Monthly Archives: October 2018

Belize, Farming, Food

Munchkin And Gnome On The Farm!

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I am writing today because I seem to have a bit more time and I also feel like writing.  This morning started off with very dark and ominous clouds; despite the warning signs, I pushed ahead and made the decision to work outside.  Panda came with a pick-up truck of sawdust and emptied it in record time.  It started bucketing down at about 9am and I had never seen Panda run so quickly to get out of the rain…but he forgot his shovel in his haste!  Anyway, thanks Panda for the sawdust which we are putting around the house to raise the ground up.  The rains and big, flat goosie feet have caused so much erosion that we have lost about a foot of dirt all around the house!

We are officially on Possum Alert right now.  A couple of nights ago, we awoke to the din of goosie squawking and Gnome ran outside immediately.  He managed to spy a predator and with the aid of a flash-light, he could make out the silhouette of a possum.  Yes, they are back: Back with a Vengeance!  The traps are out and we have warned the goosies to stay close to the house and not to go out in the dark alone after 9pm…fat chance they will actually listen!!  We haven’t caught anything yet but are already talking about having a nice possum curry.

Possum.

The big rain this morning lasted about an hour and now it is sunny again.  Gnome has been doing a spot of plumbing because we would like to move the sink out of the house and onto the veranda.  I was going to take some pictures but then I stopped and wondered if anyone actually wanted to see a picture of pipes!  Ha-Ha!!

Well, here is a prettier picture for you!  I never thought that I would be so happy with dandelions…but, aren’t they lovely…Dandelions in Belize.

Dandelions.

We have been enjoying dandelion greens in our salads.  We plan on growing a whole bed of dandelions for roots and greens and are collecting the seeds right now in preparation for this project.

Dandelion Seeds.

That’s all for now folks!!

Amusing, Belize

More Work and Floods!!

Hello!  It is a lovely, sunny day and there have been no night rains for two days.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping that we get another run of dry days.  If we do, Gnome will be digging…digging holes for fence posts  to fence the geese out of our house area; the geese are getting messy, rowdy and noisy and our previous unfinished walls (tyres and concrete blocks) have not worked since they can jump. There will also be more digging for grey water ponds to the back for a banana and plantain area.  Once the ground is dry, we will have to mow again with the brush-mower; however, we do have a slight problem because the v-belt has broken.  I am sure if we lived anywhere else, this would not be an issue but finding a 50 inch belt in Toledo is proving difficult…we went to the Farmstore last week…they had v-belts sizes in 62″ or 67″ or 102″ AND there was the usual palava!!  This time, there were no lengths written on the v-belt packaging and we had to try measuring loops with a straight ruler.  Needless to say, we never found the right size and Gnome walked out of store muttering something about “Belize-Rigging again.”

Oh and I have to tell you about Saturday morning!!  It was our town day so we had a leisurely morning at home and didn’t think anything at all about the continuous rains the night before.  Well, it does rain most of the time!  When we got to the Jacinto junction which joins onto the Highway to Punta Gorda, there was a parked truck, lots of people and the dory was out!!  Yes, we were flooded at the junction once again!  The water looked deep so we decided to wait.  After a while, a young guy drove down in a Missionary bus and offered to drive in front of us and as he said, “…part the waters…”  We thought that it sounded like a good idea so we followed…

There were a few issues….arghhh!!  Firstly, the bus went as slow as a snail across the water and instead of “parting the water” it was pushing water towards our truck causing a lot of resistance.  Usually, Gnome can control the acceleration to get out of the water quickly but this time, we were forced to go at a sluggish pace.   There were some crazy moments with deep forward and sidey-way  dippy movements.  It was sooo Scary!!  I was praying all the way through but I still felt confident because Gnome looked like he was handling it in his usual cool, debonair manner.

It was a bit of “touch and go” at moments but we managed to pull through.  I think there was a lesson in that…never go behind a bus in a flood!!  I said to Gnome…

“…wow, you were sooo cool!!”

Gnome replied,

“…what??? My leg was shaking all the way!!!”

(Well, I guess I was looking at his face…not his leg!!  Ha-Ha  🙂    )

 

Belize, Farming, Food

Rain!!!

It has been pouring down everyday since Sunday and we have been stuck indoors.  Thank goodness, we got our planting done on Saturday…for the first time we seem to be synchronising with the weather.  We are starting to plant new fruit trees in rows…I know…how about that for a novel, organised orchard!  In the past we have planted our fruit trees in a haphazard sort of way: “how about there…in that space!” and now that the trees have grown, we are finding that they are in the wrong place, too close to the house, too close together, blocking the path, blocking the driveway, etc, etc.  You name the planting mistake…we have done it!!

So many trees everywhere!!

Bushy Yard.

Anyway, we live and learn!  Well, the last few days have been all day rains so there has been no hope of continuing with projects right now.

Nevertheless, we can’t complain about the continuous food on the farm.  It is canistel time again:

Canistel.

More Peach Palms:

Peach Palm.

Peanut Butter Fruit; these are just starting:

Peanut Butter Fruit.

Okay, I will write again soon!

Belize, Soap

Making Soap!

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It is that time of the year to make soap.  This time we have decided to go for the Chocolate Swirls (and blobs) with clay from the Bladen area.

Clays of Bladen.

The clay comes in different colours: reds, pinks, purples, yellows and whites.  It is really quite beautiful to go to the Bladen area to ogle at the colours but once you step out of the car to start digging, that’s a different story…the usual hot, sweaty work!

Lovely Colour:

Raw Clay.

Gnome is the designated digger of clay:

Clay Digging in Belize.

We finally got the chance to use the soap-cutter which was presented to us as a gift from our friends, Erin and Jim.  In simple words, Jim can make things and put them together…a bit of gnomishness there methinks.  Anyway, when he heard that Gnome was cutting each single soap with wire (like cheese) he set himself the task of making a soap-cutter for us.  Oh, and we are soooo pleased…it does the job and eases our pain and sweat!!  This is Great.  Thank-you Erin and Jim for this wonderful gift!!

Soap Cutter.

And this is what we have been making:

Clay Swirls.
Chocolate Soaps.
More Soaps.
Clay and Chocolate Swirls.

Okay, have a great long weekend!!

Belize, Farming

Farm Update.

Hello Everyone, I haven’t written for a while just because I have been too tired!  Despite rain and mud and puddles, we are charging through like little troopers trying to get things done.  The last time I wrote, we had about 10 days of glorious, dry weather.  Straight after that, we had heavy rains.  As soon as the first night rain started Gnome exclaimed (in his sleep): “…the peanuts…the peanuts…we must harvest the peanuts…”

And so we did…the next day of course…not in the middle of the night!  The following day happened to be a dryish, sunny day so we had the weather on our side.  Panda helped out too and we managed to collect the peanut in about 4 hours.  The peanuts were washed and laid out to dry in a sheltered area.  Well, thank goodness we did the harvesting because after that we had torrential rain for days…we would have lost the crop if we waited!  Here are some pictures:

Peanut Harvest.

Oooh Peanuts:

Drying Peanuts.

In the last week or so, we have had heavy evening rains and dry days.  Because our coconut area is on higher ground, we have managed to clear up the place; I went through and collected fallen coconuts(400!!).  I have placed them in a shaded area to allow them to sprout.  Panda (he’s been a very helpful trooper) cut and removed dead fronds and laid them in mulch piles.  Then Gnome went through and bush-hogged the place.  With all this co-ordinated work, we cleaned up the coconut area in about 2 1/2 days which is a record time for us!!

Coconuts.

Anyway, we are on a roll here and the next place to clean up is the back space with the sapodilla trees.  This may prove difficult because the area is really wet and boggy; we will probably start by cleaning the fence line because the bush is encroaching on the territory.  We are trying to get the sapodillas back on track since they have been neglected for about two years due to machinery failure.  They used to look like this:

Sapodilla Trees.

Oh, and we have had more machinery problems which have held a few projects back…this time it is the chainsaw which is giving the headaches.  We took it to the Farmstore in town to get it fixed and got the usual palava:

“..not sure which part needs to be replaced…will order part but can’t find part in Belize…maybe try to get part in Guatemala??  Or States???  Anyway… might take until December to get part from States…do you want to Belize rig it?? “

Anyway, these were the conversations that we were having for the last 2 weeks.  Don’t get me wrong…this is not a complaint…this is what happens in Belize and these are the things that we have to live with.  Anyway, we have the chainsaw back (not fixed) and Gnome says he will take it apart and see what he can do.  No guarantees of course.  Arrrrgh….we have so many trees to cut down!!

Gnome Magic.

Okay, so we will keep on going… 🙂  Here’s another picture of our peanuts. 🙂

Peanuts!!