Monday, November 16, 2009

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)

Monday, November 2, 2009

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 :(