Now we are in Kealakekua

Here in Kealakekua, we are living and working on Farmer Phyl's Kona Biodynamic Farm. Just down the hill from the farm is the Kona Pacific Waldorf School, where Phyl's two children, Mikey (5) and Kelly (13) go to school. Of course, there is also Catherine, who is married to Phyl. She does a fair amount of farm work, and does a book-keeping job, too. Everyone is very busy.

There is a lot to tell about the place, and it is hard to know where to begin. The entire farm is on a slope, which means that we can see all the way to the ocean 1500 feet below and several miles away (it is often hard to tell where the horizon line is, and when you can tell, it is disconcertingly high up. We don't know what this means). The slope also means a lot of walking up and down hills, which we are getting used to. We live in an oddly constructed house in the middle of the hill, below the crops but above a lot of grazing land. Right now we live with two other WWOOFers, Killion and Esther (please don't laugh if that link does not work). Killion is 22, from Missouri originally, and now a resident of Hawaii. His family followed him here recently, and we got to go to the beach and hang out with them last night. He is also a great cook, which is good for us. Esther is 26, from Germany, and a prospective Waldorf teacher. Coming to Hawaii began as a joke, but then there were some reasons, and she did it. They are both easy to get along with, and we are glad to live with them. Soon there will be 3 or 4 more of us, and things will get crowded. We'll see how that goes.

Every morning, Joanna and Esther cut some wheatgrass from the wheatgrass rack on the back porch, and grind out some juice to bring to the teachers down the hill. Ben and Killion are meanwhile sending out the 4 cows for the day, changing their water, and (if the cows actually move) mucking their stalls; and then feeding and watering the chickens up the hill. Jo and Esther are the milkmaids -- but for goats!! Both of them gave birth to some adorable kids a week and a day ago (the goats did, not the humans). Milking them is a slow and arduous task. We end up covered in milk with only a bit in the bucket; if we're lucky, the goats don't step in it and we can strain it and drink it.

Ben and Killion spent the week weed-whacking an amazingly overgrown chicken pen, which we will refence next week, and give the poor things some more room to run around in. We also refenced some cows pastures. It is amazing how quickly the grasses come up here. There are entire vehicles that, having been left alone for a few months, are basically gone now. Seriously.

We have so much to tell, but our library time is running short, and we want to get a few pictures up. Coming attractions: the truck, our evenings, the beach, more about the animals and humans, and the fact that we spent an afternoon in Honolulu Chinatown.

Well, we got one picture up, and you have seen it by now. Joanna is milking a goat.
We'll try to do a big upload to our flickr account if we can find a place with a faster connection.

Until then: aloha!