Category Archives: Belize

Goosie Galore!!

April 22, 2017 Munchkin 1 Comment

This story started yesterday morning when we woke up at our usual 5am time, all bleary eyed and half asleep trying to block out the incessant morning gobbling of the turkey. I wasn’t too sure what was going on…rubbing my eyes wearily, I recall that we had been watching a Scottish film the night before (The Legend of Barney Thomson with Robert Carlyle which was incidentally based in Glasgow). This is what happened first thing: Gnome started talking with a broad Scottish accent. He wasn’t putting it on intentionally either…

I just guffawed at him and said that I needed a wee cup of tea before I could comprehend why he was talking like that. Gnome exclaimed,

“What do you mean? I’m just talking normally!!”

After finding some semblance of normality with my Yorkshire tea, it suddenly dawned on me that Gnome and I spend every waking (and un-waking) moment together, with sparse company in-between, and he has got so used to my accent that he has adopted it unconsciously. It did occur to me that on many occasions, he has been mistaken for a Scot. I usually pipe up and say defensively, in a strong “can’t mess with me” Scottish accent,

“Hey hang on a minute!! I’m the Scottish one.”

It makes me laugh when people get awfully confused because I look Chinese (Cantonese) and I come out with such a rough accent. Ha-Ha!!

Anyway, I thought Gnome’s Scottish accent was pretty good and that’s something coming from a Glaswegian. I then proceeded to challenge him and I said (think of me talking in my usual accent):

“Well, son, you might be able to do Scottish-Glaswegian, but can you do Scottish-Sean Connery-style??!!”

Gnome said,

“Well, I’ll have to watch some GoldFinger with Pussy Galore and practise some James Bond lines….”

He didn’t manage to finish the sentence because all of a sudden there was a tremendous amount of goosie noise coming from behind the house.

We ran outside and saw that all the geese were surrounding a setting goose (May Jones; one of the Jonesy Girls). This goose had decided to make her nest in some long grass about 15 yards behind our house. Since we didn’t want to move her (we’ve had failures with kidnapping and re-location) we decided to leave her alone. Gnome got to her first and then shouted at me to come quickly.

This what we saw. Three cute fluffed up goosies hiding behind mama!

I couldn’t help it and I said amusingly,

“Ooooh….Goosie Galore!!!”

Gnome replied,

“It shertainly sheems sho, Mish Moneypenny!!”

in a mock Sean Connery accent.

Belize

Thanks For The Care Package!

April 22, 2017 Munchkin

Look what we got through the post!! Thank-you Betsy and Taylor for your thoughtful gifts! There was a whole array of useful items including recyclable bags, gardening gloves, shower cap and even duct tape. Oh, and few other stationery pieces and bamboo wind-chimes (which we will hang out at the pond underneath the bamboo).

And yes, if you carefully scrutinize the picture, you may notice there are two Peeps purple bunnies missing…Hmmmm….where are the missing bunnies??!!

Belize, Food

Thank-you For The Egg Moulds!

April 20, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

This is a “Thank-you” post. About a year ago, I had written as an aside, in one of my posts, that I would love to make one or two of these:

What happened does go to show that we have friends that look out for us.

This is what we have received through the post; the larger one came about a month after my write up. Thank-you Joanna!

And the set of smaller ones were a Christmas gift (3 months late because of sloooow transit times from the States to Belize). Thank-you Erin!

The large one is definitely for goose eggs but we haven’t eaten any yet since we are trying to set all of them. I will have to post some food pictures but not sure if they will look as pristine as the animated picture! Cheers and Thank-you!!

Amusing, Belize, Construction

Dry Season Work.

April 19, 2017 Munchkin 1 Comment

Hello There!! The Easter weekend was cold and wet so it kinda allowed an enforced rest. Then Monday came and nothing came out of Monday. Mondays can be write off a lot of the time, I’ve noticed. I personally think that the beginning of the week should start Tuesday!

Anyway, we started Tuesday. We are trying to do all the tidying up and construction that we had stored up for the dry weather.

Firstly, the tree that fell on the roof of the house (about 8 months ago) which has been perching precariously over the Internet antenna, was removed. We had been waiting to buy a chainsaw (because our cheapo one broke…it was a luminous green and purple one and looked like a Fisher Price toy!). Just as an aside, I usually start Gnome with cheap tools so that he learns to use them without getting worried about wear and tear and breakage. Once he shows that he actually knows how to use the tool, we graduate onto more expensive tools.

Well, we haven’t got the good chainsaw yet! So, Gnome had to take the tree down, traditional-style with a machete.

With the usual one Gnome heroics, the tree was cut down, pulled to the side and cut into pieces.

Moving swiftly on, we (Gnome actually, I do all the cleaning up after) has taken the back wall off the house to replace with zinc because it is water-proof and sturdier. With all this messing around at the back of the house, we had a better chance to intensely scrutinise the wooden posts that were holding up the stairs. We knew they were rotting and we had to fix them…sometime. The posts had actually rotted right through and the stairs were being held up by…I don’t know… magic and air. Anyway, the stairs were pulled out and now replaced with a ladder (Ha-Ha). Also, the posts holding up the door are rotting through!

It’s funny because the cat comes up to the house from the back stairs and we were both worried that he wouldn’t be able to get into the house in the usual way. The cat didn’t have a problem with the ladder…of course!! Savvy cats can get up and down ladders!!

So, today, instead of getting the zinc up, Gnome has to cut extra pieces of wood to hold the door up!

Yes, the place is falling apart but we must save the sinking ship!!

Amusing, Belize, Pets

Sunday Plumbing and Goosies.

April 16, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

There’s certainly no rest for Gnome even though it’s the Easter weekend. The sink got completely blocked up yesterday so this morning his first chore was to fix it. He was really nice about it and took the the plumbing apart and sucked up all the garbage (it was really quite horrible) and lo and behold, he found a wooden chopstick inside the sink trap!

He held the chopstick up in the air and looked at me incredulously:

“Darling, how did you get a chopstick down the sink?”

How embarrassing…I really don’t know how it happened and when it happened! At that point, Gnome felt justified in putting his two cents worth,

“You’re lucky we don’t need to call in a plumber to do this for you…because they probably wouldn’t come out for the holiday weekend! And, most probably they wouldn’t bother coming out for a chopstick emergency!”

Yeah I know. I feel really silly and sheepish and I still don’t know how a chopstick got into the U-bend.

Anyway, I must get over this silliness and show you our lovely little goosies. I am teaching then to eat their greens:

“Eat your greens!!”

After they have eaten and pooped, I let them sit on my lap (while they fall asleep and make whistling noises).

Spending quality time with the little ones on Easter Sunday!! They are an absolute joy!!

Belize, Food, Pets

Happy Easter!

April 15, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

A Happy Easter to y’all and hope that you are enjoying a lovely weekend! We’ve had an Easter hatching so now we have two goslings.

This one has darker eyes, also has a little bump above its beak like a Chinese goose and is very talkative. As usual, they are very independent; at first they are unsteady on their feet, wobbling all over the place and falling into the container of water . After about 24 hours, they become steadier and can start eating solids quickly. In our house, they get mashed up boiled egg and chopped up greens.

Well, what are we eating for Easter? That’s actually a tough one because my cooker broke down two weeks ago. Can you believe it…the knobs (which were made of plastic) were slowly breaking off one by one. At one point, I only had 3 knobs so I could only have 3 out of 6 burners going at the same time. Alas, all last 3 knobs broke at the same time. One of the knobs was for the oven so that means I have no oven…which means no roast lamb. Having said that, you can’t get lamb for love nor money down here anyway. If you are lucky, you might find some mutton.

Anyway, we literally rushed out to buy a new stove top. This is what Gnome said,

“Oh no!! This is an emergency!! We have to get Munchkin a new stove. Otherwise she will waste away to nothing!”

Ha-ha, that’s a joke. It would take me a very long time to waste away to nothing. In fact, I’ve actually been counting calories lately. I am not over-weight (nor am I skinny) but I think it is healthy not to over eat. I also found it a useful exercise in devising tasty meals which don’t pack on the pounds. We don’t eat breakfast so that’s any easy one (zero calories) and lunch time, I have devised meals that are about 300 to 400 calories…Gnome eats double because he needs the energy to do physical work. Here are some examples of my low calorie lunches.

I don’t count the calories for dinner but I expect it to be about 1000. So right now I’m trying to decrease my calorie intake from 2000 (recommended energy intake for adult female) to about 1500. For junk food, I’m counting my Pringles (10 at a time costs me 100 calories) and a two finger Kit-Kat is 100 calories. So through-out the day, I weigh and juggle my intake in order to get to 1500 as my total at the end of the day.

Oh, and Gnome and I are making gelato with no sugar…with his Grandmother’s recipe which is just milk actually. That’s a great alternative to shop bought ice-cream and I don’t feel so fat after eating it!!

Have a Happy Easter. We’re having Osso Buco tonight so I really shouldn’t have lunch, should I? Ha-ha!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Sulphur and Goosie Trouble!!

April 8, 2017 Munchkin

Gnome has been boiling up sulphur and lime for our Lime-Sulphur XXX Pet Dip For Mange, Fleas, Ticks and Ringworm.

Available at the Farmstore in Punta Gorda, Toledo by the way. Just ask for Presidente…for Pets. You will know why once you see the bottles because we are recycling old Presidente beer bottles:

He’s making it on a kerosene stove on the veranda which has been inadvertently converted into yet another work space…not fit for people…he does it on purpose so that we can’t invite anyone around:

“errh…sorry folks you can’t come round because I’m boiling sulphur today…sorry about the inconvenience…maybe another day when I’m not boiling sulphur!!”

Today the sulphur concoction boiled over so there was a very strong eggy smell pervading the veranda, the house and our senses. Gnome loved it and as I have previously mentioned he is a Catholic Gnome so he feels thoroughly cleansed when he plays around with sulphur. He said to me, in a rather a playful manner,

“Don’t cry over spilled sulphur my dear…this will get rid of the snakes…the evil eye…and bad spirits…I’m giving the house a thorough cleansing!”

Well, what could I say? One can not go against the word of a Catholic Gnome!

Okay, we also have more goosie trouble. Our white goosie (we call her January Jones) has been sitting on a clutch of goose eggs.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that there has been problems with a male goose who keeps on fighting to sit on her eggs (yes, I know…do ganders get broody too??). After many fights, the eggs were getting smashed and alas she ended up with one egg. I had been timing her sit and her EDD (Estimated Date of Delivery…Ha-Ha using medical terms…might be Estimated Date of Hatching) was on Wednesday. Anyway, we gave her a few more extra days and lo and behold, the egg exploded because it was rotten. Now you would think that she would get off her nest since there were no more eggs plus there was a terrible stench of exploded egg. No, she wouldn’t budge an inch.

Since January Jones had no more eggs to sit on and she had lost so much weight over the last month, we made an executive decision to throw her off her nest and out of the coop. I know it sounds horrible but she was wasting away and we needed to break her broodiness so she would start eating again.

Well, she’s thoroughly pissed off with us! Every morning she waits outside the house to ambush us. She runs full throttle at us and tries to leap and thrash at our legs! What a feisty goose…I hope at some point she will find it in herself to forgive us because these goosie attacks are getting a bit too much.

Anyway, I still want to end on a positive note. Here are some recent baby pictures!! We love Oor Goosies despite their evil temperaments!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Pets

Kidnapping The Duchess!!

April 5, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

Officially we are now crepuscular; up at 5am, doing our stuff until it gets too hot to move!! I just wanted to share with you a funny story that happened about two weeks ago. This was when we had no idea what to do with our goose eggs; the incubator was unreliable, all the female geese were insisting on nesting in the middle of the bush, there was a lot of pushing and shoving resulting in broken eggs and there were no reliable broody poultry. Our first solution was to get Muscovy ducks as they are known to be become broody at the drop of a hat. These silly little ducks have proven to be duds. As Gnome says,

“They’re treating this place like a hotel….”

These two possess absolutely no broody tendencies. They just twitter, stuff themselves full of corn and will have nothing to do with us. Talk about a bunch of free-loaders!!

Anyway, at about the same time, our darling duchess (aka female turkey) had laid a clutch of eggs and was sitting all snug and cosy on top of them. And then lo and behold, the Overlord (Aka male turkey) came along and smashed up the eggs (we are not sure why he did this) and the poor duchess was left whimpering on top of a bunch of broken eggs, refusing to move.

This is when we decided upon Operation: Kidnap the Duchess. Gnome made a lovely luxury nest cabana-style in the coop.

In the middle of the night, Gnome stealthily grabbed and snatched the duchess and placed her in the new nest on top of 7 goose eggs. I assisted with a flash-light to guide the way. The next morning, we opened up the nest door to find the duchess all quiet and calm, sitting happily on top of her eggs. Since then, she has not moved at all and we place food, snacks (she loves bananas) and water by her side. We hope that the eggs hatch…we have about another two weeks to go. We did read on the Internet (although we are now cautious of any information that we read) that when a turkey sits on goose eggs, you actually need to help her move the eggs around on a daily basis and spray warm water to keep them humidified. Well, the Duchess will have none of that because she won’t get her off the eggs! God forbid that we try moving her about; she would probably freak out and we definitely do not want to de-brood her! Let’s hope and pray that we get a few goosies out of this one…

Keep on going Duchess!! You’re a Champion!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

A Very Hot Sunday!

April 2, 2017 Munchkin 2 Comments

This morning, we worked on the guinea pig coop, re-using concrete blocks from the goosie cabana-style nests for it. Apparently, from our personal observation of geese, they do not seem to like “sharing walls” so now we have to make single brooding nests. How funny...no semi-d’s for the geese...semi-detached houses (in the UK and Australia; don’t know if this concept is in Northern America) are houses that share walls. They are usually two houses stuck together so that the neighbours end up sharing a wall. The advantage of this housing is that they are usually less expensive than a single house. There are also many disadvantages like hearing the television next door! Anyway, I digress…my point is that we can’t be cheap with our geese and make them share walls!!

So these got taken apart…

We left a single one which incidentally has three brand new goose eggs in it. We are not sure who the girl is so we are taking bets for the next broody goose.

The guinea pig complex has been expanded upwards by one concrete block to give our duckies more head room:

Panda came to the farm this morning. He’s doing fine by the way for all you guys who are following the blog to read about his exploits. You guys must be thinking, “Oh no…not another silly Munchkin and Gnome post! Where’s Panda??”

Panda came over to help us get a pick up load of sawdust. Gnome and Panda got all red-faced and sweaty from the heat (not actually the work) whilst I brought goosie along for the ride. I was on light duty today!

After midday, Panda went off to do his own thing. We decided to have a break at the pond today. It is actually soooo hot that you have no choice but to sit around. We had crumpets and tea together sans the geese.

Cacao butter crumpets! Scrumptious!

Apparently the geese have forgotten that there is a pond (what short memories they have) and are dizzily swimming about in little 5 gallon basins around the house. Oh, well we can’t tell them what to do otherwise they will try to pick a fight with us! What hot-headed Geese we have…

Hope y’all had a nice Sunday sitting around in the inferno heat!!

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food, Pets, Philosophy, Plants

We Have A Happy Gnome!

April 1, 2017 Munchkin 1 Comment

Yes, indeed, we have a happy Gnome so that really means that we also have a happy Munchkin! When we tell you what makes us satisfied with life, you’ll probably giggle and guffaw at the simplicity of our wants. Yes, indeed this ascetic life-style has made us put our lives into perspective (as there is time for quiet contemplation) and you realise that life can be fulfilled with very simple things. The meaningful things to us might not be everyone’s cup of tea! But, we do think that it’s good to develop new interests and passions all the time.

Yes, firstly…the worms…the worms…of course. Special thanks to Graham and Joyce for their assistance and friendship. Here we are:

Lovely, lovely…this stuff makes Gnome very happy:

Gnome has set up a wormery to increase his population. Once he is satisfied that he has enough worms, he will start his worm tower empire.

The next thing…aubergines…aubergines. We are growing the Black Beauty variety. Look at the lovely flower on this plant:

What’s next…ooooh Baby Goosie is a bundle of joy. We are certainly enjoying being Mama Munchkin and Papa Gnome. We even phoned up Gnome’s Mum to talk about the “baby” and how well it was eating and putting on weight. Gnome’s dad laughed at our conversation and said at last, we have a grand-child!

Oh, last but not least…Gnome’s beloved tomatoes. We did experience quite a set-back from the pesky birds. I can’t look at a Montezuma oropendola without feeling self-righteous indignation! Look at what they did to our lovely tomato:

Anyway, Gnome’s ingenuity has out-witted them…so far, so good! Let’s give a show of hands to Gnome for his new “Hello Birdie…there’s nothing here to eat…so go away” decoy.

The last picture has to be these: our very own Krim tomatoes. Beautifully sweet and succulent. We just sliced them and dipped them in salt. Ahhhh…wonderful….

Casa Mascia Apothecary