verkagj-Belize Farm Journal

[bigmike]

I just love this journal...I've thought several times about trying to move to Belize or some other South American country (Bolivia)...Being an expat is nothing new to me..I lived for over 10 years in Germany without coming back to the states...But I had some help since the wife is German and I was working for the US Military as a civilian....But I am finding your adventure very interesting and inspiring...But I don't think DW would go for it.....Keep up the great work..

 

[verkagj]

Come down for a vacation. The country is so varied, mountains, rivers, flat land, islands (cayes). I only wish I had moved here years ago before I got old.

 

[verkagj]

The rain just won't stop. Yes, we need it. Yes, it has been gentle rains and not storms. Yes, my fruit trees love it. But, the goats hate it. The roads all are a mess. Both marl and paved roads are full of pot holes and slop. The travel trailer gets real small with both dogs inside. Don't even look at the floors. The solar clothes dryer doesn't work. Mold starts growing on everything. My boots leak and I can't find any my size here. We have to run the generator and gas is very expensive.Yuck.
The sun only came out today while I was in town shopping so it turned very humid. Even the waterfront was hot and humid instead of the nice cooling breeze it usually has. Get home with the groceries and it starts raining again.

Why is it that when you are in a hurry that goats will not cooperate? I was going to town with a neighbor who wanted to check out a yard sale early so I had to be ready by 7:45. So I get up at 6, put out the cat food to thaw, get a cup of coffee, fed the dogs. Go out at 6:30 to make the goat food bowls, go to get the first goat to milk and they all backed away from the gate. Of course I had put on "going to town clothes" already. I should know better. Usually at least one of the girls is trying to help open the gate and beats me to the milking stand. I drag one of them out and get her to the stand and she just digs in her feet. Finally, by teasing her with a banana, she jumps on up. This girl usually finishes her food before I finish milking but not today. She just nibbles and shoves the food around picking out the corn. It must have been a planned conspiracy because all three of them did the same thing. Good thing the kids were being patient and DH finished the chores and let the kids out with mama's. I was ready on time and even remembered my shopping list. Got a good find at the yard sale, a small stock pot for $3 BZ ($1.50 US).

Thought I had the single buck kid sold the other day. But when the guy, from Jamaica, said he wanted the kid to make a special soup and needed only a buck because a certain part was the important part of the recipe and then wanted us to lower the price, we said no. DH said maybe we could get him wethered and he could be a buddy to OB, our little buck. I just smiled. I offered to find the recipe on the Internet and DH said he was secure in his manhood and didn't need the goat soup.

We've been putting the dogs in the goat yard with the buck. Some days they ignore him and go about doggy business. The other day, they were barking crazy. I went out to see what was going on. They were standing on either side of OB and barking every time he moved. I tried to explain to them that being a livestock guard dog was to protect the goats, not guard them like prisoners. We'll try again.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Your life is just so interesting to read about. What is a marl road?

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Secure in his manhood. lol

And those goats. Some days the eat it all, no inhale it all, and other days they do that. Naa I don't want that, just this, and this. Bad goats.

 

[bonbean01]

I realize that getting to yard sales early means less picking through it all...but when my girlfriend and I go yard sale hopping...we start out around 10 am and go for breakfast first...lOLOLOLOL...oh...and when you get there late, sometimes the prices are next to nothing because they don't want to haul it all back in the house. Of course, it is picked over pretty much...but it's more of a laughing outting for us and not for the sales. Might want to try that sometime...it is pretty fun We always manage to buy something ridiculous and ugly though

 

[verkagj]

Marl is powdered limestone. It can be as hard as solid rock or just a soupy mess. Kind of like cement. In the real dry season, the marl dust just covers everything. In the rainy season, it is a mess like ceramic slip. But the paved (gravel/tar) roads are sometimes worse with potholes. There is this strange thing about the holes. When and that is not very often, the holes are patched, they never fix them all. If there are 6 holes, 4 will be patched. Our Dr friend who has been here over 35 years said it has always been that way. He can't figure out why either. The only reason I like election time here is that the roads get patched. You will see the local political candidate out supervising a patching in a village. He uses his funds to pay the workers who do the job.

There are not very many yard sales here. They are only done by expats. Locals just put an item or two out by the side of the road or take the items to the town square to sell. And it usually is nothing but junk. They just need a couple of dollars so they try to sell off their trash. A local business tried to start a flea market and it didn't last. It really never got going. When an expat decides to leave Belize, the vultures come out in droves. The last big "everything must go" sale said no early sales. We got there at the start time and there were only a few items left. She had sold it all the day before. I did get a white metal baker's rack that she had forgotten to put a price on. This sale was by the people who have a little bakery. He is Scottish, she Belizean but lived in Scotland for over 15 years. I thought she might have some pots or bakewear. Did get a stockpot and put it to good use today making veg soup. My stuff is still all packed in boxes.

It has rained so much that the outdoor dog, D'Ogee, now thinks that she is an inside dog. When I asked her if she wanted to go out this morning, she turned around and went to the foot of the bed and laid down. So much for being the watch puppy.

One of the twin bucks has scours. He didn't get much last night and his little butt was messy this morning so I'm watching him close. He's eating and had his morning mama snack so I don't know what caused the scours. I do have Pepto but that's all. Any thing else that is common household that I could give him?

I think that politicians must all go to the same school to learn how to lie, cheat and steal from the public. Reading the political news here is no different than in the states. The other party is calling for Transparency and Accountability. The party is power is blaming all the woes on the previous administration. Sound familiar?

 

[verkagj]

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. First issue was a sick baby goat. Scours but still eating, standing all by himself away from the others. Took him to the vet. She wormed him and said to try to get a sample poo. So the next day we kept him on the patio for almost 5 hours waiting for the sample. When it finally arrived, I took it to the vet. Hookworms. Stronger wormer this time. Still had scours so I only fed him kefir for a couple of days. Still has scours but wants to eat with the others. I gave him some Imodium generic and let him have some Mill Feed. Next day he was out browsing. Not perky but better. He's finally got nugget poo so he eats with the other boys now.

Next issue was one of the does. I brought her to the milking stand and there were hard lumps in her teat. I kept that milk separate to check it later. Doesn't seem to bother her and she lets her kid nurse that side. So I spent a lot of time researching. I didn't think it was mastitis. Vet doesn't have CMTs. Neither did the feed store in the next town. I'll have to order some. What I found out researching was interesting.
Our soil is mostly limestone/limerock having been under ocean at some distant point. We dig up a lot of old coral pieces. Goat milk has a high amount of magnesium in it. There's the balance between the calcium and magnesium that is so important to goats. Could the girls be magnesium deficient? I happened to have some magnesium powder so I mixed in a spoonful along with some Vit C into her food. Seemed to be helpful. So all the girls are getting a little magnesium in their food right now. I also wormed them all as their coats seemed shaggy and they look skinny except for still having baby bellies. They're looking better, sleeker, have more appetite and are producing more milk in just a couple of days.

Had a lot of errands to do in town. Shopping is an adventure as is trying to pay a bill or get customer service help. I went to pay the land taxes. Taxes here are only on the land, no taxes on structures. Tax is based on how much land you have. A parcel is 30 acres - tax is $300. BZ ($150US). We have 15 acres - tax is $15 BZ ($7.50US). Up to 29 acres is $1. per acre. A city lot is $10 BZ.
The Land Office is now computerized but it still takes months to get a Land Certificate (Title) to a piece of property. We have ours and it is in the system with all the proper information. I take my passport for ID and the parcel number and stand in line for at least 30 minutes while the clerk was working with one person. Me now. She looks up and verifies the info for me. All is correct. Now I have no idea what she was doing on the phone, going back and forth between computer screens for almost 1/2 hour. Finally she prints out the bill and gets out her calculator because there was a $.75 cent credit listed. And of course, she had to calculate the discount for paying before the due date. All said and done, I paid $14.12BZ.

There are no name brand stores in Belize. Well, except for one ACE hardware in Bz City. We have Cinty's Corner, Cintys and New Cintys. These are all one Chinese/Belizean family run stores. They have everything you could need, Chinese quality, but decent prices. The problem arises in that all 3 stores are disaster areas. You can barely walk into them. Stuff is everywhere and there seems to be no logical order to the mess. You ask for what you want and if you can get an employee to understand what it is you want, they will bring it out to show you.
I needed 100 feet of rope for making goat tethers. All they have is plastic braided. I should have brought a piece with me and saved some time and frustration. I asked the girl for rope. She says, "yes, we have." I tell her what I wanted. She brings electric wire. Finally, she takes me to where the spools are located. I point and tell her 100 feet. She tells me that it is sold by the pound and wants to know how many pounds I want. It's $6 a pound. I said I don't know how many pounds. I want 100 feet. She goes to the owner and the owner shouts out that rope is $6 a pound. So I ask her if she can measure out 100 feet and then weigh it. She tells the girl to do that. They use the floor tiles as a measure. 100 feet later, she puts a piece of masking tape around the rope. She then asks if she should cut it there. I don't know how they would weigh it without cutting but I said yes, cut it. Moral of the story....100 feet of that rope is 1.5 pounds. $9.BZ and I'm on my way to the next Cintys to buy boots.

Same sort of story. I ask for ladies work boots. She shows me shoes. I said rubber work boots. "We have. What size?" Now my last boots were from the US and a size 8. Boots here come from Guatamala and use European sizing. I told her 39. She must have been gone 20 minutes. I could see her in the back of the store throwing pairs of boots from one side to the other. She finally brings me a pair. Good thing they fit as my patience was running out. $14BZ. My US WalMart boots split all the way across the sole and the toe end was flapping as I walked.

All the rest of my stops were like this. I was glad to get to a friends house for a while to wait to get my hair cut. Judy has been working with the distributors to do some bulk buying of items that are not sold in the Corozal stores. We usually make a trip to Bz City every couple of months to buy those items. Example is butter. The stores, all Chinese run, only carry Anchor Butter in 1/2 pound package for $6.50. In the City, we could get Wisconsin butter for $7.25 a full pound. Remember Belize dollars are 2 to 1 US. Judy was able to get us the full pounds for $6.20 each. I was so grateful. The only other butter sold is in the can. And I just can't do Blue Bonnet. There must be full freight containers coming into Belize loaded with just Blue Bonnet. They sell tons of it. She also ordered cottage cheese, sour cream, English muffins and items like that. Many of the stores don't carry refrigerated items except drinks because they turn off the power to the coolers at night to save money, and many Belizeans do not have refrigs so they wouldn't buy the items. So those of us spoiled expats must figure out creative ways to satisfy our cravings.

So much for another day in Tropical Paradise. BTW...it's 88 degrees today.

 

[verkagj]

Where does the time go? There never is time enough to get everything done. I've not been home much this week so when I was there I had to rush to get the basic chores done. Tuesday I went to a US Embassy meeting. My intent was to turn in my social security paperwork. Yes, I am that old. When you live out of the country you can not do it online. We only have a post office box in the states so I had to use the long form. After the meeting, the Embassy will take applications for passport renewals, extra pages, etc and save us one trip to Belmopan. I handed in my paperwork only to find out that since last year, there were more forms to fill out. Those were quick since I didn't have a pension or annuities but forgot to bring a copy of my passport ID page. So I had to mail it in the next day. Day wasn't a loss as I had lunch with a good friend along with doing a few errands.
Wednesday I had to go to town to the post office to mail off the Social Security forms. Central America forms go to Costa Rica for processing. More errands because the stores didn't have some of what I went for. "truck hasn't reached" Both my husband and I go to go to town because we had a worker at our place so we could both be gone. We went to a lunchtime party for friends that are moving to Mexico. They had lived in the same town in Florida that we had and Charles worked in the same area that I taught so we attended some meetings together. We didn't know each other then. Small world. So there went Wed.
Thursday I had lunch with the WAGS ladies. Women's Activity and Gourmet Society is a group of ladies that go on shopping adventures and have lunch out once a month just for fun. I said the acronym might also be Women Against Grumpy Spouses because living out in the bush 24-7 without TV can get to be a bit testy at times.

I usually take Chevre cheese and goat milk when I go to town as I usually run into someone who wants it. I'm getting known as The Goat Lady. After being a teacher and called every sort of nasty term available, Goat Lady is rather nice.

Thursday was a bit of a rough day as Bruno, the buckling, had a bit of an accident. His mother had weaned him off and I noticed that he was doing mating behaviors so I moved him in with the big buck. Bruno also was learning to be put on a tether. No problem after you get him where he will be tethered. Just getting there is the issue. Husband fed them and was taking Bruno out. Well, mostly dragging him when Bruno took a big leap just as Jim gave a tug on the leash. Bruno crashed into the fence post really hard. Actually broke the post which was rotted at the bottom. Got him out for the rest of the day without issue. When I brought them in at evening, I saw there was blood around his horn. I dumped some sulfa powder all around it. Looks like he knocked both his horns partly loose so I'm watching carefully. Been adding Vit C and an aspirin to his food. I hope it all heals well. Poor little guy. Away from mama, have to wear a collar, put on leash and then tied up for the day. And a headache to boot.

We've had weird weather. Really windy for several days, then hot with absolutely no breeze, then overcast and rain with gusty winds. It was 92 on Thursday and got down to 66 last night with cold northerly winds. Had to bring the dog in for the night.

I've been emailing with someone who lives near the Guatemala border about the buckling. He lives on 75 acres in the jungle. Now has 30 goats, 13 milkers, 2 bucks and the rest wethers. They are off-grid and use kerosene lanterns. No refrig. His mother cans the goat meat and makes cheese. I'm curious how she keeps the milk cold or ages the cheeses. Anyway, he needs a new buck. I had to figure out a way to get pictures off my phone and emailed to him. I don't have a card reader small enough for the phone chip so I took it to an Internet cafe and got them transferred to a flash drive. I tried to attach the photos to an email, our laptop is too slow to do that so back to the cafe. Finally I got the photos sent to him. He only gets on the Internet on Saturday when he goes to do the weekly shopping. I hope he wants to buy Bruno but then we have to figure out how to get him to Benque.

We had someone come and look at Bruno but wanted us to come down on the price. The guy was Jamaican and has a few goats. He needed a buck he said. When he came to look he said that the buckling was too small and wouldn't be ready for some holiday. He needed a buck for a special soup. Had to be a buck as the main ingredient was the penis. Husband said no to the price reduction because he didn't want Bruno to be soup. So I'm hoping he can become the new stud boy for the farm in Benque.

Husband is in town today buying steel and brackets to make the door for the secure workshop. Yeah! As soon as the workshop is secured, he can move a lot of his stuff from the house into there. Then I can work on caulking the wood where my kitchen will be and get that project under way. I am so tired of living in the travel trailer with no room to move around.

Got to close up right now. A farmer parks his equipment at our place when he is working nearby fields. Right now there's a bean harvester out there. He said he was going to bring me some fresh dry beans. Here they pick the bean plants by hand and toss them into the harvester because of all the rocks that would ruin the pickup rails on the machine. So some modernization along with old fashioned hard labor. From a 30 acre field, he said they got 400 bags of beans so far and a bit more to do. Those are 100 pound bags. Amazing.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

After being a teacher and called every sort of nasty term available, Goat Lady is rather nice.

Yup, I knew I had "arrived" when I had my name written in the bathroom with an endearing label next to it.