Hurricane Dean has passed

It is still a bit cloudy, but the rain has stopped and so has the wind. From what we hear, the north of Belize received a lot of rain and quite some damage, but no people were killed or got hurt. There should be more on the news tonight. You can view the Live Feed of Channel 7 or the Streaming Video of Channel 5 for more information!

Hurricane Dean

Currently, everything is very quiet on the farm, no rain, no wind. Hurricane Dean has changed to a Category 5 storm and is supposed to hit the area around Chetumal (Belize border to Mexico) at about 2 am. Karlis (German) update says Ambergris Caye has first damages on account of waves.
For more information, please click on the weather link on the right side or on the image below. For our German friends and family, please go to Karli's "Laberecke" on http://solunafarm.blogspot.com/ unter LINKS. He updates the information regularly - as long as he has electricity and a satellite connection.
We will keep you informed!

Edwardo ... Growing and Growing!

The little stray Edwardo really likes it here (although he got all his shots (German: "Impfungen") by the vet, he was neutered (German: "kastriert"), and gets whacked (German: "verprügelt") by the Mum Cat regularly), he found good friends (see the dream team pictures below), gets fed good stuff and is even allowed on the sofa every now and then!!

View from the Road

This is the view from the road, just when you come around the corner at the little one-way bridge. First thing you see is the guest house and the car port in the back.

Landscaper at Work

Our Village Chairman, Benicio Cano, is also a really good landscape gardner and we hired him for a couple of days last week to pretty our place up a bit.

He did a GREAT JOB!

"Mini Aloe Field Triangle" in the corner next to the front porch (which is currently being used as kitty play pen, see the ladder for the cat mum to get in)

TV satellite dish decoration!

Areas that still need to be worked on - the driveway

The new carport in the background and the new toolshed right next to it. All done with the zinc from our old roof.

The new chicken coop (also an old zinc roof project), painted in "farm red"!

The New Roof - Now the FINAL Product!

A couple of blog entries down I wrote about the new roof. Now, here you can see the finished product!!

No Milk Today ... and More Kitty Pics :-)

Of course we are watching the progress of the kittens! Sheree and Aki come regularly to check on their little kitty MIMI BERLIN. The kittens had their first worm treatment and will have their first shots by the vet in a few weeks. Maybe one of the cats goes to the old peoples home in San Ignacio, the Octavia Waight Center, and maybe Eva and Tobbi take another one!

No milk today ... tralalala ... actually the kittens get one regular meal per day at the moment; the rest of the time the mum still nurses them

First one up on Mums feeding spot: MIMI! First in everything!

Testing the Water!

Another Dream Team - Alaska and Edwardo!

Our "Toy Lab" Alaska completely fell in love with the little stray cat, Edwardo. They play together, sleep together, eat together - amazing! And so much fun to watch!!

A Night in the Town House

While Sheree and Aki were in the US and we took care of the doggies, we also looked after their house in Town, either Robbie went there, or one night Renate and I. We had dinner at the Aguada and then hung out on the porch, which had a really comfy couch.

Angel is "Numero Uno"

Not only in the doggie family hierarchy is Angel "Number One", she also got the BIGGEST RAWHIDE BONE! And just let anybody try to STEAL IT! No way, Jose!

Renate Visiting!

Visitor from Germany! YAY! A few weeks ago, Renate decided to come visit us spontaneously and of course the 2 weeks were way too short, especially because we only had my old truck to drive around with (Robbie's is in the repair shop). Fortunately, one day we could go to Hopkins and at least see the ocean, we visited Ingrid, who has a little guest house directly in Hopkins, and had lunch with her and her friend, at the Parrot Cove Lodge, a neat little beach resort.

Ingrid at the Parrot Cove

Renate on the back porch with Highlander

Renate spraying a wasp nest on the front porch :-)

Stray Tom Cat "Edwardo"

As if our little Animal Farm didn't have enough going on already! A few weeks ago, I was standing on the front porch, looking out into the front yard and thought I saw our kitty cat wandering around, so I called her with our regular "kitty kitty" call, but OOPS what came over, all excited, was a tiny grey and white cat who looked extremely unhappy and hungry, so Robbie gave it some food, which it scarfed down in no time. We called the vet, who told us to keep it in a room by itself, until he could come check it out for diseases, etc., and he came a day later. He told us that is was a boy, probably abondened and about 4 months old. We named the cat "Edwardo", after the vet :-)
Here the poor little thing, scared, but cute nevertheless.

Surprise Birthday Party for Macarena's Mama!

On July 3rd, Macarena invited us to the surprise party she had organized for her mum who came from the US for a couple of days. The party took place at the Casa Caballo Blanco and Macarena even organized rooms for us and a few friends, so we didn't need to drive back at night (although it is just about 20 minutes away!). We had a great time, there was a Marimba band, really nice people and wonderful food, prepared by Shalue, the owner of the Aguada Hotel, and a neat room with a very high thatched roof which kept it cool. The views from the resort are exceptional and the fireflies at night provided special light! The mum really didn't know about it and the surprise was superb!

Macarena and Mum

The Marimba Band

Moi

Party Guests

Marylin and David

The neat room!
A little selection of all the wonderful food ...

A Little Walk in the Park

Robbie went to the back field the other day and had a little fellow traveller :-) Ms Aery decided she needed some exercise as well!!

Sheree and her Kiddos

Just a nice little picture of Sheree with Puggles and Mattie, and Angel on the other side. They were all happy campers!!

Doggie Sports!

"GET OFF my treadmill, Highlander, it is my turn ... I need to do some EXERCISE" (Matty original tone)

New Roof

We made it, just before the rainy season! A beautiful new roof was put up in about 3,5 days by a few guys from the village, they did a really nice job!

Here are few pictures from the process - what a mess! But it was so worth it! And OOOPS, we didn't take a picture of the new roof yet! I will publish one soon! At the moment it is raining outside and I really don't feel like taking pictures ...

Possum Alarm!

Our kitty cats and dogs are a bit lazy, I assume. This opossum came running into the yard from the chicken coop and NOBODY cared or tried to chase it ... Only David took care of it and chased it out! It was sitting under the big party BBQ grill! I would actually regard it as cute, but what do I know ... here they are known as pests just like rats and mice!!

Another Marriage in the Village - Humes

Another young couple got married in Santa Familia, at the "Nueva Generacion" church, one of seven churches in the village. Robbie went there to take pictures of the family and the whole event!

Cucumber Beach at Old Belize

When we went to the airport a couple of weeks ago, Robbie and I stopped at the Marina at Old Belize for lunch. We had a grand time at the place: they have a beautiful beach, a well-stocked gift shop, a little museum, nice views of boats and the ocean and really great food. We had Coconut Shrimp and it was absolutely wonderful!

Stuck my nose where it didn't belong ...

Poor Magic got into something which made his face swell up really bad, he looked so pitiful ... Benadryl and AntiAllergic Tylenol helped a bit! We still don't know what it was, it could have been a wasp nest, ants, bees or a toxic toad, or even a plant - we looked everywhere in the yard, but couldn't find anything that could have caused it. The vet couldn't tell us what it was, either. Alaska looked even worse a few days earlier, her whole body had bumps and her face was completely swollen. Here also, Tylenol Sinus and Benadryl got rid of the swelling soon.

Village Life Presentation

The Mayor of San Ignacio organized an event called Village Life for all the villages in our district Cayo. The event took place at the Macal Park and not too many villages participated, most probably because the announcement was a bit short-term. However, Santa Familia participated, with a PowerPoint photo presentation Robbie and I made (projected to a screen), the honey maker, music groups, displays of old tools which villagers used to use, display of clothes of former times, display of trophies (for soccer), and much more. Food was sold and had quite a few visitors. A couple of impressions: