Cousin Carlitos (with bucket) helps his brother run their farm down the road from Chema and Eva. The big storage barn was hand built from rocks in the area.

Cousin Conrado in front of his barn.

Chayo grew up in this house as a little girl. It was about half a mile down the road from the others.

Carlitos with the cows at feeding time.

Conrado and his son had help from Carlitos to milk the 10-15 cows. They had some kind of milking machine to help. Some of this milk will become cheese.

Nothing like fresh milk!

Cousin Conrado makes cheese in a room at the back of his house. We took some as thank you gifts to all the other uncles we visited. It's a delicious light cheese that reminded me of a mozzarella in flavor but more firm -- it can be sliced like swiss cheese.

Uncle Chema and Aunt Eva in their dining room. The cabinet behind them held their good dishes which they proudly served all our meals on.

Another darling old stove in the corner of Eva's kitchen.

Uncle Chema let all the cows out to pasture except this little bull who wasn't all that happy about staying behind!

Aunt Eva fed the chickens every morning.

Saying goodbye to Uncle Chema.

They call him "Stringbean". I wonder why?!

On the road to Colonia Ortiz, we ran into Uncle Carlos who likes to ride for miles on his horse.

Uncle Gabriel lives in Colonia Ortiz just up the road from where we stayed.

Uncle Roberto (Beto, for short) and Aunt Emma had a very nice house with a more modern kitchen, but they still had a wonderful old stove that was mainly used to heat the house in the winter.

Colonia Ortiz is a very peaceful rural town of around 35 residents, according to Juan's cousin. Everyone has fences or walls around their property, but horses, cows, and sheep seemed to roam freely.

This canyon is a very popular tourist destination in the region. A rough dirt road just beyond Sainapuchi accesses the picnic area. They call it Maize which means corn. I think it's due to the strange rock formations that sort of look like corn cobs turned on end.

Here's Juan with his Uncle Roberto, Josua and cousin Baraquel. This was just before the rain started! We had to take cover a few times, but the weather eventually cleared.

Great barbecue! Lots of Juan's cousins and their spouses and kids came from Sainapuchi and there was, of course, lots of good food.

The next morning Josua helped get the sheep out to pasture for the day. Baraquel and his wife live just beyond Roberto's barn.

Here's Baraquel milking the cow. He recalls many years ago Juan's mom would come out with her coffee cup so she could have fresh milk in her coffee!

Juan looks like a natural!

I even got a chance to ride a little!

The Jacobo and Marin family including Juan's parents donated funds and property for this small rural school in Ortiz. The inset shows one of the two classrooms. They still use it for preschool, although I think the older children in the area go to a different school now.

Here's the plaque on the side of the school. It was established in 1960 so Juan was too young to ever attend. Luz and Arturo probably went there for a couple years. Juan's parents left for the US just a few years later.
Juan's father was born in Clifton, Az., and Arizona was to be their new home. His uncle Nicholas Cazares, Great Aunt Tina J. Hernandez and other family members played a major role in his father's decision to bring the family to Arizona. This was after a major land deal ended in failure in Ascencion, Chihuahua.

Juan's uncle has a beautiful horse named Tornado.

Saying goodbye to Juan's uncles was difficult because you never know when it might be the last time.

Baraquel and Rosario and their little daughter were very fun to be around.

We headed back to Anahuac to spend the night with Pavi again and to return her son, Josua! Pavi runs a home business photographing weddings and events and producing DVDs for her customers.

Here's me with the sisters, Tencha and Pavi.

Cousin Tencha and her husband Juan didn't want to say goodbye!

We were escorted to the Chihuahua airport by Pavi and her husband Juan the next morning and we flew back to Juarez. To our surprise, Jim, Irene and Nellie had come down to meet us at the airport. The drive back across the border took a long time but we had good company and filled them in on our trip.

After a wonderful dinner at Landry's in El Paso, we drove the 4 hours back to Tucson. Glad to be home, but it was a wonderful trip!

Dad tries bottle feeding

Meeting my new mom!

Tasty ankles!

I didn't ask for a bath!

Nap Time!

Another nap location

The buddies!

Pitching in a little ourselves!

The really cheap labor is always the best looking!

The trench goes all the way down to the Mesquite tree on the north corner of our property.

Now the valves have their own little house.

Here's all the pipes in the trench before covering it up.

We plan to put pots with flowers in front of these windows.

The Cazares house gets drip irrigation! (Click on photos to see the larger version)

We placed the valves right next to the carport since it was recommended they feed off the main house water line at that location. The four valves will serve the trees, shrubs/groundcover, lawn, and garden, respectively. They are split to send one to the front yard and one to the back. The lawn will only be in the backyard -- and we haven't fully decided whether to put in a small lawn area or not. That will be phase 5 maybe!

Closeup of the valves before all the connections were finished.

Here's where the main house line surfaces. All four pipes will pass by it between the carport and the three trees on the north side. A fifth pipe will carry water to the new hose bibb in the center of the backyard.

From the north side of the carport, it takes a right turn to head to the backyard.

It continues along the western wall of the house and under the wooden fence.

The larger pipe you see is a drain line the previous owner of the house put in many years ago. It's still useful to drain rainwater from that area of the yard.

The shrub line goes all the way to the back fence to water the Tombstone Rose bushes or anything else we plant there.

Three mid-yard runs will serve the new trees that will shade the patio, any small shrubs or groundcover we put in, and water the lawn, that is, if we decide to put in a lawn.

That's Homberto talking with Juan about putting in a hose bibb in that area.