Weeks 34 & 35

Well we have had a busy couple of weeks! Joel and Kyle had something going on every day he was here. It went by super fast but it was really fun to have someone to share all this with :)

Last Sunday morning we had that showing which I talked about in the last update. We haven't heard anything more about it but we are confident we did our best and the place looked as good as it possibly could :)

So that afternoon Joel picked up his cousin Kyle in Belize City.  It was great catching up and showing him around the base. Monday they spent the day getting ready for their big fishing trip that night. They and 2 other guys went out to a freshwater lagoon off of our driveway, in the dark, with flashlights and snorkel gear. Yes they are a little crazy ;) But they had a blast and got a bunch of fish.

The next day we went to Jay and Myrtles for the day and the guys, and some kids, went and got some more logs for the dock and put them up so now you can walk all the way out to the island:

That night we went to the Kidders going away party at the church - there was lots of food and it was nice to see everyone :)

Wednesday they took a boat out to Tiger Point with some other guys to get the rest of the parts of the tractor they had taken before and took it to Martin and Jane's:

 

Thursday they worked out at the fishing lodge working on the fireplace and making some fireplace tools and a mantel out of rosewood, it all turned out awesome:

 

Friday they spent the day getting ready for their big overnight fishing trip with a bunch of guys from the village. They spent the night on a pontoon boat with nothing but a plywood floor. Sounds pretty awesome ;) They caught some nice fish too!

Saturday they got back in the afternoon after having hardly slept (turns out plywood is not so comfy, at least they had the tarp to keep them warm....) They picked up Sage and I and we went out to the fishing lodge and the caretaker took us on an awesome hike up a mountain with some beautiful views. Then we hiked to Vista Cave - it was awesome! 

Then we followed him up another mountian in our truck and he took us to White Ridge Farms Resort. It was going to be a healing center and there's all kinds of half finished buildings, it's really beautiful, and it's at the very top of a mountain with awesome views. We had a lot of fun exploring all the buildings and talking about how easy they would be to fix up to live in!

On to Sunday, this was a great day because it was Father's Day AND our friend Jay got baptized!!!

Then we got to eat a huge Father's Day feast at Jay and Myrtle's :)

Monday we had some visitors. The watchman came out to see the place and we showed him around. Then we had a visit from a couple, Charlie and Kim, and their family from Arizona. Kim is the daughter of a lady we've gone to church with forever and they bought property not too far from here so they wanted to come see us. It was a great visit and we're so glad to have met them :)

That night Joel and Kyle went spear fishing at night again (because they didn't have enough going on lol). 

Tuesday they went to Jay's and got 2 more logs for the dock.

Wednesday they went to Jay's and got rid of his roosters for him (they were having a hard time doing it themselves) and helped Mike's team work on the park. They put up a whole new section with monkey bars and a slide. Sage said it was the best park ever when we tried it out on Sunday :)

Also on Wednesday our baby chicks started hatching! We got two at first and soon realized that where Black had her nest on the ground was not a good place, there are a lot of ants. So we brought the 2 in and another that was almost hatched. It was so cool cause we got to watch it hatch!

That evening we saw that 2 more were hatching but by the next day they had died still in their shells :( That's when we realized we needed to bring them all in before the ants got them all. I really wanted her to sit on the eggs yet so I brought her and the eggs up on the deck and luckily she sat on them there! Then we got to introduce her babies to her and they all just climbed under her like they'd done it before, it was really cool. We ended up with 4 Blacks and 5 Sandy's altogether :)

Thursday was a really fun day. We went to Soldier Creek to swim at Moses Rock. It's a river with super clear fresh water and by the rock it's really deep. We snorkeled and saw all kinds of amazing fish I've only seen in pet stores, it was awesome. My favorite thing I've done in Belize, and it's so close by!

Thursday night we ate at Jay and Myrtle's for Kyle's last supper. Myrtle made the snapper they caught on the fishing trip - it was aMAZing. We are so spoiled!

 Here's a view from the Island to Jay's house, it's so cool to hang out out there!

 Friday Joel took Kyle back to the airport, it was sad to see him go it felt like he just lived here! That night Mike's team from the states did a worship night at the church so went to that and it was really good.

Friday night we found out we have some guests coming this week! So we spent Saturday getting ready for them to come on Tuesday and also starting preparations to hand things over to the watchman.

Sunday we went to church and stopped to say good-bye to the Kidders. We are super sad to see them go, they have been such great support to us and we appreciate them so much.  They moved closer to the city and are going home to Montana for 2 months - they haven't been home in 3 years! Check out their next steps in their blog: Kidders Mission  Here they are with their newly expanded family:

 And with us :)

So that leaves today, Monday, and we spent part of the day in Dangriga getting groceries for our guests who arrive tomorrow and doing our visa's and all that. Then the rest of the day getting things cleaned up.

So that is our super busy last 2 weeks! There will be a lot of pictures coming on my facebook page but I sure haven't had a chance to get around to that. Our 4 guests will be here until Friday. Saturday our watchman moves in. Sunday we have church and a bbq at the fishing lodge then Monday we'll pack to leave! It's going to go by SO fast! 

Week 34

This week was all about getting ready for the showing of course. We thought it was Thursday so we were pretty much ready by then and then found out it was Sunday morning. Saturday Threnton came out to help get the yard and beach ready, and Jay and Myrtle asked if they could come over and hang out. So Joel leaves to get them and comes back with a truck full of people! Jay and Myrtle, Jay's mom who is visiting, Myrtles grandson, sister and Aunt, and a bunch of kids all came to help get everything ready, it was the nicest thing! In addition to that the ladies cooked up some amazing food and even made enough for today! We are so blessed by this I can't even tell you. I just had to take some pics after the showing was over cause everything just looked so nice:

And the beach! I've never seen it so nice! They cleaned it, got out all the weeds, and raked all the way from one side of the property to the other, it looks amazingly perfect:

Funny thing is we actually have more beach the last few days than we usually do, like a LOT more, so that just made it look even nicer :)

They picked up every leaf in the whole yard and mowed, it really looks like a resort!

So the showing seemed like it went really well and just what they were looking for. We're just waiting to hear! I know we all did our best to make it look as nice as possible so it's in God's hands now :)

In other news within a couple days after we got rid of the rooster (he was attacking Sage), our hen seemed to disappear. She'd only show up once a day and wasn't going in her pen at night. You guessed it, she's sitting on eggs! Sage is so excited. There's 19 eggs and I don't think they're all going to hatch but we're hoping for a couple before we leave. They all have a good home at Jay and Myrtles who wanted some laying hens :)  So every morning we give Black her breakfast up on the deck so the dogs won't eat it: 

And Joel is at the airport right now picking up his cousin who will be here for 12 days! They have all sorts of fun things planned, should be a good time :) Have a great week!

Week 33

This last week Joel spent almost every day working at the fishing lodge. They got a lot done!

This is the view standing on the veranda of the lodge looking towards the kitchen with the pool in the foreground.

This is the outdoor kitchen with a fireplace. The roof is ready to be thatched. Some local guys will be doing that. 

The bridge coming into the kitchen. Notice the different hardwoods: sapodilla, cabbage bark, and bullet tree. There is no hammering nails through this stuff, pre-drilled holes with screws for everything. 

This is the support we built into the chimney to hold up the ridge beam.

This is the view from inside the fireplace looking towards the lodge. Notice the driftwood archway, they carried those a long ways down the beach to get them there. 

Notice the fish sculpture in the center of the fireplace, it's poured right into the chimney thanks to Myrtle's jello mold ;)  All the stone on the fireplace came out of the closest river and the stucco is the clay mix we used to make Jay's pizza oven. 

Here you can see the bridge, it still needs steps. 

Joel found this old log on the beach a couple months ago. It looked like a cool chair for the yard so he dug it out and brought it down the beach. It's about 2.5 ft round and 5 ft long. He sawed off the ends with a chain saw and found the old driftwood was some beautiful hardwood. 

Well, they needed a mantle for the fireplace so he told the owner of the fishing lodge if he wanted he could have it if he had it sawed up and Joel and Jay got the leftovers. 

Look what was inside! No one was sure what it was until it was sawed - turns out it's rosewood! Valuable even here. Now Jay has a whole bunch of 1x12x5's of rosewood, and Joel might be taking a small slice back home ;)

Saturday Pastor Kenny and a couple boys came out to help for the day. Their main focus was mowing and remodeling the upstairs. The realtor thought it was a good idea to stage it as a room since the people looking at it want a resort. So here's what it used to look like:

And here's what it looks like now! It turned out pretty cool and looks much more usable than it did before. They took out all the bunk beds and painted the walls by the bathroom and shower, and then did some decorating.

They did the same sort of thing downstairs, downsizing the bunks, cleaning, and making it look more like a room. It looks great! They also worked on mowing and the beach.

The showing is on Thursday so we're spending this week getting ready for that. And then a few day until Joel's cousin gets here! It's going by really fast.....