Happy 2011

Happy 2011! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Our month went well and the adventure continued.

Rick’s birthday was good. Dee fixed him a wonderful birthday dinner and we spent the evening playing games. The following day he got a great gift…the sale of the RV…so we went to the casino and celebrated. Dee won a bundle and at least we didn’t lose!

Christmas Eve was very quiet, just the two of us. We celebrated Christmas Day sharing a potluck dinner with a group of friends at Ed and Dee’s house (see photos). The weather was quite warm; I think it hit 90 degrees! Ed had built a BBQ pit and planned to overnight roast a huge piece of pork. The pit was a little too efficient and by morning the pork, pan and all, was charcoal! Quickly thinking, they called friends in the village who slaughtered five chickens so that we could have a nice dinner. Nothing like fresh BBQ chicken! All of us had “winter” colds, but we played darts and poker and had a great time. Rick and I bought each other kites for Christmas, so over the next few days, when luckily the wind was blowing, we got to use our presents. Brought back memories of when we were dating!

We started going to Copper Bank on Saturdays for dart tournaments and met some great new friends. This culminated with a huge New Years Eve party with a potluck and dart tournament. Lots of fun was had by all. We haven’t been back yet this year, but plan on doing so.

Since the RV sold, construction of the guest house began on January 3rd. It’s been 2 weeks now and things are progressing nicely (see photos). It will have two queen-sized beds, a bathroom, a sitting area, a screened-in patio and a small “kitchen” area with a counter and refrigerator. It should be completed within the next few weeks, just in time for our kids visit at the end of next month. Who will be next?

The garden is growing well (see photos) and soon should produce some veges and herbs. We’ve already been able to use some of the basil and I think the carrots will be ready next.

We’ve had some new wildlife encounters, too:
-The puppies chased a coatamundi up a tree and guarded it until the next morning when they were put to bed (see photos).
-Parrot hour had quieted a bit in October and November, but resumed full-force in December.
-We saw a large wake in the lagoon the other afternoon. By the time I got the binoculars and camera and ran down to the shore, whatever it was had submerged…we think it was a manatee, though, and have been keeping our eyes open for another visit.
-Rick and Ed were lucky enough to eye 5 toucans in a tree near the site of the guest house construction. I can’t believe I missed them!
-The chickens are getting big so quickly (see photos). They now can fly out of the coop and wander all over the property eating bugs, frogs and whatever else they can find. We ring a bell around 4pm and they know it’s time to return to the coop for the night and have corn for dinner. We keep them closed in until morning when the dogs are put away. Speaking of the dogs, they’re doing well. The puppies have just about caught up in size with Gracie and they delight in all of our table scraps and bones.

Even though we live in paradise, we have made some travel plans. In July/August we will return to the USA to attend our nieces wedding and to visit with family and friends for a couple of weeks. Then, in March of 2012, we’ve booked a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona, Spain on RSSC. Anyone interested in joining us?

I continue to experiment with baking, most recently working on my sourdough bread recipe. I haven’t quite mastered it yet, but I’m trying a new starter recipe today. I’ll let you know how it comes out (the last one wasn’t sour enough). Other than that, I’m still baking all of our bread and made quite a splash among friends with my sour cream coffee cake. Needless to say, my New Year’s resolution of losing weight hasn’t gotten very far yet! Rick put a few pounds back on eating all the Christmas cookies that I baked. But they are coming back off quite easily.

Rick’s next project is to build a reef 30 feet off of our beach. The natural rock materials are in place on shore…just waiting for the water level in the lagoon to fall another foot. He will then construct a raft (using the inner tubes we brought down) to float the rocks to the location. He will then layer them in to make lots of nooks and crannies for the fish to live and hide in. The smaller fish should bring in the larger predator fish so Rick can fish right from our beach (in our new lounge chairs) sipping on a Belikin. Now that’s fishing at its best!!!

We had visitors yesterday who are moving to Belize from Canada. We showed them around the property and had a nice visit. We hope to have them as new neighbors soon! : )

I think that brings you all up to date! We’ll keep you posted!