Boondocking Blogger: Something Got Lost in the Translation. . .

Last week I mentioned that I'd be taking photos of the new plants. The weather has not been very cooperative, however. Although we are extremely privileged in terms of natural disasters (namely, there are none here), when hurricanes get close to either coast, they send us rain clouds, dark and miserable, but way more liveable than the catastrophic events on the coast. Soooo... I've been busy, weather allowing, planting and levelling the lot.

With that in mind, last week I had ordered tierra morena, a rich brown soil that plants love. That, and tepetate, a calcium carbonate friable rock that packs quite nicely and will reduce the amount of dust stirred up by the running dogs. A previous order of brown soil had already been delivered by Los Coyotes some two weeks before. I was asked in what order I wanted the truckloads to be delivered. It was soil first, then tepetate.

The first truck showed up--with tepetate. On the narrow lot that I have, dumping the tepetate first would have prevented any truck from coming in. He had to return and come back after the half-load of soil had been dumped further in onto the lot. He wasn't particularly happy. But wait, that's only the beginning!

Less than an hour later, here come two trucks. One with a half-load of soil that makes its way towards the back and begins dumping. Just as soon as I see the black dirt, I holler "STOP", both arms gesticulating in the air to make myself understood, but not quickly enough to prevent a sizeable portion of the soil to land. Black soil here turns up very spongy and sticky after a rainfall. With 12 active paws running around, the amount of dirt is unmanageable. Then when it's dry, it produces tons of fine dust! I hate the stuff.

The driver and his helper contemplated the dumped soil, about a cubic meter, probably wishing it away with a strong enough stare. . . and I insisted that it had to be removed. Meanwhile, the tepetate truck had been waiting in front of the lot. A short consultation took place with a final verdict that a maquina (I presume a front loader, but perhaps I should avoid presuming) would be sent to remove the black dirt, but it is now too late to dump either the brown soil or the tepetate. The helper asked me once more, meekly, "...are you sure you can't use it?" Absolutely NOT! The driver pointed out (somewhat acidly, I might add) that brown dirt here is called lama. Ah... I guess I should have known the technical term. Away both trucks went. Again. For the day.

No sooner had they left that rain clouds, as dark as the dumped soil, rolled in. I quickly called for help from my neighbour to spread a tarp over the black #%?# just in time to avoid the downpour that would have turned the whole #%?# into an unspeakable miasma. No way this late in the game that a front loader could be sent. Not in the downpour.

So today, I expect a front loader and an empty truck, followed by a truck with a half load of lama (see, I'm a fast learner!), in turn followed by another truck load of tepetate.

Then, maybe not. . .