verkagj-Belize Farm Journal

[verkagj]

OK, I'm jumping in....
I live in Belize, Central America. We have 15 acres of old sugarcane field and lots of marl and limestone rocks. Currently, we have 3 doe goats (all of unknown heritage), 4 babies (3 bucks, 1 doe) born in November, 3 cats and 2 dogs (1 Briard and 1 Belize breed).
I'd love to upload photos but I'm not sure my Internet connection will be fast enough. We're lucky to have Internet and can only get wireless broadband at 128K on a good day with upload at much less speed.

My husband and I (married in 2006) decided to leave the US since we would never be able to quit working and move to rural Belize and start a homestead. Belize is not an island and many think. There are islands off the coast as well as a barrier reef. We live outside a village called Xaibe, which means crossroads in Mayan).

In 2008, we drove down through Mexico with a 24' travel trailer and bought 15 acres. We left the trailer and went back to Florida to wind up details and pack up out stuff. We packed our stuff into a 24' box truck and were going to drive it down. But after experiencing the trailer getting to Belize,, we decided to ship the truck. So we've been here permanently since July 2010. We became official Belize residents a few months ago.

I was teaching computer technology at a Community College and Jim was a small engine mechanic which comes in very handy to keep stuff running here.

Life is much different here than in the states. We live off grid and are working on our house. We bought a Mennonite shell and will finish the interior ourselves. 21/2 years later, we're still in the travel trailer. Progress on the house is very slow due to many factors which I'll tell you about in future posts. The house is up on pillars for better ventilation so until the bottom is boxed in, all of our stuff is in the house and we live in the travel trailer still.

So, ask your questions about Belize and I'll find the instructions for uploading and see what I can do.
Gloria

 

[Southern by choice]

You just are not gonna believe this but yesterday I was thinking, you of all people, should start a journal. You are so far away... it's such a nice way to connect!
I am sure you have many challenges in farming too. BYH makes the world a little smaller.

A Briard..

Looking forward to reading!

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I am sure your journal will be very interesting!!! I am looking forward to your future updates and pictures!!!!

 

[verkagj]

There are lots of challenges. There is no goat feed or supplies to be found. There is no hay. Locals think I'm nuts for feeding the goats. They just stick their livestock out somewhere to browse. I was very surprised to see that there are very few goats, lots of sheep, mostly Barbados Black Belly. When I was asking around for goats, everyone said that goats were everywhere. Lots of people don't know the difference when the sheep are not wooly.

Flop is probably not pure Briard but has all the characteristics and behaviors of one including the Velcro Fur. We have to keep him sheared. The travel trailer does get pretty small on rainy days when both dogs are inside along with the two of us.

I love BYH. I met a British couple through here who lives not far from us. It really is a small world.

I hear the dogs woofing. It's time to start feeding the zoo. Dogs are in one of the goat yards because we sprayed around the trailer. I totally lost it when ants contaminated a pot of cheese working. It was fine, almost done but ants were floating on the whey. I scooped them out and came back later to find the curd floating and all full of holes. ICK! I hate using chemicals but the ants have to go.

Cats, dogs, goats, then people food.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

So happy you started a journal. Can't wait for more.

 

[jodief100]

Cool! This is going to be interesting. We all think our lives have challenges. Yours I am sure are far more interesting than could ever be.

 

[verkagj]

You learn to go with patience and address everything as an adventure or you don't last living overseas. But actually our life here is pretty mundane. Example... today's excitement was the dogs escaped while trying to get OB out to his tether. Hubby went to feed and get OB to tether him out because he smells so bad and I don't want him rubbing all over me before I milk the girls. He wouldn't come to him so he just left him in the goat yard. The dogs slept in the trailer with us last night because we had to spray to try to get rid of the ants. I'm sure they needed to pee and poo so he put them in with OB. After I milked the girls, I went to get him and didn't have the latch all the way on the gate and the dogs pushed it open. Off they went. Of course, right to the neighboring farm where there are 2 penned pigs, dogs, chickens, a horse and cows to have fun with. No one lives there. They come twice a day to feed and water animals and run the pump for irrigating the onions. Anyway, D'Ogee and Flop totally ignored me calling them back so I had to tromp through the bush and go after them.
That done, I got the laundry in the washer and made yogurt.

Shopping is definitely an adventure in foraging. There are no big grocery stores. They are all small shops run by Chinese or Taiwanese. You usually end up going to 4 or 5 stores to get what you want or figure out substitutions. No frozen vegs, You go to the Market for vegetables and fruits. Nice to be able to get really fresh stuff. Most of the vegs are grown by the Mennonites. They grow cauliflower, broccoli, carrots. Potatoes, celery, lettuce come from Mexico. There are also eggplant, chayote, zucchini, cilantro, bananas and plantains. Lots of papaya. We don't each those because of all the chemicals that Fruta Bomba uses. That's another story for another day.
The grocery store sells chicken. You go to the meat shop for pork and beef. Nothing is on display. You ask for pork chops, they pull the slab out of the freezer and show it to you. Pork is very lean here. So is the beef. I like it that way but it is a challenge to cook and not be tough. Although the grocery sells chicken, I go to the Caribbean Chicken store to get what I want. The grocery stores mostly carry whole fryers. I want boneless breasts. They are $4.50 BZ a pound. That's $2.25 US. They also have ground chicken that I use a lot.
There is fish available right on the dock but it is very expensive as the fisherman have to go way out into the ocean to fish. The bay has been fished out. But it's cool to pick out a whole fish and they will clean and fillet it right there for you. The cleaner/fillet guy charges a couple of dollars to do that.
So grocery shopping is exhausting until you learn to cook differently and make use of what is readily available. But we eat much better than we ever did in the states.
We don't live far from Chetumal, Mexico where there is a real WalMart and several other large superstores. It only costs a few dollars to take the bus over but then you have to go through Customs back in Belize. Sometimes they go through everything to bought to determine if there will be duty charged. And it's hard to carry much back on the bus. We can drive over but don't like to since we don't have Mexican car insurance.
Every couple of months, I go with a car load of ladies to shop in Belize City. There is a nice department stores and a few small stores that we shop at. There is more variety available there and we also have a nice lunch out together.
Another shopping trip is in Spanish Lookout, a Mennonite community. These are the more modern Mennonites. They drive big F350 trucks, own a lot of businesses and large farms. Other areas have communities that still use horse/buggy and only speak low German. We go there for hardware stuff and to shop at Farmers Trading Center. A friend described it as the walmart of Belize. They have everything, not in variety, but you can find what you need. Funny story.....I needed some ladies underwear, found what I wanted and threw it in the shopping cart. A clerk came to me and said that she must take care of the purchase right there. She put the undies in a brown paper sack and stapled it shut. The skew number and price were then written on the bag. When I asked why...she said that some of the cashiers are young men.

That's all for now. I need to figure out what we are eating today. There are no convenience foods, everything must be make from scratch.
G./

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Wow! Funny about the ladies garments! I can't wait to read more about your life. If you are ever able, I would LOVE pics of your place, towns, animals......

 

[bonbean01]

Great journal!!!! And also looking forward to photos...you're on quite an adventure

 

[Bridgemoof]

Look forward to reading your journal! What a completely different perspective on homesteading! A long, long time ago I spent some time in Costa Rica and Guatemala. I just love Central America, the sights, the people and their customs. I LOVE volcanoes! But Belize is mostly a coastal area, right? I bet it's beautiful. I remember wanting to pack up everything and buy a bunch of land in Costa Rica because it was so cheap at the time. But then realizing the infrastructure would make it so difficult to build anything. Finding supplies, much less getting them to a remote location would be almost impossible. I'm surprised you even have internet access at all!

Well, welcome to the BYH journaling. We'll be reading anxiously!