A Mexican Masked Tree Frog
June 4
Life in the jungle: Yesterday, there was some rain, and there was a little rain in the night. The rainy season has officially started. First thing, Steve, the guy who helped build the recent cabana, stopped by to discuss building the next cabana. Weather permitting, he is planning to arrive on Friday to help put in the footings for the next one.
After he left, I headed straight to the hammock. I’m taking today off, which I never got on Sunday, and am attempting to do a reset of my brain after an extremely hectic dry season.
I finally swapped sheets and made my bed after my last guest left almost a week ago, so that I can go back to sleeping in my bed.
A little rain in the morning, thunder showers this evening. Here we go.
I think my eyesight is getting worse. I used to have to wear reading glasses for small print, and then over time, I needed to wear them to read off my phone, and then I started using them to type out my blogs. But now I am getting a bit nervous about it.
Pithecellobium lanceolatum
June 5
Life in the jungle: There were thunder showers throughout the night and a little rain this morning.
After the chickens and ducks were fed, I headed to the hammock. I plan to make this my routine for the next few days, just to intentionally slow myself down.
After lunch, I worked on backfilling around the new cabana septic tank and dealing with a small water leak. All the dirt is now very moist and sticks to everything. This is going to make every day challenging moving forward. Shoveling dirt now requires scraping sticky dirt off the shovel regularly.
This evening, is saw a Facebook post about a woman who just hiked Victoria Peak, and that hike was the last of the season. It was my plan and important to me to hike Victoria Peak this past dry season. Unfortunately, throughout the whole dry season, heavy equipment businesses kept stringing me along until almost the end of the dry season. I HAD to get this project done once and for all. And about the time that was finally sorted out, I developed a lump and sore under my armpit (that finally went away a few days ago). I couldn’t risk an adventure deep in the jungle with a mysterious sore in a sensitive area of my body. I am frustrated that I missed out this year, but there was very little I could do about it.
June 6
Life in the jungle: First thing, I took another nap. After lunch, I filled in trenches with dirt. I still have a lot of dirt to fill in these trenches.
I then headed to the ponds for the first time in months. I haven’t been to the ponds in months because I have been so busy, and truthfully, I was quite fearful of what the dry season may have done to everything growing there. Things were messy and overgrown, but I was pleasantly surprised, as overall, things look good. The recent rains are causing new growth in the seedlings and the papayas.
There were only occasional short rain showers today.
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June 7
Life in the jungle: I was hoping that new cabana footings would be dug and poured today. I got everything ready, but help never arrived. I also did odd yard jobs and chicken coop cleaning to keep busy while I waited. After lunch, I headed to the village for groceries. In the afternoon, I was able to plant about 50 papaya seeds in cups.
There was sporadic rain and showers throughout the day.
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June 8
Life in the jungle: I did a little yard work first thing and planted more papaya seeds in cups. I brought the newly purchased dwarf coconuts to the ponds for planting next week. After lunch, I took my Sunday afternoon nap. After feeding the chickens late in the afternoon, I planted some hibiscus, some angel’s trumpet, and some lobster claw heliconia. There was no rain today.
This afternoon, I had a small delivery of cabbage palm lumber. I had ordered and have been bugging for this lumber for over a year, possibly a year and a half. I also had my lawnmower returned (unfixed). I sent that out to be fixed over a year ago, but it never was.
June 9
Life in the jungle: With still no contact about starting my new cabana footings, I headed to the city for a final list of cabana building materials.
While I was in the city, Andy wired up the kitchen (the cabana built in March) to the main power post. He also discovered a pretty huge Lizard-eater snake in the greenhouse front entrance.
Later in the afternoon, I went up to the village and ordered the plycem for the cabana. Basically, the only thing left to order and get now is the zinc roofing.
No rain today. We also got a dump truck load of black planting soil for hot peppers and my tree seedlings that I like to plant.
Today I paid my property tax on my house (not land). This amount includes almost 2 years in arrears (plus penalties) and prepaying the next 5 years. Divide by 2 to get the USD amount ($28.20 USD).
The largest Brown Racer or Lizard Eater Snake I have ever seen
June 10
Life in the jungle: I spent pretty much all day at the ponds planting the dwarf coconuts I got at Central Farms the other week and replacing about a dozen other seedlings. The last part of the afternoon was spent filling in trenches around the yard. No rain again today.
June 11
Life in the jungle: I spent most of the day planting and chopping in the coconut field. I moved some fill dirt at the end of the day. No rain.
Sorting through seedlings to be planted in the coconut field
June 12
Life in the jungle: Steve, my contractor, finally sent two helpers, who were supposed to arrive last week. It was a hectic day of digging and pouring the six footings for the new cabana. We mixed three and a half bags of cement.
Over the last few days, Andy has been wiring up the new (kitchen) cabana. He has virtually completed that job.
No rain, though it was expected this morning. The forecast keeps pushing the rain by a day.
Putting in the new cabana footings
June 13
Life in the jungle: The workers showed up early. We spent the day framing and building the floor for the cabana. We only had about 10 minutes of rain.
It was another long day, and a very long week, between planting seedlings, pouring forms, and building the floor.
The floor is built
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 parents’ 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.
