All posts by Munchkin

No Rest!!

September 21, 2017 Munchkin

Happy Independence Day Everyone!! The celebrations started last night about 5pm in Punta Gorda…will run through the whole day today and I am not sure when it will finish (might run onto the weekend if it’s at all possible). Friday morning should be fun since it is still a normal working day! Well, no rest for Munchkin and Gnome today…we are still charging ahead on the farm.

Only one problem. Gnome says,

“Mechanical failure!”

Oh!! No!! Not again!! This time it’s the weed-wacker. it hasn’t been running that well lately and Gnome thought it was the air filter so off we went to the Farm-store yesterday to buy the filter. It turned out to be a tiny piece of foam with two holes punched in it and it cost $4. I guffawed (remember I am Chinese) at the till attendant and said to the boy,

“…it’s just a piece of foam…”

He was actually very sympathetic and he said,

“I know! I wouldn’t buy that for $4 either!”

Good, I am glad that we were all in agreement but I still had to buy it anyway.

Despite the change in air filter, the weed-wacker is still acting up so Gnome is back to this:

We may take day off after all and join in with the celebrations! We have Panda coming round later for Birthday waffles so we will have a wee bit of a “knees-up.”

Belize, Farming

Munchkin and Gnome on The Farm.

September 17, 2017 Munchkin

Hello Everyone!! I hope you are having a pleasant Sunday. We’ve been up and about on the farm trying to clear the encroaching jungle since we are experiencing dry weather. I asked Gnome to crank up the brush-mower on Wednesday.

He has been clearing the yard with the weed-wacker with a circular saw blade (according to Gnome this is better than using the “string” because it saves on consumables and the usual horizontal blade tends to scatter rocks around which can be potentially dangerous). I am going into a lengthy conversation about this blade attachment because I had to go into every hardware store in Punta Gorda looking for a circular saw blade to fit the end of the weed-wacker and I had to repeat the above explanation so many times…

“…yes I’m looking for a circular saw blade…no, it’s to fit a weed-wacker….”

Apparently, nobody does this and were very interested in this innovative idea. Maybe this is another wacky Gnome idea that requires trademarking (Ha-Ha!!).

Anyway, back to the brush-mower. In a nutshell…Rest in Peace!! The brush-mower has always given us trouble from day 1 and we have never (ever!) successfully cleared the farm in an entire run. Something usually breaks down or the battery goes dead or something (it’s not in the mood or something!). The parts have to be shipped from the States and the machine is put away awaiting parts that can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months to get to us. Once we get the part, it runs for a bit and then something else goes wrong and then we have to order another part. And round and round the merry-go-round we go. I think we’ve been doing this for 5 years and Gnome is sick of it!

This time round, I am not sure what happened but it wasn’t working again. Gnome was so fed up and threw a big hissy fit! No wonder!!

The brush-mower wasn’t in a working condition when we first got it so I’m surprised it lasted this long with us. It was Belize-rigged…look at this!!

Anyway, Gnome has nothing but this:

Ha-Ha…not sure if he can do anything with this but he will try his best as usual. But, for now, I think it’s going to be weed-wacker (that’s all we have) to clear 12 acres. Wow…that’s going to be a lot of work since some of the bush is really high.

Belize, Medical Related, Our Products

Sting-Done-Gone!!

September 10, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

I wanted to share this with you since it actually happened about 30 minutes ago. I was on the veranda moving paper bricks and I got an almighty, awful sting from a scorpion. It really caught me by surprise because I had just reached my hand out to grab a brick and it must have been hiding behind it. I gave such an almighty scream that even my cat woke up from his dreamy Sunday nap. He promptly fell asleep again once he saw me jumping about like a mad maniac…hmmm, he must think that this is a normal state for me…

Anyway, I didn’t want to be a woose and call Gnome (emergency doc) for a scorpion bite so I ran into the house to see what I could do myself. Yesterday, I had been bottling our Itch Done Gone (insect bite relief) product and since it was readily available, I grabbed some of that.

This is what I did: I dumped a bottle (10mls) of Itch Done Gone, about a 1/4 cup of baking soda, filled the jug up to about 500mls (1/2 quart) with water and stuck my hand in it.

Ahhhh relief…the copal (a natural anti-inflammatory) together with the camphor in the Itch Done Gone cooled down the inflammation and my hand stopped throbbing with the pain. I left my hand in it for about 5 minutes…I would recommend longer (like half an hour to get the full benefits).

My personal thoughts on using this concoction as a scorpion sting remedy: this time round, the area that was stung, did not swell up as much as much as previous times (when no remedy was used). I felt subjectively that although it did not take away the pain entirely, that the pain was lessened in intensity and duration.

Interestingly enough, I have been told by other people that they have used Itch Done Gone for scorpion bites with good results. I’ve been told that they apply it directly onto the affected areas. My use of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was derived from the knowledge that it is used in allergic reactions such as poison ivy to help with itch relief. According to Gnome’s logic, immunological responses tend to set up an acidic environment so the logic in using sodium bicarbonate is to alkalinize the environment; possibly if there are any acidic components to the venom, they might get neutralised.

My recommendations: I think that a bottle of Itch Done Gone should be an essential in everybody’s first aid kit. Not only is it effective in relieving the itch and inflammation of insect bites, you can also use it in scorpion stings. If you are interested in this product please click on this link: Itch Done Gone in Casa Mascia Apothecary.

Belize, Blog

Phew…Back On-Line!!

September 5, 2017 Munchkin

Hello…we have Internet back on after a week off-line and nothing has changed. Gnome said, “Nobody bothers writing emails anyway.” And sure enough, I’ve checked the mail and there were 42 junk emails. Anyway, it all started with a bad storm last Wednesday evening which resulted in our transformer blowing out. By the time electricity was restored, it was Friday so it was near enough to the weekend…and we all know nothing happens at the weekend here, so we called to get our Internet fixed on Monday.

Even before all of that happened, we have been experiencing computer woes. The power cable for our computer crapped out (after a thunderstorm and a brief power-cut) and then the computer shut down before we even knew what had happened. We did not get a chance to back up the hard-drive so I’ll need some time to retrieve my passwords for administrative websites. Oh, and the printer doesn’t seen to recognise this temporary computer so we can’t print our business labels out. Hmmm…somebody once told me that when you get electrical problems, it’s because Mercury is in retrograde (something like that). Let’s all hope (cross our fingers) that Mercury is moving forward again!!

Belize, Farming, Food

Where Does The Time Go?

August 23, 2017 Munchkin

We are soooo busy we haven’t had time to write. I am either doing something (so can’t be at the computer) or doing nothing (so can’t be bothered because I’m too tired). It’s either 1 or 0 at the moment! Gnome is getting better from his shoulder injury so I’ve got him on “light duties” right now. This still entails moving wheel-barrows of dirt and filling up new vegetable beds. We are dismantling the current piggie beds which are full of wonderful mulch and building new temporary homes for them. It in other words, we have rotational concrete “pastures” for the piggies; the piggies are fed grass and all things nice, they poop and do their thing for 3 months, we then move them along to another home and grow vegetables in the old home. So on and so forth….the piggies are doing their job on the farm! Piggie mulch is fantastic; the earth is black, black, black and there are fat worms wiggling about everywhere!

My lovely Piggies:

So, I’ve got a whole load of seedlings ready including tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, kale, endives and fennel.

I’ll try and write more this week!!

Belize, Farming

What’s Happenin’?

August 15, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

Hello Everyone!! As a follow up from the frustrating iguana story, I thank you all for your advice to eat them. We were actually going to do this but not mention it in our blog as we thought that it would sound politically incorrect. Anyway(s), watch this space for iguana curry!

Well what’s been happenin’? Gnome is temporarily out of action…again! He was lifting and pushing zinc roofing into place yesterday and he has accidentally torn a ligament…in the left scapula region. He said,

“My shoulder blade feels so unstable, it feels like it’s popped out of place!”

I examined him thoroughly and reassured him that the injury was not too severe but he did need about two weeks rest with no heavy lifting. He wasn’t happy to hear about that!

So, no weed-wacking, no construction, no nothin’ for Gnome right now. He’s going to drive me crazy…Ha-Ha!!

Anyway, I haven’t been writing so much but we’ve been doing our usual squirrelling around the farm. Both can’t keep still!! We’ve been doing regular canning lately and have amassed a respectable amount of jars in our pantry. We have another 38 jars of lentils and 34 jars of beef stew. Oh, and some beef broth too. More food hoarding!! Yippee!!

The duckies have been laying but we haven’t been able to keep up with eating the eggs so I’ve started salting the eggs (Chinese style). You might know the salted duck egg yolks from Chinese mooncake. We’ll going to have about 50 of them!

Since I am talking about food preservation, I will end with a big jar of craboo that we have pickled in vinegar with jalapeños.

Yes, it’s craboo season again and the only people who love this stuff are the Belizeans, Gnome and Munchkin. Anyone born outside of Belize, refuse to touch this stuff because they think it’s tastes cheesy, in a bad way. We think it tastes cheesy in a good way…it is after all, best eaten after fermenting in a plastic bag for a few days. According to local tradition, the best method to get the craboo to ripen is to place in a car for a few days to bake in the heat of the sun.

Enjoy craboo season while it lasts!!

Belize, Farming, Plants

The Trouble With Iguanas.

August 11, 2017 Munchkin 4 Comments

I used to think that iguanas were cute and all things nice. Not any more!! They have eaten every single vegetable in my garden.. I am soooo mad. The pumpkin patch that we planted on a bed produced so much this year and we didn’t get a single vegetable. I tried putting gloves over the young fruit to disguise them but lo and behold, they crawled into the gloves and munched away.

All the young fruits are disappearing on my aubergines.

Yesterday I spotted a baby iguana sitting at my Indian cucumber vine, all bloated and sleepy from feasting on my vegetables. Hey, that’s not fair!!

Yesterday, I declared war on the iguanas,

“Munchkin is going to war against the iguanas.”

No more nice Munchkin; I am very, very upset. My first course of action is repellent sprays. I read on the Internet that you can spray on your prized vegetables a concoction of habanero peppers and garlic. Gnome also mentioned that I should try spraying sulphur….he said that generally speaking, most creatures don’t like sulphur sprayed thickly on their vegetables!

This is war!! Dear Mr/Mrs Iguana, please would you kindly re-locate. You are not welcome here!! This is a very polite warning…

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Houdini Duckie!!

August 4, 2017 Munchkin

Phew…what a sweat fest it has been for the last week. I have been walking about with a sore head from all the heat. Today is a blessing with morning rains and marked coolness. Oh lovely!! So, the headache was definitely due to the heat.

Another silly Duckie Tale!! About 6 months ago, we bought a new lot of fowl from a neighbour; this included a pair of geese and a pair of turkeys (The Overlord and the Duchess). The neighbour was trying to off load her fowl because her dogs were attacking them and she felt sad that they had to kept in a protected coop all the time. She threw in a duckie as a freebie since it was all alone and she had lost her drake partner to the dog.

At that point, when this new duckie joined us we had 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 duckies. After about 2 to 3 weeks, I kept on counting 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 duckies. This was back when the ducks had total free range of the entire farm and could come and go as they pleased. They were herded into the coop at night. Some days I would count 8 ducks as they trooped into the coop for their daily corn ration. Other days there would be 6 ducks so I reckoned that some of them wanted to stay out and I felt that having independant ducks was okay at that time. During the last 6 months our duckie rearing practices have changed because they were laying eggs haphazardly all over the farm. Most of the time the dogs were getting them. We decided to keep them for a short while in the guinea pig houses. When we made this change, we had 7 duckies and I could not find number 8 (the new recruit). We looked everywhere and gave her up as lost.

So, we had 7 ducks definitely for a while. Four months ago, we let them all out in the confines of the duck coop (aka zen garden). After a while, there were 6 ducks. No idea what happened to that one. Then there were 5 ducks (snake?)…then, definitely 4 by the end of the boa incident. So, I’ve been counting 4 for about 6 weeks now. I need to remind you at this point that the coop is now sealed so the ducks can’t get in or out of it.

Last night I counted 1-2-3-4…5!!

Where did the fifth one come from??? It just appeared from nowhere and joined the usual food fight in the evening like she had always been there. She is really skinny and she looks like the new duckie that we gave up for lost about 6 months ago.

We have no idea where she came from and what she has been doing all this time. Gnome reckons that she has been hiding inside the cardamom bush in the coop all this time (setting with no eggs!) and she has been so perfectly camouflaged that we haven’t spotted her. What…for 6 months!!! Hmmmm….maybe…or she’s a magician duckie and walks through walls and coops!!

So, where have you been all this time??

(Not Telling!)

Energy Saving, Fermentation, Saving Money

Downsizing Again!

July 29, 2017 Munchkin

Hello Everyone. It’s a lovely sunny day and we’ve decided to take it easy today. The freezer marathon is nearly over and I have learnt a lot about proper conservation from this experience. I am down-sizing from a 30 cubic feet freezer to a 10 cubic feet (partly because the big old freezer is not working well and is sucking up electricity like there is no tomorrow). It was a tremendous feat and quite an eye-opener. Firstly, I realised that I got into a really bad habit of throwing anything I could find into the freezer because I had the luxury of space. This led to chaos and dis-organisation reigning supreme and I could never remember where anything was located let alone know what I actually had.

I feel a tad embarrassed to tell you that about a quarter of the freezer was taken up by fruit (which I was saving to make wine or ice-cream…whenever…at some point in the dim and distant future). I had about 400 sapodilla fruit packed in the freezer amongst a medley of other tropical fruit purees. When we did our canning marathon, this fruit amounted to only 30 quart sized jars that take up very little space on my shelf (certainly not 7.5 cubic feet!).

Another quarter of the big freezer was taken up by about 50 packets of pre-cooked cassava. We managed to convert this into a 5 gallon bucket of cassava miso which is sitting in the corner of the kitchen (inconspicuously taking up a lot less space that 7.5 cubic feet!).

Converted to miso:

We also canned a 20lb bag of black beans:

I am amazed that I have freed up so much space by simply changing the preservation methods. Plus, I am saving on electricity.

We have 84 quart jars of preserved food including fruit purees, chicken feet(!) and beans. That’s it…it took up soooo much space in the freezer!!

The rest of my food (which I would prefer to keep frozen) fits very neatly into a 10 cubic feet freezer. Phew…small is indeed the way to go…makes my life a lot simpler. Yes, I can actually find food now without my usual crazy chaos! And, Gnome has urged me to to keep an inventory and has made up a simple program on the computer for me to use. Everything is neatly packed in the freezer with clear labelling. What a difference it makes to be able to find food quickly….Ha-Ha, I have to laugh at myself sometimes!

Belize, Food

A Waffly Sunday!

July 23, 2017 Munchkin

Oh, one day it’s sunny, the next day it’s raining the whole day. The weather can’t make up its mind and it’s driving us crazy! We have to make up contingency plans for rainy days now…mostly canning things in our freezer right now…chicken feet done…next we are going to make cassava miso and can black beans. We are actually almost done and will probably be retiring our old freezer this week.

Ha-Ha…now we need a bigger pantry. More jobs for Gnome to keep him busy.

Anyway, we’ve got these wonderful new cast iron waffle irons and going crazy with them. I make up the batter and then Gnome makes them on the stove.

We are having a waffly good time:

These are great; we love them because waffles can be so versatile and it’s great to chuck in all sorts of things into the batter. More about waffle mixes in a later post!!

Oh and a lovely breakfast for a Waffly Sunday (with our duckie eggs of course).

Have a lovely Sunday!!

Everything Handmade in Belize.