Family visit

After living in Belize for over a year and a half, we have been delighted to have a family visit. I worried and planned for over two months to make it a memorable experience for my brother, Steve and his wonderful wife, Jan, and two of our cousins, Roger and Heather (brother & sister). We all grew up in Washington state, altho' still many miles apart, so visited frequently as kids. Of course, this visit went by way too fast. Belize blessed us by showing them her beauty and warmth. My cousin Roger lives in New York and the rest of the family lives in Oregon. Both coasts have been suffering severe cold, so they were given a warm treat here in the jewel.

The difficult thing about living across country borders is leaving family behind. Not only is it expensive to travel, the customs/immigration bit can get quite tiring, confusing and just plain frustrating. It's not like traveling in country where you could put older children on a plane and meet them at the other end.

Initially, they all flew to Placencia where they stayed at Robert's Grove. I drove down the next day. Art doesn't like the coast and preferred to stay up here with Bailey. Another consideration was that our truck only holds 5 people. After a wonderful 5 day visit in Placencia, we traveled up here to Cayo for the remainder of their stay.

I was overly concerned that they'd find our life here primitive and uncomfortable, but they all seemed to enjoy themselves. They were all such good sports to accept using a composting toilet. They also adjusted to just screens as windows and waking up to the parrots socializing followed by the chachalacas letting the world know where they were. It can get pretty noisy at daylight.

Art & I were so proud of Bailey. He's so social when he knows that someone is family or friend. He'd say his how-do-you-do's and then lie down wait for an invitation for a scratch or a walk. He's wonderful company.

I'm so grateful that they could come down for this visit. My brother and I have been very close and I couldn't love Jan more if she'd been a sister. I communicate via email with our cousin, Roger in New York and have never lost that family connection. He's incredibly smart, talented and generous. I hadn't seen his sister Heather for several years, but we fell right into the family stories and hugs.

I speak about myself in all this, but Art is at the center of all the family stuff. He's such a quiet but charming host and always fits right in with anyone.

It was sad to put them on the shuttle to Belize, but hope they will come back soon. Note: up here we have William who owns a shuttle service. He's interesting and a very good driver. We've found it's much less stressful and actually cheaper to use his service rather than drive to the airport. Gas here is very expensive (currently $10.50bz a gallon) and the trip takes about 2 1/2 hours one way.

I didn't get a tag on the photo so, it's L to R, Jan, Steve, Roger and Heather with Art peeking back at the front.

Handrail project update

I'm frustrated today as I wanted to work on the handrail project, but it's raining and the Tati is wet, so hard to clean. I putter with this project when I get a little time. Art has been helping me with some of the frame and has even enjoyed stripping the bark off some of the spindles. It's like whittling. Tati is interesting. It's a vine so some of it is very flexible. There's a variety of it in almost every tree. Some of the pieces Rene has bro't us goes up high in the canopy and blooms. We've been smelling and seeing the sweet bloom, but didn't realize what it is. The yellow flower is known as Witches Comb. We're not cutting anything close to the houses so that we can enjoy the flowers and the fascinating shapes.

This photo shows that I'm getting a little more carried away and enjoying the wonderful shapes. I'm having fun.

Redstart and woodpecker

Finally able to catch the little redstart. This was the first time that he sat still for even a few seconds.

Sharing Belize

I wish there was some way to share what I see every morning. What a joy to sit at the table on our back veranda, with a cup of coffee and sweet Bailey at my feet, and watch the jungle come alive as the mist rises. In a way I feel guilty that we're experiencing such glorious weather when the States are struggling with miserable storms.

I catch fleeting glimpses of the little redstart warbler. He's as fast and erratic as the hummingbird. Much of the time they're only a sound or a movement in the trees. Then that flash of color. The tiny black & white warbler is an occasional visitor. The parrots start their day as the mist rises, but the chachalacas wait for the sun to be out to start communicating with each other.

I look out on our paths, mottled by the sun, that meander through the trees. The hammock invites us to lie back, relax and look up into the trees. I've made labels for the medicine plants along the paths, for visitors, but actually for me too. Rene was having to keep reminding me of the names. Sometimes I think my memory is a sieve, leaking out more than it's taking in. Anyway, the labels help.

We're so pleased by the way we positioned the house. The front is towards the east and gets the morning sun, which helps get rid of the nighttime dampness. The back is shaded by the trees so it never gets really hot. If there's any breeze at all, it comes around the north end of the house and keeps the area around the table cool.

The beauty and gentleness of it all is like a soft prayer.

Art & I love to dream and plan. If we had the money, this would make a lovely retreat. Imagine a thatched roof cabana, nestled at the edge of the trees, surrounded by flowers. The Mopan river is at the bottom of the hill, inviting you to cool off. We envision an outdoor kitchen where we could share a cool lime drink from the fruit of our trees, or a meal. What a dream.

My current project

Wow, I'm finally feeling better. It's great to be able to have a conversation without coughing my head off. Actually, I've been doing fairly well, keeping busy, just not doing much visiting. I'm not very good at being sick and staying in bed. Ick! I much prefer to keep trudging away.

I've been concerned because the guest house is 8' in the air and we only have a handrail on the veranda. I saw some of the wonderful Ta ti that Rene bro't out of the bush and asked him to find a bunch for me. I can't tell the difference between the kind that will rot day-after-tomorrow or the kind that lasts for years. I know he thinks I'm a little crazy, but, bless his heart, he responded with huge armloads. I'm slowly peeling the bark off pieces and installing spindles. OK, before one of you hollers, I know it's not code. For heavens sake. This is Belize! There isn't any code here in the bush.

When we built our recycled, handbuilt, log house in Oregon, we struggled, but it's to code. A couple of disappointments were that we found wonderful clawfoot tubs, but couldn't use the original faucets because of code. Some time in the who knows past there was a fire in Chicago and water siphoned back into their water system, so you have to have the faucet 1" above the water line. Anyway, we survived because we had a wonderful inspector who tho't we were crazy, but loved our project. Hallelujah! One of the beauties of Belize is that you can be creative and get away with it.

If we should have guests with small children, we'll put up the temporary wire mesh to protect them. For now, I just had to give this a try. It's going to take me quite a time to finish, but I'm enjoying it for now.

trim colors

Yes, I'm still struggling with bronchitis, but doing ok as long as I'm up here, away from folks where I can cough and complain and no one to hear me except poor Art, Bailey and the birds. The trouble with bronchitis is that it takes so long to go away.

In the meantime, I've decided to spruce up a little of the trim on the buildings. Not going to paint too much, but the screen doors on the house are getting mungy (not sure if that's a real word, but they are anyway) and the trim on the little house looked really bad. To paint something here in the tropics, I think you have to use the pretty local colors. If you look at the bright green and then the bush you see that green everywhere. The lovely peach color on the little house, is actually around in the trees and is called papaya down here. Have used more of the blue on the guest house on the inside of one room and the bathroom, but love it on the little bench. Love the crumby table on the guest house veranda. Got if for $15bz at an auction and it's perfect for jigsaw puzzles. Now we just need guests. LOL!

Just want to let you know that we're still here. Art is in town getting a new cord put on the generator. Things sure wear out fast here. Life can be tough and we're getting our share right now, but the sun, warm breezes and wonderful folks help us to keep plugging away and to enjoy these beautiful colors.

Just another day in paradise

Hi guys,
Nothing exciting happening here. Art's been keeping our new weedeater busy, trying to keep up with the weeds. We don't have grass, but actually some of the weeds are low growing and make a presentable lawn. It's hard to grow grass up here because of the hot, dry spells and we don't have expendable water for sprinklers.

I'm spending most of my time trying to spruce up the place, preparing for a family visit. Pretty exciting as this will be our first company in 1 1/2 years. I'm anxious to share our wonderful place with them and also let them see that we've not totally lost our minds. I'm painting some of the trim on the houses. Hadn't planned to, but the weather and wear & tear have made some of it look shabby. (I'll add a couple of photos later)

One of the reasons for my silence is that I'm, once again, struggling with bronchitis. Had hoped that I'd left this behind in the mountains of Oregon, but not to be. Not sure if it's the humidity or what, but sinus trouble haunts everyone and for me, it leads to bronchitis. Darn! I keep going, but have to push myself. I'm drinking lemon grass (fever grass) tea hoping it will help.

Never fear, dear friends, we're here just plugging away. I'll share more in a couple of days.

rain

Wow, from my fingers to God's hear. Not quite. They've been predicting rain for about 3 weeks, but none appeared until Tuesday night. We're not getting lots of rain, just sporadic and quite a stiff breeze.

Sandy, bless her heart, sent me a comment about the fact that the rainy season is actually during summer months. That's because that's the hurricane season. It doesn't rain really often then, but when it does it comes down in buckets. (I have to tell you that most of my info comes from Rene, who has lived here all his life and has taught me so much about the land). During December, January it is often overcast and there are periods of drizzle. That's the good time to plant a garden. The dry spell was devastating to lots of gardens. Not sure how long this cloudy spell will last, but we do appreciate the little bit of rain.

Well, I'm off to the dentist. I get my crown put on today. I think I already mentioned that we have a wonderful dentist here who is gentle and VERY reasonable. My crown cost $350bz total. In Oregon they're $1k US at least.

Have a great day dear friends. Gale

weather

I know the weather in the U.S. is really awful in some places. Unusually cold and lots of snow. I just looked at the road cams in Central Oregon. Lots of snow and cold. I loved the snow when we had lots of wood stacked outside and food stocked up. I could just savor the beauty of it all in the mountains. It is always a time of worry tho' about folks driving in icy conditions. Sunriver is a resort area and folks visit who are there to have a good time skiing and enjoying the winter, and have no concern for the hazardous road conditions.

Our concern here is Belize is just the opposite. We're having the most gorgeous weather, which I'm sure the tourists are enjoying. It's in the 80's during the day and high 50's at night. Sounds ideal, but our big worry is that this is supposed to be the rainy season. Usually it rains most of December and on into January. We haven't had rain for several weeks. The ground is dry and cracking and any of the trees have started to lose their leaves. We do have the morning mists, but they're not enough to provide water to the earth. Farmers have planted beans and corn, staples here, and what has sprouted is drying up. The Mennonites are trying to irrigate some fields, but most will be a loss. I hear that the government is trying to find sources outside of Belize to get folks thru this tough year. Prices will go soaring. Because of the weather and struggling economy here, most of the population is out of work. I worry about how families can survive.

We're extremely conservative in our water and electricity use. When we came down we were prepared to have our cistern go dry, so we developed ways of recycling our water. We collect our gray water in a tank (this is from showers and washing dishes) and use that to water plants. We also use composting toilets. As is turns out, our 10k gallon cistern is still 90% full. This dry weather will be a test for our usage. If we continue to maintain our water supply, we may opt to install a regular toilet here in our house. I have to say we're not fans of the Biolet toilet system. We much prefer the homemade composting toilet in the guest house. Anyway, right now we're just concerned about water.

We had standing water in a spot near my garden. This is curious as we're at the top of a ridge. The ground slopes down quite seriously behind the guest house. Art & Rene decided to dig down to determine the source of the water. Rene dug a hole about 3' across and maybe 4' deep and water is leaking below the topsoil at the top of the marl. The water is clean and odorless. Rene remembers as a boy they used to hunt in this area and there was a spring fed stream around here in the bush. When our "ship comes in", what a laugh, we'd like to dig a well and hopefully supplement our water supply.

Moving to Belize is such a fantastic experience. To develop our little place with limited funds and off-grid is a little like pioneering. Of course they didn't have solar, so we know we're pretty lucky. We also couldn't do most of the work on the land without our good friend, Rene. He's a wealth of information and common sense and he works extremely hard. He's so proud of what we've all accomplished here and doesn't hesitate to take credit for much of our success.

This seems to be a very confused year weather wise, everywhere. None of the usual conditions are happening. I hope the spring (that's for the U.S, there really isn't a spring here) will bring a gentleness back to the land for all of us. We're praying for a little rain here before the expected dry season hits.
Blessings, Gale

Aracari - little toucan

This little fellow visited a few days ago and I tho't it might be interesting for anyone who doesn't get the opportunity to see the differences, to see the little toucan also. I've found that the keel-billed toucan stays high in the canopy, where the Aracari has come down to eat berries very near the house. This little one visited the same trumpet trees as the big toucan. Wish we had lots of fruit trees so that we'd see them more often. I'm just pleased and excited about these visits. Even tho' folks here call it the "little toucan" it's still a fairly good sized bird at about 16". The keel-billed can be about 21". (I love my "Birds of Belize" book).

Finally, toucan photos

I've been so frustrated trying, first to catch a glimpse of our toucans and then to try to get a photo. They fly in and vanish into the trumpet trees. My photography skills leave a lot to be desired, but I keep trying. I'm slow and so is my camera, but today I finally got a shot of our elusive friend. He seems to come in and just get one piece of fruit and then fly off, out of sight. It's hard to realize that so many incredible birds visit our yard. I'm including a couple of less than perfect photos to show the colors on the body. What an incredible gift.

watercolors

Ok! Like I told you, I keep thinking I'll break out of my rut, but I keep trudging away, doing my birds and critters. I do love them tho'. Maybe I'll surprise myself and try something different next time.

I don't see many watercolors down here, probably because the humidity is so hard on paper. They would all have to be archival matted and framed to keep out the moisture. Also, the truly frustrating thing is that, at least here in the Cayo District, I have yet to find a place to buy supplies. Got excited when I passed a place in Belmopan called the Art Box. Silly me! It's full of ticky tacky and not much else. Oh, a few of Caroline Carr's painting on the 2nd floor. Doubt that an art supply store would do a booming business, but sure wish someone would be able to stock paints, brushes, etc. Luckily I bro't quite a bit when we moved, so can keep busy, when my lazy bones get ambitious.