Shaloha Mama: July 2016

Hey! My month long break is over. I’m back! But I haven’t just been fiddling around all this time…I’ve been growing cannabis! - permaculturally of course.

JK.
Really.
I’m really kidding!

If this is your first time here and you are confused, it’s because you missed my last post: I'm Coming Out.

But really, we have been busy and are finally reaping the rewards of a year’s hard work. Indeed…we have built a dream. A dream that is a house. On half an acre. On Kauai. (I am dreaming, am I not? Is this reality?!)

The whole process was a whirlwind wonder…how we ended up with a slice of jungle while I was 8 months pregnant and raising a 1.5yr old, with a year timeline to finish this thing, also about 4 months into starting a brand new vintage coffee trailer business…not to mention a few other financial hurdles that should have made this house impossible.

The driveway. Off to the right is our little cliff.

Not that everyone is a pray-er, but the thing is, we knew that we couldn’t do it by ourselves. I am not sure what I believe about destiny - I think we play a big part in it and it’s not all worked out necessarily - however, I think that some blessings God simply likes to make happen, if you let Him (like how my man and I met, but that’s a story for another day).

So we prayed that if it was supposed to happen, He would make it happen, and walk us through it. There were some moments of testing, but to be honest, it was somehow not that stressful. If you’ve ever heard the term “give it up to God,” you can be sure that is what we did. We “let go and let God”…yes I am full of cliche christian phrases tonight! But seriously, we simply knew it was not in our control, so we rolled with it. And I will NEVER downplay the blessings beyond blessings many of our friends and family bestowed on us in a variety of vital ways. THANK YOU!

Forever I believed that I wouldn’t ever own a home. It seemed unattainable and impractical. It didn’t make sense to stay put like such. Then I started learning about permaculture (a nomadic lifestyle doesn’t work so well with growing things on the long-term). Then we got a dog. Then we had a kid. Then we found out we were having another kid. Suddenly things got R E A L. Buying a house on our smug little island was not a financial option and we were looking into alternatives. Big Island, mainland, NZ, living on parent’s properties…any and all cost-effective possibilities were on the table.

Well, a year ago the dirt I’m sitting above was a rugged, steep, muddy-buffalo grass, bamboo-consumed mess. A piece of tropical wilderness next door to my mother in law’s house that had desperately tall avocado trees & felt like more like an easement between properties than anything. However it had a mystery about it. It had a strange shape that you couldn’t formulate because the overgrowth masked it’s potential - and it’s treachery. Our builder frequently called it his “nightmare job”, and initially told us it couldn’t be done. Working with our “skeleton budget” as he so graciously put it, I think secretly he rather liked the challenge. Regardless, lets just say the fact that I’m sitting 25 or so feet above the dirt below, with a roof and flooring and running water…it is truly a miracle. And yes, 25 feet up is tall. Since it’s on practically a cliff, it is super high from the bottom of our back yard.

So while there is still work to be done, we are in. And it feels like a million bucks. On top of that, I’m in the beginning stages of my first official permaculture project - not just a design, but the whole shebang. Mulch and swales and puppy dog tails… I mean herb spirals. There will be climbing vine walls, keyhole gardens, food forest, a banana circle, plenty of comfrey, pinto peanut ground cover and food for days (a blog on that at a later date).

All I can say is that ALL things, are DEFINITELY possible. Glory to God, for sure. This post is semi-pointless, only really to share the journey, show some fun pictures of this “nightmare job” and encourage you to do what cannot be done. Because that attitude is not going to get you anywhere, and I bet somehow "it" can be done, whatever “it” is. So go! Do it.

Here’s some pictures. Yay!

All taken from MIL's front porch:
Upper - Raw land - all of the trees to the right are avocados
Lower - after some weed whacking, tree cutting and putting up a mini shed. Don't worry there are about 10 more avocado trees to the right of the picture.