After a week of peace and quite, here we are back to the sound and the rhythms of sanders, saws and nails being pounded in. The quietness of last week was great and we can’t wait for that to become the norm. But for now, every time we hear the buzzing of the sanders, the whining of a saw or a nail being pounded in we know we are just that much closer to that day when it will be sitting on that porch relaxing.

This week has been a busy one for us, running around ordering up supplies, picking up more materials and taking care of personal business. One big accomplishment this week was getting the two quads re-titled, insured and registered in Belize. After a bunch of running here and there plus throw in an hour for lunch when everyone closes, it took the better part of an afternoon. But it was all worth it because now the quads are insured and have Belizean plates and can be driven anywhere. Oh course the plates they gave us were full size car plates, I guess the smaller motorcycle size are only for two and three wheel vehicles.

Amongst all of our running around we had to head over to the Mennonite community of Spanish Lookout to get some more metal brackets made. I am still just amazed at the steel place down here. We needed 16 metal  “L” brackets made out of 1/4” stock, they were 2” wide by 5” with four 1/2” holes in each one. Plus I had them laser cut 2 door striker plates out of 1/4” stock. Of course they always ask if we wanted to wait for them, but we had some more stops to make so we said we would come back for them. About an hour of so later they were ready when we showed up and all to the tune of around $30. I bet they could build me a whole tractor in a couple days.

It really doesn’t look like much has changed this week on the house and that’s because they have been working on the interior walls and sanding all the main beams for the ceiling and getting ready to put the roof line on. We did get the garage reorganized and the container pretty much cleared out. The remaining stuff in the container is crammed in the very back, this allows them to now use the front of the container for their tools and materials in a more secure environment. Which also meant that they could tear down the little shack that they built earlier this year for storage. And beside, Antonio was wanting to take the wood from the shack home so he could build a chicken coop. So all is good, we no longer have a small shack and the chickens are getting a new home.

Grocery shopping here is always an adventure, for that matter any kind of shopping is because you never know what you might find. This weeks find of the week was Ritz Bacon and Black Pepper flavored crackers. Oh are they good, or maybe it’s just because I haven’t had a decent cracker in months. Anyway, shopping here sort of reminds us of Costco in the states, just because you see it there once doesn’t mean you will ever see it again. So if you even think you might want it, buy it now while you have the chance.

The Creature Feature of the week is the Golden Orb Spider. This one here was found on a big web in one of the window openings of the new house. If you look closely at the picture you can see a smaller spider near the back side of the big one, that is the male. The male Golden Orbs spiders are very small compared to the female, this female was about 4” in length. In their web they will catch flies, moths, bees, beetles and butterflies, but some butterflies they will actually free and release from their web because of the toxins in them. They say that the Golden Orb spiders are not dangerous, but I believe that they would cause uncontrollably flailing of the arms, running into things, sore throat from screaming and a possible heart attack if one were to get on you.

Not much really happening here this week, mostly just day to day stuff, but we hope you are still enjoying the updates anyway.