The inside of my greenhouse
September 24
Life in the jungle: This morning I did more greenhouse work by planting some watermelon, green pepper, and tomatoes.
After breakfast, I worked out a Facebook promo schedule for my memoir. I plan to publish my memoir on or around November 1. Between Belize and bike touring Facebook groups, I share content to about 70 groups a week. I created an 8-week schedule for both categories of groups.
At the end of the day, after feeding the chickens, I did a little bit of chicken coop cleaning. No rain today.
Today the Department of the Environment announced that the Belize River water quality has officially returned to normal.
Recent analysis confirms that key environmental parameters are all within normal, safe ranges. In addition, they say that specialized testing conducted on fish organs detected, quote, “no chemicals of concern.”
The department has now installed a stationary water quality monitoring system at a strategic location on the Belize River. This automated system tests key parameters every 15 minutes, issuing immediate alerts if sudden changes occur.
The fish die-off and emergency river water condition situation happened on August 4.
My first Velvet apple and Mangosteen seedling
September 25
Life in the jungle: I finished cleaning up the chicken coops that I had started yesterday, and then quickly headed to the village to deliver eggs.
After breakfast, I did greenhouse work, including some cleanup, re-bagging some Surinam cherry plants, bagging 20 mulberry cuttings, and bagging 30 baby logwood seedlings.
The logwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum) is directly responsible for the birth of modern-day Belize. Back in the day, logwood heartwood yielded highly sought-after, deep, and versatile shades of black, navy blue, and purple that were otherwise incredibly difficult to achieve in Europe.
The commercial value of logwood was so immense that a single ship’s cargo could be worth more than an entire year’s worth of other goods. This led British, French, and Dutch pirates to relentlessly raid Spanish trade ships transporting the wood from the Yucatan Peninsula
Nowadays, logwood is used for fence posts and is fairly hard to come by from overexploitation. Fortunately, I have a lot of logwoods on my farm and am able to dig up seedlings easily when they germinate on my cement mix piles.
Today was overcast and no rain.
Surinam Cherry, Mulberry cuttings & Logwood seedlings
September 26
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I chopped at the ponds. After breakfast, I was going to cut grass at the ponds, but a rain shower ended that plan.
I needed to revisit my gardening planner to simplify it. I am determined to figure out growing my own vegetables, but it is a bit of a learning curve in the jungle. For me, it’s important to document my progress to learn from it.
I then worked on proofreading my memoir.
About to take a shower this evening, my water pump stopped working (again). There were ants back in the switch. I had to bathe out of a rain barrel.
After supper, I heard a loud commotion coming from the chicken coop. I ran out expecting to find a snake. I discovered a smallish opossum hanging off the back of a chicken, pulling its tail feathers out. I put an end to that pretty quickly. It would appear the opossum got through the chicken wire.
September 27
Life in the jungle: This morning, I spent an hour at the river bank and then took my mandatory Sunday morning nap in my hammock. Between first thing and later in the afternoon, I published Belize blog Parts 230, 231, and 232.
Sunday morning at the riverside
September 28
Life in the jungle: First thing, I started working on a quick edit of my What to pack on your first bike tour blog post.
After feeding the chickens, I had to brace a custard apple tree at the ponds. Against my better judgment, I also replanted nine fruit trees. I would say that it is way too late in the year to plant, but I have trees to spare. If the weather cooperates, I might just get lucky.
After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and get groceries. Small little things made this job take longer than necessary. It left me frustrated.
Returning home, I dealt with water pump issues. I now discovered ants in the pressure switch. Eventually I got it fixed. I’m pretty frustrated overall.
September 29
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I did some greenhouse work, including washing a section of greenhouse framing. After breakfast, I put a coat of paint on the washed section.
I then spent the whole afternoon cutting grass at the ponds. Mound 1 and almost half of mound 2 are completed. I am exhausted.
Incrementally, I have been washing and repainting the framing of my greenhouse
September 30
Life in the jungle: I did greenhouse work until Saul showed up. We finally plugged the holes in the water cistern (created by the forms) with hydraulic cement. Somehow this job had sat for over a month, but is now complete. The cistern is complete (except for the lid and connecting the eavestroughs).
After a late lunch, I continued with greenhouse work. At the end of the day, a delivery of materials to complete the cistern pump house was made, except they never brought the remaining PVC pipe I needed for the waterlines and conduit. I now have to bike up tomorrow and bring six pieces of 20 ft PVC on my bike, as if I have the time, and I just paid to have it delivered. I really hope something goes my way before the end of the year. I feel like the year is going fast, but at the same time very little has gone my way.
Today we filled 32 tie-form holes with hydraulic concrete
October 1
Life in the jungle: After feeding the chickens, I did some greenhouse work and cleaned another section of greenhouse framing for a coat of paint.
After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off eggs and pick up the PVC pipe that wasn’t delivered yesterday. That was not before I fixed four punctures on my trailer tire. Each new puncture was discovered after my wheel was put back together. In the end, one of the punctures became a tear that I could not fix anymore, so I used the trailer with a flat tire.
I got lucky that I ran into Saul at the hardware store and was able to bring the PVC as far as his place.
I had to bike two miles down my road with six – 20 ft 1″ PVC pipes. I can’t believe I made it nonstop given how rutted my road is. It was tough, and I was frustrated.
A minute after I got home, Saul showed up and built the next section of the water cistern pump house.
Trust me, pedalling with six 20ft 1″ PVC pipes through the jungle is not easy
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.
