April 1
Life in the jungle: I spent the morning figuring out the plumbing needs for both cabanas. There was a tiny bit of rain in the morning. After breakfast, I tempted fate and did a little bit of painting on the house roof. It wasn’t long after cleaning up that a blowing rain shower blew through, but the new paint seemed to be dry enough not to be ruined.
I’m getting close to finishing up painting from the roof
April 2
Life in the jungle: It rained again last night. Crazy! With this recent rain, I have been able to catch up on my blog writing for the month. This morning, I finally got back to editing my memoir. I focused on my Mexican chapter – Mexico the Generous. I’m frustrated by my recent inability to work on my book.
After breakfast, I headed to the village to deliver eggs and pick up PVC pieces for both the cabanas’ plumbing (kitchen and bathroom). On the way home on my road, Saul’s tractor was parked on the side, and he was somewhere in the bush. A few minutes after getting home, he messaged me a photo of an adult Fer-de-Lance snake. He asked me where I was. I responded that I would be there in 5 minutes.
Arriving at the tractor, Saul was nowhere to be seen. I determined where he entered the jungle and followed the trail in. I’m very apprehensive about entering the jungle. The potential for getting lost is huge. I wandered for about 5 minutes, yelling out the whole time. I realized I’d better turn back. It was then that I realized I was basically lost. While I wasn’t panicked, I was aware that this was not good. I had my snake stick, but no machete. After wandering around for another 5 minutes, I activated some phone credit and called Saul to let him know I was a little lost. He talked me back to the road, and I ended up way farther down the road than I could have guessed. Once we connected, Saul showed me the Fer-de-lance snake. Apparently, he almost stepped on it.
This was the first adult that I have ever been able to photograph, and it was an amazing experience for me.
A note about entering the jungle: it’s extremely, extremely easy to get turned around and lost in the jungle. Especially for me, as I have zero orientation. I get lost in parking lots. I will only enter the jungle on one side of my road because, while I can easily get lost for hours, on the one side, no matter how far I walk, I will eventually hit the river or the village to my south, or back on the road. On the other side of the road, there would be no guarantee of finding my way out before dark.
The last part of the day, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse.
April 3
Life in the jungle: This morning, I continued editing the Mexican chapter of my book. After feeding the chickens, I worked on putting in the plumbing of both the smaller and larger cabanas. I spent the whole day on it.
I had to crawl under both cabanas. The smaller cabana has barely a foot of clearance and barely enough room to even turn my head to the side. It did not escape me that only yesterday I was photographing an adult Fer de Lance snake. Underneath the smaller cabana would have been an ideal resting area for one.
We had two short but heavy downpours.
April 4
Life in the jungle: This morning, I continued working on my Mexican chapter. After feeding the chickens, I cleaned up both cabanas from all of yesterday’s work. Andy delivered my chicken food as he is the only one who can navigate my road until I can make the necessary road repairs with road material.
Or so I thought. Apparently, he got stuck on his way home, and Saul had to pull him out. And then his clutch cable snapped. Given that this is a vehicle he stopped using many months ago, he won’t be bringing me anymore chicken food.
After breakfast, I did some interior painting of both cabanas. In the last part of the day, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse. No rain today.
Passion fruit season is upon us
April 5
Life in the jungle: There was another rain shower in the night. This morning, I continued working on my Mexican chapter. After feeding the chickens, I continued with my new Sunday morning routine and sat at the riverside for an hour. I wrote No tears.
Returning to the house, I napped until noon as per my usual Sunday routine. I have found myself more tired in recent weeks. My afternoon was largely uneventful. After feeding the chickens at the end of the day, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse.
There were more than a few heavy downpours this afternoon, to the point that even frogs were calling this evening.
My riverbank this morning
April 6
Life in the jungle: As per my recent morning routine, I was able to spend another morning working on the Mexican chapter of my memoir.
After feeding the chickens and for pretty much the whole day, I weeded my seedling bags in the greenhouse. By the end of the day, almost the whole greenhouse was finished.
There were sporadic rain showers this morning. and in the evening.
April 7
Life in the jungle: It rained in the night. I shared the drone video of my farm to Belize Facebook groups, trying to find people to live on the farm.
After feeding the chickens, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and get some cabana construction supplies. On the road, I looked down for three seconds. Looking up, I saw a mountain lion’s tail slip into the jungle. I made this mistake a few years ago, dropping my guard for a few seconds and just caught the tail end (literally) of a mountain lion tail. I was quite frustrated with myself afterwards.
After lunch, I finished up cleaning seedlings in the greenhouse. I reused and replanted about 100 bags of seedlings that never germinated with Mahogany seeds. I also planted a bunch of passion fruit seeds and some Fishtail Palm seeds.
I then worked on the cabanas. I had to shave the top of the door from the smaller cabana because the wood swelled and couldn’t close. I also had two sections of PVC that needed to be completed and installed on the larger cabana, with the length of pipe purchased this morning.
Green-headed tree snake
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.
