Oh dear, I think everyone has probably got a complaint or two about this horrible weather! Well, we’ve lost 4 animals. Two because of the cold, dampness and rain and two from a snake and all in one day. Well, the two casualties in the mini emergency unit didn’t make it: old grey goosie in Wheel-Barrow 1 died of pneumonia and The Overlord (aka male turkey) in Wheel-Barrow 2 also passed away. In the same morning, we found a dead duck in the coop; Gnome noticed some blood on its leg but did not think anything of it. Later in the day, we counted the number of ducks that we had in the coop…1-2-3-4-5…hey, wait a minute, there was another one missing. Gnome said suspiciously:
“There’s a predator about!!”
He then scanned his eyes around the coop and found a bloated boa hiding behind the guinea pig cages digesting something the size of a duck:
“There it is!!”
One of our rules on our farm: do no harm to any animal unless it takes the life of one of ours. So, we had to “take care” of this one with Gnome’s pellet gun.
The second rule is to eat what we kill: this one is going to be a curry…
Boa With Our Duckie.
Retrospectively, it looks like the the first dead duckie was probably killed by the snake and she was the next meal.
Rest in Peace our dear animals!! And we hope that everyone out there is having a better time!! Try to stay dry!!
It’s the Wet Season and the puddles have coalesced into ponds and we are ankle-deep in water. I am not exaggerating!! Nevertheless, the work still needs to be done. It’s all day rains right now so you basically have to run out during the breaks to get things done. Yes, I wish right now that I could hole myself up in a cave (with a full pantry) and ignore the whole farm! But alas, the animals need to be tended to, the farm still needs maintenance and can’t be ignored (otherwise it will turn into one horrible mess) and I still need to harvest and preserve the fruits of the season.
Gnome, despite his hand injury, is trying to help me out and is doing “light work” right now. He’s helping me collect vegetables and fruit and generally trying to keep the level of the humour up by reading to me…he could pick something like a light novel…but this is Gnome humour…
Gnome Keeping Out of Trouble.
Here are some pictures from the farm; we have been harvesting wax apple….have to get them before the birdies…
Wax Apple.
The craboo are flowering…really quite beautiful:
Craboo Flowers.
Oh and on Sunday we had a few casualties from the torrential rain. We have a very old grey goose (we reckon she is ancient…like about 30 years old… because she has cataracts) got caught in the rain. I found her all sodden in the mud and she was too weak to move. She’s now been placed in emergency wheel barrow 1 with water and food. The other casualty was the Overlord (aka male turkey) who had been sitting on turkey eggs for 7 whole days without taking any breaks. Alas, he was found with his face down in the grass…for a minute I thought he had carked it but he let out an enormous whimper. I quickly dried him up and carried him to emergency wheelbarrow 2; he seems okay now but is really crabbit (I think this is a Scottish word that means crabby) and feeling very sorry for himself.
Right now our mini medical unit is under the house. I hope that we don’t get any more sick animals because we have used up all the wheel-barrows!
Anyway, the Duchess (aka female turkey) is still sitting on the eggs…what a champion. Let’s hope that we get some hatchlings out of this one…about one more week to go.
Yesterday (Sunday) was quite a day!! It started off with very early morning rains with black, heavy grey skies and it poured down all day. There was a power cut in the wee hours of the morning (no idea what time it was but it was still very dark). In fact there was no electricity all day (and we were not expecting it to come back because the weather was so awful …I don’t blame the BEL guys for not wanting to come out in torrential rain…and it was a Sunday and nothing happens on a Sunday here).
Oh, and we also got flooded in at the Jacinto junction so there was no way of getting onto the Highway (unless you swam or procured a canoe).
We were stuck. We couldn’t do anything!! So we sat with lots of candles (it was very dark inside and the sun was completely blocked by black puffy clouds) and talked all day. It was actually quite refreshing not to have a computer (with noise, constant clicking of the mouse, silly stuff on FB and the constant Internet distractions).
It was lovely to have nothing. The silence was welcome and we really enjoyed each other’s company. I am thankful for these days that affirm that “we don’t need anything except for each other.” Sometimes, you just think it is it is sentimental stuff that is just things that you say without meaning it. Well I mean it…Munchkin and Gnome really do get on well with each other!!
The electricity (surprisingly) came back on about 6pm. We were just about to call it a day and go to bed!!
Rain!!
On a different note, Gnome has unfortunately hurt his hand (tried to lift a very heavy thing, lifted the heavy thing and ignored the pain in his hand whilst lifting the heavy thing). He is currently out-of-action with regards to physical, heavy work on the farm. Family (particularly Gnome’s Mother) and Friends, please do not be alarmed. This just means that he has sit around for the next few days until his hand gets better.
Gnome admonishes me and says, “Stop complaining, Babes…”
And I reply, “It’s not a complaint! It’s a description!!”
It is really grey. It is really muggy. 🙂 Ha-Ha, one must keep up the humour especially during these times and use emoticons to show that everything is really in the greatest humour possible!! 🙂
Well anyway(s), here are a few small things to show you what’s happening.
Since my Mabe cooker done broke and I don’t have an oven, we are resorting to our old “tried and tested” methods again. Back to the Dutch oven and cooking over coals. We had a stash of Fray Bento meat pies from British Foods Belize so we decided to cook them traditional style. They puffed up very nicely (a lot better than the conventional oven) and they are a little burnt since we haven’t cooked like this for a while. These were a nice Sunday afternoon treat. Also, the fire kept the bugs away for a while which was a welcome break.
Dutch Oven Pie.
This is a vegetable that grows on a vine which we have planted up the side fencing of the Duckie Zen coop. The best way to describe them is that they taste like firm, little cucumbers but they have to be cooked. They are growing prolifically with all the duckie fertilising so we are harvesting a basket of these each day. I’ve mostly been steaming or putting them into soups and stews. This vegetable is called tindali (a vegetable of Indian origin)and was obtained from the Spice Farms in Toledo (courtesy of Dr Mathew).
Tindali.
Oh, and it’s Mango Season again! This is the chance to stuff yourself with Mango everyday…it’s great. There should be a Mango Festival down here at this time of the year; it is definitely worth celebrating!
A while back I tried to make some home-made senbei (Japanese rice crackers). I used ordinary glutinous rice flour because that was all I could find. The final result was that they were chewy (still tasted good) but not the usual crunchiness that you would expect from these type of crackers. After discussing with Gnome (and reading Wiki entries) we realised that the Mochiko flour that is traditionally used is cooked (not raw) rice that has been dehydrated and then ground into a fine flour which then gives the crunchy quality to the food. So you can’t get Mochiko flour for love nor money in Belize (!) so Gnome says that when we get really bored (ie. during the rainy days when we can’t get out) he will help me make the flour. Watch this space…it will probably take about 72 hours to make the flour by hand!
Home-made Senbei.Home-made Senbei.
Keep well everyone and keep on going despite the weather!! Well, we’ll keep on going because we like to think that we are cool and tough…Ha-Ha!!
It’s that awful buggy time of the year again…June and July. The Monster Mosquitoes are out to get you and they are biting through clothes and socks. Despite all this, we still need to get out there. But we sure are doing our jobs faster so we can run into the protection of the house (although, there are still mosquitoes in the house). 🙂
Anyway, on a more positive note, there are other monsters (better!) on the farm…
With the big over-night rains, practically over-night, all our plants have quadrupled in size. There are Monsters Everywhere!! Check out the size of the aubergine bush:
Aubergine Plant.
Oh, and it is producing such lovely fruit; we are eating aubergine everyday right now (steamed, stir-fry, oooh and deep fried in tempura batter is yum-yum). This Black Beauty variety has a good firm texture unlike some of the other types that we have had in the past (we don’t like the spongy ones).
Our Aubergines.
This is the pumpkin…it was really struggling over dry season but now it has spread over the whole bed. Unfortunately some of the newly formed fruits are rotting because of the excessive rains. I guess you can’t have it all…
Pumpkin.
We are growing air potato in one of our raised beds. They were doing nothing two weeks ago and all of a sudden, they are climbing.
Air Potato.
Air potato is a type of yam. We rather like them because we don’t need to go digging around for them.
Air Potato Vine.Air Potato.
This is the giant bamboo at the pond; it gone absolutely wild so Gnome will be giving it a hair-cut this week. We are using some of the bamboo (they are 30 to 40 feet in length) as rafters for our new building.
Giant Bamboo.
Hope you are all surviving buggy time in Belize! By the way, we do have Insect Repellent products so check on The Apothecary….
When it rains, it pours!! Especially if you live down here in Toledo, Belize. These are actually pictures from last week! Surprisingly, it has dried up again(!) and it hasn’t rained for about 6 days now. Well, there was a lot of water everywhere!! Here are some pictures to show you what we mean by a lot of water…
The duckie pond in the Zen coop is full again…we were supposed to re-do this one this year but did not find the time to get to it. It is lined with thick construction plastic (which the duckies have scratched up) and then it has been lined with rocks. When it rains everyday (which happens at this time of the year) it will get completely filled up like this. As it gets drier, the water does leak out of the holes in the construction plastic so it doesn’t hold water perfectly. We’ll have to sort this one out next year.
Duckie Pond.
This year the big pond did not dry up. The water is high again…but the silly geese have forgotten that it exists again…we will have to lure them here with a corn trail…
Oh, and this year it has been re-stocked with tilapia thanks to Panda. We can go fishin’ in the new year!! (Panda’s doing okay by the way…last time we talked to him (which was a few days ago) he said that he felt fresh and ready to get on with things on the farm).
Pond.
These are puddles that are more like little ponds…so you can understand why we wear wellies all the time.
Puddle 1.Puddle 2.
Okay, so we are still up to our ears in trying to finish last minute construction and the wood that we had bought (tambran) has got black mold growing on it already. We still have to keep on going…rain or shine!!
This one is an update on our gosling (goosie) situation. Yes, I know that every-one has been waiting with bated breath for the next thrilling instalment (Ha-Ha!!). Our L’il Spaddled Goosie with the spaddled legs didn’t make it…it may have had other problems and it just keeled over one day and wouldn’t get up again. Rest in Peace my l’il sweet one in Goosie Heaven!!
Spaddled Goose.
We now have five goosies on the block and they are doing great. They are at the ugly stage at the moment (but I still think they are really adorable). Since they were getting bigger, there were over-crowding problems in piggie metropolis, so they are finally out with the duckies in the Zen coop.
The Piggies: “Phew…we can hear ourselves think again!! Yay!!”
I think the piggies are relieved now that there is some peace and quiet in their living quarters. The goosies were getting a bit too chatty and noisy…
Happy Piggies.
The goosies are having a lovely time. Here are some pictures…
I am getting them used to eating all sorts of things so that they can forage once they get out into the “real world” of the farm. Right now, I am throwing succulent mombassa grass, mango peels and food scraps at them. They also get protein rations in the form of puppy food.
This is an old picture when they were all wee…
Wee Goosies.
Now look at them….
Green Goosies Eating.
They are starting to feather:
Sitting Goosies.
Goosies by the pond:
Goosies.
Once they are fully feathered we will let them out. Meanwhile we will keep them safe inside the coop.
The other day, Gnome went into the yard and then came straight back into the house and said:
“The male turkey is sitting on the turkey eggs!”
We both went to look and sure enough he had phased out into a deep meditative state whilst sitting on 9 eggs. We made sure that the eggs were intact (which they were) but we wondered if this behaviour was a “good thing.” The Over-Lord (the male turkey) has been a bit of a scamp and has broken the eggs in the turkey nest in the past. Mama turkey (The Duchess) seemed unperturbed with it all (like it was normal for a huge 20lb turkey to sit on her eggs) and was nimbly dashing about outside looking for yummy morsels to eat.
Another Google search: Do Male Turkeys Sit On Eggs.
And sure enough there are reports that male and female turkeys “share the workload” and are known to take turns (like work shifts) to set eggs. Okay….so after reading this, we decided not to chuck the Over-Lord off the eggs!!
Awwhhh….it is actually quite nice to see the Over-Lord and the Duchess working together. She is coming out more to forage for food and I throw some corn near the nest so that she doesn’t need to go so far. He hasn’t come off for 72 hours now!! Most of the time they are sharing the nest and are sitting side by side.
How Lovely….
Male and Female Turkey Setting.
This is not a good picture because I did not want to disturb them too much. If you look very closely, they are both there. Another two weeks ago until estimated date of hatching…we’ll keep you posted.
Shoppin’ Again…but, this time it was at Spanish Lookout which is located in the Cayo District of Belize. This time it was to get hardware bits for construction….not very exciting!
It poured down all the way on the trip so we reckoned that it was a good day to leave the farm. We would have been stuck inside feeling sorry for ourselves! Anyway it’s about 3 hours drive to this Mennonite Community.
Spanish Lookout.
This is a “modern” community that specialises in selling hardware…this is where you usually go in Belize if you are looking for this kind of stuff.
Spanish Lookout.
When it comes to shopping, I am always quite happy to get what is needed on the farm, whatever the animals need and even things like a new bowl for the dog. However, when it comes to buying anything personal for myself, I am really awful and would rather “save the money for the farm…or even one of the animals” than buy something “nice.” We’ve often talked about how to overcome this problem so this is what we have come up with. Since Gnome knows my likes and dislikes very well, he has agreed to buy a surprise gift for me whenever he finds something that he thinks that I would like. This is Shopping Therapy…Munchkin and Gnome Style!!
This is what Gnome found for me. It’s absolutely perfect. It is a mini (one gallon) version of my clay pot; I am so pleased with it!!
Mini Clay Pot.
Anyway, back in Toledo now and it is sooooo wet. The wet season has started.
Just a quickie!! If you haven’t realised already, one of the reasons why we write these posts are to let our family and friends (from overseas) know that we are “right here.” I am sorry but I haven’t written in a week and I am usually better about keeping up. We’ve been really, really busy!! The rains have come mostly at night and the farm has started forming puddles already…the ducks and geese are happy with the multiple swimming holes! We are trying to get a move on with construction so Gnome is working in the mornings until it gets too hot. We’re also busy with doctor responsibilities (seems to come in cycles too) and have patients to see in the afternoon. In between all that, I’m trying to harvest food including soursops and jackfruit. They all still require preparation for storage…so, we are busy with everything!
