May 28
Life in the jungle: First thing, I slaughtered the last broiler (meat) chicken. The last few days, I have been moving dirt dug up from the excavator work the other week. I have a lot of places to fill in. Currently, the dirt moisture level is acceptable for moving the dirt. After it rains, that dirt is excessively sticky and far too much of a headache to move. That is why it is important to move what I can when the weather is dry, as rain can hit any day moving forward. So, I spent the whole day again moving dirt.
There was a jungle fire about 1,000 feet from Wayne’s house. In the evening, everything was smoky.
May 29
Life in the jungle: I started with housework in the morning for an impending cyclist guest this afternoon.
After lunch, I made some footing molds for the next cabana and moved dirt. In the last part of the afternoon, a mini excavator showed up. We got the waterline to the coconut field dug.
I need about 350 feet of trenches dug for waterlines, electrical conduit, and septic leach beds. It is so critical to complete these trenches before the rainy season starts. And the rainy season could start any day moving forward.
As the excavator operator left for the evening, the cyclist showed up.
A mini-excavator and the waterline trench it dug from the greenhouse to the coconut field.
May 30
Life in the jungle: My guest headed towards Panama first this morning after I gave her a quick tour of the farm.
I worked on figuring out septic PVC and electrical conduit layouts across the yard. I then headed to the village for some PVC pieces. On the way out after four years of trying, I finally caught a tiger rat snake. Amazing! Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity for photos.
Tiger Rat snake compliments of Christian Bech
Later in the afternoon, my lumber order for the next cabana was delivered from Spanish Lookout. It was a good-sized order that I had to organize and stack. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, as usual.
May 31
Life in the jungle: The mini excavator operator showed up at twenty after 5 AM. I was hoping he would show up, but I didn’t expect him that early.
He got all the trenches done today. He did have to leave for a break in between. While he was back in the village, I sent an order for some 1″ PVC pipe, except I accidentally typed 2″ in the text. So, I had to bike up and get 7 – 20ft 1″ pipes on my bike. That was a huge waste of an hour I couldn’t afford to waste.
Andy saw a mountain lion on the road this evening.
Electrical conduit trench & electrical, water & septic trench
June 1
Life in the jungle: Today is my day off, but with all these newly dug trenches, including two septic trenches, and the rainy season possibly starting Monday night, I had no choice but to work.
Andy worked on electrical conduit installation, and I worked on the septic trenches. I spent the whole day and into the dark moving gravel by shovel and wheelbarrow. I can’t believe how much gravel material and how far I moved it. I am so exhausted. I finished one of the septic leech pipes, and am about a third finished the second one. It was another typical hot day.
Filling trenches
June 2
Life in the jungle: All day, I worked on filling the second septic trench with gravel. On Saturday, I initially ordered a dump truck load of gravel (that hadn’t arrived yet), as I was sure I wouldn’t have enough gravel. It turned out that I had just enough gravel. So, I switched that order to a load of road material for the road. I had the dump truck driver drop small drops on the worst spots on the road. Andy and I quickly spread the six drops on the road.
In the afternoon, I finished the septic trench. I covered the gravel with a barrier and spread some dirt over both trenches. For me, the dry season pressure is officially done.
Since February, I spent two weeks opening up the road for heavy equipment to come down the road, built one cabana, moved about five dump truck loads of sand/gravel and gravel by shovel and wheelbarrow, and had an excavator and bulldozer here for four days filling in my river lot by digging a large pond, creating a 1,000 sq ft hot pepper field by digging another pond in the coconut field and having another pond dug to fill in more area of the coconut field and having the dozer open up our road to help facilitate drying during the rainy season. What a “dry season!”
I didn’t even bother eating supper and went to bed by 8 PM. I have been sleeping in my hammock the last few nights. When I have a guest, I swap out my bedroom to sleep in my loft. I have been too exhausted to remake my bed and move back into my room.
Non-stop filling trenches
June 3
Life in the jungle: Today was my trip to Belmopan for my passport stamp. I convinced Andy to take me as he needed a few electrical supplies from Belize City anyway. Belmopan is not that much further than Belize City by car.
Immigration was actually fairly quick, though now they make you fill out a form and ask (mostly) pointless questions.
We took a trip to Central Farms, further west on the Western Highway. Central Farms is located just outside Belmopan City, and is a government-run agricultural research centre that has a good-sized tree nursery. We also visited Spanish Lookout.
Spanish Lookout ferry
Dragon fruit farming at Central Farms
Andy was interested in red wiggler worms for compost from them, and I finally got my hands on some (17) Malaysian Dwarf coconuts. I also got a Suriname cherry, a mulberry, two pink Mayflowers, and they gave me a Raspberry stock that was kind of rough-looking. I have been trying to get some true dwarf coconut trees for a few years now. Back in February, I cut out most of my coconuts at the ponds to make room for true dwarfs.
While there, I learned that they use Madre Cacao trees as living posts for growing dragon fruit.
There was some rain on the way home. The rainy season has officially started.
Some ancient mango trees at Central Farms
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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.
