Updates

Ok, so I guess I haven't posted anything recently. I think I was waiting to post things until I had more pictures but I haven't taken many pictures because everything of note has already been documented. But anyway, since last Saturday we've been staying pretty busy. We've harvested lots and lots of peanuts. They sell the produce to the vendors in the Hilo Farmer's Market and one of the ladies there ordered 100 lbs of peanuts by this Wednesday. Harvesting peanuts involves pulling the plants out of the ground, pulling the peanuts off of the roots, carrying the buckets full of peanuts back to the house, washing the peanuts three times, spreading the peanuts out somewhere to dry slightly, sorting out the young peanuts, and then putting the good peanuts into cardboard boxes (the ones for pineapples). It is quite a bit of work so we worked on it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The other hard part of this is that it also rained quite a bit on those days so we had to figure out where to put the peanuts so that they could dry without being disturbed by dirty little hands and feet. We've been putting them in the other cabin for now because there is no one in there, although that will only work for now.

A lot has actually changed here as the majority of the crops are reaching maturity around now. As they get harvested, he drives over them with the tractor and mulches the bed, creating new pathways around the farm. We harvested the last of the okra, the sweet corn, and the grain corn, all of which is being dried either for seed or to feed to the chickens. I've worked at the stand a little bit but have generally been busy elsewhere. They just got in a huge shipment of coconuts and while I am able to, I do not really enjoy opening up coconuts for the customers. Oh well. Otherwise, I've been doing some weeding, and made all the plants under my shade cloth look rather nice and happy. I'm discovering that they have fruit trees planted EVERYWHERE and will eventually have quite an amazing orchard with everything: Avocados, mangoes, rambutan, lychee, abiu, mountain apple, custard apple, coffee, cacao, coconut, tamarillo, persimmon, pomegranate, tons of every kind of citrus, and bananas and papayas everywhere. They've done quite a lot to make this land livable already and I would be very interested to see it in a few years when the trees are starting to mature.

I'm getting accustomed to the living situation as well. They do intend to build a house on this property, but their paperwork for all the permits is still being processed. Until it is worthwhile for them to pay the initial fees to get the water meter installed, they have been using rainwater in a small tank (visible in some of the photos) for their general washing needs. There is one sink on the property connected to this water supply, but the handle broke off right before I arrived so we've been turning the tap with vice grips since then. Partly because of the faulty handle and partly because of children who like to play in the water, the tank ran out of water yesterday so now they have to figure out how to get more washing water. During the dry season they paid their neighbor to fill up the tank when they ran out but I'm not sure if they're going to do that now. There are barrels around that also collect rain water, but they have algae and fertilizer and motor oil in them so would not work particularly well for cleaning. The good news is that the washing machine has its own supply of water because it needed more water pressure so we can still do laundry. To have drinking water, we have the 5 gallon jugs of water that are working fine. Previously though, I changed the water only to discover that the new jug had a spoon in it (thanks to a small child) so we had to dump out that jug. Things are indeed quite challenging here and/or seem to be made more challenging than they need to be. Some things are the way they are I guess because they made these lifestyle choices, but it can seem unnecessarily primitive.

Otherwise, I'm getting along quite well with everyone here. The wife, Milyn, and I have been working together most of the time so I'm learning all about the Philippines and the history of this family (very....interesting). I'm learning quite a lot about child care and in many instances figuring out what not to do in the future. The girls can be well behaved but they also can be quite tortuous as well. The oldest one has had quite a rough upbringing and she brought her bad behavior here when she arrived 7 months ago and it has infected the others. The worst is that if she doesn't get exactly what she wants, she screams at the top of her lungs and generally acts the same as the two year old. I ignore it and don't feed into it but that kind of feedback is not consistent. She just started kindergarten this week so hopefully that will help in the taming of her behavior. The 1 year old is quite spunky and is actually quite helpful (as helpful as she can be). The baby that will be born at the end of this month is going to be a boy so that will be an interesting mix.

So anyway, I've been enjoying the scenery and the local life here. I went to a yoga class down the street on Monday (it was a bit of a miscommunication). Milyn's English is still improving so I didn't realize that she was telling me about a yoga class at the gym and not something else that was happening there. But it was fun. I went down and checked out the shops along the main street. They are definitely designed for tourists but have some interesting things. And yes, I'll be leaving here Monday morning. I'm going to go and rent a car and then Chance will actually be joining me Monday night. He changed his flight so he'll be able to be here for two extra days and get to see the big island too. I'll bring him up here to the farm and then we'll go investigate the volcanoes. Should be quite fun. Otherwise I would have had too much trouble taking pictures of the volcano with me in them. So yes, that is the extreme update on what is going on. And there is a massive rainstorm that I can see right now over the ocean that is headed this way so I had better go into my cabin. Ok, that is the update. More pictures etc. for sure by next week.