October 24
Life in the jungle: I spent the day in front of my computer. I started by watching some YouTube videos on TikTok. And then ended up on some video chats with my website developer and his new assistant discussing website upgrades and fleshing out some ideas around my life coach vision. He strongly suggested I start an online coaching course. So, this evening I started creating an outline for an online coaching course.
I was able to trap my bantam chicken in one of the coops tonight. As much as I respect her desire to be free of the coop at night, I want her to keep staying alive. (I talked about her in the last blog post.) We finally had some rain today.
A hatchling Central American wood turtle. Locally known as Black belly
October 25
Life in the jungle: There was rain in the night and this morning. I made a break for the city regardless. It was either today or tomorrow. Maybe the medical clinic would be slower today because of rain. (In the last blog post I talk about how I am now focused on working on my Belize residency and I had started my medical tests on the 23rd.)
The main waiting room was almost a ghost town compared to Monday. But then they put me in a second waiting room with 18 other people. I had to wait two hours. The doctor asked me one question. Did I have a chronic disease? I said no. She proceeded to fill out an entire medical exam without asking me a single other question. When she handed me more paperwork back, I asked her a simple question which basically revealed that she did not understand any English. Which is amusing for an English country. My “exam” took less than five minutes for her to fill out the paperwork.
I was required to return to the city today to complete my tuberculosis test. On Monday they did part 1 – they pricked me. Today they need to inspect the prick site to confirm no tuberculosis. I had to wait a good 30 minutes to see someone for that inspection. The next medical test was my blood work. For my blood work, I had to first walk 1/2 mile from the clinic to pay my $5 USD and then return to the clinic where they took my blood. I return after November 4th for my results. There was no time for lunch but I made it home on the early bus.
Washroom at Belize blood clinic
I spent the rest of my day learning about how to create an online course that I started this week. After trapping my bantam chicken in the coop last night, she is back up in a tree tonight.
October 26
Life in the jungle: I spent the entire day researching and working on my online course. My bantam chicken decided to use the coop tonight there was a little rain last night and today. I guess things get a little wet sleeping up in a tree. [This would be the very last time she spent the night in a chicken coop for a long time.]
October 27
Life in the jungle: I spent my day writing 2,600 words (and basically completed) my introduction to my online course. I posted on Facebook about hoping to talk with potential future clients of my online course. The response was weak. I did end up having a 2 hour video chat with a responder. There were some sporadic rain showers today.
Home sweet home
October 28
Life in the jungle: For some reason, my morning started a bit slow. After breakfast, I did an hour and a half video chat with another person who responded to yesterday’s post about my online course. I spent the rest of the day working on the first chapter of my online course. 2,100 words. There were more sporadic rain showers today.
October 29
Life in the jungle: I ended up going to sleep pretty late last night. In bed, I got stuck watching YouTube videos. It also rained throughout the night. Somehow, I ended up asleep in my hammock until 1 PM. Good thing it is my guilt-free day off. Being my day off, my online course can wait until Monday. I wrote my Belize blog posts 96, 97, and 98. I posted Belize blog post #45 to my website. (Just to show how behind I am in my blog posts – I finished writing up to #98 but only just posted #45.) This evening, I found a dead baby Fer de Lance snake (deadly venomous) in the chicken coop. The chickens must have killed it.
Baby Fer de Lance snake in the chicken coop killed by the chickens
October 30
Life in the jungle: This morning I saw four Grey-necked wood rails in the yard. They are common but are often hidden. I used to see them more regularly. With some recent rain and having the coconut field bush-hogged I did a walk-through and did a few re-placed a few seedlings in the coconut field.
Bird poop caterpillar & some type of orb spider
I then went up to the village for groceries and to pay my internet bill. On my way to the village, a saw mountain lion is locally known as a “red tiger.” I was biking down my road to the village, and I noticed an unusual shadow. I kept an eye on the shadow when all of a sudden, a mountain lion appeared for 1-2 seconds and then disappeared. Luckily, he came right back on the road and started running away from me as I followed him on my bike for 5-6 seconds. This is my third mountain lion sighting in two years. Five minutes later, a coatimundi came on the road right in front of me.
Returning home, I finished planting a few more seedlings before I had my second life coaching session, which went okay.
October 31
Life in the jungle: This morning I realized two chickens (1 pullet & 1 hen) are missing. The pullet that’s missing is the pullet I described in the last post as being very affectionate. The hen missing is one of my young hens whom I was counting on lots of eggs from. She was young; but nice and big. This is very disappointing and frustrating.
My most affectionate chicken who is now dead
My motivation for working on my online course was weak today. I pushed forward on Chapter 1. The first module is about 3,350 words and I got 900 words of the second module completed. They are calling for a fair bit of rain starting tomorrow. In the afternoon I took a break from working on my course to cut some grass around the house.
November 1
Life in the jungle: I received messages from two separate people interested in visiting the farm as a result of my invitation to live on my farm blog post I posted the other week. A couple from Poland wants to come in December and an American woman and her Belizean husband from Belize City want to visit the farm after this weather system passes. [The Polish people would came. The American woman never did.]
There was rain throughout the day. I spent the day continuing the second module of my online course. Completing close to 5,000 more words. The first draft of Chapter 1 is close to being done. [I would end up getting so busy in the New Year that I would have to stop working on the course.]
Mexican masked tree frog & Rio Grande leopard frog
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.
