September 21
Life in the Jungle: I finally finished the hen house pen. I let out the hen with the oldest chicks to make sure everything would work out well. And everything did. So tomorrow both hens and chicks get to come out of the hen house. Today was Belize Independence Day.
My new chicken coop [that would ultimately fail]
September 22
Life in the Jungle: I went to bed at a reasonable time last night, falling asleep fairly easily. But I woke up an hour later and that was the end of my sleep. I believe I fell asleep at around 5 AM getting up just after 8 AM. There had been some light rain in the night and continued into the morning. I took advantage of the rain and got some housework completed. After a late breakfast, I wrote Belize blog Part 40, 41 and 42. Taking a small break in my hammock I was out like a light thanks to last night’s sleepless night and that was the end of my day. I woke up just before dark to lock up my chickens.
I then wrote Belize blog Part 43 and 44. I am caught up on my Belize blog posts but now have 32 blog posts to post to my website! After supper, I sorted photos for my book until midnight. I finished choosing potential photos from Peggy’s Cove to Ottawa (Canada).
A pretty big caterpillar
September 23
Life in the Jungle: I rained all night last night. The ground is about as soaked with water as it has ever been. I did not let the chickens out of their coop. I went to the ponds. I haven’t been in a long time. I can’t believe how much grass cutting and chopping it needs. I need to start going back to the ponds to work a few hours every day again.
I spent a few hours in the coconut field. I am even further behind in my work there. I had to regularly search carefully for seedlings before I did any chopping and some of my young coconut trees were even hidden from sight from the height of the weeds.
September 24
Life in the Jungle: Even going to bed after midnight last night I still had a sleepless night. This morning I got my village trip to the grocery store out of the way first thing. Pretty much the rest of my day was spent chopping in the coconut field. I actually got a good section cleaned up. There was rain in the late afternoon. I just worked through it until dark. Once you’re wet, you’re wet.
In the interest of not going to bed at a reasonable time and risking another sleepless night, I sorted my photos out for my Belize blog posts 19, 20 and 21. Having discovered internet access at the library I will always try to post blog posts there if I have time during my city trips. [Which I never did.]
September 25
Life in the Jungle: There was rain again last night. I wonder if this rain will ever stop. I basically spent the whole day chopping in the coconut field. I got another good amount of chopping done. This morning I had to reprime my water pump again. I have no idea what the issue is. I also had to fix a snapped barbed wire from my fence because a heavy branch that dropped over the wire.
Cleaning/chopping around coconut trees
This evening I was watching a bike touring video from the Bike Wanderer when he biked Utah and the National Parks in the US. I find myself missing bike touring more and more recently. I want to bike tour Canada and the USA again.
Tonight, I wrote 1,700 words for chapter 5 of my book (The Province of Saskatchewan to my first day in Alberta.)
September 26
Life in the Jungle: Kind of crappy day. Not nearly as productive as I should have been. My water pump wouldn’t pump again. This is really frustrating as the river is currently 5-6 ft higher than its regular level making trying to get the pump working difficult.
What time I had left this afternoon was spent in the coconut field. I was a little bit more focused on staking seedlings vs chopping. But I did do a bit of chopping also. I need to stake all seedlings before a bushhog can ever return to cut the grass. There was a bit of rain today and I ended up finishing my day getting wet in the rain.
A Red Rump tarantula hiding under my deck
September 27
Life in the Jungle: I spent the day cleaning/washing my eavestroughs and roof. I also wiped down and washed as much of the roof as I could reach by hand. Also, I wire brushed and spray painted some of the edges of zinc roofing from older sections of the roof. Where the zinc edge was cut a long time ago that cut edge starts to rust over time.
As strange as it sounds dirty eavestroughs bug me and make me anxious. Everything in the jungle requires extensive cleaning and maintenance to keep everything from rotting or getting wrecked. Dirty eavestroughs mean I am falling behind or that things are falling apart hence the anxiousness at seeing dirty eavestroughs. I got over halfway done with this job now. No rain today. Because of yesterday’s showers, I didn’t let the chickens out today.
September 28
Life in the Jungle: I had some lime seeds to plant this morning, so I also took the time to plant 100 custard apple seeds in planting bags. That took most of the morning to plant. I had a pineapple plant to plant at the ponds. So, I also took the time to do some chopping at the ponds. I did that until a rain shower sent me home. I had plans of possibly cutting grass as it’s been over a month thanks to all this excessive rain.
Pineapple plants
I wanted mostly to take a nap in the hammock. But the rain from earlier had since stopped so I chopped in the coconut and even through the next thunder and lightning storm. It was good chopping temperatures to work.
September 29
Life in the Jungle: I slept in this morning and that’s a pretty good way to wreck my day. It becomes a lead domino and quickly my whole morning is wasted. When I finally got working, I spent a couple of hours chopping in the coconut field. I then got a call from someone in Willows Bank that could sell me some hens. It was suggested to get directions from someone at the grocery store in the village. On my way to the grocery store, my rear bike tire went flat. The rear wheel tube finally rotted out. I received the tube as a gift from a bike shop just outside of Saint John’s New Brunswick. It was a puncture-resistant tube. In the close to 23,000 km’s, I biked with that tube I think I only got one flat tire in Arizona. I am really going to miss that tube.
Anyway, the guy I needed to speak to at the grocery store was out on deliveries. So, I ended up only getting groceries for myself. Upon returning home I was too exhausted. I ended up just lying in my hammock. What a waste of a day. I wonder if I am feeling this drained because tomorrow is passport stamp day. While I don’t expect to be kicked out of the country, I do anticipate stress, grief, and a hard time.
Tonight, I packed a few things I don’t want lost and I moved important computer files that have not uploaded into the cloud to my external drives (as a result of not having internet). Since all my files except for recent files are in the cloud and my laptop craps out on me I am not nearly concerned about my laptop being left behind upon an unplanned departure out of the country if things go badly for me tomorrow.
Be sure to check out my next blog post to read all about tomorrow’s grief.
My largest tubroos tree on my farm
Belize Part 44 (Sept 12 to 20)
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.
