May 24
Life in the jungle: I sort of slept in this morning. It’s when I have goofy dreams that I can never remember that I seem to sleep in. Leaving the house to first feed the chickens I sensed that today was going to be another hot one. I think I lost track of how many patio stones I have made now. This afternoon Elton (with the bushhog) started cutting the grass on the road. This is in preparation for the government working on the road this weekend. He is cutting the grass as far back off the road as possible so the dump trucks can see where to turn around.
I spent the remainder of the day installing cabbage palm lumber around the rear of the house. I finished the job. It looks good. Now I just need to do the area around the cement deck. [One year later I am still only partially finished building my cement deck.] While cleaning up after that job there was a thundershower.
My YouTube channel – Safari Arie
May 25
Life in the jungle: I went to the city. My passport stamp is tomorrow but I won’t have room for supplies on tomorrow’s late bus. Yesterday evening I didn’t bother checking on the broilers because of the thunderstorm. This morning, I discovered two of them dead. Was it yesterday’s heat and were they already dead yesterday evening? Extremely frustrating. These broilers are not worth the effort.
I stopped by my lawyer’s office today. It’s been two months since I have seen her last. Apparently, it was only the other week did she acquired the paperwork of the previous owner (of my land) Will. Almost two months to get the paperwork she was expecting to receive the day I last saw her. I basically don’t understand any of the legal technicalities she speaks about but she says it will now be another 3-6 months waiting for my property grants. That is only the next stage. Not when my land deeds are handed to me. If I were to ever sell my land just the pain and suffering compensation would necessitate a $350 million price tag. [Over a year later as far as I can tell I am no closer to getting my land deeds.]
For some reason Belize City has almost no murals
Part of me wanted to sleep upon my return home but part of me knew better. I realized that mixing a half bag of cement for patio stones wouldn’t interfere with tomorrow as I have to go to Belmopan anyway. I also fixed my lawnmower. The other day when I cut the grass the pull cord became seized. Thanks to YouTube I did my first small engine repair.
May 26
Life in the jungle: I bussed it to Belmopan for my passport stamp. They told me they weren’t doing any more extensions today and to come back Monday! (Rrrr!) What the hell does that mean? I actually came today because I thought Monday coming was a holiday (it is in Canada). Five hours wasted on a bus today and $12 USD bus fare!
On the bus ride to Belmopan, I was feeling quite anxious about finances and my future. I wish I was 80 years old and not 50. I saw my very first raccoon in Belize from the Belmopan bus. On a positive note, I was back in the city quickly enough to catch the 12:30 PM bus home and was able to get some fruits and vegetables that I was unable to grab yesterday.
All I wanted to do was sleep when I got home. I compromised with a 40 minute nap. I was determined to get a cement mix in. My latest patio stone count sits at 242 stones made. About 10 minutes after I finished the mix a thunderstorm rolled in. I had to cover up everything as the cement hadn’t set yet. The power even went out. Tomorrow the road gets repaired and my internet tower goes up. What can go wrong? Everything.
May 27
Life in the jungle: In the effort to be positive I got everything ready for my internet tower to be installed. Then I got a message that the internet people were now coming on Thursday. Incompetence at the highest level. On an extremely positive note. After 18 months and the last 9 months of bugging the government, we got 13 loads of rock dumped on my road. Which ultimately saved me at least $4,500 USD to do it myself. This represents the first major victory of 18 months of daily grief living in this country. They were finished at about 4:30 PM. I was too tired to do anything else with my day.
Road repair!
May 28
Life in the jungle: Most of my day was napping in my hammock. It was a hot one. My phone said, “feels like” 40 C (104 F). I did some calculations to figure out a lumber order to frame in and finish my cement deck (bottom portion, not rails).
May 29
Life in the jungle: This morning was a trip to Belmopan for my passport stamp. I was in and out in 10 minutes. I was able to catch the next bus back to Belize City and catch the 12:30 PM bus home. I had just enough time to pick up my birthday gift sent from Canada. My first ever coffee maker.
Getting home I cut the grass around the house. This is the first time I cut the grass around the house this year due to the excessively dry weather. Tonight, I made my first coffee ever.
Believe it or not, this is the first coffee that I have ever made. I turned 50 less than 2 weeks ago.
May 30
Life in the jungle: This morning I am back to making patio stones. I also got back to some painting. I used up the remaining acrylic primer on the last section of the apartment exterior and finished most of the exterior framing of the cabbage palm skirt I finished last week. I did a little bit of cleaning under the house, some grass cutting around the house, and then slaughtered my last broiler chicken. Today was a feels like 106 F.
I always appreciate finding whip scorpions under the house.
It made me think about what else lives under my house at any given time. I regularly find lots of scorpions, toads, spiny-tail iguanas, giant cockroaches, regular cockroaches, cat-eyed snakes (along with other species of snakes), bats, tree frogs, house geckos, red rump tarantulas, dwarf geckos and who knows what else.
May 31
Life in the jungle: Another morning, and another 12 patio stones made. I had a little bit of painting of the apartment. I have one small section to put a final coat and then the exterior of the apartment is completely finished with painting except whenever I add exterior trim.
I headed to the village to purchase the lumber I needed to frame the cement deck and get groceries. Arriving home, the lumber arrived. My last job was to clean out the broiler chicken coops. Until I find someone willing to slaughter my broilers I don’t anticipate raising anymore for a while. It’s too much work to slaughter them myself. While I was spreading the dirty coop shavings in the coconut field, I caught a black-tailed cribo snake. The weather continues to be very hot and humid.
Black-tail cribo snake in a pillow case. Pillow cases are the best way to transport snakes and other reptiles.
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.
