June 24
Life in the jungle: It rained virtually the entire night. First thing I bagged 23 seeds from my Provision tree seed pod that I collected during my canoe trip back in May. I learned that the Provision tree is the same as the Money Tree, which is sold as a tropical plant back in Canada. I spent the better part of the day bagging another 140 seed bags for jackfruit, sapodilla, and custard apple seeds that I started soaking to facilitate germination yesterday. There were a few sporadic rain showers after lunch.
Provision seeds from the Provision tree seed pod I found on my canoe trip
Wayne came home over the weekend and mentioned that our road was good. But after last night’s and this afternoon’s rain, I discovered on my way to the village that the road was completely flooded. This has me pretty screwed for getting a load of construction materials and that IBC tote that I desperately needed the other week to the farm. I had a few small but extremely critical things to accomplish the other week before the rains came and nothing came together and now it’s a huge mess.
My Merlin app this morning
June 25
Life in the jungle: I dragged this morning and to lunch. I think I am going to try to be in bed by 9:30 PM instead of 10 PM. First thing and the whole afternoon, I worked at the ponds and fertilized about 85% of all my seedlings there. I am putting manure that we now purchase from Joseph across the river around all my seedlings. The mosquitos are definitely back.
A few new chicks and happy ducks
June 26
Life in the jungle: I headed to the ponds and finished off fertilizing the seedlings I started yesterday. I got soaked in a rain shower. I also planted some more jackfruit seeds in the seed bags that I filled the other day. In the afternoon I spent some time organizing my computer. In the last part of my day, I raked a crap load of leaves into the new compost chicken coop. I started building this new compost coop months ago and I need to get set up and running.
June 27
Life in the jungle: I spent a good part of the day working on the chicken coops. I added a lot more leaves to the compost chicken coop and I cleaned the main coop. I also finished up the compost coop enough to set up for housing hens. I also bagged up another 50 seedling bags with dirt for Hibiscus cuttings I plan to start in a few days.
Adding compost materials to the compost chicken coop
June 28
Life in the jungle: It rained a good part of last night and that sort of messed with my morning plans. I need to remove two large coconut trees near the house. One is at risk of falling on my greenhouse. And one is right beside my new house’s septic leech pipe. I used my tallest ladder and chopped as many of the top fronds as I could reach. I am pretty brave about most things but being on top of a tall ladder is not my thing. I am going to need help chopping the very top fronds and cutting these trees down safely without damaging anything.
I then headed to the village to make arrangements to have my IBC tote delivered. (The tote was purchased the other week for my new cabana septic system.) I also made arrangements to purchase all the broken cement blocks from the hardware store to be dumped in the bad spot on my road. There was on-and-off rain all day. In the evening, I posted Belize blog Part 86.
Part of the river bank gave way today
June 29
Life in the jungle: It rained much of last night. I woke up this morning unable to brush my teeth because no water came out of the tap. I took a walk to the river and discovered that the river bank had collapsed to the pump stand. A week ago, a small section of the river bank was starting to collapse. I didn’t expect this much of the bank would collapse. So, Andy and I spent the morning moving the pump up to the top of the river bank which was the original place for the pump. We got the pump working pretty quickly. We were concerned that the pump might have trouble pulling water 80ft long and 20ft up the river bank. The plan was to always bring the pump to the top of the bank as the river started to rise. After getting the water running, I proceeded to fasten scrap zinc sheets over the wooden frame (house) I had built to surround the pump a few months ago.
After lunch, it started raining and rained on and off for a few hours so I spent the afternoon posting Belize blog Parts 87, 88, 89.
This morning the river bank has further collapsed
The new home for the pump plus rain protection
June 30
Life in the jungle: It was the nicest day this week. I spent the day doing house cleaning and laundry. The biggest concern coming down the pipe is Hurricane Beryl due to land on July 4th.
July 1
Life in the jungle: First thing I headed to the village. I caught a glimpse of a mountain lion! I believe that this is my fourth lifetime sighting of a mountain lion. How great is it to live somewhere where you have to really think about how often you have seen a mountain lion? I also saw a large Black-tail Cribo snake on the road.
In the afternoon I fixed a house door which took some time as I needed to remove the door from its frame. I also started prepping the area in Andy’s apartment for a kitchenette. Andy still needs to use my kitchen, as his apartment is still without one. There was basically no rain today. Beryl is currently a Category 5 Hurricane with 165 mph winds in the Caribbean.
Mexican Burrowing Toads
Right photo: a pair in amplexus (mating)
July 2
Life in the jungle: Today I went to the city. It wasn’t hectic, and fortunately, it didn’t rain at all. Beryl has been downgraded to a Tropical storm from a Category 1 Hurricane when it reaches Belize. Though it has been destroying Caribbean islands in its path.
I did a little chopping in the coconut field at the end of the day. The mosquitos are horrendous. This evening the ducks decided on their own for the first time to sleep in their duck house I built weeks ago. Since I first released them to run free, they have not stepped a single step in that house until tonight. [Unfortunately, this new situation would not continue. They sleep and wander wherever they choose at night.]
July 3
Life in the jungle: I chopped in the coconut field first thing and then did some more prep work in Andy’s apartment to build a kitchenette. No rain today and continue to wait for Tropical storm Beryl to arrive.
Cockspur tree flowers
Belize Part 124 (June 16 to 23)
Belize Part 123 (June 8 to 15)
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.
