Blog friends

After several attempts we finally met with new friends, Chris and Liz here at the farm.  We've been communicating for some time, but never seemed to connect in person.  They have explored Belize and have now settled on a place in Unitedville, which is partway between Santa Elena and Belmopan.  What a delightful couple.  We sat on the veranda on that very hot afternoon and  had a wonderful time.  They're also dog people, so eventually the pups and Bailey joined us.  We were so pleased as the dogs greeted everyone and then politely went to sleep under the table.  Chris and Liz didn't bring their dog, John, as Bailey isn't really thrilled with meeting other dogs. 

Belize is a small country, with an even smaller population.  We travel all over the country to shop so

even tho' we don't live in the same village, we hope we can keep contact with our lovely new friends. We go a kick out of their car as they were leaving.  They said it's actually a great little car, but is small and very basic.  It's Russian and it gets them everywhere.  Like they said, they can't get away with anything because everyone knows the car.  It's very unique.  How fun!  Their visit was definitely a bright spot in our week. 

Fence for the dogs

We've wanted a fence for Bailey since we moved in, but everything else seemed to take preference.  With the addition of the pups to our family, we felt we could no longer put it off.  The pups have been doing really well on the veranda and we take them out 2 or 3 times a day into the big yard.  By using bacon bits as a reward, they're getting good at coming when called, but still getting quite adventurous.

I bought two roles of field fencing and had planned to try to buy some sapodilla fence posts.  The problem was that there weren't any posts available, but I did find a pallet of various 8' long sapodilla pieces at Yalbac Lumber.  At a dollar a board foot, it was quite a bargain, but, how to get it home????  We tried to find a trailer to haul this load, but nothing was available.  The problem was two-fold.  First, with the butane tank in our 6' truck bed, our load length was diminished.  The second part is that, sapodilla is extremely heavy.  Some of these pieces were also ironwood or logwood. We struggled to find an option, but the only one that was available was for us to travel to Iguana Creek, making  as many trips as needed.  We were able to get almost half the pallet on the truck.  Praises to our valiant Toyota Tundra.  We decided to take the back road between Spanish Lookout and Bullet Tree.  That way we wouldn't be on the "highway" with our heavy load.  Sounded good until we got to the hill just past the turn to the ferry.  We heard and felt a whoosh and the whole load slipped onto the road.  Bummer!  The darned bed liner on the truck is slippery.  We had thought that the heaviness of the boards would keep them in place, but the hill and the bouncing proved us wrong.  We had to start reloading on that hill.  When we were part-way finished a van loaded with Mennonite tourists fro ng turned out to be fortuitous as they were aiming for Spanish Lookout without realizing that they were headed in the wrong direction.  By stopping to help us, we got them turned in the right direction. 

We limped towards Bullet Tree at about 15 miles per hour, stopping every couple of miles to be sure everything was still intact.  We were worried about the steep entrance to Paslow Falls Road and then up our road.  Even though ours is much improved, it's still steep.  Art had the great idea that we back up these steep parts.  At Paslow Falls he got out to stop any cars coming our way and I backed up the road.  Voila!  It worked.  I have to thank my training as a long-haul truck driver some years back, for my comfort in driving backwards.  The bumps and holes on Paslow Falls Rd., forced us to stop again to adjust the load and then our road up.  Art's strategy worked fine as I backed the quarter mile up our road without incident.  The really tough part was that we had to off-load the lumber and go back to get the second half.  Quite an undertaking for a couple of old duffers all in one day,   Before we made this trip we loaded up with all the rope, bungy cords and a come-along.  Roberto at Yalbac helped us tie it on and his experience did the trick.  I'll just say that, by the time this load was on, it didn't have a prayer of moving an inch. We were able to drive back on the highway, driving carefully, but taking all the hills straight on. 

We left this load on the truck and Rene and two of his boys came yesterday and built our fence.  What a thrill to be able to let our kids out and not worry that they'll head into the bush.  This is just one more job to thank Rene for. 

Our road - update

I'll preface this with a view back to our beginning.  When we first looked at the property, there wasn't actually a road visible.  Under the two foot high grass was a track, long unused.  On the plat map it shows that the road up our hill is a 60' government road, but they weren't interested in helping us.  After struggling with mud and close calls with a tree, we had about a 400 foot section at the top fixed with a base of rock that has proven fantastic, but the bottom part remained a trial. 

I actually never thought I'd be able to say this, but OUR ROAD IS GETTING FIXED!  We've struggled with the ruts and mud for so long.  We'd approached our neighbors, but Mary didn't want to use the contractor we had used to build the section we had repaired.   Since Mary and family are developing a track at the bottom of the hill, she told us she would fix the road.  Wow!  We weren't sure it would actually happen, but, hallelujah, it has.  We're somewhat disappointed that they cleared so much, but we can't complain as we weren't paying the tab.  She had a bulldozer push all the brush onto her side and they cleared most of the road property.  Yesterday they brought in some gravel to cover the new road bed.  We're hoping that they'll complete the job, but at this point, we're so pleased with the part that's done.  It's definitely not as well done as the section we had Victor do, but this sure is a huge step forward.  The road has intimidated several of our less aggressive friends from coming up.  When you live in the bush on a limited income, getting a drivable road is better than a new wardrobe.    

Puppy progress

We've survived three weeks with our new family members and we're all doing fine.  It sure has caused a change in our schedule tho'. They wind down and head for their kennel at dark, which is currently about 6:30pm and get up with the sun (ick! about 6am).  They try so hard not to mess in the kennel that we try to get up right away and get them outside.  Our big problem is that they stay on the veranda and our house is on stilts.  They are terrified of the steps, so we carry them up and down.  They're both fairly small, but getting heavy fast.  Shannon was next to the smallest female in the litter and Rusty was the smallest male.  I hope everyone who bo't one of these pups is as thrilled with theirs as we are.  Of course they're absolutely beautiful, but also so much fun.  Art chose Stannon because she seemed so shy and snuggled right up to him.  Ha!  She starts out shy and then becomes a crazed little fury, attacking her brother ruthlessly.  Rusty gets his licks in too, but is basically calmer.  I started to say he's quieter, but not true.  She growls when they play, but Rusty barks.  It started as a yip, but he's getting his big boy voice and surprises even himself with a regular bark.  For the first time, today Bailey and Rusty played together.  They each got down with their fannies in the air, waiting to see who'd flinch first.  Then they barked and took off on a run around the veranda.  Bailey chasing the pup.  I couldn't stop laughing.  Poor Bailey has seemed so put upon by having his peaceful life disrupted, but as we'd hoped, I feel they're going to become a family too. 

This week I plan to buy fencing & posts to build a small yard so they'll have a little more freedom.  It should also be a place where Bailey can finally be off a lead.   We take them out into the big yard and use bits of bacon to try to keep them close, but they're getting too brave and independent.  Everything takes time and lots of love.  We have lots of both, so trudging on.   Blessings

Weather (& dogs)

As you might guess, I'll probably be posting a lot about our new family members.  Two 9 week old pups tend to dominate your life.  Bailey is very frustrated and confused as to how to relate to them.  He tries to run away from them and when they get right in his face he barks.  It's so loud that I'd think it would pin them to the floor, but they're non-plussed, so he must not be swearing at them.  I really feel that as they get older and settle down, they'll all become friends.  The pups are trying really hard not to mess in the kennel, but we don't always catch the signs, so the veranda is still ok in their minds.  I hope we can get funds together to put up a good fence so that all three dogs will have a place to roam.  For now, Bailey seems happy to spend lots of time in the house, out of the reach of the red menace.  

The weather right now is unexpected.  It's usually pretty mild this time of year with May being the really hot month.  Well, it's February and we've had several days in the 90's.  Thankfully it's rained the last couple of nights to cool it down.  I dread the really hot weather,  I don't bother "glowing" like a lady, I just drip and sweat.  Hoping to return to Oregon in May before our grandson reports to the Air Force.  He graduated a little early & is only 17.   Pooh!  He's our oldest and it's going to be hard to have them each head in their own direction.  I just pray that they'll find happiness and a satisfying life. 

Pups!

Yes, it's not a typo.  Pups it is.  We went over to pick up our little Shannon and found that two of the males haven't been spoken for.  Claudia & Franklin are such sweethearts and have done such a wonderful job with the huge litter, we just couldn't resist.  We brought home Rusty & Shannon.  In so many ways it's much easier to have two small pups than one alone.  We brought down Bailey's big kennel and they will sleep there.  They didn't even cry last night.  They are so dear and very people oriented.  Our veranda is fenced with screen so they can have the run of it.  Walking for us is a chore as it's like walking in water.  There's a pup under you feet at all times.  It's so cute to see them running after each other. 

Shannon seemed so shy at first, but boy can she explode into a little spitfire.  She really stands up for herself.  Rusty is a tiny bit darker and an independent little soul.  We really struggled with a name for him as he came as a surprise.  Rusty seems a little cliche, but very fitting.  Probably half the male Red Setters are named Rusty, but that's ok with us.   With two nearly identical tiny creatures are running around we're happy that Shannon has a little cowlick on the back of her neck.  We laughed that we should have named her Alfalfa, but it's to be our lovely Shannon. 

We weren't sure how Bailey would react, but are pleased that at least he didn't try to attack them.  He's so huge and they're so small.  We didn't give them much contact until today.  Of course, they were fascinated with him, but he seemed almost afraid of them.  I'm guessing it's going to take a week or two before he can see any reason to have something to do with them.  They were following him and getting in his face.  He finally had enough and turned and barked.  Boy did that stop them.  At least for a minute.  We won't leave them alone together, but can see that eventually it's going to work.  Already Art & I are getting more exercise, just keeping up with the dogs and all the stuff that pups need. What an elegant little family we have.  Two gorgeous Irish Red Setters and our spectacular Akita, Bailey.  So much love,

I've been so busy that I didn't take time to get really good photos of our kids, but will add some later.  For now you can see that the pups have made the area around Art's exercise bike, their own. 

This & That

I've had a very strange day.  Had one of those crazy nights where I slept a long time, but woke up tired.  Just wanted to stay in bed with the covers over my head.  Not really, but tempting.  Looking back on it now, I'm thankful I didn't have a bad accident because I sure couldn't seem to do anything right.  I got thru the morning ok, just bumbling along, but frustrated because I wanted to do laundry, but it rained, so changed that plan.  In the afternoon I decided to kick myself into gear and try to get something done.  I wanted to paint a couple of wooden chairs that sit on our guest house veranda.  I found the paint, thinner, brush and drop cloth and took a broom to the floor to make my space.  I'd noticed some droppings on the table, but attributed them to the darned gecko's.  As I moved the table I realized that these weren't just a few droppings, but a lot.  I pulled on the closeable shutter and let out a scream.  Behind hung about eight small bats.  I'm not really afraid of them, but they sure startled me as they fluttered in all directions.  We realized that this was an ideal spot for them as it was clean and dark and the wood siding was a perfect surface for them to cling to.   I really appreciate bats as one bat will eat it's weight in mosquitoes every day and a pregnant female with eat 2 1/2 times her weight.  The way the bugs attack me, I'll take the bats any day, but don't really want them to live on our veranda. 

After my little girly moment, I continued to spread my plastic and got down to work.  I had almost finished giving the two chairs their first coat of paint when I bumped the can and spilled the whole can of paint.  Well darn!  Luckily I had several layers of plastic down and only a small portion went onto the floor itself.  All I could do was use the brush and pick up as much paint as possible.  I salvaged most of it and using paint thinner and an old t-shirt I got the paint off the floor.  I was also grateful that I had painted the floor with linseed oil & diesel just a couple of weeks ago, so the paint didn't sink into the wood.  Right then I decided that I would do our little place a favor and retreat to the house veranda with a glass of juice and a book for the rest of the day. 

It also gave me time to ponder the fact that we are going to get one of Queenie's pups.  A little girl they call Amy, but who will probably be Shannon when she gets home with us.  The pups are only 6 weeks old and Claudia and  Franklin want them to have more time with their siblings and to get their 8 

week old shot before heading to their new homes.  I know she's going to demand a lot of time and work, but we have lots of time and need to work more, so a terrific fit.  I keep telling Bailey about his new friend, but I'm sure he hasn't a clue that his calm life is about to be upset.  Will do us all good. Maybe by the time she gets here I'll have all the blue paint out from under my fingernails. 

Blessings dear friends

Queenie's pups

It's been pretty quiet here at the farm.  Weather has been up and down and is currently quite cool.  We're doing fine and getting up and down our hill, so can't complain.  I have a little cold, but so does almost everyone I know, so no big deal. We're friends with a wonderful couple who moved here from Germany.  They're both so talented and personable.  Franklin is a wonderful artist and Claudia bakes and sells the most incredible breads and pastries.  Between them they've built a beautiful home and property near Bullet Tree.  They brought with them from Germany a gorgeous pair of registered Irish Setters.  I've admired the dogs and thoroughly enjoy our visits.  Anyway, Queenie recently gave birth to 13 pups, 5 girls and 8 boys.  Wow!  What fun, but I'm glad it was them and not us.  They had to create groups so that they could alternate feeding and took over the biggest share by hand feeding, just giving each pup a short time with mom.  Queenie is a good mom, but as you might expect she's pretty overwhelmed by the numbers. 

We visited Claudia and Franklin today and were thrilled and tickled by the whole lot.  I think it is a testimony to the strength of the parents that all pups survived and they are now 5 weeks old and they are nearly identical and strong without a runt in the litter.  What a treat.  Of course we're arguing with ourselves about taking one of the girls.  I know that Bailey would be delighted, altho' we worry that he'd overwhelm her.  I would hope that Bailey would share with her some of his incredible traits and she would give him a friend and encourage him to get more exercise.  I'll post if we finally make up our minds.  In the meantime I'm including a couple of photos to show our dilemma.

 One of the attached photos shows why Queenie doesn't spend a lot of time in with the pups.  It's like being attacked by a hoard. 

Guns in schools

I realize that this is outside my usual posting of things about our life in Belize, but I don't know how else to express my extreme sadness about the recent shootings in the US.  It was upsetting enough to hear of a gunman in Clackamas Town Center in our home state of Oregon, but I'm still having trouble trying to fathom the devastating  deaths of those sweet children in Connecticut.  There don't seem to be any real answers to one human thinking he has the right to destroy another, especially children.  

Now we get a solution from those deep thinkers in the NRA, stating that the answer is to put guns in the schools.  Right!  Can you imagine the fear that those guns will create?  What message will that send to our children?  Guns are the answer to everything?  How do you tell a child to run from someone with a gun, but trust the people in the halls with guns?  How do you know that the person guarding the school with a gun isn't the one who's going to go off and use it? 

This puts me in mind of a dilemma that my husband dealt with as a mall Santa for several years.  Parents would get so upset when their little one cried when forced to sit on Santa's lap.  A child just knows that they don't know this strange man and Mom & Dad have told them to be afraid of strangers.  Now Mom's upset that the child cries.  This is Santa for lands sake.  No he's not, he's a big stranger.   How about someone with a gun?

There isn't a perfect answer in this unperfect world , but it seems to me that locking the schools from the outside and monitoring who comes in would be a better answer.  Even years ago when I attended school, we had bar door openers that allowed children to go out, but were locked from the outside.  I'm not sure about the effectiveness of gun control, but  can't fathom any reasonable answer for anyone to have an assault rifle or machine gun.  Target shooting isn't enough justification.  What's the purpose?  They're just designed to kill people.   I sure don't have an answer, but I do know that we can't let our children grow up surrounded by guns.  Please don't destroy the rest of childhood from our children. 

Yellow-jaw / fer de lance

We've cleared or underbrushed about three acres around our house as a deterrent to the snakes.  I've taken a somewhat cavalier attitude about this, since we've only seen one snake in that space and it was a rat snake, which was huge, but they're not a threat.  The parameters of that comfort zone just diminished a lot when Rene had a confrontation with a yellow-jaw.   Rene has worked in the bush for most of his life and has killed about 50 of these snakes, but the closeness of this call truly upset him.  

In the early part of the morning Rene was using a new machete down a row that had been cleared for mahogany's.  The new machete made a ringing sound as it hit.  We're assuming that this sound attracted the snake as it struck the machete as Rene swung to cut vines.  There's a mark on the blade about 8" from the handle where the fangs struck.  Thankfully Rene is familiar with their habits, so he threw the machete to detract the snake.  The yellow-jaw doesn't usually chase you and this one remained in place.  Rene then grabbed a large stick that he'd just cut and used it to kill the snake.  He came to the house to get some water as he was shaken and then went back and brought it up to the house to show us.  Wow! A couple of years ago he'd shown us a small snake, but this one seemed huge.  It was a male, about 5' long and as big around as my arm.  Ick, ick, ick!  I'm not one to go running and screaming, but this guy gave me the chills.  It wasn't so much the looks of the snake, but the fact that I'd just walked Bailey down those paths the day before, really gave me the creeps.  I'm usually busy talking to Bailey and daydreaming.  I do carry a small knife and walk with a good diamond willow stick, but I'm not nearly cautious enough.  The thing that really creeped me out was that the snake that we tho't was dead, moved.  Yuck!  Rene, bless his heart, killed the snake and then burned it to keep anything from coming in contact with the venom. 

I've learned a lot about the habits of these snakes from Rene, but anyone can be bitten.  He identified this snake as a male because the tail was short.  The female tail is long and whiplike.  He also told us that if you see one coiled, you follow the direction of the head and the other will be about 25' away on that line.  He looked for the second snake, but didn't find it.  A lot of our neighbors are clearing lots and lines so we suspect that this snake was moving.  Whatever, I'm not going to wander into the bush, but will stay to the road and our open, cleared areas.  Bailey isn't a help either because he's a hunter and has a nose to the ground, trailing anything and everything.  If he ran loose he'd probably be dead the first day as he isn't afraid of anything and doesn't know the ways of the bush. 

,

These confrontations are wake-up calls to all of us that there are dangers in the bush, but if you're vigilant there's fantastic beauty too. 

The old Trooper

Life for most of us seems to be one step forward and two backwards.  Our current dilemma centered around our 1990 Trooper.  She's old, has nearly 300k miles on the odometer and looks like she's ready to collapse at any minute.  But the truth is that she's straight and just keeps trudging along.  (kindred spirit?)  Our road (which we're hoping will be repaired soon, Belize time) has taken it's toll on both of our cars.  The Trooper steering has become pretty loose and the front end sounds gave me the feeling that her parts were going to head in separate directions at any minute.  Also, the brakes would occasionally fade.  Not a good sign.  With a heavy heart we took her to Herman Peters in Santa Elena.  This was our first visit to Herman, but our good friend, Dave, has been taking cars there for years so we gave him a try. They pulled the front wheels off and gave the front end a tug.  Aha, everything was loose and rattled.  They started rattling off the parts that would be needed and I was getting a huge sense of doom.  These parts couldn't be used, had to be new.  More doom.  Art looked at me and shook his head.

We keep the Trooper as an extra vehicle, Rene uses it on the weekends for family errands and we like it to sit in the yard as evidence that someone is home, even when we're not.

The fellows phone around and priced parts.  We decided that we had to  go ahead and keep her running.  The incredible part is that Herman had all the repairs done the afternoon of the next day.  They replace most of the front end, the master cylinder and rear brake pads for, drum roll please, $660BZ.  Yes, that's $330US.   Can you imagine what it would have cost in the US? It was a sad hit to our limited bank account, but we're blessed that we had it.   The little champ trudged home minus lots of her rattles and brakes working great.  She may not be pretty, but she is a Trooper.    Blessings,   Gale

Retirement

I know I've said this before, but we've finished most of the projects we could manage and are now faced with TIME.  I've worked at a job, not a career, most of my life and am figuring out who I am.  You'd think by now I'd have it figured out.  I'd love to garden, but my attempts have been futile.  My brother sent down lots of flower seeds from the States and absolutely none of them germinated.  I really miss my trailing petunias, pansies and lobelia.  The only bedding flowers that seem to thrive here are zinnias and impatiens.  I am thrilled tho' with my hibiscus and bougainvillea.  Being from Oregon, these are so exotic. 

I'm also in a quandary about cooking.  I'm not a great or inventive cook and I really miss the foods that I knew.  We definitely have gringo tastes.  Strange that we don't get peas down here.  I finally found some frozen and won't make that mistake again.  The package was hard as a rock and when thawed the peas were grey and as ugly as canned.  Ick!  I've tried to grow a vegetable garden, but the bugs and critters defeated my efforts.  I'm going to see if I can cobble together some kind of a raised garden and give it another try on a very small scale.  

I think right now I'm just missing family and familiar things.  We have a few wonderful friends, but I think about how either of us will handle the farm if left alone.  Not a lovely tho't, but realistic.  I have also talked to our oldest grandson and he's graduating from high school a little early (January) and has enlisted in the Air Force.  He's such a treasure.  We spent several years with him and his brother with us much of the time and now he's grown up.  I know he'll do wonderfully in whatever he chooses, but we miss them all so much.  Be prepared, if you choose to move away from your family.  Emails are wonderful, as are phone calls, but they don't replace hugs, laughter and shared moments.   

Well enough of this sitting here on a lovely day and feeling blue. I have to take the old Trooper in for repairs and then back home and maybe dig in the dirt.   We are blessed, I just have to remember it.