Last week I started I started laying my greenhouse floor.
September 25
Life in the jungle: I started my morning headed to the village for groceries. After a late breakfast, I headed to the ponds to inspect and plant any seedlings that were needed. The moon is getting close to the full moon. It’s my monthly window to plant. I planted two, star apples and replaced two lime trees. I also did a tiny bit of chopping.
Ginger Crepe
Back at the house, I looked for any openings or necessary seedling replacements in the coconut field. I planted two sapodilla, six soursop, and four orange seedlings. So not a lot of planting for the time spent looking. That is because while I did clean around all the coconuts and fruit trees last month the coconut field as a whole is a disaster with overgrowth making walking through and navigating everything challenging. And also, because other than an occasional seedling death the coconut field is fully planted. In other words, I have to navigate three acres of overgrowth on the off chance of coming across a dead seedling.
On the positive, I discovered that the coconut field is actually dry enough to run the bush-hog through to cut the grass/weeds/vines. I sent a text to my guy requesting him to come on Wednesday if he could. I never did get a response.
Shiny Skink
September 26
Life in the jungle: I spent the entire day chopping in the coconut field anticipating that I could hopefully get a bush-hog in very soon. My day was cut a little short by rain. I was so tired that I skipped supper and went to bed at 7 PM.
September 27
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping in the coconut field. I am now ready to have the field bush-hogged if I could only track the guy down (SMH).
After breakfast, I wasn’t in the mood to go back to work on the greenhouse floor. For a while, the yard around the house has started to look like a mess. I spent the day doing yard work. Right at dusk I took a nasty wasp sting to the back of the head. There was a massive nest hiding in a coconut tree. The crazy part is that half a dozen times earlier in the day I dragged some tree branches under that coconut tree. If I had been carrying (raised) any of the branches it would have been super easy to have disturbed the entire nest. I actually kind of feel lucky to be alive.
I can’t believe all those wasps didn’t sting me
September 28
Life in the jungle: My morning kind of got screwed. I was supposed to have my first coaching session with my new life coach. But my internet connection was too slow to maintain a proper connection. (Rrr). [For a few months I have been considering becoming a life coach as a career direction. Probably because I could use one. In my research I was recommended one and last week I did an initial meet and greet via video.]
On the positive, I got a call from the bush-hog guy. He is coming on Saturday to cut the coconut field. I spent the remainder of the day back to work on the greenhouse floor. I got another 72 patio stones laid.
September 29
Life in the jungle: I headed to the village for groceries. I also ordered and had delivered 60 cement blocks for my chicken coop. With my chicken count increasing exponentially I need to put a floor in the coop to help with facility cleaning. I don’t have the interest or time to make more patio stones for the chicken coop when cement blocks laid on their sides will do just fine. I was able to lay 59 more patio stones on the greenhouse floor. The good news is I only have 77 more stones to lay.
Almost done
September 30
Life in the jungle: It poured rain heavily last night. It was the biggest rainfall of the year so far, which is pretty weird as heavy rainfall starts in the month of May. Anyways, this screwed up my day. I desperately needed my coconut field bush-hogged and now the field is too wet. Very frustrating.
The gravel mix floor base for the greenhouse floor was saturated causing the greenhouse floor to be almost spongy. Instead of laying more patio stones, I spent most of the day cutting and adding end cuts wherever I had left things unfinished. By working on this job, it prevented me from walking over the same areas of the floor over and over. After that part was complete, I started placing patio stones. I only ended up getting 22 more placed. Also, for the first time since laying the floor, I had to redo many of yesterday’s stones. Some of them were starting to look crooked. There was also a disruptive rain shower this afternoon.
I spent most of today filling in end-cuts
This evening, I posted Belize blog Part 39.
October 1
Life in the jungle: More rain last night. The main chicken coop is looking like a muddy mess. Today is my day off. I started my morning by doing laundry and a little bit of house cleaning.
I finished writing Belize blog post 95 and started 96. I wanted to spend time posting blog posts, but I lost my internet connection in the morning and at bedtime, the connection was still not restored. Frustrated, I spent a good part of the day organizing files and photos on my computer.
October 2
Life in the jungle: Major insomnia hit last night. This morning was a complete right off. After lunch, I went to work on the greenhouse floor. I had to stop mid-afternoon as I had my rescheduled life coach session this afternoon. I had to cancel last week because of a poor internet connection.
A scorpion eating a house gecko
The session went okay. I had every expectation not to have an expectation for a few sessions. After the session, I did have a little time to get back to work. I only ended up laying about 20 patio stones. On the positive, I see no reason why my greenhouse floor won’t be completely finished by tomorrow.
October 3
Life in the jungle: Insomnia for two nights in a row now. First thing, I spent some time cleaning chicken coops. I then headed to the village to pay my internet bill. I also purchased and arranged delivery for 60 cement blocks to make a floor in my chicken coop. My road is at its muddiest this year so far but nothing like last year. After breakfast, I got back to working on the greenhouse floor. I laid my last 35 patio stones (yeah!). Tomorrow I still have some end cuts to complete.
Greenhouse floor
Belize Part 95 (Sept 10 to 24)
Belize Part 94 (Aug 31 to Sept 9)
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.
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.
