March 21
Life in the jungle: Last night, half asleep coming down from my bedroom loft to use the washroom I decided to step off the ladder a few steps too early. Within a second, I fell and was on my back on the floor. I cannot believe I fell off a ladder with no serious injury. I could have hurt myself badly. I was not able to go right back to sleep after the incident. I was not sure if I was going to “feel this” later on when I woke up. But I feel nothing stiff or sore because of falling off a ladder and finding myself on my back a second later.
I started my morning at the ponds. Today I started chopping/cleaning the third and final mound. After breakfast, I basically did yard work for the rest of the day.
Chopping, cleaning the edge of my mounds at my ponds
I have so many projects to get moving on and I am waiting on everyone to get these projects going. I am waiting since Friday for an update on my business license from my paralegal who can then get my tourist license and work permit completed. I am waiting for fence posts from Saul (a local in the village) so that I can get Nery to finish fencing my coconut field and house property. Who can also use these posts to help me to start building my chicken coop and outdoor kitchen with a fire hearth. I am waiting for Derrick to help my install the Cabbage wood I purchased weeks ago. I mostly need his help with the tools that he has that I don’t. But due to my impatience, my next trip to the city will be to buy these tools and just do the work myself.
March 22
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping at the ponds. After breakfast, I spent the rest of the day burning piles of brush at the river lot. The last pile of the day spontaneously combusted into flames. Something burning must have blown over in the breeze. Interestingly enough whatever blew over jumped over another pile of brush. I ended up singing my arm hairs and eyebrows today. I am exhausted.
Burning brush
March 23
Life in the jungle: I started my morning at the ponds as usual. I ran into my first wasp nest in Belize which resulted in my first sting to my eyelid. After breakfast and a nap, I spent the rest of the day finishing my ditch cleaning. [I am digging accumulated dirt (over the years) out of a drainage ditch that runs across my house property.]
Cleaning out a drainage ditch and making a pathway with the dirt
March 24
Life in the jungle: As per usual I started my morning at the ponds. It was super hot with no breeze. I ran into another wasp nest again this morning. It must be the season. This time I got stung on my left temple. This species has a bit of a stronger sting and a much bigger nest. It looks like it might be under a log, but I cannot even see the actual entrance or nest. So, I do not know how I am going to eliminate the nest and there seems to be a lot of wasps at this nest. Before I left the ponds, I was able to watch a basilisk lizard run straight across the pond.
After breakfast, I went for groceries and potting soil. Getting back home I worked on the river lot burning brush piles. During the mid afternoon there was a heavy rain shower. Even during the rain shower the main burn pile was able to continue burning. After the shower I bagged 30 lime seeds from some limes I found on a tree hidden on the farm.
I decided in the interest of being productive I would bike back to the hardware store for more soil. I feel motivated to be planting seeds. The Indian lime seeds that I planted at the first of the month are starting to germinate. Unfortunately, the 200 soursop seeds I planted at the first of the month don’t seem to coming up. This has me frustrated.
While at the hardware store, there was another downpour. This morning our road was 95% dry. Now it is back to being a mud bath. One nice moment from the rain was on my road I came across a white-lipped mud turtle and a Central American wood turtle 30 feet apart. This is only the second white-lipped mud turtle I have ever seen here.
White Lipped Mud turtle & Central American Wood turtle
March 25
Life in the jungle: A very cool and overcast morning. Somehow, I didn’t think I would get rained on in the city, and I didn’t. And for a Friday the city was not nearly as hectic as I would have anticipated. I had 3 missions, find seed bags, find more soursops (fruit) and purchase a circular saw. I only found 75 seed bags and I paid $2 USD a pound for 2 soursops (7 lbs total). And I got my circular saw.
Getting back to the village I ran home for my chainsaw to get Derrick to give it a tune-up. That actually took more hassle than anticipated but at the same time, no replacement parts were needed. I thought I had burned out a part that is referred to as the drum. And that kind of used up most of the rest of my day. The good news, they announced the agriculture fair in Belmopan is back this year on the last weekend of May. I am excited about this to purchase fruit trees for the coconut field.
March 26
Life in the jungle: I intentionally slept in this morning. My main project until completed is to replace half the bamboo skirting around the house with the cabbage wood that was delivered earlier this month. I had been waiting for Derrick’s help for over a week now. I figured I will do this job on my own now.
Tearing out old and rotting bamboo
Things went reasonably smoothly for tackling this job on my own and I like the cabbage wood look. I plan to sleep in again tomorrow.
March 27
Life in the jungle: I slept in on purpose again. But I can’t keep doing that. Before I got back to work on installing the cabbage wood, I finally hung the front gate that I built like a month ago. I had just enough extension cord for my drill to reach my front gate entrance. Because of the gate hang which I had a bit of a snag hanging I didn’t get as much cabbage wood installed. But things are looking good. It looked like it wanted to rain a good part of the day, but the rain held off.
The finished look with Cabbage palm wood
This morning I discovered about half a dozen soursop seedlings in my potential 200 seed bags. I am ecstatic about this discovery.
Mother scorpion with babies
March 28
Life in the jungle: Last night was one of those sleepless nights. After midnight I turned my morning alarm off. This morning on my deck I took a moment to marvel at all the different bird species I could see in less than 5 minutes of observing. I also noticed a Yucatan Squirrel behind my house and another to the front of my house. Until now I had only observed them by the road.
I started my morning organizing my papaya plants. I have 240 bags that have successfully germinated. Along with my 200 soursops that are starting to germinate and my 30 Indian limes that are also germinating. I am excited to fill more planting bags. Unfortunately, a rain shower had me retreat inside my house. Shortly thereafter I headed to the village for groceries and more planting soil. Getting home the sky looked miserable. I decided to do some chainsaw work in the coconut field. I then burned through a tank of gas cutting out stumps in the river lot. After that, the sky looked really ugly, and I had to call it an early day as heavy rain showers came across the farm.
Germinated papaya plants (ultimately all these plants would get sick and die after I planted them in the future)
This evening I got around to writing 2 blog posts. Belize Part 10 & 11.
I am stressed. I have been waiting 10 days for my lawyer to update me on my tourist license and business license. I need these licenses for obvious reasons, but I also need them to get my work permit here. After being in Belize for 4 months I still don’t have a work permit. But this guy won’t return my messages.
For 6 1/2 years I drove a truck 1.2 million km’s sleeping in a new city every night. I then spend 2 years pedaling 26,000 km’s across 3 countries. Now I set my alarm for 6 AM and I work outside every day until dark (6 PM). I then watch an episode of Star Trek from my hammock. I then have a shower. I watch 2 more episodes (of something) while I prepare dinner, eat dinner and clean up. I am then usually in the loft (bed) by 9:30 PM and asleep around 10 PM. And I do this 7 days a week. No help or support. And because I have no support or cannot count on anyone, I am literally a prisoner in paradise. (Not that I am complaining). And I only have about 35 more years to go. Except I figure I am living a pipe dream that will end any day.
Belize Part 18 (March 13 to 20)
Belize Part 17 (March 5 to 12)
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 house and has a few cows on his remaining 17 acres of land.
Nery – a local in the area that helps me with certain projects when needed. A very knowledgeable guy originally from El Salvador. He teaches me a lot about farming and tree.
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 jungle. I have about 60 coconut trees (mostly mature) around the ponds. I have plans to plant a few hundred papaya trees here plus other fruit bearing trees around the ponds.
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 a ¾ acre lot. I have a second joining ¾ acre lot that allows me river frontage on the Belize River
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 and unwanted trees
