November 18
Life in the jungle: I worked on my Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize blog again this morning. I mostly had it completed when ChatGPT offered more SEO optimization options that I was unaware of. This caused me to go down a whole bunch of rabbit holes I wasn’t planning on and took most of my day. This was not my plan today at all.
This morning, I also slaughtered a broiler (meat) chicken and two hens. I have only two local hens left and no more free-range chickens.
Andy also found a sick boa on the road. The boa showed signs of emaciation, but fortunately for the snake, it also showed signs of having recently eaten a meal. Experience tells me that if the snake is not medicated that it will not survive.
No rain today. Surprisingly, the river didn’t top-gallon (flood its banks).
The photos don’t show it, but this snake is emaciated
November 19
Life in the jungle: I finally started sharing my Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize post to Facebook groups.
The river has gone down. As much as I prefer not to have flooding. We have not had a top-gallon this year. I was hoping for at least one top-gallon to test the work done with heavy equipment back in June, to see if and how much flooding could be expected during a top-gallon, and if there were any low areas I could fix against future flooding. I fear this was the last chance of flooding this year.
I messaged the Belize Zoo about the boa and if it was in their purview to care for sick wildlife.
After breakfast, I spent a good part of the afternoon chopping in the coconut field. The mosquitoes were horrendous.
I started working and updating my Belize’s Amphibians: An Essential Guide blog post. This will be the post I share on Belize Facebook groups next week.
I never get bored with photographing Passion fruit flowers
November 20
Life in the jungle: This morning, I saw my very first fox on the farm crossing over my greenhouse expansion floor. Unfortunately, I had just hit restart on my phone, and when I opened it up quickly to start recording the video, the recording froze up as the phone tried to restart at the same time.
I also finished posting my Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize and continued to edit my Belize’s Amphibians: An Essential Guide blog post. It boggles my mind that the only thing I know about (website) coding is how to spell the word c-o-d-i-n-g, yet I now deal with code on almost a daily basis.
After breakfast, I headed back to the coconut field for a few hours. I returned to the house exhausted. I planned for a 40-minute nap in my hammock, but when my alarm went off, I was paralyzed with exhaustion. I couldn’t move until my chicken feeding alarm went off.
Determined to make up for a little lost time, from a slightly extended nap, I decided to start building a new website page for my book that I’m writing. I have never done website edits like this before, and of course, ChatGPT took me around in a few circles. I was able to partially complete the layout, except I worked right through supper and went to bed on an empty stomach.
November 21
Life in the jungle: This morning, I finished editing my Belize’s Amphibians: An Essential Guide, and I finished posting my Agalychnis taylori vs Agalychnis callidryas: How to Tell Belize’s Two Red-Eyed Tree Frogs Apart blog post that I had nearly completed the other week. I finished this post specifically today because I want to be able to add internal links between the two posts.
After breakfast, I headed to the village for groceries, and then chopped in the coconut field in the last part of the afternoon.
A species of orchid I found in the coconut field
November 22
Life in the jungle: First thing, I posted Belize blog Parts 191 and 192. I also shared my Agalychnis taylori vs Agalychnis callidryas: How to Tell Belize’s Two Red-Eyed Tree Frogs Apart blog post to all the reptile Facebook groups that I follow.
I brought four ducks up to Saul. He is going to end up taking all the rest of my ducks. In the afternoon, I spent most of the day chopping in the coconut field. At the end of the day, I slaughtered a broiler (meat) chicken and my very last two hens. No more free-range chickens on the farm, only cooped-up layers.
November 23
Life in the jungle: Four years ago today, I crossed over into Belize from my 2019- 2021 bike ride.
This morning, I wrote Belize blog Part 194. After feeding the chickens and ducks, I cleaned the main coop and moved my fast-growing layer chicks into it. In a few weeks, when they are a little bit bigger, I will remove a temporary barrier that is now preventing them from accessing an outdoor section of my coops, or what I refer to as my second coop.
After breakfast, I had a video call with someone who had visited the farm earlier in the year and is looking to move to Belize. In the afternoon, I bagged 130 Mahogany seeds.
130 Mahogany seeds planted
November 24
Life in the jungle: It rained all night last night. I started working on redoing and SEO updating my main jungle lifestyle blog – A Comprehensive Guide to Living in the Jungles of Belize. Partly because of the rain (wet conditions) and partly because I was in the mood, I kept working on the post all day. It’s my longest post I’ve ever written, and it’s going to be a pretty big job to fully SEO and AI-optimize it.
At the end of the day, I slaughtered my last broiler (meat) chicken from the latest batch.
Almost a week ago, Andy found a sick boa on our road. This morning, he brought her to the Belize Zoo. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get an update about her. When she was discovered, it was quite apparent she was pretty emaciated, but had recently eaten. My suspicion is that she had a serious parasite problem that could only be fixed with medicine.
Yesterday, I noticed layer chicken egg production was down from the usual dozen eggs to 8-9 eggs. I noticed that again today for the second day in a row. I was going to start leaving the coop lights on for a few hours each evening. Then I learned from my buddy ChatGPT that I need to turn the lights on in the morning, not evening. Good thing I get up at 4 AM.
At first, I thought it was a Brown anole, but it turns out that it’s a Silky anole
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.
