Miscellaneous Photos of our Week

 

This great billboard is just within a few miles of our place. It is pretty large, about 20x10.

We always think of Christian Aid Ministries billboards when we drive by it

These noisy parrots woke me up the other morning. Two will sit on a branch

'arguing' for quite a while. We like to use that illustration when dealing with squabbles with the children..'remember those parrots? That is what you sound like!' :-)

This friendly cockroach gave me quite the start when I opened the fridge!

 

I love this photo of Grant, Grace and Laura. He gave them rides like this for an hour

The boys go down to the pasture with neighbor John to do some clearing

John's girls come over to play for a bit

Ashley took this pretty photo of Andrea. I love these flowers!

Trip to Springfield

We had a lovely time recently out in Springfield. A very special family invited us for a visit. We enjoyed one another's company tremendously, praying and reading God's word together. We hope to go out for a visit again soon!

The family drives a horse and buggy, no cars

Our girls enjoyed a fun time with their daughter

The son offered to take everyone on a ride on his ox cart

thsee oxen are so well trained that this young man can lay on the cart with his eyes closed and his team will take him home after a long day in the field

 

So we felt pretty comfortable letting him take the kids on a ride. Grace whined because she just knew that they would all end up in the ditch..

 

So to keep Gracie happy they cut the drive short and headed back to the house (seen in the distance) It was a fruitful day, full of fellowship and encouragement. What a blessing/

Belizean Downpour!

 

This storm left no time to get the clothing off the line! It was literally a flash downpour!

The girls of course had to go running and shrieking outside..

It was refreshing after a few days of pretty high temperatures

The girls were literally soaked within 5 minutes..and it was over as soon as it started. Such fun weather here!

New Friends

We received an email from a family from Wisconsin asking if they could stay with us for a few days. They were flying down to surprise their family members in Spanish Lookout, Springfield and Barton Creek. Their family hadn't been to Belize for 14 years, before their oldest child was born. We had  fun time hosting them while they made the rounds and visited their family.

 

The dishes crew

Playing house

 

Playing games

Mrs. H reads Laura a story

Sweet friends

Mr. H and Grady enjoyed each others company.. it was so fun to have them here.. they are now staying with family in Belize for a few more weeks. What a blessing to have made

these new sweet friends!

The Wild Goat Chase

One Saturday recently we headed out to Upper Barton Creek where we heard there may be a milk goat for sale. Well, little did we know the adventure we would find ourselves on..
 

We headed toward Cayo and turned left at Georgeville up the Mountain Pine Ridge Rd

Pass a few villages-

Laura naps her way along..

We see these carrot farmers..

and soon come to their beautiful fields..

We had never seen so many carrots planted before..

Now, unbeknownst to us, we had missed a turn..

Hard to see in this photo but we came to this extreme decline in the road.. now, we had gotten basic directions on how to get to Upper Barton Creek from a few folks.. and no one had mentioned such extreme driving conditions.. in addition, we had already traveled well over the time mentioned by all who had directed us. Uh oh! We  knew we were lost! We really had no other choice but to pray and continue on...

The cut backs and steep rock roads were intense. Half way down we encountered a worker from the famous Barton Creek Caves resort named 'Mikes'. The employee laughingly told us that we had gone the long and DIFFICULT way and should have turned off miles and miles before in order to take the easy road into the community. (we had been recently been listening to a wonderful dramatization of Pilgrim's Progress.. our current predicament made for some poignant discussions with the children) He also mentioned that we would have 2 rivers to cross but that we SHOULD be able to make it through.. he then shouted 'Good Luck!' as his truck sputtered and spun out all the way up the mountainside that we had just slid down. We were relieved to know that there WAS another way out of this canyon! Now if we could just find the Upper Barton Creek Community and get directions!

As we finally entered the valley, we saw some lovely banana plants lining the road, planted by the resort

Around this bend..

we came to this out-of -commission bridge. Another resort employee drove by us and shouted that the locals had piled rocks on the north side of the bridge in order to make passing the river easier..

'Just make sure to stay to the left!" he said..

As we passed through the river we saw why.. any further over and we would plunge into 15 ft waters

 

After passing the first crossing we saw these lovely hibiscus plants

2nd crossing.. a bit more daunting. Really we had no way to turn back as Grady didn't think our van could climb back up the mountain we had just encountered. 'Let's Go For It!" he said

Ok

And yes, we made it! And came across the lovely site of Upper Barton Creek community! It had taken us an hour longer than it should have.. but we finally made it.

As we pulled up we saw their sawmill which is powered by horses..

the logs are pulled to the mill by oxen

Grady chatted with the men for a while..

 

In the end it turned out that the goats had been sold the day before to a family member who resides in Agua Viva, 1.5 hours away. The great news was that they were sold to a friend of ours who agreed to let Ashley purchase one of the Mamas from him. Yes, it was a crazy day, all for a goat. BUT, our children will not soon forget our Wild Goat Chase!