beginning construction on our little house

OK friends, here's what we have so far. Sr. Amelio and the boys have really been busy. When we arrived, the skeleton and roof were up. They are going to town. It will never be a very fancy house, but we love it already. Since we're on the top of a hill, we get lovely breezes, so the verandas will probably be where we spend most of our time. I splurged and when last here I asked Amelio to put verandas all around, with three of them 6' and the back one, which will be off the kitchen is 8'.

Right now we're camping in our "guest house", but managing ok. I know family and friends think we're crazy at our ages to be making this move, but works for us! Hope you enjoy the photos, most taken by Amelio's son Luis.

Bailey

Two years ago, in Bend, OR, I saw a photo in the paper of a beautiful 5 year old male Akita who was at the humane society as was looking for a home. We had lost our lovely little dog a year before and were ready to have another dog. Well, you never know who you'll find, but what a lucky day it was when we took him. It was an adjustment for us, because Akita's are large dogs. Bailey went from 85lbs to 111 lbs after we got him. He's undoubtably the most intelligent animal I've ever been around and the most adaptable.

We worried about trying to take him to Belize. We finally decided that the breed originated in Japan which gets very hot and humid, so hopefully, he be able to adapt. Our big worry was putting him on a plane as "freight". I imagined him being sent to some place in Europe or ??. He had also bonded to us and we imagined all sorts of things happening, SO, we bo't a used Toyota Tundra, with 4 doors (sort of), found a fantastic seat cover especially for transporting dogs and away we went.

Bailey immediately bonded with the truck. He loves to travel! Our main problem was finding motels that allow pets, especially large dogs. Bailey rarely barks, doesn't make a mess and only goes outside. Most don't even realize he's around unless they happen to see him. He is a little intimidating because of his size.

We actually found that he was a real asset, especially in Mexico. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of the "wolf" in our car. He didn't mind the attention and probably got us thru most spots quite smoothly.

He keeps surprising us with his intelligence. Once again, today, we left him in the car for a few minutes to buy paint. We'd rolled down the windows and made sure that he wasn't too hot. I guess he felt we'd been gone long enough because we heard the horn honk. We looked out and he was sitting in the driver's seat, honking the horn with his nose, and looked up as to say, "get your backsides out here and lets get going". Guess you know who's boss!

He's settling in ok here in our new home, altho' it's pretty primitive right now. Our house isn't complete and our shipment isn't here yet, so we don't have fans or even electricity most of the time. What really makes it still seem like home, is the three of us getting thru it together.

Thru Mexico to Belize

The photo on the far right shows the Honda & Land Rover's & roads in Mexico. Wish Belize's were so good!

I have to make a couple of points first.
1. We’re caravanning with a wonderful friend, Roy Pascascio, his son Marlon and nephew, Champ. Roy is driving a Land Rover which he’s taking down for a customer and Champ is driving a little Honda CRV, which Roy bo’t at the request of a lady in Corozal. We’re following the pack in our Toyota Tundra pickup, loaded to the gunnels with good “stuff” which we felt we couldn’t leave behind.
2. I also want to remind myself about how tired we are at this point. We left Oregon three weeks ago, delivered a few items to Roy in LA, to be shipped in the container along with all our other stuff for our new house. We all tho’t that the container would ship within the next week, but not to be. We ended up wandering around Arizona, waiting for the container to be packed so that Roy could leave. We had now been gone from Oregon for nearly three weeks.
The point to this is that we’re starting out really tired and trying not to be discouraged.
At Roy’s request, we sent him the title to our pickup ahead of time. It was hard to trust it to the mail, but in the long run it saved us time. Roy sent it ahead to his broker, so it was cleared by the time we arrived. I think they’re checking for clear titles, etc.
We met Roy Saturday morning in Pharr, TX, at the American ?? Brokers. Roy has used them for years. Actually, we arrived on Friday evening and had them inspect our pickup and go thru and inventory our entire load. I had already done it, but they must check everything themselves, and the biggy is that it must be in Spanish and of course, I don’t speak or write it. Our load is a real mess of foodstuff, kitchen items, clothing, dog paraphernalia, a couple of wooden chairs, tools, oil for the car and ? So glad that we got that done before Roy got there, as it took quite a while to accomplish and then repack. Something else I forgot to mention is that the whole west is suffering from a record breaking heat wave. It was 111 in Laredo on Friday and nearly that hot in Pharr.
On Friday morning we met Roy and the boys and completed the pedimento listing all our good stuff, the paperwork, for all three vehicles and headed for the border. We had to wait a short while there for the title for the Land Rover that Roy was transporting to catch up with us. We then headed for the crossing at McAllen, Tx. There you wait and head for the terminal in a group. Here you have to wait in line to apply for your Mexican VISA, fill out the papers and wait in line again for it to be issued, buy your Mexican insurance and here we also changed US dollars into Pesos. We changed $500US into 6500 pesos. I will say right now that that was a lucky guess. We probably paid about $5oo pesos in tolls and the rest in motels and food. It took us the better part of three days to cross Mexico.
Warning – At one of the most expensive toll booths, the toll was 140pesos. We gave him a 500. They will return your change with the receipt wrapped around the bills. We drove on as there was a string of cars behind and we didn’t want to lose our caravan. WRONG! Always count your change before leaving. We were only given 260 change. He shorted us 100. He was chatty, but of course in Spanish, smiling all the time, actually laughing at us.
Warning #2 – At the fuel pumps, be sure that they roll the starting $$s to zero. That’s the good thing about a locking cap. You can get out and ask them to roll it back before you open the cap. Otherwise they might jamb the nozzle in and start pumping and you’re total will be yours plus what was already on the meter. Of course it’s not everyone, but I did have to tell one fellow to start with zero and he just grinned like “it was worth a try”.
In this part of Mexico, the roads are really quite good. They’re nicely paved and have lines in the middle and the fog line on the right. We were really impressed, especially with the wide shoulders. The difficult part is the driving habits. They drive fast and pass anywhere and everywhere. We found out why the wide shoulders. They come up behind you, signal to pass (maybe) and then just start moving around you. You’re supposed to pull over to the far right and let them go. It’s frightening when a semi or bus is heading towards you. It seems to work, but they pass on hills, curves, anywhere. You just hope that there isn’t also a car passing coming towards you.
At the border to Belize is the real wait. We were actually importing a 2000 Toyota Tundra, which is an 8 cylinder pickup. It’s too old for acceptance into the QRP program, so we knew we had to pay duty. Ich! We stayed the night in Chetumal and headed for the border at about 10am. We tho’t we’d go earlier, but waited for Roy. Glad we did, but it made a long day. We didn’t actually leave the border until 8pm. I talked to another friend who crossed the day before and they made it thru much faster than we did. It was a hot day and there’s no place to wait.
I can’t imagine doing this without Roy. He led us directly to the place where you relinquish your Mexican VISA and show your pedimento. We were stopped at different places for insurance or bug spraying, but Roy motioned us past. The duty in Belize is to be paid in Belize $$s so Roy found his money changer, who gave us 2.07/1. Customs discounts your US dollars.
At the final customs terminal we gave Roy our paperwork for entry and then waited. We were then told that we needed to go to BAHA to get approval to bring Bailey in. We had already applied and been approved, so didn’t expect a problem. What a laugh. Luckily I had asked to have a copy of the permit emailed to me so I’d know what it looked like. When we got up the stairs to BAHA, they didn’t have us on their list. I showed him the vet inspection papers and the permit copy. He had to contact the Belize City office and they had to fax the permit. What a hoot, we were charged $5 for the fax! Everyone seems to move slowly and treat you as tho’ you’re trying to smuggle something in. They’re actually fairly nice, but suspicious. He asked a couple of questions about the dog and then wanted to inspect him. By this time our wonderfully patient, quiet dog was really hot and frustrated by all this mess. The fellow checked his neck and back and then wanted to check his ears. Bailey let him know that he’d about had enough of this silliness. When a 111# dog turns and gives you the stink eye, you think twice. Luckily, Akita’s have upright ears and the inspector could tell they were clear, so WE PASSED.
We then had to go thru immigration to get our passports stamped. This was in the same building and it was actually something to break up the wait. Our car was inspected just after lunch. We had been thru some really rough construction in Mexico during a heavy rain. It was a terrible pain at the time because the mud that was thrown up was heavy and didn’t wash off easily. This actually proved a plus at customs. The worse your vehicle looks, the better. On one of Roy’s vehicles, they even translated a line in the mud as a break in the windshield. Then the long wait began. They had to inspect our load. Customs closes at 4:30pm and the inspector finally got around to us just about that time. Roy had told him that we’d been accepted into the QRP program, but I told him that we wouldn’t officially be in the program until we go to Belize City to pay and get our paperwork. Several other fellows who had also been there all day, had to leave their vehicles and spend the night in town and come back the next day. Roy kept coming back to check with us and then head back to customs. I’m not sure why or how, but we finally got out of customs at nearly 8pm. We had to pay duty on the truck, which was more than we’d wished, but much less than it could have been. We weren’t sure it would be worth it to bring in the truck. Roy told us over and over that it’s not smart to buy a vehicle in Belize. We actually saw lots of car haulers and “vehicles in tow” on their way in. Most were in pretty bad shape, but guess they fix them up for sale here or in other Central American countries.
We couldn’t believe that we were finally, officially in Belize. The first stop we needed to make was to buy Belize auto insurance. We bo’t insurance for five days until we could get to our agent in SI. Then we crashed at a very nice place in Corozal called ­­­­­­­­ Hok’ ol K ‘in.
I have to say that we made the trip ok, but we wouldn’t have done it without Roy. First, we don’t speak any Spanish and the Mexicans make absolutely no effort to speak English. On the surface they’re not particularly friendly, but are usually lovely when you try to be understood and are friendly. Also, Roy has been a trucker for years and knows ways around the cities. We would have definitely been lost. He and the boys were great to be around and gave us great comfort.
Actually, the trip went great. We’re really proud of ourselves for tackling it. I know that it would be easy for younger folks, but we started this extremely tired. By the time we got to our new home we’d traveled about 5200 miles.
We’re now at home (sort of) in Bullet Tree. We’re actually camping in our little guest house while they’re working on our house. Right now it’s frame and roof, but it’s looking beautiful to us.

We're off

You Bet, we're off. Probably in more ways than one! We left our house in the capable hands of our daughter, Kris and took off. That sounds so easy, but it was a real hassle.

We had planned to fly down to Belize, but for lots of reasons, we decided to drive. The most important one was our dog, Bailey. We'd rescued him from the Humane Society nearly 2 years ago and he's a huge part of our lives. He's an Akita, and during his final trip to the vet to get his final shot and travel certificates, he weighed in at a healthy 111 pounds. We bo't a used 2000 Toyota Tundra, extended cab so that he would have a place to ride. Another big reason to buy this truck is that we need one in Belize that is a 4x4.

Even tho' we'd sent most of our worldly possessions to LA with Roy, we still had things that we needed to the last. We boxed them up and started to load the truck. What a laugh. It's a 6' bed and we had twice as much stuff as it would hold. We had to either abandon half our stuff or rent a U-Haul. We finally left (pulling a small U-Haul) nearly a day late. We had to leave by Friday because we had renters coming into our house for a week, that Saturday. After all that waiting, we were cutting it a little short. This meant another change of plans. We now had to go to LA to drop off the excess with Roy and get rid of the trailer. I don't think U-Haul would appreciate our taking their trailer to Belize, not to mention the Mexicans!

I won't bore you (that assumes anyone will ever read this) with the details of our trip south. We headed to Florence on the Oregon coast and then down 101 all the way to LA. Traffic was light, no trucks and the country was much more pleasant to see than that along I-5. We sailed along, thinking we were doing just great until LA ! ! ! Ich! I've never liked it and now I like it even less. People drive like maniacs. 6 lanes one-way, everyone driving at least 80, following about 6" behind the next guy. Art drove while I navigated, but what I really did was scream, clench my teeth and generally make Art nuts. It's a wonder he didn't kick me out of the truck. It doesn't bother me to drive, but I'm the world's worst passenger. (This is where Art jumps in and says, "that's an understatement").

Wonder of all wonders, we made it to Roy's, dropped off the stuff, dropped off the trailer and headed east as fast as our chubby little bodies and clenched teeth would allow us. We couldn't get out of California fast enough. Sadly we ended up spending the night in Blythe, CA, but almost out of the state. Would you believe that the temp in Blythe that days was 113. Now I'm really screaming.

Here, the disappointing fact is that Roy probably won't leave for 1-2 weeks, so we now find that we have to wander around and wait for him to leave so that we can caravan with him. As I write this we are in Prescott, AZ. in the mountains. All we could think about was to get out of the heat and head for the mtns. Hope we can afford this wandering.

I'm not going to chronicle all our wanderings, but will try to describe our border crossings and negotiating Mexico. Has us moderately worried, but putting our faith in Roy to get us thru OK. Love to you all, Gale

Our stuff

We finally made the decision to make the move to Belize. We'd hoped to make the move long before this, but, besides family, our house in Oregon hasn't sold in this crumby economy. Waiting isn't accomplishing much excepting getting us older, so plunge away! !

We updated our research on solar and our other off-grid needs. We contacted Backwoods Solar, asking their advise regarding our needs, covered our eyes and put in the order. We're trying to use minimal power, much of our appliances will be DC. We also ordered a composting toilet. Our goal is to try to stay outside the infrastructure, just to see how self-sufficient we can be.

We're advertising our house as a vacation rental. Hope this will work out as we're in the mtns, only 1/2 hour from the Mt. Bachelor ski area and Sunriver Resort. It's a log home, so are hoping it will appeal to others. Because we'll have folks in the house, we have to leave it fully furnished. We had to sift and sort, deciding what to take to Belize and how much we need to leave. We stacked the Belize stuff in the garage and have been testing the liveability of the rental stuff. It works great, but, we keep looking for stuff that's packed away. Oh well!

After attempting to contact shipping companies, we decided on Roy & Son Trucking of LA. Roy agreed that he would come up here, we'd rent a U-Haul and he'd take our stuff to LA, store it and then load it on a container for Belize. It will actually ship out of Houston. That saves us trying to get it down to him. He'll also get things thru customs for us and then deliver to our site in Bullet Tree. Wow! No one else comes close. He came up in May with his son and nephew and drove our load south.

The next thing was for me to quit my job and concentrate on our new adventure. After working for most of 50 years at odds and ends of jobs, it's hard to cut loose from the commitment and the paycheck. We have to be brave!

Our house begins

When we made the last trip, I stayed for a little over a week and we agreed that Art should stay longer. The building was done for now and we didn't want the property left vacant. Reluctantly I left him and headed back to Oregon.


The really difficult part of this whole project has been balancing this dream with our love and concern for our family. My mother was here in Oregon and in failing health with Alzheimers and we have a son and daughter and 5 grandchildren here, as well as my brother and his family. We stopped our building for a bit to concentrate on family. In January my beloved mother passed away. We were so blessed by her gentleness and sweet nature to the end. Art was devastated too by her death and flew home.


After we came to grips with this loss, we decided to go ahead with our plans. It's still difficult, but we feel that our children have their own lives to live and we should allow ourselves to finish our dream.


Because of the expense of these constant trips, we decided that I should make another trip down by myself to get things going again. Besides everything, we didn't want to lose Amelio to another project, if we could help it. This next project was to lay out the spot for our little house so that we could decide exactly where to put the cistern. I guess I failed to say that, since our property is high on a hill and far from the village, we'll collect water from the roofs and want an underground cistern. It's actually fairly small, being 12 x 12 x 8'. Since it will mostly be just the two of us, we're hoping this will suffice. If we run short of water, it's just a short run down the hill to the fast-moving Mopan River. We feel we can bring water up from there if necessary.



Amelio and I agreed on the locations and he staked it out. He's fantastic at trying to get everything exactly right. We admire him so much as he reads everything he can get his hands on about building. Our house will be 20 x 30', living room/kitchen, one bedroom and a bath. We decided to expand our original plan, which called for one veranda to 6' verandas on three sides and and 8' on the back. This one will better accomodate a table and chairs. Unlike the Mennonite house, ours will be on concrete piers with a concrete beam around the perimeter. This will allow for hurricane straps to secure the building.



At this point I had to head back home again, leaving Amelio with our dream. He was busy lining up a backhoe and supplies, hoping to get everything up the hill before the rains hit. BOY WE'RE GETTING TIRED OF GOING BACK AND FORTH!

Another building!

We finally had a place to stay, even if it was an old trailer. The little Mennonite house was still just a shell. At this time, we're still just making trips down. This was about our fifth trip. Before heading home we were able to get a sealer on the siding so that it'll have a little protection from the sun and rain.


While all this excitement was going on, we found a wonderful builder by the name of Amelio Coc. We'd been visiting friends in Succotz who have a great wooden guest house and had just moved into their gorgeous new cement house. The style and craftsmanship were terrific. Their builder was Amelio, whom they'd discovered working at the Trek Stop. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising. Kathleen & Anton's projects had come to an end, so we grabbed the chance. What a stroke of luck. We discussed our ideas and plans with Amelio and he agreed to come work with us at our farm.


I haven't discussed much about what we want to do here. We have limited resources and are looking, not for an American life, but a simple Belizian life in a wooden house. A dear friend had put up a small house and wanted to later put up an adjacent guest house. We fell in love with that idea and quickly stole it!


Also, since we're so far off-grid, we'll have to supply our own electricity and water. What an exciting project for a couple of not-so-young folks who had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.


Anyway, we asked Amelio to start by building our little 2-bedroom guest house. He had a wonderful suggestion of building a concrete block bodega with the guest house on the top. Eureka! This solved so many problems for us. We were collecting a few tools and will be able to use the bodega to house our solar system and lots of other supplies. Already, Amelio was making our dream more reasonable.


After getting the house up the hill, we had to call on the Cambreras Lumber fellows to haul three more truckloads of supplies up the hill before we headed back to Oregon. Getting tired of paying for airline tickets, but having a house in Oregon for sale and my job keep sending us back. (All this activity was happening in Nov. 2008).

In Feb. 2009, we once again, traveled to our little farm. What a wonderful site to meet us. Dear Amelio and crew had the shell of our guest house complete. It's just two bedrooms and will have a simple bathroom and a veranda at the end. All this sits on top of the bodega. Amelio is a true treasure. When we can be down for a longer period of time, we'll finish the wall between the rooms and try to finish it. For the time being, Amelio and his son Luis are camping in it.

Our little Mennonite house

The same day that the trailer arrived, we heard from Allen Reimer that our little house was finally ready to be delivered. We had ordered it some months previously, but asked him to delay the actual delivery until we could be there. It's just a little 16' x 20' house with a 6' front porch.

We were in the same dilemma with the house as we had been with the trailer. The road was wet and the hill was too steep for the heavy load. For moment panic reigned and then I had Amelio (our future builder) jump in our old Trooper with me and we dashed down Paslow Falls Rd to the Mahogany sawmill. I don't speak Spanish, so Amelio relayed our problem to them. They had seen the house go by on the truck. The manager of the mill agreed to take a chance and drove a huge caterpillar loader up to our road and, wonder of all wonders, hooked on to the large truck that was hauling the house, and pulled the whole lot up the hill. Hallelujah! I was a nervous wreck.

We were frustrated that we had missed seeing them bring the house across the bridge in Bullet Tree. I had hoped to get photos of them cranking the house up in the air to get past the railings and then dropping it back down. Actually, watching our house going up that steep hill was excitement enough. I don't know how they do it, but it stayed put and made it up the hill just fine. These few photos don't really show how steep and precarious it all was, but they may give others who are contemplating getting one of these houses, the Spanish Lookout folks can put these houses almost anywhere.

One it was up, they jockeyed it into place, putting the posts underneath and then dropped it into place. Our course the site isn't level, but the house is generally about 3' off the ground. We've designated it as our "caretaker house" altho' who knows.

Down to business

It seems too anal to state our every tho't and action, so I prefer to just cut to the chase. We're finally going to prepare for our move to Dreamer Farm. It's hard to believe that it's finally going to come true. I don't know where we'd be if it wasn't for the Belize Forum. So many wonderful folks share their experiences and generously answer questions. It helps to find out what successes and failures others have had.

I posted a note about wanting a travel trailer and immediately got a response from a wonderful American couple Marge & Tom Gallagher of Moonracer Farm, who had a very old trailer that they had bro't down from New York. It's a 1973 (a clue is the orange stove) but fairly clean and functional. It would give us a place to camp while our building activities are going on. We traveled down in October to get things going. Our trip was delayed because of the torrential rains. The Mopan was covering the Paslow Falls Road making it impossible to get to our place. The really big delay was the Roaring Creek was over the bridge near Belmopan so that travel across the bridge was impossible. Buses were stopping at the bridge, folks were taken across by boat and another bus picked them up on the west side. Not for us.

We delayed our trip by a week and finally were able to make it to Bullet Tree. So much was lost, but these wonderful folks were picking up and salvaging what they could. Most of Bullet Tree was fine, just the low spots along the river. We heard of one person up the river who lost over 50 pigs.

Our dilema was getting up our hill. Much of the climb was rock based and fine,but the steep part half-way up was clay and slippery. We were pretty frantic because, besides the travel trailer coming up, we had ordered a small Mennonite house from Western Lumber (Reimer's) and it was to be delivered. We were staying at the Casa Blanca in San Ignacio and I phoned Tom Gallagher and told him of the problem with the hill. Bless his heart, he came anyway, and before we could object, he put the peddle to the metal and climbed up the hill, old trailer in tow. What a champ! He generously set the trailer up for us and got us functional. It certainly wasn't fancy, but beds and a kitchen were terrific. We won't mention the bathroom facilities.

The next entry will be getting the little house up the hill.

Our bit of paradixe

Our 12+ acres of ridgetop were now ours, but what to do. It felt (and still feels) so wonderful to have this little bit of land. We've made 6 trips to Belize to savor it and to move forward with our dreams.

We were very fortunate to meet Rene on our second trip. He's a Mayan who lives down the road from us. We'd seen him working at Hummingbird Hills as we'd trecked past. We stopped in one day to inquire about purchasing trees and found that the owner's weren't in the country, but Rene was working to maintain the grounds. We not only bo't some tree starts (the beginnings of our Neem trees), but found that Rene would work for us one day a week to help us start. We'd already had a bad experience hiring men to clear bush for us, and were impressed with Rene's committment to work as he'd agreed, even tho' the owner's weren't there. What a jewel he is. Previously, while still in Oregon, we'd hired a fellow to clear about an acre so that we could see what the ground actually looked like. We paid about 10 times what we should have and they did a horrible job. Rene had a couple of his sons help and they not only cleaned up the mess from the previous job, but did further clearing for us. What a difference! I could go on and on about the incredible job Rene has done for us, but I'll just say that he not only maintains the clearing that's been done, but maintains it like a garden. Every time we come down we find a new gift from our wonderful friend. Orchids tied to the trees, lovely flowering plants, pineapples and banana trees.

I had read that Mahogany does better in burned over ground, so we did an experiment. Rene cleared rows thru the bush and we planted Mahogany trees. We then had them burn an area of brush and planted Mahogany and teak in that cleared area. After over a year we can state that, at least on our place, the Mahogany in the rows is doing much better. Not sure if its' the shade or if it's too hot in the cleared areas, but we've decided to continue planting the Mahogany in the cleared rows and teak in the open areas. Will probably insert some cedar in the rows as an additional buffer.

I realize that this hasn't been very interesting too date, but hope to include photos of our last trip soon.

Our piece of paradise

We'd seen this property listed several places and decided to put it on our list. Macarena Rose took us to look at it. This was our first trip to Belize, so hadn't experienced the intricacies of the road system. Sorry, that's a pretty bad joke. Bullet Tree road hadn't been paved yet, so that was a trip unto itself and then we headed down Paslow Falls Rd. Following the river was lovely, but then Macarena turned to the left and headed up the hill, on what looked like a field of tall grass. She assured us that under it all was a roadbed. We climbed and climbed and finally got to the top of the ridge where she stopped and said, this is it. What? The bush was impenatrable. We were looking at 12.735 acres of ?? We actually had no idea where we were or what we were looking at. Oh well.

We even traveled to the coast and had already been to the north, but felt that Cayo was the most comfortable for us. To make a long story short, we kept coming back to this little unknown piece of land and decided to buy it. I won't go into the ins and outs of buying, but it was eventually accomplished.

Why would we want to move to Belize?

I wrote this in response to the view of so many that only the "young" should move to Belize.

These are thoughts I am just throwing to the wind. If they come your way you may ignore them, but I want the wind to know I’m here.

I’ve had a good life, married to a wonderful man for nearly 50 years, two children, a girl and a boy, and 5 fantastic grandchildren. We’ve felt blessed to have always lived in the northwestern USA. I can look out the windows from the loft of our log home (which we built with our own hands) and see Mt. Bachelor in the Cascades. The lakes and mountains are only one-half hour away. This all feels like perfection, and I’m savoring the moments here, which must soon come to an end. I’ll note right here that we can no longer afford to live here, thus our home is for sale.

When we share our dream of moving to Belize, most people are fascinated, but skeptical. My goodness, surely we mean for a trip. At our ages! What if we get sick, what if we’re robbed, what if, what if!! Most folks our ages huddle together in silver haired groups, playing bingo and regaling each other with their latest ill and pill. Often minds slipping from lack of use. Those who can afford it and have better health, travel south in the winter, making the rounds of golf courses and campgrounds. Snow birds is an apt description, everyone moving as a like- minded flock, sharing tales of their favorite restaurant or where to find the best flea market. When are you going back north, Blah, Blah, Blah! I don’t mean to minimize the value of each person’s life and contribution, but for me, the thought of that existence makes me crazy.

Most compelling for us is the fact that we can’t afford to continue to live in our wonderful log home. A mortgage, insurance, property taxes and life in general means we both have to work. At this point, my heritage will be “mother of two and a really hard-working bookkeeper. Yippee!

Even if we sell and get a smaller life here, our contribution would be negligible. Not that I expect to shake up the world, but I would like to feel that I’ve made a statement and a contribution. If we can move to our little spot in Belize, we plan to build a Mennonite house and be able to afford to live on our Social Security. By living off-grid, our expenses should be minimal. By planting mahogany and teak trees on our 13 acres, we’re planting our grandkids inheritance, which is more than we could leave them here in the States. We can share with them the thrill of traveling outside their corner of the world and meeting other cultures. What better teacher than Belize, where so many cultures and colors mix with very little notice of the differences.

By trying to live “green” we hope to help Belize show the world how to live with the earth rather than destroying it. I'm also hoping we can learn more of the Mayan ways from some of our nearby friends. Here in the US, we've quit listening to anything but the sound of our own voices. The earth has so much to tell us.

Up here, in the land of take, use and throw away, it all seems too greedy. In Belize, even if your contribution is small, I feel you can make a difference. Not by making things look like the U.S., but with small contributions of books or supplies for schools or helping the true Saints like Nurse Juan of the Good Shepherd Clinic, we can make a small difference.

We hope to travel back to the U.S. to see family and keep our connection to this “home,” but for as long as we can, we hope our home will be Belize. It sounds trite, but age truly is a state of mind. I pray my little gray cells keep banging against each other, so my mind will keep working (altho’ many think I’m crazy already) and that both Art & I continue to be blessed with reasonably good health, so we can see this dream come to fruition.

To me, the lovely green jewel of Belize is more precious that all the diamonds in the world.

Gale (yes, my name means wind. appropriate)