Breadfruit
July 29
Life in the jungle: Yesterday I was in the city to pick up my bike after some repairs were done to it. This morning, I walked up to the village to retrieve my backup bike that I rode to the village/bus stop with, and chopped the edges of my road along the way.
I also ordered a small order of lumber for delivery and stopped by Orlando’s to pick up some cherry tomato cuttings. I recently learned that tomatoes are easy to propagate with cuttings.
After a late lunch, I mostly did greenhouse work, planting some genip and rambutan seeds and mulberry cuttings.
Mulberry cuttings
July 30
Life in the jungle: I spent the morning installing two shelves I recently made for the two cabanas. After breakfast, I had some framing repairs to the shade cloth greenhouse. After only a couple of years, two sections of pressure-treated lumber were already rotting.
A replaced section out of my shade cloth greenhouse
Later in the afternoon, Saul showed up with his crew and replaced two 8-foot 4×4 support posts for the greenhouse water tower (also rotting lumber), only to discover the third post also had rot.
Replacing two support posts from my water tower
July 31
Life in the jungle: At about 5:30 AM, a thunder and lightning storm started. I wrote Belize blog Part 227.
I spent the morning creating 11 maps for the bike tour section of my memoir with the AI platform Lovable that I had used to create my memoir landing page. I finished the maps for the US and Mexican chapters before I ran out of my subscription credits. I will attempt to do my Canadian maps one at a time with the daily free credits I receive from my (cheap) subscription.
Exhaustion overtook me, and I took a fairly long nap in the hammock. It’s weird my Sunday morning nap doesn’t seem to address my usual exhaustion felt during the week.
I had a very late lunch. Since the rain had cleared up, I went outside and finished cleaning up after yesterday’s water tower repairs. I then planted a bunch of Madre de Cacao trees around the yard. MC is a species of tree that is commonly used and grown for living fences, as you simply stick a freshly cut stick (branch) in the ground to create a tree.
While feeding the chickens, the power went out and didn’t come back on.
August 1
Life in the jungle: When I woke up at 4 AM, there was still no power. At 6:30, I called BEL, and they said it should be restored by 9:30 AM.
I headed to the ponds to plant nine trees (custard apple and lime trees). I then headed to the village to drop off eggs and refill my butane gas tank. When I got home, there was still no power. After lunch, I painted a primer coat on the greenhouse lumber that I used to replace what was rotting.
The power company showed up and cut some trees down that were messing with the power lines. They thought that might be the issue and figured the power would be back on momentarily, but that never happened, and almost two hours later they were back.
I was starting to get frustrated as I was now 24 hours without power and it was now close to being dark. This power outage was not good for the contents of my fridge, and I was pretty desperate for a shower. What added to my frustration is I have a water tower with an outdoor shower for this exact situation, but the tank is empty because of a rotten support post. The power was finally restored just after 6 PM – 26 hours after going out.
August 2
Life in the jungle: As per my usual Sunday morning routine, I spent an hour sitting at the river bank. I missed the last few weeks. I then took my mandatory Sunday morning nap. The afternoon was largely uneventful.
Before & after while sitting at the river
On my Merlin app this morning
August 3
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I headed to the ponds to chop. After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and pick up groceries. Returning home, I put a coat of paint on a section of greenhouse framing I had recently repaired.
I spent the afternoon doing greenhouse work.
An appreciated comment on Facebook
August 4
Life in the jungle: I woke up to a pretty huge disaster. I received a message that the river – the Belize River was a dark color with dead fish floating everywhere, and a public warning not to use any water from the river for any reason.
A photo of the Belize River sent to me
I walked to the river bank and quickly saw fish gasping for air. This is a first for me and a huge disaster on many fronts.
Reports started to emerge of a massive fish kill along the Belize River, causing the Department of the Environment to launch an emergency water quality investigation. Authorities issued strict health advisories urging residents not to have contact with water. Not to use for drinking, bathing, washing, or domestic purposes, including pets and livestock.
This threw my morning into chaos.
I immediately called Saul in the village about needing to build a cistern ASAP. I am going to have to build a very large cistern and start collecting rainwater off my house roof for utility water. Until then, no showers in the shower, and I have to wash dishes with my drinking water.
I shared my blog post Do’s and Don’ts of Living in the Jungle: A Practical Guide for Belize Jungle Survival to Belize Facebook groups this morning.
After breakfast, I went through my supplies and materials to figure out how to catch rainwater off my chicken coop roof for their water. I have two 50-gallon drums in place; I just need a few materials to complete the job.
In the afternoon, I started to work and install an irrigation system for my shade cloth greenhouse.
Right before dark, I bathed out a 50-gallon drum that collects rainwater off of one of the cabanas. It could be weeks or longer before I get a normal shower again.
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.
