December 14
Life in the jungle: I didn’t even know so many things could go wrong in a day. Last night I discovered that I had let my utility water vat run dry. I ran the river pump for about 30 minutes. That is more than enough time to fill the vat. But first thing this morning I ran out of water refreshing chicken water bowels. It turned out that the vat was empty. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the river water pump had burned out last night and we were out of utility water.
Andy and I decided we should upgrade to a 1 horsepower pump from a ½ horsepower to accommodate for future greenhouse use and his hot pepper business. We took a little time to figure out what using a 1 horsepower water pump with my existing waterline would mean. We concluded that the existing ½ PVC waterline would be insufficient and we would have to upgrade to 1” PVC pipe. We were able to find a pump at a reasonable price in Spanish Lookout (115 km away). Andy left right away. Upon reaching Hattieville (30 km away) his dirt bike’s rear wheel bearing blew out. I had to make arrangements for someone in the village to retrieve Andy and his bike. Then it started pouring rain. Ten minutes later I realized the chicken feed box was left open from working on and cleaning my chicken coops this morning. I had forgotten to close the lid. Now my corn was wet.
After the rain stopped, I biked up to the village to give Andy his tools and parts to repair his wheel as he was already back at the village. From there I went and paid for the 1″ PVC pipe we would need. Then it turned out that Andy’s rear wheel was completely shot. He would have to get the wheel machine repaired. We walked home from the village. Then there was more rain. The whole day was shot. In the evening the drinking water pump wasn’t working properly either. I had to go back out in the rain to troubleshoot that problem. I believe I got soaked in the rain four to five times today.
Photos of the Black tail Cribo snake caught yesterday
December 15
Life in the jungle: Andy had to catch multiple buses to bring his rear wheel to Spanish Lookout for repairs. He also purchased a new pump. The first thing I had to do was clean up my chicken feed box and dry out the corn that got wet yesterday. I spread my corn out on my deck. I finished cleaning up the coops from yesterday.
After breakfast, I wiped down all the rebar for the apartment floor with a rust removal agent as the plan is to pour cement for the new floor tomorrow. I then finished the outside window trim on the apartment windows. I have a few pieces on the interior part of the window to install after the floor is completed. This evening the PVC pipe that I paid for yesterday was delivered. Hopefully tomorrow we have running water again. No rain today.
December 16
Life in the jungle: Today was a day. I set my alarm for 6:30 AM to prepare for an apartment cement floor to be poured. Except the crew didn’t show up until 12:30 PM! And then it was realized that I didn’t have enough bags of cement for the job. And we needed to get some boards to run the wheelbarrow loads of wet cement from the mixer to the apartment over the mud.
While one guy was sent to get cement and boards, it was realized that he wasn’t told to also retrieve the [floor leveling] laser. I biked up and got almost halfway down the road when I saw my first ever jaguar in the wild! I couldn’t believe it! I have spent over two years praying and being extremely vigilant whenever I traveled the road. Always looking ahead and always staying alert. One has to be so disciplined when traveling the road. One second of lost focus and it’s anyone’s guess what you miss out on seeing. I was biking and noticed an unusual shadow. And that shadow turned into a jaguar. I saw him, but he did not see me. I was able to get a video of him for 14 seconds.
Screenshots from my Jaguar video
We finally got to pouring the cement. While the new floor was being poured Andy set up and installed the new water line and pump from the river. The floor was finished and Andy got the water running right before dark.
This evening, I could hear splashing outside. My backyard has been flooded from the river banks overflowing. I went to investigate and it turned out to be catfish feeding in the flood waters in my yard. That was cool to discover.
The apartment floor being poured and the mud the cement had to be pushed through
A new water pump – notice the flooding
December 17
Life in the jungle: Today is my guilt-free day off. After the last few days of excitement, I was pretty lazy today. Andy and I took a walk to the ponds to plant a pineapple top. While walking around the ponds, I caught a Black-tailed Cribo snake. He was sort of in rough shape with some blistering from all the wet. We also walked down the road away, on the off chance of seeing the jaguar again. No luck.
Newly planted pineapple tops
In the afternoon I did a little bit of house cleaning. On Tuesday I have more guests arriving. The yard is still flooded from the river flooding its bank side. Late this evening Andy and I attempted to videotape catfish swimming in the yard. We found catfish but it was too dark to videotape them.
December 18
Life in the jungle: Andy went to the city and I spent the whole day completing and preparing the apartment for Andy to move into. Later I went up to the village for groceries and ended up coming home in the dark. Earlier in the day we spotted Collard Arcari Toucans in the tree behind the house. There were five or six of them. I have only seen one or two of them in the last two years. What a treat. Tonight the catfish were splashing outside again.
December 19
Life in the jungle: This morning the flood waters have finally receded. I spent the morning preparing for three Polish guests. A couple and the wife’s father are from Poland and responded to a blog post about inviting people to the farm to live here. They had reached out before Andy arrived and then decided to stay. All of a sudden, I was in trouble to accommodate so many people. Luckily, we got the floor poured on Saturday and Andy moved into the apartment this morning.
The guests arrived this afternoon and this afternoon Andy saw a jaguar or mountain lion on the road. Unfortunately, the animal was too far away to distinguish which cat he saw.
Belize Part 103 (Nov 27 to Dec 3)
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.
