Category Archives: Amusing

It’s a Boy!!

November 27, 2020 Munchkin

We had said for a long time that one was enough and we would have no more. Well, every-one it is another boy…a boy cat…I mean! This year, our farm cat turned ten and I think he has retired unofficially…I say that it is not official because never had a meeting with us about it! This is what he does 23 hours a day:

And more sleeping:

For one hour of the day from 5pm to 6pm he suddenly becomes very active and animated; he paws at his bowl or nudges it with his head. There is no catching of mice or other vermin during any of his 24 hour day. Anyway, I wanted to get to the story of the new boy: several months ago, Gnome told me that he kept on seeing flashes of something with orange fur jumping about under the house…at first, I thought he might be hallucinating because when he mentioned it, our orange cat was quite happily sleeping upstairs like this:

After the first sighting, Gnome kept on getting glimpses of orange fur under the house. I was getting concerned about Gnome because I thought he wasn’t getting enough sleep or something…is your mental health okay, Gnome…is the isolation of living in the middle of nowhere getting to you??

After a few days, Gnome was convinced that there was something orange downstairs so he went scouting. After a while, he came back with this cute little kitten. We don’t have an early pictures but it was very skinny orangey-white kitten. These later pictures show that he is actually a bit of a chunk…well partly because Munchkin likes to feed him. Meet our new farm cat:

He has a very gentle personality and likes to sit on our laps. This one has a very noisy purr and trills (like a tribble, if you know what I mean!). He is probably about 6 months now and we are enjoying his company since he isn’t sleeping all the time!!

Amusing, Belize, Blog

Seriously Funny!

November 25, 2020 Munchkin

This post is dedicated to Giselle (you know who you are). It is a Thank-you for getting me back on track to writing blog posts. I stopped writing in May because it just didn’t seem fun any-more; writing posts became part of a tick list and it ended up feeling like yet another chore. I forgot the reason why and neglected my blog for six months. At times, I would ask Gnome whether I should resume and he always said that it was up to me. I couldn’t bring myself to write anything because I didn’t know my reason for writing and I felt that there was nothing to write about(!). These things I knew: it certainly wasn’t for fame and glory. What for?

Anyway, along came Giselle. And, every time we spoke she told me that my blog posts were Hilarious, Funny and Humorous!

Yes, Yes, Yes to all three descriptions…that was what I was always trying to do!!

Just to write to get a laugh, a chuckle or even a guffaw!!

Nudge Nudge…I was trying to make you laugh!!

In these times of COVID, Fear and Anxiety, we certainly need to find something to make us smile and remember to be Seriously Funny sometimes.

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Plants

Love In A Time Of Covid.

November 22, 2020 Munchkin 1 Comment

Love in a Time of COVID: Epic love and adventure set in the treacherous, wild jungles of Belize. Medicine Man meets Medicine Woman. This is a story of struggle and emancipation; the battle against the ravaging storms pummelling across Central America. A compelling true story of Explosive love and passion….now screening at a cinema near you!

Hello there!! Did I get your attention? Did I get my ‘foot through the door’ to get you to click on this blog post! I thought the explosive love would get you!! Okay, now that you are here…I have a few pictures on the farm for you to ‘ooooh’ and ‘aaahhh!’ over.

This is jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) which is also known as Chinese red date. Here in Belize, they call it Chiney plum. I have seen a few trees in people’s yards but it isn’t commonly grown. You definitely won’t find this kind of stuff in Punta Gorda market. We have four trees in total and this year, they are blooming like there is no tomorrow. When eaten green, they have the texture and taste of crunchy apples; when ripe (soft and yellow), they taste like pears. We also have a round variety:

This second variety is actually more acidic tasting and remind me of tiny pocket-sized crab apples. Since it was such a bountiful harvest (and were flooded in from Hurricane Eta), we did a canning marathon. Gnome peeled and I pared; as we processed, we dunked the cut fruit into water mixed with lemon juice (3.33oz lemon juice per gallon of water). This was for preservation purposes whilst preparing in a humid, tropical environment and it helped prevent oxidation of the fruit. After two days of sweating profusely over buckets of jujube in the jungle (is this the romantic, epic part??!!) we ended up with 48 of these jars in all.

And, Yes! We were surprised with the peachy colour too! We are not sure why… Gnome reckons that it might be a ph indicator for the lemon juice (???not sure). Anyway, once canned, they taste like canned pears rather than apples. We have made pie and eaten some with vanilla ice-cream. Oh, and we made a simple boozy dessert by drizzling our cacao elixir over it. Overall, it is a winner and definitely worth the time and energy in these isolating COVID times. After all, money can’t buy this kind of love and passion!

Amusing, Belize, Blog

The Awesome Duo Are Back!!

November 21, 2020 Munchkin 4 Comments

Hello!! I bet that you thought that we would never, ever write again after 6 months of complete and utter silence. Well this is the conversation that Gnome and I had:

Munchkin: ” Gnome, Gnome…”

Gnome: “Yes, my dear?”

Munchkin: “I think I know why nobody reads our blog posts!!”

Gnome: “Hmmm?”

Munchkin: “Well, I’ve been studying the media and other blogs…and, what I’ve noticed is that they use more sensational words to grab your attention.”

Gnome: “What do you mean?”

Munchkin: “Oh, like ‘awesome’ and ‘more awesome’ and words like that…to evoke a ‘flying off the seat of your pants feeling’ or words that make you feel like you are flying down a ski slope…that sort of thing… you know, that adrenaline rush …”

Gnome: “So, you think that by using the word ‘awesome’ you would increase your readership?”

Munchkin: “Yes, yes definitely!! The Brand New Munchkin and Gnome are going to be Incredibly Awesome and Mind-Blowingly Brilliant and are going to cause ripples of Awesomeness throughout Belize!!”

Gnome: “Hmmmm….”

Actually, this is what he looked like:

Yes, the Awesome Duo are back ready to awesome the pants off you. Being Bored in Belize can be Awesome!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

All is Well!

March 8, 2020 Munchkin

It seems that I only write when it rains! It is raining and it has been raining all weekend. The last few weeks have been awful…hot, hot, hot and dry and insufferable…during these times, it is best to get out on the farm and work instead of complaining incessantly about the weather. I don’t seem to be writing so much because we are always busy (on the farm, processing food, seeing patients and making products) and there is not enough energy and inspiration left to write a blog post.

So, I will try to do some catch up this time. We have had a terrible drought this year and our November corn crop failed as a result of this dryness. We did however have some voluntary sorghum grow beautifully in this climate and we think that we might be switching over to sorghum during the dry times. Anyway, water has been a major issue because we need it for crop irrigation, animals and our personal consumption. We have been recycling all our grey water for plants and have been conserving water as much as possible. This still wasn’t enough because we were down to about 2 and a half full tanks of rain water to last us through dry season. Because of this, we decided to re-visit the well situation. Last year, we accidentally got a 20 foot piece of plastic pipe stuck down the bottom of our 50 foot well. Gnome tried all kinds of ingenious ways to get the pipe back up but to no avail. We finally abandoned the whole project because we just had too many other things to do on the farm. This year, it became a priority to find an extra water source because of the lack of rain. Guess what Gnome made…this funny grabbing contraption:

This weird looking thing took Gnome a few hours to make…he used sandpaper to slope the edge of the pipe and then he drove nails into it like so. You wouldn’t believe that this would work, would you??? Anyway, with hope and prayers, Gnome lowered the contraption down with about 40 feet of thin bamboo attached to it and…CLUNK…it worked!! He managed to grab and lock onto the lost pipe and hoisted everything up. I wasn’t there to witness but I heard a VERY LOUD YAY!!! Gnome had not asked me to come over because he was doing a test run, thinking to himself that it would need adjustment and modification…he was totally amazed when it worked first time round. Well done Gnome!!

Alls well that ends well!! We have a slow filling shallow well but it helps to have a secondary source of water. Anyway, that is the major thing that happened on our farm. The rest is the usual Munchkin and Gnome stuff. We had a good harvest of Habanero peppers which I have been drying in the sun:

We went through a sausage making frenzy for about three months. Here are a few pictures; below are sausages made of vegan friendly collagen (the rest of the sausage is not vegan friendly):

We found the collagen hard to manipulate and it was hard to twist the links:

Since the twisting didn’t work well, we also canned the sausage meat into cylinders…they can then be sliced and eaten..

Oh and last but not least, our lovely goosies are laying beautiful, yummy eggs!! Thank-you Goosies!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Back With a Banger!!

October 31, 2019 Munchkin

Hello, Hello, Hello!!! We are right here! I haven’t been writing because we are back down to sharing one computer and it’s a bit difficult sometimes to get into the mood. Gnome said,

“…just write something…my mother just needs to know that we are alive and kicking.”

Okay, yes we are alive and well. The usual news is that the brush-mower is giving us nothing but trouble, pain and suffering. The belts keep on breaking and we can never find the perfect replacement for a 50 inch belt…we have all the sizes from 47 to 54 inches and a 50 inch cannot be found in the whole of Punta Gorda. Oh what else…the starter pulley keeps on breaking and there’s more but I won’t bore you with details. We are starting to feel that there is a gremlin living inside the mower that is intent on destroying it…that’s our theory anyway. The other day, Gnome exclaimed:

“…oooooh!!! I can’t believe that my happiness is dependant upon the mower working!! Woe is me!!”

Anyway, he will get over it…well, he will have to!! Let’s move swiftly onto the subject of bangers or sausages. As a relief from the silly mower business, we decided to make sausages. We haven’t done this for a long time…in fact, when I got out the sausage casing out, it was dated 2015! This lot of sausages were made from pork, beef, a bit of goat I found at the bottom of the freezer and shredded coconut. Seasoning included, salt, black pepper, ground bird chilli pepper, dried garlic, ground clove and ground cinnamon. We made 15 lbs of sausage in all and had a lot of fun doing it together. We must remember that this is what it is all about!! Here are some sausage making pictures:

More Sausage Pictures:

With a bit of experimentation, we found that the easier way of making the links was to form a spiral first. You then make single sausages by nipping both ends at once and twisting the whole sausage with one hand.

Ooooh…look at this…our own yummy sausages….

I am making a concerted effort not to fill the freezer full of food…the freezer doesn’t work well when it is stuffed right to the top!! We canned this lot; half were put straight into the jar and the other half were fried in oil first. Both were canned “dry” without broth to retain maximal flavour:

Oh, and the tasting was magnificent!!

Eating sausages sure beats mowing the lawn!! We better go out to work to burn off the calories!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Another Surprise Goosie!

April 12, 2019 Munchkin

Hello!! This morning we woke up at our usual time and had goosie bouncing about on the table as we had a cup of tea. We are having a lovely time with Goosie…

First goosie of the year:

Morning time is usually a peaceful time for us but not today! There was a huge racket going on outside with goosie honks, screams and shrieks. Gnome turned to me and said that they were even noisier today…what was going on? And then in between all this noise we heard…peep, peep, peep!! Oh, another goosie?? Gnome looked outside from the veranda and sure enough there was a little yellow fluffy thing terrified out of its wits surrounded by a rabble of crazy goosies. Gnome quickly ran down and grabbed the goosie before any damage could be done. And so we have Goosie No.2:

As you may recall, Gnome placed the incubator eggs under a goosie mama on Sunday because we had a power-cut. We then neglected to check on hatchlings because we were busy with other things. We now think that this second goose probably hatched about three days ago because we have been hearing peeping on and off…I thought that it was peeping from a wild birdie so did not think anything of it. Anyway, we now have two cute geese to play with!

I don’t have any more pouches in my apron so I don’t know what to do if we get a third one! Gnome says that I should have an apron with six pockets so that I can take care of six at a time!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Very Hot!

April 10, 2019 Munchkin

We are bang in the middle of the insufferable heat of the dry season. Arrrghhhh!!! The relentlessness of the heat!! There was no rain for two weeks (yes, even the Thursday rain stopped) and the pond dried up early this year. On Monday evening, we had a storm….black, black clouds, thunder and lotta rain…what a relief. Yesterday, according to the weather forecast, there was supposed to be five hours of rain and we waited eagerly for the relief…not a drop of rain until about 9pm when we got 5 drops of rain! This time Gnome said:

“….there is nothing wrong with the weather report…the weather got it wrong!!”

Today is going to be hot and sunny, “good day for lawn-mowing” and we just want to find a cool place to go back to sleep! The resolve of Munchkin and Gnome is crumbling with the pressure of the heat!!

Anyway, we had an eight hour power cut on Sunday so we basically had to stay still and out of trouble for the whole time. I will tell you the good news first…we have our first goosie!!

We were not expecting it at all because the first two eggs did not hatch. On Sunday, Gnome realised the the power cut would spoil all the eggs in the incubator (that was the bad news) so in attempt to save the goosies he removed all the eggs (found the surprise goosie) and placed the eggs under two broody geese sitting on the same nest.

Now we have the pleasure of the company of our first gosling of the year. This one is noisy, naughty, attention-seeking, cute and very, very goosie in nature.

Goosie (gender unknown) is all on his lonesome so I take it for walks outside and he sits with us at the table…actually does not sit…sort of runs, leaps and bounds about like a boinging goosie on springs…eek, watch out for the cat underneath the table! Generally, I am giving it a lot of time and I place it in the pouch of my apron when I am in the kitchen or doing housework. I feel like a possum mamma with a little head peaking out of my front pocket!

What a cutey. Enjoy him while he is small!

Amusing, Belize, Farming

Noisy Geese!

March 14, 2019 Munchkin

We are starting to notice a pattern with the geese. This morning, they were very, very noisy…they sounded like they were picking fights with each other. When this happens, it looks like some of the girls want to lay and are jostling for nesting space. There are three designated (designated by the goosies of course) spaces near the house. During these noisy days, we have to continually watch these spaces because the girls are liable to sit on top of each other. The other day, I found two females squashed up on the same nest…we have coined this “goosie pile-up!!” We have attempted to make more nesting locations for the geese with nice bedding material and roofing but the girls won’t have any of it. It looks like we are fully into goosie laying time. Here is a picture of a broody goose sitting on nothing; we have to put her in a cage for a week to break her broodiness…I have tried less than seven days but they always go back to their nesting spot.

There is another nesting spot closer towards the pond area which is a bit more isolated. There are different problems with this area: possums!! On top of the chaos of breeding season, we have egg thieving possums too! The cages are out and we have caught five in two days. They are quite cute!

Anyway, despite the morning rains for the last week the place is still drying up. This is the pond…it is getting quite low. It usually goes right up to the edge.

The ducks still go to the pond every morning like clockwork.

However, the geese are hanging around the house making noise and making trouble. Gnome said,

“I guess that’s why we love ’em…”

Amusing, Belize, Construction, Farming

Morning Rains.

March 12, 2019 Munchkin

We have been having morning heavy showers since Thursday. It rains so much that all the basins fill up and by about 10am the sun comes out in its full glory. This may sound pleasant but it actually feels really uncomfortable. It has happened again today! I will probably run in and out of showers to do stuff. Last week, we took advantage of the rains and planted our basil plants in all the tyres.

Since the mower is out of order, Gnome has been working on the well in the old coop. This coop has been converted into a nursery and contains all our planting beds. To get through the dry (seems like it is a wet dry season this year!) Gnome thought that he would replace the submersible pump, attach solar panels and voilà…we would be able to water our plants with a hosepipe.

(At this point, I need to pause to laugh…or even cry…you will not believe the obstacles that we have come up against!!)

First of all, whilst Gnome was pulling the entire pipe up from the well, the last 15 foot section fell into the well…the whole length of the pipe consisted of three pipes screwed end to end to make a 45 feet length. Gnome exclaimed:

“…I can’t believe the last section just fell off…it was screwed tightly when I put the pipe down!”

Okay, so now we have a 15 foot pipe stuck down the bottom of a well! Gnome has tried hooking, roping, praying and singing…so far, no success. Any ideas, anyone?

And that’s not all of it. The submersible pump is the perfect rinky-dink low wattage for our slow-trickling shallow well. It only needs a 100 Watt solar panel. When Gnome did a test run of the pump, he could not get it to work and had to take it apart. He was glad that he did it because he found that one of the springs was misaligned and wasn’t pushing the brush. Okay, then he got it working…then what happened?

The submersible pump didn’t fit down the 3 inch well casing!! Arrrghhh!! This one Gnome managed to figure out…he used a sanding drum to shave a 1/4inch all around and sanded down the screws.

There you go! That’s what has been happening. Frustrating but we are trying to keep a sense of humour!

Casa Mascia Apothecary

Category Archives: Amusing

It’s a Boy!!

Seriously Funny!

Love In A Time Of Covid.

The Awesome Duo Are Back!!

All is Well!

Back With a Banger!!

Another Surprise Goosie!

Very Hot!

Noisy Geese!

Morning Rains.

Everything Handmade in Belize.