August 25
Life in the jungle: First thing, I shared my The Ultimate Guide to Hurricane Preparedness in Belize blog post to Belize Facebook groups. Along with posting blog posts to groups every week, I also post a reptile photo to various reptile Facebook groups.
This week I posted a photo of a Fer-de-Lance, labeling it the most dangerous snake in Belize. An administrator of the group decided to take exception to my claim. I easily defended my position. The Fer-de-Lance snake is widely known as the most dangerous snake in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Not necessarily by venom potency, but by the number of deaths and number of bites overall. It is the snake that is the reason why most every Belizean kills every snake they see because they think every snake is a fer-de-lance. In the interest of not wasting my time arguing, I suggested that he believe whatever he wanted to, because there were more important things in life to worry about. He had me suspended for 24 hours from the group. I think it was one of the most amusing things that’s happened to me in a very long time. And probably the dumbest argument I have been pulled into in 2026.
Fer-de-Lance snake – You will never convince me that there is a more dangerous snake in Belize
It wasn’t originally my plan, but I ended up working on my memoir the entire day, except for a break to run eggs up to the village.
This proofreading exercise had me read my memoir out loud. I ended up finding quite a few typos and also determined where to insert the photos I recently picked out. I got through the Canadian chapter and three-quarters of my American chapter. It was kind of strange, but reading everything out loud resulted in a couple of emotional moments for me.
August 26
Life in the jungle: Today was a trip to the city. Later in the morning, there ended up being a lot of rain, but somehow, I stayed dry.
I noticed that I was really tired, but it wasn’t just physically; it was something else. And it felt weird. Returning home, I mostly did nothing, but I did eventually get some memoir work completed.
Belize City
August 27
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day proofreading my memoir. Between Monday, a little bit of time yesterday, and all day today, I read my memoir out loud to help find the typos. My throat was pretty sore by the end of the day. That being said, I made enough corrections that another read-through is definitely warranted.
At the end of the day, I raced up to the village and back to drop off some eggs.
August 28
Life in the jungle: I spent most of the whole day researching how to and then started formatting my memoir in Word. There was a bit of a learning curve with a few things, but I ended up formatting about half the book.
Saul came later in the afternoon and removed a tree that was leaning over one of the cabanas. At some point, this tree would have definitely fallen on the cabana. We also cut down the coconut tree that was right next to the newly built cistern. It sucked having to remove both trees, but I couldn’t take the chance of an accident someday.
August 29
Life in the jungle: I spent the morning cleaning up yesterday’s downed trees. I raced up to the village to get an egg delivery out of the way.
After lunch, I went back to formatting my memoir. I finished incorporating all my chapters into a single Word file. It turns out that the memoir is almost 90,000 words.
The problem I had today that took a large chunk of time was that my map design for the bike touring chapters isn’t going to work. I have to now redo the maps.
August 30
Life in the jungle: This morning, as part of my Sunday morning routine, I was sitting at my riverbank when I was joined by a Long-billed Hermit (Phaethornis longirostris).
The Long-billed Hermit’s long bill and tail make it a relatively large hummingbird. The bill itself is nearly 4 centimetres long. While not the most colourful hummingbird, its curved bill and long tail make it quite unique. Although the species is considered a resident breeder in Belize, it appears to follow distinct local seasonal patterns on my farm, as I only see them at certain times of the year.
Long-billed Hermit – photo off the internet
I then took my mandatory nap in the hammock.
In the afternoon, I did some housework. I’m so tunnel-visioned on my memoir, so many other jobs are being neglected right now.
After feeding the chickens, I planted some velvet apple, mangosteen, and soursop seeds.
Later in the day, I would discover six Brown or Striped Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus) lizard eggs that I had accidentally dug up the other week and then decided to artificially incubate; all hatched successfully.
August 31
Life in the jungle: This morning, I started inserting photos into my memoir.
After feeding the chickens, I did some greenhouse work – bagging some tomato cuttings and re-bagging some Surinam cherry plants. After breakfast, I finished yesterday’s house cleaning and then headed to the village to deliver eggs, pay the internet bill, and visit the museum to get some insight into the fish die-off that happened on August 4.
During supper, the power went out. That was extremely frustrating, from the perspective of being hot and humid. If there was a night that needed a fan running, it was tonight. I slept in the hammock because of the humidity.
My Dutchman pipe vine produced a random bloom
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.
