For months I have been making a dozen patio stones almost every morning for my new greenhouse.
August 17
Life in the jungle: There was a rain shower early this morning. The sky also looked a little weird for a bit. But I did get my dozen patio stones finished. I have only two more pours left. After breakfast, I went back to taking the video course I started a long time ago.
This evening, I discovered that I now have a fourth hen that is sitting on eggs. I am not sure what to do. I am going to run out of chicken coops to raise these chicks in. I definitely don’t have the time to build another pen around one of my broiler chicken pens and I’m not sure it’s a wise use of money.
A new hen sitting on eggs
This evening, my web developer helped with some website design updates. I worked on this until after midnight when I mysteriously lost my internet connection for the night.
August 18
Life in the jungle: I made my dozen patio stones. I took extra time this morning making them as I am going to do a video about making patio stones for my video course that I am taking. One more pour to go. After breakfast, I headed to the village for groceries. For some reason, there wasn’t much left of my day. I think I have decided that I am going to build another chicken pen around one of my broiler houses. I finalized a design and messaged Saul for 40 6ft 2×4’s for the project.
With not much time left in my day, I chopped in the coconut field until dark. The weeds are so tall I had a hard time even finding some of the coconut trees. That’s bad. I was pretty tired this evening.
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August 19
Life in the jungle: There were four new chicks this morning. I completed my final pour for making patio stones. I have made a total of 930 patio stones since I started making them the first week in May. I took a little time and video-recorded the process like I did yesterday. I rewarded myself afterward with a short nap. I spent the rest of the afternoon chopping in the coconut field. With making patio stones completed I need to make the coconut field a new priority for the next little while.
All my patio stones
This evening I recaught the young Black-tail Cribo snake that I caught and then released a few months ago. He was in the process of killing a Lizard-eater snake. I startled the Cribo snake and he dropped the Lizard-eater. The Lizard-eater was still alive but he is definitely going to die.
The Lizard-eater
August 20
Life in the jungle: No new chicks this morning. Six eggs are still unhatched. Something tells me they aren’t hatching. That sucks. Yesterday I had suspicions of another hen wanting to sit on eggs. My suspicions are confirmed. I was only able to give her seven eggs. I am out of eggs to eat again.
Today is my guilt-free day off. I researched a holiday that I am planning for the near future. My last break from the farm was going to Tikal in Guatemala back in January. I have realized that there are some bucket list animals here in Belize that I haven’t seen and technically I have no excuses. The animals on my list that aren’t in my backyard such as jaguars or black panthers are sea turtles and American crocodiles. My research suggests the easiest, cheapest, and best place to go to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. So, I am planning for September or October.
I also did a little bit of writing for my book. I completed 3,500 words for my Mexico chapter. I am 99.5% finished with my first draft of my Mexican chapter (13,000 words).
Scorpion in the house
Shortly before lunch and for a good part of the afternoon it rained. There was heavy rain for over an hour. This is the most accumulated rainfall this year. My yard ponds actually have about 6″ of water in them. My front yard ponds should have been overflowing since the end of May.
August 21
Life in the jungle: I went to the city today to pick up my bike and my new water pump that ordered from Amazon. Only after I messaged the freight company that I was on my way to pick up my pump was I told that the pump had not cleared Customs yet. What a waste of my day. As if I have nothing better to do with my time. This is partly why it’s hard to get motivated here. No matter how hard or efficient you work something is always going to waste your time.
Getting home I cleaned up the patio stones from my last mix and cleaned up that work area as I also shared the area with my outdoor shower. On a side note, I have come to appreciate and prefer taking showers outdoors versus indoors. I like the outdoor water pressure way better and I don’t have to clean the bathtub anymore. I will continue to take outdoor showers even after I install my new water pump. I also changed my rear bike tire and received a delivery of cement blocks and corn (chicken food) this afternoon. The cement blocks are for the base of my new chicken coop that I have decided to build.
August 22
Life in the jungle: Technically this is the first morning that I don’t have to make patio stones anymore. I chopped in the coconut field until breakfast. I had been putting off a laundry for my new pump to arrive. I couldn’t wait anymore. I did laundry by loading buckets of water into the washing machine.
I then laid new chicken coop footing with the cement blocks I received yesterday. After that job, I went to the ponds. I got a call this morning about my coconuts being purchased. I need to make an initial collection to see how many I have. I have intentionally not looked for anyone to purchase my coconuts because of my desire to not deal with people here. But I know this guy. There were dark skies most of the day and rain in the night.
The layout for my next chicken coop
August 23
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping and collecting more coconuts at the ponds. Arriving home for breakfast it started to rain. I wanted to keep chopping but the weather was not looking like it was a good day to be outside. I worked on learning how to make and edit a photo and video with Adobe Premier Rush. I made a video on green iguanas with background music. For some reason, I wasn’t really motivated to do the project. But I pushed through and completed it but I felt extremely unproductive today. I wanted to go back to chopping to feel productive, but sporadic rain showers prevented me.
Wasps in the coconut field – always a threat of discovering these guys the painful way
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.
