On November 8th Andy Wilson arrived from Canada and became my new roommate. On November 17th and then the 18th two malnourished dogs showed up out of nowhere. Their names are Saucy and Pepper.
November 19
Life in the jungle: Saucy and Pepper continue to be happy. This morning I posted Belize blog post Part 47. Andy planted some Habanero hot pepper seeds today.
In the afternoon I headed to the ponds to retrieve something. I wasn’t gone 5 minutes and Pepper and Saucy escaped the yard and found me. They were two very different dogs exploring the jungle full of energy. Apparently, yesterday Pepper had escaped the yard while I went to the village but Andy managed to catch her. Except he had no idea how she escaped. I returned the dogs to the house and put them in the yard. And then I started walking away watching them. Pepper is so skinny she squeezed right through the sheep fence and Saucy squeezed under the fence. I didn’t expect this. I was thinking that they would get more attached to Andy. But Pepper did make first contact with me. And it was Pepper who seems determined to follow me wherever I go. This is going to be a problem.
This evening, I posted Belize blog post Part 48
[A year later, Pepper continues to escape through the fence as she perfected her ability to squeeze through when she was so very malnourished. Fortunately, she never strays far and comes right back when called. Saucy almost never escapes but she doesn’t listen when you call her.]
Fer de Lance Snake
November 20
Life in the jungle: Another dog day. I built a gate for the deck to keep Pepper and Saucy on the deck when either Andy or I leave the property. Andy actually left for the village for some hardware for the gate and Saucy escaped. I went searching with Pepper and as soon as Saucy was spotted both of them completely disappeared into the jungle. There was no retrieving them. Fortunately, they returned in about 20 minutes. But they would have no chance against a mountain lion.
After lunch, I cleaned up and repaired a burn area for garbage. Between the flooding and two dogs, I need to be cleaner with my garbage pit. During this job, I discovered a baby Fer de Lance. I love it. I can’t believe how many Fer de Lance’s are on the farm.
Fer de Lance snakes – highly dangerous
This evening I posted The Power of Decisions: What Outcomes to Hope for When You Finally Decide on Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I also posted a few Belize Flora & Fauna blog posts. It’s been a while since I have posted any of my Belize creature photos to my website. This evening Andy made his first batches of hot sauce with pineapple and passion fruit.
Andy making hot sauce
November 21
Life in the jungle: Andy built a barrel composter today. I helped him get set up. I also went up to the village for some supplies and some lumber. I made a shelf in the kitchen for all of Andy’s hot sauce supplies. My kitchen used to be fairly empty with Andy around it keeps filling with more and more stuff.
Thank goodness for my bike trailer so I can pick up small amounts of lumber myself
Late in the afternoon, I let Saucy and Pepper out for a run. I sort of feel bad for them to be fenced up all day and was hoping they might stay close by. Well, they took off and didn’t look back. I thought they might be back in about 20 minutes but they didn’t return. After dark I even walked out to the ponds. Nothing. Three minutes after getting home they showed up on the deck. I don’t think I can chance letting them run again. The risk of getting eaten by mountain lions is too great.
November 22
Life in the jungle: I woke up to the yard no longer being flooded. For fifteen days the yard was flooded.
I posted Embracing Rejection, A Daily Ritual for Resilience to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I also posted some coaching questions to various Facebook Bike groups. No responses – frustrated.
I discovered and researched about using AI to convert text to audio. I tried it out on one of my coaching blog posts and then the platform insisted on me upgrading to a paid tier from the free tier and I have no idea why. A complete waste of time. Andy and I went up to the ponds to shoot a short video for his YouTube channel. I feel very frustrated today. Saucy escaped today but I caught Pepper before she could run. Saucy returned fairly quickly without Pepper to join her. This evening I posted Belize blog post 49.
At the ponds
November 23
Life in the jungle: Today is two years in Belize for me. I biked across the Northern Border from Chetumal two years ago today. Today was 45 minutes at Belmopan immigration for my passport stamp. I was hoping to drop off my residency application today. It turns out that I have to make an “appointment” to bring my residency paperwork in. I missed the 12:30 PM bus by five minutes. So, I took a bus to Benny’s Hardware for greenhouse paint only to find out they were out of my type of paint. I got home right before dark. This evening I noticed the dogs are gaining weight.
November 24
Life in the jungle: This morning I posted Nourishing the Soul: The Transformative Power of Reading 100 Pages of Fiction a Day to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I spent most of the day learning about making reels on CapCut and organizing all the Belize videos I have taken over the last few months.
November 25
Life in the jungle: Two years ago, today I arrived at the house and started my life here in Belize. [It took me two days to bike to my house from the Belize border.] What a crazy adventure.
The dogs escaped this morning. I did a little chopping behind the house to try to attract them back. Eventually, they came back. Saucy escaped later on again after Andy went to the village. Andy ended up getting some barrels delivered. The barrels are for making gardening compost. The delivery guy saw a mountain lion on my road. I tried to get some work done on video editing. I ended up doing a video chat with an American living in Belize regarding my recent social media posts about goal setting. That conversation ended up going over three hours. That blew my day pretty quickly.
Chickens catching sun rays always makes me think they are dead
November 26
Life in the jungle: Today is my guilt-free day off. Shortly after feeding Saucy and Pepper, they escaped through the fence for no apparent reason. After they returned Andy headed to the city and before Andy’s return, they escaped again. This time Pepper returned with a slice in his ear and blood on her. They found something. Thankfully not a mountain lion, but this escaping is getting out of hand. Tomorrow I will attempt to secure any fence escape routes. I wrote Belize Blog posts 101 and 102 and did a little website work the rest of the day.
Belize Part 101 (Nov 11 to 18)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 11 to 12 months behind in posting my Belize blog posts due to having no internet for the first 18 months of living in Belize.
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this blog post. This glossary will be at the bottom of every blog post for Belize.
Wayne – He is the son of the original owners of the farm (both owners are deceased). The original farm was two – 30 acre parcels minus two – ¾ acre parcels for my house. In 2017 Wayne sold me 40 acres of land from the original 60 acres (one 30 acre parcel plus 10 acres from the second parcel). Wayne lives in his parent’s house and has a few cows on his remaining 18 acres of land.
The ponds – I have two large (300ft long x 50ft wide x 10ft deep) ponds on my 30 acre parcel of land which is basically a jungle. I have about 60 coconut trees (mostly mature) around the ponds. In my first two years of living in Belize, I also planted about 250 assort fruit tree seedlings (Lime, jackfruit, custard apple, pomegranate, and avocado).
The coconut field – I have about 400 coconut trees planted (various growth states) on about 3 acres of cleared land of my 10 acre parcel. I have planted about 350 assorted fruit trees (lemon, starfruit, mango, soursop, cashew, lime, orange) all raised from seed since my arrival in Belize in 2021.
The river lot – my house sits on an ¾ acre lot. I have a second joining ¾ acre lot that allows me river frontage on the Belize River. I call that my river lot.
The dry – Belize has two main seasons. The rainy season and the dry (no rain). The wet is obviously the rainy season.
Chopping – using my machete to clear brush, vines, weeds, and unwanted trees. Generally, when I chop I am removing unwanted vegetation around my baby fruit trees.
Andy – A fellow Canadian who rode his dirt bike from Canada to Belize. When I offered him the use of an apartment that I recently built and the use of my greenhouse Andy decided to stay in Belize permanently and start a hot sauce company here.
