How did I get here?

I am totally new to this platform, and I only just heard about Steemit this past weekend from my friend @vigilantrespawn who is also a member here. It sounded like such a great idea that I immediately wanted to get involved. So now, I want to introduce myself to the community. I am really looking forward to learning how all this works and making some new friends!

Here goes nothing!

I am a Canadian who has been living in Central America since Aug 1, 2009. The first country I lived in was Belize. But I didn't live at the coast soaking up the sun and sand of the Caribbean. Oh no, I spent the first 2 years living in the jungle in the midst of an authentic (hard core) Mennonite Colony (from Canada). In this remote area of the jungle there were only 10 families, and 7 of those were Mennonite.

These are actually pretty modern, our Mennonites made all their own clothes. I even learned how to make their special pants for the men.

I was writing a blog about this experience when I first moved there, but I've given up on it since I moved to Guatemala. However, you can still visit it at this link if you are interested in reading about my process of adjusting from big city living in Edmonton, Alberta to being almost totally isolated in the jungle.

After a particularly upsetting break-in at my house one night, I was advised to take a short vacation to check out the highland area of Guatemala. I thought that sounded like a great idea, and since a house-sitter and travelling companion both presented themselves in that same moment, I seized upon the opportunity. I had planned to visit for only 4 days. How naive! I ended up staying for 3 weeks, and renting an apartment for another month whilst I returned to Belize, and commenced packing up my house, my dog and my cat. We moved to a small Mayan village on the side of a volcano the very next month. Aug 1, 2012.

One small problem, Guatemala is a Spanish-speaking country but I only spoke English. And remember that "apartment" I had rented on my previous visit. Well it turns out it wasn't really an apartment, it was a tuk tuk garage. In case you don't know what a Tuk Tuk is, here's a photo:

With no kitchen, no plumbing, no heat, no windows... Well, it needed a lot of work! So rather than attending a Spanish school so that I could communicate with the locals, I started a renovation project to turn this space into a real home. I was planning to be there for the long haul so I wanted to do a good job. I made an album of the process and you can take a look at this link to my Facebook album. So I literally used pictures and google translate to communicate with the Guatemalan contractors in order to get the place renovated. I also picked up some Spanish along the way too. Turns out the neighbor wasn't interested in my being there for the long haul so I ended up moving out only 1 month after finishing all the renovations. :(

In 2013 I bought some land and started building a house. I had only wanted to do this since I was 20, so I had a lot of ideas how I wanted it to be. Of course things are not the same in Guatemala as in Canada, so I had to adjust my idea of having a straw bale house, or converting a grain silo. I think I came up with a good compromise. Since I have NEVER done any construction work before - Google and Pinterest have been my best friends. I designed the house to include all the cool things I saw on Pinterest. And since it is so far away from town, I got to apply what I learned at all the straw bale and solar energy workshops about living off-grid that I had attended in Edmonton over the years.

Things I got to try that I never could have done in Canada:
*I installed the solar system and did all the electrical myself.
*I designed the rainwater catchment system and the plumbing for the house.
*Made the adobe blocks that cover the exterior of the house and the lower part of the interior walls.
*Designed the furniture and cabinetry.
*Did all the framing and woodwork to make the interior of the house look like a log cabin.
*Designed the main bathroom to be like a cave by using a lot of chicken wire and styrofoam.
*Finished half of the 30'x15' wood floor upstairs loft with a friggin 3x21" belt sander. (It damn near killed me so I need a break before I tackle the other half.)
*terraced and landscaped the land surrounding the house to include a lot of fruit trees
*built a greenhouse using recycled pop bottles
*started raising chickens for eggs (and designed the chicken coop)
*made a 20,000 litre pond out of the hole left after we dug out the sand to make adobe blocks

Fast forward to 2018. I finally got the house to a stage where I don't sit on the floor at night after a day of construction and only see all the things that still need to be done tomorrow. Yes, It still needs a lot of finishing work, but at least now I have a bathroom, a bed and a sofa to sit on. I had a photographer come to take photos 2 weeks ago and I am happy to share them with you.

In addition to picking up some Spanish, and getting into construction work, I also turned into a dog person. I opened an animal sanctuary in 2014 to try and help reduce the suffering of the street dogs here.

We were able to sterilize about 200 animals (dogs and cats) and find homes for 25 others. I lived with (which is to say they all slept on my bed) 16 puppies for 8 months.

Obviously, I learned a lot about dogs. Now I only live with 7 dogs. :P I still can't believe it when I say it out loud. But I love them all and wouldn't trade them for anything.

I am also interested in clean eating, and I have been gathering a collection of great paleo, gluten free, dairy free, nut free and whole food recipes over the years. And I got an Instant Pot in 2016 and I love it! So I also have tons of recipes for that that I would love to share.

I am also interested in using essential oils for healing, and learning how to use herbal medicine.

And that brings me to my new adventures, I have recently become an online English tutor which is actually fascinating and I am learning a lot about geography. I am also excited to learn more about cryptocurrency, and I have just purchased the Spooky2 rife machine and can't wait to see all that it can do. I will be writing about all of these things from time to time so I hope I can find others who share these interests.

Well and then there are the mice, but I think that's enough for now.