A Ceiba tree showing off its impressive thorny trunk
On August 4, the Belize River experienced an environmental catastrophe. I immediately decided to have a 6,000-US-gallon water cistern built.
August 19
Life in the jungle: At 4 AM, when I got up, I discovered that both dogs had escaped the yard last night. They were punished with no breakfast. The interesting part was that they had been so good for over a week now, with the gate remaining open all day every day while the crew worked on and built the water cistern.
I did some morning cleanup after yesterday’s work. After the worst of it was done, and now that the cistern is built, the pressure is off. I figured that I had earned a nap in the hammock.
After lunch, I worked on my maps for my memoir. I am so far behind on my blog posts and have had no time to spend on my memoir in the last few weeks.
In the afternoon, a howler monkey came into the yard, and Saucy escaped. I had a pretty cool experience that I was unable to capture on my phone, as I had gone to retrieve Saucy in only my boxer shorts. The experience was Saucy sitting, looking up about ten feet away from me, and in between us was a howler monkey lounging only about seven feet off the ground. The monkey was so relaxed, lounging on a vine. I can’t remember if I had ever been this close to a monkey here in Belize.
The latest report on the Belize River fish die-off:
𝐈𝐬 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐚 (𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐱𝐲𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫) 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥?
Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai on Monday also responded to whether hypoxia alone (when dissolved oxygen levels in the water drop dangerously low) is to blame for the fish kill, given that species like crocodiles and turtles also turned up dead.
Mai explained that an anoxic environment can trigger bacteria that produce hydrogen sulfide, a toxic compound capable of killing larger animals. He added that microtoxins released by certain bacteria are another possible factor under review.
Additionally, he addressed Santander’s “closed-loop” system and shared some corrective measures Santander is already putting in place.
To me, that last sentence tells me the government is not going to hold them responsible, because “they” are NOW taking action to correct the problem.
A Central American Wood turtle found on the road
August 20
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I did some more cleaning around the cistern by pulling off the forms for the roof. After breakfast, I wrote Belize blog Parts 228, 229, and 230. I am now caught up on writing my Life in Belize blog posts, but I now have six blog posts to publish; four of them should have been published three weeks ago already.
I then published Belize blog posts Part 225, 226, and 227.
August 21
Life in the jungle: First thing, I started working on publishing Belize blog Part 228.
After feeding the chickens, I cleaned up a bunch of cloth pots that I had grown some yellow watermelons and tomatoes in a couple of months ago. I had pretty good success with the watermelons, but the tomatoes, not so much. Half produced tomatoes and half didn’t. The tomatoes that were produced were tiny and got attacked by stink bugs. I plan to do better next time. I also planted some cucumbers and green peppers.
After breakfast, I was literally paralyzed with indecision. I had no idea what to do. I have like 30 different projects that seem to be equally important all at the same time. I feel really overwhelmed.
I decided to wash a section of the shade cloth greenhouse frame for a new coat of paint. The other week I had to replace some sections of lumber due to rot. I want to wash, inspect, and add a coat of paint to all the greenhouse framing before things are too late. I plan to incrementally wash, inspect, and add a new coat of paint to small sections of the greenhouse over the coming months.
I then washed and, with a scraper, scraped hundreds of cement splash drips off the exterior of the house created from casting the cistern. I got a good chunk of the wall done. I will still need to paint a coat of paint on the wall.
Saucy (& Pepper) are obsessed with spiny-tailed iguanas
August 22
Life in the jungle: Finished publishing Belize blog Part 228.
After feeding the chickens, I planted vegetable seeds (watermelon, honeydew, green pepper, and cucumber). And I created an Excel seed vegetable planting calendar. I need to get serious about growing enough vegetables throughout the year and regularly plant seeds to always have new plants ready to plant. [The cucumber and green peppers ended up not germinating. Everything else ended up germinating quite nicely]
Shortly thereafter, a multiple rain shower blew through, so I did a little research on publishing my memoir. Later in the afternoon, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and pay my cistern materials bill.
The road is an absolute mess. I also caught a black-tailed cribo snake on the road.
At the end of the day, I did some more research and started picking out photos for the memoir.
August 23
Life in the jungle: As per my Sunday morning routine, I spent an hour at the river to sit in silence, and then took my mandatory morning nap in the hammock.
After lunch, I finished picking my memoir photos. With the help of ChatGPT, I learned an editing software to convert the images to black and white (for the memoir). Everything went well except for one important photo that required additional editing. This one photo took hours to figure out. I got all my Canadian photos finished.
An important photo I took on my 2019-21 bike ride in Thunder Bay with Terry Fox, which needed a lot of background editing
August 24
Life in the jungle: I worked on and completed my photo-editing part of the memoir. After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and pick up groceries.
In the afternoon, I painted a coat of paint on the small section of the shade cloth greenhouse that I washed the other day. I also continued cleaning the side of the house that got concrete splatter from the cistern build.
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 completing 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.
