Another delicious melon from the farm lot. This time it’s a casaba melon. Ruben planted a few different types of melons recently and they are just starting to ripen. I think this was just a test run for him to see what types of melons would actually grow decently. So far he has had good luck with the cantaloupe, yellow watermelon, and casabas. Maybe the next round he will be able to plant rows of melons and get them to market.

This was our first time trying a casaba melon, not to be confused with a cassava, which is a root vegetable. It was very juicy with the texture of a honeydew or cantaloupe melon. Not a real sweet melon, I think if it ripened a little more the sweetness would come out because it was much sweeter near the yellow parts of the skin. Still, it made for a great breakfast for a couple of days.

This was the first time our tree started to set avocados. There were maybe 50 or so on there and we were very excited about that. Well, one by one, they all fell off before they were no bigger than a golf ball. We decided to cut one open and see what it looked like. It looked like a mature avocado, so we decided to give it a taste. Surprisingly enough it tasted like a good ripe avocado. There is still one hanging on the tree getting bigger, so we have high hopes for that one. We’re hoping that this was a test run for the tree and next year we will have more avocados than we will know what to do with. I know in a few years we should have a lot of avocados as we have at least 7 or 8 trees planted.

All of the cacao for our chocolate-making has come from just nine trees that we planted about five or so years ago. In fact, we just had to top a good 6-8′ off some of them as they were getting too tall to harvest. Anyway, we love to plant things, mostly just to see if they will grow. Some of the cacao pods that weren’t good enough for chocolate were separated and the seeds got planted. Last year we randomly planted 20 or so 2 ‘ tall cacao trees around the property. Currently, we have another fifty plus plants growing that will be ready to plant next year once they get bigger. At this point, we have no idea what we will do with them if they all start producing. Who knows maybe this will become a chocolate farm in the future, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Recently we were over near the garage and heard something hit the front of the house. We went over to check it out and there was a Red Crowned Tanager not moving on the patio chair. There was another one laying on the porch. I don’t know if they were fighting or doing some kind of mating ritual, but they both hit the house hard. The one on the ground was stunned, so Kelley picked him up and put him next to the one in the chair. He stayed there for 10 minutes or so before he flew away. As for the other one, he never recovered.

We took a short trip up to Arizona to visit the kids and grandkids. While we were there, we also jumped on a quick flight to Portland and then drove up to Washington to see my aunt who was getting married. While in Washington we also traveled over to Leavenworth to meet my sister and her husband for lunch one day. It was a quick two day trip up there to see some family, but very well worth it. Of course, being in the Pacific Northwest you know we had to get our fill of fresh seafood, and that we did.

Back in Arizona the kids had a happy hour/BBQ one night and invited a few friends over. We invited our friends Darren, and Craig & Monica from Washington who just happened to be in town that weekend. Between Craig, Monica, Darren, Kelley, and I, we are all neighbors and have houses within a few hundred yards of each other on our little road in Belize. It was like a little Belizean block party up in Arizona.

While in Arizona I bought a motorcycle. Back when I used to ride and race dirt bikes there was one bike that I always dreamed about owning. Well, one came up for sale (which they rarely do) and I just couldn’t resist. It’s a ’77 Yamaha TT500, one of the baddest 4-stroke dirt bikes of its day and still a very sought after bike. It needs some work, but it’s mostly cosmetic. Back in the day, I was a pretty good motorcycle mechanic, so this is just a project for me to tinker with when we are up in the States.

Back in my youth, I was on one of my bikes at least 4-5 days a week. I will never be able to relive my youth, but at least I can still work on them and maybe even take a little spin every so often.

At the grocery store in Arizona, we saw that they had some pink pineapples. I had read about these, Del Monte was growing them down in Costa Rica under the name PinkGlow. We thought we would give one a try and see how they stacked up to our fresh grown ones at home. Well, it blew us away, first of all, it was pink inside, and the flavor was not tangy like a yellow pineapple, but very sweet and delicious. The grandkids absolutely loved it and Kelley said that it tasted like cotton candy.

On our last day in Arizona before coming home we always have a lot of last minute running around to do. Well, our last day was cut short when we blew a tire on our truck and had to be towed back to the kid’s house. We couldn’t get the spare tire down on the side of the road. One, because we couldn’t get the crank to work, two because it was at least 108° outside, and three, who knows how hot that black pavement actually was to try and kneel down on. Once back at the kid’s house, we discovered that all the tires on the truck should be replaced even though they still had great tread on them. They all had some cracking on the side walls from being parked out in that hot Arizona sun.

Our yellow squash plants are doing pretty well this time. In the past, every time we’ve planted any kind of squash we have gotten bugs in the plants that kill them. This time we planted around 100 seeds in hopes that maybe we will get some. When we left for Arizona there were no blossoms on the plants, and 2 weeks later when we got back there were already some nice squash ready for picking. At this point, the plants are loaded with blossoms and it’s looking like we should get quite a few as long as we can keep the bugs away.

Ruben was cutting down and burning a bunch of bamboo from a friend’s lot and asked if we wanted any.  We ended up getting about 15 big lengths of it. It will be used to make a border around the plants that are in front of the house and as an entrance going to the casita. They hung out the back of the truck pretty far, but we had them strapped down good and Ruben rode on top of them the whole way back to our place.

The day we got back to Belize we unloaded the truck, sat down, had a cold beer, and reflected on what a great trip that was. While we were sitting there watching the parrots and other birds fly around, three agoutis walked in front of us. We usually see agoutis just about every day, but not with babies. The mom would walk a little and then squat. We assume she was marking a pathway that the babies could smell and then follow. It’s always great to get away, but like they say, there’s no place like home.