Aloha Garden of Peace

Yesterday, we went to the Maku‘u market and filled our food tubs again. Mom, we DID get a dragon fruit, so we look forward to trying it. We didn’t buy everything on the list yesterday (for instance, we bought a couple of soursop fruit last week). Also, we work hard to buy things that are grown as locally as possible and particularly not buy things that came from the mainland.

Fruits On Hand

Bananas!!
Soursops!!
Papayas
White Pineapples!!
Dragon fruit!!
Oranges
Tangerines
“Tree tomatoes”
Watermelon
Honeydew melon
Green bananas

Salad Fixings

Romaine lettuce
Bell peppers
Sprouts
Long beans
Tomatoes
Avocados
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Mushrooms
Broccoli

Pumpkin seeds
Dried cranberries
Coconuts (young and old)
Cacao pods
Dates
Cacao seeds
Sugar cane

The past few weeks, we have been pulling roots and earth out of our driveway, and there is much more work to be done. Today, Jim will deliver 3 loads (30 cu yards each) of rock to smooth some of it out. We are going to have him concentrate on the home pad and the drive closest to it (farthest from the road). We really hope the home pad will be closer to level when he is done!

We have planted approximately 38 planters using small cardboard boxes from our favorite grocery store (Keaa‘u Natural Foods) as well as using some other cardboard and plastic containers.

We now have a pond!! I think I may have referred to a large (300 gallon) water container that we got from Ace. These normally cost $300, but we got ours for $50! It was a returned item–the first owner allowed it to get cracks in the bottom because of misplacement. We used a product (Flex Seal) from Ace to seal the cracks and then recently it started filling with water. I checked it one day and saw the tell tale mosquito larvae! We went into town a few days in a row and Mark fished for mosquito fish and water plants. We also have a 4″ bottom feeder fish! It is fun to look in on the pond and see the fish swimming about. My guess is that we have more than 50 little 1″ fish swimming in our “pond” that is about 5.5 – 6 feet diameter.

Here is the row of “planters”

And this is what our “lanai” (porch) looks like

This past weekend:
Thursday:
Went into Hilo to pick up a permit for collecting tree ferns and take the computer to the Mac store. My 2008 Macbook was having trouble importing CDs; the conclusion-the CDs were a little too old and scratched and the CD drive a little too old to handle such scratches. Their newer computers could import when I couldn’t. We learned that Apple is phasing out having CD drives in its computers at all! That was a surprise to us! We were there for a long time hanging out!

Friday, we helped Mark Hansen for the 3rd week in a row to work on his water catchment tank using Cal Earth building methods. We enjoy helping him, and IF we build a Cal Earth style home, he may help us when we are ready.

Saturday, we collected another load of 10 tree ferns (Hapu‘u) with 3 other people this time. An open air shower around 4:30 pm. Brrr! Wind go away! The best time for a shower is around 3:30, but it is hard to stop work so early!

Sunday,
to Maku‘u to drop off friends, breakfast in the park near church,
met some new friends,
church,
free lunch,
Maku‘u market for shopping
home to pull up some more roots and earth.

So……. We have TWO WEEKS left!!

Below is a list of projects still to be done:

Roots and earth out of driveway
replace earth w/rocks
Paint platform floor w/ water sealer
Finish the composting cube/row
Screen put up around the lanai
Shower room built?
Build long platform for tents
Plant seeds and keikis
Sew Mark’s jacket
Church by laws
Aloha Garden of Peace Vision statement
Gates for our driveway
Strip bark and extra branches
from Ohia trees that were felled for the driveway
Deed change
Explore new paths

Two weeks from today is our plane back to the SF Bay Area for a week and then on to IL to pack our stuff in a month.

Much love and many blessings to all!!!
Aloha and Mahalo for reading!