Michael planted 34 lime trees and 3 lemon trees. Photo by Michael Morningstar.
For family, fans and friends curious about our Belize Eco Village (BEV) master-planned community based on permaculture, regeneration, renewable and sustainable principles, welcome to BEV Bulletin 5 update. We are happy to hear your great ideas and questions about our planning, planting, and progress. The first Thursday of each month our bulletins are an easier way to post our insights, pictures, and stories. Many previous posts have shared the values, virtues, and vision we hold for our BEV healthy habitat. We are attracting more people eager to design, build and live a healthy lifestyle in a tropical paradise that is ideal to invest, live, retire and visit. People are searching for information and insights for living in Belize seeking new openings, opportunities, and outcomes. Thanks to Michael Nittmann and Manuel Gunther from Germany who visited our project and offered great suggestions.
There are many good reasons to take a closer look at beautiful 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 Belize as a great investment and lifestyle opportunity. If long-term happiness, health and well being are high priorities than our BEV may very well be a great choice for you. The goal of the BEV Bulletin posts is to educate and inform readers about the benefits of Belize and our eco-community.
Belize Eco Village Home #1 and #2
Michael and Manuel from Germany like the way Stabilized Compressed Earth Block houses are built. Photo by Michael Morningstar.
Home #1 and #2 construction is progressing nicely. After starting foundation #1 during the May trip and #2 in June the July trip celebrated the crew completing the Stabilized Compressed Earth Block walls on both houses. Concrete lintels for bracing over the doors and windows are installed. Soon the bond beam that helps hold the walls and supports the roof will be poured. Home #2 is following close behind house #1.
With rainy season in full gear, it is time for lazer focused planning, planting, and progress. The plan for the July 2018 trip was working with the contractor and suppliers to keep our first SCEB home on schedule. Unfortunately, even with drainage, excavation and road repair work were mostly complete the rain was too much and delays have caused construction interruptions and keeping us bogged down. A hard lesson to learn is how it only takes one delivery or equipment delay to throw your timeline totally off track. We are still rethinking the caretaker house between a portable house, the second story on the sea container or separate house. The Ministry of Health approval of the compost toilet is delayed indefinitely after they shared additional requirements they forgot to mention previous visits. With these two homes plus a sea container, we will have a solid base of operations for the future plans for the construction crew. We bought a forty foot high cube container and are waiting for delivery until its footers are built.
The retrenched drainage and dirt berms dug in March continue to keep excess rain runoff from washing out our roads during the rainy season. With the culvert, we really need still pending construction we are hindered by rain runoff. We are also waiting for a bulldozer to contour additional land along and around Cabbage Hall road and clear more access lanes and the surveyed boundary lines. The raised berms are providing ideal areas for planting coconuts, lime trees, and pineapples during July.
The young lime trees in plastic bags are ready to be planted now that rainy season is here. Photo by Michael Morningstar.
I planted 34 lime trees and 3 lemon trees. 30 are Tahitian lime from the Citrus Growers Association (CGA) and 4 ( 2 Jamaican, 2 Local lime) are from Maya Center. We will see which one is right about being the best variety. We met with the contractor regarding retaining ponds for holding surplus water longer and are waiting for a dry spell to begin digging but it is still too wet. We are still planning on additional contour swales in the future to hold even more water at higher elevations during the rainy season to be available to gravity feed food plants during the dry season.
Better Blocks for Better Buildings
While there are many benefits to using Stabilized Compressed Earth Block (SCEB) for home construction we discovered a few challenges building our first one that will influence future construction. Royale International Ltd is supplying the SCEB and we are pleased with their product. The block allows us to build a cool and cost-efficient eco-friendly home that is fireproof, mold proof, storm proof, and termite proof. Each home will use rain gutters and cisterns to catch and store the abundant rainfall during the rainy season.
The Stabilized Compressed Earth Block walls are complete and ready for the concrete bond beam. Photo by Michael Morningstar.
CSEB homes have a lower carbon and low water footprint. After looking at many options we chose them because they are easy to maintain and extremely energy efficient. While we are still analyzing the construction costs we feel our early pioneers will be able to live in our Belize Eco Village in a small SCEB home (excluding Stamp Tax on lot and General Sales Tax – GST) for under $99 K. Once that investment is made a couple can live very comfortably on a small retirement or Social Security benefit of about a $1000 per month. Our community is 1.6 miles south of Maya Center Village at 16.6 Mile Southern Highway a main paved road which offers regular bus services throughout Belize. Many residents and owners will not even need a vehicle for transportation.
We are still waiting for the drilling contractor to drill our water well as an additional source of water. Belize Electricity Limited will come out in August to survey to install additional poles and power to new homes sites.
Remember … typing Belize Eco Village into our blog search box will locate numerous posts outlining 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 influencing 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 environmentally 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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