Battle of St. George's Caye Day Barbecue

First, I have to tell you, Hughesnet Fair Access Policy, in a word, sucks. Not only are you limited to 125 Megabytes upload as well as download, during any 24-hour period, but, during the day, when most users are online trying to do whatever, just getting a page to show up on your screen eats up the better part of 5 minutes or so.

Then you factor in all the software that wants to automatically update itself, you can see it's easy to exceed the threshold and be throttled by Hughes for the next 24-hours. Oh well. At least we have a connection, so I should be thankful - I guess. It's extremely frustrating in any case.

This Fair Access Policy (FAP) crap just started being enforced when we got new modems. Before, we could more or less do as we pleased. Not no mo! The Intertubes police are on the job, damn it!

To give you an idea. The megabyte limit is more or less equal to 25 still photos. Now, imagine watching a new video on YouTube... Bingo, half-way through a 2-minute video and you just stiffled yourself for the next 24-hours.

Enough bitching, eh? On with the show.

Last weekend we had a very nice get-together with our Godson, Isaiel and his wife Amarily, son Joshua and a little girl of their neighbor's,nicknamed O-B (never did find out her real name). Actually, it was on Monday, which is a holiday here in Belize. It was the Battle of St. George's Caye Day, which celebrates the defeat of the Spaniards in 1798 by the Baymen of Belize - considered to be the first stroke in the long fight for Belize's independence. A battle that actually took place over several days - from the 3rd to the 10th of September. The final battle that culminated an on-going series of battles between British forces, the Baymen and the Spaniards from 1716 to 1798.

Well, it was a nice little get-together. Isaiel had called a couple days before to see if we were going to be home then as they wanted to come see us.

They showed up about 10 AM. We went down to the palapa patio, enjoying the shade and slight breeze. We really had no plan of what we were going to do. We were talking about what we wanted to do and somehow the topic of tortillas came up. Amarily makes tortillas for her family every day and suggested she could teach Dianna how to do it. That sounded like fun.

This kind of suggested doing a barbecue. Well. Amarily also does a barbecue chicken stand a couple days a week in Guinea Grass, the village they live in, and she said she'd be willing to teach us her secret BBQ marinade/sauce recipe.

That sounded like a lot of fun. After a quick trip to the store, we commenced getting with the program.

First up, a mini class in the pool house kitchen with Amarily teaching totilla making and how to prepare chicken for the grill.

Amarily Conducting a BBQ Class

Then, it was hands-on to prepare the chicken, the marinade, and the tortillas.

Amarily Teaching Dianna All About Chicken BBQ

Here they're working on cooking up a stack of flour tortillas. Soft, fluffy and tasty.

Cooking Tortillas

Meanwhile, the kids weren't too interested in cookery, so the pool was beckoning. After a small snack of some lemon cookies, it was time to get wet.

Isaiel Entertaining OB and Joshua

By the way. Did I mention that it has been hot? Well, it has. When we came down to the pool house, this is what we found. We keep candles around all over for the odd power failure, just in case you need a light. This is the first one we've had totally collapse. Just thought you'd like to know.

Something's Wrong

One of the secrets to good barbecue is to keep stuff from sticking to the grill. Other than using Pam or some other non-stick spray (which we generally can't get down here anyway), what do you do? Well, the easy answer is to use half a lime and spread its juice all over the grill. You can also use a slice of onion and do the same thing. Here Isaiel is demonstrating just how to do it. Believe me, that grill is HOT.

Un-slicking Up the Grill Surface

Then, we get down to business. We did spread out the coals so that the grill wasn't quite so hot before we put the chicken on. Isaiel and I took turns keeping the chicken on a nice rotation on the grill.

Isaiel Taking a Turn At the Grill

Amazingly, we cooked the bird on the grill for a long time, yet none of it burnt and the insides were juicy and so tasty.

Just About Ready To Eat

Amarily spread more of the marinade on the chicken a couple of times. I can tell you this much. It's made from recardo and vinegar and  a bunch of other spices as well.

Amarily Basting the Chicken

I almost forgot. Dianna and Amarily also made a crackerjack potato salad that went perfectly with the chicken and tortillas. We ate till we were about ready to pop.

Then it was back to the pool. O-B didn't have as great an appreciation for the pool as did Joshua. He took to it like a fish and splashed around most of the afternoon.

Isaiel and Kids Enjoying the Pool

As the day wound down, Joshua really didn't want to quit playing in the pool.

Isaiel and Kids Enjoying the Pool

Of course, April was part of the party. She is convinced she's a dog. Wherever we go in the yard, just like how the dogs follow us around, she does too. Sometimes right in the way. Here she's blocking the sliding door - as cats do.

April Even Got In the Act

Of course, this was right at the point where we were moving stuff from the kitchen to the palapa so we could eat. A gentle guide foot gets the mission accomplished.

April Being Nudged Out of the Way

This was a great way to spend the holiday. Pretty much impromptu and a lot of fun.

Last Day of the Big Holiday

Easter's about the biggest holiday around here. It was nice to just be able to relax and hang out in the pool during the heat of the day, and to not hear too much of dump trucks, dozers, graders, and more dump trucks, etc.

I've been meaning to mention something about this family of geese we walk by every day. Momma and poppa are very protective of their goslings, of which there number about eight or ten. It was funny the other day as their human caretaker was trying to herd them a little closer to the yard. Remember that commercial with the cowboys herding cats? very similar.

Keeping An Eye On the Family

We even fired up the barbie on Easter Sunday. Dianna fixed a dynamite potato salad and I cleaned some stuff out of the freezer that cooked up as tasty as you could possibly want. We ate under our patio palapa. As we had been in the pool since 10:30 AM, and we ate at 2:00 PM, we had been in the pool for three and a half hours, the break for a BBQ'd meal was most welcome.

Got Some Stuff to Grill

Of course, we went back in the pool after stuffing ourselves. We reckon we logged about six hours of pool time yesterday.

So, today, Monday, according to Wikipedia, it's called Easter Monday in some locations. For us, it was just another day to spend in the sun and in the pool. We did take time to finish the framing for the shade house, going up beside our main house.

The two views below show how the structure is shaping up. I tried out the shade cloth I had left over from the pool awning project, but, I only have enough left for about half of the shade house.. So, I'll have to get in to Lano's sometime tomorrow morning and see if I can get an additional twelve feet. I'll also be returning the fence gate-tee's I bought there that were too big. I do have the receipt.

Shade House Looking West

 I think this view actually give you a better idea of the size of the structure. It's about eight-feet tall at the center of the arch, so it is pretty good sized.

Shade House Looking East

Well, so much for the Easter holiday. We didn't even see any zombies. Tomorrow, it's back to the old grind - whatever that is. I mean, every day is Saturday for us.

I just noticed - the photo above shows the new step up to the raised bed area along with the stone columns supporting the hand rail. I think this was asked about by Wilma, so there's the answer to your question Wilma. Sorry for neglecting it for so long.