully, Manchas has proven herself to be an excellent mouser, despite her small size. Yesterday morning, Cocoa and Fuzz roused me out of bed for their breakfast at the ungodly hour of 4:50 am. I didn’t see Manchas, so I flicked on a few lights and saw she had not one, but two mice in her clutches on the back porch. WHOOP!
Another home invading species that had taken shelter indoors during the rain was the tarantula. The day before yesterday, my son got into the shower and immediately jumped back out for a weapon. He became a broom-wielding naked ninja against a family of spiders, the largest the size of his hand. We think the spiders had been living in the woodpile and slid into the bathroom window to avoid the worst of the wetness.
Finally, to remove any remaining doubt that the rainy season has begun, the chicatanas have hatched even though it’s a few weeks early. These flying ants are considered a delicacy in many areas of Mexico, but I haven’t been tempted to try them yet.
Unfortunately, due to the sheets of rain that fell during these two storms, any rows that the farmers made have washed away. The ground is so saturated that walking becomes a heavy-booted effort, so the remarking of the rows is extremely slow going.
With Mexico in the throes of the worst drought in 30 years, the rainy season is received with gleeful anticipation. Here’s hoping that Tlaloc will smile upon his subjects this year.
For the past several months, I have been after my husband to make arrangements to get Fuzz and Cocoa neutered. To be fair, he did go to several vets to ask about the procedure and costs, but dragged his feet about actually getting it done. Men!
Anyway, the constant pissing battles between the two of them (Fuzz and Cocoa) had me pulling my hair out. I was constantly wiping down the furniture legs and washing the blankets. Then, our little kitten Manchas went to heat! AAAAHHHH! We really had no idea how old she was since we found her living out in our woodpile one day. But obviously, she was old enough to go into her first estrus cycle.
Fuzz was immediately confined to the front porch area. Cocoa was sent to spend more time outside with the Puppers. However, I’m not sure that we took quick enough precautions. This week little Manchas has been off her food and shows every sign of exhibiting kitty morning sickness. Yes, that’s really a thing. I expect we’ll have little Fuzzinators before too long.
Ready for liftoff!
Anyway, my husband was finally motivated enough to get appointments for the boys’ deballing. We loaded Fuzz Lightyear up in his space capsule for launch. Cocoa got to sit on my son’s lap for the ride to town. Each procedure cost $400 pesos. Cocoa came back home first, all woozy. He spent the rest of the day resting in his soft, cushy bed. A bit later, Fuzz arrived home from his first space mission. He was bound and determined to go outside, even if his legs wouldn’t hold him. He fell, rather than walked down the three steps to the front porch, but by golly, nothing was going to stop him!
The boys had some pills to take the edge off and reduce the chance of infection. Cocoa didn’t even notice his pill hidden in his food. Fuzz however, started foaming at the mouth when he accidentally licked a piece of food that had touched the pill. So then we had to try force feeding. If you’ve ever tried to give a cat a pill, well, you’ll understand the issue.
After two days, Cocoa started itching, so we had to put on the ‘cone of shame’ so he wouldn’t tear out his stitches. He HATED it. It took him a day or two to even figure out how to walk, but by the end of the week, he had learned to weaponize it. He found that if he swung his head hard enough, the cone provided an extra umph in our tug of war games.
Fuzz developed an infection on the third day after his operation. So back to the vet he went. A few shots and some more pills later, he seems to be no worse for wear.
FINALLY, Cocoa returned to the vet for the stitches to be removed. It seems cats and dogs are stitched up with different types of stitches. Fuzz didn’t need to have his stitches removed because they were the dissolving kind. Cocoa did.
Once the stitches were out, we watched him for a few hours, and when we saw he wasn’t going to further injure himself, the cone came off. Fred and George Pupper were mighty pleased with the cone’s removal as well. When we would go for our walks, they both tried to completely ignore Cocoa. The cone must have freaked them out.
The pissing contests have ended, thankfully. Cocoa still is having problems with his aim. He pees near, but not exactly on, the pee pad. So I still have some cleaning to do, but not nearly as much. Whew!
Surviving Mexico 