Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog Post #2

February 18,2023

It is now the four-week mark here in paradise and I love each day more than the one before. One highlight of the day is a nightly bon fire if  it is not raining. A nightly fire is reminiscent of our early and best days at Makaha when we were camping and surfing in the mid-1950’s. It was such a great time sitting around the beach fire and telling stories with the early great big wave surfers such as Buzzy Trent, Peter Cole, Fred Van Dyke, Pat Curren, Pete Peterson and Tom Carlin to name a few of our lifelong friends.

This week half of the roof went on the Ohana steel kit agriculture shed building. We were hoping to finish the other side but, the weather became drizzly and too slippery for roof work.  Hopefully this next week will see completion so Chris can move on to framing the walls. Unfortunately, we will be waiting till April for the windows and doors, and this will delay some wall framing. Every step of the way out here takes time and patience.

The 5,000-gallon green plastic water catchment tank was delivered. When the roof is guttered this tank will catch rainwater off the roof for watering plants, taking showers and general needs.

Right now, I am waiting for Bradley to come and finish a car parking space at the bottom of the driveway. Currently four-wheel drive is needed to get up the driveway. He will also push some dirt around to even up a place so I can start planting fruit trees. He is a very busy man, so I must wait my turn, wait for the weather, and wait for his machine repairs. It is the waiting game, but he is dependable and always eventually shows up to do a good job.

During the last few weeks, I have made many four hour round trips to town to pick up the last of the animals left behind. On Monday I picked up one of my sweetest tiger cats named Jimmy. He has settled in beautifully and I can tell he his happy to be reunited after 3 weeks alone. It takes a whole day with errands thrown in, but I cannot leave anyone behind. The road is windy with lots of tourists slowing travel down as they gaze at the beautiful scenery. Ironically the only radio station I get is reggae. This is so perfect for the many turns and switchbacks. The drive is almost like a meditation-or at least that is the way I think about it.

Amazingly, the cats are relaxing and finding their places. Many stay up in their greenhouse but quite a few of them have their way here in the tiny house with me. They have beds on the rafters and sleep on my bed. Last night there was even a large white aloof cat named Frosty eating on the ledge. After being confined for five months this is cat heaven with the huge yard with so many branches and trees to climb.

This narrow five-acre property was a taro farming breadbasket in early (and maybe ancient) Hawaii. The Hawaiians lived down in a nearby valley by the ocean and hiked up here to build multiple stone walls to hold in the water for lo’i to grow their staple food-taro. Over the years the wild cows knocked some of the stones out so I will be working on fixing the walls. I love to work with these stones-built centuries ago that have not been touched by western hands. I also love to weed eat the hono hono grass that has been hiding the beauty of these walls near the tiny house. Plans are to slowly work up to the freshwater pool and waterfall at the top of the property. By the way in 1970 Bob loved to tell the story on how he turned down a million dollars from George Harrison as he wanted this pool and waterfall.

After cutting our way through hau and bamboo I jumped in

Maybe enough for this week. Next week I will tell you about my interesting experience with the bank, the post office, and more here in the land of adventurous living.

Thanks for tuning in.

Aloha Vicky