Aloha Garden of Peace

Yesterday was Sunday. We had a nice church service and our friend Glenn Johnson from 13th Church in LA was there at the Hilo Society. Below is a list in order of where we went/what we did on Sunday:
KTA (laundry soap)
Laundromat (4 loads)
Church
Gas
Lunch
Credit Union
Bike store (unplanned stop to see what they carried)
Home Depot (4 plywood, 13 8′ 2x4s, 2 16′ 2×4, 2 kinds of nails)
O’Reilly’s (tye rod ends for our truck)
Keaau Natural Foods (veggies)
Kurtistown PO
Kurtistown General Store (fruit)
Home

We got home around 4 pm. We did some work trying to level the pallets that we put in place on Saturday but realized that the pallets were not supporting the 2x4s. We met a contractor, Rob, in Home Depot who lives 2 blocks away. We called him at 8:40 pm and he happily agreed to come help with the project.

MONDAY MORNING:
Up at 5:30 am. Began work right away cutting Ohia trees. Stopped for breakfast at 7 or 8 am. Later stopped for lunch around 11:30/12. We had finished cutting the Ohias from the drive (but they all still need to be moved).

Rob showed up just as we had finished our salad. As discussed the night before, on his way to our place, Rob stopped at Home Depot and picked up 6 80lb support piers and 2 8’4x4s. He helped us build a solid 8’x 16′ platform for 3 hours (12:30-3:30 pm).

The third major project of today was the migration of “Max” and the rest of our “camp” to the new area. While the platform was getting built and nailed down, my job was to empty Max out except for the full size plywood box/bed that Mark built in ’06. While waiting for help to move the bed, we dismantled Max. Our very good neighbor friend named Andrew helped us move the bed and reassemble the structure in the dark!! After many thanks and Andrew left, Mark and I worked quickly to put the food and tool boxes, chairs, and other things on the platform under the tarp. JUST AS WE WERE DOING SO, it started to sprinkle! The precipitation lasted only a few seconds, but still, we were amazed and grateful that it never sprinkled or rained during the building of the platform or migration of Max. The tarp went on and I checked the phone for the time and it was dead. We have taken to eating meals in the truck (comfortable chairs, the armrest/console serves as a fine table for our salad bowl, windows, mosquito protection, etc). So I plugged in at 9:25 and the phone resuscitated at 9:28 pm. We ate our delicious spinach, mung bean sprouts, sprouted lentils and other legumes, dried cranberries, raisins, and sunflower seeds salad. We have just now reached 100% charge on our phone and it is 11:29 pm. Time to brush teeth. Tomorrow, Rod will be here between 8-9 am w/ his machine to clear our drive. Love you all!

Ps. A big thank you to Andy McVey for the headlamp and flashlight–we use them both EVERY night! Thanks also to Jennifer for the care package! We are so grateful!!

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