A motorcycle guest arrived just the other day. He plans to stay on the farm for a whole month while I prepare and leave for a trip to Mexico and Canada.
July 24
Life in the jungle: I am mostly taking on odd jobs until I head off to Mexico and Canada. First thing I washed and cleaned some house eavestroughs until breakfast. After breakfast, I did some more painting in the apartment. This is my main focus moving forward. Basically, no rain again today.
In the evening, I posted Belize Blog Part 98 and wrote Belize Blog Part 127.
Yesterday we visited my largest Truboos tree on the farm
July 25
Life in the jungle: I started my day by continuing to clean the house eavestroughs. After breakfast, I painted in Andy’s apartment. There was on-and-off rain much of the day. Therefore, there wasn’t too much I could do after that, so in the afternoon, I posted Belize blog posts # 99 and 100.
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July 26
Life in the jungle: I woke up to a message from some future guests from Europe who messaged me almost a week ago. They started their bike tour in Cancun. I could no longer offer them a private room, because of our latest guest, but they were welcome to use the living room. They accepted.
I headed to the village for groceries. After breakfast, I painted a second coat of paint in the apartment. I am basically finished with interior painting in the apartment. Andy can deal with the wall sections behind his bunk bed.
I was barely cleaned up, and my cycling guests arrived. The house is pretty full with the motorcyclist and two bike tourists. There were on-and-off sporadic rain showers today.
July 27
Life in the jungle: I mixed a half bag of cement this morning. I have a bag of cement that’s been sitting for a while, and I want it used up before I head to Canada. I then gave my cycle guests a tour of the farm. They decided to move on and head towards Guatemala. After breakfast, I worked on and finished framing the kitchenette for Andy’s apartment. There were only a few occasional short rain showers today.
Andy’s apartment kitchenette
July 28
Life in the jungle: Andy and his guest went to a wedding in the village yesterday and never came home (by plan). That meant I woke up to a farm void of people for the first time in a long time. I didn’t get out of bed until 8 AM. I took a quick run down the road aways. Yesterday, the hardware store dropped off a small load of blocks on a bad spot in the road. So, I smashed the blocks into smaller pieces with a sledgehammer. I also took a quick walk around the ponds to check on all the papaya plants I planted the other week. They are looking good and have already doubled in size.
I spent most of the rest of the day in my hammock. I really was not motivated to do anything today. Luckily today is my guilt-free day off and as tempting as it is to feel lazy about my day – guilt-free is guilt-free. Most of the day was on-and-off rain. This rainy season has been very active this year.
July 29
First thing I mixed the other half bag of that cement for another dozen patio stones. I mostly did some small cleanup jobs including a quick cleanup under the house. Later in the afternoon I went to the ponds to do some chopping and replaced two pomegranates and a custard apple seedling. No rain today.
A Garden Snake
July 30
Life in the jungle: I ended up running all over the city visiting six different stores looking for black 12×12 ceramic tiles. I couldn’t find any and settled on grey. I only got rained on my way home coming down my road. In the afternoon, I slaughtered two roosters and put in an Amazon order to be delivered to my parents for when I arrive in Canada. This evening five (of the nine) ducks slept on the pond. It rained heavily tonight
July 31
Life in the jungle: I started by continuing my sidewalk around the house with the patio stones I just finished making. After breakfast, I started getting ready for my upcoming trip. In the afternoon I slaughtered three more roosters.
Slowly I am putting a walkway around house to help elimate mud
August 1
Life in the jungle: Today was a long day. I started by cleaning the chicken coops out in preparation for my trip. After breakfast, I did my very first ceramic tile job except I ran out of adhesive (for the tile) before I could finish the job. I made Andy’s kitchen counter, but he will have to finish what tiles are left to adhere and grout it. Then I slaughtered two more roosters. That’s seven roosters in the last three days. At the end of the day, I did a quick tour of the ponds to check on the papayas. I replaced two of them. After supper, I packed and prepared for my trip. No rain today but it did rain a bit last night.
Two years ago on this day, I decided to work on my 2019-2021 bike ride book. I am embarrassed about how little I accomplished this past year though I have recently been working on it.
My first attempt at installing ceramic tile
Belize Part 128 (July 18 to 23)
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.
