April 15
Life in the jungle: My rooster let me sleep in a bit this morning. I spent the whole day painting. My first priority was the internet tower. I had to finish priming two sections and I got the first coat of paint on the other four sections. I also put a second coat on the back section of the house I was working on previously. I also painted a small section of the apartment.
Before I headed to the ponds, I had to fix a section of Wayne’s barbed wire fence. Some of his cows escaped from his pasture at the river bank edge. His cows running loose will only cause me grief and Wayne only comes home one weekend every month or two. On the way back to the house I saw a Coatimundi.
I had just enough time to water everything at the ponds and got home just before dark. I often wonder how on earth I am supposed to get a job (via the internet) when I finally get the internet hooked up and still stay on top of my daily workload. One word – impossible.
Finally – some passion fruit
This evening I cracked a molar (that has a cavity) on a popcorn. This is not good (from a cost and time perspective). Shortly after 7 PM, I heard a frog “cry” from outside. I discover a struggle between life and death between a cat-eyed snake and a milky tree frog.
The following photos were taken from 7 PM until I went to bed at 12:30 AM. I woke up at 4 AM and they were gone. At first, I was curious about the outcome until I realized that the snake was using very little strength to hold the tree frog as he was able to anchor himself to the house. And that the tree frog would eventually be too exhausted to hold out at some point.
A fight to the death between a Cat-eyed snake and Milky tree frog
April 16
Life in the jungle: Today is my down day (or my Sabbath). In the first part of my morning, I finally finished reading The Year of the Turtle. But I did break my own rules and painted a coat of paint on my internet tower. I need the paint on those tower sections as soon as possible as the longer the paint is on the stronger and harder the coat of paint is for the installation. I anticipate many scratches and scuffs during installation.
I finally finished reading The Year of the Turtle
I spent the rest of the afternoon napping in my hammock. Later this afternoon slaughtered my second chicken. The process went smoother than last week but is still time-consuming. I still have four broilers that are ready for slaughter today.
Four more broilers ready for slaughter
April 17
Life in the jungle: My morning got a bit of a late start. I woke up to a rain shower. Unfortunately, not nearly enough rain. Barely a soaking. But with overcast skies, I can’t paint today. I had planned to work on the greenhouse water tower. It wasn’t until I was up on the top did, I realize my drill bit was long enough for the job at hand.
I switched jobs and went to work on my broiler coop and feed box. I worked on them all day. At the end of the day, there was a small sprinkle of rain. I was able to complete one broiler coop and the feed box and start on the second broiler coop. There was thunder all day.
April 18
Life in the jungle: A slow start this morning. There was a little rain this morning so painting was out of the question. I spent most of the day finishing the broiler coops. I finished my day doing odd jobs around the house.
Two broiler coops and a feed box
Chicken City is taking form
April 19
Life in the jungle: With returned sunny skies today was all about painting. I did some odd jobs first thing and then after breakfast, I painted all day. Another coat of paint on the internet tower. More painting of the apartment and another coat on the top section of the house.
Painting the apartment and her windows
This morning some guys came to chop on the road in front of my house. Technically the road continues in front of my house to the river. But has not been chopped or cleaned in many, many years. There is an old guy who owns a piece of land past my house on the other side of the road. Every once in a while he brings someone down the road to try to sell it. I guess an overgrown road is a bad selling point. Of course, these guys left garbage everywhere. Like I said in the last post. I have never met a Belizean that cares about the environment. And they love to throw garbage. After all, it’s not their problem.
Garbage found and collected
My YouTube Channel – Safari Arie. Please Subscribe
April 20
Life in the jungle: Another paint day. I worked on my seedlings until breakfast. After breakfast, I put another coat of paint on the internet tower and then more painting on the apartment. Mid-way through the internet guy showed up to go over the remaining materials required. He will pick them up tomorrow. At the end of the day, I headed up to the village for chicken food.
April 21
Life in the jungle: I got a message this morning that the feed store got my dozen layer chicks that I had ordered almost a month ago. I had ordered them because my hens had not been sitting on any of their eggs. After the chicks didn’t come in a few weeks ago I figured they never would. So, first thing I headed to the village for the chicks. On my road, I saw a mother agouti with a baby. That was the first time I ever saw a baby.
A dozen layers
As I was about to start painting, I made a decision. The other week Orlando noticed that the section of the internet tower the internet guys want to use as the bottom base is actually the top piece of an old tower. By using this top section as a base now technically the tower would be put up upside-down. This will cause the tower to rust more quickly. I figure by the time this tower is up it will have cost me over $1,000 USD for everything. [It would end up being over $2,000 USD.] That’s too much money to allow something to rot away prematurely when there is a way to fix it even if takes half a week longer to install. The decision pisses me off but I feel better for it. I am pissed that the internet guys didn’t catch this themselves or likely they intentionally ignored the situation. Regardless I am getting them to fix the tower so it can be installed correctly.
The top is actually the bottom
After lunch, I finished my last cost of paint on the tower. I painted the apartment and the top back section of the house. At the end of the afternoon, I headed to the ponds to water seedlings.
Belize Part 75 (April 6 to 14)
Belize Part 74 (March 30 to April 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.
