Subsistence Farming - Hawaii

January in Hawaii
(the rainy season in the rain forest)

First off - we fly what is called Non-Rev which means very small cost to us because our son is a captain on U.S. West flying an Airbus. It also means that we get to fly after all the passengers are boarded and they have extra seats. That is the stress part for us. It’s shameful to dislike the people who show up just in time to board, but we do, as we think “there go our seats.”

We had checked pretty carefully regarding our chances to fly from Phoenix, where we were visiting our son and family, to Oahu, Hawaii and were able to get seat assignments. Leaving Oahu for the Big Island where our daughter and family has a farm, was stressful. Two flights that left did not have seats for us, but did for other Non-Revs that rated above us. Finally the last flight to leave that night at 7 pm had two seats available and we got them.

We arrived at the farm at 9 p.m. Hawaiian time and were shown our cabin (more about cabins later) and we fell into bed as we had been up since 3:30 a.m. Hawaiian time. Hawaiian time is 6 hours later than on the east coast.

What a wonderful night; sleeping under a comforter completely screened in and listening to the many very hard rainstorms that come through. The air smelled great and you could almost feel the amount of fresh oxygen in each breath. We are surrounded by a jungle-like growth and beauty.

Early Monday we were awakened by the roosters doing their thing and announcing “another day in which to exceed.” They have the run of the 22 acres and are constantly looking for things, edible. They, unfortunately, seem to be on Phoenix time because they begin crowing at 4 a.m. The farm animals consist of 8 goats, two horses and 30 or more chickens.

The farm has propane gas (cooking), electric from 20+ solar panels and the rainwater is collected which is then filtered for drinking. The showers are outside. The water is heated through pipes running through a sun collector and you need to add some cool water to make it a pleasant temperature.

They have built cabins that they rent or people can take part in the work-trade program they have established. Visitor work in payment for being allowed to stay there. That means putting in 15 hours of work a week for cabin use.

The cabins are structures made from tree trunks as corner uprights which are tied in with poles made from branches from the Wili Wili trees. The whole structured is then screened and the roof is a huge tarp with 3 foot overhangs on each side. The floors are cement or leveled gravel covered with a unusual black tarp. When you are inside it seems like there is a mural painted on every wall, the scenery is that beautiful. It is primitive, but a nice way to live in harmony with the earth.

The John is just a trot down the path.

Breakfast was a ‘Smoothie’ that consists of fresh organic goat milk yogurt, macadamia nuts, local honey, fresh bananas and coconut, honey, vanilla beans and passion fruit all blended with ice (all the ingredients were either from their land or from the neighborhood). Something I was looking forward to since our last visit 14 months ago.

Then Karin, Scott & Lauren came to our cabin and we exchanged items and talked about the many things they have accomplished since our last visit. They have arranged things so they rarely have to go to town because they live off what they grow on their 22 acres and trade with neighbors for things they haven’t begun to raise, yet. They arise about 9 a.m. and after a leisure breakfast begin their four or so hours of upkeep and spend the rest of the day enjoying their life. They like to say that they always try to be up “by the crack of noon.”

When we walked their 22 acres to see what they had accomplished since our visit last October we saw a large number of really big invasive weed trees that had been felled (albezias). They are the type of tree that are now used by Hawaiian canoe makers and they have a man interested in hauling some of the trunks. The remainder of the wood will just lay where it dropped and revert to fertilizer in short order. Seems that everything happens quickly in a rain forrest. Things grow fast and return to the earth quickly.

When we mentioned to Karin that the mail she was sending out needed another 2¢ stamp, she was completely surprised. She said “I never heard about that.” And, of course, not having TV, except to watch DVD’s, they wouldn’t. They live in their own world here.

No one here listens to the radio. In fact they don’t have one. So unless someone had mentioned it in an e-mail, they probably wouldn’t know if we had engaged in another war. They live even more remote to world events than the Amish in Pennsylvania. And I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s a very relaxing life.

Today, Gail and I fought the good fight! We weeded one entrance side of the driveway. The weed (stink maile) is a running plant that sends out streamers and every foot or so it roots again. To remove it you have grab a group of those streamers and pull them loose. Not easy as I found out because a sore back muscle developed, but was gone by the next day.

It’s really fighting a losing battle against the rain forest. You know it’s only a matter of time when the weeds will again try to take over and eventually they will win. Think of what happens when a mall closes down and in a year the macadam is broken through by clumps of weeds.

We spent two hours today basking in the Hawaiian sun. Oh, I forgot, I did tell you about the weeding project, didn’t I? We had a pleasant shower afterwards.

Delicious spinach-like green leaf called edible hibiscus as part of our dinner along with local beans and breadfruit which taste and looks very much like potatoes. We had cornbread ground and baked by our granddaughter made from their corn and tonight we are having a roasted wild pig that they shot, butchered and have kept in their freezer. Smells delicious and my job is to keep the fire burning.

On another day Gail & I got up and had tea and oatmeal and then gathered some tools and went down to do more clearing at the driveway entrance. We decided that it would be best if we started before the sun got strong. After an hour or more we felt we needed some refreshment and walked up to the kitchen where Karin had a Smoothie for us.

Plans are to add a small pond with a tiny island in the center to protect the ducks they intend to trade for. The chickens and their eggs are menaced by a small animal called a Mongoose that they know will become a duck problem. Traps are set to catch Mongoose and once killed the parts become food for the chickens. What goes around, comes around.

One sunny day everyone made ready for a mile and half walk pushing empty wheelbarrows to the top of a hill where we could see the ocean. There were seven of us (one 21 year old male intern from Montana and a woman from France) and when we arrived at the coconut tree grove Scott explained how to tell the good ones from the bad ones. We filled up all the wheelbarrows and sliced three open to drink the milk, which really looks like water. It was very refreshing and when drunk through a straw using a hollow papaya branch, even better.

The mile and one half seemed longer coming back with our load. At the chicken area we dumped our load and Scott split a couple for the chickens to dine on. They also enjoyed the papaya we brought for them and the horses.

Lunch was fresh greens, breadfruit, mango chutney, pork and goat cheese. All fresh and all most delicious. Gail and I did the dishes while they went to do some chores. Now, to spent some time reading.
Getting older has it’s advantages.

Tonight we will be having papaya sprinkled with fresh lime juice, pork, fresh eggs and greens since last night Scott and Karin got home so late that Gail made pasta as she felt we needed to eat and go to bed. She just can’t wait to get me in bed. Been like that for years.

Our usual morning…… Gail & I get up around 6:30 and walk to the kitchen. Make a kettle of hot water for tea back at our place and I cook a couple of fresh eggs and have them with a piece of bread. The eggs have the reddest yolks I’ve seen and it’s because the chickens are free roaming like chickens used to do. While this is going on I check in on the internet for e-mail. We usually cut up two oranges to take with us and sometimes papaya with a sprinkle of fresh lime.

Each morning when we decide to rise there are at least three chickens sitting in a log outside our hut watching us. What an experience it is each morning to have 10 or 15 chickens follow you to the John and then hang around watching you do your business only to follow you back. I guess things are kinda slow for them here, down on the farm.

Because of heavy rain we sat around and talked most of the rest of the morning with Scott, Karin & Lauren. Lauren, who is 13 years old and going on 21, is home schooled and taught by Scott, Lauren and this year a teacher from Oregon. She has had various teachers and is an unusually versed girl. She tends the horses, chickens and milks the goats and does it all with a big smile. A very happy girl who sings and dances while attending her duties.

After lunch, Scott took a new intern, from Canada, around to explain what he wanted her to do. One of her jobs would be harvesting bananas. To do so you cut the entire tree down with three cuts of a machete. The tree is much like a huge celery stalk and grows back quickly. Once the tree is dropped you cut the large group (rack) of bananas free and take it back to the barn where it is hung from a rope which allows each ‘hand’ of bananas to be cut loose from the rack with a special curved knife and stored in the fruit safe. Yes, each tree produces one stalk of bananas.

Lunch was next and then off to clear some small trees and dig up three banana trees and transplant them to another area. The idea is that when trees are cut down something is going to take over that area and it’s best to plant what will serve the farm best. The banana trees are dug out using a ‘o o bar’ which is a 6 foot heavy mental bar with a point on one end and a chisel-like blade on the other. You keep pounding the chisel end all around the tree until you are finally deep enough to begin prying it loose making sure you have as much of the root as possible with it. Load them in a wheelbarrow and off you go to plant them. Then a shower for me, a lay-down listening to the public radio station on my radio, followed by ‘messing’ with my banjo.

This followed by dinner and then watching some DVDs. To bed at 11:30. The DVDs were sent here by our first daughter, Kathleen, who lives in Lancaster, Pa. with her husband.

Up at 6:30 and a breakfast repeat of yesterday. Reading until the gang get up. Then in preparation for the Permaculture Students visit, Karin and I dragged about 18 black tarps to another part of their property. Each tarp is 12 by 50 feet and is used to cover over growth that they want to replace or clear. It will lie there for 3 months when most things below it will have died. After that we replaced two gates; one to the horse corral and the other where the chickens used to stay and is now used as a rotating paddock for the horses.

There were 13 in the permaculture group that toured the farm and they seemed quite impressed with the tour and the information presented by Scott.

Next day up at seven followed by a trot down the path. Roosters have been calling from farm to farm since 4 a.m. Soon Gail should wake and we will go up to the kitchen to boil water for our tea and I’ll have a small dish of oatmeal.

Gail and I went down to continue our weeding at the entrance to the farm and after reported in for our daily Smoothie drink.

Lauren is riding her horse over to a nearby farm for her riding lessons. Karin, Scott, myself and a young intern guy are to bike to the mailbox and then harvest some Ironwood trees to use as living fence posts. A four mile trip. We brought back over 100 very small trees and spent the evening trimming each and planting each in it’s own pot.

Monday the 15th it rained all day and we adjusted rather well by having breakfast, talking, going on-line for e-mail, having lunch and then walking to our place to read and rearrange this ‘tale of no cities.’

I just realized that we have to start getting things organized and packed to leave Wednesday morning and here it is Monday. I haven’t shaved since we arrived nine days ago. I really shouldn’t let my legs get so hairy, but living in the forest like we have been doing certainly brings out the beast in a man!

Tuesday - oatmeal for me and a smoothie for the two of us. Called both airlines to be sure they had us flight listed. We shoveled cinders that are to become the pond in the future, wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow. After much sweating we were reassigned; Gail involved with the new garden clearing and future planting, I with Scott closing in the horse training circle with bamboo. Lunch was with an invited friend, Ann, consisting of her salad of yakon, tree tomatoes, orange and coconut, then wild pork burgers with homemade chocolate for dessert. Everything from their farms.

Wednesday - Up early again and packing to fly to Oahu. Plane to leave a 4:15 p.m. and Scott & Karin have borrowed their neighbor’s covered pickup truck to take us to the airport and then take care of a few chores in town. Raining hard all morning and we had to stand under the carport tarp to keep dry waiting for the truck.

At the airport we were told the flight was not crowded and we had no worry so we all went to lunch. We almost missed the flight because lunch ran a lot longer than anticipated. Karin drove quickly and we made it just on time. It was true……. the flight had open seats and for the very first time we were being called by name as we were going through Security. We ran with shoes untied and caught the flight.

Arrived about 5 p.m. on Oahu found a seat for our wait until our midnight flight leaves and hopefully with us on it. If all goes as hoped we are to land in Phoenix 8:50 a.m. Phoenix time. We truly decided that we were not going to be called for that flight as the take off time got closer and more and more showed up for it. It would mean a wait in the airport until midnight, next day.

We were called and spent five and a half hours trying to get sleep in our assigned seats. Gail got some and I didn’t because one leg would not settle down, so I walked a good bit on the plane. But, we were certainly grateful that we were on that flight.