February 1
Life in the jungle: This morning was the coldest morning and day in over four years. I spent the morning dealing with month-end photo organizing for this month’s blog writing.
Today was a very laid-back day. Before breakfast, I attempted my Sunday nap in the hammock, but sleep never came. After a late breakfast, I did some reading and got a short nap in. Later in the afternoon, I did a video chat with someone interested in possibly moving to the farm.
The coldest morning of the year!
February 2
Life in the jungle: It was cold again this morning. In front of my computer, my fingers and toes were actually numb. I did a quick proofread of the whole Mexican chapter of my memoir – Mexico the Generous. Wow, do I miss Mexico and all the people I met and the experiences that I had. Get me on a bike today and head back!
After getting through the chapter, I headed outside to do some physical work in an attempt to warm myself up. I pulled weeds and vines around the greenhouse expansion floor because it was getting direct sun. The sun felt so good!
After breakfast, I did some work on the chicken coops. Recently, I have filled all the coops with layer chickens, and I had to add laying boxes and set some of the old hen houses for broiler (meat) chickens.
In the afternoon, I headed up to the village to pay my internet bill, but more importantly, to collect mahogany tree seeds. I got a call about a tree that the parrots had recently visited to chew through the seed pods to get at the seeds. The way I collect seeds is by collecting the ones that fall to the ground from the parrots. I got way more than I anticipated. I have no idea when I will get the time to bag them.
Lots of Mahogany seeds
Cat tracks on my road
February 3
Life in the jungle: I started my morning by sharing my Living Inside the Sound of the Jungle blog post on Facebook groups.
It wasn’t as cold as yesterday, but still quite cool, and this morning was also overcast. I did some physical work, again cleaning around the greenhouse floor expansion, to warm up. After breakfast, taking advantage of the overcast skies, I cut grass at the ponds. I then cut the river lot grass. I also did some chainsaw work and trimmed two Mahogany trees in the front yard.
February 4
Life in the jungle: Every week, I run into issues with posting blog posts to Belize Facebook groups. These issues have been going on for months, and I needed to take time to figure out a new game plan. So, that’s exactly what I did this morning. The reality is that Facebook hates links, which makes it really difficult to share blog posts. [My new procedures would result in very positive results.]
After breakfast, I did a bunch of caulking of the exterior of the larger cabana. I also started putting up the eavestrough for the larger cabana until I discovered that I’m short a coupler. I also did some yard work.
A Gumbo Limbo outside my house – notice the unusual trunk and bark color
February 5
Life in the jungle: I posted How to Thrive and Be Self-Sufficient in the Belize Jungle. It’s an ultra SEO’d post that I wrote for Google ranking last month as part of a 12-month jungle lifestyle series.
I started a new Belize Trees blog post called Pioneer Trees of Belize: Nature’s First Responders in Rainforest Recovery. After breakfast, I had a video chat with someone else who is possibly interested in living on the farm. After that, I was able to do a little painting on the larger cabana and then did a little yard work at the end of the day.
A few interesting birds were caught on my Merlin app this morning
February 6
Life in the jungle: I continued writing and mostly completed my Pioneer Trees of Belize: Nature’s First Responders in Rainforest Recovery blog post, and then I transitioned to my Belize Superfood series posts and wrote Coconut Water Benefits: Why You Should Drink Coconut Water Daily in Belize.
After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off eggs. Returning home, I spent the rest of the afternoon painting the large cabana.
Since writing my post, I have created a new habit for 2026 of drinking 1 coconut water every morning
More cat tracks on my road
February 7
Life in the jungle: I went to bed later than usual, as I had a call with another prospective person who might be interested in living on the farm yesterday evening. First thing, I worked on my Pioneer Trees of Belize: Nature’s First Responders in Rainforest Recovery blog post.
After feeding the chickens, I planted 110 mahogany seeds, motivated by the need to be working outside and get myself warmed up. These past few months have been nuts with such low morning temperatures (low to mid-teens Celsius). I mean, sure, we get cold spells in December and January in the morning, but this has been going on for two plus months straight. In one sense, I don’t mind, as when the cool temperatures are gone, they are gone. But these temperatures are bonkers.
I was only able to get 110 seeds planted before I ran out of bags. I posted some photos and mentioned I ran out of bags. The museum in Bermudian Landing messaged me, offering to donate more bags. This is huge! After all my visits there to get something going with tree planting, this is the first sign of progress.
I did a little bit of painting on the large cabana until I ran out of primer paint. I then transitioned to chopping in the coconut field. I have been neglecting the coconut field for almost six months, and now it’s dry enough to bushhog (cut), but the young trees have not been cleaned around. It was probably the most neglected project last year.
Mahogany seed bags
February 8
Life in the jungle: A typical cool (cold) morning. After feeding the chickens, I chopped one of my fence lines to warm up. I haven’t done morning chopping in a few months, as the morning dew has been heavy. I don’t need to be cold and wet as a result of morning chopping, but the fence line didn’t require me to walk through tall “wet” vegetation, so it was a perfect job to do to help me warm up.
I did take my usual Sunday nap in the hammock. After lunch, I attempted to start reading a new book, but found it boring. After feeding the chickens in the afternoon, I did some yard work until dark.
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 Life in Belize blog post.
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.
Top-Gallon – The local term for when the Belize River floods its banks during the rainy season.
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 rainy season starts around June 1 and goes until the end of the year. It seems June, November, and December are the wettest times of the year.
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.
I arrived at my home on November 25, 2021, by bicycle from Canada. I have journaled my daily adventures every day since. Since I have arrived, I have built a 1,000 sq-ft shade cloth greenhouse, a tiny apartment that I refer to as my greenhouse apartment. I also started and am close to completion of two small cabanas that I refer to as my smaller cabana and my larger cabana. The apartment and cabanas are for visitors and people wishing to move to my farm. I’m also getting close to completing an additional 1,600 sq-ft shade cloth greenhouse.
