We have been in self lockdown for about 10 days or so. We haven’t even unlocked the front gate and the only person we have seen is Ruben when he came by one day to do some weed wack’n. Belize has had two cases of the virus so far and they were both contained to Ambergris which has the island on total lock-down. We hear that both cases are doing well and nothing new to report. Then we heard of a third case in Belize City from someone who flew in from New York a week ago but immediately went into self-isolation. Belize is pretty much on lockdown and has a curfew in effect for 30 days. With Belize being such a small country and only 3 cases so far, hopefully, it will all end there until they get this thing figured out.

Like everyone, we can’t go out to restaurants, shopping or any other social gatherings like we used to. So this is the perfect time for everyone to get those projects done around the house that they have been putting off till “Someday”. Guess what, “Someday” is here and if all those projects get done now then there will be no excuses to not start doing all the fun stuff and traveling again once this is all under control.

Since we have had a little more free time around here, we have been getting stuff done like crazy. First of all, I’ve got the Jeep rolling. The Jeep has not been out of the garage since September when we bought it. It still needs some more little things done to it, but for the most part, it is ready. One thing that needs to be fixed is that when you turn on the lights the stereo goes off. Nothing major, but you’ve got to have music.

Since we have not been going to town on the weekends to eat out or socialize, we have had time to give the smoker a test run. For the first smoking, we put in some homemade sausage, a couple of chickens and some pork ribs from the neighbor who recently butchered a pig.

Everything turned out great! There are a couple of little things that need tweaking next time, but for a first run it was a big success and we would not hesitate to serve this to anyone. Of course, it’s all for us this time because we are not supposed to socialize with anyone, sorry people.

For the wood, we used Allspice and Oak for a smoke time of around six hours. Just the right amount of smoke flavor and everything turned out tender and juicy. In the future, I can picture a whole pig hanging in there smok’n away while we sit around with friends enjoying a few cold beers. That is once we can all socialize again.

Other “Someday” projects included finally getting our AC unit in our bedroom. We have had it sitting in the garage for over a year now and thought it was finally time to install it. Since we are up in the hills and our house is under the canopy of trees, it really stays nice and cool. There were about ten days or so last year when we could have used a little extra cooling off at night, but for the most part, the house stays pretty cool.

Other projects included taking out a few more trees that are too close to the house. They are predicting an above-average hurricane season this year, so better to be safe than sorry. I’ve been putting this off for a while now because the trees that needed to be removed were leaning towards the house. The good thing is that the cut trees are being used for borders around the yard and we think they are looking pretty good.

Since we now have more time around here and it’s probably a good idea, we are expanding the veggie garden. We have about 400 more seedlings started in trays right now. They include Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Okra, Yellow Squash, Cantaloupe, Basil, Romaine and Arugula. Between that and the stuff already in the garden, we should be good on fresh veggies for a while.

Kelley spent a lot of time roasting, shelling and skinning our peanuts so that we could make some peanut butter. We figured that if we just ate handfuls of peanuts they would only last a few days. By making peanut butter it would last a lot longer, and besides that, we love peanut butter. Especially peanut butter and mayonnaise on a cracker. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, right Darren?

All I know is that we are kicking ass on all of our “Someday” projects and as soon as it is safe to travel and socialize again we are going places. Hopefully, everyone else can do the same. Be safe!