Photos of the Morelet’s Crocodile Andy took last week on the opposite side of our river bank
January 21
Life in the jungle: I couldn’t believe I woke up to light rain, and the forecast was calling for rain for much of this week. How can this be? Where is the dry season? I wrote Belize blog Parts 149 and 150.
After feeding the chickens, it started to rain, and that threw my day into wack. I did a little work on blogging, but mostly accomplished nothing today.
A mural in Belize City
January 22
Life in the jungle: A cool and overcast day. Absolutely perfect weather for the city. I did a heck of a lot of walking today.
Returning home, I got straight to work to help make up for yesterday’s lack of productivity. I planted everything I got from San Ignacio and re-potted 36 sugar apple seedlings (that I had started in tiny cups) into seed bags. While in San Ignacio, I collected some Selenicereus testudo (Cactaceae), possibly known as Night-blooming cactus, Snake cactus, or Climbing cactus. From an expat, I received cuttings of Chaya, Cuban Oregano, Angel Trumpet, and Blue Butterfly Pea seeds. All the cuttings are potted, but I still have to plant some of the Blue Butterfly Peas.
Belize City
January 23
Life in the jungle: First thing I finished was the re-potting job from yesterday, some chicken coop cleaning, and some laundry. After breakfast, I finally finished the greenhouse floor expansion, for the moment. I started this job many, many months ago, but was continuously stopped due to rain, flooding, and excessively wet conditions. In total, I expanded the greenhouse floor by 550 square feet and used up the rest of my gravel mix as the base floor.
There is still lots of work to do for the greenhouse expansion.
This is approximately 550 square feet of new flooring.
The plan will be to add 1,000 square feet and likely enclose the whole area
I will have to wait at least another month before the road is dry enough for a truck to bring more materials. I plan to add another 500 square feet more.
Today was overcast with no rain, but rain tonight.
Night-blooming cactus, Snake cactus, or Climbing cactus cuttings
Angel Trumpet cuttings. This photo was taken almost 3 weeks after I put the cuttings in the pots.
The cuttings were just bare sticks.
January 24
Life in the jungle: Rain continued through the night and all day today. The temperatures were quite coolish. I can’t believe how wet and cold the temperatures have been since November.
I basically spent the day working on my Snakes of Belize blog post. I started the post a few weeks ago, and most of the post is now written.
January 25
Life in the jungle: I worked a little on my snake blog. After the chickens got fed, I chopped in the coconut field. I also posted my Three Years in Belize blog post to 17 Facebook groups
After lunch, I headed to the village. I also went to Bermudian Landing to stop by the museum to find out about planting bags for raising mahogany seedlings. I had stopped by the other month when I decided to reconsider my plans for starting a tree farm.
In the last part of the afternoon, I chopped in the coconut field. Today was overcast, cool, and only a very short sprinkle of rain.
A (new) shade cloth greenhouse at the Community Baboon Museum in Bermudian Landing
This is similar to how we will build the greenhouse expansion, and when we expand the greenhouse in the coconut field
January 26
Life in the jungle: First thing, I chopped in the coconut field until lunch. After lunch, I took my Sunday afternoon nap. And there is not much more to add for the day, after all, it is my guilt-free day off. Today was one of the nicer, sunnier days in a while.
It’s mandatory that I take a Sunday nap
January 27
Life in the jungle: I was shocked to hear rain in the night, and it was still raining at 5 AM. I truly wonder if this rain will ever stop.
I was thinking last night that this year, planting vegetables needs to be a main priority. I built a watermelon greenhouse almost three years ago, and it has never produced a single watermelon. Soon (once I start building this next cabana), I will start re-advertising for like-minded people to come live on the farm. Just as I used the greenhouse to attract Andy, “we” need to use growing lots of vegetables to attract the next people. Because what we need is people who want to grow stuff, living here.
So, first thing, I weeded the watermelon greenhouse and I weeded a bunch of pots that Andy had initially set up for vegetables. There was some scattered rain this morning, which didn’t help.
Because of the weather, after lunch, I did some yard work and pruned way back some large hibiscus. I also did some work on my passion fruit trellis, I am building. The other week, I built footings. I also dug holes for two pots – Dutchman pipe vines and Blue Butterfly peas.
January 28
Life in the jungle: There were more sporadic rain showers last night and very first thing this morning. Because of the continued rain, instead of chopping in the coconut field, I built a connecting run between the main chicken coop and the hen coop on the opposite side. In the not-so-distant future, I want all chickens to be 100 % contained within coops. With the amount of coop space, we have I think it’s possible.
I framed a little run to connect the main chicken coop to a rearing coop
After lunch, I had a video call with my web developer to catch up and get him to fix a few glitches to my website.
I also planted two dozen red passion fruit seeds. There was no rain for the rest of the day.
Four years ago today, on my bike ride, I arrived in Las Vegas and decided to stay for two months, and five years ago today, as part of that same bike ride, I would be camping at Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia.
Red Passion fruit seedlings – Picture taken 2 weeks later in February
Belize Part 150 – San Ignacio (Jan 17 to 20)
Belize Part 149 (Jan 10 to 16)
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, 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 season (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.
