The Vilisar Times

Rancho el Nogal, near Yepachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, 04Sep05

While we were preparing to leave San Carlos for Rancho el Nogal, the National Hurricane Weather Centre was issuing urgent warnings about Hurricane Katrina, which had already passed over Florida as a Category 1 storm, was increasing intensity over the 90°F waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and was expected to hit New Orleans on Sunday, 28 August 2005 as a Category 5 hurricane. They were already predicting that this could be the biggest storm in history. Emergency preparedness authorities were telling people to leave the city and all the interstate highways had been made one-way to the north. An extremely strong tidal surge of twenty feet or more was expected and heavy rain with winds gusting to 175 mph.
We were able to reach our children by telephone on Saturday (the day before Katrina was to come ashore) at their house in Picayune, MS, a small town about 35 miles north along the Pearl River. They had moved there several years ago from New Orleans itself. After the hurricane went through we had been trying to get through on the phone and sending out repeated emails. Finally we received a response from Andrew, our eldest. When the storm came through he was home from Hattiesburg, MS, where he is a freshman at college. He sent us an email that we could forward to the many friends and family members from around the world who had contacted us to hear any news.

From: "Ronald Bird"
Subject: diverse
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 16:31:19 -0700

S/V Vilisar, in transit at, San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, Thursday,
01 September 2005

For those of you who have been asking and worrying about Andrew, Antonia, William and Elizabeth near New Orleans, we last talked to them on Saturday i.e. before Hurricane Katrina blew through. Since then the phone lines have been down. But we have just heard from Andrew:

QUOTE
Hi. We are fine. The eye of the storm came right through Picayune, but luckily our house was not hit. All of the trees around our house were knocked over, but none hit the house. I slept through the whole thing, but I heard that it was quite a sight. It will be weeks before the power in Picayune comes up. Hattiesburg is completely without telephone or electricity as well. The roads and highways are littered with trees and power lines. I am able to write to you because I am in Mobile, AL with my friend Hiep. After the storm, I left Picayune and slowly made my way up to Hattiesburg. I thought that perhaps there would be power on the college campus. I turned out that Hattiesburg was in worse shape than Picayune. There were people who stayed in the dorms, but there was no hot water, or telephone, or anything. I met up with my roommate, Hiep, and the next morning, we drove to Mobile, AL so he could make sure that his girlfriend was alright. We also figured that they had power and telephones in Mobile.
We are staying with Hiep's girlfriend. The power was not on when we arrived yesterday, but it came on just a few hours ago. But we are safe. Mom, William, and Antonia are fine. They have hot water, and food, and a sound shelter.
I must say, I am not so upset about the move to Picayune from New Orleans now, ha ha.

Thanks for your email, Love

Andrew.
UNQUOTE
I am sure they are even more relieved than we are. Nevertheless! Not sure what the next steps are for them in the aftermath of the hurricane.
The Sea of Cortés (Golfo de California) is plenty hot. But there have been hardly any strong tropical storms on the Pacific Coast of Mexico this year. This could change of course since the season does not really end until the end of October and September can, indeed, be very bad. Both Kathleen and I are just fine and get through each day by diving off the boat at regular intervals (water temp about 90 F) and letting the hot sea breezes cool us off. At night we sleep on deck (unless there is a deluge). You sure don’t need blankets. You don’t even need clothes.
Sick of the heat and humidity here in San Carlos, Senora, we are putting Vilisar on a mooring buoy at the local marina and taking a bus from Guaymas to Ciudad Obregon to start a 7-9 bus ride up into the Tutuaca Mountains to stay at a remote wilderness ranch in the Sierras. We will be acting as caretakers for the ranch house and feeding the chickens in exchange for room and board. The ranch is 2,000 high. Besides being a working ranch, it also has a school (university course) and is mountaineering or climbing centre. You can visit the ranch’s website at www.tutuaca.org. We will come back in mid-October, ready the Vilisar for sailing (always assuming she has not been pounded to smithereens by a hurricane here in our absence) and start sailing back to Baja and on south along the Mexican coast.
I hope finally to start blogging regularly at www.vilisar.com. We will have internet access at the ranch so just write to us at my email address.

As ever,
Ronald

As of today, Sunday, 04 September 2005, we have heard no more from Mississippi but on the presumption that bad news travels fast, are assuming that the children and Elizabeth, their mother, are all right.
Many people have been asking us about the ranch as well.

Dear All:
We arrived at Rancho el Nogal after an 8 hour bus ride through the Sierras (only double lines on the highways, which however did not prevent the driver of the very comfortable and air conditioned bus to overtake everything he came up behind!) The owner of the ranch met us when the bus let us down in a tiny village and drove us in her 4-wheel drive pickup truck to the ranch - 90 minutes on the worst and most washed out gravel road I have seen and, being from Canada, I have seen some really bad ones. My kidneys are still aching. But this 17,000 acre ranch is located in a very large and currently very lush valley. The ranch buildings are sited above a bend in the Tutuaca River. Everything is very primitive but pretty original. Even the help are called cowboys and actually do their work on horseback for much of the time. This morning we helped in the main corral to cull cattle for weaning, selling, branding, fattening and selling as rodeo-roping calves. Imagine me slipping around in cows shit and chasing longhorns through a gate. Kathleen wisely acted as tallyman only occasionally and genteelly shooing the unwanted away from the gate where she stood with her pen and pad. A Kodak moment.
This is the rainy season and it generally clouds up in the afternoon and pours. It is supposed normally to stop at dusk but somebody forgot to tell the weather gods today and, well after dark, it is still really coming down. The owners left today with their two little towheaded boys for various travels on business. We are the caretakers, we and Simon, a Pima Indian, the hired hand and our sometimes Spanish teacher. Our job is to be around to keep an eye on the house and buildings, to feed the 6 dogs, 2 cats, 2 pigs, 18 chickens and 1 guinea fowl, milk the (1) nanny-goat and keep an eye on the solar-charging system (no grid electricity out here).
Two hours after the family had left the two pigs got out, found their way into the feed room, upset a big bin of dog food, and made a huge mess. I ran into them as I was heading out to coop up the chickens. I coaxed one back into the pen with a bucket of kitchen slops. The other one, the white one, disappeared into the long grass like a greyhound to be seen no more. Simon shrugged his shoulders when I told him, which I interpret to mean either: a) it will come back eventually if a mountain lion or coyote doesn't get it; or, b) pigs are stupid anyway. One chicken and the guinea fowl got up in a tree and refused to come down. They can stay there all night too as far as I am concerned. The culled cows are bawling from the pasture on the far side of the river for their weaned calves who bawl back at them. Kathleen, ever the musician, says that some of them sound like horn players. One of them has laryngitis, though, I think; he’ll never make it to the Berlin Philharmonic. You can hear that cattle clearly inside here despite the non-stop drumming of the rain in the night on the tin roof. Hope they shut up when we go to bed. This morning we were wakened by a cock just outside our window. There might be chicken stew around here before the owners come back in three weeks!
If I can figure out to post my blogs you can follow us on www.vilisar.com. For the moment there are only some dated photos by Albert Pang.

Greetings to all

Ronald

posted by rjb,
1:44 pm

<$BlogRSDURL$>

		News From Ron and Kathy Bird__
For more pictures of Ron and Kathy Bird and the Vilisar, see these beautiful photos by Albert Pang Click here to e-mail Ron Click here to e-mail Kathy Archives January 2004 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 February 2007 March 2007 Vilisar Translation Expert German-English translation available; business and finance our specialty. SachverstÃ¤ndige Deutsch-Englische Ãbersetzung; GeschÃ¤ft und Finanz unser Spezialgebiet.	Thursday, September 08, 2005 Rancho el Nogal, near Yepachic, Chihuahua, Mexico, 04Sep05 While we were preparing to leave San Carlos for Rancho el Nogal, the National Hurricane Weather Centre was issuing urgent warnings about Hurricane Katrina, which had already passed over Florida as a Category 1 storm, was increasing intensity over the 90°F waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and was expected to hit New Orleans on Sunday, 28 August 2005 as a Category 5 hurricane. They were already predicting that this could be the biggest storm in history. Emergency preparedness authorities were telling people to leave the city and all the interstate highways had been made one-way to the north. An extremely strong tidal surge of twenty feet or more was expected and heavy rain with winds gusting to 175 mph. We were able to reach our children by telephone on Saturday (the day before Katrina was to come ashore) at their house in Picayune, MS, a small town about 35 miles north along the Pearl River. They had moved there several years ago from New Orleans itself. After the hurricane went through we had been trying to get through on the phone and sending out repeated emails. Finally we received a response from Andrew, our eldest. When the storm came through he was home from Hattiesburg, MS, where he is a freshman at college. He sent us an email that we could forward to the many friends and family members from around the world who had contacted us to hear any news. From: "Ronald Bird" Subject: diverse Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 16:31:19 -0700 S/V Vilisar, in transit at, San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, Thursday, 01 September 2005 For those of you who have been asking and worrying about Andrew, Antonia, William and Elizabeth near New Orleans, we last talked to them on Saturday i.e. before Hurricane Katrina blew through. Since then the phone lines have been down. But we have just heard from Andrew: QUOTE Hi. We are fine. The eye of the storm came right through Picayune, but luckily our house was not hit. All of the trees around our house were knocked over, but none hit the house. I slept through the whole thing, but I heard that it was quite a sight. It will be weeks before the power in Picayune comes up. Hattiesburg is completely without telephone or electricity as well. The roads and highways are littered with trees and power lines. I am able to write to you because I am in Mobile, AL with my friend Hiep. After the storm, I left Picayune and slowly made my way up to Hattiesburg. I thought that perhaps there would be power on the college campus. I turned out that Hattiesburg was in worse shape than Picayune. There were people who stayed in the dorms, but there was no hot water, or telephone, or anything. I met up with my roommate, Hiep, and the next morning, we drove to Mobile, AL so he could make sure that his girlfriend was alright. We also figured that they had power and telephones in Mobile. We are staying with Hiep's girlfriend. The power was not on when we arrived yesterday, but it came on just a few hours ago. But we are safe. Mom, William, and Antonia are fine. They have hot water, and food, and a sound shelter. I must say, I am not so upset about the move to Picayune from New Orleans now, ha ha. Thanks for your email, Love Andrew. UNQUOTE I am sure they are even more relieved than we are. Nevertheless! Not sure what the next steps are for them in the aftermath of the hurricane. The Sea of Cortés (Golfo de California) is plenty hot. But there have been hardly any strong tropical storms on the Pacific Coast of Mexico this year. This could change of course since the season does not really end until the end of October and September can, indeed, be very bad. Both Kathleen and I are just fine and get through each day by diving off the boat at regular intervals (water temp about 90 F) and letting the hot sea breezes cool us off. At night we sleep on deck (unless there is a deluge). You sure don’t need blankets. You don’t even need clothes. Sick of the heat and humidity here in San Carlos, Senora, we are putting Vilisar on a mooring buoy at the local marina and taking a bus from Guaymas to Ciudad Obregon to start a 7-9 bus ride up into the Tutuaca Mountains to stay at a remote wilderness ranch in the Sierras. We will be acting as caretakers for the ranch house and feeding the chickens in exchange for room and board. The ranch is 2,000 high. Besides being a working ranch, it also has a school (university course) and is mountaineering or climbing centre. You can visit the ranch’s website at www.tutuaca.org. We will come back in mid-October, ready the Vilisar for sailing (always assuming she has not been pounded to smithereens by a hurricane here in our absence) and start sailing back to Baja and on south along the Mexican coast. I hope finally to start blogging regularly at www.vilisar.com. We will have internet access at the ranch so just write to us at my email address. As ever, Ronald As of today, Sunday, 04 September 2005, we have heard no more from Mississippi but on the presumption that bad news travels fast, are assuming that the children and Elizabeth, their mother, are all right. Many people have been asking us about the ranch as well. Dear All: We arrived at Rancho el Nogal after an 8 hour bus ride through the Sierras (only double lines on the highways, which however did not prevent the driver of the very comfortable and air conditioned bus to overtake everything he came up behind!) The owner of the ranch met us when the bus let us down in a tiny village and drove us in her 4-wheel drive pickup truck to the ranch - 90 minutes on the worst and most washed out gravel road I have seen and, being from Canada, I have seen some really bad ones. My kidneys are still aching. But this 17,000 acre ranch is located in a very large and currently very lush valley. The ranch buildings are sited above a bend in the Tutuaca River. Everything is very primitive but pretty original. Even the help are called cowboys and actually do their work on horseback for much of the time. This morning we helped in the main corral to cull cattle for weaning, selling, branding, fattening and selling as rodeo-roping calves. Imagine me slipping around in cows shit and chasing longhorns through a gate. Kathleen wisely acted as tallyman only occasionally and genteelly shooing the unwanted away from the gate where she stood with her pen and pad. A Kodak moment. This is the rainy season and it generally clouds up in the afternoon and pours. It is supposed normally to stop at dusk but somebody forgot to tell the weather gods today and, well after dark, it is still really coming down. The owners left today with their two little towheaded boys for various travels on business. We are the caretakers, we and Simon, a Pima Indian, the hired hand and our sometimes Spanish teacher. Our job is to be around to keep an eye on the house and buildings, to feed the 6 dogs, 2 cats, 2 pigs, 18 chickens and 1 guinea fowl, milk the (1) nanny-goat and keep an eye on the solar-charging system (no grid electricity out here). Two hours after the family had left the two pigs got out, found their way into the feed room, upset a big bin of dog food, and made a huge mess. I ran into them as I was heading out to coop up the chickens. I coaxed one back into the pen with a bucket of kitchen slops. The other one, the white one, disappeared into the long grass like a greyhound to be seen no more. Simon shrugged his shoulders when I told him, which I interpret to mean either: a) it will come back eventually if a mountain lion or coyote doesn't get it; or, b) pigs are stupid anyway. One chicken and the guinea fowl got up in a tree and refused to come down. They can stay there all night too as far as I am concerned. The culled cows are bawling from the pasture on the far side of the river for their weaned calves who bawl back at them. Kathleen, ever the musician, says that some of them sound like horn players. One of them has laryngitis, though, I think; he’ll never make it to the Berlin Philharmonic. You can hear that cattle clearly inside here despite the non-stop drumming of the rain in the night on the tin roof. Hope they shut up when we go to bed. This morning we were wakened by a cock just outside our window. There might be chicken stew around here before the owners come back in three weeks! If I can figure out to post my blogs you can follow us on www.vilisar.com. For the moment there are only some dated photos by Albert Pang. Greetings to all Ronald posted by *rjb,* *1:44 pm* Comments: Post a Comment
Website Counter This website created by Gwendolyn Holbrow All copyrights reserved

Archives

Thursday, September 08, 2005