Cohune

I hated to have to take down the trees, but it was really interesting to watch Rene take down the cohune. We've had large cohunes fall during storms and have cut down the little new ones, but this is the first time I've watched them take down a larger tree. This one was young enough that it hadn't built a trunk yet. The base of the fronds went to the ground, but it was still about 3' in diameter.

Rene told me that he's taken down lots of cohunes, especially during the many years that he ran a survey crew, mapping out much of the jungle of Belize. He's hacked his way thru the bush in all districts, even on some of the cayes. Cohunes can be deadly, as the base of the fronds is a hiding place for scorpions and snakes. This one was easier for him because we've worked around so much, most of those critters have moved back into the bush.

The fascinating thing for me was to watch him cut out the heart of the palm. I don't know if this is like what you buy in jars as "heart of palm." Rene had to use an axe to cut down the cohune as well as to get to the heart. I was so surprised to see the size and consistency of the heart. It's very white, quite soft and spongy and the piece that Rene cut out was about 9" across and over 2' long. I ate a small piece and it was slightly sweet and quite good. He took it home to see if his mother, whose in her late 80's, would cook it.

This heart isn't a common food any more, but during the 30's when the hurricane nearly wiped out Belize, the cohune kept many of the local people alive. The most common use for it now is to make oil out of the nuts. What a fascinating tree.

Taking down trees for solar

As a confirmed "tree hugger" it really hurts me to take down a tree, but we've had to be practical because of our solar. This close to the equator, it gets dark between 5pm and 6pm almost year-round. The sun does move tho' from the north to the south. Right now, our small system shuts down or goes to sleep on cloudy days by 2pm. Even if we could afford them, our system has been in operation for nearly two years, so we can't add more batteries. We have to maximize what we have. We decided to cut down several trees to the west of the guest house to open up the sky in the afternoon.

I say "we", but Rene, along with two of his sons, Alejandro and Carlos, did the job. It made me so nervous to have Rene climb up the trees, but I had to leave it in his hands. They work so hard and are so good natured about it all. They cut down five trees, most of which are of no useful value. The only one we'll make use of is a small cabbage bark which will make good fence posts.

I'm hoping that this new openness will accomplish our goal of giving us at least another hour of direct sunlight.

Walkway completed (mostly)

Amelio and Alejandro worked for three days and basically completed our walkway from our house to the guest house. I think it looks great and is very strong. We'll have to figure out how we're going to treat the handrails, but for now, they're great. I also have to build a gate at our end to keep Bailey from wandering over, down the stairs and off into the bush. We're extremely pleased with the idea of purlins so we don't have to have support posts underneath. The revised span turned out to be 17' and the purlins are steel, 2 1/2" by 8". I think this will look a lot better painted, but that decision will come later.

Medical update on Art

Art headed for Oregon for his annual checkup with the VA. We got his records from Loma Luz Hospital for his VA doctors. It turned out to be a good thing as they checked him over and found that not only was his blood clot not better, it had gotten frightfully worse. It's such a blessing that the medical facilities in Bend, OR are wonderful, with excellent doctors. At one point they were contemplating surgery, but have now decided on an intense program of medication. Not sure if he'll be able to come home as planned this next weekend. The doctors don't want him to travel for a bit. He's really frustrated and wants too come home, but time will tell. The great thing for him though is that he's getting to see our grandchildren. Max & Tyler in Bend and our son's three great kids in Kennewick, WA. It's hard to believe that Max has now turned 16! ! !

Surprise!

I really have some dear friends. I was really surprised this am to get a birthday greeting from a really nice lady here in Bullet Tree. Then another came in! I started to get the idea that this came from Facebook and there was a problem there, as it wasn't my birthday. It's not for another 10 days on the 16th. No biggy, I was just so pleased to be remembered. A truly great friend came to see me to help me with a download issue. Shortly after that, here came another car with two other friends, bearing a cake, a chocolate pie and munchies. What a lovely surprise. I hated to tell them it wasn't my birthday yet, but we all had a wonderful time. We called it my birthday anyway, but I told them that I refuse to accept the additional year to my already staggering number of years, until the 16th. What sweet friends.

Walkway

We decided to finally take the plunge and tackle our next project. Our intention when we built was to build a bridge between our little house and the guest house. We hate to force our guests to walk up or down the stairs, then across the rocky drive and then up our stairs. Especially at night, this can be hazardous. We built the guest house above the bodega with a floor eight feet off the ground. We then had Amelio build our house, which is a little up hill, so that the floor was level with the guest house. With guest coming, we want to make it easier to travel back & forth.

Also, since Dreamer Farm is for sale, it is now either a one-bedroom, one-bath house with a guest house, or a three bedroom, two-bath house. It's easy to chat across the 17' span so that children could sleep in the two bedrooms with safety.

Amelio came over to discuss our shopping list and we decided to use metal purlins to make the span. That way we wouldn't need a brace underneath. Art & I started doing some measuring and discovered that, since the purlins are 8" and we'll be putting hardwood boards above and below, the thickness would be at least 12". Oops! When we analyzed where the purlins would be overhead we found that even at my 5'3", I'd hit my head. Crumb! After walking around this for a bit, we decided to have Amelio build a little landing at the end instead of directly to the deck. Of course this will change my lumber requirements, but what else is new. Thankfully, I bo't a few extra 2x4's and 4x4's, which were slurped up by the new requirements.

The one photo shows where we originally planned to have the walkway connect. The open space with the green table in the background. The other two photos show our revised plan and the beginnings of the walkway. Doing it this way allows us plenty of room to work under the bridge.

We've stayed with Amelio, even tho' he has other work to do, we feel he knows our project since he built both buildings. He's interesting too as he really enjoys building and his recreational reading is of construction books. He and Rene are cut from the same cloth. True craftsmen in their own niche. Rene's oldest son, Alejandro, is helping with the project. We've been truly lucky and blessed by finding these lovely men.

I'm sorry to drop the fact that Dreamer Farm is for sale in the above paragraph, but there are several reasons for this. First, EVERY place in Belize is for sale. All our friends here have their places for sale in one way or another. Also, when health problems surface, most of us dash back to our original home for care. I'll chat more about this in another post. Blessings and prayers for everyone's good health.

Delta vs Continental from Belize!

I'm in such a rage that this probably isn't a good time to write, but I'm going to anyway. Art is trying to get back to Oregon for an appt. with the VA. An annual thing and not uncommon for expats in Belize. When I last made the trip, via Continental into Houston, I had one carry-on and NO checked bags. What a pleasure. A friend & I were expedited thru the line for the flight crews because we didn't have checked bags. Immigration and customs were handled at the same desk. We were rapidly on our way to our next gates.

For this trip, we got a somewhat better fare with Delta so decided to give it a try. NEVER AGAIN! Delta brings ina much smaller plane and wouldn't allow the carry-ons inside the passenger compartment. They checked it for that flight. When Art got to Atlanta (sucks!) with a 1 1/2 hour layover, he had to wait for over an hour for his bag to come off the plane, then regular customs, etc., so he missed all his connections and had to wait for another flight out of Atlanta and then stay over last night in Salt Lake City at OUR EXPENSE. This caused huge problems for him as well as our family waiting for him at his destination. Rather than getting in last night, he doesn't arrive until noon today. He has so little time with our grandkids there as it is, they've now cut his visit very short.

I don't care what the difference is in the fare. I'd choose not to travel before I/we will take Delta again. They don't have a clue, nor do they care, about the convenience or problems of their passengers. I've written to both Delta and Expedia, so we'll see if either has the courtesy to at least answer back. There's actually no way they can make up for the huge inconveniece and frustration we've been caused.

We've had cool, lovely weather for about a week, but it's now raining again. Mirrors my mood. Thank goodness for our incredible Bailey. He's such a comfort and loving friend.

Hurricane Rina

To answer a question about our preparations for hurricane Rina, the answer is that we don't have any. We're on the very western side of Belize, only about 3 air miles from Guatemala, so most hurricanes don't find their way over here. What we do get is lots of rain. There's not much we can do about that except have lots of supplies in case we don't want to navigate our road. Even with a hurricane, such as Richard, which did come our way, all we can do is close our shutters and wait it out. Our house is on concrete pillars and is strapped and/or bolted down. The winds generally come from the SE and we don't have trees on that side of our buildings. We are extremely happy to not be down near the river as the rising and falling of the Mopan don't affect us up here. All-in-all the most we can do is have food and gasoline for the generator and wait these things out. A little prayer doesn't hurt either.

The sun is shining

Ok, I've whined so much about the weather and our road that I have to remind myself and you to sing praises when the weather is wonderful, which it is right now. We've had a few days now without rain, scattered clouds and sun. Being so close to the equator, when the sun is out it can get hot really fast, but oh, are we all loving it. It's gotten quite cold, for here, with the temp dropping to the high 50's at night. We're actually using blankets on the bed. So lovely. Bailey is enjoying the cool. This is absolutely perfect weather.

I splurged and bo't two bouganvilla's, a lovely hibiscus and a couple of other plants (I'm terrible with the names) and will plant them today.

We haven't been doing anything with the cacao. Our grafting attempts failed miserably. I've talked to nursery folks and found that they do most of their grafting in Nov. & Dec., so we'll try again, now that it's cool out. The problem will be getting the buds. I always have to give things at least one more shot.

Rene is back at work. He told me that he's feeling much better and going crazy staying home with nothing to do. Also, they have absolutely NO money. We pay social security for him so he did get 80% of his wages, but it's not enough to support them as he only gets paid for 3 days a week. Anyway, we told him to pace himself and only do what he felt like. Fat chance. He put in a full day, clearing the property line fences. We're so lucky to have him helping us.

Art's heading for Oregon to visit the VA, so we're getting things caught up before he leaves. Wish I was going too, but, as we've already said, one of us has to stay to take care of the place and Bailey. This is a very special time as our oldest grandson, Max, turns 16 on the 28th. It's hard to believe that he's that big. That's the hardest thing about moving out of the country. We REALLY miss our family, especially our grandkids.

Enough babbling for now. I need to get outside before it gets hot. Blessings!

Trooper OOPS!

On it's best days our little old, 1990 Trooper isn't a thing of beauty, but right now she's having a new struggle. We let Rene take it home over the weedends so that he can get to another job on Friday and then to the market over the weekend. A week ago he bro't the car back and parked it on the driveway. We've had the emergency brake repaired, but he doesn't like to use it. He was weedeating a distance away and I was in the house when I heard a noise and looked out in time to see the Trooper bumping down the hill on it's own. I took off running and yelling when I heard a fairly gentle crash. As I came around the corner of the bodega I saw that it had hit our lime tree. The tree had been struggling with an infestation of bugs which we'd been treating, but it's now a moot point as it was broken and lying off to the side. Luckily, the Trooper only seems to have a broken headlight. If the tree hadn't been there, it would have picked up speed going down the hill and probably been totalled in the heavy bush. We've been trying to find a used headlight assembly, but no one has a driver's side light, so have now ordered a new one. Next week we'll take it to Bado (body shop) and have him straighten the hood and fender and install the new light.
2 weeks later:
We looked everywhere we could think of to find a used headlight, but only found three that were for the passenger side. Darn. Ended up having Bedo order a new one and then straighten the hood and fender to accomodate the light. I told him he didn't have to make it pretty because that would only embarrass the rest of the car. We now have it back and so far, so good. We're ready for a lull in the unexpected expenses.

Rain, rain and more rain

Sometimes it seems that's all I talk about, but right now it's definitely on our minds. If you can look at a satellite photo of Central America you'll see that we're right at the junction where fronts from the Pacific heading NE and those from the Atlantic, heading NW are meeting and heading for Mexico and the Caribbean. The hurricane center says that there aren't strong winds associated, just lots of rain. Well let me tell you, that's an understatement. It's been pouring for two days and is supposed to continue tomorrow. We're not going to head down until this is over as there's no way we could get back up our hill.

We have one neighbor just beyond ours and he's trying to do some construction. They have hopes to open as a small resort. I swear there's one resort for every tourist in Belize. People can't believe that we're gringo's, live here and don't have a resort. Anyway, we heard a truck try to make it up the hill, unsuccessfully, and then Bailey started barking. "Good boy!" I saw two guys walking up the hill, dragging rebar! ! ! Can you imagine. It's about a 1/4 mile up that muddy, long hill.

My dilemma is laundry. I didn't want to leave clothes at the laundry because I don't know when we'd get back to pick them up, but we really needed some things, so I did a few loads today. Seems silly because it's raining like crazy. I used the existing lines on the verandas of the guest house and our house and Art hung a new, higher line on our veranda so that I could hang sheets. Heaven only knows when, or if, they'll get dry. It's still quite warm out, so worth a try. Makes me feel as tho' I'm doing something positive anyway. Several of our friends have butane clothes dryers. I'm envious, but a huge expense for such a short time. It's something we'd buy tho' if we could afford it.

OK, back to J.D. Robb and Dallas. In case someone reads this who doesn't know, J.D. Robb is a nom de plume for Nora Roberts, writing about detective Eve Dallas. Great stories, but I've read them all at least 3 times. I'm getting desperate. I slurp these books up so fast tho', that I forget them just about as fast. Scary!

Dengue fever

Our dear Rene, who works so hard for us two days a week, was working a week ago when he collapsed. He's been weedeating. We heard a faint cry and Art dashed out to see what had happened. Rene was on the ground. He hurt all over, but mostly in his stomach and head. We got him in our truck and Art took him to the government hospital, stopping off at Rene's to get a couple of his sons. They stayed with him while they ran tests and checked him over. Now this hospital is new, but nearly worthless. The service is free, but you get what you pay for. Rene went back home, but felt awful over the weekend, so they took him to a private Dr, who diagnosed him as having Dengue and possibly malaria at the same time. There have been lots of mosquitos everywhere, with all our rain, so hard to pinpoint where he got it. We don't have any standing water, but the bush does harbor dampness. Anyway, after a week, he's doing much better and he's determined to try to return to work on Monday. We do pay his social security, which is a combination of retirement and workmen's comp insurance. He'll collect 80% of what his reported earnings are. The trouble is, so many people don't pay the insurance, so many workers end up with nothing. They work so hard for so little anyway, that it makes you angry. Dengue is a real threat here. We've had other friends who have contracted it and it's taken them months to get back to normal. Besides being weak, you have a horrible headache.

I'm so glad that Rene is doing better and we're praying we escape it, but it's hard to escape those little devil mosquitos.