Oh my, so much to say, and now I've got to type it up with one finger on my little phone. No Internet access for the laptop where we are living now...
After nine months living at the Whitney's farm in frankly a bizarre and hellish vortex of thwarted expectations, we finally extracted ourselves and set up camp down at Anini Beach Park. Yup, that's Hawaiian for homeless. We have a small storage unit for our minimal possessions. We camped there for almost four weeks, taking down every Tuesday morning for park maintenance and setting up again on Wednesday. Oh I am so thankful for gentle Anini, and the opportunity to be autonomous once more with no one judging every move I make. And at the same time, we couldn't stay there for much longer with having to take down and set up every week, all while one of us is working every day and the other is managing 3 kids and a van packed literally to the ceiling.
So...just a few days ago, we moved to Spirit of the Earth Farm in Moloaa. We are camping here and setting up our permanent spot, clearing out some jungle to make room for us. I'll post some pictures when I figure out how to load them from my phone. Anyways, we will be living fairly primitively, with just a spigot for access to well water. Jonathan already made a little composting toilet for us. And he's been working nonstop to clear the jungle and set up our tarp roof. We won't have electricity until we can afford a small set up for solar power. And we've got a propane water heater for our shower.
In many ways, this is the dream. This farm is full on producing food for two farmers markets and a couple grocery stores as well as a local restaurant. And the owner Marie is in desperate need of the skills we have. There are 2 other families living here as well as a couple single folks. It's a sweet little community. We hope to settle in and finally be of use here while somehow managing to keep our other jobs to earn cash. Living here on the farm is a work trade agreement. We will be doing about 15 hours a week to live here. That includes being able to eat some food from the gardens.
And in many ways, I think to myself "this is the dream???" as the propane stove breaks while I'm trying to cook dinner for 3 starving and filthy children. We all literally went to bed hungry last night. I am tested by my fears of sinking to deeper levels of the "worst mom in the world" category.
And then I remind myself that filthy children climbing trees harvesting edible flowers for the lettuce mix playing with the other kids all day jumping in 6 foot piles of cleared guinea grass IS the dream. Just got to let go of how I used to think it should look. My children are wild right now. They are totally in their element. They are not always clean polite and well dressed. We gave up hair brushing several months ago.
Anyways, Christmas snuck up on us this year. I picked up $15 worth of random decorations at the thrift store the other day and yesterday we all decorated the edge of the jungle at our new camp. We are broke and any cash flow we have is being used to set up a little home here. So we plan to pick up a little something for the girls to open Christmas morning. Many thanks to the grandparents for sending some fun for them to open. And we've got some wonderful friends here who have offered to have us over for Christmas Eve.
I hope you all are well and warm this holiday season. I better get up and start some breakfast for the hungry little ones. There's oh so much more to share, but for now...Merry Christmas!
Love,
Heidi
