Settling Into Island-Farm Life

Today, Monday February 11, 2013, was our first day of work here at the farm. We arrived on Friday morning, exhausted after twenty-two hours of traveling and immediately overheated. It was HOT. Heather, one of our hosts, picked us up with her sweet daughter, the 1 ¾ year old Karuna, and drove us the half hour from the airport in her 1991 maroon VW van to our new home. Heather is still recovering from being super sick so she gave us a quick tour, handed over the keys to our truck, told us how to get to the nearest beach, and headed off to take a nap, leaving us to our own devices.

Kealakekua Bay, the beach just over a mile down the hill from the farm, our first adventure upon arrival on Friday

We poked around the property for a few minutes, stashed our stuff in our half tent half cabin home and as we halfheartedly began to unpack decided that it was too hot to do much of anything so we grabbed towels, threw on our swim suits and Dylan drove us down to the beach. We had hoped we would be able to walk but the Big Island’s hills put Seattle’s to shame. The roads are windy and there is no shoulder, let alone a sidewalk and the sun is too unrelenting to make a walk to and from the beach an option. But luckily we have a sweet old Ford Ranger, also maroon, to tote us around. So we made it to the beach, still in shock that we are actually here, in Hawaii, for four whole months! It still feels a bit like a dream, but starting work today helped the reality to sink in a bit and we are beginning to get used to the island-farm life.

Dylan poses for me on the lava rocks on our excursion to a really neat national park filled with the huts of the Royal natives who once inhabited this land. There was a tiny outdoor museum, lava rocks and waves everywhere, and a nature reserve for sea turtles, the park was named after them. Sea turtle in Hawaiian is "honu" we learned

Anyway, the beach was beautiful, warm, scenic, and everything you would expect of tropical paradise. There are palm trees everywhere, fresh mangos from the farm that burst with so much juice and flavor that you have to eat them over the sink. We got them all over our faces and the juice dripped off our elbows but man, are they the best mangoes I’ve ever tasted. We didn’t stay at the beach for long, only an hour or two to cool off in the water and feel the breeze on our skin. I took a few pictures while Dylan read a book in the shade. We loaded up on sunscreen but still managed to get a little burned. It has taken a few days but now that we have a bit of a base tan I’m hoping the burning will begin to decrease. Don’t worry though, I am vigilant with the sunscreen, refill our water bottles a million times a day, and stay in the shade as much as possible. We are clearly were not ready for this kind of heat!

The beach behind me is for sea turtles only. It was so beautiful and sandy, the beach where we went swimming is off in the distance behind those palm trees and was not sandy at all, just giant ledges of slab lava rock, the water was amazing though!

It rained Friday night, which I guess it hadn’t done in months, which meant our first night on the island was cool enough for a light comforter and was practically bug free. Heather and Paul invited us to join them for dinner, along with Daniel and Brenna who, along with another couple, make up all the members of the communal farm. We didn’t know before arriving that more than one family share the space on the farm but it works out great because it means more people tending the garden and they are really nice and super knowledgeable about lots of things farm-related. For our first dinner, on Heather and Paul’s porch with the ocean sunset in the background, we ate a delicious farm-fresh salad some brown rice with macadamia oil, a chipotle and butternut squash soup and a loaf of bread from up the street. It was delicious and the cool breeze of the evening made the soup a surprisingly nice touch.

View from one end of our cabin to the other, dresser and bookshelves at my back

Despite being Friday it was an early night for everyone except Paul who left for his weekly poker game while the rest of us headed off to our respective beds. Though it was only 7:45 Hawaii time, it was after midnight back east and after barely sleeping in the airport the night before Dylan passed out cold. I stayed up for about an hour putting away our clothes and trying to get settled in before I too could no longer keep my eyes open and feel asleep at just a few minutes before 9pm. Though we usually struggle to sleep in new places, both of us managed to sleep soundly until the sun came up. Along with the sun came the crows of roosters from nearby farms and the droning buzz of the many, many swarms of bees heading off the neighboring bee farm on their morning pollen run.

Another picture of the Sea Turtle reserve beach, you can see one of the native huts by the palm trees, they were scattered all over the park, it was really neat to see. Hawaii is every bit as beautiful and idyllic as one might expect, but to feel the sun and ocean breeze and see it all around you is more amazing than we could have ever imagined.

I have never been a morning person, and Dylan even less so, but in Hawaii, on the farm, we have quickly fallen into the farm schedule. The time change made this transition for us at first, but it just gets too noisy and hot to sleep much after the sun comes up. Also, it is so beautiful that we haven’t wanted to waste any time exploring. So far we’ve been to 2 different beaches, gone snorkeling in the clearest and bluest water either of us has ever seen, visited a national park and historical location, seen a sea turtle swimming a few feet away from us, and explored the little town of Captain Cook and its wonderful Saturday farmer’s market. All our food has come right from the three acres around us, with the exception of the loaf of bread, a cucumber, a bag of fresh macadamia nuts, and avocados that we picked up at the market.

Sea turtle lazing around Pu'uhonua o Hanaunau National Historical Park in the Sea Turtle Reserve beach, no swimming allowed here unless you are a turtle!

It has been a bit of an adjustment learning to eat exclusively what we have on hand, especially since there are no meat (a duck will soon be harvested though!) or dairy produced on this farm, but the freshness and the flavors are so delightful that we’ve hardly noticed what’s missing. There are plenty of farm fresh eggs though! Dylan has fully fallen in love with planning meals by wandering the garden and cooking in our outdoor kitchen; did I mention our kitchen/dining room is completely outside? At first I thought I wouldn’t be down with being quite so close to nature, but it has actually grown on me with alarming speed. I guess all those years of playing in the pond catching frogs and salamanders came flooding back to me as I watch the little green geckos climb up the wall next to me while I wash dishes under the awning.

This little gecko came to slurp up the mango juice we spilled on the kitchen counter

If you do not like lizards, I hate to tell you but Hawaii is probably not the place for you because there are at least four or five different species of lizards and geckos that we’ve spotted so far and they are not shy. At least once a day a gecko sneaks into our cabin/tent and into our bathroom, which is behind the wall of our kitchen (yes the bathroom is inside and is a regular bathroom, though the shower is outdoors). Today I even found an albino gecko hanging out on the inside window of the bathroom and Dylan found an inch-long baby lizard still trying to grow his tail perched on the faucet of our kitchen sink. I love the geckos; they are like neon-green, dry salamanders and they eat all the bugs in sight so we have become fast friends.

To my right is our cabin and path from the farm and front of the house, then the bamboo wall blocking in the outdoor shower and door to our bathroom which is attached to the garage so we are all the way in the back of the property, so very private

I don’t have a lot to report yet about our work because today was our first day and it mostly consisted of a big introduction to the regular farm chores like watering, weeding, dead-heading the plants (plucking off the dead leaves), feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, etc. I get to hang out with Karuna much of the time while Dylan does the farm chores but we tagged along today so that I could learn and so she could start to feel the rhythm of farm life so that when she gets older it won’t seem like chores so much but just part of the everyday routine. I like the idea that this little munchkin will grow up having such a close bond with the land around her and such a strong connection to the garden that sustains her. I hope that someday gardening, even if just a little bit, will be a part of every kid’s routine, if not at home than at school.

Dylan harvesting tomatillos in one of the farm's gardens

Anyway, life on the farm is pretty nice so far, despite the sunburns, the insane midday heat, the lack of cheese, and the bugs, and I think we are going to enjoy ourselves these next 4 months. I haven’t had the chance to start working with Heather on the preschool project since she’s been sick but she’s super excited about it and so am I. Oh, and I can’t forget to tell you that I caught a chicken today with my hands! Two got out and Dylan and I had to wrangle them back into their pen. He went around one side and I went on the other and he chased it toward me and I grabbed it gently but firmly around the middle and carried it back to the pen where Dylan opened the gate and let us in. I had gloves on but still, it was quite the adventure! Ok, well that’s all I have for now, I hope you enjoy all the pictures and please leave us comments to let us know what you’d like to see and hear more about and I’ll be sure to include it next time!