New Year's Visitors

One of the biggest adjustments in moving to an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is the lack of family contact, especially if your family is a close-knit one like mine.  We may go a while without hearing from one another (hopefully not too long!), but as soon as we're together again, we are immediately comfortable and can pick right up where we left off.  So it was my great good fortune to be able to start 2012 with lots of family visiting!

First off, on New Year's Day, my Dad arrived.  We immediately whisked him off to our friend's New Year's brunch, followed in the next few days with little trips to town, a soak in the warm pond, working on the lanai (see previous post), as well as much laughter and talking and taking turns cooking for each other.  It was a lovely and relaxing time.  He got to stay for a good long week, overlapping with our next visitors: Lori, Dave, and Acacia.

Poor Lori arrived with a broken toe and had caught a bug on the long flight over, so the first few days were pretty low-key. This did have the bonus of allowing baby Acacia time to get to know us and her new surroundings.  We had a fun beach day at Carlsmith Beach Park with lots of our friends who wanted to see the kids and the baby. That's kind of a cool thing around here: when someone has grandbabies visiting, we all share the pleasure of their company so the other tutus (grandparents) get a grandbaby fix as well.




 
We visited the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Liliu'okalani Gardens, spent a day up at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, attended a very special wedding... and took more trips to the warm pond. 
 
 
 
 
 

Not every day was full of activity, though. Sometimes we just stayed home and let Acacia play in the sprinkler, or we'd take her out to the piggies who she found most amusing, or I'd play my guitar for her and she'd bounce and dance along to the music. Such fun! One friend brought over her sweet little doggy to Acacia's absolute and utter delight! Another young mama came over for a playdate. A toddler does tend to keep one on one's toes. Nevertheless, we managed to get in loads of quality visiting, while enjoying our granddaughter's antics.
 
 

 

It's a marvelous thing to see your grown daughter become such a capable young mother in her own right. I love watching Lori with her little girl. She's a good mama, and it brings back many fond memories of my time with my own babies.



Altogether, it made for a happy house-full for almost a month! A good start to the new year. 






Aloha and a hui hou!

Our Outdoor Screen-room, aka The Lanai

Imagine an outdoor space with no mosquitoes. A screened-in room is almost a necessity on the jungly 'wet side' of the island.We have long dreamed of such a space, and in November 2011, we started construction of our latest project.

Not done yet, but so far, so good!

By the way, that's grandbaby #3 in my arms, Acacia Rose. I'll write about our new year's visitors in my next post...

Autumn Happenings

Yes, we do have seasons here on the islands... they're just a lot more subtle.  The days are a little shorter, the nights a few degrees cooler.  The tradewind direction shifts a bit more northward.  The beaches lose or gain sand, depending on just what angle the waves hit.  Best of all, the humpback whales return!  They arrived early this year, but I have yet to see any myself.

We had a class from the University of Hawaii-Hilo spend an afternoon with us. It was our first official class and the largest number of people all at one time.  One of the pens was half-filled which turned out to be perfect to demonstrate and explain the various layers that go into creating the Korean Natural Farm bedding.  The students asked insightful questions and were interested in everything else on the farm, too.  Fun day!

A couple weeks ago we managed to go beach camping!  A big special thanks to Hugh who fed the pigs for us while we were frolicking on the sand at Ho'okena Beach Park, on the Kona-side of the island.  This is one of the few places where one can camp right on the sand, the way I remember as a kid.  We really needed this 2-night getaway, and made the most of it too: swimming, reading, exploring, and just generally lolling about.  Some of our friends had arrived before us, but they saved us a primo spot under one of the few trees that line this little cove, right behind the row of hand-built fishing boats.  We enjoyed many rousing games of dice by lanternlight in the evenings, then fell asleep under starry skies to the sound of waves.  Just a very relaxing time.  Oh, and a large pod of spinner dolphins joined us the last morning, having just as much fun as all of us, splashing and playing in the water!

Our big Mahalo Pig Roast was a roaring success!  It was our way of saying thank you to all those who helped us, one way or another, with getting our little farm off to a good start.  Some helped build the perimeter fence, others brought us palm fronds, logs & limbs for filling the pens.  There were those who helped fill the first pen, brought us starts for the food crops, shared their coconuts, papaya & bananas for the piggies.  Unfortunately, two of the people we most wanted to acknowledge were unable to attend.  They missed out on the most succulent, luscious, tender, tasty pork, and the chance to be embarrassed by the little speech I had prepared to give.  The pig was spit-roasted to perfection by a local guy who had bought several of our piglets earlier.  It took 8 hours but it was so worth it!  Thanks, Chris Hara!  So many wonderful dishes were shared by the guests, ranging from seafood-pasta salad to boiled jackfruit seeds to mango-papaya topped cheesecake.  I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all!  This may very possibly become an annual event, and we'd like to invite even more of our friends next time... now that we know how much meat a 101 pound pig produces!  (About 87 lbs, in case you wondered.) 

What I Did Last Summer

Lots of good times this summer, and therefore LOTS of photos!  (You have been warned!!)
 
First, there was plenty of work on the piggery, our biggest on-going project.  Pen #3 was built, filled, and finished.  Pen #4 as well.  The last two pens are underway now... the end is in sight!  And the first litters of piglets were raised and sold off successfully, with much demand for more.  At the request of our UH-Hilo Ag Extension Agent, I started a blog (yes, another blog!) all about the piggery.  You can see it here to read all about that aspect of the farm:   http://hubbellshogheaven.blogspot.com/

In other farm-related news, I started a new flock of 13 young chickens, and added more to the laying flock as well.  We acquired a beautiful and well-behaved rooster, Apollo, to watch over the 27 layers.  He's huge!  And Mike designed and built a new coop/yard for the newer birds.  Consider it the revised edition of the Hubbell Bubble; he just used what we had lying around.

The gardens are growing well, providing us with more and more tropical foodstuffs, some of which is becoming familiar to our tastebuds:  cassava, moringa, white and purple sweetpotatoes, taro, plantain, tamarillo...  We are planting more food every day: ulu (breadfruit), gourds, more bananas, more pineapple, more cassava & taro & pineapple, and another variety of liliko'i (passionfruit).  And of course, there are orchids!  We have the perfect climate for them to grow outdoors with almost no care.  Gotta take advantage of that!

By far the biggest and best thing I did this past summer was my solo two-week trip to the mainland.  I managed to see both my sisters, two of my kids, two of my grandkiddos, several old friends, AND attend the Daybreak School reunion!  It was a whirlwind trip, and so very much worth it.

I started the California portion with a too-brief visit with each sister.  We packed as much visiting as we could into just a few short days, with the Daybreak reunion sandwiched in the middle.  There was another reunion of sorts during this time too, with our long-time friends, the Livingston brothers, or at least two of them!  And the Daybreak reunion was extended in a way by staying with my highschool friend, Jan.

Then on to Idaho! It was nice to stay with our longtime friends and neighbors, Karen & Weezil, and to be back in the woods and mountains I know and love so well. The best part was that I got to spend every day with Chris & Katie and their wonderful kiddos, Jimmy & Kirsi. We did lots of hiking, picked wild raspberries and huckleberries, had barbecues, played in the water, and just generally enjoyed each other's company in the height of a Boundary County summertime.

After that, it was on to Port Orchard to visit Kerry in her new home, tucked away behind an old apple grove.  While she was at work in Seattle, I read or wandered about, enjoying the quiet days, the beaches and the views... and I took advantage of the ferry dock, only a 5-minute walk away, in order to explore a little further afield.

And finally, back home I flew, back to the island and the humidity and the gentle warm air.  It felt so good to be home again, as it usually does after traveling.  I have always loved to wander and explore, but I love to come home again, too.