June 10
Life in the jungle: After I finished my patio stones this morning I headed to the village for groceries. I spent the rest of my day going through and organizing my computer notes on an online t-shirt business I would like to start.
It didn’t feel like I accomplished much of anything today. The electric company meter reader who is older than me casually mentioned that he doesn’t remember a hotter June.
A young spiny tail iguana
June 11
Life in the jungle: Being Sunday I didn’t exactly accomplish anything today. But it’s my guilt-free, no-work day. But I did learn about ChatGPT. A very interesting AI content tool.
June 12
Life in the jungle: I made my dozen patio stones. I had some computer work to do. I had a call with my web developer about some online options for this business I want to start. Yesterday I watered my seedlings by the house realizing that I should have watered them days ago. This made me nervous about the need to water the seedlings at the ponds as I hadn’t even been to the ponds in weeks. On my way, I realized I should grab a pillow case (snake bag) but was too lazy. Sure enough, I caught a young black tail Cribo snake. It was only a few hours earlier that I told my web developer that I find my sanity in the anticipation of what’s around the next corner. It just so happened to be a young black tail Cribo snake. The heat just doesn’t want to relent.
Black tail Cribo snake
June 13
Life in the jungle: I had monkey mind last night and had a very difficult time falling asleep. That dominoed into my morning. I did get my dozen patio stones finished. It would seem that the heat wave of the last 30 days has possibly come to an end. I just wish we would get some rain. I am certain that my cashew tree did not bear fruit this year due to a lack of rain. My breadfruit tree looks horrible and has dropped virtually all its fruit in the last couple of weeks. I swear the coconuts have shrunk on the trees. Last year, we went from way too much rain to an instant prolonged dry season to a rainy season that is now 2-3 weeks longer than usual. The weather app for weeks shows rain a few days in the future and the next day pushes the rain back in the forecast another day.
My breadfruit tree looks horrible and all the breadfruits have dropped.
I continued working on my computer today. I am watching a business course my web developer suggested to me. In the afternoon the internet signal dropped for some unknown reason. I figured it was my queue to do some outdoor work. I moved some of my recently made patio stones to the greenhouse. I also headed to the ponds to do some chopping in preparation for planting. Eventually, the rain will come and I have a lot of seedlings to plant at the ponds.
June 14
Life in the jungle: I made my patio stones and spent the entire day watching and taking notes from YouTube Shopify tutorials.
Lots of new patio stones
June 15
Life in the jungle: After making my patio stones I worked all day on my new website. I found a graphic designer on Fiverr to modify my existing logo and create 2 more similar logos for my different t-shirt collections. I also registered my website domain www.safariarie.co and started building my website. I hate trying to understand website dashboards. The reality is that a lot of time was wasted just to accomplish the little that was accomplished. But I do like the creative angle I am taking this clothing line. In a way, it’s kind of nice to be distracted by this next venture. However every day I fall behind on all my other (outdoor) jobs.
June 16
Life in the jungle: This morning I headed to the city. My main focus was picking up all the necessary supplies to properly ground my internet tower. That job still needs to be completed. I also moved all my most recently made patio stones to the greenhouse. I got some logo drafts sent to me. I sent them back for edits.
June 17
Life in the jungle: Upon completion of my making my patio stones Jamie, my internet tower helper showed up to ground my tower. I spent the rest of the day working on my t-shirt website. I have a good chunk of the creative side of the website laid out. I got more logo drafts. I sent them back again for edits.
June 18
Life in the jungle: Being Sunday, I did nothing but marathon the last 6 episodes of The Chosen Season 3 and take a long nap.
June 19
Life in the jungle: I made my dozen patio stones first thing and then continued to work on my clothing brand website and watch t-shirt tutorials the whole day.
June 20
Life in the jungle: There was a little rain last night. I made my patio stones and then I decided to finally climb my 60 ft internet tower. I figured if not now then when? The view was okay. I mean it’s green and flat as far as the eye can see. I then went up to the village for some groceries. The rest of my day was spent watching Shopify tutorials on YouTube. There was a short burst of rain tonight.
The house, the greenhouse and the coconut field from on top of the tower
June 21
Life in the jungle: First thing I made my patio stones. Before they had a chance to properly harden, I had to run out in the rain to cover them with plastic. The rain shower ended up being short.
Most days since I started working on my Print on demand (POD) website I feel like over 60% of my day is wasted. Few things frustrate me more than wasting my time. Today felt like I wasted over 85% of the day. I just want to scream. I spend so much time watching Shopify tutorials. It is very time-consuming. I am running into a dashboard formatting issue that is ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated. I don’t see how this website will ever pay off someday in return for my efforts.
There was some rain and thunder this evening.
June 22
Life in the jungle: This morning the skies looked like rain. I held off from making patio stones. Yesterday’s frustrations lingered and drained much of my motivation. After breakfast, I made my patio stones. I continued working on my Shopify website issue. It basically took the whole day but it appears that right at the end of the day I fixed the issue except I am not exactly sure how I fixed the issue. So, I am not sure if I am any further ahead or further behind. But it’s fixed for the moment.
Of Note: At this time I am currently 11 to 12 months behind in posting my Belize blog posts due to having no internet for the first 18 months of living in Belize.
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.
