Miami & Mexican Maya Riveras for Thanksgiving

This all started out on my birthday in the office in Campeche before I left for Cancun.

When one thinks of Thanksgiving one does not think of beaches, everglades, alligators and lighthouse but that would be our good fortune. Patrick and Patricia invited me to Miami for Thanksgiving using the selling point that it is just a jump across the pond from Yucatan peninsula (an hour flight). I wanted my family to meet Rosario Sanchez anyway--this would be ideal timing. She and I met in Cancun-she flew in from Puebla and rode a 5 hr. bus from Campeche It happened to be my birthday and Rosie took out on the town for my first time ever to Cancun (above is my B-day dinner, a poporri of seafood). First place we had to go was Pat's greenhouse to see what he was doing. He figured that if he had the Famous Agronomist from Mexico he would have all his problems solved. But the truth is I just listened as he figured out all his solutions. I guess you can call that being inspired. Here is a picture of Patricka (Los Patricios) at their desks where their amorous adventures all started. Out in the wilds we to see a real menagerie of animals. The raccoon was raiding someone picnic while at the beach. Those pesky things have no inhibitions in broad daylight. When you get to Pat and Patricia's apt. complex you do not have to ask which is theirs.....they are the only ones to have a balcony jungle. They have some amazing plants. I thought the girls looked good on the beach and the colors of the sunset matched Rosie's sweater. It was an amazing weekend for sure. Pat cooked our favorite candied sweet potatoes, of course a wonderful turkey and trimings. It is wonderful to have family around on these special occasions.

The video is serenading musician Rosie asked to sing me "Las Mañanitas" (Mexican equivalent of Happy Birthday) on the bus after leaving the restaurant.

Corn Fields in Southern Mexico

I haven't posted in 7 months but tonight do or die I will post a few things of the past week. Later I will post some pics by themes rather than by date. Two days ago we had a tour of our corn fields with top officials including a Under-secretary of Agriculture [back row left is Ernesto with under-secretary in the middle] who was extremely pleased with not only the corn but the enthusiasm of the field agronomists, farmer and especially wives of the farmers. This is what drives me -- to see joy and happiness in the faces and lives of the common people, the ones that could be considered the least important normally. It seems so impossible why none of the competition (or anyone else) sees the truth of what we are doing but we in all rreality have no competition. Maybe the answer is in a question the Under-secretary asked us: "how do you all get the people so convinced, motivated and excited about following your advice?" The answer to that is where the magic really is. We believe in our hearts that what we do is vital and correct. And we then talk heart to heart to them. [see my quote in the next blog about what my Mom taught me in my youth] .

........... In the 4th pic our field is on the left at an Experiment Station with the gov'ts prised researchers going toe to toe with us. This INIFAP organization has been fighting us for 15 years saying we have not validated anything that we are doing. And we tell them we are NOT doing basic research but are applying knowledge in a production setting to improve NET profits. Even though theirs was planted before ours they will not even come close to 50% of our yield.
........One of the most interesting situation is with Doña Emilia, a Maya from Campeche, who farms 275 acres (extremely ambitious since all her neighbors farm only around 25-30 acres) with her husband and daughters with only one tractor they recently obtained with gov't participation. She increased her plant density from the normal of 20-25,000 plants per acre (detail is for Jason's benefit) to our desired level of 35-40,000 plants. On one 2.5 acre field she decided to do what we had talked about --that of having 2 rows per bed. But normally then with 2 rows we have a few less per row which spreads the plants out so none are on top of each other competing for nutrients and water. She decided to run planter two times across this 2.5 acres but did not reduce rate and so she ended up with 80 to 85,000 plants per acre. [Jason notice that the rows are 18" apart] If we can help her fill out all the ears of corn she will surely have a record yield. We are doubling all recommendations and all effort. We would never ourselves recommend such a high rate since a failure would hurt us and everyone but since it was her idea we can only benefit from the experience. I wish i could play her recorded interview b/c she has such a huge believing heart and optimistic faithful attitude that it is infectious. She beams with her smile like her when she feed us all after the tour.

The Newest Baby Dolls

On February 9th on Sunday I visited Brand New Mamma Em to see what treasure her Mom had dispatched down to her is such a wonderful way. The atmoshere in the Diehl household seemed like one of experienced parents without a worry or concern. I suppose Bek's arrival 4 days earlier helped keep things on and even keel. Becky had planned on going for months and Emilee was excited to have big sis come and offer moral support and words of experience. If you remember it was Em that drove like a speed demon to get Bek to the hospital one hour away for her first born, Jeb. (A flashback: A single and a not-yet-mother were frantically calling our cell phone wondering what to do when the new arrival had caught George away on school business but not being able to console with anyone Em got Becky loaded in the car and behind the wheel. She sped like no one else exsisted in the world except them and thier mission: "Oh Get Me to the Church on Time...."). You will see here the what treasure was sent from above. (In this blog intry I will make no attempt to line up text with picture since is generally takes hours by trial and error to line up everything.) Little Eliza is 9 days old in most of the pictures and has the most amazing facial expressions of any baby I have ever seen so young! On Monday we hang out in the house and it was the most relaxing fun time being with the girls and their two girls. I was able to get these good shots since i had nearly two days to do it. I gnenerally don't hold the new borns until they are old enough to not break if I wouold happen to drop them. But in holding Eliza it was like holding onto a relay baton, one that had just been passed on to us by your Mom. It was like being able to sit in the same chair where a famous celebrity had just sat jsut to hold her!!!
Well I am going to try something new to include some movie clips made in Picasa from the stills I took on this day. The very last frame if little Dorothy I submitted to a Baby Photo Contest (from a spam email I got the very day i edited the photo) for a chance to win her $2500 this month. Now I still don't know if I regret it but it look like we all have to login to vote for her so that she can win. Now I haven't fully checked it out to see if you all would be vulnerable to more ad emails or not. So am I a proud grandpa who thinks one of his grandkids could be crowned the the world's cutest baby. Or am I a gulible fool who is also a proud grandpa!?
(Editor's note: since it is late I won't put the rest of the photos in now and since when I leave this now it goes to the blog whether unjfinished or not-----more later plus proof reading)