This photo and video won't make a lot of sense here.  But I took it to be able to show the "before and after" in a few weeks when I'm done.   On the left is the side of my house.  On the right is what we call Casita 2 that is planned for a guest bedroom and bath.  If you look closely, you can see that I've got some clothes hanging out to dry in the tree, there next to the porch.  That's the corner of the porch where I usually sit and drink coffee or sit at night.  The problem is the view was obstructed by about 5 tons of rocks that were high.    Here we are moving the rocks to get the area ready to level and spread dirt for grass in the future.  It ceases to amaze me what you can accomplish with enough people to get stuff out of the way.   My guys can literally move mountains if I ask them to. Stand by for future photos of the new improved view. The stick house that you see on the left is the framing for a future chicken house that will have a palapa coconut

 I've told you before about my cat, Patricio, who literally just walked into the work area one day and came out of the jungle.   Well apparently, he's decided he likes staying around, because not only does he come to the house now every day about 11 to be fed, but we also found that he's sleeping high up in a tree not far from my house.  It's hard to tell how high this is, but I can tell you that's he's up in the tree about 8 meters.   I've not seen him come down, but have seen him go up, and he makes the climb in about 5 seconds. I was waiting in the town palazzio today waiting for some folks to lead them out to the ranch.  I thought you might like a little video to see what the "centro square" looks like in the pueblo.  Pretty slow moving. 

 Today, I can finally start putting all my stuff up.  I got my kitchen and bathroom cabinets installed today.  I'm very proud of the job the cabinet maker did.  What you see here, plus the bathroom, was the equivalent of about $2,400.00 US dollars.  That included cutting them and assembly.   Staining.  Hardware.  Installation.  Total package.  You can see that I built in a microwave cavity in one of the pantries and the other has a oven/broiler, instead of having a stove oven.   The cabinet man also picked up my table and 4 chairs and stained them to match the cabinets.

 My 300 asparagus plants continue to grow taller.  This is the same asparagus that everyone here told me I couldn't grow in Yucatan because it gets too hot.  Well?  Besides the asparagus, as I've already written, I'm growing 1,000 coconut palm trees from coconuts.  And I'm putting them in between the rows of asparagus and they provide shade for the plants about 1/2 of the day time hours.    Both the trees and the asparagus are thriving.  In 2 years, I should be cutting 100 kg per day of asparagus spears to sell in the market.

 I've been back to the ranch from the states for 2 days.  I'm still unpacking, and the masons continue their work on the rock walls for the new swimming pool.  The pool water level will only be about 1.5 meters deep at the farthest point.  It looks much deeper because the pool will have a masonry bottom of about 30cm.

 I got back to Merida on Sunday night, but spent the night there so I could go shopping for groceries yesterday.  Last night I spent my first night at the ranch.  It is VERY quiet here at night.  Not a sound, and a million stars in the sky.   I've got many boxes to unpack, and work continues on the construction of the pool walls. 

 Unfortunately, I'm still in the states and didn't get to be there to enjoy it firsthand, but Salvador sent me this photo of the first watermelon to be harvested.     This is the first of what I hope will be thousands.

 My back porch faces due east.  I wanted a covering over it so I could sit on the porch in the morning and drink coffee while I watch the sun come up over the jungle.  You can see clearly here that I had original Mayan style doors and windows installed.   My foreman sent me the photos.  I'll be going "home" in about a week from now and I'm anxious to get back and be sitting on the porch.

 I am back in the states for some doctor physical and oral surgery.  I loaded up all my stuff on a truck to ship back to the ranch yesterday, from Houston.  Whew!  Glad that's done, and that I'll finally have all my stuff (meager as it is) with me at the ranch.   Primarily my office chair and crock pot and coffee percolator! Meanwhile, my coconut trees that we sprouted have taken off like they were on steroids!   Photo was a coconut 8 weeks ago.   I am putting the tree plants in bags to grow up larger and putting them in the gardening beds to shade the asparagus in the afternoon from the hot sun.

 I'm growing asparagus plants and there are many of them.  To keep them from getting the hot, hot sun of Yucatan, I've decided to keep the coconut palms trees that we're raising, in the same beds, and let the baby trees give the asparagus plants some shade a few hours a day, instead of full sun.   We'll ultimately have 2,000 asparagus plants and 1,000 coconut palm trees. The asparagus is just barely starting to bud out of of the ground.

 Work continues on the finishing touches inside the house. Shelving for storage in the solar battery bodega