March 25
Life in the jungle: There was rain this morning. I posted Belize blog Part 207. The rain continued, so I finished and posted Adventures of Living in the Belize Jungle. After feeding the chickens, the sky continued to remain very overcast, and there were sporadic, short rain showers all day. I decided today was a catch-up on blog writing day, so I completed Papaya Benefits in the Belize Jungle: Why I’m Adding This Tropical Superfood to My Routine.
I did end up taking a bit of a nap in my hammock in the afternoon. Between sitting in front of my computer all day and the rain, it was inevitable.
I also worked on a huge blog post I started well over a year ago, called Belize’s Snakes: An Essential Guide. I had delayed publishing the post this whole time because I was waiting for an important photo shoot with a boa constrictor. I never thought I would have to wait over a year to come across one. Regardless, I finally did that photo shoot last week.
In the evening, I did a fairly long video chat with someone interested in possibly living on the farm.
A Spiny-tail iguana on my chicken coops
March 26
Life in the jungle: There was more rain this morning, so I continued working on my Belize snake’s post. This rain continues to baffle me.
In the afternoon, I headed to the village to drop off eggs. When I returned home, I worked on greenhouse work. There was more rain tonight
March 27
Life in the jungle: I continued working on my Snakes of Belize post. After feeding the chickens, I started some greenhouse work until rain forced me inside. I was able to complete and then publish Belize’s Snakes: An Essential Guide. Never has a blog post taken so long for me to complete.
After breakfast, I headed up to the village to drop off more eggs and get groceries. Returning home, I cut grass at the ponds. I got the third mound completed and arrived home just in time to not get rained on.
For some reason, I was exhausted and in bed by 7:30 PM.
Passion fruit
March 28
Life in the jungle: First thing, I did some blog work. After feeding the chickens, I planted 80 custard apple seeds and did some greenhouse work.
After a late breakfast, there was a random rain shower. Even though I went to bed early last night, I was overcome with exhaustion. I took a nap. When I returned outside, I started working on planting some vegetable seeds in cups, but another random rain shower forced me indoors.
So, I worked on posting Belize blog Part 208 until the weather cleared. Returning outside, I finished planting seeds and did some yard work. This rain is such a mystery and is messing with my ability to paint my cabanas.
This morning I planted 80 Custard apple seeds
March 29
Life in the jungle: First thing, I published Belize blog Part 208. After feeding the chickens, I spent an hour at the riverside as part of my new Sunday morning weekly routine. I wrote a poem called Morning Gratitude.
I took a traditional Sunday morning nap, causing my breakfast to be lunch, and then after lunch, I ended up napping most of the rest of the afternoon. While Sundays are not meant to be productive, perhaps a day napping in a hammock is productive, or not. There was another heavy rain shower that rolled through.
After feeding the chickens at the end of the day, I did yard work until dark.
This morning’s view of the river
My Merlin app caught a lot of bird activity this morning
March 30
Life in the jungle: There was rain last night, in fact, I think it rained all night. This is one of the weirdest dry seasons ever. If this were last year, I would be devastated, given all the projects that I was working on. This year, I have but one issue, which is pretty important to me. I have two really bad spots on the road, and I need a couple of dump truck loads of material dumped on them. The road has yet to dry up enough to allow trucks on my road. It occurred to me that the dry season, which normally starts sometime in January, has not officially started this year. On a positive note, my trees will do great this year, and forest fires are so far non-existent.
There was more rain this morning, and there were continued sporadic showers in the afternoon.
I started writing and spent the whole day working on and published The Six-Month Commitment: Your Best Protection Against Costly Mistakes in Belize blog post.
I needed to write this post for a future book on jungle lifestyle, and after writing it, it occurred to me that this should have been written a long time ago, as this post could easily have been shared 100 times in various Facebook group inquiries.
After feeding the chickens, I did some yard work until dark.
There was even some rain this evening.
Early morning in the jungle
March 31
Life in the jungle: I don’t know how much rain there was last night, but there was a fair bit.
I shared my new 6-month blog post with Belize Facebook groups. After feeding the chickens, I prepped the kitchen counter in the smaller cabana for ceramic grout. After breakfast, I headed to the village for groceries and to pay for chicken food and the internet bill.
The road has a ton of water over it.
Returning home, I applied the grout to the counter. It turned out that I only had enough grout for one counter and not both cabanas. The job went better than anticipated. I never did grout before. It did make me realize that I need to have my shower stalls ceramiced by someone more skilled than me. The kitchen counters are not perfect, but the shower stalls have to be.
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing housework, as there were occasional short rain showers.
My first Lobster-claw bloom
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this particular blog post. This glossary will be at the bottom of every Life in Belize blog post.
Wayne – He is the son of the original owners of the farm (both owners are deceased). The original farm was two – 30-acre parcels minus two – ¾ acre parcels for my house. In 2017, Wayne sold me 40 acres of land from the original 60 acres (one 30-acre parcel plus 10 acres from the second parcel). Wayne lives in his parents’ house and has a few cows on his remaining 18 acres of land.
Top-Gallon – The local term for when the Belize River floods its banks during the rainy season.
The ponds – I have two 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 two years of living in Belize, I also planted about 250 assorted 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 my 10-acre parcel. I have planted about 350 assorted fruit trees (lemon, starfruit, mango, soursop, cashew, lime, orange), all raised from seed since my arrival in Belize in 2021.
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. I call that my river lot.
The Dry – Belize has two main seasons. The rainy season and the dry season (no rain). The rainy season starts around June 1 and goes until the end of the year. It seems June, November, and December are the wettest times of the year.
Chopping – using my machete to clear brush, vines, weeds, and unwanted trees. Generally, when I chop, I am removing unwanted vegetation around my baby fruit trees.
I arrived at my home on November 25, 2021, by bicycle from Canada. I have journaled my daily adventures every day since. Since I have arrived, I have built a 1,000 sq-ft shade cloth greenhouse, a tiny apartment that I refer to as my greenhouse apartment. I also started and am close to completion of two small cabanas that I refer to as my smaller cabana and my larger cabana. The apartment and cabanas are for visitors and people wishing to move to my farm. I’m also getting close to completing an additional 1,600 sq-ft shade cloth greenhouse.
