Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog Post #3

Welcome to Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blob Post #3

February 25,2023

This week starting Monday morning has been very exciting… My friend Indrajit Gunasekara, a coconut scholar came to visit for the weekend. We planted a green ti leaf hedge at the entrance to the driveway and planned our project to rejuvenate and revitalize the disappearing varieties of Hawaiian coconuts here on this property. Along with other farming projects we plan to have a coconut gene bank, a library, a nursery and possibly an educational center. The next big job is to clear the hau on the next lo’I as this is where we will plant the first coconuts. As the weeks move on I will tell you all about the planting. This is the hau which over the last sixty years has covered beautiful pasture land. We will take it on one lo’i at a time.

Monday morning Indrajit took part in a panel discussion following the film Niu Now-Reconnecting To The Tree of Life. The film documents the last two years of Niu Now under the guidance of Dr. Manu Meyer and Indrajit. When you have an extra hour, this is an excellent film showing some important work here in Hawaii. In a way, it leads up to what we will be doing here.

Here is a link to the film

https://www.multiculturalcooperation.net/content/niu-now-reconnecting-to-the-tree-of-life

The big news of the week is the ag shed roof is now on. So, no matter what kind of weather we have the work can move on. We have had a lot of rain which has delayed the roof construction.

My shower is finally connected, and I would have a hot shower if the shop where I bought the tankless propane water had not sold me someone else’s shower without the hook up. We didn’t realize this until Chris, my builder, opened the box and was all ready to set it up. I called him and, of course, he said he is out of heaters but had a shipment coming in a few weeks. This is not what I wanted to hear. But meanwhile I ordered a heater on amazon which will also take a few weeks. And a cold shower in this cold weather is not appealing. I do have neighbors who have offered.

Wednesday I drove two hours to town to do errands and pick up the last of my cats. Lelo boy who had managed to escape prior attempts of being caught and had been up at the house on Saint Louis Heights for a month hanging out by himself with little food. I hired Kristi, a cat trapper par excellence and he arrived this week via Kamaka Air. Happily, we are all united now and hopefully he settles in with the rest of the gang.

Another “biggie” for this week is I now have a refrigerator with a small freezer on top. It is electric and runs off the solar generator. It is great to be out of the cooler phase dealing with water getting in the food and buying ice every other day. And, I can now get some ice cream.

Before starting this post, I wanted to tell you why, at this stage in life, this adventure is all so meaningful.  In my youth I unknowingly left a very exciting , adventurous, and challenging life surfing at Makaha to enter a very mundane and rather boring life In California. California was not for me but I became stuck there for many years with the only reward being my daughters Marcie and Rennie.

Just now, and so many years later, and for my last chapter of life I feike I am reconnecting to an exciting and adventurous life living close tonature with the ability to farm. A few days Before Bob passed, he toldme “I am leaving these five acres to you because I think you will know the best thing to do with this land.” This is a gorgeous place and I feelso grateful to be here starting a new chapter and doing something meaningful. Among other things, I am looking forward to joiningthe Farmer’s Union Hana division as I was a 4 H member in my youth.And, the gardening is fun as things grow fast. Here are my squash starters that seeded in ten days.

A little side note….. Each night it is not raining I make a fire and eat a delicious dinner in front of the fire with my goldendoodle Haumana at my side. Since there is no trash pickup, I separate all the trash and start the fire with all the day’s paper.

This is it for this week…..We’ll see what the coming week brings. Hopefully some sun to dry up the mud that the dogs and I have been wadding through.

Thanks for joining in. Please leave comments and let’s stay connected and we will see this coming week’s adventures.

Aloha Vicky