January 24
Life in the jungle: It was hard to get out of my hammock this morning. After yesterday’s bull shit at immigration, it’s hard to find motivation. Which sucks because I have so much to do. [Belize Immigration only gave me 7 days instead of 30 days on my passport stamp yesterday when I came back from Guatemala. That way they can charge me another $100 USD for my stamp.]
I had to fix my front door as all of a sudden it wouldn’t close properly. Then I went up to the village. I need internet and I needed to push these guys. The guy made some calls and secured the equipment needed.
Supposedly Jill was released from the hospital yesterday. They came for her pet parrot this morning. I guess she will now be living with Derrick on Flowers Bank Road. I guess she is probably never coming back to the farm (thankfully). And her husband never showed back up from Canada. I guess it sucks to be married to someone for some odd 30 years and find out they don’t care. [Last week she broke her leg very badly and was stuck lying on the floor for almost four days unable to reach her phone to call for help. I guess her loving husband didn’t think it was unusual for a 73 year old person to not answer her phone all weekend.]
When I got home, I did a little bit of painting. I then went to the ponds to water my papayas earlier than usual. I wanted to spend some extra time watering them as they went a few days without water while I was in Guatemala. While at the ponds I witnessed one of the most bizarre snake behaviors I have ever witnessed. At first, I thought there were like 5 subadult Speckled Racer snakes together. In the end, I think it was closer to 20 racers. The thing was I was back and forth against the pond edge trying to catch them, but they wouldn’t escape into the pond. I finally caught one. And then I realized they kept heading back to the same area over and over. So, I decided to just crouch quietly and wait. I caught two more because I was crouched right where they were hanging out and the snakes eventually kept returning to where I was crouched even after multiple misses at catching them. But all around me were more and more racers.
Speckled Racer Snakes – one of my favorites
So, I walked home with three racers in my hands. I bagged them in a pillow case for photos later on. I was curious what I would find upon return to the ponds. Upon my return, there were all these racers in the very same spot. This time I focused on videotaping them. I just crouched quietly recording them looking around as I did and there were racers all around me and in the bushes. No adults or babies, all subadults all the same size. Some of them came within inches of me as long as I didn’t move. If I had to shift my position to get comfortable, they would scatter but then return. And that pretty much was the rest of my day.
Speckled Racer snake
January 25
Life in the jungle: I had plans to work on my next chicken coop but I got a call from Saul about putting in a water line priming tank and helping cut down a tree that threatened to do a lot of damage if and when it fell over someday. I first started with yard work to keep me flexible for his arrival. Then the internet guys showed up to look over my house about installing internet equipment. Then they left. When Saul didn’t show up for a few hours, I started caulking the apartment to prep for painting.
Saul and Joseph finally showed up. They had tractor engine problems to fix. First, they set up a water line primer tank. This is yet to be tested. Then they cut a cohune palm tree down that risked heavy damage to either my house or breadfruit tree or chicken coops someday whenever it decided to fall from heavy winds. The tree was probably about 25 feet+ high with its fronds. Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly land where it was planned and landed right in the front pond. They dragged a portion of the trunk into the bush. The whole top part of the palm tree is smack dab in the middle of the pond. They also cut up and dragged two more cohune palm trees into the bush that already fell as a result of Hurricane Lisa. I had a total of three of these trees fall as a result of the last hurricane. Which is why this particular tree we cut was really making me nervous. Also, after the cohune fell into the pond one of those 4-eyed opossums popped out of the top of the tree all wet. Lucky for him he was alright.
This cohune tree did not land where I wanted it to
Tonight, I slept in my bed in the master bedroom for the very first time. When I first arrived in Belize, I slept up in my loft for the first 6 months. Then I switched to sleeping in my hammock for the last 8 months. But I noticed my back was pretty sore in Guatemala from not sleeping in a bed since May. This sudden back pain from sleeping in a bed scared me. It would be wise to get my body used to sleeping back in a bed.
January 26
Life in the jungle: I spent the day framing my second hen house coop until I ran out of 4″ nails. Then I watered my papaya plants at the ponds. The internet guys never showed up!!! [This would be the start of this company putting me through hell.]
Chicken coop progress
January 27
Life in the jungle: There was a little rain last night. I started my morning walking through the coconut field. The bushhog is supposed to show up tomorrow morning and I wanted to make sure the field was ready for him. I then went to the village hoping to figure out why the internet guys never showed up. Apparently, the equipment they secured didn’t work on their system but the good news is the shipment of equipment that had been sitting at the port since before Christmas had now cleared and was being picked up.
After lunch, a very brief rain shower passed over. I took a minute in my hammock for the rain to complete its pass. In less than a minute I was asleep for the next three hours. I never saw that coming. I didn’t have much time left in the day upon waking up. But I framed one more wall section of my second hen coop. At the village, I had grabbed a pound of 4″ nails. That was enough for another wall section. I just have an end wall section to complete but I ran out of lumber and nails.
I also planted my Rosella (edible hibiscus) seeds in a seed tray this afternoon.
January 28
Life in the jungle: There was a little rain last night. The bushhog guy came this morning. He got the job about 3/4 of the way done and got a flat tire. He’s coming back tomorrow to finish the job. I spent the whole day working on fastening the chicken wire on the chicken coop. This evening, I wrote Belize blog posts 64 and 65.
Chicken City is taking taking form
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.
