For over a week I have had a Staphylococcus infection (short-form staph infection) below my right elbow that has been getting worse. Also, since Tropical Storm Nadine – October 22 my yard, the road, and everywhere surrounding my house have been completely flooded with flood waters higher than I could imagine happening.
November 1
Life in the jungle: I woke up this morning with my arm not as sore as last night, but still sore. I did my best not to overuse it. The open sore is getting worse which is not really a surprise to me based on a similar experience I had to the back of my left knee in 1998. But I am wondering, and a bit worried about how long it will take for my arm to heal. It’s getting pretty bad.
I basically spent the day editing social media short reels, using my fingers on a phone screen is not exactly using my arm. I got 24 sort reels edited and ready to post. There were sporadic heavy rain showers throughout the day. The water level is the same if not even a bit higher if that’s even possible. I found an actual (dead) fish in my yard. Mostly I just do my best to put all the flooding out of my mind. I am concerned about erosion in the yard and lack of productivity, not that I can do any physical work anyway.
A dead fish found in my yard
November 2
Life in the jungle: Mostly an eventful day. Sunny, with no rain, and no change in the flood level. Two duck eggs went missing again. Now I am super mystified. (This became a new mystery last week.)
I finally started editing my bike ride book again. I finished 2,400 words before lunch
Jamie was over, I showed him my arm. No real noticeable change since yesterday, but definitely not getting any better. Jamie said the last time he had a really bad sore he used the same animal medicine that I used to treat Saucy when she had a bald spot she kept licking on her back end. So, Jamie squeezed all the puss out of my arm and sprayed this dark purple animal medicine on the sore. I am sure that squeezing the puss from my arm had the greatest effect, but my arm is feeling way better almost instantly. It’s still swollen but not nearly as sore. I think I just saved myself a visit to a medical clinic on Monday.
After lunch I took a bit of a nap, as the saying goes, sleep is good for healing. I did do some more book editing and got another 1,200 words edited.
Staphylococcus infection treated with pet medicine
November 3
Life in the jungle: Sunshine, no rain, no change in flood levels. Last night a chicken started making a racket at 2 AM. I was up, and outside at the coop in less than a minute. I found the opossum up the tree but no chicken. I couldn’t find the chicken but I think it’s alright. I had a hard time falling back asleep. My sinuses were stuffed up. My arm is on the mend. The wound looks gross but the swelling is down and no noticeable pain.
Today, was a slow start to the morning because of last night’s excitement, but before lunch, I finished proofreading and editing 750 words of my bike ride book. After lunch, I got through 3,000 words to finish my first proofread of Chapter 2. Chapter 2 is 18,000 words. I am using ChatGPT for my editing. I edit for grammar and clarity only.
I attempted to videotape the chicken coop today, but the GoPro battery died and the eggs went missing again.
November 4
Life in the jungle: Sunshine, no rain, and no change in flood levels. First thing I headed to the village for groceries. I stopped at the ponds on the way back to do a walk around, the papayas continue to look good. The road is covered by a crazy amount of water. I attempted to videotape the chicken coop, but go figure, nothing came for the eggs today. I do think a duck wants to sit on eggs and all I have is the two from today.
Today I edited the entire Chapter 3 of my bike ride book, though I believe at 3,900 words it is my shortest chapter. Chapter 3 is from Quebec to Ottawa to Kingston and being stuck for two months because of the first wave of Covid-19.
My arm continues to heal and I continue to spray it with animal medicine. My allergies continue to be bad. Thunder tonight.
Ducks jocking for nesting spots
November 5
Life in the jungle: Some rain last night, no rain today, and flooding levels have not changed. Most of my mornings are not too frustrating but this morning sure was. Unexpectedly, I was making arrangements for all my new cabana materials to be delivered by a tractor. My wheelbarrow had a flat tire and then I ripped the tube trying to repair it.
After lunch, I “think” I discovered that Pepper is the thief who is eating my duck eggs. This is not good.
In the afternoon my cabana materials came down the road. I worked well into the dark moving all the materials to the new cabana location. Which involved walking about 100 trips, about 200 ft each way, sloshing through about 3″ of flooding all the way. My arm continues to heal and was not affected from moving all the lumber.
A Red-border Stink bug
Belize Part 138 (Oct 26 to 31)
Belize Part 137 (Oct 20 to 25)
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.
