A Provision Tree
July 14
Life in the jungle: First thing, I shared my new jungle lifestyle blog post Why I Wake Up at 4 AM: The #1 Productivity Habit for Living in the Belize Jungle, to Belize Facebook groups.
I then discovered that I left yesterday’s two dozen eggs outside by the chicken coops. I can’t believe an opossum never ate them. After feeding the chickens, I attempted to tackle my water pump issues, but it’s way above my pay grade.
I can’t believe I left these outside and they didn’t get eaten
After breakfast, I built two of three gate sections for the coconut field. The third section will have to wait because the hardware store ran out of “good enough” lumber to build the third section. A heavy but short thunderstorm passed through the area in the evening.
I thought for sure the riverbank would have top-galloned (flooded), but this morning the river level dropped. I was not expecting this, and I really can’t believe it based on the flooding Belmopan received. By the end of the day, the river level had continued to drop.
Two (of three) gete sections for my coconut field
July 15
Life in the jungle: There was rain in the night and first thing this morning. This morning I watched a Grey-necked wood rail start building a nest on top of my passion fruit trellis. [Over the next few days, she would complete the nest but apparently abandon it. I’m not really surprised, as why would a bird of that size nest in the yard with two dogs?]
I decided, given how wet things were, that today would be a good day to work on my computer. That was until Saul showed up to look at my water pump. Two minutes after he showed up, we got hit with about two hours of very heavy rain. He made some progress pulling parts off an older unused pump, but because of the rain decided to call it a day.
After breakfast, I worked on my memoir. While I am finished writing it, there were a few things that surfaced in my mind that I should add or edit. Later in the afternoon, I worked on a new Belize jungle lifestyle post called The Jungle Never Stops Growing: The Hidden Work Behind Life in the Belize Jungle [yet to be published].
There are a few posts that I’m anxious to write because once my memoir is published, I think I will write my next book, a jungle lifestyle guide, and there are still a few topics I need to write about.
July 16
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day building my landing page for my memoir. I thought given my technical skills it would be close to impossible. It came together way easier than anticipated, and I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out. I just have to work on the memoir excerpts that I plan to share, and the page is complete.
A particularly nice comment on my website today
July 17
Life in the jungle: This morning I worked on my landing page, determined to get all my excerpts posted. I posted –
- The Journey Begins: A Memoir Preface
- Bakeries and Bicycles Don’t Mix
- FIELD NOTES – The Price of the Goal
After breakfast, I posted Tired, and then headed to the village to deliver some eggs. I then posted – For the Love of Trees, and Most people can’t fully appreciate this.
My memoir landing page is complete.
July 18
Life in the jungle: I was messing with my landing page URL and screwed up, and my whole website disappeared. It took me a while, and I used ChatGPT and fixed everything. It’s still mindboggling how ChatGPT can walk me through these problems step by step. This is the second time I have messed up my website badly and fixed it without a web developer.
After feeding the chickens, I chopped in the coconut field. After breakfast, I planted some vegetable seeds (cucumber, green pepper, and cantaloupe). I then cleaned up (a pretty big job) behind the chicken coop where all my lumber and composting material is stored, which also accumulates a fair amount of leaves on the ground. I was able to add about six wheelbarrow loads of leaves to the chicken coops for future compost.
July 19
Life in the jungle: This morning, I worked on internally linking my memoir excerpts to each other. Waiting for Saul to return to help repair the water pump. I started a couple dozen more mulberry bushes from cuttings. I then attempted to take my Sunday morning nap. I never fell asleep, and Saul finally showed up. After a lot of work, we discovered that small stupid pressure switch connector was clogged with mud.
This stupid connector on my water pump was clogged with mud
After lunch, I took a Sunday afternoon nap. At the end of the day, after feeding the chickens, I watered in my greenhouse for over an hour, which is a regular job every afternoon.
July 20
Life in the jungle: First thing, I finished connecting my memoir excerpts. After feeding the chickens, I built a small and large wood shelf for the new cabanas. After breakfast, I headed to the village to deliver eggs. I also revisited an area of jungle I was shown last week with a whole bunch of Provision trees to collect seeds. I collected almost 250 seeds.
Returning home, I painted this morning’s shelves with primer paint. I’m not exactly sure why, but I was really drained towards the end of the day.
Provision trees, seeds & a bloom
July 21
Life in the jungle: This morning I shared my Managing the Rainy Season in the Belize Jungle: Tips for Daily Life blog post with Belize Facebook groups.
Today, I headed to the city with my bike (on the bus). The bike shop finally tracked down a rear derailleur for my bike. Today ended up with a lot of walking, and it was particularly hot today. Of course, I also had to walk two miles from the village back home, as the bike stayed in the city.
I ended up doing nothing for the rest of the afternoon and am kinda frustrated with myself for that. I’m tired and a little overwhelmed with my workload.
Divine Mercy Catholic church – Belize City
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 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.
