May 14
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I moved dirt. Moving dirt is my new priority. After breakfast, I did a little painting in both cabana interiors. The interior of the smaller cabana is now completed. Moving forward, any painting of the cabanas is only small or touch-up sections.
Later in the afternoon, I moved more dirt. After feeding the chickens, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse. By the end of the day, I was pretty tired.
May 15
Life in the jungle: First thing, I posted Belize blog Part 216. After feeding the chickens, I headed to the village for groceries and egg delivery. After breakfast, I did a little painting. The interior of the larger cabana is now completed.
Then I moved dirt. After feeding the chickens in the afternoon, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse. I was too exhausted to make supper and went to bed at 7:30 pm. Today was hot; every day is hot.
A Pepper tree frog photographed last week
May 16
Life in the jungle: First thing I wrote Belize blog Part 217. After feeding the chickens, I sorted through a small load of lumber that Saul delivered yesterday afternoon. I had a few outstanding projects – I finally put a cover over the house septic and some minor chicken coop repairs. I also started to build some dragon fruit plant boxes.
After breakfast, I did a little bit of painting. The exterior of the smaller cabana is now complete. The only outstanding painting is a few more coats of paint on both cabana decks.
The last part of the afternoon was spent moving dirt and setting up the plant box for the first dragon fruit plant. Though I won’t be planting anything until the rainy season starts. [Because of my back, I would take an extended break from moving dirt and focus on editing my memoir.]
I’m tired as usual.
The smaller cabana is now completed
May 17
Life in the jungle: This morning, I did a little editing of my memoir. After feeding my chickens, I sat at the riverbank for an hour as per my Sunday morning routine. From there, I transitioned to my mandatory Sunday morning nap in the hammock.
After lunch, I returned to reading Jaguar, a book I started reading the other week. At the end of the afternoon, I weeded seedlings in the greenhouse.
Where I spend an hour every Sunday morning
I’m tired, and I’m having difficulty balancing the discipline with the stubbornness with the motivation.
Discipline and stubbornness push me forward, but I fear the cost of creativity, desire, and critical thinking.
I haven’t recorded or posted short reels in a few weeks, and I haven’t written a new blog post in almost two months. I’m anxious to be working on my memoir, but if I force myself to edit it, I fear substandard writing.
I’m worried about a long-term recovery, but I don’t know what to do in the short term. On the flip side, I feel that I should be pushing myself at least 100 times harder, as I don’t feel like I’m getting ahead, but every day, I feel further behind.
I worry about sustaining myself at this pace for another 20 years.
Two weeks ago, I pulled a muscle in my back. I don’t think I have ever done that before. Healing is slow, and my productivity has slowed drastically because of it.
May 18
Life in the jungle: Today I turn 53. In a sense, the thing about getting another year older at this stage is that mentally, nothing changes once you become 50. I think it’s that way until you turn 59, then it shifts to – you are only one year from 60.
I shared a blog post I wrote called 48 of the Coolest Places I Have Actually Visited in My 48 Years. I ended up spending a little time editing it, as it’s been a few years since I wrote it.
I wrote this post five years ago, for my 48th birthday, before biking through Mexico. I haven’t exactly been to too many new places since arriving in Belize, but it’s a nice post for me to revisit every once in a while.
If I were to rewrite this post, my updates would be to add the Grand Canyon and a handful of Mexican places, such as Copper Canyon, Guanajuato, Mexico City, and Puebla.
After feeding the chickens, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and went as far as Bermudian Landing to the museum. I do this every few months to reestablish my presence there in the hopes that they will take my seedlings from me when the rainy season starts.
After a late breakfast, I did a little bit of painting. The larger cabana is now 100% complete (except for installing a toilet).
I then did some greenhouse work for the rest of the along with transplanting some papaya plants from cups to seed bags.
The larger cabana is now completed
May 19
Life in the jungle: I shared my Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize blog post on Belize Facebook groups. I then planted 70 Tamarind seeds in seed bags.
After breakfast, I did a little painting until a random, weird 5-minute shower screwed that up. I confess, somehow, I ended up taking a bit of a nap in the hammock.
Later in the afternoon, I planted some Annatto (Recardo seasoning) and Suriname Cherry seeds.
Tamarind seeds – two weeks later, they started to germinate
May 20
Life in the jungle: This morning, I worked on the layout and text for my memoir landing page for my website.
I then needed to send a challenging message regarding the securing of my land deeds. My land deeds are my biggest headache I currently face in life. I knew there would be an offended response. But I’m tired of excuses. If there is one thing this country excels at is excuses. I have no regrets sending it. I think my message was heard pretty clearly, but the drama behind it was exhausting. I had to take a walk to the ponds.
The experience made me reflect on excuses versus reasons. Excuses trigger me, and I want to make sure that I don’t make excuses in my life. I drafted a blog post called Excuse or Reason.
May 21
Life in the jungle: I had to deal with a little bit of yesterday’s land deed drama. I also got a random message about someone wanting to visit to pick up a few Dutchman pipe vines I was growing.
The last message I received from the lady was that it would have been easier to get to my place by the river than down my road. I couldn’t help but acknowledge with a lol emoji. And then I never heard from her again. My road is straight as an arrow, so impossible to get lost on. I think my road finally swallowed someone.
I did a tiny bit of painting.
I finished writing my Excuse or Reason blog post, and then I wrote an alternate version for my memoir. I also did some other work on the memoir.
Today didn’t feel productive, and my sore back didn’t help. Days continue to be hot, with sometimes a nice, strong breeze, and sometimes not.
My Dutchman Pipe vine flower, seeds, and baby plants
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.
