BEL (Belize Electric Company) is very good about texting all of their customers when there will be an interruption in their service, even if it is just for a short time. We got a notice the other day that power would be out in all of Cayo on Sunday from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm. Okay, so we get all our work done around here on Saturday and then cool off under the fans with a cold beverage. But what do we do on Sunday when there are no fans and you can’t open the fridge for a cold drink. We thought about going to town for a late breakfast or lunch, but all of Cayo will be without power till the afternoon. Well, when the power is out for eight hours on a Sunday there is only one thing to do…LobsterFest!!! Sorry Randy & Darren, but Placencia LobsterFest was calling and besides that, we really didn’t want to sit around the house with no power.

We headed out of here around 6:00 am for the three-hour drive down to Placencia. Of course on the way, we had to stop at Bertha’s Tamales for some of the best in all of Belize. Then it was onto Barefoot Beach Bar for the ultimate lobster grilled cheese sandwich, I know there are a couple of you that will remember this.

By now LobsterFest was starting to get going, everyone had their grills fired up and full of lobster. There were whole lobsters, lobster kabobs, lobster sausage, nachos with lobster and many more different dishes to choose from.

After having our fill of lobster it was time to leave the beach and start heading back up to the hills. We had brought a couple of ice chests with hopes of bringing back a bunch of lobster, but the seas had been rough the past few days and there really weren’t any extras available. Maybe next month or so when there are no LobsterFests going on they will have a better supply and the price will come down. It was a great Sunday road trip and the nice thing about Sunday is that there is hardly anyone on the roads. After all this, BEL postponed the power outage until further notice, so maybe there is another road trip coming up soon.

I know we talk about all the fun and adventures we are having (and we are seriously having the time of our lives) but there is a lot of work we do in between all the fun. Kelley works hard all day dealing with clients while I’m out working on all the projects we have to do around here. Come five o’clock during the week that is when we work on all the gardening and get all the plants watered and trimmed. Once the rains come we will not have to constantly water anything for a few months, but until the steady rains come we still have to water all the time. The rains have started a little, which gives us a small break here and there, but once they really start that means that all the jungle also grows very fast. This means a lot more trimming to keep our little piece of paradise in shape. Come the weekend, that is when we are both together in the yard doing everything you can imagine, from spreading gravel, weed whacking, clearing out dead trees, painting, building new things and of course taking more care of the plants.

All this hard work is starting to pay off though, first of all, what we have accomplished in this past year still just amazes us. The landscaping and the garden are starting to come together and it is looking great. The plants and flowers are getting established and are starting to show their beauty. The vegetables are doing okay, not like we thought they would, but we are learning a lot about the next time we plant. Green chiles are doing good… we got a pretty good first harvest so far. The corn is doing well and should be ready in a couple of weeks, even though we only got about 40 plants of the 100 or so we planted. At this point, we have about 45 pineapple plants that are doing great and there will even be one ripe soon.

It’s mango season right now and everybody has mangoes. A friend of ours gave us three big bags full of the biggest, sweetest mangoes you can imagine. We love fresh mangoes especially with a little Tajin sprinkled on them, but we can only eat so many. So Kelley cleaned a bunch and froze them for later (mango margaritas anyone?) and we also got the dehydrator out to make some awesome dried fruit snacks. Hopefully, in a couple of years when all of our trees start producing, we will be the ones giving fruit away to friends and neighbors.

Overall, it’s a hell of a lot of hard work to get this place where we want it and to keep it running smoothly, but there are also times when fun adventures are calling and you just have to take advantage of those times.

Somehow we have acquired a dog. The guy’s dog up the road seems to think he lives here now. He’s a good dog, named Red, not the brightest, lives under the house, won’t come up the stairs and barks when he hears something. I guess that is what you want in a yard dog. We feed him our table scraps and he loves them, we have dry dog food for him, but he will only eat that as a last resort. So now we have a dog that is not ours, he protects the house and we don’t feel bad when we leave him for a few days. Sound familiar, maybe even looks familiar?

Okay, we got a little more info on the 5 acres that are for sale on our road. Ruben has cleared a road going into it and cleared a big area inside where a house could go. Water and power are available at the entrance to the property and since it is up the hill from us, you can get WiFi and cell service. The property is full of trees, not as big and as dense as ours, but give it time. The asking price is 32K and from what we hear that is a very good price for this area. If the property bordered ours we would probably jump on it, but it is a couple of lots away. If anyone is interested, let us know and we will pass along the info.