Well, the so-called second wave of this Covid virus has hit Belize and hit it hard. The country has gone from 40 total cases a month ago to close to 1,000 now. So at this point, we are back on a two week lock-down, no social gatherings, curfews in place, plus a lot of businesses closed. So we are just laying low and trying to be as safe as possible. We had big hopes that the country had this under control and we were starting to get back to a normal routine, but that changed when everyone let their guard down and carried on like nothing had ever happened. The Prime Minister announced that October 1st the airport will open back up and a couple of airlines have schedules in place. Let’s hope this works.

Back in May, Antonio (who built our house) was out at his farm when he came across a baby owl who was sitting on the ground by its dead mother.  He called us about it and we passed on information to him about the Belize Raptor Center. They said they would come out and pick it up. So Antonio carefully took the owl home until they could get there.

The center cared for this tiny Mottled Owl for 3 months until it was finally old enough and ready to be released back into the wild. It was a long way back to the farm where they found her, so we suggested that they could release her on our property. They liked that idea, so one evening as the sun was setting, Antonio and his family gathered at our place to watch the release. The cage was opened and the owl looked around for a minute and then took off up into the trees. If it wasn’t for everyone’s efforts this baby owl never would have had a chance to survive on its own. The Raptor Center told us that the owl should not venture too far from our property, so maybe we’ll get to see her again sometime.

The Belize Raptor Center rescues and rehabilitates injured and orphaned birds of prey, while they inspire the conservation and education of these magnificent creatures. The Raptor Center should definitely be on your list of things to visit when you are in Belize.

The other day while moving a light-up sign in the garage, we noticed some of these round white things the size of peas. At first, we thought they were some type of spider eggs until one rolled off the table and broke just like a regular egg. Since there are a lot of geckos in the garage we suspect that’s what they are. So at this point, they are in a jar and once they hatch we’ll let you know what they really are.

Well, the iguanas are still hanging around and this one seems to have taken up residence in our moringa tree. With all the healthy benefits of the moringa, he should be one healthy iguana. By the way, our moringa tree we planted just two years ago from seed is already well over 20′ tall. We mostly use the leaves for tea even though there are many other ways to get all the healthy benefits from this “Tree of Life”.

Bananas! We usually pick our bananas when they are green and then hang them on the porch for a few days where they will start to ripen. Usually, a few will ripen every day, well not this time, all 70 on the bunch decided to ripen at the same time. The good thing is that these are small apple bananas and are about half the size and twice as sweet as a regular banana.

Since they were all ready at once we had to get busy using them up. So first thing on the list was some banana daiquiris. Then there was some banana strawberry ice cream, banana cream pie, and some banana honey jam. We are still going to have to find some more recipes because our next stalk of bananas has over 120 on it and they will be ready to pick in a couple weeks or so.

Our pineapple crop all started with cutting the tops off and planting them and then waiting two years for them to produce. Now that we have pineapples we can take the slips (small shoots that grow under the fruit) and plant them. These will only take about a year before they start to produce as opposed to 2 years from the top. At this point, we have about 100 plants, and every time we pick one, we plant 3-7 more slips.

The garden just keeps on giving and this time it was dragon fruit! I know they always say that the fruits or veggies you grow yourself are better than any you could ever buy. That was definitely the case with these dragon fruits. They are sweet, juicy, and oh so good.

This being the wet season we have been getting a little bit of rain almost daily, just enough that we don’t have to water the garden. The other day started out with clear blue skies ( I even washed the truck) until about noon when the rain started. It rained heavily for about an hour then clear skies for an hour and then more rain for another hour. In that short amount of time, we recorded over five inches of rain. All the water was flowing where it was supposed, so everything here was good.

Before we moved here, a client of ours gave us a grinding mill that in the future we could use for coffee and other things. The other day Ruben brought over a sack of dried corn that needed to be ground for chicken feed. We ran it through the mill once and it was perfect. He told us that usually, he would have to pay and send it by bus somewhere to be ground because there isn’t a machine anywhere around here.

In exchange for grinding the corn, Ruben chopped down a tree that had fallen on the casita after the big rains.  We try to keep the trees cut back from the buildings, but this one broke a good 20′ up and had to fall somewhere.

Recently we picked up a couple more slabs of wood. The round one will go on a tree stump out back as a tabletop. As for the other one, no plans yet, but I’m sure we will think of something.

A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT

Recently a gas station in town was selling margaritas when you purchased gas. I guess everyone is getting a little creative in their marketing.

Our friend at the beer distributor sells slices of cake once a week that his wife makes. Beer and cake in one stop, you can’t beat that. The chocolate cake was fantastic!

We just traded our old tires off the truck for some fresh beef and vegetables. Not too bad considering we were just going to dispose of the tires anyway.

There was never a shortage of TP down here, but now there are no canning jars. We were told that since everyone in the states is now doing home canning there are none available to ship to Belize.

There is a company here that all they do is shipping, so when you order something you send it to their warehouse in Texas, and in a couple of weeks, it’s here ready for pickup. On the back of their shirts is says “It’s just like Christmas”. It makes sense because sometimes you just forget what you ordered on Amazon.

That’s about what’s happening here, hopefully, within the next couple of months, we will be able to make a trip up to the states to meet our new granddaughter.