On November 8th a Canadian riding through Belize on his dirt bike decided to stay and live in Belize on my farm. A week later two stray and malnourished dogs showed up out of the jungle to stay as well.
November 27
Life in the jungle: Today was kind of a frustrating day. I spent the better part of the day dog-proofing the fence around the house. It took two visits to the village for steel rods. I cut 1/4 steel rods in 20″ lengths and then bent one to look like a tent peg. I hooked these tent pegs on the bottom wire of the sheep fence that surrounds my house. That way Saucy can’t push her way under the fence. Saucy pushes her way under the fence and Pepper squeezes through the fence. There is really nothing I can do about Pepper but now that Saucy can no longer join Pepper. Pepper comes back to the yard after only a few minutes. But it took over 70 “tent pegs” to secure the entire fence line.
I also got a message from the people from Poland that want to visit the farm in mid-December. I had these people message me about staying on the farm a week or two before Andy arrived. I had no idea that Andy would end up staying here on the farm. And I thought maybe these people had changed their minds because I hadn’t heard from them in weeks. I guess not. I now have a new priority. Pour a cement floor in the apartment (I built in the greenhouse) so Andy can move in there.
The chicken eggs one of my hens was sitting on hatched. I have seven new chicks. The weird thing that I can’t figure out is I have tons of chickens and I have only been getting one egg a day for weeks (except when everything was flooded then I got no eggs.
Yellow tree frog
November 28
Life in the jungle: After all of yesterday’s work Saucy still found a way through the fence. I’m not sure how. There is no stopping Pepper from escaping until she gains considerable size and weight. But if Saucy can’t follow, Pepper comes back after only a few minutes. The only way around this is to collar and tie up Saucy in the yard during the times she is at high risk of escape. Because I am sort of at my wits end with these two.
Today I dug out the apartment floor a few inches to make sure the apartment floor (cement) will be thick enough so as to not crack. I spread a lot of dirt around the fence (around the house). From what I can tell I just solved Saucy’s ability to escape the yard.
There has been no internet since last night and still no internet this evening. That really kind of killed my motivation tonight.
November 29
Live in the jungle: With still no internet since Monday evening and waiting for the techs to arrive I did a little proofreading of my bike ride book that I started last year and barely get a chance to look at anymore.
The internet company finally showed up and got the connection restored. So, then I posted Shifting Tides: The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem blog post to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
I then had a video chat with my web developer. I am feeling very overwhelmed with a path forward for my website. I went to the ponds to collect coconuts to just get out of the house. It had been raining all day and rained into the evening.
One of my guava fruit trees
November 30
Life in the jungle: Things are very, very, very muddy. Andy left this morning to take a day or two in Hopkins. I headed to the village to order materials to pour the cement floor in the apartment. This morning the internet was out again. After a late breakfast, there was still no internet. I took a short nap in the hammock anticipating a delivery of materials. I was awakened by a call from the delivery guy. His 3-wheel delivery vehicle was stuck in the mud on my road. I had to bike out to help him get unstuck. He was required to make two deliveries from all the weight of the materials. His second delivery went without a hitch. I did a little bit of outdoor work to round off the day. With the internet back on I did some blogging research quite late into the evening. I am looking to spend some time SEO optimizing (Search Engine Optimization) a bunch of my blogs. I need a refresher course on SEO optimization.
Other than an occasional five second shower there was no rain today. This evening there was a wicked noise coming from the chicken coops. I ran outside to discover an opossum climbing the coop. I scared him off pretty quickly. With Andy in Hopkins, it is definitely nice to have my place all to myself.
December 1
Life in the jungle: Today was nice and breezy day to help facilitate the ground to dry. But things are still extremely muddy. It’s super nice to have the house to myself. I spent the entire day doing an SEO course for my website. I also posted Simplicity in Action: Breaking it All Down to Simple Processes blog post to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
Cat-eyed snake
December 2
Life in the jungle: Today I posted Unlocking Personal Growth: Embrace the Daily Quest for Knowledge to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. And I was back to my SEO course until I lost the internet again!
Andy is back from Hopkins this afternoon. With no internet, I spent time proofreading my book. This evening another, different opossum got the chickens all riled up. Andy and I took some time and explored around the yard and the house for creatures. We found numerous red-rump tarantulas, scorpions, tailless whip scorpions, a cat-eyed snake, baby brown basilisk and I saw a Narrow-bridged musk turtle swimming around in one of my ponds. That was super cool to see.
The night sky taken with Andy’s fancy camera
December 3
Life in the jungle: Today being my guilt-free day off was pretty laid back. I mopped my deck from all the mud these dogs track everywhere, I did some reading until I felt like taking a nap.
Later in the afternoon I headed outdoors to feel useful and cleaned my chicken coops. This afternoon, one of the hen coops where I am growing young chickens was finally dry enough (the ground) to let them out while I cleaned the chicken house. This evening, I wrote this blog post.
Belize Part 102 (Nov 19 to 26)
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.
