Neighborly Advice, Dirt Drop, Inhospitable Neighbors, Our Villa's Not (Likely) Sinking!

Last Wednesday, I was invited to our new friends and neighbors', Kit and Brian's home, to show them some of the island ropes - where to find particular things, how to use Belizean Queen to ship items down, and general tips to remain sane. They are experiencing a lot of the same shock we did upon moving down full-time - everything is much more expensive than we prepared for, grocery shopping is a many-stops-long chore, and when you need something, you probably won't be able to find it. They're a delightful couple, we're grateful to have met some more normal neighbors that we truly enjoy spending time with!

Thursday morning, Nathan saw an osteopath in our community - he's been experiencing chronic headaches, plus lingering calf pain. He's been to a chiropractor in Arizona, had x-rays, injections...nothing has helped, so he was open to something more holistic. Facebook groups suggested an osteopath, and conveniently enough, she's walking distance from our home. She thinks he will only need three treatments, one week apart. At $100BZ per treatment, it's the most affordable option we've attempted, so it's worth a try!

That night, we took our first neighborhood friends, Marv and Tanya, to dinner - I'm embarrassed it took us so long to do this. They had us over months ago for dinner, but with us not having a dining table and having bins stacked everywhere, it's difficult to host. They're such a nice couple, and we enjoyed catching up with them - they will be back in CA for a few months starting in June.

All of our neighborhood friends are retired; I'm planning to go with Kit, Diana, and maybe a few more on Friday to Paint-and-Splash. I'm so grateful that Nathan continues to work his ass off so we can live here. I mistakenly thought he could retire when we moved, and I'm glad he didn't buy in, as much as he would love to be done working. I know it bums him out when we get invited to things Monday-Friday during his work times. The business we had a verbal agreement to purchase has seemingly fallen apart; the seller, upon seeing our written offer requiring tax returns, blew up the deal - while she was willing to accept a six-figure offer, she's not at all willing to provide proof of the numbers she provided on her Profit-and-Loss excel. Good luck to her - there are a lot of idiots in this world, but the ones that can pay that amount of cash for a business are certainly going to want proof it's as profitable as the seller says...!

Friday, I had 8 cubic yards of black dirt, or as I call it, "Black Gold", delivered - the native island dirt won't allow much of anything to grow, besides local weeds. It's not terribly expensive - 8 cu yds is a full dump truck load, at $720BZ/$360US. Nathan built a flower garden on one side of our home that we have been filling with clean cardboard (natural weed barrier, decomposes and provides nutrients for plants), which needed probably 6 cu yds. We filled our front planter boxes first, as the soil level was low and had lost most of its nutrients. While I was waiting for the delivery - because while Caribbean Depot will say they'll call before they arrive, they are 0-for-4 with us - I slapped another coat of paint on some of our fence. It's more paint than wood at this point.

8 cubic yards of "Black Gold"

We put down tarps and cardboard to try to keep the rich soil out of our white rocks, but the driver exceeded our spread slightly in the front/didn't back up far enough. I suspect we'll have a healthy band of weeds there momentarily! I moved about a dozen buckets of dirt into our planters and saved the rest for Nathan on Saturday.

Of course, Saturday was incredibly humid and awful for working in. I went on a cardboard hunt while Nathan went to work on scooping dirt, then I helped him when I returned. We made it roughly halfway through the pile before determining our efforts were better spent doing other things and hiring Vandam, our landscaper/handyman extrodinaire, to move the balance.

A contractor drove by and stopped to talk to Nathan - he said that about three years ago, he installed concrete pads under our home. Many of our neighbors have experienced failing piles under their homes, which we expected to be our next huge bill. He said the previous owner heard about the others and preemptively had the work completed. WHEW. In trade, because homeownership is never "everything's awesome!" here, the breaker for our septic pump keeps tripping....fantastic. I'll need to find an electrician soon.

I had a pedicure on Thursday, and perhaps I should've waited on that...

White fence paint AND black dirt! Is there an "OnlyFans" category for this..?

Sunday morning, we went to Estel's for breakfast, then headed out to our land. We haven't been there since the Saturday before Easter, for four weeks! It seems some sort of battle(s) is/are brewing:
-There are now strands of barbed wire along Mistico's property line and fence to deter passing;
-The lot between us and the AirBnB has HUGE, high-vis signs posted on it; 
-Not a soul was at the Airbnb - not their boat, no vehicles, ghost town. 

Between I believe 2018 and 2019, the lot between us put up a small structure's frame, like a lean-to over a countertop; other than that, we've never seen any activity there. This lot is entirely land-locked, even when the new roads behind go in, and from some basic research, it seems the owner lives on the mainland.

The weeds on our property are aggessively regrowing - at least some of them are flowering, so they aren't just razorgrass. It's depressing to know we won't be living there any time soon...it was our dream since we bought it in 2017.

The water was incredibly clear and noticeably warmer since our last dip! We feared the sea lice would have returned by now, but so far, so good! We have had them in late May on previous trips, so any delay in their hatching or migrating or however they arrive is fine by us! The baracuda were acting oddly, however - almost aggressively. They were following us when we snorkeled and getting uncomfortably close. Nathan wanted to snorkel in the fish trap, but there were four or more LARGE barracuda staring him down.

We have a call tomorrow afternoon with our lawyer on "next steps" - even though we have a court-ordered settlement, there are now additional docs to file, fees to pay, and effort on our part to try to recover the funds due to us. Just when I think it's over...