Saturday, July 24, 2010

Quiet around here

We seem to be in a quiet spot up here. We watch the storms build to the north and more often to the south, accompanied by lots of lightning & thunder, but they usually pass us by. The other day, when I told about Art heading to town during a storm, was the exception. He made it just fine, but water was over the road in the Village. It's interesting to see how fast the land handles all the water. The road up to our place can look like a problem, as the water pours down the original tracks down to the rock. We just move to the side a little and gallop our way up and down. We're so pleased with the fact that we had our driveway and parking areas graveled and they're solid and stay dry.

We can see where most of the water ends up. The river below us, the Mopan, is running a little high and looks like chocolate. It comes here from Guatemala, where most of the clouds that pass us by, dump their rain. That's fine with us. The ferry across the Belize River is closed during this high water.

Frustrations continue, but that's just life. My garden is currently a bust, but I've not given up hope. I harvested a few nice cukes and then the bugs/worms took over. Vines are dying and cukes have been eaten. The cantaloupe are also being attacked, but the blooms aren't setting fruit. Well, I'm attacking all this with grated teeth and determination. I'm not going down without a fight. As long as there isn't any fruit, to heck with the organic, I've turned to the Confidor. Once we have fruit again, I'll turn to the Neem. Rene's very hesitant to criticize me, but I told him I really want his help, so he's opening up a little about my errors. One thing he suggested is to put up sticks to give the plants something to climb, thus getting the fruit off the ground. Hey, I'll try anything. I'll post photos of any solution we come up with.

I've planted some tomatoes, lettuce and chinese cabbage behind the house, in the partial shade, to see how they react. We're sure not going to founder on our produce, but have found a lady near here who sells produce from the back of her car, so will at least have veggies handy.

Today is a quiet Saturday. Not going to the market, just staying home and fussing about the place. Thank goodness I did laundry a couple of days ago as my new washing machine broke. Yah, another repair mess. Getting a little frustrating. Of course, this is a chinese made thing that we bo't locally, so what can we expect. Plastic!

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and we're both just enjoying each day. Our sweet Bailey is always happy when we stay home. He's shedding again (I hadn't even noticed that he'd wooled bup again) so will spend time with him and the brush.

Here's to a quiet day on our hill.

2 comments:

sandy a. said...

YOu can make a trellis for your cucumbers using chicken wire and stakes--it's real easy. Getting curbits (melons, cukes) off the ground will help with insects, but I never had any real luck using organic methods. I think that works better up North than where you or I live. Nothing touches fire ants except chemicals! I had those in my black-eyed peas last year. Your tomatoes will probably like full sun better, but you never know.
Do y'all have coyotes there? They love to steal melons of all kinds--no lie! I've never seen a coyote in Belize, but they are certainly in Mexico

batfish said...

Just a hint, you may try container growing for veggies while getting the knack of the land there. Even though vegitation decomposes quickly there the ground if slack on nutrients for crop production without added fertilizer. But my experience was on Caye Caulker Thus the need for containers. And them damn iguanas wanting to eat everything. We sure do know the need for fresh salad greens. Have you tried malabar spinach or swiss chard?
Cheers, Dan