November 25
Life in the jungle: It rained through the night again. I shared my Belize’s Amphibians: An Essential Guide with Facebook Groups this morning and will continue doing so over the next few days. I then rewrote a more SEO and AI-optimized and professional About Me page for my website. Except I’m not sure when I can switch it out from my existing page, as it’s not a blog post, and the page actually has to be built. I’m sure ChatGPT can help me, but I know from experience that Chat is going to bring me down multiple rabbit holes first. [I still haven’t gotten around to updating that page. (Jan 4, 2026)]
Throughout the day, there were sporadic rain showers. I continued working on my Comprehensive Guide to Living in the Jungles of Belize post for AI and SEO optimization all day. It was slow going and dragged as it is a monstrous blog post. I at least want the text part finished, as that’s the part that drags for me. I hate editing my writing.
My passion fruit that I planted earlier in the year is coming along nicely.
The far end of the trellis in the second photo is where I planted my Dutchman Pipe vine.
November 26
Life in the jungle: I noticed last week’s blog post share – Creatures That Find Their Way into Homes in the Jungles of Belize Facebook group post was rejected by a large majority of groups. I’m forced to conclude this is because it had a boa constrictor image as the featured image, and that group administrators are too sensitive and are afraid of scaring members. I could rant for 10,000 pages about the frustrations I feel as a human being growing up in a world that is way too sensitive and soft. Whatever.
For the first time in a while, Belize Facebook groups didn’t approve a blog post of mine.
This was the feature image. Coincidence?
After sharing my amphibian post to more groups, I continued working on my jungle lifestyle post, and I got all the text properly SEO’d. Man, that was a big job.
After breakfast, I headed to the Community Baboon Sanctuary Museum in Bermudian Landing. With Andy leaving for good any day, I keep getting more interested in using my greenhouse space to raise seedling trees for reforestation. This is my third visit about this situation in the last year. I told them as much, along with how serious I am, but I have no chance of success without their partnership. I’m Canadian (not Belizean), and they are the conservation organization for the whole area. I told them that if I raise 100,000 seedlings, but without the sanctuary, not one of them will ever get planted. Fortunately, the guy in charge has been following my content, so he knows I’m serious, and I think after today, he is also serious about seeing what we can do together.
Returning home, I did a little yard work, specifically cleaning around the greenhouse expansion floor.
November 27
Life in the jungle: There was rain throughout the night and all morning, with no break to head to the village to catch the bus to the city. I did some strategy ChatGPT/computer work on incorporating the tree farm project into my website. I even got my first blog post written – Trees of Belize: A Practical Guide to Native, Jungle, and Reforestation Trees. It took all day, but it’s now published also
In a way, things are getting ridiculous on my end. I have
- My day-to-day outdoor responsibilities
- Finish my cabanas and find people to live in them
- My regular and jungle lifestyle blogging
- I need to start building my YouTube channel
- Need to finish my memoir
- Now starting tree farming
- And now create content around that.
There were sporadic rain showers in the day, and they continued all evening. The internet also went out this afternoon, and provided an opportunity for a nap in the hammock.
My Dutchman Pipe vine is always blooming now
November 28
Life in the jungle: The sky looked like it was going to rain any second for the entire day, and somehow, I never got rained on for a second. For a visit to the city, it was probably the best visit this year, temperature-wise. It only started raining the second I returned home and walked through the door. On the way out this morning, I startled some endangered Crested Guan birds on the road.
Crested Guan photos from the internet
November 29
Life in the jungle: I finally completed the SEO and AI editing of my key jungle lifestyle post. It’s a big post and was even a bigger job. It’s now edited to be the foundation pillar blog post for my whole website.
November 30
Life in the jungle: Hurricane season is officially over. We never even top-galloned (Belize River flooding its banks) once this year. There was light rain this morning. Things sure have been wet the last week and a half or so. I discovered a dozen baby ducklings this morning. The mother was not happy when I collected them up. I suspect these will be the last ducklings I have. Next week sometime, I will give them away. With Andy leaving, I have decided to get rid of all my ducks as soon as possible.
The last ducklings on the farm
I wrote Belize blog Part 195 this morning. I was fairly intentional about not doing much today, other than my Sunday morning nap in the hammock. In the afternoon, I couldn’t resist and did some housework. I have so little time for that, but for me, house cleaning is essential for a clear mind.
Right before bed, I started on a Belize reptile and amphibian blog post that I definitely don’t have time to write. The post will be called – Reptiles, Amphibians, and Arachnids of Belize: A First-Hand Jungle Wildlife Guide. There was on-and-off rain all day.
December 1
Life in the jungle: It wasn’t my intention to stay all day indoors working on my website. It just happened. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with not a lot of direction. I did have quite a long video chat with my website developer. Also, with a fair amount of frustration, I figured out how to build a website page for my Belize Trees blog posts. In the evening, I made some progress on my latest reptile blog post. No rain today.
I came across an Owl Butterfly caterpillar.
Butterfly photo from the internet.
December 2
Life in the jungle: This morning and for the rest of the week, I’m sharing my – A Comprehensive Guide to Living in the Jungles of Belize, to Belize Facebook groups.
I also unexpectedly wrote and published – Guarding the Burden: Faith, Pain, and the Standoff with Redemption
After breakfast, I headed to the village to drop off four ducks at Sauls and the dozen ducklings that hatched on Sunday, which I gave to Verna Mae. The remaining ducks are going to be difficult for me to catch, as they definitely don’t trust me anymore. The road is such a mess that I pretty much can’t even bike it anymore. Returning home, I chopped in the coconut field. I think the rain and rainy season are winding down. In the evening, I did a tiny bit of work on my latest reptile post.
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 blog post for Belize.
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 wet is obviously the rainy season.
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.
Andy – A fellow Canadian who rode his dirt bike from Canada to Belize at the end of 2023. When I offered Andy the use of an apartment that I recently built and the use of my greenhouse, Andy decided to stay in Belize permanently and start a hot sauce company here.
