Looking out my Backdoor: Honey, they've shrunk the house!

When I moved to Etzatlan in Jalisco, Mexico, I said to myself, as well as to anyone who would listen, “I will live here until I die. This is my last best place.”

Unless I die in the next few weeks, I find that I have one more last best place to experience in this life.

It had been a month since I’d visited my new house in Oconahua, a casita tucked into a corner of property owned by Ana and Michelle. This morning Leo helped me load his car with a few things I could take over early along with a deep-dish mango pie I made yesterday.

Somehow, my very first impression could only be expressed as, “H...