A gentle day

Today is Feb 15th & I'm sitting on our veranda in a tank top, listening to the hum of our weedeater as Art works around the little Mennonite house. I know the weather is horrible in much of the US & I almost feel guilty that it's so pleasant here. It's been cool at night, this week, down in the low 50's and today was in the 80's, but muggy. Rene, (I have to tell you more about him later, he helps us with the land 2 days a week) thinks we'll get rain tonight. One indicator is that a neighboring howler monday has been making quite a noise all day. We'll see! I will only mention Rene a little here and now as I could write volumes about this wonderful, interesting man.

I worked with Rene today in an area that We're clearing. Rene's teaching me about using a machette and I'm getting better with it and finally feel I'm making a contribution and he's using my chainsaw to take down stumps.

In unpacking another of our jillion boxes I discovered a tape I made 5 years ago when we first bo't our property. It was just jungle bush. It's hard to imagine that every inch was cleared with a machette. Mostly by Rene with the occasional assistance of is sons. They are all incredible. Hardworking and so capable.

So many Gringos come down thinking only of bulldozers and other heavy equipment. We found it preferable to hire men who can choose what to cut and what to leave. They even cut down god sized trees with a machette. Amazing! The going rate for most machette work is $30-$35/day. Not only do you get a job done, you help support family. We've had so many men come up here hoping we had work for them. The country desperately needs something esides tourism to offer a future for the upcoming generations.

Once the bush is cut down and cleaned, ti's usually maintained with a weedeater. Frankly, I sometimes think they're from the devil himself when I listen as Art or Rene struggle to get the darned thing going. I wouldn't have the patience and would probably hurl the thing into a hole and bury it.

Anyway, we're so pleased and greatful for what we have here. I knw t's our imagination and direction, but it's also thanks to two dear men, Amelio, our builder and Rene who maintains the land.

This isn't the US, or Canada or Great Britain. It's a tiny developing country populated by some very talented, ingenious people who are just like all of us, trying to support their families. They deserve respect and a chance.

OK, I'm putting my soapbox away.
It's starting to rain!

Rain

I'm sitting in an internet cafe, pouting because I don't have my computer. Bummer. Oh well, onward and upward.

I've probably said this before, but here goes again - you haven't seen heavy rain until you've been in the jungle. Wow, can it pour. It started three nights ago and has continued off & on since then. We can easily get a couple of inches in an hour. Right now it's mid-morning and we've had a relentless rain since 6am.

Our little house is quite comfortable and dry (by Belize standards). The humidity takes over everything and you have to get used to putting on damp clothing. Since our lives revolve around solar, we use a solar dryer for our washing (That's a clothesline folks). Things can feel dry when I take them off the line (I test them like my mother showed me by putting them up to my mouth) and put them away, but when we take them from a drawer or closet, they feel damp. You get used to it. When we came down as visitors we'd take clothes to a laundry in town where they have a gas dryer. Then I'd bring things home and store in plastic bags in our suitcases. That was luxury. That's the one thing I'm hoping for down the road, a butane dryer. Heaven!

Sitting in our living room the rain is so loud we can barely hear each other. our home has our wonderful pine ceiling, but the verandas are open. The rain on the zinc sounds as loud as hail in the midwest. With only screens for windows the sound is all around us. This may sound unappealing, but it's actually quite comfortable. The verandas give us a dry place to work and it's still quite warm. Even with the overcast, the solar panels keep producing electricity. We're running our chop saw, drill and sanders periodically and barely dent our available power.

We're very happy being off the grid. On the grid in Belize means long power outages and fluctuating power levels. We have friends who have a restaurant in Town and they periodically go a whole day without electricity.

The worst thng that we do suffer with the rain is our road. The long stretch that we had put in is great. It's heavy gravel and is solid, but the bottom part of this "government road" is a slippery, muddy mess. It's just a track of black gumbo, now with gooey ruts. We couldn't get down on Sunday because our neighbor was stuck sideways, blocking the whole track.

It's very much like being snowed in in Oreogn. Once our freezer is repaired, we'll be able to stay for prolonged periods without going to town.

What hurts me the most is that my computer is broken. During this rain I would be sitting at my laptop, writing this to all of you, but instead I have to write it by hand and then try to get down to an internet cafe to send. Oh the hardhips, LOL Such is life in the jungle

My silence

Sorry, I have to do this quickly. My wonderful computer has told me that it needs to see a repairman (spooky) Anyway, only works for about 5 mins. then shuts down. I'll post and include photos when I can get back online. It will be an internet cafe for me for a bit.
Thanks to all. Gale

A good day!

I've been somewhat stressed lately. Part of why we decided to move to Belize was to, finally, relax and enjoy being retired. It's not very original, but all I've have felt is "tired". I do love the physical work and am so happy with what we're creating here, but stress still finds it's way into our lives.

Our lovely, new Sundanzer freezer died a painful death and to order the parts in Belize was absolutely ASTRONOMICAL. I contacted Sundanzer in the US and, bless them, after I gave them a report on how it acted and what happened, they agreed to send a new compressor and all the extra parts as a warrantee replacement. They shipped at an absolutely astronomical expense to them. Wonderful, but then, in jumps Belize customs. Even tho' we'd paid duty on the initial shipment and have since been accepted under the QRP (don't ask) they wanted duty on the part and the shipping costs and then they charge GST (sales tax) on the duty. SCREAM! Isn't that a tax on a tax? These things find you no matter what country you live in. Anyway, after days of wrangling, we hired a customs broker and he arranged to pay the duty and bro't the package to San Ignacio. Voile! His fee was about what the gas to make the trip would have cost and it saved my sanity. Next step will be to get Mr. Padilla up here to install the parts. Then we can retrieve our food from our friends freezer and HAVE ICE CUBES! That's what a freezer is all about down here.

Today we put the final boards on our wall. This should have been fairly easy, but after all, this is Belize where nothing turns out to be easy. The wall isn't perfect, but it's up. Tomorrow I'll put a coat of verithane on it and move on!


Also, yesterday we put up our first upper cabinet in our "kitchen". What a coup for us. I'll take a photo when we get the next cabinet finished.

The best part of the day tho' was a phone call from my brother and sister-in-law. My brother had surgery yesterday and is home today and doing great. I only tell this part because it's the most difficult part of living so far away. Even the small things grow to gigantic proportions when you're far from those you love. Thank goodness for cell phones and internet.

This old girl is tired so I'll close for now, but I'm heading to bed with a smile as it's been a good day!

projects

I've had a question about my "garden" and is it too hot for the onions. Actually, this is all a great experiment for me. I tho't that the Walla Walla onions would do great here because it's also quite hot in the summer in eastern Washington (that's Walla Walla country to you in other parts of the world). We used to live near there and it can get really hot, so not sure about that part. I do know tho' that most of the seeds we bro't down aren't germinating. I bo't most from a southern seed company, hoping that would be more acceptable to the seeds. I talk to them, lately I've been telling them that I'm disappointed in them. We have long chats, but to no avail. This was mostly a test of our recently cleared, virgin soil. I guess the test results are that we need to do more than Miracle Grow. I'm not giving up on this planting yet, but am looking to buy some chicken fertilizer and some special mulch sold by the Belize Botanic Garden. Maybe we'll get improved results. This is all taking me back to my childhood when I'd help my beloved Grandmother with her garden. It was small but prolific. I think most of it was because she was such a wonderful, gentle soul that plants just wanted to please her. She would hum or gently whistle hymns as she worked. It's been so awfully many years ago, but I still miss her so much. She probably wouldn't understand Belize, but she would understand my garden.

During the heat of the day, we're using the verandas as a work space to try to knock out a couple of upper cabinets for our kitchen. This would sound easy in the US, but here it's much harder. First, we're lamenting that our table saw is sitting in the garage in the US and we're using hand tools. We're definitely not carpenters, so this is challenge number one.

Challenge number two is the lumber. We can buy plywood here, but in the states it would be garbage. It's all blows and really ugly. No such thing as a nice finish. Thus, we're using what should be preferable. That's a hardwood called Santa Maria. It's somewhat reddish, similar to mahogany. We bo't it rough cut (& I do mean rough) and then took it to be planed. Now struggling to figure out how to build with narrower pieces, which are quite heavy, and be able to hang it on the wall and not fall apart or fall off. I know this sounds ridiculous, but as I said, we're not carpenters. Bumbling along, we'll make it work somehow.

The other challenge is that Art is left handed and I'm right handed. That's why, over many years of wedded bliss, we usually don't work on the same project at the same time. We do everything the opposite from each other. It's a wonder that we don't kill each other, either by turning the opposite way with a board, or just out of general principles. When finished I'll post a photo, but we're concerned that the house is going to sink when we finally hang these things up. It will be wonderful tho' to have a place for dishes and glasses. Hard to imagine being a little more organized.

I have lots more to share, but will save for another time. It's hot sitting here and those cabinets are beckoning. Ich! Gale

Another day in paradise

I can't say that anything very exciting has been happening here. Just grinding along, trying to finish some projects around the place. My garden project isn't going very well, but I'm not one to give up that easily. Might have some peas, altho' they're not very happy with the current hot spell, some beans, green that is, and garlic. Frustrated that my Walla Walla onions are pouting about coming south and aren't showing up. Was hoping to show what wonderful produce we grow up north, but not to be.

After a couple of weeks of cold weather, it's turned quite hot. Been about 90 F afternoons. Sure different than what's happening in the U.S. We're managing fine, but our sweet Bailey would much prefer the cold. We did finally get all our veranda's screened and a gate put up so that he can be loose there. Wish he could go out with us in the yard, but he wanders and could run into a snake or spider. Also, everyone here is afraid of him, but would like to own him as a watchdog.

We had a delightful surprise today, when a friend, whom I'd only met on the Belize Forum, dropped in with his wife, They were on a couple of wonderful 4-wheelers, which they'd just bro't in and were out exploring. They just happened to find our road and recognized Art (aka Santa) from this blog. How incredible. We have a lovely, but short visit. Hope to meet Bart & Nicolle again soon.

Oh, have to report on our Toyota. Incredible as it sounds, Beto did a fantastic job and she looks almost like new. We're always surprised at how many very capable and interesting people we keep meeting here.

Our poor truck

We've grown to love our Toyota Tundra pickup. It's a 2000, but was in lovely shape. It was our comfortable home for 5000 miles and a month on our way from Oregon to Belize and has been a true helpmate with many of our projects. I'm setting this up to sound much worse than it is, but as you might guess, she's not as pretty any more.

In San Ignacio, the streets are quite narrow so most are one-way. To make parking fairer to the merchants, they have a unique solution. The first thru the 15th you park on the right side of the street. The 16th thru the end of the month, you park on the left. OK, on with the story. The end of November I was driving on Burns Avenue (the main street) and a taxi was parked on the left or wrong side of the street. His passenger opened her door just as I was driving by and wham, her door mashed in the front fender and continue to dent and scratch the full length of the truck. We ended up spending most of the day in the police station and insurance company office. What a pain. Things move very slowly here. Luckily, the driver admitted that the taxi was at fault, and we were not responsible. That seemed pretty straight forward, but turns out that everyone groaned when we told them which insurance company was liable because they're the worst. We found a "body shop" and had to pay for a repair quote. I put it in quotes because you'd never believe that they could repair anything. Most have junk sitting around and do their work right out in the open. Anyway, we got the quote and took it to the insurance co. Because of the amount, we were told that someone would have to come from Belize City in three weeks to do his own appraisal. That would make it Christmas! Frustrating. After Christmas Art checked with their office and was told that the person had decided it wasn't necessary to make the trip and that they were just sending a check. Voille! Art took this on as his task and relentlessly visited their office, looking for the check. Supposedly, the check was sent a couple of times, but got lost. Finally, after 2 weeks, we got a call that it was here. Patience is the only way to survive in Belize. Our tough little truck had joined the ranks of "Belize trucks", but we prefer her to stay as nice as possible, for as long as possible. Anyway, she's now in the hands of "Bado", who has what he calls a body shop ??? and he swears he can make her "better than new". Crossing our fingers. Thank goodness for our trusty old Trooper, who just keeps rattling along, to help us navigate our hill while the truck is gone.

Weather

Ok, we’ve moved to the tropics, right? It can get really hot and, of course, humid. Actually, the humidity hasn’t really gotten to us. It’s now winter in the States. In Oregon, where we still have a house, it’s been down to -23 F. Now that’s cold! Most of the States are having extremely cold weather this January. I’ve even heard that Mexico, El Salvadore and Nicaragua have had a little snow. It’s never happened before. Well, little Belize has been spared the snow, but it has been really cold. Now you’ll laugh when I tell you that it’s been down to 40, but until you’ve experienced that temp in the tropics, you can’t imagine how cold that is. For one thing, we don’t have windows, just screens. We do have shutters for strong winds and security when we’re gone. Well, we’ve been closing the shutters and doing anything we can to keep it warm. Of course, there’s no such thing as heating down here because it’s never been needed. The other problem is that most visitors, including ourselves, at first, bring down tank tops, light pants & sandals. When we made the move, we made sure to include warm jackets, sweatshirts and lots of blankets. This cold won’t last for a long time, but it’s really making an impression on everyone. The local folks tell us that this is the coldest they can remember. The difference is, that no one here is really prepared for the cold. Up north we have snuggly clothes, down quilts and a lovely stove or fireplace to back up to. Here, we just wrap up in a blanket and complain.
I also think I made a Gringo mistake by planting my garden now. Most folks had theirs in already. Hey, I have to give it a try. Not sure if it’s the cold or the seed we bro’t down, but not have a resounding success. I’m not giving up, just not patting myself on the back that we’ll be able to survive on the produce. Thank goodness for the market!

Yesterday I traveled to Ladyville to pick up our wonderful friend, Jane Beard, from the airport. She'd been in England for 3 weeks visiting her son and her gorgeous new grandson, Finn. She
told me that Great Britain was struggling under the worst snow and cold in 30 years. She had a series of awful flights to get here. From uncomfortable seating companions, to freezing cold with no blankets, to a 12 hr layover in Houston. What kept her spirits up was the tho't of finally being warm when she reached Belize. You can imagine her disappointment when she reach the door of the plane, took a deep breath and found it was horribly cold. Poor Jane & poor Belize. This is the first time I've had to turn the heat on in a car here.

The one who is truly enjoying this cold is Bailey. (If you haven't read my whole blog you may not know that Bailey is a 110# Akita, who came down here with us). He's actually wooled up a little, again and is feeling young and mischievous again.

We're keeping busy, building walls and keeping an eye on the solar. So far, all is well!

Santa in Belize

It’s difficult to get my head around the fact that we are actually spending Christmas away from family and friends, in Belize! Luckily, we have some new friends to lessen the loneliness. Coming from the mountains of central Oregon, where already this winter the temperature has dropped to -20, to Central America where today’s temp hit 90, is taking some adjustment. Of course, getting away from the snow was one of the incentives for making the move. Art is pleased that he’s traded a snow blower for a rototiller. That’s another wonderful difference. It’s Christmas and we’re actually planting a garden. There are two growing seasons here. In Bend, it seemed a joke when they told us that we had a one month growing season. We found it to actually be the truth. We could have a nightly freeze almost any time of the year, leaving only August. Here in Belize cold is 50 degrees. It actually feels very cold at that temp, but the plants seem to love it. The lack of cold weather will keep us from growing many of the veggies that we’re used to, but we’ll adapt. At this point tho’ we can’t see ourselves living on hard corn and beans, which are what most folks are planting. I’m hoping for lettuce, onions & sweet corn.
A week ago I planted a border of zineas and some sunflowers and they’re up already. Wow! How rewarding is that. We had a dumping rain and they actually loved it. The trick to most of this will be to keep the bugs and birds at bay. Hoping the mylar tape will scare the birds and send them to other farms. Projects, projects, projects!
We’ve been invited to have Christmas dinner with some wonderful new friends, the Robersons. Just a small group of 40 for a sit-down dinner and then more folks for dessert. How lovely to be included. I’ve just finished baking two apple pies as our contribution. Beth was excited when I suggested them. I had seen apples in the market and found that they appear to be Granny Smith’s, but when I asked the lady in the stall what they were, she said “Mexican”. So much decent produce seems to come from there. The local produce is pretty scrappy. I hope ours will be better. We’re going to attempt to be as “organic” as possible.

What does Santa do when he makes the decision to move to the tropics. He brings down his suit and visits the kids, of course. Art has had a wonderful time bringing Santa to so many of the children in the area. For those of you not familiar with my wonderful husband, he has been a professional mall Santa for 9 years. This year he decided to forego the grueling 6 weeks and just visit the local kids here in Cayo.
He started at a party for the Anglican School in San Ignacio, which has a large population of AIDS affected children. The party was held at a club called Hodies where he saw about 100 children. Two days later he visited the Catholic school in Bullet Tree with 350 students. What a surprise at the size. We almost didn’t agree to going to the RC school because the principal kept asking “what will Santa be bringing for all the kids?” Of course, we all know that ALL gringos are wealthy. Ha! I made the initial visit to the school so that Santa wouldn’t be seen wandering in regular clothes. We agreed that we just didn’t have the funds to bring bags of goodies for 350 kids. One of the teachers phoned and begged him to visit. We did agree to buy some little sweets. As it turned out, most of the teachers had candy for him to hand out. The other school in the village is Adventist.
Last Saturday, our friend, Bill, who owns a little restaurant called “Mom’s” held a free party for kids. He furnished hot dogs and juice, a bag of fruit and a present for each child. About 45 folks donated gifts to the cause, but sweet Bill footed the rest from his own pocket. He doesn’t have a family and was so pleased to be able to do this for the children. In four hours, Santa (Art) saw over 600 children. Most were the local kids who had never seen Santa. They were in awe and so excited. When we got there at 2pm they were already lining up. Some of them waited in line for4 hours, just for the chance to touch Santa. Art was frustrated that he didn’t have the time to actually visit with them, but the crush of little ones dictated that he move them thru rapidly. A wonderful photographer, also named Art, took photos. All-in-all it was a fantastic day. Everyone was exhausted, but exhilarated to have had the opportunity to make a special day for the kids.

solar

This is in answer to a question asked by several folks. We brought down 8 Concorde 6v AGM batteries (they're sealed, don't put out a gas so venting is not required and they can be shipped without a hazardous permit), 6 Solarworld 175 watt solar panels and all the stuff that goes with the system. This system cost us $13k US in March, 09. We also brought down a Sundanzer frig and Sundanzer freezer, Grundfos pump for the cistern and 7 DC ceiling fans. Of course, on top of that was shipping. We are extremely conservative with our consumption, but we couldn't be more thrilled with our system's performance. We're still going thru some adjustments, such as getting our marginally powered generator reconfigured to work as a backup. It's surprising tho' that we have been able to find folks who can help us get this all working.

This photo is showing our little setup, which is located in the bodega, just inside the door. We did have vent blocks installed at the top of the bodega walls to provide air flow.

My suggestion to anyone contemplating doing this is, buy as much wire, as many breakers (DC breakers are IMPOSSIBLE to find here) and any other bits and pieces you might need, in the US. Shopping here can be very frustrating and solar is still a new thing here. Lots of things not available and they can't answer many of your questions.

Interior in transition

Hope you'll all be impressed by our fancy house. Actually, for us, it's perfect. We made a choice to not finish the inside of the exterior walls. To us, that would just become a haven for bugs and little critters. We don't have glass windows like we would have in the States and we don't like the louvered glass windows so popular in Belize. We opted instead to have double screened openings with wood shutters which we only close when we'll be gone for a prolonged period of time. The screens the boys built are definitely not elegant and have proven to be quite bulky, but we like them anyway, at least for now. Even when the wind is blowing and the rain is pouring down, we remain dry inside and appreciate the free flow of air. The shutters give us a modicum of security when in use and were cheaper and better looking than the metal bars so much in use in town.

At this point, we don't have kitchen cupboards and we're still looking for wood to finish the wall between the livingroom and bedroom. We're getting there slowly.

A special thing for us was hanging the rug above the computer table. We purchased it on our way down at the Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona.

Photos

As you can see, we still have lots to do. We don't have places for everything yet, so stuff piled around. Oh well!

We're getting terrific results from our solar. It's now dropped down to about 17 degrees, which we've been told is the direction for Belize. Not sure if we'll have to change it in the summer months. The photo looking up at the house was taken from the cistern. We still haven't spent any time trying to get the little Kabota tractor running. That's for another day.

The guest house is a work in progress. The last two days we've spent putting boards up on the wall between the two rooms. We debated about leaving a door between the rooms, but decided that folks will just have to go out one door and in another. I'm sure whichever way we decided at some point we'll wish we'd done the other. Such is life!

When I find them, I'll post a photo of our solar setup.