July 18
Life in the jungle: Today was a trip to Belmopan for my passport stamp. Except technically, I was not planning to get my next stamp in Belmopan. I had planned to take a trip to Monterrey Mexico, and then fly to Canada for a few weeks. The plan was that someone from Canada was coming down to hang at the farm with Andy. Except that person strung us along for a whole month until it was too late. And I had to cancel my trip last minute. It’s very frustrating.
There is no progress on my residency application, and I was forced to take the 3:30 PM bus home. There is no rain today. It was a long day.
It’s been almost four years since I have been to Canada and closer to five years since I have been home. I have been feeling that I am due for a trip and a break from the jungle. For security reasons and for the dogs someone has to be at the farm at all times. With two people on the farm that allows for one person to leave for groceries or errands.
Blooms of a Catasetum integerrimum orchid
July 19
Life in the jungle: First thing headed to the village for groceries and supplies. Andy was headed to the city for the whole day. So, I planned to stick around the house for the dogs. Before breakfast, I also spent some time cleaning in and around the chicken coops. Sometime today, I was expecting some broiler chicks (meat chickens). We are going to start raising them again. After breakfast, the weather changed, and we had on-and-off rain showers for a couple of hours. After the last rain shower, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on planting seeds and organizing and cleaning up some of my plants. I planted some golden shower tree seeds and some mango seeds that have started to germinate. It looks like my very first ziricote seeds are starting to germinate.
July 20
Life in the jungle: First thing I headed to the ponds. I needed to get my last row of papaya seedlings planted. On the 17th, I planted four rows of papayas. This morning, I planted 23 more plants in the fifth row – 82 plants in total. I came across some mountain lion scat and a claw raking (scratching) at the ponds.
Baby papaya plants
After breakfast, it started raining, and it rained heavily on and off all afternoon. I spent the afternoon posting Belize blog posts # 94, 95, 96, and 97. I am now only nine months behind on my blog posts. I posted a Fer de Lance page to my Belize Flora & Fauna website page. I also did some proofreading and editing of my bike ride book.
Mountain lion or Jaguar scat
July 21
Life in the jungle: It poured rain last night and was still raining at 6 AM when I shut my alarm off and went back to sleep. When the rain stopped, I biked down the road with my sledgehammer and machete. The hardware store had dropped a small load of broken cement blocks at a bad spot in the road. I needed to break up the blocks into small pieces and chop away a tree that was now leaning into the road.
The rest of the day was overcast skies with isolated showers. I spent most of the rest of the day proofreading my 2019-21 bike ride book. I can’t even remember the last time I dedicated most of my day to my book.
Andy got a message later in the afternoon about an American motorcyclist arriving here tomorrow from Mexico. My canceled plans for a trip to Monterrey Mexico and Canada might just happen after all.
July 22
Life in the jungle: I started my morning planting about a dozen seedlings in the coconut field that I didn’t get around to last month. After breakfast, I prepared the bedroom (moved my stuff to the loft) for today’s guest.
I then built a third soldier fly larvae bin. And after that, I got a few of the patio stones I made last week laid. I am adding to the walkway going around the house. And just before dark our guest arrived. It sounds like my trip to Monterrey Mexico and then fly to Canada is going to happen after all.
Proto-type soldier fly larvae bins
July 23
Life in the jungle: I just did some odd jobs this morning. I brought our guest to my biggest Tubroos tree in the jungle and at the same time released the boa that ate my chicken last week. I did take a short nap in the hammock while Andy took his guest up to his village for groceries. My peace and quiet are going to be in short supply until I leave. I need to take advantage of those moments. I spent the remainder of the afternoon painting the apartment specifically in the place of the kitchenette that I need to build as soon as possible. Basically, no rain today.
Today I released a boa that ate one of my chickens last week
Belize Part 127 (July 10 to 17)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 6 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.
