Lifestyle

This section shares our island lifestyle, such as our mostly off-grid solar and water catchment set up and the aloha spirit of our community. The weather is great most of the time with a perfect balance of sun and rain and constant trade winds so no need for AC or heat. We have no city garbage or recycling service so we do drop-offs at the nearby transfer station. We are more eco aware; for instance, we try to reuse things like using the empty laundry detergent container as a watering can. Since we don't have a mailbox yet, we make trips to the local post office on our way to town, which is a bit of a drive so those activities are strategically planned and food is stocked up.

We are 10 minutes to the nearest beach and have great neighbor friends and enjoy fun social activities, such as neighbor visits for food exchanges, to help each other with projects, or to enjoy happy hours. Laura and Monika love mixology and have created a Big Island Tiki Ladies website where they share their recipes for tiki cocktails and pupus (appetizers) with fun videos. We also occasionally venture out to enjoy other parts of the island. In addition to tending the farm, we also enjoy our long-time hobbies, such as yoga, reading, writing, cooking/baking, videography, and photography (see Laura's Photography site).

We love Hawaii's wildlife, such as the turtles, dolphins and occasional whale sighting. There are many species of birds here. Some surprises were finding red northern Cardinals and no Hummingbirds, which are not allowed as they would endanger pineapples. One creature unique to Hawaii is the Hawaiian Hawk, including a Golden Hawaiian Hawk. We have enjoyed their frequent flights overhead in pursuit of a meal or landing on our property to get a closer view (before we had our chickens!) Enjoy our short 2 min. hawk video.

Some say it's expensive to live in Hawaii, but we are eating home grown food, we have no heat or water bills, a very low electric bill, and we have free entertainment from nature, great friends, beautiful beaches and sunsets so it all balances out!