How to do Laundry in Santa Familia

David helped us wash the hammocks, which had gotten dirty and smelly from all the rain, and asked us to take a picture of him doing it "to show people how we do it here"! So, here you get an impression how the people of Santa Familia (and most probably elsewhere in villages in Belize) do their laundry, if they don't have a washing machine. I have also seen them using a washboard, like we used to in Germany in older times. We here on the farm are actually still using the old washing machine I got 4 years ago, where you have to let the cold water in, pour your soap onto the laundry and turn it on. The water will not heat up, but the machine just turns the laundry for a maximum of 15 minutest (this is what the time settings will allow). Then you let the water out, put fresh water in, and restart. One more time, this time with fabric softener, and you can put the washed clothes into the spinner to get some of the water out. Then it gets hung up, hopefully on the clothes line in the sunshine, lately on the verandah, because of all the rain. Still, it is a lot more comfortable than washing by hand (see picture), but also a lot less comfortable than those German washing machines, where you put the laundry in and it all gets done more or less by itself, including the spinning. But we got used to it and don't mind it at all.

Cat in the Box

Our new family member, the callico cat Miss Aery, is a quite adventurous little pet! She loves to sit in the bookshelves and has also picked some favorite books, where she likes to sleep on! After I came home from shopping last week, she chose the box with the toys and the Ramen noodles to explore. It looked like I had bought her in the shop :-) Other than that, she has caught a few bugs, looked intensely at birds and drives Angel nuts, by trying to catch her tail!! Her favorite spot in the house? Anywhere where one of us is, so she can sit on us!

Christmas Cup!

Juergen had the honor to present medals to a winning team at the annual Santa Familia Christmas Cup. The event took place in San Ignacio, at the Broaster Football Stadium, and he took some cool pictures!

Merry Christmas from the Whistling Ducks Farm

Like last year at Christmas, Robbie and I put on our Funny Hats and gave out little presents to Martina, Annette and David. This is always great fun for us all, and this time we had Traude and Juergen to accompany us and take pictures!

A Night at The Zoo

Our new vet, Edwardo, organized a night walk at the Belize Zoo with Traude, Juergen and Robbie and they got to see many animals which usually sleep during the day and come out at night. They had a great time and took loads of pictures, even with the fences. Welllll, for some animals, the fence was quite useful ... such as the snake ... and the big cats ...

Happy Pigs in Santa Familia!

Some guy has his pigs right at the hammock bridge, which leads from Santa Familia over to San Ignacio. The bridge was broken due to the heavy rains which made the river rise a lot more than usual. The pigs there didn't care :-) They were just having a BLAST in the mud!!

Muddy Market and Broken Wooden Bridge

All the rain made the market REALLY muddy - and the wooden bridge broke under the masses of water!!

Dallas Ranch with Miss Elly

During the visit of the "Munich Crew" we went to go and see Max and Elly on their - what I call it - Dallas Ranch in Paslow Falls. We had a great afternoon with yummy little snacks and rum and orange juice, very relaxing! Juergen, Traude and Huebi took a ride down to the river and around the property and liked it a lot!

More Farm Impressions

Our favorite tree looks good in the sunshine AND in the mist! Here is also a picture of my truck with all the stickers (which cover some rust holes and I guess also hold it together :-)), and Jana in the pool with toys! The toys are meant for children who come and visit and need stuff to play with in the pool, but there are fun for grownups, too!

Farm Impressions

David picked us many oranges from the trees in the yard, so Traude was busy squeezing fresh juice almost every day. Wonderful sweet juice! And some more farm impressions: Huebi in the hammock on the backporch, party pictures, the tractor fixing our very muddy driveway ...

More Faery Aery Quarters

And here some views from the guesthouse and towards the farmhouse. Do you notice the spoons and forks acting as a mobile? They sure kept away the birds trying to pull out the styrofoam out from under the roof!

The "Faery Aery" Guesthouse

Juergen and Traude got to stay at the little guesthouse we just finished, and Huebi stayed with us in the house, in the guest bed in the little cozy corner. We called the guesthouse "Faery Aery", which you could translate as it being the "Nest of Fairies". We decorated it a bit and made it more homely during the last weeks, but of course it is still mainly our art studio. Here a few impressions!

And a Few More Pictures, still Caye Caulker

I had a hard time choosing the pictures from the large selection that I had from Huebis and Juergens cameras, but I think all these images give a nice overview of the great time we had!

More Pictures from Caye Caulker

The hotel we stayed at, the Jaguar Morning Star, was just perfect, we had the entire third floor to ourselves, including a huge verandah with a view of both sides of the island. As it wasn't cold, just wet, we still got to do a lot of stuff and even had one day at the beach! Juergen and Traude went on a canoe ride and we went out to eat at different restaurants every day.