October 1
Life in the jungle: I headed to the city; it’s been a while since I’ve been. I had a lot of places to visit, so there was a lot of walking today. I stopped by the hospital to see if it was possible to talk to someone about Fer-de-Lance snake bites and antivenom for one of my latest blogs called The Fer-de-Lance Snake of Belize: A Complete Guide. That was until I saw the lineup. I need to figure out a better way to get that kind of information.
Three years ago today, I started raising chickens. This morning, I ordered a dozen more layers. I have a dozen layers in my compost coop. I have eight pullet (young) layers in a second compost coop, and I’m now going to slaughter all my local hens and make my main coop into a third compost coop for the dozen layers ordered this morning. The hen houses will be used for raising broiler (meat) chickens.
I’m also going to slowly slaughter all the ducks. That way, there will no longer be chickens and ducks roaming the yard. Raising layers is the far superior way to get eggs. Local hens have very little meat; their egg laying is random, and they often lay their eggs in places other than the coop. They also eat frogs and small snakes. Ducks eat and kill plants that I plant, along with Andy’s pepper plants, and they eat baby turtles.
I just recently posted a blog about my chicken journey called – My Journey Raising Chickens and Ducks in the Belize Jungle.
Returning home from the city, I cut the grass around the house.
October 2
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day installing tongue-and-groove floor boards in the newest cabana.
It was a hot day, and I was pretty tired by the end of it.
My Passionfruit vines have been producing fruit.
My favorite fruit since arriving in Belize.
October 3
Life in the jungle: There was a shower at about 3:30 AM and a heavy, longer thunderstorm at lunch. I continued working on the cabana floor. It’s virtually completed.
Some people from the States showed up, expected but unexpected, in the afternoon. I was expecting them sometime over the next week, but nothing was firmed up, and I never gave specific directions to the house.
I was in absolute shock to see an AWD rental SUV in my driveway. Considering the condition of my road, I would have advised them against driving in. They came straight from the airport, and someone in the village gave them directions. I wasn’t expecting to see them, but it worked out great. They had just stopped for a quick visit to see the farm, and then they were gone to continue their travels around Belize.
Toungue & groove floor in the new cabana is completed
October 4
Life in the jungle: First thing, I started a new blog post called Jungle Safety in Belize: What You Need to Know Before Moving to the Jungle
After feeding the chickens and ducks, I spent most of the rest of the day working on the new cabana. The floor is completed, and I added reinforcement lag bolts between the walls and floor.
Later, I painted the new wine cellar under the house. [That will no longer be a wine cellar.] There was some rain last night and tonight.
October 5
Life in the jungle: A fair amount of rain fell in the night. I did my first YouTube video and then found out my GoPro is broken (after the fact). The video was supposed to be about rainy season challenges and specifically about dealing with mud. The other week, I realized and have become determined to start working on creating content for my YouTube channel once again.
Because of my new daily routine from last month of waking up at 4 AM and going to bed at 8 PM, I have become apprehensive about taking naps. Having difficulty falling asleep at 8 PM is kind of scary when you know your alarm is set for 4 AM. But because it was Sunday, I risked a short one.
Later in the afternoon, I finished and posted a recent blog post called Jungle Safety in Belize: What You Need to Know Before Moving to the Jungle.
After feeding the chickens and ducks, I reattempted to do this morning’s video with my iPhone. It worked.
Before bed, I completed and pasted a blog post started a week ago called What I Wish I Knew Before Moving to the Jungle in Belize. I only have a little more work on it before it can be published.
October 6
Life in the jungle: First thing, I got back to work on What I Wish I Knew Before Moving to the Jungle in Belize blog post. After feeding the chickens, the sky looked too grey for my liking. I headed back inside and published my post. The skies continued to look grey, and we experienced on-and-off light rain the entire day.
After publishing that post, I turned to another post I had started almost two weeks ago called The Fer-de-Lance Snake of Belize: A Complete Guide. I was able to get that post completed and also published. This has me complete all outstanding Belize blog posts except for my Snakes of Belize blog post started well over a year ago. I am still looking for a boa constrictor that I need for a very specific photo shoot needed to complete that post.
Earlier in the summer, I had no idea what to blog about. In about a month and a half, I completed ten solid SEO and AI-optimized blog posts.
Later in the afternoon, I headed to the village for groceries. On my way back on my road, I came across a Narrow-bridged musk turtle, a Collard Acari, and I saw the last six inches of a Black-tail Cribo snake. The Narrow-bridge musk turtle was a super nice find, as it’s only the second or third one I have found in the last four years.
Narrow-bridge musk turtles – such attitudes
October 7
Life in the jungle: The rain started last night and continued right to mid morning, and then continued with on and off showers and thunder.
I posted Belize blog Parts 183, 184, 185, 186, and 187 before breakfast. I am now caught up on all my Life in Belize blog posts.
After breakfast, I finally, after a few weeks of neglect, went back to writing and editing my book. I was on a roll with my book a while back and then, without expectation, started writing blog post after blog post.
I finished up on having most of the first draft of chapter 3 – America the Beautiful, completed. Mostly, I need to organize, review, and delete what needs to be deleted from the summary and reflection notes. I also did the same organizing of Chapter 4 – Mexico the Generous. But there is still work to be completed there. I’m concerned a little bit about the direction of the book. The idea is that it’s a memoir, but the three bike ride chapters represent about 60% of the book. I’m concerned the book is going to mostly read like a travelogue.
My Dutchman pipe vine continues to produce flowers
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.
