Little House on the Prairie

A long time ago I promised I would do the story on how we visited the Little House in Kansas on our way down from Iowa to Texas, and now the time has finally come. This is not the actual house the Ingalls lived in, but someone has replicated the cabin on the same site where they believed the original house would have stood.

Joseph checking out the fireplace.

I had sewn Jessica this pioneer dress last year, and had no idea then that it would be put to good use like this! Laura would have been very much her age when she lived here, so it was easy to imagine what she might have looked like.


This is the well Pa and Mr Edwards dug. I think it must have changed a little since then, but at least you can say you've seen it.

On our way to the creek.

Prairie. I think there is not nearly as much prairie as was in Laura's time, because I did not see what she wrote about, endless prairies with no trees in sight. There were always trees in sight, no matter which way I looked.

Picking the wildflowers.

As we got to the creek, it was easy to see where Pa could have gotten his rocks from to build the chimney.

I think this creek would have been wider back in the day. There was a lake upstream, and the creek now was hardly deep enough for a girl to drown in, like it says in the story.

We visited the site in April of this year, and it was simply the best time of year to do so. We were the only ones there, and the weather was great. It is a place worth seeing, especially if you have little girls that love Laura!

Belizeans!

Yes, our children are Belizeans now. I am just too relieved not to have to sit in that government office anymore. Not many things are more frustrating and time-consuming than sitting in a government office in this country...

Ok, I finally have a computer where I can update my blog like I enjoy, so that is why I am doing a few blogs at a time. Gotta take the chance while I have it!

More photos

This is the thing to do on a hot day.

My brother with his daughter and her cousins :).

Coconuts, from our own trees.

This job I prefer if someone else can do for me! I'm not a very good machete expert anymore.



This parrot sometimes greets us when we go for walks. It belongs to some neighbors. (The building you see in the background is the one-room school Daniel used to attend as a boy.)

Our: Home Sweet Little Home

Here are some photos of our home and what keeps us busy. In a few weeks we will be moving into a bigger house. I will be happy for that, because this is starting to feel a bit cramped.

The house trailer from the back. It sits in the orchard under some mango trees, and since it is mango season, they fall on the roof sometimes. At least it isn't on our heads, because if it would feel as bad as it sounds, it wouldn't be funny.

Here are some things on this house that are very typical for Belize which I thought might look strange to some. The windows are made with glass shutters, which are real practical, as you can control how much breeze you want. If it rains a little, we can just close them halfway, and still get some breeze. There is a propane tank at the side of the house, which connects to my oven. And the sink on the porch, is something many houses have around here. It sure is nice when the dirty men can wash up before they come in for lunch... ;)

The children sleep in the kitchen on the floor on a mattress, which we put away for the day.

Rain, rain, rain. It's the tropics, all right. There is something very relaxing about the rain on the roof at night. In this small house we can hear it very well.

On a rainy day, we have to busy ourselves with books, coloring or games. Or go to Grandma's house.

Watching the rain.

On a nice day, climbing the fruit trees and watching the cattle is the thing to do. This is a guava tree.

Or relaxing with a book in the hammock.

...or riding the tricycles,

and the wagon...

As I mentioned, it is mango season. I love canning! And eating mangoes. We don't have to go far to get them either.

Yes, we're still here

I apologize for the infrequent updating I am doing lately. I have to drive 35 minutes to use a computer where I am able to update like I should be doing, but at least I wanted to let you know we are all well. I know some of you think I have disappeared off the face of the earth, but I am still very much around. Our little house in the orchard, that is.

We have had lots of rain. My garden is still not planted, but I believe it will be happening this week. Once it started raining, it has rained so frequently that there has been no chance to finish working the ground with a tractor, and it needs a little more work before we can plant sweet corn and cucumbers, and maybe some watermelons. That's about all that will grow here in summer. The rest has to be planted in winter, or in cooler weather. Nowadays we have weather thermometer goes up to 100F again. I must be getting used to it. Thankfully we are close to in-laws where I can go and sit in AC if I need it.

We have rented a small house trailer that we moved to Daniel's parents' orchard. It has one bedroom, and one kitchen and bathroom. Small, yes, but very suitable for us now. The house we want to live in is still occupied, and the occupants cannot know exactly when they will be able to move out. It seems there are so many Americans and Belizeans moving back here that houses are pretty occupied around here. Since we are next to our parents, when our house seems too small, we know where to go.

We finally got our cars and stuff last week from Big Creek. It does feel good to have all our things, but it will be lots better once we have our own home to put them all into.

There, you all have a little update...

Our Trip Down

I decided to take a step back and write a little about our trip down to Belize. We drove one car with trailer down to Oklahoma, where we stayed two nights, then Daniel took us to Dallas to the airport where the children and myself boarded a plane to Belize, and he went on down to AL to ship the car, and then back to Iowa to drive the truck down to AL to have it shipped, and then he took a plane down as well. There. I've said it. I hope you understand it. Here are some photos of it. Sometime soon, I want to write all about the little House on the Prairie that we visited in KS, for all those who are as crazy about the "Little House" stories as I am...

Thank goodness for these times.


Getting those legs stretched.

Cooking breakfast along the way. As busy as I was packing at the end of our time in Iowa, I really wanted to be able to do some cooking on our trip. It was well worth the effort to pack food for that. Homemade food tastes especially good on a trip. I had a nice table to cook on, too!

I saw this tree in Kansas. I thought it was just too beautiful! Flowers growing right out of the trunk.

Cracker Barrel, our almost most favorite restaurant and store.

I don't know about this. I honestly don't know which is the better country to live in, Belize or America. But right now I know I sure feel like I would rather be anywhere but here! It's the humidity that is so hard to get used to.

We stopped at a friend's house in Oklahoma, and man, did the children have fun riding this thing.
They have already asked if we are going back there someday. I hope to, someday. I thought east Oklahoma was very beautiful when we drove through it, and yes, I would love to see our friends more often. :)

Farm life and health care

Today went pretty well until my big boy came home with a bloody face. His cousins took him along to get some compost for the garden when he had jumped and fallen on the trailer and cut his forehead. I rushed him to the clinic to have him taken care of. I sure hadn't expected to do something like this so soon! but living on a farm one has to be ready for incidents like this.

One bad thing is, Joseph cut himself on a rusty steel edge, so they want me to take him back to give him the tetanus shot. I always knew that would be one shot our children might not be able to avoid if we live on an active farm, and I think in this case we might have to 'err on the side of caution'.

They don't have any doctors at the community clinic, but the nurses are taught to do a little more than first aid services. It took only two stitches. Here's the great thing; they only charge 4 Belize dollars for one stitch, which would be 2 US. Altogether I only paid $19.oo US for the whole procedure. Talk about a great health care system!

Other than that incident we are all doing great; no more weather complaints around here.