OUR JOURNEY TO LIFE IN HAWAII, INSPIRING OTHERS ALONG THE WAY
Newsletter: Issue 6 - January 8, 2022
In This Edition
Happy 2022! We are having the time of our life!! We share an update since moving into our Bamboo Home, including photos and a Christmas video.
Note: Blue, underscore text links to more information; clicking on these, pictures or videos will open in a new browser window.
We would like to share with you our home and property decorated for the holidays via a musical Christmas video.
Christmas
Video
Lots of excitement as we moved into our new Kaohe Kai Hale (Bamboo Sea Home) in May. A few weeks later, we would have our first visitors with our Aunt Janie and cousin Debbie, which was really a great house-warming gift.
We have been enjoying connecting with the land and planting some ornamental trees, edibles and a small herb garden. Some plants were already established, like coffee, guava and mango trees. Lilikoi (passion fruit) is a vine and we discovered several growing up to the canopies of the Christmas berries; the property is covered mostly with these trees that get their name from the red berries that resemble holly berries. The wild tomatoes, which are smaller than cherry tomatoes, are delicious and prolific. They pop up in various locations so we are able to share these as there are more than we can consume. There is also a small patch of thistle berries that are similar to raspberries but a little less sweet.
We cleared a large area for an avocado orchard and have planted 7 varieties of trees that will fruit year round once mature; it will be complimented with several macadamia nut trees. Most of the clearing took us several months as we pulled truck fulls of materials and transferred to green waste areas on our property.
Recently we purchased a naval orange, Tahitian lime and a Meyer lemon tree, which will be planted in an area behind the house we affectionately call Citrus Hill.
Our neighbors gifted us surinam cherry, lychee and banana trees, pineapples, coconut palms and soursop, to mention a few. It will be a couple of years before most of these plants mature. One of our banana trees started fruiting, but we lost it in a recent storm; luckily the others are doing well and they are all sprouting keikis (babies). Because of our generous friends who share food and information, we get to enjoy, process, and learn about growing tropical plants.
There are a few projects completed, like the water filter / pump cabinet and a processing center that was build with leftover bamboo and granite from the house (photos below).
Laura used the processing table as an art area and created hand-painted ornaments for our Christmastrees as well as gifts for others.
There are also a couple other projects in the works. The first is a bar height dining table on the front lanai. The second is a tiki bar between the house and guest suite, which will include a sandbox area to sit with our feet in the sand while sipping a cold beverage. We have acquired 3 beautiful pieces of mango wood for these 2 projects from Kamuela Hardwoods, a saw mill in Waimea with a great selection of wood and exceptional customer service. Our good friends, Brian and Monika, have been a big help with these and other projects.
Our latest project is a perimeter fence around the house to keep out wild pigs who can destroy lots of plants in a short period of time. Our neighbor, Gill (Gill Pecceu Services), using his excavator, cleared an area behind our house and along the native rock wall on the north side of the house, which will be used as part of the enclosure. This was so much faster than our manual efforts! The fencing will go around the west, east and north sides. The rest of the property will be left wild and open. Gill along with his father, Captain Mike, will will help us install the fencing and gate. We are going to have 2 lava rock pillars built near the driveway entry into our property.
It has definitely been an adjustment learning to live mostly off the grid with water catchment and solar energy. We have grid power to the stove and as a backup. One example of how we have adapted is that we now recharge the Prius when it's sunny vs. while we're sleeping to utilize the power of the sun vs. draining the solar batteries. The dryer uses a lot of energy, so we recently implemented a clothesline, which comes in handy on cloudy days.
Despite some major challenges 2021 brought, we are grateful for the many blessings, including our wonderful friends and Ohana (family). Wishing all of you a healthy, prosperous and happy 2022!
