September 13
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping in the coconut field. The heat and humidity made work difficult. It didn’t take long before I was forced to cool myself in the shower. After a break, I headed back to the coconut field until I needed to cool off in the shower again. After another break, I headed to the ponds to cut grass except I couldn’t get the lawnmower going. So, I chopped around my seedlings and papaya plants. I was exhausted by the end of the day.
September 14
Life in the jungle: I did some chopping in the coconut field this morning but due to the heat and humidity I switched jobs and turned my utility water vat into a second drinking water vat. Historically I have two sources of water – drinking water that is rainwater off my roof that is stored in a 750 litre vat. And utility water that is pumped from the river to a second 750 litre vat. Booth sources of water are then pumped via a smaller pump when their respective taps are opened. Many months ago, Andy installed a pressure pump at the river connected directly to all my faucets to run the pump whenever a tap is opened, making the utility water vat obsolete. So, I washed out, made a few pipe modifications, and connected both vats together to double my drinking water supply. Last year we ran out of drinking water a few times when we had pumping problems and had to depend on drinking water to clean dishes. Water and pumping water from the river has been my most consistent problem since arriving in Belize in 2021.
The later part of the afternoon was spent chopping at the ponds. I was expecting a lumber delivery today, which I assumed wasn’t coming anymore but then they arrived in the dark with a pick-up truckload of it.
My two water vats – now both drinking water
September 15
Life in the jungle: First thing, I moved and stacked last night’s lumber delivery. I then headed to the ponds with a bucket of homemade liquid fertilizer and watered close to half of all the papayas. After breakfast, I found it impossible to leave my hammock for the rest of the day. Thank goodness it’s my day off. At the end of the day, I headed back to the ponds with a sprayer and sprayed some kind of leaf fertilizer on the papayas that Andy uses on his hot pepper plants.
September 16
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day working on converting my outdoor kitchen into a fully enclosed shed with the lumber delivered Saturday night. During lunch, there were some on-and-off heavy rain showers. I pretty much completed the shed except for the door.
My outdoor kitchen – before
Afterward – a new shed
September 17
Life in the jungle: This morning I found one of my ducks at least 30 ft up in my large Tubroos tree. I didn’t see that happening. It’s time to clip their wings.
I spent the first part of the day building my new shed door. I’m about 95% done the shed. I spent the remainder of the day building a second feed box for holding chicken food until I ran out of lumber that had been delivered. I had just enough scrap zinc for the lid (roof) of the feeder box. There was some sporadic rain today. Andy worked on my lawnmower because it had been giving me some difficulties the other day. He reported that the motor was seized due to a bent piston. Just great. [Five months later I am still waiting for parts.]
There was a Howler monkey in the yard and it was driving Saucy (one of my dogs) crazy and somehow, she escaped the yard. She didn’t return until 8 PM (way after dark). By then I had assumed she was 90% chance killed by a mountain lion. Pepper (my other dog) will listen when called when she escapes because she knows if she doesn’t listen, she goes on the chain. Saucy doesn’t care if she goes on a chain so there are no consequences for her not to listen when called.
September 18
Life in the jungle: I went up to the village for groceries and a few supplies. Returning, I made some final touches on the shed. Mainly feeding the electrical wire into the shed and mounting electrical boxes (electrical socket, light switch, and light socket) for Andy to wire everything up.
Saucy escaped three times because of the monkey’s but I was able to catch her all three times. So, I also did some fence reinforcement to prevent further escapes. This afternoon I slaughtered my first duck. Slaughtering a duck is not as easy as a chicken. The skin doesn’t peel nearly as easily or smoothly as they do on a chicken.
September 19
Life in the jungle: I cleaned the main chicken coop this morning. I should be chopping in the coconut field but for weeks the humidity has been unbearable to the point that I can’t bring myself to chop. So instead, I busied myself around the house to avoid the coconut field. After a late breakfast, I was even hesitant to go outside. I forced myself to organize my seedling greenhouse as it is long overdue. I have been recently successful in germinating some seeds in recent weeks and months.
My Provision tree seedlings have continued to grow well since my canoe trip in May. I collected a large seed pod on the trip. I have also germinated some Rain Tree, Golden Shower trees, and most recently some Moringa tree seeds. I also wanted to stay near the house as Andy was in the city and the monkeys continue to hang near the house and drive the dogs nuts. Eventually, I just chained up Saucy and upon Andy’s return, I told him to just chain her up tomorrow after breakfast as tomorrow I have to go to Belmopan for my passport stamp.
Rain Tree, Jackfruit, and Moringa seedlings
Golden Shower seedlings
I also slaughtered a hen this afternoon. I am determined not to buy any chicken meat at the grocery store anymore. I will keep slaughtering my chickens until my overpopulation becomes more manageable. At the same time transition to raising broiler (meat) chickens on a schedule for meat; even though I don’t think broilers are healthy to eat. But after all, I am not trying to live forever. In the latter part of the afternoon, I finally got the courage to chop in the coconut field until almost dark.
Too many chickens
Belize Part 131 (Sept 4 to 12)
Belize Part 130 (Aug 24 to Sept 3)
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.
