September 6
Life in the jungle: I slept really poorly last night. I had horrible allergies, and woke up completely stuffed up this morning.
Before daylight, I worked on chapter 2 of my book. I needed to be near the house and available for a delivery of building materials. So, I spent the day cleaning underneath the house and completely cleaned out the old tool room. With some minor work, this will become our initial wine cellar. Cleaning everything and making room in my outside tool shed took most of the day.
Earlier in the week, I asked Andy about making (fruit and vegetable) wines to complement the hot sauce. He was very much in agreement and has already started his first test batch with pineapples.
The tool room is 8 x 6ft, and it wouldn’t be too difficult to enclose and build another room, 13 x 9.6ft, under the house. The crappy part is that the ceiling is only about 4 ft. That being said, these rooms would be used for the fermentation process only.
The building materials (cement blocks and PVC pipe) ended up coming towards the end of the day. I spent the latter part of the afternoon until after dark, starting to build a cement block compost bin for Andy’s compost toilet waste. The plan is that the compost bin will be large enough to last a year, and then let the sawdust sit for at least one more year to break down.
Every day continues to be unnecessarily hot. Today was a long and exhausting day.
September 7
Life in the jungle: First thing, I worked on chapter 2 – The Canada that took me in, part of my book. For the last week, I have been incorporating my provincial routes into this chapter of my book. When it comes to my book and my bike ride part, I’m mostly just going to incorporate short stories of my bike ride highlights. The challenge is to also incorporate certain important aspects, like my route, to help connect the stories.
I then worked on my compost box. I ended up taking it down and rebuilding it slightly bigger, and that caused the cement blocks to fit together way better. This job is now complete.
Our new compost box (8ft x8ft) for Andy’s new compost toilet
I then took my Sunday morning nap, which was probably longer than I should have taken. Later in the afternoon, I watched a podcast about fasting. This has been on my radar for a few months, though I have not acted on it. The podcast wasn’t as helpful as I hoped, as it ended up being about people taking 40-day fasts under supervision. But I learned a few things. Next Sunday, I will plan to watch another podcast. https://youtu.be/jDG1m_b5Ih0?si=tDS04vClEOiwUbxT
September 8
Life in the jungle: First thing, worked on chapter 2 for an hour. I then spent the whole day digging footings and mixing one and a half bags of cement for the greenhouse floor expansion. I got six footings completed. Only nine more left. After what seems like thousands of hours of work on this floor, I am so desperate to get it finished once and for all.
It was hot today, and I’m exhausted.
Only 9 more left to make
A steel post will slide into the sleeve.
The sleeve is temporarily covered with duct tape to prevent rainwater from entering it.
September 9
Life in the jungle: I didn’t get a chance to work on my book this morning, but after the chickens were fed, I got right back to work on the greenhouse floor expansion footings. I got eight footings (or two bags of cement mixed). I only have one more footing to finish, and this monstrous job will be completed.
I’m not famous, but slowly getting there 😂
September 10
Life in the jungle: I posted my A Comprehensive Guide to Living in the Jungles of Belize blog post to all my Belize Facebook groups first thing.
After feeding the chickens, I cleaned all around the greenhouse floor expansion, and then mixed half a bag of cement for the last footing. I am finished!
I started this floor well over a year ago. First, there were delays in getting cement blocks down the road during the rainy season, then a six-month delay because there were no blocks available. In the meantime, I moved 3-4 dump truck loads worth of sand/gravel mix for the base of the floor. I would eventually lay about 2,000 4” cement blocks to build the floor. The floor area covers about 1,700 sq ft.
My greenhouse floor expansion job is officially complete.
Just need to add the shade cloth
This was a huge job I took upon myself. For me, it’s also what I see as completing my obligations (not that I was under any obligation) to help Andy be successful in his hot sauce business. I have supplied an apartment, a kitchen, and two greenhouses, along with an area in my coconut field to expand hot pepper growing.
It’s up to him to cover this new greenhouse in shade cloth and make this business successful.
After a very late breakfast, I rewarded myself with the best reward I could give myself. I took a two-hour nap.
Later in the afternoon, I headed to the ponds to cut grass with my new lawnmower. Over a year ago, my lawnmower broke. Frustrated that no one could fix it and the lack of consistent help from Andy to get the grass cut, I broke down and bought a new mower. I was able to pretty much complete mound 1. It’s been months since it was cut.
Another cool recording on my Merlin app at the ponds
Today I came across this news post. Canada is now blaming ice cream consumption on climate change. The fact that this article was authorized to be written and published demonstrates that Canadians are among the stupidest people on the planet in 2025! How did this happen in my lifetime! I so desperately wanted to rant on social media, and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut.
I am so ashamed of being a Canadian
September 11
Life in the jungle: It took some time to finally fall asleep last night. I’m not sure if it was a result of yesterday’s nap, but probably. Some time in the night, it finally started to rain. We have been experiencing a very dry rainy season this year. In one sense, it’s been handy to get more work done, but in another sense, we need rain.
I didn’t bother posting anything to social media today, as the world is (rightly so) preoccupied with Charlie Kirk’s death and murder yesterday. I watched him very regularly and agreed with pretty much all his opinions and politics. While his death is tragic, I suspect that it will have a ripple effect (for good). I feel like God will not waste this loss or moment.
I wrote Belize blog Parts 183 and 184 first thing. Because of the rain, I didn’t get to feed the chickens until 8 AM, two hours later than usual. I then post Belize blog Parts 175, 176, 177, and 178.
There was no more rain today. After feeding the chickens, I slaughtered a duck.
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.
