July 10
Life in the jungle: I headed to the village first thing to get a section of PVC pipe for the new cabana septic system. I need to get the pipe section that goes under the cabana in place before building the cabana floor is built (whenever that is).
I spent the whole rest of the day cutting grass at the ponds. The grass was almost two feet tall. It was exhausting. I got the front, first, and third mound cut. I got stung about a dozen times on the face and neck by a small wasp species that had a good-sized nest under a plantain leaf. I also found a gorgeous Central American Wood Turtle.
On this day three years ago I was at Copper Canyon, Mexico as part of my 26,000 km bike ride. Probably the most beautiful part of Mexico that I would visit.
Central American Wood Turtle
I got stung a whole bunch of times by these guys
July 11
Life in the jungle: I had plans for the morning but the rain had other plans for me. I decided to dig out the floor of my outdoor kitchen. I built an outdoor kitchen well over a year ago and it barely ever is used. I had originally built it to make coconut oil. That was until I discovered coconut oil was not worth the amount of work required. Today I was able to complete most of a cement block floor. I only have a few more blocks to lay tomorrow. I am planning to enclose the kitchen and turn it into an outdoor shed.
The initial motivation is my soldier fly bins I started a few weeks ago are getting too much moisture in them from rain. While I continue to experiment with raising soldier fly larvae the roof of this new shed will help to keep things dry. I am looking to raise soldier fly larvae for chicken feed.
A soldier fly larvae harvest
Today I realized that my ducks are catching and eating baby (hatchling) turtles left, right, and center. I had no idea that I had so many baby turtles in my yard and that ducks eat turtles. I am kind of sick to my stomach about this.
July 12
Life in the jungle: Andy left this morning for San Pedro for the weekend. First thing I finished the floor of the outdoor kitchen. After breakfast, I headed to the ponds to finish cutting the grass except before I finished my lawnmower broke. The steel handle busted. I made a few attempts to temporarily fix the handle with duct tape and then with wire. It worked for a bit but I couldn’t complete the grass cutting job. No rain today. For some reason, I am totally exhausted.
July 13
Life in the jungle: First thing I headed to the village to have Saul weld my lawnmower handle back together. On my way home I caught a baby Variable Coral snake (Micrurus diastema). Coral snakes are highly venomous but are actually quite docile. This is only the third coral snake I have found in Belize. I found my first one in 2003 and my second one in 2010. I have been looking forward to finding one of these guys since arriving here in 2021.
Variable Coral Snake
Arriving home, complete exhaustion overtook me. I had no choice but to get into my hammock. Almost as quickly, very overcast skies rolled in, and the day would become on-and-off rain showers all day. I napped for at least three hours and it took a bit to get motivated. I was exhausted but equally ashamed of being too tired to do anything. I eventually got down to writing blog posts. I wrote Belize blog Parts 125 and 126. And I posted Collared Aracari, and Red-cheeked mud turtles to my Flora & Fauna website page.
Four years ago on this day, I was in Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Manitoba as part of my biking across Canada route.
July 14
Life in the jungle: I mixed half a bag of cement this morning. It’s been a while since I mixed cement. There were some spots on the floor I recently made out of a cement block floor I made for my new shed that I need to fill with cement. There was enough cement left over to make nine patio stones. It’s Sunday, so I took a nap even though I also napped yesterday. The rest of the day was some laundry and house cleaning.
It’s so nice having the farm to myself. I made a mistake in life. I should have chosen to be independently wealthy so I could afford to live alone. Overall, the weather was really nice.
July 15
Life in the jungle: I mixed the last half bag of that cement. I had two spots on the outdoor shed floor to fill and still had enough cement to make 11 patio stones. Shortly after, as I was making breakfast, we had a few heavy downpours. I had working plans for after breakfast, but the sky just didn’t look good. So, instead, I posted Belize blog posts Part 90, 91, 92, and 93. I also posted a few Flora & Fauna posts such as Black-tail Cribo snakes.
This morning I discovered a boa in a chicken coop right after it had eaten a young chicken. I put the boa in an empty hen house to give it a safe place to digest the chicken. The chicken can’t be saved anymore (obviously) and now the snake just needs a safe place to digest for a few days.
July 16
Life in the jungle: I started my morning at the ponds. I want to cut down a bunch of my mature coconut trees. A bunch of the coconut trees at the ponds don’t produce very many coconuts or they are producing small coconuts. With so many fruit trees now growing at the ponds, it seems like a good idea to cut some of these coconut trees down
I got one, and almost a second tree was cut down before my chainsaw just went dead. I then transitioned to cutting the very small section of grass that never got cut when I broke my lawnmower last week.
After lunch, I cut the rest of my yard. In the last part of my day, I spaced out and staked 40 planting spots for papayas.
On this day four years ago, I entered Saskatchewan as part of my two year bike ride.
July 17
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day at the ponds planting papaya seedlings. I got 59 papayas planted. There was no rain today. This is my fourth attempt at planting and growing papayas. If this time doesn’t work, I doubt I will ever get it right.
Three years ago today: I decided to learn the basics of jewelry making while visiting Creel, Mexico on my bike ride.
Baby papaya plants
Belize Part 125 (June 24 to July 3)
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.
