Did you know that May 3rd is International Permaculture Day? For our Belize Eco Village project this is a day to celebrate and honor the many permaculture pioneers that promote renewable and sustainable agriculture and living.
Photo by Michael Morningstar.
For people who are curious about the country of Belize and our Belize Eco Village (BEV) community based on permaculture, renewable and sustainable principles, welcome to our secomd BEV Bulletin monthly update. We are very happy for people asking about our planning, planting and progress reports on our Belize Eco Village project so it became easier to post a monthly BEV Bulletin progress report. The first Thursday of each month we will post our Belize Bulletin dedicated to sharing insights, pictures and stories about our planning and progress for the project. Our earlier Morningstar NEWS blog posts shared the values, vision and vocation we hold for our Belize Eco Village healthy habitat. We find many people are eager to design, build and live a healthy lifestyle in a place to invest, live, visit and work while improving their long term happiness and health. While searching for information and insights for living in Belize many people are also seeking new openings and opportunities there.
There are many reasons to take a closer look at Belize for a tropical paradise reboot, retreat and retirement haven. With some basic education and information you will be able to make better choices and decisions regarding whether Belize might be a great investment and lifestyle opportunity for you. If long term happiness, health and well being are high priorities than Belize may very well be a great choice for you. The goal of the Belize Bulletin posts is to educate and inform readers about the benefits of our Belize Eco Village and Caribbean Eco Tourism Center.
Belize Eco Village
Photo by Michael Morningstar.
With the long rainy season over and the dry season starting it is time for progress with our project. The March 2018 trip was primarily focused on meetings with the architect and contractor to finalize details for our first Stabilized Compressed Earth Block (SCEB) homes. Now that some drainage, excavation and road repair work is almost complete we are preparing to begin construction. One of the first parts of the project is to design and build a caretaker house and compost toilet to provide a base of operations for the construction team.
In March the drainage trenches were properly reopened and retrenched and the dirt berms rebuilt to help keep excess runoff from washing out our roads during the rainy season. This is the third time a bulldozer contoured parts of the land and along Cabbage Hall Lookout road to return them to their previous engineered state and the first time for an excavator. Now berms, drainage and fire lanes are in place to help protect the land from the excessive rains during rainy season and grass fires during the dry season. The berms will also provide ideal areas for planting coconut trees, lime trees and pineapples. The dozer also widened the food forest and community garden area along the electric lines. We are currently looking into building retaining ponds and tilapia ponds for holding surplus water on the land longer. We are also designing our permaculture plan to create contour swales that also help maintain more water at higher elevations during the rainy season to be available later during the dry season.
The April 2018 trip was mainly dedicated to getting the electric box, meter and wires connected. I met with the contractor to discuss design changes and plans for the concrete foundations. Based on many factors we have changed the caretaker house to be built on top of a sea container, once we find one. Once we have the caretaker and security on site we will be ready to bring in the construction materials and begin the first Stabilized Compressed Earth Block (SCEB) home foundation. You can search for the numerous previous posts that outline the many benefits of using SCEB for home construction. SCEB houses will provide a cool and cost efficient eco friendly home that is bug proof, fire proof, mold proof, storm proof and weather proof. Each house will have rain gutters and cisterns for rain cache and storage of rainwater. We are still waiting to meet with a drilling contractor for drilling a well as an additional source of water. Belize Electricity Limited installed poles and power to the property in 2017 and during the April trip completed the meter installation and activated our power.
Photo by Michael Morningstar.
CSEB homes will have a low carbon and low water footprint. They will be easy to maintain and extremely energy efficient. With a lot and SCEB home built people will be able to live in our Belize Eco Village very comfortably on a small retirement or Social Security benefitt of less than $1000 per month for two people. With our current planning and projections we are confident our packages for Pioneer Pre-development will provide a lot and small SCEB house (excluding Stamp and General Sales Tax GST) for under $99 K. Our community is at 16.5 Mile Southern Highway, a well maintained main paved road which offers regular bus services throughout Belize. Many residents and owners may not even need a vehicle for transportation.
It was very exciting to see that other eco projects in Belize such as Carmelita Gardens, JaQor Belize, Vision Properties and The Reserve are making good progress. This is more Great NEWS to help maintain the eco systems and environment. With Hilton, Marriott International and Wyndham hotels announcing projects in Belize things keep looking better for Belize and even more eco tourism.
Remember…typing Belize Eco Village into our blog search box will locate numerous posts outling the values, vision and visualization for our happy and healthy lifestyle community.
Healthy Habits & Habitats
In 2018 Morningstar NEWS will focus 50% on Healthy Habits and 50% on Healthy Habitats. Researching and role modeling proven principles for a transition town drives us to share words with wisdom. Our vision is attracting a wide variety of eco friendly people to help design, build and live in a more healthy and sustainable way. We invite ideas, insights and inspiration to help us focus our planning and progress. Sharing solutions, strategies, suggestions and systems will help us all design and develop better eco communities.
Where is Your Gap?
What actions, behaviors, beliefs and decisions regarding your habits and habitats are impacting your happiness and health? What is your motivation for making better choices to avoid health hazards and adopt healthy habits? Investing in our long term health helps protect our long term wealth. When we are happy, healthy and holistic we naturally shift to a more sustainable ecological, economical and environmental friendly lifestyle.
Mastery Action Plan (MAP)
Our daily habits and habitats directly impact our happiness and health. There are many reasons to consider our Belize Eco Village for a healthy future. What are you willing to do differently starting today to embrace better permaculture and sustainable choices in 2018? Creating a healthy habits code of conduct and mastery action plan will enhance our quality of life. Our happiness and health benefit from healthy challenges, changes and choices.
Call to Action
What comments, commitments or concerns come to mind regarding healthy habits and habitats?
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