Last week I started to replace my rear section of deck due to wood rot.
March 16
Life in the jungle: After Orlando arrived, we mixed 2 and a half bags of cement and poured four of the six columns required for the new deck. It was a long hot day mixing cement all day. In the evening, I went up to the hardware store for some PVC parts. Earlier in the day I had to cut an indoor section of PVC pipe to facilitate the position of one of the columns. So, until reconnected the pipe I had no kitchen sink water.
The building steps of a column
March 17
Life in the jungle: After Orlando arrived, we poured the last two cement columns. We had enough wet cement left over that we poured a footing in the greenhouse that I now needed. I plan to install a water vat on the top corner of the greenhouse so that the watering of plants can be done by gravity instead of a pump. The vat will also be directly connected to the river pump instead of the house pump. After lunch, we wired up some steel rods that will be part of the belt beams. I was exhausted by the time Orlando left but yesterday I had bought some plant fertilizer at the hardware store. I started fertilizing certain plants and seedlings around the house until dark.
My seedling mamee fruit tree along side the fruit
March 18
Life in the jungle: I slept in this morning but worked late. After laundry and breakfast, I continued watering/ fertilizing trees in the coconut field. I then did a little painting on the apartment. Afterward, I headed to the ponds to fertilize my papayas and seedlings. I have lost a lot of papaya plants. It’s very frustrating.
I saw a nice Black tail Cribo snake. I almost caught him as he initially kept to the shore of one of the ponds, but he then swam across the pond to the other side. When doing laundry I caught a cat-eyed snake in the laundry closet. My next job was to remove all the forms from the concrete columns we poured yesterday. Nery showed up with 90 pieces of cabbage palm wood. I ordered the wood to make a skirt around the house and the future new deck we are building.
Stacked Cabbage palm lumber
The internet guys never showed up AGAIN! It’s been 1 month now! Their office is six kilometers away. I could rant and scream a 1,000 word blog post right now. But it wouldn’t do me a lick of good. So as usual, I suck on it.
March 19
Life in the jungle: The other day Lyndon the hardware store manager who is Mennonite invited me to his church. I haven’t been to church in over 3 years since my bike ride started. I haven’t been to a Belizean church service since 1998. Small churches and small congregations sort of freak me out as I am rather uncomfortable around people I don’t know. Being a small congregation I recognized quite a few people from shopping at the grocery store. After the service, Lyndon had invited me to his home for lunch. With my uncomfortableness around people, I survived the experience.
Just before I left home this morning Orlando arrived. He took yesterday off because he hadn’t been feeling well for most of the week. For some reason, he was determined to frame in the belt beam bottoms of the deck with his son this morning. By the time I had gotten home, he was gone.
Upon my arrival home, I heard the water pump running. I soon discovered that a hose had somehow come loose and pumped 95% of all my drinking water out of the holding vat. This is not good.
This evening I received a message about hosting a couple of cyclists headed to Argentina this Tuesday. We shall see if they arrive.
My YouTube Channel
March 20
Life in the jungle: Orlando showed up and we worked all day on building belt beam forms. Also, I almost died of a heart attack. The internet guys showed up after 30 days. The junior guy and the young kid from across the river. That took 30 days for them to get the kid from across the river to come help?!? They ended up raising the dish at least another 26 feet in the air. They need to come back tomorrow. Today was rather overcast with an occasional sprinkle of rain. Not enough to affect the day.
That is really high up
March 21
Life in the jungle: Orlando showed up and we spent the day working on the deck belt beam forms. I called the internet guys at 11 AM inquiring about their whereabouts. I was told they were leaving in a few minutes. They arrived at 2 PM. And then they left to realign the Isabella Bank tower to line up with my dish. They said they were coming right back but of course, they never did.
Things are coming together
March 22
Life in the jungle: I needed to go to the city for some construction materials for the deck. It was a fairly quick visit as everything I needed was in the downtown area but my bus doesn’t leave until 12:30 PM.
My time in the city would end up being interesting in the least. I ran into an old acquaintance and friend of my ex-property managers. He confided in me that when my property managers were causing me all my problems shortly after my arrival to Belize, Jack reached out to him to see how “he” might “hurt” me.
Because I had time, I walked over to my lawyer as I had not heard from her in a month and a half. I am not sure how the timing worked out as my visit was not scheduled but while talking to her, she reached out to James Francisco the paralegal that is responsible for most of my legal problems. Somehow James was right there on the street. The three of us had a sit down right then and there. There are times I wish I had violent tendencies. Like this morning. I don’t understand legal procedures but my lawyer was pleased with the possible outcomes. I have almost no experience with lawyers but I am always worried when they are happy. I trust no one in this country. [To this day I continue to excuses instead of results from this lawyer.]
I got a flat tire when I got home. And of course, the internet guys canceled on me. What a day. My cycling guests, a young couple from Alaska arrived this evening on their way to Argentina.
Belize Part 71 (March 6 to 15)
Belize Part 70 (Feb 23 to March 5)
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. In my first 2 years of living in Belize, I also planted about 250 assort fruit tree seedlings (Lime, jackfruit, custard apple, pomegranate and avocado).
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.
