Big Move...Off Grid...Year of Adjustment

Not us. We've already done this and survived. 

If you're considering making a big move or a big change in your life, thinking about going off the grid, then this short blog is a real good read. The writer tells an honest story of her first year in Hawaii. 

https://naalehu.wordpress.com

If you scroll way down to the bottom of the page after you're done reading the introduction, you will find a list of archives by date. Since Jane tells this as a continuing story, starting at the beginning makes for an enjoyable read. 

Thankful Thanksgiving

Just a brief note......

After sharing the day with friends, I'm well aware that I have much to be thankful for. In fact, not a day goes by where I am not thankful. That's 365 days a year, folks, not just this one day in November. I've made both good and bad choices going through life, and have had both good and bad luck, but it all brought me to where I am right now. I think that I am most thankful for the things that I can't control or have little control over. To be living where I have relative freedom. Free of significant discrimination and oppression. Plenty of food, safe water, adequate shelter, comfort. Reasonable good health. A caring community with aloha spirit. A group of good friends, both two and four footed. 

Yes, a thankful Thanksgiving. 

New Taro Varieties

Curious "K" wants to know which new varieties have been added to my farm. The new additions are all Hawaiian types. 

Apuwai

Manapiko

Manini owali

Lauloa ke'oke'o 

Niue ula'ula 

I'm planning on opening up new growing areas so that I will be able to add more varieties in the future. For right now I'm focusing on propagating the plants that I have in order to be selling potted taro next spring. 

Drivel - Maui Bird Refuge

Taking a short R&R trip to Maui. Primary focus of the trip is to get Hawaiian taro varieties for adding to the farm and picking the brain of the Maui Nui nurseryman for more taro growing and using pointers. But then we plan to spend two days relaxing and recuperating. My sore muscles are in need of a few days vacation. 

Success on the taro front. Was able to obtain five new additions and a brain full of information. 

Took a day to explore a marshland bird refuge here in Maui. I wasn't expecting it to be anything special, so I was pleasantly surprised. There are two significant parts to the refuge, though tourists seem to only discover one. So we had the inland area all to ourselves, the birds, and a feral pig....which we heard but thankfully did see except for its tracks. 

This refuge is one of the few places one can see two Hawaiian endangered birds. The Hawaiian black necked stilt (ae'o), above. And the Hawaiian coot ('alae ke'oke'o), below. 

There were dozens of each type quite visible in the various ponds. Saw lots of other water type birds, but I was most fascinated by the stilts and coots. I'm not an avid birdwatcher, but spending time wandering the area was extremely enjoyable. Well worth the time. 

Ergonomic Gardening?

This is an idea that Joseph Lofthouse has recently put into my head....selecting plants based upon ergonomics. My body is getting older so I need to make things easier on it. I've been thinking about what changes I'd like to make, where feasible. Time to make gardening more "old person" friendly. 

... Change to more trellises and less ground beds. Bending over to pick large harvests of bush beans and bush peas is getting harder on my back. 

... On a related note, save seed from plants that produce their harvest at 4'-5' for easier gardening. For example, corns ears at a comfortable to pick height on the stalk. And save seed from the taller pea plants producing pods that can be picked without bending or stretching. 

... Switch from wide garden beds, which require leaning to reach things, to narrower beds or even rows that are easier to straddle. Straddling is easier for me now than kneeling or leaning. 

... Go with more pallet grow boxes and other "tabletop" methods to bring crops up to a height where I don't have to bend over. 

... Get an edger tool for my tiller so that I can easily work the bed edges to cut the invasive tropical grass roots that want to invade the beds. 

... For any new beds being created, make them so that the ATV and cart can drive over them so that it will be easier to deliver mulch and compost. 

I've already switched to a two wheeled wheelbarrow. Much easier than a one wheeled type, though it's a bit different to handle. And I will be adding a garden cart, like a Gardenway, to my equipment list. And getting away from hard to start gasoline garden tools. This is something that I'm already doing, so I'll update you soon. 

Fire! Am I Ready?

Early this morning we had gotten ready for our mini Thanksgiving week vacation, shared conversation over coffee with a couple of friends down at the local coffee bar, then swung by the farm on our way to the airport. Smoke! There was a fire somewhere nearby our place. In fact, it was right next door. Yikes! Super yikes! Just as we got up to our gate, the neighbor across the street was heading out her driveway riding her tractor with the front scoop. She called out that there was a fire. Our neighbor is one gutsy woman, heading out to do battle on her own.

Within a minute her husband arrived in his pickup, having been off the farm not far away. Grabbing my phone, I started calling neighbors, trying to locate the source of the smoke and to sound the alarm. No luck. The husband headed up one hui driveway while I headed up the other. Surveying my neighbor's land, I figured it was somewhere in the trees but from my angle I couldn't see. So I charged back out and headed up my own driveway, discovering that one of my next door neighbor's buildings was afire. Ok, not something we could handle. Time to call 911. 

Now what to do? Head for the airport? No way. Not until that fire was out. 

Waiting for the fire trucks, my mind was racing. Boy, I sure was glad that we had gotten a good rain last night. 0.37", more than were had in the past two months or so. Everything was well wetted, and still soaking wet for the first time in weeks, so we lucked out there. But it was windy. That's bad.

Next I went down a mental check list. Were things in place for a sudden evacuation if need be? 

... The livestock in the pastures would be safe because of the direction of the wind. 

... I could release the chickens if needed. 

... I could quickly evacuate the dogs by loading the livestock transport cage into the truck bed, then loading up the dogs. They all eagerly jump into the track bed. 

... Our important papers were all in the bugout box. Cash, wallets, and car keys centrally located in their designated location. Guns and ammo in their cases, proper location, ready to be grabbed in a hurry. 

... Cats. Finding them all would most likely be impossible, but being loose, they would probably be ok. But I realized that I no longer had enough carrying boxes for them all. So, I could use pillowcases if I had to. Why had things gone wrong? Originally I had enough trap cages, one for each cat. But over time I had lent them out for people to use for trapping ferals for the spay clinics. Thus two had been damaged beyond repair and two were "lost", never to be returned. 

Now I've discovered that I need to make a correction in order to be prepared for an emergency evacuation in the future. No more being the nice guy and letting people borrow my transport cages. And I need to go out and buy four trap cages to return to the total number that I need for all my cats. 

One other thing. I learned that I would be quite unhappy if I lost certain pieces of my veterinary gear and electronic gadgets if the was a forest fire. I realized that my other possessions I could live without or replace. So I plan to place the precious items in a transportable case/box along with the bugout box, cover it with a table cloth and use it as a stand for stowing my iPad, laptop, & shoulder bag. That way they could be easily accessed to be used in daily life, but also ready for bugging out. 

Ok now. You want to know things ended? The fire company put out the fire and all was under control within a half hour. We left for the airport after two of the neighbors reassured us that they would call us immediately if the fire started back up. But we still phoned them from the airport to make sure before boarding the plane. Whew. What a way to start a vacation that was suppose to be relaxing. 

Coffee Pickin' Time

Just a quick note....it's coffee time again. For some reason, the coffee cherries are ripening more evenly on certain trees, but not others. Not sure why. In the past the harvest period was more spread out.

But it surely looks pretty seeing the whole branch loaded with almost all bright red cherries. 

Above is one of the trees located in full, deep shade. As a result the tree growth is very open, sprawling, and leggy. But it still produces quite a bit of cherries, and as you can see. Almost all are ready to pick at the same time. This surely makes harvesting easy this time around. 

A while ago someone asked me why I planted so many coffee trees in the deep shade rather than a spot with more sun, since after all the sun-planted trees would produce twice a much coffee. My reason is twofold. First, I prefer the flavor of shade coffee. Second, it's a way to utilize the shady locations on my farm. There's a limited selection of crops that will grow in the shade, and coffee is one of them.