June 21
Life in the Jungle: There was rain and another power outage last night. This morning, I discovered that some of the ducks were finally brave enough to go to the bottom of the (large) new pond and swim in the accumulating water. Shortly after I finished feeding all the chickens and ducks, it started raining again, nonstop.
I posted Belize Parts 155, 156, 157, and 158 before lunch. These are the first new blog posts that I have been able to post since the first week in March.
After lunch, I posted Belize Parts 159 and 160. This has finished the last couple of blogs from February and March.
While feeding chickens, I got stung by a scorpion. This is only the second time I have knowingly been stung by a scorpion in Belize. After about 10 minutes, I realized that there was zero residual pain from the sting, as if it never happened.
My first Dutchman Pipe vine bloom
June 22
Life in the jungle: In the interest of getting some morning exercise in, I chopped in the coconut field. I came across a Pauraque nest with two eggs. [A few weeks later, returning to the area to see if there were any hatchlings, I discovered nothing. This suggests that the eggs were likely discovered by a predator.]
A Pauraque nest that I discovered in my coconut field, and a photo of one (that I took in Rancho Delores months earlier)
After lunch, I took my Sunday afternoon nap. There were a few strong rain showers throughout the afternoon.
In the afternoon, I finished writing and posted Why Starting Your Day Right Is Essential for Jungle Living in Belize. I also got 15 social media videos edited this evening.
June 23
Life in the jungle: Before work, I shared yesterday’s blog post to 15 Facebook groups. This morning, only Steve showed up to work on the cabana. We worked on installing (the exterior) plycem.
At 2 PM, I finally messaged the hardware store as to where my roof zinc was. It had been sitting at the hardware store for the last three days with no communication. They could have easily delivered it first thing Friday morning before all this rain. At 5 PM, they finally delivered it, three and a half days late by my account.
There was no rain today, but there was some tonight.
Getting the plycem on the new cabana
My Dutchman Pipe vine bloom continues to develope
June 24
Life in the jungle: Today, we spent the day putting up more plycem, facia, and eaves on the cabana. Basically, everything is done except the zinc roofing. There is no rain today, again.
She opens up and wilts on the same day
June 25
Life in the jungle: I joined Andy on his trip to Belmopan for building supplies. We also went to Spanish Lookout. Until last month, I hadn’t been to Spanish Lookout since 1998; now I have been twice in the last 30 days. There was a fair bit of rain on our way home.
Our road is a complete disaster, and it feels like we are only five minutes into the rainy season. We saw a jaguarundi on the road coming home.
June 26
Life in the jungle: I did a little clean-up in the tool room, trying to determine my best next move. The sky didn’t look good, but going inside felt lazy. I sharpened my machete and headed to the coconut field to chop. It didn’t take long before I could hear the rain in the distance. But quitting before the rain came would be cheating on my workday. Five minutes later, the rain came in heavy. I headed indoors and posted Belize Parts 161 and 162.
By the end of posting 162, my hammock was calling for me. After lunch, I went back to chopping in the coconut field for the rest of the afternoon.
Some birds were heard on the farm today. The Masked Tityra was particularly nice to hear and discover
June 27
Life in the jungle: A slow start to my day. Last night it rained the entire night. My (smaller) front pond went from empty to full of water overnight. The new large pond has a fair amount of water in it now. The pond in the hot pepper field that had a few inches of water was about 80% full. I took a walk to the ponds in the rain.
My green iguanas started hatching
I found my first-ever Morelets crocodile nest at the second pond. This was super exciting. The Green iguana eggs I found and put in an incubator on April 10th started hatching this morning.
This is super exciting! A Morelets Crocodile nest.
After getting out of the rain, I posted Belize Parts 163 and 164 blog posts. After lunch, I posted Belize Parts 165 and 166. Technically, I am up to date on my blog posting.
It rained virtually the whole day and often quite hard. Today, a lot of water was dumped from the sky.
The new pond is filling up
The front yard pond filled up in one night
June 28
Life in the jungle: There was light rain throughout the night. I started working on my Snakes of Belize blog post, which I think I started last year. I worked on it all day. I have no idea when it will ever be ready for posting.
There was scattered rain during the day. It sounds and looks like Belize is dealing with a lot of flooding.
Andy moved the river pump from the river edge to up on the bank in anticipation of a topgallon (river flood).
The pond in the pepper field and the new big pond with even moe water in it.
June 29
Life in the jungle: The weather has cleared (temporarily). I started the morning chopping in the coconut field. I also took a walk to the ponds to do a quick video of the crocodile nest that I found the other day. I also released the baby green iguanas that hatched yesterday. All 19 hatched, so 100% hatch rate. I chopped in the coconut field all day.
Releasing the new baby green iguans
As anticipated, the river did rise, and Andy moved the water pump up the riverbank just in time.
The new pond in the coconut field is now full
June 30
Life in the jungle: First thing, off to the village. I had to buy chicken for the first time in a good year or longer. A few weeks ago, two broiler (meat) chickens died of excessive heat the day before slaughter, which caused us to run out of meat.
Chichlid fish discovered on the road from flooding
Coming home and approaching my driveway, I got a really good video of a deer. Normally, a deer is nothing to get excited about, but they are quite rare in Belize because they are shot on sight for food. I see maybe one deer every year or two on my road. This one approached me quite closely before running into the coconut field. [As of August, this reel has 28K views on Facebook.]
I spent time chopping in the coconut field, and in the afternoon, I built 13 patio stone molds. No rain today.
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.
