December 10
Life in the jungle: Yesterday I met a Swedish cyclist biking around the world. I convinced him to stay the night. The day before I had decided to start going to bed earlier and set my alarm for 5 AM to be more productive. With having a guest, I didn’t set my alarm for 5 AM this morning. Axal left this morning after breakfast for Panama.
I expected a delivery of some materials from the lumber store to be delivered yesterday. The order was finally delivered late this morning. Part of the order was a few sacks of sand.
After lunch, I went back to the greenhouse floor expansion I started the other month before Tropical Storm Nadine and then Tropical Storm Sara hit. That job was halted because of the flooding. The main greenhouse floor is made of patio stones that I made myself. This expansion wing floor is made of 4” cement blocks laid on their sides. I use a cement mix (gravel/sand mix) as the floor base.
Most of the afternoon was spent repairing two large sections of flooring that prematurely sank less than 1/4″ as a result of the flooding. I used the sand that was delivered this morning to help level the two areas. The areas that sunk didn’t sink enough to use cement mix to fix, hence the reason I used (a thin layer) of sand. Now that the base has had time to settle, I don’t anticipate any more problems when the next flood arrives. Before dark, I still managed to lay about 30 new blocks to build on the expansion.
The farm, first thing in the morning
December 11
Life in the jungle: I am back to my new routine of setting my alarm for 5 AM. There was heavy rain last night, with more rain forecasted today. While the rain was not welcome it was hard enough to wash a lot of the mud away that had been recently tracked on walkways and floors from the very muddy conditions. With everything wet and rain forecasted all day I have abandoned the idea of continuing my work on the greenhouse floor. Building floors on wet ground never goes well.
I wrote Belize blog Parts 142, 143, and 144. I published Belize blog Parts 121, 122, 123, and 124.
Lots of rain on and off all day with some thunder and cool temperatures.
December 12
Life in the jungle: There was rain all night and rain and cold all day today. I spent the day editing the California portion of Chapter 8, The Pacific Coast of the USA portion of my bike ride book (5,000 words). I have California split into two parts – Chapter 8 – The Pacific Coast, and the second part is in Chapter 9 – The American Southwest. Chapter 8 – The Pacific Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California) is now complete.
Andy left for Canada over the Christmas holidays. I have the farm to myself for about two weeks.
A few interesting birds calling this morning on my Merlin app.
I had never even heard of the Slanty-tailed Trogen before.
December 13
Life in the jungle: Today was passport stamp day. It also turned out to be my quickest stamp ever. I was in and out in about five minutes. Last year on December 13th I submitted my Residency application, and apparently, it’s STILL under review. At immigration, I overheard the people next to me telling the officer that they had now been waiting 18 months! I’m not hopeful at all for my situation.
Everything this morning went so quickly and smoothly I could have been on the 12:30 PM bus home, but I needed some groceries and supplies. It might have been a big mistake to take the 3:30 PM bus home versus coming back to the city on Monday. But we are getting closer to Christmas, and I was already in the city.
The 3:30 bus was jam-packed full. I finally realized how to properly describe the 3:30 or later buses leaving the city to someone who has never taken a bus in Belize before. Imagine how uncomfortable flying is. Now imagine flying while sitting on old-school bus seats, at the same time the aisle of the plane is jam-packed with people and at the same time crappy loud music is blasting over the intercom. Oh yeah, and all your carry-on bags have to go on your lap. That is the 3:30 bus for over an hour and a half until I reach my village.
I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 7 PM with no supper.
I didn’t get rained on at all and the cool temperatures were much more bearable in the city than usual. There was a tree that had fallen across my road. Fortunately, I was still able to get around it this morning to head to the city.
Trees falling on my road happens on occasion
December 14
Life in the jungle: It rained all night. Today was a mix of everything – from a few sporadic showers to sunshine, with great temperatures. I wasn’t in the mood for more book editing today. Most of my day was spent watching YouTube videos about self-publishing and when that got boring, I sporadically went to researching blogging.
December 15
Life in the jungle: There was more rain all last night and this morning. When there was a break in the weather, I fed the chickens and slaughtered a rooster and broiler (meat) chicken.
Things continue to be too wet and muddy to be working outside. I spent most of the day organizing and deleting old files off my computer. Anything messy messes with my ability to be productive, including a messy computer. By the time I was done organizing everything, I had my next main Belize blog figured out. I am going to write in depth about three years of living in Belize as just last month, I crossed over into my third year. I completed the first 1,600 words.
The weather improved in the afternoon but everything is still drenched. Temperatures continue to remain cool.
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December 16
Life in the jungle: No rain last night or today. Pepper woke me up at 3 AM. I heard a dog barking in the morning. I assumed it was Saucy. I finally got up only to discover that Pepper had escaped the yard but was barking because she couldn’t get back in.
The other day I purchased a dog collar and modified it by bolting (with tiny bolts) three hooks on the collar meant to catch on the fencing wire as she poked her head through the fencing. But somehow, she still escaped (???). I’m not even sure why she escaped at 3 AM in the morning. [The anxiety of her not getting back through the fence has seemed to cure her of any desire to escape over the last two months.]
This morning, I continued working on yesterday’s post. In the afternoon, I headed to the village because it was probably a good idea to get outside. I saw a bantam chicken in the village and that made me realize I haven’t seen my bantam hen in a day or two. This evening at feeding time, my fears were confirmed. She had been eaten by something.
I received the Bantam Hen as a gift over a year ago. They are a small species of chicken and I never expected her to live long in the jungle. She surprised me by probably living the longest. She also laid eggs when all the other hens stopped. Because of her small size, I never hatched any of her eggs, but now I think that may have been a mistake. I don’t much care for chickens but I kind of liked her feisty attitude.
I finished writing my three years in Belize blog post, writing another 2,600 words. It’s called Three Years in the Jungle: My Life in Belize, A Life I Never Expected.
Our resident Great Egret
Dec 11 link
Belize Part 143 (Nov 26 to Dec 1)
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 assorted 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, and orange), all raised from seed since my arrival in Belize in 2021.
The river lot – my house sits on a 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.
