Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog, Post #1

Welcome to Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog  Post #1 where every day is an adventure living here in the heart of old Hawaii

I have been here exactly three weeks today. The days have all been happily filled with settling the animals and getting myself comfy. It took a week to set up my Ecoflow solar generator for power, the internet, and a beginning place to put things.  Each day I have wanted to sit down long enough to recount my exciting journey, but life became filled with must dos.

The motivation to follow my dream for this major complicated move was a yearlong project which I will backtrack and recount over future blogs. The whys and the hows of the crazy people and the many varieties of human nature. I helped create a modernist home foundation that became untenable.

After an amazing send-off my dramatic arrival on January 28^th in the middle of a huge rainstorm was videoed and now can be viewed on YouTube.

I have been camping here in a mostly open tiny house that Bob and I constructed twenty years ago. The building was prefabbed on Oahu to take to Wailau Valley on the backside of Molokai where Bob was going to camp on his lot. But, after an hour out of the harbor it became clear there was not enough fuel. So, the materials were taken back to Oahu where we later shipped here.

Since it is the rainy season, we have had quite a bit of rain which makes a lot of mud with building material delivery trucks coming in and out chewing up the lawn, but that is what keeps all the vegetation so green and lush. Luckily, I have my Lands’ End fleece lined rubber boots which I wear from morning to bedtime. And my daughter Marcie sent me a box of dark pants that I am slowing working my way through. With no available washing machine.

Several months ago, I put a metal roof on this tiny gazebo like camp house and the rain feeds a 1,500-gallon green plastic catchment water tank that supplies cold water through a garden hose. I am trying to solve the problem of laundry since the closest laundromat is in two hours away.

The rain is intermittent with bright sunshine making life pleasant and perfect for gardening. On my last trip to town, I bought arugula, beets, green beans, radish seeds to plant in a raised container. Sutton, my neighbor gave me two delicious squashes from her garden, and I am going to plant the seeds. She says they will cover a bank and grow over bamboo which is just what I need. I am hoping to grow a lot of my food.

The rain and wind are slowing construction of the Ohana steel kit agriculture shed. My amazing builder, Chris, cannot put the roof on until there are only sunny days and he said this could be another month. So, I sit with a framed 20 x 50-foot steel framed building. They say living here teaches one patience.

Bob and I spent years clearing brush and guava trees on an acre plus of grassy yard. My goldendoodle Haumana and chihuahua terrier mix Ehu are having a ball running and chasing each other around their huge new yard. They are also barking at the cows in the adjoining pasture and unfortunately also chasing the cats. I have just bought some training collars because this must stop.

I am now at the airport waiting for the commuter plane to land with Edwin and Silipei who are flying in from Honolulu to fence the back of the property. Several evening’s ago, a neighbor’s big dog ran through at feeding time chasing the cats up into the hau forest. The cats don’t need this scare. I sent out an SOS and luckily the help is on it’s way.

This airport is classic as there is an office, but no one occupies it. To go to the bathroom, you squat out behind one of the small buildings scattered around. There is no internet reception here so impossible to find out how late the arrival is going to be.

These are the amazing people that helped make my move a reality.

Stay tuned for Blog Post #2 next Saturday that will be on my web site WaveWomamanBook.com To see the post click on the heading Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog on the top left.