Mr. Peanut Head

Yesterday, during one of my daily walks through the jungle park I ran into this fellow. Actually there were three of them but they all looked exactly alike so I only posted one picture. They’re about five inches long and the eyes appear to be on the side of its neck. Oh yeah, I almost forgot… they walk sideways. The function of the big peanut shaped head is anybody’s guess. I was tempted to break it open to see if there were nuts inside but I hate to hurt anything bigger than a mosquito (I even sweep out spiders and roaches). I know as much about insects as I do about frogs, so if anyone can identify this fellow please use the comment button below and let me know what it’s called so I can find out more about it.
It’s not really that unusual to find odd looking creatures around here. I’ve actually got quite a collection (images, not the actual bodies) if anyone is interested in seeing more. Chances are I’ll post more even without requests.
Gertie is laying an egg every day now and the parade in and out of the coop continues. I guess chickens get board and need a change from searching for insects to eat but “Come on guys, give the poor girl a break!”
I’m off on a road trip to Mexico for a couple of days. I’m sure I’ll have something exciting to write when I get back.
Later…

A lesson on frogs

In this post I’m going to tell you everything I know about frogs. Obviously it will be a short post. You know those colourful frogs you see in National Geographic taken in the sub-tropical places in Central and South America that are usually poisonous? Well you hardly ever see them. The frogs you’ll find in abundance during the rainy season are small, light brown and have sticky feet so that they can climb up windows and walls. They have shifty eyes and big mouths and you hardly ever see them during the day. You don’t see them at night either unless you go looking for them with a big flashlight. But you can hear them! Boy oh boy can you hear them. Thousands, maybe millions all at once, and they don’t ‘ribbett’ or ‘croak’. It’s more like a loud, annoying ‘pruck, pruck, pruuuuck.’ Anyway, I guess they’re kind of cute but sometimes I lay awake at night imagining the house surrounded by millions of frogs, all prucking and getting closer and closer. Then I start to giggle!
Okay, lesson over. Bye for now.

It never rains in Belize…

But like the song about California, “it pours!” After 2 days and nights of torrential downpours the sun came out on a jungle wonderland. The front lawn turned into a fairytale land complete with a meandering creek. All that was missing were the elves and trolls. The sun glistened on green grass and water transforming the place from beautiful to spectacular! Too much rain also tends to bring down trees. I guess their roots get so soggy they can’t hold on any more. Anyhow, the picture is more interesting than my writing today so I’m going to shut up now, except for this one more chicken thing.
Gertie laid her first egg today! What a production it was. She’d go in the coop to the nest and Randy would follow, then Beatrice would follow him in. Gertie would come out and the others would follow her. In she’d go again with Randy and Bea (literally) on her tail. In and out, in and out… This happened about 7 times and I guess Gertie couldn’t wait any more and gave up on any ideas of privacy. She laid one tiny egg, then she was back to foraging with the others. Yea, breakfast!

‘Tis the Season

No, it’s not Christmas yet. I’m talking about avocados. The rest of the year everybody always complains that there are no avocados, but when they’re here, we can’t eat them fast enough to keep up. There are three trees by the house and two of them drop about a half dozen every day. So I’m eating avocado solo, avocado sandwiches, guacamole, avocado potato salad and avocado soup. “Avocado soup,” you say, “yuck…” Who wants to eat green soup besides maybe Dr. Zeus’s Cat in the Hat? Well believe or not, it’s pretty darn tasty even if it doesn’t look all that great. The best part is, its soooo easy to make and that’s the only kind of recipe I’ll do. Just take your favourite chicken soup mix or can – with or without noodles – and heat it up. Add two or more ripe, mashed avocados (leave out the skin and pit), a little butter or margarine, about a half cup of milk, a can of corn, then whatever spices you like. I use some cilantro too cause it grows like a weed on the lawn. There’s also some spinach in mine but it tends to get a little bitter when you re-heat. Heat it up until just before it boils, and it’s ready to eat. Yummy! Downside is that now I have to put away and freeze the leftovers and do the dishes. The maid took my Ferrari (okay, you guessed it, - no maid, no Ferrari).

I’m sure you’ve heard enough about chickens from me, but actually I’m just getting started. I just want to say that Beatrice’s feathers are growing back and she no longer looks like Moe of the Three Stooges. She now sports sideburns and looks a little like Elvis Presley. She also got a rooster tail and I’m beginning to wonder if she’s a hen at all! I’ll let you know if she starts crowing, or lays an egg. Until then, the jury is out. Comments anyone?

Let me introduce the chickens

Randy, Gertie and Beatrice seem to be adapting well to life in the jungle. Bea is the smallest and the other two pick on her a bit, but nothing really nasty. I haven't wanted to eat chicken since I got them. Chickens make good pets and they’re not much trouble at all. I let them out of their house in the morning and spread some grain or rice on the ground. They eat it, and then forage for bugs the rest of the day. As soon as it starts to get dark, they go back in their house and I close the door behind them so they don't get eaten by the wildlife that come out at night. The cats stalk them, but they're about the same size so I don't worry. They like to sit in the hibiscus trees (I guess wandering around looking for bugs is tiring work). They also seem quite partial to dog food. They're too young to lay eggs yet, but I don’t think it will be long before Gertie starts popping some out. I’ve found out now that I don’t need a rooster for eggs. I only need a male if I want to have little chicks running around. Hmmmmm. I’m sure Randy would make for good eating, and he sure is loud and persistent with the “errrr er er er ererrrr’s” in the morning. Really early in the morning – like 4:30! But of course I don’t have the heart for that now. He’s already part of the family. I think you can tell which one is Randy. He’s missing a lot of feathers on his neck, but I’m told they’ll grow back. Gertie’s the pretty white one with attitude and Beatrice is the ‘hard to see’ brown one with the Moe hair cut.
Gotta go... Felix is coming!!!

Economically marginalized! What the #$@% does that mean?

“As ever, the worst affected people in Belize are those who were already economically marginalized before the storm hit.”

Believe it or not this sentence was written in a press release just after hurricane Dean hit the northern part of Belize. I looked up marginalized in my thesaurus and it wasn’t there, so I tried ‘marginal’ and got trivial, unimportant, insignificant, minor, or secondary. I’m guessing, (because I try to see the best in people), that this person must have been trying for political correctness in describing the poor people of Belize. But – what the hell – why didn’t she just say poor people? Besides, being poor is not an insult to the poor, it’s an insult to the government who does not provide opportunity for prosperity to those who truly would put it to use. Like incentives for small business, tax breaks, education for better methods of farming etc. I won’t go into any more about politics, (for now) even though there is much more to be said. There, I’ve had my rant for the day.

I’m back home now and all is well. The cats are fine and all three chickens are accounted for. The runaway decided to come back on her own. Yeah! My seven bucks didn’t go down some bush-dog’s gullet after all. They have names now, and have become a part of my strange family and therefore cannot be eaten. The rooster is Randy, the white hen is Gertie, after a favorite aunt, and the little brown one is Beatrice.

Hurricane Dean comes calling…

I’m a little behind on the blog due to a fellow named Dean. Fortunately, I live south of where the hurricane did its damage, but on Monday morning no one was sure of where it might go. The area was being evacuated due to the impending winds potentially bringing down trees. In case you haven’t guessed, there are a lot of trees in the jungle. There was also a chance of flooding so it was time to batten down, pack up, leave the cats a mountain of food and head out towards the western border. The chickens would have to fend for themselves.

My car refused to start.

I walked three miles to the jungle lodge where my friend worked and saw that everyone was preparing to get out of there too. Ellen lent me her car and I headed back to the house to finish getting things out of harms way.

I packed up anything breakable and stowed them in the cupboards, bagged pictures, books and magazines, then stuffed anything loose under the beds.

It was starting to blow pretty good now, and the rain reminded me of an autumn drizzle in Canada.

After packing a bag, I coaxed the dog into the car and drove back to the lodge. Ellen decided the best place to go would be San Ignacio where her niece lived, so off we went into the wild rainy west!

The weather in San Ignacio didn’t even hint at a hurricane going one close by. It was raining a little, but that was it.

I had a friend who lived very close to Ellen’s niece, so I borrowed Ellen’s car again and drove over to see her. She had company too. Relatives from Belize City had come down to shelter with her. Cindy wasn’t the least bit worried about the weather, she figured God would sort all that out. She was very upset about her parrot Pepper though. Apparently he was frightened by the visitors and flew out the window to a neighbor’s tree across the street. She could hear him squawking but he wouldn’t come home. There wasn’t much I could do to help so I went back and watched some television.

Now T.V. is a big deal for me since I don’t get to watch it in the jungle. We all huddled around and watched CNN to see what Dean was up to. At that point he was battering Corozal in the north of Belize and Chetumal in Mexico and heading across the bay towards Veracruiz. It’s seems we’re safe and Dean is losing steam.