August 20
Life in the jungle: Orlando and Joseph came this morning. We finished installing the door on the apartment and we put the roof on the front entrance of the greenhouse. [The door was actually shipped damaged and I would return and replace it a month later]. After they left, I cut some grass and started adding some screws to fasten the plycem board that was installed on the apartment. Only a minimal number of screws were added to place the plycem sheets to the framing when the plycem was installed earlier. I still need to go around and add more screws to finish the job.
A host from my bike ride messaged me the other day. He thinks because every once in awhile that I post something about the horrible failures of the Canadian government that I am somehow angry. Because of the current government I am embarrassed to be a Canadian often, but there is no point in getting angry over it. Anyways, over the last few days he’s been asking my thoughts on certain things. Only this morning I was thinking to myself – why are you asking me all these questions. We obviously don’t think alike. My experience over the last year is that if you don’t agree with a liberal their only option is to hate you and unfriend you. In our Messenger conversation I pointed out that our coward of a Prime Minister, Trudeau sent in the military to go after Canadians singing Oh Canada, waving Canadian flags whose children were playing in bouncy castles during the truck convoy protest. And he had veterans arrested for standing guard over the unnamed soldier. Well, that was too much for him. This guy, who says he didn’t vote for Trudeau unfriended me and blocked me on Facebook. “Another” bike ride host who wants nothing to do with me because I am not a liberal. In what world would I want to be a liberal? Inclusion disguised as special interest hate groups. You only fool yourselves. I also find it very amusing when someone blocks me. What do they think I plan on doing? Wasting my life away by liking all your photos?
A red rump tarantula burrow
August 21
Life in the jungle: I woke up this morning reflecting on yesterday’s experience from a supposed “friend.” Yesterday’s experience was nothing new for me. I have experienced this sort of thing more times than I wish to remember. That being said, its still a disruptive experience to the soul of a person. Upon reflection and attempting to put thought to paper I have realized that it’s the thought of interacting and meeting the hundreds of people that for one reason or another will cross my path in my remaining time on this planet that will ultimately reveal their true colors that make my life so mentally exhausting. There is a point where it is no longer about pain or hurt. It is about mental fatigue; it is about the sustained exhaustion of living long enough to have to meet another human being.
I have no choice but to laugh at my own situation. Its either laugh or cry. My life is on public display via social media and there is virtually nothing I can do about it. Instead of deleting my social media platforms to find peace and escape from people I have recently agreed to let my website developer grow my social media follower base to 100k people (his number, not mine). An audience that I need to sell my new book I recently decided to write about my human experiences on my bike ride. How stupid am I?
While I am at it. If you find yourself to be one of those liberals that hate, you should just unfollow me today. I don’t think the way you do and I never will. How do you know that you are a liberal hater? Your hatred is disguised as inclusion and humanism but you actually have no tolerance for people that think differently than you. You are always offended, especially by things that have nothing to do with you and you regularly unfriend people and family on social media and in real life. If that’s you, I promise, you will hate me as a person.
I spent the better part of the day writing my new book. Today I focused on general descriptions of all my different stages during my bike ride. For example, what did my day to day look like in the winter and then in the summer, in the USA and then Mexico. I don’t want my book to be a daily diary but a collection of short interesting stories. But I still need to include a description of what my days on a bike looked like.
August 22
Life in the jungle: Orlando and Joseph showed up this morning. A busy day today. We put the facia on the front entrance roof of the greenhouse. We put in a rain barrier roof over the front door of the apartment. We framed the roof over the outside kitchen. We put in the 4 corner posts for the main chicken coop. After they left, I raced to the hardware store for supplies for tomorrow. I saw 3 Crested Guana birds on the road. I got home in the dark.
I caught a lizard eater or a dryad snake (Dryadophis melanolomus) in my tool room. I believe this is my first capture of this species. I hope he didn’t eat my banded gecko that lives in my tool room.
Lizard eater or Dryad snake
August 23
Life in the jungle: This morning Joseph did some mortar work around the apartment shower while Orlando and I had a look at a section of my house deck that had “sunk.” We pulled off a face plate and revealed a lot of wood rot. I headed to the village to borrow a saber saw and get some saw blades. By the time I returned Orlando and Joseph had put on the zinc for the outdoor kitchen roof and had pulled off another section of deck facing. More rot. Jack had built the deck for rain water to sit instead off run off and dry. It was apparent that the entire rear deck would have rot to some extent. Thousands and thousands of dollars wasted and would require thousands and thousands of dollars in repairs. What an F’d up life I am living.
A rotting deck
I didn’t have the money to start building a greenhouse but I know that I can’t survive down here without one. I definitely didn’t have the money for an apartment but I feel like the apartment could make a huge difference for me to be able to be able to live here and not be forced back to Canada for financial reasons (in the future). But I only have the framing and exterior partially completed on the greenhouse. The greenhouse doesn’t even have a floor. I am almost 3 years unemployed now. And now I am looking at a rotting house deck!
Orlando asked what did I want to do? I replied that I didn’t want to think about it. Let’s work on the chicken coop instead. Orlando and Joseph ended up working on it without me. It was a two-man job and there was three off us. I cleaned up the mess from pulling apart the deck facer boards. I can’t think properly when there is a mess. Orlando and Joseph finished framing the chicken coop and putting a roof on the structure. I will deal with the exterior walls and interior design of the chicken coop on my own. After all that was completed, I asked for suggestions regarding my deck and what to do moving forward. Joseph is the one who suggested replacing the wooden deck with a cement deck. Right now, this sounds like a good option. But it’s anyone’s guess when that will job will happen.
Chicken coop framed and roof installed
Basically, I am mostly done with using Orlando and Joseph for work for the time being. Most of everything that needs working on I can do myself except for the fact I can’t believe how much work I have to do around the farm. It’s actually overwhelming. I have the greenhouse, apartment, outdoor kitchen and chicken coop to finish. I am way behind in chopping at the ponds, coconut field and river lot. And I am now writing a book. And none of this makes me a dime of an income. It only costs me $1,000’s of dollars every month.
After Orlando and Joseph left, I biked the saber saw back up to the village. I saw the three Crested Guan birds again. I stopped by the ponds on my way back to the house. The grass there is out of control.
An endangered Crested Guan
Belize Part 38 (Aug 1 to 8)
Belize Part 39 (Aug 9 to 19)
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this blog post. This glossary will be at the bottom of every blog post for Belize.
Jack & Jill – These are my ex-property managers (names changed). They are Canadian, they introduced me to Belize in 1997, sold me their house in Belize in 2003, and rebuilt my house from 2014 to 2018. I have known them for over 30 years. After almost 20 years of me supporting their life here in Belize Jack decided quite unexpectedly to declare “war” on me right before Christmas 2021. They would end up stealing my business license and causing me a lot of grief. They live on the farm, but not on my land.
Wayne – He is the son of the original owners of the farm (both owners are deceased). The original farm was 2 – 30 acre pieces minus 2 – ¾ acre parcels for my house and 2 – ¾ acre parcels that Jack & Jill own which were all originally purchased from the original owners. In 2017 Wayne sold me 40 acres of land from the original 60 acres (30 acres plus 10 acres). Wayne lives in his parent’s house and has a few cows on his remaining 17 acres of land.
Orlando & Joseph – Orlando is an older gentleman from the village and Joseph is technically one of my closest neighbors living just across the river. These are the guys I now call on when I need construction help. They kind of work as a team but sometimes only or the other shows up when I call.
The ponds – I have 2 large (300ft long x 50ft wide x 10ft deep) ponds on my 30 acre parcel of land which is basically jungle. I have about 60 coconut trees (mostly mature) around the ponds. I have plans to plant a few hundred papaya trees here plus other fruit-bearing trees around the ponds.
The coconut field – I have about 400 coconut trees planted (various growth states) on about 3 acres of cleared land of the 10 acre parcel. I plan to add various fruit trees to the same field as soon as I can.
The river lot – my house sits on an 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 2 main seasons. The rainy season and the dry (no rain). The wet is obviously the rainy season.
Chopping – using my machete to clear brush, vines, weeds and unwanted trees
