Inspiration and Expiration

Sunday was quite the day as it tends to be but alas I’m loosing connection (kindof) with techmology and I forgot to charge my phone to take pictures of all the cool and interesting things that I saw. So, to satisfy your booboo craving of the day, here he is in all his glory, snoring away. You might think that the snoring is caused by his vertical sleeping position, but really, I just turned the picture because it looked better this way. Still unclear as if he actually snores and what the cause might be. Notice my coconut ashtray…

I decided to go to the big farmers market that they have on Sundays near Pahoa called Mu’ku’u market and so after walking the 1.5 miles to the usual pick up point and after getting a ride to Pahoa with a guy who thought global warming was a conspiracy, I decided to walk the rest of the way the market. I knew it was on the same road and I knew it was kind of far but after encountering someone who wouldn’t believe in the facts if I had showed him the figures, I decided the walk would allow me to think a lot about the world and all it’s inhabitants and all the different opinions about the earth and other humans. Turns out it was 3.5 miles away. It was alright though, because it was a nice warm day with some clouds and I worked up an appetite for the delicious and eclectic food that they have at the market. I got a delicious vegan sandwich, because it was cheap and had loads of organic veggies and some kimchee with shrimp. I ran into a nice guy that I met a few weeks who lives near the beach and he offered me a ride there. So that was nice not to have to hitch.

Anyway, Sunday. Beach Day. Social Hour(s).

Since I have been going to the beach now every Sunday since I got here, the regulars are starting to recognize me and I’m making friends with people and then get to hang out with them the next week. My whole day is spent walking around from one group to another and hanging out with people I’ve already met and meeting new ones. And of course I go swimming, but also dance to the drum circle music or hula hoop with this incredibly beautiful woman who wears feathers in her hair, or swing on a tree swing, or play with children and puppies or climb stuff. Sunday is always such a fun day but I’m always super exhausted walking up the driveway, in the dark, later then I stay up most nights.

This past Sunday, this girl Allison and I climbed the sheer rock wall at the back of the beach using roots from a tree growing at the top near the road. It was so exhilarating and something that I have wanted to do since I saw someone do it the first day I was there.

The ocean did bang me up pretty good though. I got tossed in this HUGE wave and smacked my face on the bottom and then a rock hit my head too. Ouch. My jaw hurts and I have a little tender bump on the top of my head and I had a nasty headache, but I’m pretty much okay. I was pretty lucky though because a nice woman named Jenny offered to rebalance my energies (she does reiki and healing massage) and her hands were incredible, she really helped and I think I would be in more pain today had she not done what she did. Unclear.

Then, a nice guy named Froggy, who plays in the drum circle offered to give me a ride and his friend Joshua jumped in to. The three of us ended up hanging out for a couple of hours and had some really good conversation. We also laughed a lot too, which is always a lot of fun and especially with people you’re just meeting.

This post isn’t really going where I thought it was going to go and I have a lot more to say about everything, but I feel like if I make it too long, you won’t read it. Especially since I’m not really stating anything extremely creative or profound. That’s where the inspiration part comes in. Since starting this blog, I’ve gotten into reading other peoples blogs and some people write so eloquently their personal social commentaries, or worldy observations, or comical retorts to pop culture, or they have extremely creative photographs and blog formatting. Ugh. I am hoping that this will help to improve my writing and that one day, my stories will have you on the edge of your seat in suspense. Just you wait.

Perhaps if I had some freakin’ feedback. C’mon, how come most of my comments are from my mom? Not that I don’t love an appreciate her more than anything, but throw me a proverbial bone here.

Do most cats snore?

Because, I’m pretty sure mine does. Now, just to preface, we had a cat named Cato when I was younger, but since I tend to be rambunctious and that tendency was accentuated as a child, Cato endured a lot of excited harassment. Well, I learned my lesson after a few nasty scratches to the face, but since have not really been a “cat person”. I haven’t ever sought them out at peoples houses and I generally think that why would you have a cat when you could have a dog. However, as of recently, I would estimate around middle 2009, I have started to actually enjoy the company of felines and after living here and being adopted by booboo, I’m really starting to cross the threshold into catdom. For instance, yesterday, I went on a cat tour and spent 10 or 20 minutes with a bunch of different cats scratching them and hanging out. This is too much for me and I fear the resultant need for feline companionship.

I tried to catch booboo snoring…

There are so many cats here that I could take a picture of each one and have soooo many blog posts. But, alas, I think if this became a cat blog, less of you would read. So, I’ll try and resist this urge.

Okay, actually, this is Snuffy and he is extremely cute. I like to call him Shabby though- it  just fits better, I think.

Work this week was pretty good, a couple of the grafts that I tried actually worked! The big project I worked on was constructing and installing irrigation lines for some new troughs that we also prepped the soil for and planted keikis in at the end of the week. This is the first time in about 3 years that all three bays of the greenhouse have had plants in them and is an accomplishment and a step towards making this a profitable business. Speaking of which, Becky told me that when the middle bay starts producing in a couple weeks, she’s going to start giving me a stipend. Michael told me that she has never offered that to a WWOOFer before. I know that I wasn’t too worried, but it’s really nice that she likes me and I’m glad because her life has been really stressful lately and I want to help make it easier. 

Here are the newly planted keikis in the foreground (notice the excellent craftsmanship on the black irrigation tubing), the teenaged tomatoes in bay 2 in the middle ground and then way in the back, you can sort of see the oldest crop, which is on it’s final legs of production. That crop was producing 50 lbs a day at it’s prime with an average of about 20lbs a day for about a month. Pretty cool.

Alright, well it’s Sunday, which means it’s beach day. But first, I think I’m going to go to this thing called E-dance. It’s club dancing to techno and house music and the like at 10:30am to get your endorphins up every Sunday morning. I have some friends who’ll be there, so I think I’m going to attempt to meet them.

Although I miss the changing leaves and fall and layering, I so love the fact that it’s the middle of October and I can still go to the beach.

Sissy Hankshaw’s thumbs.

I have really been getting used to living here, which is awesome, but it means that I’m also getting used to all the crazy/funny/strange things that happen to me day to day but I forget that they might be significant enough for you to want to know.

I’ve been reading this great book,Even Cowgirls get the Blues by Tom Robbins and it is really resonating with me. Not only is there a lot of intelligent liberal hippy philosophy but the main character has enlarged thumbs that were made for hitchhiking. She, therefore, makes that her life’s passion and it has really been inspiring for my hitch hiking adventures.I think that it’s one of my favorite things about living here. I usually have to walk about 1.5 miles down the driveway and to an intersection before I can get a ride, but the other day I walked about 3 miles before I got a ride and on Monday for some reason my hitching was off and I was having terrible luck getting a ride and ended walking about 4 miles. Anyway, my new favorite method of travel is in the back of someone's pickup looking at the coast and the trees and everything with a 360 degree perspective. It’s really incredible. This is the intersection in Pohoiki (by the hot ponds) that I stood at for awhile the other day waiting for a ride…

This was on Monday I think, when I went into town and hung out with some of my new friends, Richie- a cute gay boy from Southern California and Sam- the cutest boy from London who keeps a totally raw diet and is extremely interesting. Then, the three of us caught a ride ( we put the good karma out there by singing to the cars…) to the tide pools, which are a little bit farther north from the hot ponds. You have to go through this development to get to the tide pools, which is kind of weird, but they were incredible and the snorkeling there was a million times better then at the hot ponds. There are so many cool fish and corals growing on the bottom and the water was so clear. It was beautiful and Sam shared fresh macadamia nuts with us, that we had to crack open with a rock.  

Hanging out with them has been the highlight of my week so far. After the tide pools, while we were waiting to get a ride we got coconuts out of a tree and had a good time cracking them open. I really really love living in an environment that is conducive to eating from the side of the road. Then we went to the ponds so that I could do my laps and the plan was to meet up with Michael so he could give me a ride back to the farm, but we got there after he left so that’s when I had to hitch and had such bad luck. Anyway, I saw this on my way back to the farm and it’s pretty much the only piece of graffiti that I’ve seen on the island. I like it.

 

I’ve pretty much lost most concept of time or dates. It’s interesting and sort of unnecessary, but I do always make it to the beach on Sundays. Sometimes Saturdays too, but this past week I got there really early and it was raining. So, I went to the back of the beach where the cliffs begin to stay dry. Well these rocks just scream “Climb Me!” and so I did. Here, I’m sitting on a ledge about 20 ft up. The view of the ocean was incredible and I really enjoyed it up there and stayed for a long time. The beach on Sundays is so much fun, people are just everywhere smoking and drinking and hanging out with each other. I meet new people every week and it’s really nice to come back and see familiar faces. My favorite beach guy is OCN (unclear how to spell his name, it’s Celtic but it sounds like the letters O-C-N) who is from Poland and has long silver hair. He has the kindest eyes and we always have a good time talking together.

These two pictures are from last Saturday on the cliffs by the beach. This guy Skyler and I hung out all day and ended up here near the beach. I really can’t get over how incredible it is to live this close to the coast and to be so near to water. I’m so close in fact that at night I can hear the waves crashing against the coast about 1 mile away. Cool.

You can kind of see in the picture above the small steps that you have to climb to get up from this spot we were hanging out in. Cool. But totally dangerous, it’s kind of crazy how vulnerable one really in by being in or near the water. Two days ago, when we went to the store at Kaimu Bay ( near Kalapana, where the cafe is),there were all these emergency vehicles around including a boat. Apparently, a local surfer got swept out to see. I read in the paper today that they still haven’t found the body. Pretty sad, but one thing I’ve realized is that the ocean is not very forgiving here and you have to be smart about getting into the water. Note taken.

Alright, that seems good for now. I’ll try and be more frequent and less long.

Bear Flag

Okay, something exciting happened this morning. Becky was taking a walk around the property with this guy Carl who sells her shit from Bali and stayed over last night (he brought all kinds of dessert and ice cream, which is such a treat). Anyway, she found a dozen pot plants not 20 ft off one of the trails and she was like WTF? and obviously ripped them out. They weren't hers and she could get in some deep shit for that (Green Harvest flies around on the regular) so she's pissed. We think that we know who it was, a guy named Arthur who was working here and lives up there and he's a Rastafarian of the sort of evangelical type, which ultimately got him fired. It's a long story, but still, the audacity of someone to grow on someone else's property.

The ponds have been real cold the last few days. It's been amazingly refreshing and I am totally getting into swimming everyday. I almost don't want to get a job so I can keep this routine... (ugh. I need a job...) Back to the ponds, because even writing about them relaxes me, it's been high tide in the early afternoons when we get there ( I really like knowing the tides and watching them, I check them in the paper everyday) and so the water is really high and pretty cold. The other day, when I jumped in I was the only person in the ponds for like 5 minutes. Oh, the little joys...

As a preventative measure, Becky decided to set up a tent in the greenhouse and make a mannequin wearing an afro. (I'll take a picture of this set up tomorrow...) But, when she was making the get up this morning, we put the wig on Mavis..

Alright, it's almost time for me to go to bed. I've got a little bit of reading to do in a really good book and then it's time to snuggle up in my sleeping bag with my little boo boo (omg, I'm becoming a cat person... I'm not sure if I'm happy about this- no, you're right, I am.) Here he is for scale... 

 Yep, definitely becoming a cat person. Here's one of Darcy eating an avocado. I couldn't get over it so I had to take a picture.

Tomorrow at work I'm going to rig up some irrigation lines with hosing a spaghetti wire (small plastic tubing I cut off a big roll today that will be attached to emitters and spray water at the base of every 2 plants). Then, I think that Becky and I are going to do some grafting. We're going to mix and match root stalks and plant stalks of a few different varieties that we planted a few weeks ago. It's going to be a pretty interesting experiment. I'm also about to watch this video on grafting tomato plants, if you're really really interested and trying to put something off...

Oh, and this is Bear Flag, in case you were wondering. Delicious, plus it's marketing totally worked on me.

 Umm, a different cat just vommitted next me... Cats = -1.

Getting to know you....

Ugh, I am seriously lacking in the regular posting department. I think I figured out why though; I'm finally getting familiar with the farm and with work and with living in this area. It's nice to know some of the roads around here and the names of the towns and it's good to have people to hang out with at the beach.

Things are going well, nothing too crazy has been happening, but perhaps I'm just getting used to some of the more ridiculous aspects of working on a farm and living in a small community. I really like it though. I'm pretty glad that I'm not going to bars all the time and doing stuff like that. I love being outside all the time and now that it's getting cold on the east coast, I am seriously reveling in these hi-80's days.

It's been raining here the last few days! The catchments are slowly filling up and hopefully this is the beginning of the rainy season... It's been pretty glorious hearing the rain on my tin roof and boo boo really appreciates having a roof to sleep under. Boo still hasn't gotten over the biting thing yet but I think he's just persnickety about how he likes to be touched. Understandable.

I've been reading a lot of fiction, which has been good and entertaining seeing as we didn't have electricity for a few days. I'm reading Even Cowgirls Get The Blues by Tom Robbins. Obviously, Michael gave it to me and apparently it's a hippy stable book. Pretty entertaining so far and I'd really like to meet someone like Bonanza Jellybean.

Umm, what else? The fridge broke, so we had to get a new smaller one. The fridge is powered by the generator but only gets charged for 5 or 6 hours a day making things go bad real fast. I also learned that salt and the tropics don't get along.

Alright, alright, I'll do something here soon that's exciting and I'll post pictures or tell you about it or something.

Armed, but not very dangerous.

We got us some guns! The little gang that has emerged here with the Mikes and I, now have some weaponry. We all got different kinds of air-soft guns. Mine is a semi-automatic/single shot spring/battery powered thing, Mikes is a CO2 powered pistol, and Michaels is a spring powered pistol. They’re pretty fun except Mike is being a kill-joy and won’t let me shoot it in the car or in public anywhere. Something about not wanting to get arrested. Whatever. (It’s really difficult to convey sarcasm via the written word). The gun shoots through leaves and I shot a chicken kind of by accident and it wasn’t very happy. But, I did shoot myself in the foot and it’s not that bad. Anyway, endless entertainment shall ensue…

   That’s the big news for the day. I did have this whole plan to go to the Kona side to see the woman I met on Sunday, but it didn’t work out. Bummer. I’m starting to make some friends that I recognize around town and it’s nice to be integrating into the community. It helps that I hang out at the beach, I was there yesterday and it was glorious. There was a guy who was playing the flute for awhile and it was just beautiful to hear nice music and watch the waves and the horizon. He was also the guy who told me I looked lovely while I was naked. That was a first. I’m not used to the attention that I’ve been getting from men here, but that’s a-whole-nother post…

I definitely feel like I’m becoming part of the family on the farm though. Becky really likes me, which I knew she would, and that is apparently a pretty rare thing. She also has a shop in Pahoa called Jungle Love (who are the #1 sellers of Pure Hemp Rolling Papers in Hawaii) and I’m going to help her to screen print some t-shirts AND there is a christmas parade that they make a “float” for and my participation is mandatory.

I feel extremely lucky to have ended up where I did and with whom. I really feel like I took a shot in the dark (totes into this gun thing…) and ended up here and it was as if I was just meant to come here.

My big weekend out…

I had a really great weekend hanging out with new friends! On Saturday, I went to see the place that my friend Briana was staying at (she moved on Sunday), which was this really cool eco-tourism hostel type of deal called Hedonesia and there was a giant crater on the property. Very cool. Then we went to Hilo for the block party music festival. Hilo is about 25 miles away from Pahoa and we had an incredible hitch hiking experience getting there. This guy named Mark picked us up and he was just cruising around but he gladly drove us all the way there and not only that, but we spent 2.5 hours with him as he drove us around Hilo and showed us all the incredible spots that I have got to get to. He blazed us out and was so incredibly friendly, it was incredible.

We stopped on the beautiful coastline and I cannot believe I live in such a beautiful place. I, of course, went hopping across the rocks to get to the waves and it was funny to re-realize that most people don’t hop around the way I do.  Here are a few pictures of how incredible it was.

Here are Briana and Mark inland…

And! a rock with a bunch of Olivine in it! Olivine is a really cool volcanic green mineral.

Then, he took us to the Boiling Pots, which is a sunken out lava tube filled with fresh water. It’s called the boiling pots because there are really really deep channels and canals under the surface that produce really strong currents that spin the water and make it look like the water is boiling. Apparently, it’s kind of dangerous sometimes to swim and people have dove in never to surface again. It was an incredible sight and I will definitely go swimming there sometime…

 

Mark dropped us off right where the action was just beginning and Briana had a great time listening to the music (mostly reggae and Hawaiian music) and we met up with some of her friends including this really cool family, who we ended staying with on Saturday night in a town called Volcano. I was all amped up to try and camp out in Hilo, but Briana thought I was crazy and even though I brought a sleeping bag, after it rained for awhile and I saw how many cops were there that would have been likely to kick us out, I conceded and we slept at a house. With walls. It was kind of weird, I’ve gotten really used to sleeping outside with the bugs and the sun. It was actually cold up there, at about 3,500ft, and it made me glad to live in the jungle. The family we stayed with have lived all around the world and one of their daughters was with them who is my age. They’re really neat hippies who have lived in Australia, Greece, India, and all over.

Anyway, since we slept in Volcano, we didn’t go to Liliuokalani's birthday celebration, which I was bummed about but Sunday was a really good day anyway. After a lot of shenanigans with the family we finally made it down to Kehena beach for the afternoon. The waves were especially entertaining and the beach was pretty busy, which was fun.

I made a most incredible connection with this woman that I first met about a week and a half ago, who showed up a little before we left. She is just visiting from Colorado, but the moment that we met, we had this incredible palpable connection that just expanded as we were talking on Sunday and I was saying all these things that I knew she needed to hear. I’m not sure where all the sageness was coming from, but she’s in a transitionary period in her life and I could see the things that I was saying were positively effecting her. I don’t know. It was just incredible and I really hope that I see her again in my life.

As amazing as it was to talk to someone who I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet, what happened next was even more of an experience.  I went to krishna pizza, which is a chanting session and a free dinner sponsored by this guy who owns a really big organic farm/hare krishna community. This wasn’t a regular hare krishna thing, It was rock n roll hare krishna with guitars and drums and a keyboard. I really got into it and dancing and stuff, there is something about chanting with a bunch of people that really makes meditating easy. I really enjoyed the experience and the food was sooo good. There was home made pizza and dal and greens. It was so good and the community that gathered there are really interesting and I can’t wait to go again.

The whole weekend I had really good luck hitch hiking. For instance, after krishna pizza, it was really dark and I was nervous about hitching, but the first car that passed picked me up and it was so easy.

Conclusion: The aloha spirit is incredible.

Ding Dong the pig is dead…

 

(I’ve tried to post this a bunch of times and I’ve changed it because things have become irrelevant. I got a bit lazy, but I’ll try and be better for who ever is out there reading this)

Monday morning, Becky was on the phone with this guy who was going to come and deal with the pig and take it and process it for meat when suddenly pow pow pow pow pow pow. The crazy neighbor, whose name is Iam (like I am- I’ll tell you the story later) had shot it in her garden. But she didn’t just shoot it, she unloaded a whole round from a pistol into it’s head. Oy. But the reign of the pig has finally ended and it has made a marked difference in the calmness level on the farm, especially in the mornings. Becky was so excited she went out and got a cake!

The other day, we went to visit the family of pigs that were left behind and I collected a bunch of fruit from the ground and all over to give to them. I gave them star fruit, coconuts, lilikois (passion fruit), mangoes, and noni fruit. They were so hungry… but hopefully, the guy who came and took the dead thing and is making it into sausage for us, has a pig farm and might take them so that they can be cared for better. Today, I was the only one around when the kid finally came and he asked me if I had seen a big pig running around. I was like uh… But I told him and he was not very happy about it. Ruh row. Here are the cute babies…

 

The other day I saw this incredible rainbow as we were driving back from the ponds. It went from the ground to ground and it had all the colors. There was even a shadow rainbow too. Very cool. This is right at the driveway into the farm from the lava viewing access road.

 

Oh my gosh, this post has taken me entirely to long to put up. I am really going to try and do better. This weekend I’m going on an adventure in Hilo with a new friend. We’re going to a radio station concert on Saturday night and then a hula festival on Sunday morning to celebrate Liliuokalani's birthday in that park that Michael and I ate lunch in a few weeks ago. I will definitely post pictures and next week I will be more diligent.

Lastly, a few more highlights from this week:

~I saw an eel in the hot ponds! and it was opening and closing its mouth. I swiftly swam away.

~ Still no guns, but we’re working on it…

~I tried Rambutans- a wonderful interesting looking fruit that is related to lychee. Very delicious.

~In the greenhouse, I’ve been tending to the keikis and they are growing up fast! They look great and pruning/weeding is pretty fun and the repetition and individual care to each plant is sort of therapeutic. Becky and I also made some mulch/fertilizer/soil that we use for just about everything from a lot of horse shit, microbacteria, cinder, etc including a lot of natural additives that will promote quick decomposition  and a healthy biological environment. Way cool.

~The tomatoes that we grow here are seriously some of the most gorgeous delicious tomatoes I’ve ever encountered. They’re incredible. Here, be envious…

How Rude!

It's hard to believe that I would be in the middle of the jungle in the early morning sweating profusely as I chase a rogue pig down the road with a shovel.

The pig was back again this morning. The pig has been back every morning for a week, actually. I was awoken at about 6:30 by him (his name is Bouli apparently) crashing around the jungalo. Becky has been chasing him away every morning and trying to re secure the pen down the road at the farm where he belongs but he keeps breaking out. Anyway, I chased him away but he went towards the greenhouse and Becky is paranoid that he's going to get in there and if he does he could cause thousands of dollars in damage. He already has broken two of the water containers for the dogs (he drinks from it and then knocks it over and rolls in it, because he's a pig) and eaten the dogs and the horses food. Anyway, Becky comes around and grabs a shovel and chases him down the driveway, but she's wearing a dress because she's getting ready to go to the store, an she is getting really pissed about this situation. Well Bouli came back not 20 minutes later and this time went under the house, where he could easily knock pipes loose and stuff, and Becky ran to get a firecracker while I watched him. The firecracker didn't phase him at all and it could have lit the house on fire, but he finially came out and I chased him away with a shovel. Apparently, the owner hasn't been feeding them or giving them water and so Becky feels bad, but they're not her responsibility and Bouli has been wreaking havoc.  The owners father lives down the road and he told Becky to shoot it to show his son what happens when he doesn't take care of his animals but Becky has resisted all week. I think this morning she had it though and I think Roach and Wolfgang are coming over later to shoot it. I'm pretty sure I don't want to be here for that so I'm about to get ready to go to the beach. Going to Kehena on Sundays has become something that I look forward to all week...

In gun time, every day is a fucking year.

I’ll go in order. The day before yesterday, we went over to one of Michael and Becky’s friends house who lives a couple streets down from Eric. We had to be in the area because Eric owed Mike money and he has been dicking him around- (side note- if you’re following the saga- conclusion made: Eric is a sleaze ball and nobody really likes him)

Anyway, get this: the guys name (self proclaimed-duh) is Wolfgang VonBongclogger. HA! His real name is Gary. And I met their other friend, Roach, who used to be a bull rider. He has really cool tattoos that I’d emulate. But Wolfs girlfriend, Kathy #3, showed me all the cool plants around. Here’s a real live pitcher plant!: They’re carnivorous and you could see the fly guts in the pitchers.

  

This is called a Hellaconia- it was really cool and I split one open and looked inside, which was also really interesting.

These! are what the seeds of a bird of paradise tree look like. You know those cool flowers that look like birds? Of course a flower as cool as that would have little orange pom pom seeds.   

And this is another tiny frog that I captured in a bowl of water. They’re baby coqui (because they make a co-kee sound) frogs, which are an invasive species and they are really loud at night.

 

And yesterday I bought a bike! I found one on craigslist and we went to Hilo and I got a bike for $50. I haggled it down from $60! It’s pretty nice too.

My other purchase from yesterday was airsoft sub machine guns on the internet for the Mikes and I. We sort of have a gang. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait until they arrive.

Today was pleasant, I spent the morning weeding and cleaning out an outdoor garden and then I shoveled a shit ton of horse shit and dumped 5 wheelbarrows full into the soil to help prepare it for when we plant beets in there.

Then as per usual, we went to the ponds. Swimming everyday is so glorious and this water is so easy, floating and swimming about is easy and the water is usually pretty warm. It’s so pleasant and relaxing and it was a good way to get off all of the sweat and dirt and residual manure that accumulates during work.

I had an interesting experience today where I met two little kids. They had short hair and so I assumed they were boys and when I asked the guy with them if they were his boys he said “they are their own girls”. At first I didn’t understand and then I felt like and asshole for acting so unenlightened about gender and succumbing to stereotypes. Unclear. They were really nice though and they go there a lot, so I think I made some new friends today. Keiko is 8 and Keely is 6 and I tried to teach them front flips even though they were really good at back flips.

Until next time…

I guess he’s more of an X-Box and I’m more of an Atari

…gotta love Cee-lo.

I was really worn out from my hike on Sunday but it didn’t really hit until yesterday, but I crashed out at like 6:30pm and slept right until 6:30am. It was crazy, I woke up at midnight and thought it was really late but had already slept 6 hours. Needless to say, woke up well rested and ready for work. Apparently I even slept through the giant pig coming back and Becky chasing it away from near my cabin with a broom.

I really enjoy work and it feels so good to be able to say that. There is no reason not to be doing what you want to. I feel like I was a piece of a puzzle with a pretty obscure shape and I fit perfectly into a little notch on this island. Apparently, I’ve been reduced to analogies.

Anyway, this morning I planted 500 tomato seeds including the Geronimo variety :) and I continued to work on hanging string from the greenhouse ceiling and clipping them to the keikis for support. Here’s a picture of the progress.

I also decided that I’m going to make a stop frame movie charting the progress of tomato plant growth in the greenhouse. It’ll take a few months to take the pictures, but I think it’ll be really cool. I know you’ll be holding on to your seats in anticipation. But in the meantime, here are some of the beautiful tomatoes that are ripening in another area of the greenhouse

 

I saw some guys surfing yesterday and I really got to thinking about it and how much fun it looks. I really have to try it. I am such a water baby and why wouldn’t I want to play on the water and go really fast on a board? It’s on the list. Here’s the beach where they were surfing…

A cat has adopted me! It’s name is Boo Bear, but I call it Boo Boo. It (unclear of gender, but who cares, anyway?) just started hanging out at my cabin rubs against my legs whenever I come through. Boo is really cute and when it wants me to keep petting it, it gives me a little love bite on my finger. Pretty cute, but I haven’t decided if I want it to live in my house with me yet. Boo keeps scratching at the front screen and I feel a little bad. Here we are…

I also saw the tiniest frog… so freaking cute.

What a day

So I was trying to sleep in on my day off but at about 6:30am I heard a commotion in the driveway in front of the tree house. Well Becky was yelling about something and I had to go to the bathroom anyway so I got up and when I walked over, there was a fucking huge pig that had escaped it’s enclosure next door at another farm. It was this giant male pig who was not having it when we tried to put him in the chicken pen. He burst his way out and it was quite a sight all of us running around trying to figure out what to do with this pig. And as this was happening, of course the heavens finally open and it rained for real. A good down pour but sort of inopportune. Hopefully we’ll keep getting rain like that. Here’s the pig and Spider Man, who finally came back!

Then for breakfast, Michael and I had extra special cookies and today was deemed the lava walk day. We’ve been trying to go out there for days, well actually its only been a priority for me, but I got Mike and Michael to come along with. Well, it took a little bit more time to get across the lava field because everything just looked so incredible. The colors were fantastic and I saw a lot of rainbow lava rocks, literally. I also saw this heart shaped lava rock that I really liked…

We had a nice snack and a break when we got to the coast before we walked along it to get the new lava. The waves crashing against the coastline emitted the earths heartbeat and I could almost feel it. 

Then we walked up the coast towards the lava and I don’t think it matters how many pictures I take, it cannot capture how truly incredible a sight it is to walk up to this giant plume of steam coming from the lava entering the ocean. As we were walking we came upon a newly deposited black sand beach. Tiny particles of lava spew into the ocean during the eruption and the currents carry them down shore and throw them up and form a beach. Michael said it wasn’t there a month ago. So we hung out for awhile on one of the worlds newest beaches…

It was phenomenal, and then we realized that the sand close to rock that I was sitting next to above was radiating heat. We went around the side and tried to dig a hole in the sand but it was too hot to touch. Cool. But actually, Hot.

Then we walked towards the lava and we walked on a lot of really fresh flow. So fresh that remnants of the trees in the path of the lava were burned down all around.

My favorite were the holes that were left in the lava from where a tree was taken but by the time it had fully incinerated, the lava had cooled into a hole.

There was this really cool old Hawaiian rock wall that had also been partially taken:

And then we went closer to the most real cloud factory ever. I have so many pictures but none of them can really do this incredible sight justice

   

In those pictures, the higher ground is the old coastline and all of the lava lower down are all new flows. So, I was also standing on some of the newest land on earth too. Here are some of the old coastline where you can really see the new flow coming over.

 

The yellow there is sulfur deposited on cracks from gas seeps.

All in all, we were out hiking for 6 hours. It was a really good time and when we got back, Michael and I decided to get burgers and beer for dinner and it was just delightful.

Now, I’m exhausted and so ready for another week of work to start.