May 18
Life in the jungle: Today I turned 51. I guess that’s proof there is no going back from old age. Truthfully, I have nothing else to add about turning 51. Today was killer hot out. I continued to work on framing the new compost (making) chicken coop. I also built a second workbench for the front entrance of the greenhouse.
Andy asked me what was my favorite meal and he would make it for me for dinner. I joked “fish and chips” not thinking that you could make fish and chips at home as I have never had fish and chips anywhere but at a restaurant. Well apparently, you can make fish and chips at home and I had the best meal of the year tonight. For the record fish and chips is my favorite meal. I was so exhausted by the heat and work for the day that I was in bed by 9 PM.
51
May 19
Life in the jungle: This morning I built three (of four) doors for the new chicken coop hen house. I didn’t go in for breakfast until 1 PM but then did some house cleaning and never actually had breakfast until 4 PM. So much for my day off.
The newest chicken coop is almost completed
May 20
Life in the jungle: Yesterday I was told that an excavator was doing a job on the other side of the river. I have been desperate for an excavator to dig out my (front yard) ponds deeper and to have the dirt spread over my river lot. I have one pond I would like dug deeper and I have one pond that I would like dug deeper and made larger. I chopped the area of the river lot that I would like the one pond enlarged to, so an excavator operator could get a better visual of the area.
I have been pretty tired these last few weeks from pushing hard with work. I am determined to try to be somewhat rested before my upcoming canoe trip. So, I worked on posting blog posts for the rest of the day. I posted Belize blog posts Parts 82, 83, 84, and 85.
A boa constrictor we caught the other week
May 21
Life in the jungle: I caught the bus to Belmopan. Today was passport stamp day. I only got two months instead of the usual three month stamp because of how close I am to getting my residency. I did find out that my police interview investigation (for my residency) is not complete yet. There was some wait time at immigration so I was unable to grab the next bus back to Belize City. That meant I was stuck on an extremely full and very loud 3:30 PM bus back to the village.
Today was a bank card headache. My VISA card wouldn’t work at immigration or the bank near immigration. In Belize City, it worked, but the machine ran out of money and gave me no money but debited my account. I tried using the next machine, and it worked. VISA told me that the reason my chip didn’t work was because they were restricted transactions. How is a debit machine at Belize immigration and a bank ATM that I have used many times before a restricted transaction?
May 22
Life in the jungle: First thing this morning I watered my seedlings at the ponds. Then I went to the village for groceries. I am officially done with work until my canoe trip is completed. I wrote Belize blog Parts 119 (which I ended up losing and 120.
The excavator operator who is working in Isabella Bank came over today. I was really hopeful that I could have my front yard ponds dug larger and deeper. I have been waiting over two and half years for an excavator to do some work. Anyways, the operator’s decision is they can’t and won’t bring the excavator down my road because of my road. Earlier today I attempted to reach out to the government about the road but it was not an optimistic response. I have been trying on almost a weekly basis since March to get the government down our road to do upgrades with no success.
I spent the evening packing for tomorrow’s canoe trip.
My road is looking nice and dry
May 23 to 29
Life in the jungle: From May 23 to 29 I embarked on a 300 km canoe trip with Jamie Madrill from the village. We started on the Macal River in San Ignacio and paddled the whole of the Belize River and down Haulover Creek into downtown Belize City finishing our trip at the Swing Bridge. The adventure was amazing. We saw six Baird’s Tapirs, lots of Morelets crocodiles, my first river otter, my first barn owl, and had a manatee explode through the water right beside the canoe in Haulover Creek.
The adventure was documented over three blog posts. Follow the links to read about the trip.
Belize River Canoe Adventure – Post #1 – May 23 to 24
Belize River Canoe Adventure – Post #2 – May 25 to 27
Belize River Canoe Adventure – Post #3 – May 28 to 29
Provision tree seed pod found on my canoe trip
May 30
Life in the jungle: First thing this morning I attempted to water my seedlings at ponds. Just as I was about to start watering, both Pepper and Saucy showed up. Pepper is at high risk of escaping the yard, but Saucy barely ever does. The problem was that both of them had escaped and I needed to get them back to the house quickly as they were at a very high risk of being killed by a jaguar or mountain lion. On the way back to the house, they both took off into the jungle and disappeared into the jungle for over an hour. They successfully screwed up my morning. They finally came home, and I was able to water my seedlings at the ponds.
While at the house, I got a very interesting phone call from the excavator operator who showed up last week and concluded that they couldn’t help me. Anyways, he called to give me the contact info of another excavator operator. This new operator was familiar with the farm and hoped to come tomorrow to discuss the job. [Ultimately this excavator operator wouldn’t help me either.]
I spent the rest of the day working on my canoe trip blogs. I noticed this morning my ducks are growing very quickly.
Groove-billed Ani – probably the most common bird on the farm
Belize Part 119 (April 27 to May 7) – LOST
Belize Part 118 (April 19 to 26)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 8 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.
