Amish Dog Toys

how much do we need?

Keeping the thread going on Prudence and Poverty and thinking about the privilege of selective consumption. I watch River the Dog chew on a recycled paper egg flat. They love shredding boxes and paper and old socks. Like babies and cats, they’re more entertained with the shipping box than the toy inside.

Some nights I have them hunt for their food and hang tortillas in the trees and spread kibble in the areas with grass and hide treats in the scrap yard. Kibble prices are up and the dollar is low so we have to get creative. 12 large adult dogs is a lot for two feedings a day. One big breakfast, a trip to the shore to eat dried fish skins, some treats from the taco guy, and a light dinner they have to forage. Way better than starving in the desert.

I met a guy once in Veracruz in the river town Tlacotalpan and he was kinda cute in a Mowgli barefoot, very brown skin and long black hair sorta way. He walked a cat on a string. His front door was a sheet. A chipped tooth but a broad smile and he was always very excited but nervous to talk to me. Americans rarely go to Veracruz in some towns and I don’t know why, it’s a wonderful diverse and beautiful state with friendly people and good music. Anyway, it’s been a minute since I’ve been stared at like a unicorn in Mexico. I forget just because we have millions of Mexicans living in the US doesn’t mean that Mexican nationals are used to seeing us outside of tourist towns. I’m Euro Nordic looking. Standard fare in the US but fairly novel in some areas South of the Border.

So this guy Negritine…or Negrito as they called him (very customary to call out obvious features in Mexico and that’s your nickname) I forget his actual name. Leon? He used to say he wasn’t looking for work and wouldn’t leave the little pueblo because he could eat for 60 pesos a week (about $3 usd at the time) and two meals were at his grandma’s. If he got a painting job he’d drink beers on Saturday and catch a fish or 2 down at the river. He was fit and muscular and not rail thin but food just wasn’t a thing. Life was good. He didn’t worry about stuff. He was healthy, nimble, strong and mentally clear. Turns out he was the unicorn.

At first pass, I thought oh, what a small world this sheltered character has. Negritine would get a kilo of fresh tortillas, 18 eggs, a little queso fresco and a kilo of dried beans- a handful of chiles from his yard with some limes for salsa. End of shopping list. They had mango, orange and other trees with fruit to eat and the river was at the end of the block. Kids who grew up in that town (he was 37 at the time) could fish with a net or a piece of string. They’d collect some kindle and grill outside on a cinder block makeshift parilla grill. A bag of sea salt and some fresh lime and that’s actually a great meal. He did not have a bank account. I thought back to the time I lost $20,000 in a “safe and conservative” mutual fund account over ten years. It always bounces back is bullshit.

Meanwhile, over here at the Cul de Sac of Hand Wringing, I’ve spent untold thousands on food and the ‘perfect’ diet for decades. Oh the list of dietary demands. Line caught, not farmed. No seed oils. Ancestral breed birds only. Only grains from Europe. Pastured meats and fowl. Wild foraged herbs. Nothing processed. Soaked grains. Raw milk. Organic panic. There comes a point when you can afford to be so neurotic that you even want a vacation from yourself. I spent months choosing filtration systems for water and sourcing glass so I didn’t store it in plastic. Paleo, no carb, slow carb, Keto, Vegan, Ovo Lacto, Vegetarian, Pescatarian. Nothing wrong per se in any of this, but it’s easy to launch a latent OCD after a while. I’m embarrassed to say it out loud now. And guess what’s not available where I am in Mexico. All of it. You can eat only fish or veg or whatever if you want but don’t name it something like you’re special.

So I skip a lot of meals because there’s nothing open, good stuff isn’t available, it’s expensive and I’m feeding a pack of dogs. It’s intermittent fasting, not meal skipping, right? Am I prudent and picky? Or just broke. Like most things, it’s just branding. A lot of people skip dinner in the world because they don’t have any money. I spent 25 years thinking Dinner is a Really Big Deal both professionally and personally. And it can be. Once in a while. Last night I plucked a cooked potato out of the crock pot where I was making soup for the dogs and fried it up in manteca from the carne asada cart guy. In restaurant parlance that is Pommes Confit with sea salt or Beef Tallow Crisps. It was 40cents. I do that a lot and I live to tell the story.

*It makes my head spin when I think of what I spent on food in the US. Even before this inflated baloney they’re trying to pass off “Egg shortage” BS. Puhleeze. They’re raising prices because they can. There’s no egg shortage. Oh, you saw some Avian Flu story on the news? Stop. Just stop. You’ve got a hook in your mouth and it’s silly. Don’t go out and buy a bunch of chickens. Even at $12/dozen it’s still a pretty good protein rich meal for about $2 a plate. What’s criminal is that eggs were ever 99cents! What farmer can live off of that? None. And you know you spend $50/gallon on coffee at Sbucks right? yea. so just stop. Don’t get me started on $14 craft beers.

You can indulge most of your food desires in most of Mexico, I just happened to get stuck in a town that doesn’t get any deliveries or commercial attention and they like it that way. It could be charming but the handful of folks who run the town just stock mostly soda and gross snack foods you’ve never heard of. Chocolate ding dongs with gummy bear filling and such. If you want to break emotional eating habits or overeating or money wasting, come to a remote place with no temptation. Have no car and no transport in town. For like a long long time, not just a silent weekend retreat where you eat lentils and can go back home and order a sausage calzone with a side of garlic butter and a few pints of Haagen Dazs from Door Dash.

Also gone is the Home Goods habit and the going to Goodwill “just in case” treasure hunting habit. I literally haven’t been able to find a desk chair for 2 years. I sit on a fairly unstable kids school chair from the scrap yard piled with memory foam. Keeps me on my toes, I don’t sit much. I ordered a yoga ball, it’s too short. It’s too much drama to get an order and have it couriered here. I just go without a lot of stuff.

What do I feel like eating tonight, has become, what is there? There’s no ‘order a pizza’ there’s no take out, no fast food, no restaurants. No frozen foods. No grab and go. No deli. No bakery. Some ladies sell stuff in their homes but it’s irregular hours, they don’t list the addresses, nothing opens until 8pm, it’s not always that great and taco stands open later in the week. Someone has a place with hotdogs, I’ll pass. I have a two burner stove thing and a small fridge. I just cook my own ground beef or mushrooms and squash. I still don’t want soy oil and margarine so that means cook at home. I soak and slow cook a lot of beans. A lot of beans. Oh and the only sell instant coffee. No joke. You cannot buy nor make drip coffee within 3 hours.

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As an American there’s only so much corn masa tortilla tamal I can take. So I pass on those vendors. I make pancakes with honey and media crema at home. When they stock real butter I buy 4 sticks at a time. If someone is selling ceviche at the fish shop which is rarely open, I’ll buy it.

The first year here I was spinning myself in circles. How do people LIVE like this??? How do I get out? No cheese? Ugh! (I’m not proud of myself) And being just out of reach for all of the delicious foods all over Mexico and getting stuck here? So frustrating. But after another year of foot stomping, I just don’t care. I’m not going to eat the Taki chips or the ding dongs with gummy bears so I grab an orange or eat an entire papaya. I have a limited diet of whole foods but I will have potato chips sometimes. I often pass on greens and my beloved salads. Especially raw this isn’t the place. Get dysentery every time you eat spinach and you’ll take that off the list. No matter how many soaks in the iodine water. Nothing is organic. Everything is sprayed. Another pass. I could grow my own, but meh.

You know who isn’t eating salad for dinner? Mexicans. They call verduras (vegetables) the salsa bar near the taco cart. But they rarely spend a week on the toilet getting rid of e. coli either. We all take an antiparasitic every couple months just like the dogs and eat meat and eggs. Nightshades. I make fermented kraut and kimchi cabbage and peppers. I store nothing in the freezer. I can make bread on the stove now (I don’t have an oven) and I still sour the dough. But it’s once every few weeks. I eat canned tuna on saltines. A banana. A glass of milk. Nothing. I know it’s trite but I have been beyond spoiled with food and availability my entire life.

I eat when I can, not when I feel like it. And I’m on a strict budget that goes to the dogs first (and the landlord). I need pants. I need vet money. A vehicle? I used to think I was thrifty when I had my Berkey water system (scam) and a years worth of canned goods in the pantry. You have to spend a lot of money to be prepped and “thrifty”. Now I’m eating like Negritine, he was really thrifty, because he was just regular old poor.

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DOG del Dia

Frasier! a minpin/shep/chi/mexi mutt with excellent hearing! he’s a low maintenance fellow who likes walks but also can take himself out to potty and back in to his pillow. He’s a good companion dog and will go with you and your other dogs closely but you don’t need to keep him entertained like a border collie. Not nippy, snippy, yappy. He does keep a good eye on the yard and has a keen and low bark. He’s about 18Lbs and 13 inches to the shoulder. He’s small and loves to eat and have a bone. Leash walking on harness, not collar. Mostly he just comes with. Up to date on shots, not neutered. Male 1.3 years has been here since August 2022. Some lady found him tiny and frail on the desert highway on her way to Sinaloa with Niles. To rescue, donate, buy a tshirt or adopt go to

linktr.ee/lolasdogrescue Thanks for reading!