A Grove-billed Ani – likely the most common bird on the farm.
October 21
Life in the jungle: First thing I shared my Jungle Safety in Belize: What You Need to Know Before Moving to the Jungle post to Facebook Groups, I will do this for the next two mornings. After feeding the chickens, I headed up to the village. I came across a set of cat tracks on the driveway and more tracks a little down the road. The main reason for heading to the village was to visit Orlando, as he has been under the weather lately.
Returning home after breakfast, I painted for the rest of the day. I started with my first coat of interior paint on the new cabana. It went on quicker than anticipated. I got probably half the cabana completed.
October 22
Life in the jungle: I woke up to an email from Google that one of my blog posts wasn’t formatted properly. It took a little figuring out. Once again, thanks to ChatGPT, I was able to figure it out. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of brain fog moving forward. Lots to do on autopilot, but feeling this way had me thinking I have been a little too non-stop lately, and I should just take a break in the hammock.
After laundry and breakfast, I went back to painting the cabana. The first coat of interior paint is done.
October 23
Life in the jungle: I started painting even before breakfast and painted all day. I also found cat tracks 50ft from the house outside my bedroom. A stray, starving, malnourished dog showed up. This is how Pepper and Saucy showed up. It ended up running away. I’m kind of glad it did. I realized that had it approached me in a friendly sort of way, I would have been obligated to adopt it, and I’m not a dog person, and I’m not sure how Pepper would have handled a strange dog. No rain today.
October 24
Life in the jungle: I received an email from Google with all these indexing issues with my website. I have gotten them in the past, but with no way to even consider how to fix them. That was until I copied the email into ChatGPT. It told me what issues were important to fix and what issues were not. I spent the whole morning attempting to fix issues, but Chat only spun me in circles until I said enough is enough and headed to the cabana to paint. My indexing issues will have to wait for another time.
Today I was able to (basically) complete the interior wall painting of the new cabana. The next stage will be to get Andy to wire the cabana up.
On Facebook, I came across a video of a woman facing two years in jail for Tweeting a Christian message in Finland. Finland is part of that whole continent of Europe where WW2 was fought. Where almost 500,00 Canadians and Americans died for freedom. It caused me to reflect and conclude a few things.
On Facebook, I posted….
I must confess and apologize that, on occasion, I have had some strong opinions and views about Belize. Today, I’m realizing and having a new and greater appreciation for the country.
In Europe, you can be arrested for social media posts (In 2023, UK police made over 12,000 arrests—approximately 33 per day—for online messages deemed offensive or distressing.)
In Canada, you are labeled as “holding unacceptable views” as our past esteemed Prime Minister called people holding a legal and peaceful protest for freedom.
And in the US, you can be shot, like Charlie Kirk was, who regularly prayed for his enemies.
First and foremost, in life, I will always choose freedom above all else. Thank you, Belize
A few people took exception to Charlie Kirk, saying he was a racist. I simply pointed out that Charlie is in at least 1 trillion videos (conservative count), perhaps they could share a single video of him being so. Of course, this is impossible to do, and that created quite a bit of outrage with at least one person.
October 25
Life in the jungle: My mind would not shut off last night. I think I fell asleep at midnight, not good when your alarm is set for 4 AM. The first thing I worked on was my ultra-SEO’d blog post – How to set up your home in the jungle. I had no interest in tackling more Google/website issues (from yesterday).
This morning, I did a little work on a large passion fruit trellis I made the other month. I framed it and planted the passion fruits, but I never hung any wire for the trellis yet. I had a small leftover roll of sheep wire that I used up. I didn’t have enough wire to finish the trellis, but it will do for now, as the plants are still young, and it won’t take long before I need to finish this job.
Passionfruit trellises I built earlier in the year
I plan to build many more
After breakfast, I did some work on my rear deck. This has been an on-again, off-again project for at least two years. I worked until dark. Except for painting, this project is now 98% complete.
The exterior skirting around my deck and house is finally completed
And underneath the house is finally secured.
October 26
Life in the jungle: This morning, I took a walk up and down the road and made four YouTube videos. I lost track of how many cat tracks I saw along the road. I have been neglecting making long-form YouTube videos. The other week, I realized that I needed to put effort into it and start making long-form videos. But first, I need to create a bit of a stockpile. The main problem is a lack of time to commit to this.
Being Sunday, most of the rest of my day was intentionally uneventful. I did some research on growing watermelon.
Lots of cat tracks on the road today
October 27
Life in the jungle: Last night I didn’t sleep well (again). My mind wouldn’t shut off. Andy is wiring up the new cabana, so I focused mostly on small jobs around the house in order to stay out of his way.
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.
