September 1
Life in the jungle: First thing, I worked some more on chapter 2 of my book – The Canada that Took Me In. After the chickens were fed, I chopped in the coconut field. The vines are getting out of control.
After a late breakfast, I worked on the new cabana. It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to work on it. I put in a section of tongue-and-groove floor. I have had to wait a few weeks before I could start this job as the lumber was wet, and installing wet tongue-and-groove is probably a bad thing. The lumber is stacked in small stacks inside the cabana to help let the top boards dry out for a bit. This means I can only install about eight boards at a time. I also finished putting in hurricane hangers.
By the end of the day, I was totally exhausted.
Andy picked up his stainless steel table and sink for his hot sauce kitchen this afternoon. Progress is much slower on the hot sauce side of things than I would like, but this is progress.
The hot sauce kitchen is taking shape – slowly but surely
September 2
Life in the jungle: Before daylight, I continued to work on chapter 2 of my book. When I got outside, I chopped in the coconut field. After breakfast, I moved dirt. I still have a lot of dirt piles around my yard from the heavy equipment work done earlier in the year. When the dirt is good and dry, it’s wise to take advantage and spread it to fill low areas in the yard.
Andy and I went to Bermudian Landing to look at the greenhouse at the Baboon Museum and get groceries. In the coming weeks, the new greenhouse floor expansion project that I have been working on will be ready to be covered in shade cloth. We are still trying to figure out how we plan to do that. Looking at another greenhouse will help. Returning home, I moved more dirt.
The ants that mysteriously invaded my kitchen the other day finally seem to be gone.
Pink spotted hawk moth
A few birds of interest on my Merlin app today
September 3
Life in the jungle: First thing I shared my What It’s Really Like to Live in the Jungles of Belize blog post to 23 Facebook groups. I was very frustrated to discover almost no groups approved my Do’s and Don’ts of Living in the Jungle: A Practical Guide for Belize Jungle Survival blog post. This is very confusing. That being said, only the other day I learned that Facebook doesn’t like it when your post includes the http link in the post, and I learned that after you copy the link in the post, you can backspace (delete) the http address, and the post doesn’t delete itself.
I ended up getting a lot of Facebook notifications on this post throughout the day, so I think I may have solved my Facebook group sharing issues. [I would learn later in the month that Facebook flagged my website as spam for many of these groups for a reason that is still a mystery to me.]
I spent most of the afternoon digging five footings for the new greenhouse floor expansion. The footings are so that we can install steel posts to support the shade cloth. I anticipated this job to be more challenging than it was. I also moved some more dirt this afternoon.
This morning, I had a strange thought about the hot sauce business and the various ingredients that would be used, such as pineapple, bananas, carrots, etc. (fruits and veggies). Since we need all these ingredients in bulk and we have the kitchen, I asked Andy why we aren’t making (fruit and vegetable) wines? We are now making wine.
September 4
Life in the jungle: First thing I shared my 18 solid reasons to bike tour with a trailer with almost 30 bike touring groups. I discovered the same issue with last week’s share of my Stealth Camping on Bike Tour blog. So, as I did with my Belize post yesterday, I edited out the http address.
After feeding the chickens, I mixed half a bag of cement and made four greenhouse footings and three patio stones. After breakfast, I dug three more footing holes and mixed another bag of cement, and finished four more footings.
I did discover a huge issue when I attempted to dig a footing near Andy’s apartment, and sewer water was near the surface. This is a disaster.
I need to pour and make almost 2 dozen footings just like this
A steel post will slide into the sleeve.
The sleeve is temporarily covered with duct tape to prevent rainwater from entering it.
September 5
Life in the jungle: I’m one week into my new 4 AM wake-up time. I prefer it, but I am tired because it has had me go, go, go all day. And then rush through supper for bed. Most of my life, I believed that 9 AM was a good time to wake up. When I first arrived in Belize, I started setting my alarm for 6 AM to take advantage of the limited daylight. Back in early December, I decided to do the unthinkable and started setting my alarm for 5 AM. Now I set my alarm for 4 AM!
My daily alarms
Wake up at 4 AM – with a few back-ups
4:30 PM to feed the chickens and take meat (supper) out of the freezer
7:45 PM to let me know I need to be in bed in the next 15 minutes
The first thing I wanted to check on was various Belize Facebook groups that didn’t share my blog posts two weeks ago to see if I had better luck this week. I noticed a regular stream of notifications this week already, and I was able to confirm my post was approved more often than not. I have no idea if removing the http address makes a difference or not, as logically it makes no sense. I will see how things play out in the coming weeks.
I then posted to various Belize groups, trying to get help with my old land surveys. The surveyor whom I tracked down the other month is being difficult with me for some reason. Nothing can be easy in this country.
I needed a nap. It’s been go, go, go. After lunch, I figured out the materials on a few pressing projects. A few weeks ago, I had a sudden fear that the polyethylene pipe I was running between the cabanas wasn’t potable-rated. I had Andy look into it and confirmed my fear. Fortunately, it won’t be a huge job to fix this, as the trenches are not filled in for these pipes. But it does mean I need to buy and run more expensive PVC pipe now.
Today was super hot. This whole week has been super hot.
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.
