January 7
Life in the jungle: Today is my day off and I posted Belize blog Part 54, 55, 56, 57, and 58 and my poem, There is an Ocean Inside My Head to my website. I feel like I should spend my Sundays reading. That’s what I used to do when I was convicted of taking Sundays off and before my internet connection. To spend some time outside I went to the ponds to plant five pineapple tops that needed planting. I also did a few minutes of chopping.
Breadfruit from my Breadfruit tree
January 8
Life in the jungle: I started my morning in the coconut field and finished replacing old flagging stakes and flagging tape. The coconut field is officially completed for the moment. I then headed to the hardware store to cherry-pick lumber for a few new projects. After lunch, Andy and I troubleshooted some water pump issues. We solved a few of the issues. I then started rebuilding patio stone molds. I have over 300 new patio stones to make. Overall nice weather today.
I posted Perception Unveiled: Understanding ‘We Don’t See Things as They Are, We See Them as We Are’ to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
January 9
Life in the jungle: I spent the entire day adding trim to the (exterior of the) apartment door, corners, and edges and covering the apartment septic barrels with the lumber that was delivered yesterday. I’m 99% finished trimming the exterior of the apartment. Andy decided he wanted to chop the ginger crepe (plants) that were growing around the big Tubroos tree growing in the yard. He found a baby Fer de Lance while chopping. It was the first snake he caught here in Belize. It also means by the number of snakes caught around the house that the Fer de Lance snake – the most dangerous snake in North, Central, and South America is the most common snake found around the house right now. This evening, I also built a bookshelf to help store Andy’s growing collection of hot sauce supplies. My kitchen has never been so cluttered in my life and I don’t like clutter. Today was another nice day weather-wise.
Fer de Lance Snake – The most dangerous but also the most common snake around my house
January 10
Life in the jungle: I built and poured the footing for Andy’s dirt bike lean-to against the greenhouse. I mixed 1/2 bag of cement for the form and had enough cement leftover to make seven patio stones. I also made six new patio stone molds. A hot day today.
I posted my blog post – Embark on Timeless Living: Start Living Eternity Today to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
Andy’s new dirt bike lean-to
January 11
Life in the jungle: I started my morning at the ponds and completed all my required chopping (cleaning around my seedlings). For the most part, my farm chopping is under control at the moment. After breakfast, I worked on my computer. Most of my day was balancing the cheque book and getting my email inbox to zero. Starting tomorrow I will start my morning making patio stones (until I run out of stone mix) and the afternoons will be spent in front of my computer. I am almost out of the cement stone mix from last year’s dump truckload.
January 12
Life in the jungle: First thing, I made my dozen patio stones. After breakfast, I spent the better part of the day writing a blog post I plan to post regularly to expat Belize Facebook groups to attract website visitors and build my social media followers from those groups specifically. I posted Releasing Success: The Power of Unrelenting Enthusiasm Every Day to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. Today was a pretty warm day.
More patio stones
January 13
Life in the jungle: I made my dozen patio stones first thing. I attempted to get the weed-whacker started but it wouldn’t start. Andy discovered a plugged carbonator. Andy has pretty much taken over small engine repairs. I transitioned to sitting in front of my computer. The internet was slow. I edited photos and organized computer notes to be productive. After repairing the weed-whacker Andy weed-whacked the yard around the house. Sometimes it’s good to have a roommate.
January 14
Life in the jungle: I usually write blog posts on Sunday but I feel like creating content is not exactly a day off when I spend a lot of my week creating online content. So today I didn’t write any blog posts. Instead, this afternoon I built three orchid planters for some orchids that were discovered fallen from the Tubroos tree in the yard. The weather was perfect as usual.
Three orchid planters that I built
January 15
Life in the jungle: I started with patio stone making but had to head to the village early for groceries as today is a national holiday and the grocery store closes at lunch on holiday Mondays. I wanted to see if I could get some cement delivered today. No dice. After lunch, I finished making patio stones. I also finished placing my orchid planters and a few other outdoor jobs. Perfect weather as usual.
This evening, I worked on some blogs and posted Unraveling Shakespeare’s Timeless Wisdom: “Some Are Born Great, Some Achieve Greatness, and Some Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them”
January 16
Life in the jungle: Because I made yesterday’s batch of patio stones later in the day, I started my morning chopping the river lot. I try to give my patio stones 24 hours to properly harden. I also try to chop everything at the river lot at least once a year. I ended up coming extremely close to chopping into a wasp nest. After a late breakfast, there was a very heavy rain shower. Then I made my patio stones. Ten minutes after completing the patio stones my delivery for more cement arrived. And then there was another heavy but short rainfall. This afternoon and evening I worked on more blog posts.
January 17
Life in the jungle: I was the very first passenger on the bus this morning. That has never happened before. There are always 20-30 passengers on the bus before it gets to Scotland Halfmoon Village.
I was planning to hopefully purchase a fridge in the city but after yesterday’s rain, there is too much water/mud on my road. I was pretty tired returning from the city which is a pretty common result from being in the city. The one nice thing about having Andy around now is that I only seem to go to the city about twice a month versus once a week. There was a little rain this afternoon.
I posted my blog post Crafting Legends: Why If You’re Going to Have a Story, Have a Big Story to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. Right before bed, I received a message from a cyclist who was hoping to come through in a few days.
Belize Part 107 (Dec 30 to Jan 6)
Belize Part 106 (Dec 20 to 29)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 11 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.
