Aloha Garden of Peace

Rod is our new guy for clearing our driveway! He has a 45 ton International bulldozer w/ a 13.5′ blade. He was referred to us by several people and we like him.

It is good that the work didn’t get done last Friday because we had only scheduled a small excavator and we added another leg to the driveway this morning. We will hand clear that portion today (Thursday).

Friday morning is a P.E.O. event at the zoo with Mark. Then we will collect tree ferns at a forest preserve. Invasive eucalyptus trees were planted there and will be clear cut. The Forest and Wildlife people issue free permits for removing tree ferns (Hapu’u) from that preserve. We think growing and clear cutting is the opposite of preserving the land, but we are glad to rescue these ferns. The trunk gets about a foot taller every ten years. A ten foot trunk would be a 100 year old tree fern, and MUCH too heavy to put in our truck.

One week ago yesterday was King Kamehameha Day, and with a permit, we harvested 10 tree ferns. The largest was a 4-5′ trunk which we named King Kamehameha and we got it from the “K” road. I posted several pics of last week’s tree fern adventure on Facebook.

Saturday all day and Sunday afternoon, we’ll focus again on preparing for the dozer. We need to disassemble, move, and reassemble Max so that the high spot it is on can be cleared and flattened.

Much love to all!!

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16-2016 Ooaa Road

(pronounced Oh oh ah ah)

No standard USPS mail delivery, but we saw a UPS truck pass on our road this morning!

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We did errands in Hilo today from around 8 am-6 pm.

First stop, community center proved fruitless (closed).

On our way into Hilo, we picked up a hitchhiker who was SO grateful.  He was on his way to CU Hawaii, but he didn’t know where it was, so it was good we helped him get there.

We drove into Hilo for the cheapest gas.  Around the corner is Garden Exchange where we got pallets last week.  They welcomed us to come back often, so we did.  Another 10 pallets loaded!  We’ll use them for building a composting toilet, floors for our tents, and maybe even walls for a screened structure.

We visited offices for Parks and Recreation and Forestry and Wildlife (obtained two permits for getting Tree Ferns).

We didn’t get library cards because it is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

We didn’t do laundry because we forgot soap but decided to leave our soap in the car from now on.  🙂 Not doing laundry enabled us to sit in on the Hawaiian Acres Community Association Board Meeting at 6:30 pm (hence access to WIFI and the post).

Having a Hawaiian Acres Farmers Market is being discussed right now– oddly enough, a controversial issue!

Blessings to all!

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Today is Saturday, June 8.  We are at the Hawaiian Acres Community center where they served pancakes for breakfast.  One resident and friend brought a large screen TV and his laptop and shared with those that wanted to watch various videos and podcasts about crop circles, UFOs, and conspiracy theory things.  Then the free lunch started and that is what is going on now.  Since Mark and I don’t eat meat, we are enjoying white sticky rice, fruit, bread, pb&j sandwich, and chips.  Lunch is over and post lunch chatting has commenced 🙂

Sounds like the easy life, but in the past 3 weeks, we have accomplished a lot!

*Cleared almost the entire length and width of our driveway!

*Purchased a new-to-us 1999 4×4 Ford Ranger extended cab truck!

*Made an appointment for our driveway to be leveled this Friday, June 14!

*Secured a 300 gallon tub for cheap (it had cracks, but right now works great as a place to shower in).

Stay tuned!

Much love to all and more pictures to come!

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We have named our truck Pahoehoe, meaning the smooth kind of lava. Our property is on this kind of lava and our truck is the same color as Pahoehoe. (pronounced pa-hoi-hoi).

Rachel being silly 🙂

Here is our new truck!  We are still on the Kona side this morning.  Last night (Friday, May 31), we had dinner with Ed and Marini Ballard at Island Lava Java with live music and an ocean view.

Here are the four of us! After ordering, it started to rain, so we moved inside under cover.

Today, we are going to go to the Farmer’s Market in Keauhou (near Kona) and snorkeling afterwards.

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Sunday – Wednesday

Sunday, May 26

Up at 6

Out on the road hitchhiking beginning around 8 am.

We got a ride on the F road (after walking almost a mile).  Our ride (Ray) was going our Ainaloa out to Pahoa, and we knew there was a road to Hilo from there, so we rode with him.  Once on the highway there, we walked in the rain for over half an hour before a truck picked us up.  A friend that we met in the airport in Maui was in the front seat and we are grateful to Anton for telling the driver, “Hey I know them, pick them up!”  Thanks Anton!  They dropped us off at the church and thanks to them, we were ten minutes early.

After church, they held a membership meeting that they let us attend.  After the meeting,  we went shopping in Hilo and bought fruits and veggies, and a bamboo flute.  Mark plays the flute pretty often :).

There was a Pow-Wow cultural celebration in Hilo with Native Hawaiian and Native American dances and reggae music.  A church member picked us up when she was ready and took us all the way back to our place!  Thank you Peggy!  At home, it was about 4 pm, we had lunch.

People have asked what we eat and so far, our breakfast is the same as before – raw fruits.  For lunch and dinner, we buy raw veggies (carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, avocado, and sprouts), seeds and nuts (walnut, cashew, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds) that we make into salads.  In the future, we may use the cabbage leaves to make wraps.  Below is a picture of our lunch or dinner salad.

Monday, May 27

Worked on the property the whole rainy day pulling ferns and cutting puna rose bushes.

Tuesday, May 28

Sunny and cloudy day.  Did a handwash “load” and we took the larger portion of our laundry into Keaau.  We left our property late (around 2 pm) carrying our laundry in a large plastic tub.  We are grateful that we didn’t have to walk too far either direction with our clothes.  While in Keaau, we also went food shopping again (it seems we need to buy food and charge our electronics every other day).

Wednesday, May 29 (today)

We woke early, dressed and ate six apple bananas each.  With pineapple in hand, along with our dry sack packed, we headed to the community center for the wifi to hear the online Wednesday church service and do some craigslist research for a vehicle.  It is already 3:13 pm!  We are sitting here talking to Erick and sharing Christian Science.

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