My most current project is recently framing a building a small cabana on the farm.
March 28
Life in the jungle: I spent the morning and a little time after lunch moving the front section of the fence (that goes around my yard). I am expanding the cement block flooring that runs the side of the greenhouse, and this fence will need to be replaced sometime in the near future.
I finished the shower and toilet floor in the new cabana. And then I cut up some lumber for patio stone molds. I have some new patio stone projects, so I will soon start making more patio stones.
Some toilet & shower work in the new cabana
This evening I found a scorpion on my window framing. I’m not sure how he climbed the wall this high.
March 29
Life in the jungle: On my way to the village, I came across a dead raccoon on the main road. In Canada, this would be a pointless entry in my daily blog, except that this is the very first raccoon I have ever seen in Belize.
On my way home, I discovered a good-sized Morelet’s crocodile (5 feet-ish) living in a pond near the village. This was a pretty cool sighting for me. In less than two minutes, my joy was evaporated by noticing a pile of garbage dumped in the bush on my road. I know who dumped it, as it’s the family’s second dumping of garbage on our road. He also drags dead sheep down our road to decay and make for easy jaguar food. The first time these people dumped garbage, most of it was burnable, so I burned it. This pile is mostly metal junk, so I can’t burn it. On my own farm, I would have buried it. I will simply have to wait for the jungle to cover it up. But it’s very disheartening.
Finding dumped garbage is always very disheartening to me
This morning, I was also able to lay 40 cement blocks to expand the floor space area I opened up by moving yesterday’s section of fence. After lunch, most of my afternoon was spent finishing the plycem off on the cabana. Plycem is like waterproof drywall. It’s very dusty when cutting. I am so glad this job is done. I also got a bit of unfinished facia work done.
Adding a wider floor along the greenhouse to grow tomatoes in large pots
March 30
Life in the jungle: This morning, I discovered a hatched baby duckling. I also laid 70 more cement blocks. As today is my day off, I took my mandatory nap in the hammock. In the afternoon, I took a walk to the ponds. Things need watering and cleaning. I also toured the coconut field. Overall, things look good there. I planted a few seeds in empty cups that hadn’t germinated their seeds.
In the evening, I finally, finally emailed some tour guides about Victoria Peak. I am determined to hike Victoria Peak this year, but at the Belizean rate, not the tourist rate. I am hoping my newly acquired Belizean driver’s license grants me the Belizean rate.
A few more blocks got added today
March 31
Life in the jungle: First thing, I went to the ponds to do a quick cleaning around the seedlings. My lawnmower has been broken for 6 or 8 months or longer (I have lost track). I think Andy is going to use the weed-whacker later in the week to start cutting the grass here. I was actually able to clean all three mounds in fairly quick time. I was also able to collect 90 coconuts. This will pretty much be the last of the coconuts for some time, as the other week, I cut most of the trees down. I am hoping to replace them with dwarf coconut trees in the near future. [Which I did in June.]
After lunch, I worked on the cabana, some fascia pieces, some framing, and started on the windows
There were six new ducklings today. Our first bunch was ten, then eight, and now seven newborns.
April 1
Life in the jungle: I worked on my greenhouse floor expansion and laid my last 130 cement blocks. I am now out of blocks for the foreseeable future. The hardware store in the village is planning to start making its own cement blocks. As a result, their current supplier is cutting them off. The problem is how long before the village hardware store is actually making blocks. [The hardware store was unable to start manufacturing before the upcoming rainy season started, and as of June, I am still waiting for them to start manufacturing.]
Today was a late lunch, late lunches (instead of late breakfast/early lunch) tend to initiate a nap in the hammock. When I push my morning, it tends to exhaust me.
In the afternoon, I figured out the lumber needed for the exterior trim and flooring of the new cabana. I also planned out a compost toilet for Andy. Andy’s toilet does not operate very well during the flooding of the rainy season because of flooding. Our only solution is to build him a compost toilet for those times. Imagine a 120 square foot cabana/apartment getting a second toilet. I feel like this might be the smallest living space in the world with two toilets.
A common flower found on my road
April 2
Life in the jungle: First thing, I went to work on the new cabana. I used about three tubes of caulking to fill cracks before I ran out of caulking. During lunch, I arranged for the delivery of the lumber order I figured out yesterday. I am ordering my lumber out of Spanish Lookout for the first time.
After lunch, I started installing windows on the cabana. I got three and a half of the five windows installed.
This morning, I got some pretty awesome news! I can hike Victoria Peak at the Belizean tour rate. I guess my Belizean driver’s license paid off. [Unfortunately, my schedule in the upcoming months made this hike impossible this year.]
April 3
Life in the jungle: This morning, I finished installing the windows and continued working on the cabana.
My lumber order was late, as they went looking for me all the way to Issabella Bank (on the other side of the river). After the delivery finally arrived, I was able to get a good amount of exterior trim done. All that’s left is the trim around the windows. Today was a long day, as most days are lately.
Windows installed
April 4
Life in the jungle: Today was my passport stamp day. I saw the crocodile again on my way out. My bus clipped another bus’s mirror due to aggressive driving and passing. This is the second time between these two buses in about a month.
I had to stand in line for an hour at immigration. There was only one guy in front of me, and he was in and out in five minutes, just like me when they finally let me in. I got a two month stamp. Admittedly, the experience had me agitated. But whatever. I have been waiting for my residency for 14 months now (I think).
I was on the 3:30 bus home. Today was a long, hot day, and I am exhausted. I got home just in time to feed the chickens.
Belize Part 159 (March 17 to 27)
Belize Part 158 (March 12 to 16)
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this particular 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 at the end of 2023. When I offered Andy 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.
