August 24
Life in the jungle: I woke up at 5 AM, with the stress of a rotting and costly house deck falling back asleep was not possible. [See photos in last blog post.] I started my morning chopping the coconut field. After breakfast I cut the grass at the ponds. And then the rain started. That put me in the hammock for an afternoon nap. After my nap I organized and edited all my current Belize photos up to date. It rained on and off all afternoon.
I caught a boa constrictor at the ponds while cutting the grass. He is kind of on the skinny side but I do love catching boa constrictors.
Boa Constrictor
August 25
Life in the jungle: It rained all night last. The rain stopped mid morning but everything was drenched. There is no point in working outside when things are this drenched. I spent the day working on Chapter 2 of my book. My chapter 2 (or my Atlantic Canada chapter) blog notes add up to over 14,000 words. After spending most of the day writing my draft my chapter currently sits at 7,000 words written into the first draft. I guess I am about half way completed chapter 2.
My Lizard eater snake escaped last night (that I caught the other day). But I found him in the bedroom under the dresser. Somehow, he got out of his tied pillow case. Pillow cases are how keep larger snakes for a day or two for photograph purposes. That way the snake can move around inside the pillow case without hurting themselves. I did my video recording of him this afternoon so I could release him.
My escaped Lizard Eater Snake
I coughed a lot today.
August 26
Life in the jungle: A bit of rain in the night. Overcast and thunder showers on and off all day and night today. I worked on my book again today. Chapter 2 now sits at 12,000 words typed. 5,000 more words than yesterday. That being said, today was not quite as productive for writing as yesterday as I gave a proof read to yesterday’s work. I think proof reading is going to kill me on this project. How many times will I have to read the same chapter over and over before the book is published someday?
A Water Spider
August 27
Life in the jungle: Somehow, I slept in this morning. Which is weird as have be going to bed at reasonable times. The rain has stopped, but things are wet. I went to the village for groceries. The road is pretty messed up. I spent the rest of the day, as my father says “puttering” around the yard doing odd jobs. The mosquitos are kind of bad.
My road
August 28
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping at the ponds. Without fail, when I spend my morning chopping, I end up taking a nap for a couple of hours. I spent another afternoon “puttering” in the front yard. Things are fairly cleaned up and organized for next weeks work week.
Wild papaya flowers. Male left photo. Female right photo
August 29
Life in the jungle: Of course, I have a sleepless night on the night before I go to the city. Today was about trying to get my work permit approval wheels rolling. Arriving at the tax department they told me my corporation is not registered with them so therefore they can’t give me my approval letter from them. I don’t even have my corporation papers. I called James and he explained to the tax department about the delay about my corporation papers. And he said he would call me as soon as he got to the city. Which of course he didn’t. Good thing I have given up caring about just about everything. The bulk of my time was getting construction materials and supplies to get caught up on all my jobs I am way behind on. A very hot day in the city today.
Getting home I planted some Chinese apple and Custard apple seeds that I had soaking in water since last night. I then started putting the walls up on my chicken coop. I am using the cabbage palm that Nery brought over a month ago.
I have basically stopped taking hot showers. A cold shower is not exactly cold as it is water that is sitting in a vat underneath the house. I realized that given everything I am dealing with in this country if I can survive that then I can easily deal with a cold shower at the end of the day also. I might as well save the money on a cheaper electrical bill.
August 30
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping in the coconut field. I spotted a boa constrictor. I glimpsed his tail for just a second and he was gone. The grass was so thick that I never saw him again. This would actually be the first boa constrictor that ever escaped me. But this is my second boa in a week. I never saw two in a week like this before.
I thought I would be able to get the exterior walls on my chicken coop completed. I am not even halfway completed. I never heard back from James (my paralegal) today about my tax department situation. Somethings never change in Belize. The rain held off today until this evening and then it rained really hard until bed time.
My chicken coop so far
August 31
Life in the jungle: Because of last night’s heavy rain there would be no chopping this morning. This morning coming out of the house I saw a beautiful Speckled Racer snake headed towards the house. I couldn’t catch him. The reason why they call them racers is for a reason.
A Huntsman spider in the house
I got another portion of the chicken coop exterior wall completed. I was unable to finish due to an afternoon rain shower. Everything is mud. The mosquitos were bad but with everything soaked I couldn’t start a smoke fire to ward of the mosquitoes.
My chicken coop
September 1
Life in the jungle: It’s so weird that it’s September now. For all I know it’s July.
I slept like crap last night which made for a late start this morning. It would seem we got more rain last night. Things are pretty wet this morning. I finished the exterior of the chicken coop. I also got a good portion of the exterior for the outdoor kitchen hearth completed.
I posted my photo of the chicken coop on Facebook. Verna Mae called me when she saw the photos. She told me she just called someone to pick up her chickens. Her one daughter’s dog keeps killing her chickens and won’t do anything about it. Verna Mae is all by herself and has 8 adult children (I think) and 6 of them live on her land and none of them barely lift a finger to help her.
Belize Part 40 (Aug 20 to 23)
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.
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
Nery – a local in the area that helps me with certain projects when needed. A very knowledgeable guy originally from El Salvador. He teaches me a lot about farming and tree.
