November 12
Life in the jungle: Six years on the day I started my two-year, 26,000 km bike ride from Canada to Belize.
Cape Spear, Newfoundland – The first day of a 2-year bike tour
I posted Belize blog Part 189. After feeding the chickens, I chopped in the coconut field. It’s been a few months. Things are way, way too overgrown. It will be a lot of work to get this field cleaned up and prepared to be bush-hogged in the coming months. On a positive note, the rainy season hasn’t been too bad, and we have yet to experience flooding. The flooding often stresses the trees out.
After breakfast, I started working on a few projects that required using my inventory of hardwood lumber. I first built a work table so I could use my choice boards as the table top. The purpose of this specific table is to use it as a tree seed plant bagging table.
I then started building a form around the house septic tank. I have had this tank in the ground for almost two years and have yet to properly cover it. Because I’m building a form for concrete, I can use my remaining sub-quality boards for this project.
A cool day, and all my coconut oil is sold. No rain though.
November 13
Life in the jungle: Light rain into the night and all morning. I posted Belize blog Part 190, and then finished and posted my ultra-SEO optimized blog post called How to Set Up Your Home in the Belize Jungle. I started this post last month. I also had a draft of my next ultra-SEO optimized post called Living Safely with Wildlife in the Belize Jungle. Even though I’m not publishing this post until December, somehow I got it written and posted (in my drafts). These ultra-SEO optimized posts are not meant for my social media sharing, but are meant for Google to help rank my website.
After breakfast, I found myself motivated to nap in the hammock. It was coldish all day with some light rain. That’s usually a good enough excuse to spend some time in the hammock.
I researched a comment someone left on a recent Red-eyed tree frog photo post that I posted. It turns out that there are two species of Red-eyed tree frogs in Belize. I had no idea about this. I had no idea there was more than one species of Red-eyed tree frog, period. That turned into a blog post called Agalychnis taylori vs Agalychnis callidryas: How to Tell Belize’s Two Red-Eyed Tree Frogs Apart. The blog is already 90% complete, but I have been publishing too many posts recently, so I need to keep it in the drafts for a week or two.
The Red-eyed tree frog that inspired my latest blog post
November 14
Life in the jungle: It was raining this morning, and today, the rain stuck around almost all day and was harder today than yesterday.
After I don’t know how long since I worked on my book, I finally got back at it. The first draft is basically completed, and I recognize weaknesses. I made a few attempts to copy and paste the whole draft into ChatGPT. ChatGPT was able to confirm my concerns, but was unable to provide an edit to the weaknesses that I could at least compare my writing with. I made a few attempts, spending a good amount of time trying. I also had a sizable break in my day for a few hours after the power and internet went out.
November 15
Life in the jungle: I continued working on Chapter 1. I think in the grand scheme of things, Chapter 1 is finally completed. Unfortunately, it’s also the shortest chapter. Which means most of my editing is still ahead of me. After feeding the chickens, I slaughtered a broiler (meat) chicken and two hens. I only have four local hens left, and then no more chickens running free. Unfortunately, I’m still overrun with ducks.
After breakfast, I headed to the village. Lately, I have been tasked with delivering eggs to a few people in the village. I used to sell my surplus eggs to two people, and the grocery store took what’s left. Somehow, I now have four potential customers, with none going to the grocery store, and me eating grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast so I can try to keep up with orders. I only produce a dozen eggs a day! I’m not sure how all of this became part of my day.
Somehow, I got myself into the egg business
There was some rain during the day while I was in the village.
November 16
Life in the jungle: I woke up tired, not motivated to get up at 4 AM at all. While feeding the chickens, I observed an unusual bird of prey that I couldn’t identify. His behavior was unusual, which is what caught my eye. It was hoping (short flight) from fence post to fence post, almost like it was inspecting them for insects (?). When it ran out of fence posts, it flew to a tree and went from branch to branch (approx. 6ft apart). With the help of the Creatures of Belize Facebook group, I was able to identify it as a Crane Hawk. Pretty cool.
An internet image of a Crane Hawk
Even though it’s Sunday, I pushed myself to write Belize Blog Part 193, mostly because of how lazy I felt at 4 AM. It’s not a good thing when you get up at 4 AM every morning, and you’re not in the mood. Then it becomes a battle of discipline. As a rule, I intentionally don’t push myself, and intentionally don’t allow myself to care about feeling lazy on Sundays. But today, I did.
I did take a prolonged nap before lunch. Today, there was only a little bit of rain in the afternoon. For the first time this year, the river is the closest to topgalloning (flooding) tonight.
The river is rising
November 17
Life in the jungle: This morning, I worked on improving and adding more SEO optimizing content to my Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize blog. This is also the post that I plan to share with all the Belize Facebook Groups each morning this week.
There was no topgallon (flooded river bank) this morning, but the river is higher. I finished a few jobs that I started last week. I finished building the new work table that I plan to use for bagging tree seeds on, and I finished the septic tank form. I need to finally enclose my septic tank. Next job, get some cement and start mixing. I also painted a coat of paint on the newest cabana floor.
No rain today.
The septic form is built – ready for cement
My new planting bench
This is as high as the river got before the level dropped
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.
