All posts by Munchkin

Belize, Farming

Lessons With Goosies.

If anyone has been following our posts, they will know that we unfortunately lost all our guinea pigs to a pesky possum (that we subsequently made into curry possum) and as a result of this, we lost our crèche for the goslings.

Goosies with Piggies.

So, this year I ended up with the task of rearing the goosies from Day 0 to adolescence (3 to 6 months). Note that Goosie Mothers are usually not the best of mothers and they can be quite haphazard in their approach.  That’s why I volunteered to raise the geese.

I thought that it was useful to note the differences in rearing the goslings personally and the lessons that I have learned from these last 6 months.  Yes, goosie breeding/hatching season has come to a close and the reign of wrathful, goosie terror has ended.  🙂

Goosie Lessons.

The goslings, this year, were raised on high protein (combo dog food and cooked black beans).  Their food dish was continuously topped up so that they had access to food continuously for the first 3 weeks.  I had to teach each one to eat the food initially by sticking its beak in the food and tapping on the food dish with my finger (to mimic the beak of a mother goose).  There was one batch of goslings that refused to “take” to the food and I had to end up giving them milk.  That was a horrible experience because they splashed and sploshed about in milk covering themselves from head to tail; it got quite disgusting and smelly and I am not sure if they even got to drink any of it!

New Goosie

At day 7 (later when they got too horribly noisy and smelly it was shifted to day 3) they were moved from the fish tank in the house to a welded wire cage outside.  At this point, as-well as the usual food, they were introduced to all manner of greens so that they could get used to eating the variety of weeds around the house.  I noticed that although well protected, the cage afforded the little geese the opportunity to observe their environment (ie. lots of rowdy, trouble-making adult geese) without feeling threatened.  This is actually a significant point to make because the guinea-pig raised geese were kept in shallow concrete houses and when they were set free around the farm, they were very easily upset and frightened; so much so that it took them six months to find the confidence to graze away from the house area.

After day 21, they were big enough to be transferred into a metal movable cage.  They were allowed to roam free during the day and were herded into the cage in the evening with a big bowl of high protein food.

Movable Cage.

After about day 35, they were allowed to roam free without needing to go into the cage at night.  By this time, they were about the size of a chicken (4 to 5lbs) and could fend for themselves…even get nasty with the drake.  Their weights were consistently increasing  with continuous grazing.  I still gave them protein titbits in the morning and evening to get them into a routine of friendly, rumbustious behaviour.

I kept a diary with food weights and goosie weekly weights.  With each batch, I was actually able to improve on weight gain and towards the end, I was able to double weight gain every 7 days.  Thanks to Gnome for encouraging me to be more scientific and methodical; this has allowed me to improve, tweak and make adjustments to turn my geese into healthy, happy birds.

Conclusion:

Young Goosies.

The new Munchkin Mum method has been positive and yielded better results than the previous guinea pig rearing.  This year’s geese are a lot bigger, friendlier and happier.  A happy goose goes a long way!  The energy and time that I put into the goslings was definitely worth it and I gained a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from the whole experience.  So much so, that I am ready to do it again next year.

Amusing, Belize, Construction

What’s A J Roller Anyway??

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A couple of weeks ago, Gnome gave me the mission to find a J Roller in Belize.  My first question was,

“What’s a J Roller when it’s at home?”

So he told me to look up pictures in Amazon and read the descriptions.  I am not sure how he came up with the tool name because he had never mentioned it before…he probably read instructions somewhere…he is the only person that I know that reads instruction manuals with great interest and enjoyment.

A J Roller is a “J” shaped roller made of rubber.  It is used to aid the adhesion of  surfaces with a sticky underside…you basically roll it back and forth on a surface to make it stick down smoothly.  They can be used for adhesive tiles which is what we had for a new project.  Aha…he read the back of the box! 😉

The task of looking for an uncommonly used tool in Belize can be quite a challenge.  I started my mission in the hardware stores in Punta Gorda.

Farm Store.

When I said,

“I am looking for a J Roller.”

I would usually get a perplexed look and,

“…what’s that??”

So, then I had to modify my first question and say,

“Do you have a J Roller?  It looks like a paint roller but it is made of rubber.”

(This did not work because the shop assistant would automatically turn the conversation to paint rollers being made of foam in Belize).

Okay, so I had to further change my method of questioning and point to their formica counter tops and say:

“…what do you use to stick that (formica) onto the countertop.”

These were the answers that I got from a few hardware stores (I feel like I was conducting some sort of survey on how to ask silly questions and how to get silly answers back!!):

“…errh…you just smooth it out with your hands…”

and:

“…you get a big old smooth stick…”

and:

“…what???”

Hmmmm…needless to say, I wasn’t getting anyway.  So, I asked for Panda’s assistance since he was driving out to the big city.  He said that he even printed out a picture of the J Roller and showed it to a few hardware stores.  No luck…at least they knew of the existence of the tool but did not think that it was of much use hence the reason they did not stock said tool.

Okay…Okay…so, we had to do it the Munchkin and Gnome way.  Get a marble rolling pin and use that instead.  No shortage of rolling pins in Belize!!  When I presented the rolling pin to Gnome he said with a smile,

“…well, if it doesn’t work, we can always roll out some nice pasta noodles with it…”

Well, it does the job!!  So, if you are looking for a J Roller in Belize, try the kitchen section for a heavy rolling pin instead!!

Rolling Pin.
Amusing, Belize, Farming

Mosquito Time!

I am writing this post to remind myself (again) that June is mosquito time.  Well at least that is when it starts…but when does it finish?  Does it finish?  Anyway, all I know right now is that is pretty horrible and we are forever being chased by swarms of mosquitoes.   Arrrghhh…moan of the day done!

Anyway, on the upside, we have had a few days straight of good weather (of the non-rain type) so we have been out on the farm doing our stuff.  So, what stuff have we done?

We have starting laying down the cardboard between our peanuts to soak up all the excess water from the rain (plus it stops the weeds coming up so it is a double bonus).

Ooooh…..another picture for Joyce:

Peanuts and Cardboard.

Don’t they look healthy and green….and the okra are coming up nicely in between the first two rows of peanut.

It is jackfruit time again.  All of these fruits are beautiful and are about 50lbs in weight each.  Thank-you, thank-you…what a lovely, generous tree.  Our sun-drying (what sun??) of the seeds did not work and they turned into a funny, fuzzy orangey moldy monster so we stopped doing that.  We have now decided to make miso made from jackfruit seed.

Giant Jackfruit.

Anything else.  Yes, I washed and waxed the truck.  Most people would be asking me why I am bothering to put this piece of insignificant detail down.  Well, it is because we are known as the people who drive the dirty white truck (just a statement of fact and here in Toledo, everyone is recognised by the vehicle that they drive).  Twice a year, I wash and wax the car and the rest of the time we don’t wash it.  And you are probably scratching your head and wondering if this is an environmental issue (save water??) or something.  Well actually it is to maintain and preserve the metal body work of the car.  This of course is a quirky Gnome observation…he says that if your car is caked in mud for most of the year (with generous wax coating), it actually preserves the metal body and it is protected from rusting. Mind you, I haven’t seen any copy-cats so our innovative idea isn’t catching on…Ha-Ha!!

What do you think?  This is a 12 year old truck now…looking good twice a year!!

Freshly Waxed Car.

Random piece of information: you can now buy Italian biscuits (cookies) in Punta Gorda.  You know, once a long time ago, you couldn’t get anything down here.  Sign of the times:

Italian Biscuits.

We have been doing more clearing…there was a very dangerous looking tree too close to our veranda.  Gnome said:

“…we need to get rid of that.  It is a horrible accident waiting to happen…”

Dangerous tree.

Okay so that lanky, long looking tree has been taken down so one less thing to worry about.

Oh look…dandelions do grow in Belize…

Dandelions in Belize.

Have a great evening and stay away from those pesky mosquitoes.  I hear that there is a great insect repellent made from lemongrass…   😉

Belize

It’s a Tad Wet Out Here!

It’s a tad wet out here..

We can’t get out because it is bucketing down.  Here are some pictures of the wetness from the veranda.  It is pouring down and it doesn’t look like it wants to stop…

That’s our peanut field out there.  If you look closely, the rows of peanut are up…but, look at all the water pooling.  Gnome says that when it stops raining (when??) we will run out and put cardboard mulch to soak up the water in between the sprouting peanuts.  We don’t want the peanuts to get water-logged at this point.

This is a picture for Joyce; see the peanuts are sprouting really well.  When I can get out, I will take a picture of the rows close up:

Sprouting Peanuts.

At least the Goosies are having fun…it is absolute bliss for them right now…

Happy Geese in the Rain.

Soooo much water.  Gnome has told me to keep a tab on all the puddles (ponds??) that form on the farm during times like this.  When it gets drier, we will plant vetiver which helps to stop soil erosion:

I guess we have to stay indoors today…..

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Jackfruit Day.

Okay, so when we got up this morning, the sun was out but then the dark clouds moved in and then the sun peaked again and then, alas, there were clouds piling up from the east…oh, but then there was a bit of sun coming out again.  We checked the weather report and it said there was a 50% chance of rain and 50% chance of no rain.  When Panda came at 9am to help out on the farm, we sent him home since it started drizzling , the black clouds were gathering and there was a lot of thunder.  As soon as he left, the sun came out again.  The weather went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until I could stand it no more.  Gnome realised I was turning into Crazy Munchkin so said,

“Okay, let’s stay indoors and make it a jackfruit day.”

(Thank God for sensible, no nonsense and practical Gnomes).

Well, you might have seen our jackfruits already…they are huge.  Gnome cut them in half and I separated the seeds from the flesh.

Cutting Jackfruit.

Prepared Fruit:

Cleaned Jackfruit.

We cleaned two huge jackfruit which took about 1 and 1/2 hours.  It is really hard work, by the way, but I shouldn’t complain because it is a tonne of food.

I haven’t enjoyed eating the seeds in the past…we found them rather mealy and disappointing.  This time however, our harvest was from a different  tree; the boiled seeds were surprisingly good and did actually taste of chestnuts.  There must have been about 10lbs of jackfruit seeds.

Jackfruit Seeds.

Once you boil the seed, there is an outer covering which you need to take off.  Here is a close up picture of a cooked jackfruit seed cut in half:

Boiled Jackfruit Seed.

Our plan is to dry the boiled seeds in the sun (what sun??!!) and once they have dried, we will ground them into flour.  That’s the plan anyway…

So today, we stuffed ourselves full of jackfruit and the boiled seeds.  I think we over-ate a wee bit because we both have sore stomachs right now.  We are trying to settle our symptoms down with some peppermint tea.  😉

The rest of the fruit is being boiled up, as we speak, for wine; it is a murky mess right now but hopefully in a year, it will look like this:

Vernaccia in Glasses.

So what’s it going to be tomorrow??  Sunny or Rainy.  🙂

Oh I might make marron glacé with the jackfruit nuts if I am in a good mood tomorrow….

Amusing, Belize, Farming

The Sun is Out!!

I know, I know, when you live this lifestyle, it is all about the weather.  Your days on the farm are dictated by whether you can get out or not.  The last six days, we have had grey skies and a whole tonne of rain.  Great for the plants…but, at some point there was so much of it we were worried that our peanut field would get washed away.  But alas, today we saw the first signs of peanut germination…we are pleased to see hope in our efforts to grow our own food.

The sun is out today with lovely rippling blue skies.  We ventured out today to fill up tyres with seaweed to plant an assortment of roots.

Seaweed Tyres.

We felt better for moving about.  The last week we have been stuck indoors trying to do indoor activities in a tiny space.  We made serious attempts to not drive each other potty!!  We have become used to a certain amount of daily physical work…(Gnome says this is what keeps us young plus plenty of sleep)…so that we get really crabby cooped up indoors.  Well thank goodness, the sun came out today.

Gnome planted two rows of okra between the peanuts:

Gnome Planting.

The month of June is very fickle and unpredictable; you don’t know whether to plan outside or inside activities because you never know what is going to happen.  Gnome reminded me:

“…don’t get your hopes up too much for a work schedule in June…June is as fickle as a Wo….”

Munchkin:  “What?????”

Gnome: “…Wombat…that is what I said…”

Munchkin: “Hmmmm.”

This month drives us crazy because of this but hey, we can’t complain when all our water tanks are full again and the pond is half full from just six days of rain.  Needless to say, the goosies are having a wonderful time splashing about in puddles and have started trooping out to the pond again.  That’s good because they can get out from under my feet…they are like a bunch of school children…

The Pond is Nearly Full Again.
Amusing, Belize, Farming

Cool Weather!

What a Relief…on Thursday we planted our peanut seeds and as soon as they were planted, the grey clouds starting gathering.  It didn’t rain until the evening but it was lovely to get the drop in temperature.  Since then, the weather has been cool and we have really enjoyed the weather change.

Look!  There is a Gnome planting peanut:

Gnome Spotting

We have been absolutely exhausted from the farm work coupled with the relentless heat but we are still going.  That is because June is the last month to get our projects finished before it pours down in July and you can’t get out for all the sloshing and shwishing (onomatopoeia and neologism combined…ooohhhh da Munchkin is a fervent writer).  I have our indoor activities already lined up for July…so Gnome, there is no need to get bored!!

Anyway, since it has been cool, I have been doing my nursery transplanting.  I have twenty peach palms and a whole load of citrus which will be ready for the September planting.  Plus I have started a whole lot of new stuff, courtesy of Mother of Gnome; this includes different types of aubergines, tomatillos and tomatoes.  We have also started tobacco, giant granadilla and loofah.

Transplanting Seedlings

Other things on the farm…our dandelions have come up very nicely.  Thank-you so much Erin!!  We have tasted the leaf already and they have a lovely bitter taste; we are growing these for seed and then we will plant a huge bed with them for green leaves and roots.

Montana Dandelion

It is jackfruit time again and we just harvested a mega big baby; look at the size of this one.  We put a broom (I was going to use my foot but Gnome exclaimed: no one can gauge the size of the fruit from your foot…who knows if you have little or big feet??!) next to these so that you can figure out the size; the biggest one is about 50lbs in weight (well, Gnome said it weighed like a sack of corn which is about 50lbs in weight).  😉

Big Jackfruit
Fifty Pound Jackfruit

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Belize, Farming, Plants

Ready To Plant Peanut!

We prepared our area for planting peanut about 2 weeks ago, eagerly looking for seed peanut to plant.  We were quite surprised that we couldn’t find any down here in Toledo .  So we searched further afield, and asked our friends Graham and Joyce if they could find some in the Cayo region.  Thank-you so much!!  We got the seeds today and are ready to plant!!

We have a fifth of an acre all tilled up and mixed with lovely seaweed (courtesy of Panda) and lime.  The area is protected from the geese with metal fencing right now.  However, we have set up a bamboo fence and planted air potatoes at the base and once the plants get bushy, we will take away the metal fence.

Peanut Area.
Bamboo Fence.

The bamboo has been erected to grow air potatoes:

Air Potato Vine.

We will plant tomorrow…we are so excited.  I think the peanuts are Spanish Red Variety.

Seed Peanut.

Thank-you once again to Graham and Joyce for the peanuts!!

Amusing, Belize

They’re Here!!

Flood Flies are here!!  This year is was 27th of May.  Gnome says we should have a lottery next year to guess the flood fly day correctly.  We could have one for every district!  Anyway, quickie oats (the anchovies finished a long time ago) and we are off to bed.  Lights off, wash and go to sleep.  Good Night!!

The usual pictures of the blighters (as Gnome has mentioned to me: do you realise you are putting up the same pictures of flood flies every time?).  Yes, Gnome, I know!!  How many different pictures do I need???  They kinda of just look like a mass of flying insects invading the house.

Flood Flies!

With any luck, the clean up will be minimal tomorrow morning!!