well hello again.

so, still no picture function available but yall are lucky i have the copy/paste shit down so i can at least copy a *u* because a ton of the keys still dont work. including the apostrophes and parentheses so thats why i dont have any, i really do know where they go, i like grammar and aint stupid (most of the time anyway).

so christmas is over! new years is next! my parents get here wednesday afternoon and we are going to take a few days off of the farm to hang out! we are VERY excited. gary and cindy! i am assuming there will be lots of wine and booze and beaches and lounging and i am looking forward to it.

today was just another monday on the farm. SLOW. mondays are typically compost days and today was no exception. first joe, jared and i flipped one of the compost piles in lehua. the pile is totally ready, it IS compost. usually when we flip them they are still kind of smelly and wet and there are tons of big sticks, chunks of crap and bugs. this one was basically dirt (GOOD dirt!). easy to flip (flipping consists of moving the pile from one spot to the spot directly next to it...putting the top on the bottom...etc. self-explanatory). THEN we got to build a new pile. it was a good one, almost six feet tall!! hopefully it will be a good one. we were a little disappointed today because the first pile we were going to flip was not good, it was just a pile of shit still (and woodchips). it was the pile jared, sarah, joe and i made our first week here. beginners. we concluded we did not have enough nitrogen (green leafy stuff) in the pile. too much carbon. oh well...next time.

well...thats about all that happened today. OH maybe not. joe and i also went around and harvested a shitload of avocados and clementines, a few passionfruits (they are almost done for the season and i want to put a sad smiley face here but the colon key doesnt work either, great) and other unknown oranges, and ONE starfruit (because a neighbor keeps taking them all, bastard we are gonna get him, maybe steal them back while he is at yoga).

it was fun. we have a new guy here, his name is david. and a girl that came almost three weeks ago, lala, and they are both doing the FARM challenge. only eat stuff from the farm. it is so easy here, we just get lazy of course. anyway, their enthusiasm for the challenge has made me realize how fricken lucky we are to have all of these vegetables and fruits all around us. there are seriously a hundred avocados in the tree right outside one of the gardens. how much are those back at the coop now? hmmmmmm? exactly, not free. this place is amazing. we are in a tropical paradise overlooking the green hills of maui, the ocean and a 300 ft waterfall. SPOILED!

since i havent figured out how to get pictures back on here, i fired up my old webshots account that surprisingly still exists! NO WAY. havent used it in like four plus years. here it is...ill start posting pics here! love everyone and MERRY christmas (late!)

http://community.webshots.com/user/chels82666


chels

works? doesnt work? who knows.

so, i have been having technical difficlties lately. one being my keys are starting to not work (the u being one of them, seven key, apostrophe key, eqals key, mins key...etc) it is very frstrating. maybe its ants? i saw ants crawling out of my computer a couple times, assholes. if it was, they have no idea the damage they have caused. AHHHHH. anyway, besides that severe issue. my internet doesnt work correctly. most of the pages i open crash. i got this one open by putting some /html after the link and sometimes it works. it took about 2 hours to figure that one out. still cant post pictues though. BuMMER.

so, that is why we havent posted in so long! computers suck! we are going to call joes trusty brother michael and he will solve everything because he is a genius (right mike?).

all in all, the farms still good, having fun, nice weather (way nicer than mn, ha!) and its almost christmas!!!!!!!! yay!!!!

tons of pictures to come!

love, chels and joe

the rains have arrived...

this is what today was like in a nut shell
sun hemp sprout forest!
joey planing MORE sun hemp
lettuce, yum
hoein in some rye seeds
joe and his sprouts
our cover crop seeds! mustard, rye, alfalfa, clover and sun hemp
chard!

me spreading some cover crop seeds in the never-ending rain


forgive us followers, it has been two weeks since our last blog post. OOPS. so, we got to the island and it was sunny and there were a few rains here and there, but basically no rain. sometimes a few sprinkles at night. and we were warned of the rains. and finally, they have arrived. today we spent the ENTIRE day working in the rain. it never stopped! it went from a sprinkle, to pouring, to misting, to pouring, sprinkling, regular rain, sprinkling, cats and dogs...etc. it was ridiculous. we were FREEEEEZIIIINg good thing we have a hot tub we can sit in for an hour and get our body temperature back to normal.

one of the most exciting things that has happened in the last two weeks is that we MOVED INTO A ROOM!!!! finally. just before the rains started. it's not just rain, it is the wind as well. SO WINDY here. i guess we are on an island in the middle of the ocean, not much for windbreaks out there. we even have a bathroom in our room! no midnight bathroom searching excursions alone in the dark, scared, almost falling into the pool. terrifying.

last week we had a "spa night" where a lady that works on the farm, Mohini, brought a bunch of crazy shit (clay salts, fennel, basil, ginger, hawaiian clay, cocoa, tons of other spices, flours and vegetables...) and we mixed up some body and face scrubs! it was awesome (the picture with all the bowls on the table...)

farm work has been going well. a few weeks ago we learned that all of the soil on the farm is shit (or lackthereof...ha!) and we pretty much have to start over. the managers ordered 40 tons of compost to try to enrich the soil and kill some of the billions of pests we have that have gone crazy over the last two years. we have also been mulching and planting a lot of cover crops (sun hemp, clover, rye, alfalfa and mustard). they grow so fast! it is exciting to see them all sprout. we have pictures! harvests have dwindled significantly but this makes it much more manageable and less chaotic every friday. we still feel like killing each other after friday harvest. it wears off in a few hours. we still have carrots, beets, okra, eggplant, basil, parlsey, cilantro, taro, chard and some kale. we should be starting to harvest the turmeric and ginger soon!

last weekend we traveled to the western part of the island. we drove around the north shoreline first and made our way around the entire side of the island. it was the craziest road we have ever been on, makes the hana highway look like cake. we stopped at a few lookouts, the nakalele blowhole, a cute valley town, saw a mushroom rock, a sweet beach (DT Fleming beach) with good waves for surfing if we surfed, and ended with a six pack of maui brewing co. beer on the beach for frisbee and a sunset. we pretended we were real tourists instead of having to go back to the rainy, superass windy other side of the island with lots of bugs and mud and farmwork. we were with a new guy at the farm, thackary (who also had the rental car!!), sarah and jared. the day was incredible. as if it wasn't good enough, we also got half way home, decided we didn't want to cook and turned around to eat at flatbread (a pizza place in town, doesn't beat pizza luce though, no way)! it was great. the only negative was that when we got back we watched apocalypto which is a horrible movie. mel gibson blows worse than the blowhole we saw on the northwest shore today. quote of the day by thackary: the nakalele blowhole is nature's bidet.

joey swimming on one of the last days we remember sunshine :( haven't been in the pool since (only the hot tub, it's rough)
grasshopper-gecko showdown on the ceiling of our tent. gecko ended up backing up and disappearing, wuss.
joey gettin some more coconuts
town view on our saturday escapade to the west part of the island





the nakalele blowhole


taro growing in the water! our taro on our farm is NOT grown in water (except when it floods)

halloweeeeeeeeeeen

soooooooooooo. last friday we went into town (paia) and a bunch of us ate at flatbread. it is a cool pizza place with a stone oven and good beer...etc. they also buy some of our produce from the farm...including the carrots that joe had harvested and cleaned THAT morning. it was pretty cool...eating it hours later. anyway...we got the awesome organic salad and the vegan pizzzza yum.

saturday was halloween...joe was a pirate and i was supposed to be his parrot, but i looked ridiculous. a smurf/clown maybe. the plan was to go to lahaina where there is usually a crazy halloween bash. wasted people everywhere, craziness. i wasn't that excited, kind of scared, as usual. people told us it has been lame the last two years because they are crackin down on the craziness. we hitched there and yes, there were a bunch of wasted people there. we were being corralled down the sidewalks by people and police. then we went into a bar and it was like spring break halloween maui. we weren't feeling it. so we left the group we were in (they had tons of fun) and hitched back to paia where it was hoppin! there was a drum circle, dancing, coolness everywhere. it was our style halloween. shoulda stayed in town!! all in all, we got to sleep in our tent instead of a random beach/alley which we had planned on. good halloween! warmer than yours! HA.

anyway...sunday we first stopped at twin falls (which is the last photo...) and then we went to a neighboring farm and got a little tour and then went swimming in the waterfall pools they have close to the property!! it was awesome. joe said it was a waterfall amusement park. there are the princess pools (which aren't very swim-worthy more for wading), then higher up is the queen's pool which was awesome, and then the KING'S POOL which was incredible joe says and it has a swing to jump in the water with...i guess it was amazing (sarah and i didn't go to the king's pool because it was late in the afternoon and there were 800 billion mosquitoes). it is our new favorite hangout. there were also coffee plants on the farm tour! we don't have coffee on our farm :(

miracle on maui!!!!

hello everyone...so....i waited (i know that is hard to believe but i did, patiently sort of) and turned my computer on this morning and it worked! FINALLY. so...we had a post we were about to post before the damn computer broke. here it is!!

these pictures are from our haleakala crater experience...which is detailed after...
















that second to last picture is a chameleon!! smashed on the road of course, we thought it was a dinosaur! a mini one. the other is a HUGE SLUG!!! whoa. scary.



soooooooo last last weekend we decided to visit the haleakala crater. spend some time with the crater man. we went with three other wwwoooofers (and two others joined us......later....). we planned on leaving at 7 but some people were late and i got mad and joe and i walked started walking to the end of the road to hitch hike. as things turn out, we waited and waited. i got more mad. then...the three we were going with came driving up in the back of a truck and picked us up. i guess i learned a lesson, maybe.

so we were on our way...we hitched a ride to the bottom of the crater. still had 22 miles to go. then we got a ride from a bride. we didn't know til we were in the bathroom at the top and the girl who picked us up was putting on a wedding dress! crazyyyy. the top of the crater is about 10,000 feet. we then hiked into the crater down to 6,930 feet to holua campground to camp for the night. the hike was absolutely beautiful. we were IN the clouds. it was steep. betty would have been scared the entire time, i don't think she would have made it! the hike was 3.7 miles.

we got the site, set up the tents and tried to warm up soup with wax heating stuff, worked OK. warm soup. as soon as the sun went down it was FREEEEEEEEEZING. joe and i froze. by freeze here we mean it was 45 degrees. which is pretty cold for hawaii, right? yeah it was cold. and the ground was HARD. the good part was there were BILLIONS and trillions and gazillions of stars (and this time, i am not exaggerating enough, HA). it was perfect.

so, there were two guys from the farm that were going to meet us at the campsite but we had pretty much given up on them by sundown. at about midnight, everyone was sleeping except joe and i because we were freezing and the ground was so hard, and we hear those two bastards walking into the campsite (which is barely a campsite...we only found like 3 spots). they hiked down the crater, in the dark, with flip flops. insane.

so..............woke up and saw the sunrise. then hiked out of the crater. i was starving and couldn't wait to eat but we had to hitch hike back down the crater. people were being assholes and not picking us up. but we finally got a ride...went to paia to cafe mambo and i had a spinach falafel nut sandwich YUM (sorry liz, no pictures). and FRIES. i was so excited. and a big swell IPA. joe got a tofu burger. after lunch, we basically couldn't move so we went to the beach down the road. life's rough.

fall has arrived here! it is SUPER windy. and kind of cold sometimes (nothing compared to MN though, ha). good thing we had the neighbor come over and cut all the coconuts out of the tall trees so they don't fall and kill me. joe is still working on his coconut tree climbing skills. he will be an expert by the time we leave.

see ya'll soon! hopefully my computer won't die again!!

Mouth numbing goodness!

We have this beautiful plant growing on the property. It is called spilanthes, what a badass name!

Spilanthes is a member of the Asteraceae family, the same as echinacea. It is also known as the toothache plant. the red and yellow cone shaped flowers are what you eat, it is nuts. Once eaten they stimulate the flow of saliva which cleanses the mouth, tones the gums, and enhances immune function. Spilanthes also improves digestion, eases flatulence(woohoo), improves the appetite, and helps to overcome nausea and vomiting by its stimulating effect on the salivary glands.it is so weird because it makes your mouth go numb.

Chels is still scared to try it, hopefully she will soon! I will try to post some more flora and fauna soon.

Bad karma

Hello all. So, things went downhill the last couple of days. My computer got the 'black screen of death' also known as kernel panic or some stupid shit like that. Joe has his own problems-phytophotodermatitis! From fricken parsley. Watch for that parsley. I blame this bad luck on myself. Bad karma. Last week I was running to the kitchen because it was raining and I accidentally squashed a toad. It was horrible. I still feel bad about it. I buried it with a hibiscus tombstone. So...don't step on frogs or u will get phytophotodermatitis and your computer will die.
Besides that we are good!! Hopefully update soon...no pics though so it's not worth looking at the blog anymore I suppose. Ha. We will try to fix it asap after apple steals all my life savings!

Mahalo, chelsea and joey
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

hiking day.........

hello everyone. today we hiked a shitload. well it seemed like it anyway. we hiked down to the top of the waterfall (doesn't make sense, i know, but it is down) and across the little stream to the neighbors property (where waylon and kaycie stayed on their honeymoon!) and took their trail down to the ocean. it was VERY steep. crazy. we weren't excited for the hike back up. when we got to the ocean view it was AMAZING. so we swam, saw a sea turtled and others fished. cornelius, one of the wwoofers, from germany, spear-fished with some random fisherman. kaylie, another wwoofer, from oregon, used a fishing pole the fisherman found at the bottom of the ocean. she didn't catch anything but claimed she had bites. so, after getting sunburned and really hot, we decided to hike into the valley to see the bottom of the waterfall. it took us awhile to hike up the entire stream but it was worth it! we were in a GIANT green valley the entire time. it was a jungly grand canyon (maybe not that big but it seemed like it). anyway...you will see the pictures. it was beautiful. then we hiked out and i barely made it all the way back to our farm. weak. now we are exhausted and going in the hot tub.

cornelius and joe, the TOP of the waterfall...this is on our farm's property

view on the hike down.

the hike down...

kaylie, cornelius and joe

look at how blue that is!!!

joe, pondering life

kaylie, trying to catch fish

me, wandering off

where we swam, you can see the two fisherman on the rocks! so small.

the hike down...

the waterfall