October 5
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping in the coconut field. With the coconut field freshly bush-hogged giving a quick chop around seedlings and the fence lines is quick and easy. Also, in a few weeks, I plan to start fertilizing all the fruit trees and I want things to be clean so that job goes quickly.
After lunch, I was thinking I should give my kitchen a real super-duper cleaning – after I took a nap, except the nap went way longer than anticipated and when I did wake up, I woke up with an upset stomach. I was very frustrated with myself that my whole afternoon was wasted.
Not the greatest photos – It turns out it’s the cocoon left from a type of wasp that lays its eggs on a caterpillar. They feed on it until it dies and then drops out leaving that circular center where it was hosting.
October 6
Life in the jungle: Being my day off I slowly made my way through the house and gave it a pretty good cleaning, especially the kitchen. Late in the afternoon, Saul came by to discuss building a cabana (tiny house) behind my house. I have been waiting for him ever since getting back home from Canada in August. I am looking forward to getting this project started soon. [Four months later I am still waiting for four critical pieces of lumber.]
No rain today. Andy messaged that he was now planning to return from San Pedro on Tuesday. I was also expecting a lumber delivery late tonight that never came.
October 7
Life in the jungle: My lumber delivery woke me up at 5:45 AM. I spent the whole day working on three outstanding lumber projects. I put two shelves in my soldier fly larvae shed. I finally, finally finished the compost chicken coop. I ended up enclosing an area that was not part of the original plan. In the coming months, I am going to use this coop for layer chickens and feed them largely a grower mash. And I need to make sure the grower mash food can’t get wet from rain. I also finished my recently started second chicken feed bin.
New chicken feed box and new shelves in the outdoor shed
Compost chicken coop
October 8
Life in the jungle: The first thing I chopped in the coconut field. After I got back to the house my parents called to say that my aunt Henny decided today was the day to implement MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). The news of her death was not unexpected but the news about her using Maid was to me. I guess I misunderstood that this was her ultimate plan. Apparently, her initial plan was to implement Maid in the first week of November but this morning she woke up and decided why wait. I don’t support MAiD, but the possibility of living with chronic pain someday also scares the heck out of me.
After lunch, I cleaned up chicken coops and set up a broiler coop for more chicks and I set up a coop for layer chicks arriving. It takes 4-5 months to raise layer chicks. I plan to put them in the compost coop and raise them on layer mash and soldier fly larvae. I then headed to the village for groceries. Andy’s back from San Pedro.
October 9
Life in the jungle: Today I headed to the city for a 9 AM dental cleaning appointment. They made me wait almost half an hour. That’s when I learned that the doctor (dentist) does the cleaning, not dental hygienist. They don’t have dental hygienists in Belize. I have another appointment next Thursday for a crown replacement. The cleaning cost me $50 USD/ $70 CAN and the crown will cost me $250 USD/ $345 CAN versus $1000+ in Canada.
I then headed to the bike shop to pick up my bike except they said, come back at noon. That gave me just enough time to walk to the bank, get something to eat, walk back for my bike, and then catch the 12:30 bus. The way this bike shop works is I provide all the parts (ordered off Amazon and then shipped to Belize by a freight company) and he installs them. I had my front crank, brake pads, and bike derailleurs tuned up for $30 USD. Not a bad deal.
At the bus stop another bus ripped off the driver’s side mirror. After I got home a whole truckload of sheep manure showed up to fertilize my fruit trees and for Andy to make hot pepper planting soil. I hitched a ride back to the village with the driver to retrieve the bike I biked out with this morning.
Lots of birds this afternoon on my Merlin app
October 10
Life in the jungle: I ended up spending the entire day working at the ponds. I was able to chop around all the papayas and seedlings on Mound 2, and probably over 1/3 of the papayas and seedlings on Mound 3. I also fertilized the papayas on mounds 1 and 2 with the manure acquired yesterday.
I also discovered that one (of two) of the mahogany trees at the front farm gate has produced quite a few seed pods. Over the last two years, I have noticed an occasional seed pod way up in the tree canopy. But the seed pods are way up in the tree and a single pod here or there is difficult to spot. I think the tree is finally big enough to start producing lots of seed pods. For me, this is exciting. The mother mahogany on the farm mostly stopped producing seed pods many years ago after sustaining heavy damage from a hurricane. Which really makes no sense that this many years later it still not producing lots of seed pods as technically the tree is not that old and recovered nicely.
Mahogany seed pod
I have at least a dozen mahoganies growing around the farm, all offspring of our original mahogany, but this mahogany tree would be the first “baby” tree that is now mature enough to produce lots of seeds. Growing and raising mahogany seedlings by the millions was always my dream in Belize when I arrived here by bike in 2021 before I became so disillusioned with the country. But who knows with a new tree finally about to start producing seeds I may have to revisit my old dream.
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October 11
Life in the jungle: First thing I went to the ponds and finished chopping around the papayas and seedlings on Mound 3. After lunch, I spread eight rice sacks of sheep manure around seedlings in the coconut field and even got a bit of chopping done. Things are quite dry for this time of the year. In one sense it’s nice but this year’s dry season (back in January to June) was brutal on my seedlings. We need rain badly. [Little did I know too much rain was on its way.]
A species of owl moth
Belize Part 134 (Sept 29 to Oct 5)
Belize Part 133 (Sept 20 to 28)
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.
