Taking out the Trash

Such an easy chore to take out the trash - NOT!  At least not here in Englishtown.  Oh, it's easy to take it out of the cabana.  We bag it up and then stack the bags underneath the cabana until it's time make a trash run.  And we hope that no dogs find it before we can make the trash run.  It's the trash run itself that can pose problems.  We like to take the trash to the nearest landfill about twice a month.  Sometimes that frequency is just not possible. The most recent "sometimes" lasted from October through January; 4 months of trash!  It is such a relief to have the trash cleared out of our house (click to listen).

Four months worth of trash loaded into our work boat.

Trash accumulates when you are in the midst of a construction project.  So much packaging for supplies, especially for the things that are shipped from the US.  Boxes inside boxes, taped up for shipping, untaped and retaped by Customs.  Fortunately, our shipping agent, Easy Shipping to Belize (highly recommended - very professional and helpful), consolidates many items to minimize boxes.  But still we accumulate trash faster than we can get rid of it. A big, perhaps even the biggest, source of our trash is what we collect off the beach.  Mostly plastic shoes, bottles, toothbrushes, etc.  An unending source of trash that is sometimes more than we can handle.  It hasn't been too bad lately.

Yesterday was the first day that we (read "Dennis and Nevan") were able to make a trash run since October.  Various events conspired to keep us out of the landfill.  The main thing was the deplorable state of the Monkey River Road (MRR).  Other things that keep us from making the trip are rough seas that keep us from getting the trash to the MRR and the car being in for repairs.  Below is the route we take to get to the landfill with the MRR in red.

The route to the landfill from WilDen (our place).  The sort of cross-hatched areas between the MRR and the sea are shrimp farms.

We compost all our food waste and lots of paper waste.  But we are still left with cardboard, plastic, glass, metals - all of which would be recycled in the US, but not so here.  The first thing to do in preparation for making a run to the landfill is to make sure the bags are still intact and closed.  The strong UV light degrades the plastic bags in short order; nothing worse than picking up a bag of trash and having it fall apart on you, literally.  Then you load the bags and loose items into the boat for the short ride (in purple on the Google Earth image above) from WilDen to the beginning (or is it the end?) of MRR.  Then off-load the bags into the car or truck.  Our car is being repaired, so we sought the use of our neighbor Nevan's truck for this trip to the landfill.  Good thing since it would have taken at least 5 trips in the car.  It took about 40 minutes to drive the 12 unpaved miles of MRR and then just a few minutes on the Southern Highway to reach the landfill.  Once at the landfill, you carefully make your way along the pot-holed track back to one of the "big holes" into which you throw your bags.  As the "big holes" get filled, they are burned to make room for more trash to be thrown on top.  Eventually the "big hole" is no longer even a small hole and new "big hole" is dug.  Sometimes they scrape the track to make it easier to get to the big hole and sometimes they even scrape dirt over the old big holes.  It's not a very sophisticated operation.  But it is free and fairly close by.  Since there is no other option, that pretty much settles it.

The view from our house is so much nicer with no trash bags in the boat.

I never tire of looking at this.

The greater yellowlegs don't care about the trash as long as it is not in the water.

Two of the three greater yellowlegs that have been visiting our house this winter.

A dusky-capped flycatcher hangs out in the tropical almond tree in front of our house.

The view to the west of our house is pretty nice, too.  You can see why those are called the Cockscomb Mountains.  They are also called the Sleeping Giant.  I think he is having a good dream ...

The Cockscomb in outline against the sky.

The First Adventure of Green Shank and Yellow Legs

Still on a kayak kick.  Today dawned just as calm and lovely as yesterday, so as I promised him, Nolbert and I went out to Great Monkey Cay.  He was ready and waiting for me early this morning.

Nolbert, ready to go!

 I had the kayak at the water's edge, waiting for Nolbert to arrive.

Getting the kayak in the water.

Some minor adjustments to the seat cushion and then we are off!

Getting settled.

Dennis took some photos of the start of the adventure.

Nolbert happy and stylin' in his sunglasses.

He was all set with his life vest and we both had bottles of water, hats, and sunglasses as we set out for the cay.  On the way, we decided we should name our kayaks.  I suggested Yellow Legs for mine both for the color and because of the greater yellowleg waders I had showed him yesterday.  Nolbert thought that was a great name and he suggested green legs for his.  I countered with Green Shank and after I explained that shank means leg and that green shanks are real birds, he thoroughly approved. We paddled on in Green Shank and Yellow Legs.

The cay is about 3/4 mile from our dock.

We were able to go around to the outside of the cay; the water was so flat that no waves were breaking over the shallows around the cay.  Nolbert spotted bunches of big orange cushion star fish and pointed out the sea grass and coral heads.  On the north side of the cay, Nolbert tied Green Shanks up to some mangrove roots next to a sandy spot so he could do a little snorkeling.  I paddled around while he snorkeled.  It was a little too shallow at that spot, so next time we will try a different place to get out of the kayaks.  We can't get out over the coral because that would damage the coral, so that limits the choices a bit.

Nolbert handles Green Shanks really well; he can back paddle to make a sharp pivot turn and knows which side to stroke on to move away from an obstacle.  And the kid has stamina!  After the little snorkeling, we decided to head up to the mouth of Pine Ridge Creek before heading back to Craig's place.

Our route is mapped in the Goggle Earth image below and it comes to 3.65 miles.  Not bad for a 10 year old boy and a woman, who may or may not be, 6 times his age!

Our place is in the bottom left corner and Craig's is almost directly opposite the north point of Great Monkey Cay.

Next time Nolbert is here and the weather is good, we will pack lunches and go as far up Pine Ridge Creek as we can.  We should be able to see at least 3 kinds of kingfishers and yellow crowned night herons.  That is also where I have seen my only ever Agami Heron.  I would love to see one of those again.  Nolbert and I are looking forward to further adventures with Green Shank and Yellow Legs.

Atmospherics

Poor quality telecommunications is a frequent fact life here in Belize.  Early on when we complained to various providers of mobile phone and satellite internet services, the one answer we could count on getting was atmospherics; atmospherics is the cause of all the problems.  It got so that we used it as a catch word for all of life's travails.  Burned dinner?  It was atmospherics!  Stubbed your toe?  Atmospherics.  Generator on the fritz?  Obviously atmospherics!  Five years down the road and the answer is still atmospherics.   This blog is about good atmospherics and you can listen here to some of the best.  Seriously, follow the link right now, listen to the radio; you won't regret it.

Lately, the atmosphere has hosted some intriguing cloud formations.

If we had seen this in Minnesota, we would have headed to the basement in fear of a tornado!  No worries about tornadoes here.

Late yesterday afternoon, Dennis called to me to come see the flock of white birds out over the sea.  It was terns going wild for what must have been a large school of little fish.  They were soon joined by a flotilla of brown pelicans. While I was getting the camera, the most fantastic double rainbow appeared.

Double rainbow. The barely visible specks are pelicans floating on the water near the base of the less intense rainbow at the right.

The rainbow arced without interruption over Greater Monkey Cay toward Craig's Barebones Beach Bar to our north.

That is Greater Monkey Cay at the left.

 Meanwhile, swallows flew in to feast on the mosquito-laden atmosphere.

Swallows in the air and pelicans on the water.

 The atmosphere was thick with swallows.

Swallows somewhere over, under, and through the rainbow.

The north end of the rainbow at Craig's place.

Three Greater Yellowleg birds flew north, illuminated by the setting sun.  The yellowlegs have been hanging around our shore for a coupe of weeks now.  They come through each winter.  This year they seem to be lingering longer than they usually do.  They must like the atmospherics this year.

Yellowlegs headed to the other end of the rainbow.

From up on the balcony I could see that the pelicans were still out on the water, although the terns had mostly continued south.

Birds on the water.

 Also heading south to their evening roost on Little Monkey Cay were some white ibises.

White ibises up high and terns down low with rainbow.

Some good atmospherics for a change.  I could get used to this.  I think I'll listen to the radio and enjoy it.