Our good friends Ron and Rhonda from Cholla Bay stoped by for a few days on their way to vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. They stayed at a little Airbnb just up the road from us that they had found, this is also where Darren stayed when he was here last month. We gave them a tour of our property with everything we have going on and then took them to town to a bunch of little places we like to go. As we were leaving this restaurant one afternoon there was cricket game going on it the street and they were kind enough to let me take a swing at it. I did hit the ball on the first swing, but of course the only video taken was of me totally missing the ball on my next swing. Of course that’s the one that got put on Facebook for everyone to see.
The last day they were here we had to go to Belize City (which is a good 3 hours each way) so they went off and explored the ruins at Xunantunich and also to the Iguana Sancuary. After a long day for all of us we needed cold beers and some food. We headed down the road to the Bluff’s where we ordered up a couple of pizzas and cold drinks. The bartender was even kind enough to put on some Roger Clyne and Black Moods videos for us, we almost felt like we were back in Cholla Bay. Ron and Rhonda were only here for a few days, but it gave us a great chance to catch up and to get out of our busy construction routine. It was great to see them and hopefully they will be back for a longer visit and we can show them more of what Belize has to offer.
The garage is going up very fast and should be ready within a few weeks. So far they have used 1,500 blocks, 261 bags of cement, more rebar than we care to think about and a lot of trucks full of sand and gravel. All I know is that this thing aint going anywhere. Yesterday all the 2 x 6 and 2 x 4 galvanized steel beams and zinc roofing showed up and the roof should start going up next week. It was just one week ago that they started the pour on the floor and now the walls are up with pipe and outlet boxes run down the walls for electricity and even water for a sink. At this point there is a rush to get the roof on because the lumber company is getting a huge load of lumber and needs to get ours out of their lot. They said that they would give us a few more days before they have to deliver, so lets see how quick they can get a roof on this garage.
Three hundred 14’ treated pine 2 x 4’s arrived the other day. The treated pine was chosen for the wall studs in the house instead of the Nargusta because it is easier to work with, lower in cost and they won’t be seen anyway. As soon as the roof is on the garage the rest of our lumber will be delivered and stored inside out of the rain and sun.
Up to this point the only exterior light we had around here was a yellow bug light on the porch. When the moon is out it is fairly bright around here, but with no moon it is down right dark. We had the electriction come over and put up a nice dusk to dawn led light on the meter pole at the entrance to the driveway. It’s nice to have that little extra light when we come in at night, plus it looks like someone might actually be living out here. We did bring a couple more of the lights so one will go on the garage and I’m not sure about the other one yet, but it will be light enough to walk from building to building without a flashlight.
The other day when we were in Belize City we had some time to kill so we went and checked out a couple stores that we have heard about. The first one was Benny’s Hardware store. Wow were we blown away compared to the other hardware stores we have been into in Belize. It was sorta like a Home Depot without the industrial look, there was even an escalator to take you up to the second floor. Everything you would need to build a custom home including appliances, tile, doors, lighting, lawn furniture and so much more. They even had a black granite sink like we were hoping to find for the new house. Their prices were higher than you would find in the states, but I don’t think there is anywhere else you could find this variety and quality all in one place in Belize.
The other place that we stopped in was Brodie’s grocery store. They seem to have the best variety of things you didn’t think you could find down here. Just a few things we noticed that we haven’t seen in any other stores were; anchovies, calamari rings, frozen duck, enchilada sauce, caviar, Good Season’s Italian dressing mix, Balsamic vinegar and so much more. They even had a Subs Way in there (not the chain like we know) but still a good sandwich, and the combo with a 16 oz drink was only $3.75 US. The only drawback to these stores is that they are a good 3 hour drive each way for us and that kills a whole day. I know we will be going back to the hardware store once the house gets close to being done and I can guarantee we will have an ice chest with us to hit the grocery store to stock up on things we haven’t had in a while. We will eat just about anything and make due with what we have available but, I never thought we would get exited about certain food items until they are not available to us.
Creature feature of the week is the Blue Morph Butterfly. This beautiful butterfly grows to about 4-5” and can be seen almost every day flying around our property. Besides the Blue Morph there are many other brightly colored butterflies around here, but we think this is the most beautiful maybe because you don’t often see many blue creatures in nature.
The workers are usually not here on the weekends so this is the time when we can do some stuff around the yard like some clean-up and taking care of the plants. Today was the day we got some squash plants in the ground that we have been growing from seed and also to trim some palm fronds that were starting to touch the roof. I got my machete out and started hacking away at the palms, actually I’m getting pretty good with a machete, this is a skill I never thought I would have. As you can see in the picture (yes that is Kelley holding it) these fronds are huge. This one here is about 36’ long and there is still another 5’ that I left on the tree. I’m thinking a half dozen of these cut in half and you would have a very nice little palapa. In case you are wondering what kind of palm can grow fronds like this it is the Cohune Palm. It gets huge clusters of nuts on them and this is where they get palm oil and cocoa butter from. I know we have hundreds maybe even thousands of these growing all over the property, maybe some day we can process some of the nuts. Speaking of processing nuts, we’re sure there’s a few of you who still think we are nuts, but we are loving it!
