New neighbors?

Dog translation: What the #*&$?

(Oh, my! Time to take down the Christmas decorations, isn't it? Thanks for the nudge, folks.)

The dogs started barking like crazy the other morning so I looked out to see who was in our side street. It's a dead end street with no other houses and the dogs consider that they should warn us of any possible intruders.

Well, well, well. Shades of the wild west. It was the big, furry kind of intruders, a whole herd of them. I haven't seen cows in the neighborhood in a long time, though you may remember the horse stampede from last year or the sheep traffic jam of the year before.

Hey, I like to see the animals. I wish the cows would stick around to 'mow' some of these overgrown vacant lots, though the cows seem very particular about what they eat and there usually isn't much improvement after they leave. I wouldn't mind scooping up some of the residue that they leave behind for my compost pile either, but that would probably be looked down upon by my neighbors.

One of my neighbors started keeping chickens! When they first visited us, they were bug-eyed to see chickens in our garden. These are people from a wealthy family and although they politely asked about the chickens, and I happily told them how much we enjoy them, I felt a little....I don't know....maybe looked down upon as a pauper who couldn't afford to buy her own eggs. Now they have their own. Bantams just exactly like ours. Will wonders never cease? Though I have an idea that it is probably one of the maids or security guards that is actually caring for the chickens.

Perceptions are a lot different here in Honduras. Do-it-yourself or sustainability type projects always got admiring congratulations from my neighbors in Texas. Here in La Ceiba, it is more likely to get quizzical looks as if they are wondering why I didn't just pay someone to do it for me. That has been my experience from people of all walks of life. This snobbishness or classism or whatever you want to call it isn't going to change me because I enjoy doing things myself, but I have to say that it doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end.

In any case, I don't think that we will be adding cows or sheep to our menagerie. They do too much damage to the landscaping.

Now I'm off to make my own curtains − for a whole lot of reasons but not because I can't afford to pay someone to do it. ;-)