This time last year, our teeny weeny house was surrounded by bush and it was fast encroaching upon us! This was all because of machinery failure and the only thing that we had working was a weed-wacker to clean the 10 acres of land! Here are some pictures of our bushy yard:
Bush behind house.Bushy Yard.
Well, this year the walk-behind brush-mower worked the entire year (that is a record for us in the last 15 years!) and we have managed to get the place cleaned up. I guess Gnome’s parents might appreciate these pictures as they saw the place last year…they wouldn’t recognise the place now. Ooooh look at this; beyond the pond:
Cleaning up.Cleaning up fence line
We are piling up all the branches and leaves…there are probably about a dozen of these piles now after our mega clean-up!
Brush Pile.
Thanks also to Panda who has been helping us with the big clean-up…an extra pair of hands and a machete is always a great help!
Hello! Still here on the farm and still hauling water up into the house. It’s not a huge deal (with Munchkin’s well trained strong arms!); it is only an issue when we are trying to do a washing machine load. The washing machine takes 40 gallons in total (=8 pigtail buckets) with the wash and rinse cycle so that’s the real pain. But, of course we still have to do it and the clothes need to get washed! Right now, we are still in the midst of the grey water drainage project #135 so the water tower preparations are not in the forefront yet. The last few days, Gnome has been digging (I believe that’s what Gnomes do amongst many, many other things) our first drainage ditch which takes all the washing-up, clothes washing and bathing water out of the house area.
Digging First Drainage Pond.
The pond is actually bigger than this now and the final size will be 3 feet (90cm) by 30 feet (9metres). We will be planting edible plants (taro, lotus, etc) in this first pond. The overall plan is to have several of these connected ponds draining from one to another until they reach their final destination which is a great big banana and plantain grove. That way, all the nutrients from our grey water can be used to water a whole bunch of food plants as it wends its way from food pond to food pond. What a great way to water your own food!
Anyway, food is always in abundance on the farm and I am so pleased with our harvests. This is the lifestyle for beings (like Munchkin and Gnome) who like to eat and cook good food.
Just got a sweet potato harvest today:
Sweet Potatoes.
Barbados Gooseberry is producing…
Barbados Gooseberry.
Oh and look at the flowers of the Barbados Gooseberry…
Barbados Gooseberry Flower.
And yes we are eating dandelion salad right now…
Dandelion Bed.
Some hot peppers; this is a funny story. For quite some time, we have been trying to procure durian (Asian smelly fruit that all Asians adore and adulate). We tried to buy from Ebay several times: “fresh seeds from China.” If anyone knows about Durian, the seeds are the size of chestnuts but each time we received our seeds they would be pepper seeds!! These Chinese…they really are something trying to pass off pepper seeds for durian seeds!! So, these are our “Chinese Rip You Off Not-Durian Ha-Ha Pepper Seeds.” I guess it is still something…
Chiney Pepper.
Oh this is a pretty edible: celosia; kinda like a spinach:
Hello, Good Morning to y’all! We have had a two days of showers and this morning kinda looks bright and sunny (cross my fingers). We are sitting down with a cuppa getting ready for some farm work. Some days, we have our Yorkshire tea and other days we have our own cinnamon leaves boiled for 10 minutes, steeped for 5 minutes and sweetened with honey. It is a natural stimulant and sometimes we choose this over tea when we prefer a milder wake up!
Cinnamon Leaves.
Since it is generally drying up, Gnome has started a big mow again…the pond area was done first in preparation for our yearly bonfire for the the 5th of November (Remember, Remember…the 5th of November). Ooooh, I wonder if Gnome will do a double bonfire again!! It is an evening that we have friends around with bonfire(s), food cooked over coals and home-made wine. We also undertake a little tradition every year that involves burning a
symbolic representation of an aspect of our life that we no longer
feel is necessary. Hmmm…I am not sure if I am ready to burn the Pringles…it is one of my last links with consumerism!! 😉 This is the Guy from last year:
Guy.
What else…oooh, exciting stuff…sink is plumbed and we have a bath-tub/ trough for bathing…hee-hee.
Gnome asked me,“…it’s not exactly Martha Stewart…are you okay with it?”
Munchkin reply: “…who’s Martha Stewart anyway?? That is exactly why I love it!!”
I will have a better picture for you next time. Fine decor with Munchkin and Gnome where Practicality is all that matters. What do you think…can we market this lifestyle??!! 😉
Bath Tub.
Anyway, I will leave you with a picture of a morning gift from our Beloved Cat (he is like a son to us: lazy good-for-nothing-but-we-love-him and uses the place like a hotel). Cat:
Cat.
A Gift from the Cat; he left this outside the front door and nonchalantly walked into the house to his eating area. If he could talk, he would say: you guys can have the rat, I will have the gourmet liver that Munchkin serves up everyday, ta very much!
Gift From the Cat.
This is what I said to Gnome: “…we could eat it…I have seen enough episodes of Alone to work out how to prepare the rat for food….”
Gnome: “…hmmm…don’t tell me you are starting to think you are an expert on survival skills from watching television!!”
Ha-Ha!!
(Alone is an American reality TV series where people are left to survive in the wilderness by themselves and expected to use their skills to hunt and forage to survive. Many of the contestants have ended up catching rats to eat.
I am writing today because I seem to have a bit more time and I also feel like writing. This morning started off with very dark and ominous clouds; despite the warning signs, I pushed ahead and made the decision to work outside. Panda came with a pick-up truck of sawdust and emptied it in record time. It started bucketing down at about 9am and I had never seen Panda run so quickly to get out of the rain…but he forgot his shovel in his haste! Anyway, thanks Panda for the sawdust which we are putting around the house to raise the ground up. The rains and big, flat goosie feet have caused so much erosion that we have lost about a foot of dirt all around the house!
We are officially on Possum Alert right now. A couple of nights ago, we awoke to the din of goosie squawking and Gnome ran outside immediately. He managed to spy a predator and with the aid of a flash-light, he could make out the silhouette of a possum. Yes, they are back: Back with a Vengeance! The traps are out and we have warned the goosies to stay close to the house and not to go out in the dark alone after 9pm…fat chance they will actually listen!! We haven’t caught anything yet but are already talking about having a nice possum curry.
Possum.
The big rain this morning lasted about an hour and now it is sunny again. Gnome has been doing a spot of plumbing because we would like to move the sink out of the house and onto the veranda. I was going to take some pictures but then I stopped and wondered if anyone actually wanted to see a picture of pipes! Ha-Ha!!
Well, here is a prettier picture for you! I never thought that I would be so happy with dandelions…but, aren’t they lovely…Dandelions in Belize.
Dandelions.
We have been enjoying dandelion greens in our salads. We plan on growing a whole bed of dandelions for roots and greens and are collecting the seeds right now in preparation for this project.
It has been pouring down everyday since Sunday and we have been stuck indoors. Thank goodness, we got our planting done on Saturday…for the first time we seem to be synchronising with the weather. We are starting to plant new fruit trees in rows…I know…how about that for a novel, organised orchard! In the past we have planted our fruit trees in a haphazard sort of way: “how about there…in that space!” and now that the trees have grown, we are finding that they are in the wrong place, too close to the house, too close together, blocking the path, blocking the driveway, etc, etc. You name the planting mistake…we have done it!!
So many trees everywhere!!
Bushy Yard.
Anyway, we live and learn! Well, the last few days have been all day rains so there has been no hope of continuing with projects right now.
Nevertheless, we can’t complain about the continuous food on the farm. It is canistel time again:
Hello Everyone, I haven’t written for a while just because I have been too tired! Despite rain and mud and puddles, we are charging through like little troopers trying to get things done. The last time I wrote, we had about 10 days of glorious, dry weather. Straight after that, we had heavy rains. As soon as the first night rain started Gnome exclaimed (in his sleep): “…the peanuts…the peanuts…we must harvest the peanuts…”
And so we did…the next day of course…not in the middle of the night! The following day happened to be a dryish, sunny day so we had the weather on our side. Panda helped out too and we managed to collect the peanut in about 4 hours. The peanuts were washed and laid out to dry in a sheltered area. Well, thank goodness we did the harvesting because after that we had torrential rain for days…we would have lost the crop if we waited! Here are some pictures:
Peanut Harvest.
Oooh Peanuts:
Drying Peanuts.
In the last week or so, we have had heavy evening rains and dry days. Because our coconut area is on higher ground, we have managed to clear up the place; I went through and collected fallen coconuts(400!!). I have placed them in a shaded area to allow them to sprout. Panda (he’s been a very helpful trooper) cut and removed dead fronds and laid them in mulch piles. Then Gnome went through and bush-hogged the place. With all this co-ordinated work, we cleaned up the coconut area in about 2 1/2 days which is a record time for us!!
Coconuts.
Anyway, we are on a roll here and the next place to clean up is the back space with the sapodilla trees. This may prove difficult because the area is really wet and boggy; we will probably start by cleaning the fence line because the bush is encroaching on the territory. We are trying to get the sapodillas back on track since they have been neglected for about two years due to machinery failure. They used to look like this:
Sapodilla Trees.
Oh, and we have had more machinery problems which have held a few projects back…this time it is the chainsaw which is giving the headaches. We took it to the Farmstore in town to get it fixed and got the usual palava:
“..not sure which part needs to be replaced…will order part but can’t find part in Belize…maybe try to get part in Guatemala?? Or States??? Anyway… might take until December to get part from States…do you want to Belize rig it?? “
Anyway, these were the conversations that we were having for the last 2 weeks. Don’t get me wrong…this is not a complaint…this is what happens in Belize and these are the things that we have to live with. Anyway, we have the chainsaw back (not fixed) and Gnome says he will take it apart and see what he can do. No guarantees of course. Arrrrgh….we have so many trees to cut down!!
Gnome Magic.
Okay, so we will keep on going… 🙂 Here’s another picture of our peanuts. 🙂
Hello! We have had about 10 days straight of dry, sunny weather and we have been working our little butts off! Today, we are sooo tired that we have decided to take the day off. This is how we look at the end of the day: Oh, so knackered, just want to sleep…
Tired!!
Please note that the Cat has not been physically working and looks like this all the time!!
Anyway, I have managed to wrestle back control over the trees in the yard and the pond area. They have been cleaned up, mulched and fertilised and now on a maintenance schedule. The next battle is the orchard at the back which was overgrown for two years because of machinery failure. Now that Gnome has brought the grass/bush back down, I have been piling up all the debris and branches. A big thank-you to Panda for helping out with this bit! This was the orchard…very bushy. Now, it has really opened up. The orchard mostly consisted of sapodilla trees but from cleaning up, it looks like we may have lost about 6 out of 20 of the trees. We will probably replace with a variety of fruit trees including golden plum, mango and rambutan. This is a picture of “before”…don’t have “after” yet…
Bush.
Meanwhile, Gnome has been preparing the veranda for electricity and plumbing. We are moving the sink out of the house (not enough space) with a view to moving the kitchen out too (not enough space!). To add to all these plans within plans, we have decided (work in process and will take a couple of years to establish) to have two cooking areas. We will have a cooking area on the veranda with dedicated charcoal stoves…mostly set up for Gnome for Italian slow-cooking, wine-making and whatever he feels like cooking up. At some stage, I will have an outside Munchkin kitchen with a fire/coal pit so I will do most of the cooking over coals. There will be a dedicated sheltered sitting area outside for this and a little kitchen-bunker made from used tyres. 🙂 That’s the plan…
Anyway, the farm keeps on producing and each season brings something different to the kitchen table. We have a blackberry bearing right now; very difficult to harvest because the tree is so tall so I have to wait for the berries to fall to the ground. I tried thrashing the branches about with a big stick but I got too tired. If I can collect enough, I will get Gnome to make some wine:
Blackberry
It is also the season for peach-palm. The geese love these and actually wait underneath the palms for the fruit to fall and when this happens, this sets off a rugby-type game that they play. It’s fun to watch amidst the goosie shrieks and carrying-on. Run Goosie Run!!
Peach Palm
We are eating them too. I cut them in half, remove the centre seed and boil them for about 45 minutes. Since, I do this in large batches, the cooked fruit is stored in the freezer ready for stews and soups.
Boiled Peach Palm.
Oh and the malabar spinach looks very healthy and has taken over a whole bed:
Malabar Spinach.
Aubergines (eggplants) are starting to produce; Pantry Cat is also looking after the vegetables…he keeps the iguanas away during the day…good boy, remember to wake up if you hear any stealthy crunch-crunch noises!!
Hope is a good thing. I had made the decision to leave my duckies alone this year and not bother them about laying and nesting. I opened the coop and told them that they were free to walk around and do whatever pleased them. I then quickly stuck a greenhouse in the coop…thinking: aha, since you are not going to be around, I will move my tiny plant nursery off the veranda into your big, spacious coop!!
Greenhouse in Duck Coop.
Anyway, guess what happens next? A few days later, Gnome spotted a duck emerging surreptitiously from under a wood pile. He said,
“Quick Munchkin…check that space out…”
I quickly got down on my hands and knees to peer into a tiny, squashed-up space under a wood pile and this is what I found:
Secret Duckie Nest.
They are laying and starting a nest. Yes…there is hope. 😉
We have been a bit unlucky with duckies this year. We had about 6 girls initially and one by one we lost them through some pesky possums early in the year. I managed to incubate a few eggs and had a few duckies to mother…sadly, none of them survived either…some were too weak and I actually stood on one too. I know, I know, I was so devastated that I couldn’t even write that in a post! Ducklings have a very erratic way of walking ie. they don’t walk in a straight line AND Munchkins have an erratic way of walking…so, put the two together and it might be a recipe for disaster! Oh dear, no duckies this year:
Duckie.
Anyway, we have ended up with a lone surviving duck and three drakes. The last two months, we attempted to isolate the female with one drake in the coop. They had the whole infinity pond to themselves and access to all- they- can eat corn and protein buffet. Despite all this pampering, duckie was not laying any eggs (or was there a snake getting them, I am not sure?). We felt that she was lonely and unhappy and needed some female company to perk up. To add to all this stress, during this confinement period, the drake kept on escaping through invisible holes in the coop to chase after the other two drakes! Yes, oh what fun!! It just wasn’t working out at all…
Duckies.
So, we decided to seek out our Duckie Exchange guy in Punta Gorda. We have known this guy for as long as we have had duckies…so, probably about 14 years. He owns ducks and occasionally, he goes through difficult duckie times like ours; when this happens he usually seeks us out for a pair of duckies to start again. Over the years, we have sought each other out in duckie dearth times. This time it was our turn. He said that he was happy to spare a a few for us even although he had suffered quite a loss recently. That was really nice of him. Whilst talking, he told us that he had lost his only male goose to the dog. As he told us, his single female goose walked by…she was so tame and cute and she had a funny, limping gait. He explained to us that when she was a gosling, a crab nipped off all her toes so that was why she walked in a teeter-totter sort of way. Anyway, we thanked him for his help and said that we would return to pick up the ducks.
Afterwards, Gnome and I talked and agreed that since we had always helped each other out, we would give the guy a male goose in exchange for the duckies. It is coming up to goosie breeding season again and the fights will start with the September solstice. There is one particular male goosie that gets the brunt of it all and we end up throwing him into the duck coop for protection. I am not sure why the other males go for him because he is very fine-looking and he is a fighter too. Gnome and I agreed that he would probably be happier in a new home despite our reluctance to let go of our beloved goosie.
Anyway, that Duckie-Goosie exchange took place about two weeks ago. Every time, we are in town, we slow down in front of the house to catch a glimpse of our dear goosie. He looks a lot happier walking proudly about with his new lady and it looks like he is the new boss of the yard! Oh I know, we are suckers for happy endings…let us also hope for a happy ending for the duckies because we want more of these little cuties!!
I feel a tad stupid writing this post because it seems like a very obvious solution to a very obvious problem. However, it has taken me eight years to come to this realisation.
From my knowledge of The New World, cats were introduced from the Old World by Post Columbian Contact (1490’s). Back in the good old days, cats existed to do a job ie. keep rat populations down and that is why you had a ship’s cat or a larder cat. As far as I know, cats did not exist at that time, exclusively for cuteness and cuddling.
Well, nowadays, cats do exist for cuteness and cuddling and we (and they) have forgotten their ancestral days of work, struggle and rat chasing! Indeed, we have a Millennial Cat!
Okay, so I have a cat on the farm for eight years and he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Sometimes, I feel that he has trained us to exist only to feed and cuddle him…I scratch my head and wonder… at what point did the tables turn on us…
(There is a rat running amok in my kitchen eating teabags…why is the cat not doing his job??)
Since it has been raining non-stop, the cat has taken to sleeping in the same spot, at the back of the house, for 23.5 hours of the day. For the 30 minutes of awake time, he is performing cat toilet duties or persuading me to feed him. He sleeps on a black executive chair with an extra layer of cloth for comfort:
Comfortable Cat.
Okay, so what do I do? I can’t shout at him and I can’t talk to him…Catch the rat, you stupid lazy good-for-nothing cat!! And besides, he looks too cute to reprimand!
This is what we have done. We have surrounded his executive chair with food that needs protecting. The sack of corn and the dog food is beside him. Any vegetables or fruit, of significance, are placed in his sleeping space. Look, we have our vegetables protected by the cat!
Cat Guarding Taro.
It’s working. No rat dares to come near any of the sacks with a fat cat guarding them. Gnome says that if we need extra security in the kitchen, we can always wheel the executive chair in to that area. So there you go, we now have a pantry cat!
