November 8
Life in the jungle: Today I was able to get half the coconut field clean of all hurricane debris. I finally pulled out the chainsaw to tackle larger branches and one big tree. There is still one big tree left in the field to clean up. I have discovered that I have so far lost 6 cashew seedlings due to too much rain and water.
Soursop
Today I let out my 4 remaining chicks into the backyard as they are no longer chicks anymore. I didn’t know if they would live, but at the end of the day, they were all still alive. They spent most of the day inside the main coop. I finally have a hen laying eggs in the nesting boxes in the main coop.
I got rained on ¾’s of the way watering the papaya seeds at the ponds. This afternoon I also bagged a bunch of pomegranate sprouts in dirt bags. A little over a week ago I placed a handful of seeds in wet paper towels and I planted another handful of seeds directly in the dirt. The seeds in the wet paper towel germinated quickly and with an excellent success rate. No seeds in the dirt germinated yet. [Later on, I would discover that some seeds planted directly into the dirt would germinate. But starting the seeds in paper towels resulted in 100% germination.]
Still no power or internet from the hurricane damage. I am getting frustrated with no power simply due to the fact that everyone for miles around has power and they completely bypassed me. I am getting sick of having Chef Boyardee for breakfast and Kraft dinner for supper every day. Years ago, you could a small selection of Chunky soup varieties in Belize. No more. And the fact that it’s dark by 5:30 PM makes for a long night with no power.
I’m getting sick of eating this day in and day out
November 9
Life in the jungle: I started my morning as usual in the coconut field. Walking every row of coconut trees cleaning any hurricane debris. I replaced 8 young coconut trees that were basically dead from too much water in the field. I also planted 4 new coconut trees because I found space for them. I almost got the coconut field completely clean of hurricane debris.
I went up to the village for some groceries. I discovered that it was my phone, not the internet network that was not working. It was quite a bit of work trying to get my phone working properly but I did. So, now I have an internet connection just no power to charge my phone. No rain today.
Papaya seedling
November 10
Life in the jungle: This morning I got the coconut field completely clean of hurricane debris. This afternoon the power finally came on. I had to fix a drinking water pump situation. Then I went up to the village to get meat. When I returned home there was no power. What grief! After I watered my papaya seeds at the ponds I had to turn around and go back to the village to store my meat in Verna Mae’s freezer. I got home after dark. No rain today.
November 11
Life in the jungle: I went to the city with every expectation to find the power finally on when I got home. I even brought my meat home from the village. The power was not on. But went on 20 minutes after I got home. And then it went off, and then on and then off. I went to the ponds and watered my papaya seeds. By the time I returned to the house the power had been off for an hour and a half. I biked my meat back up to the village for a second day in a row and returned home in the dark. Why do I bother to get up in the mornings? My allergies acted up pretty badly this evening. No rain today.
An unusual pineapple
November 12
Life in the jungle: What can I say, I slept in this morning. I am pretty exhausted the last few days. This morning I worked at cutting up a downed tree that busted some barbed wire and is blocking my path to the river and water pump. After breakfast, I went up to the village. Saul’s wife convinced me yesterday to purchase 4 young hens from her because like Verna Mae she is also having problems with neighbors’ dogs. Since I am down to 4 chicks from 16 originally it wasn’t a hard sell. By the way, the 4 chicks that I thought for sure would have been eaten by now are still alive. I kind of hope that they make it as they are nice and tame around me. Anyway, I picked up 4 new (young) hens. That puts me at 1 rooster, 5 hens, 4 pullets (young hens) and 4 chicks. In the afternoon I ended up cleaning hurricane debris around the yard. I burned a bag of garbage on a felled cohune palm (from the hurricane) in an attempt to try burning it smaller. With a good-sized fire going throwing more branches and debris made sense. Cohune palms are huge palms with thick tall trunks and a huge palm frond ball where the fronds come out of the tree and that you can’t exactly cut up and clean up like a regular tree.
Cohune palms are a mess to clean up
The power came on for like 45 minutes at 5:30 PM and then cut off. This is 10 days with no power and for the last 3 days, I have been “teased” into thinking I have power. Which is not funny. No rain today.
November 13
Life in the jungle: Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I finished reading The Utter Relief of Holiness by John Eldredge and started reading another of his books called Desire.
As per the usual the last 3 days the power came on at 5:15 PM for about 45 minutes. So, this makes 11 days with no power. Seven days ago, the power company bragged how they had 99% of the country’s power restored. No rain today.
Finished reading one, started a new one
November 14
Life in the jungle: Insomnia hit me last night. That made for a rough morning. At about 9:15 AM this morning the power came on and stayed on. Twelve days with no power.
I started my morning getting my water pump and line running as I was getting dangerously low on water. I ran the chainsaw for a bit and then during breakfast, I did some laundry. I’m tired. Just as I was about to back out to work my web developer messaged me that he wouldn’t be doing any more videos for my social media platforms.
Anyway, thank goodness I topped up my water and did some laundry as later in the afternoon the power went out AGAIN! Except for watering my papayas, I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting and clearing hurricane debris in the yard. The power came on at 6 PM and then went out again at 6:45 PM. No rain today.
An unusual insect
November 15
Life in the jungle: Except for watering my papaya seeds in the afternoon I spent the whole day cleaning up hurricane debris in the yard. The yard is now basically clean of hurricane debris. All that’s left is large piles of brush to be burned and two large tree trunks. I still have some fallen coconut trees at the ponds to cut up. I also bagged a bunch of pomegranate sprouts into dirt from my wet paper towel experiment. The power came on just after 6 PM and then went out. That will be 13 days without power. No rain today.
Pomegranate seedlings
***Sidenote: I would discover later that the reason I kept having intermittent power was that my ex-property manager had a generator and was periodically turning it on. Somehow their generator was connected to my power lines. The whole time I thought it was the electric company turning the power on and off.
Belize Part 51 (Oct 29 to Nov 2)
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 a 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.
