Punatics

I finally have time to update! Let's see...

We had a lovely Xmas dinner at the farm with our boss and coworker and a few friends of theirs. It was unfortunately also a sort of going away party for our boss, Don, though we didn't know it at the time. He had been trying to secure the property for 8 months and finally after all that, the deal fell through and he decided to pack up and go. In an act of solidarity, we helped Don with packing, cleaning and delivering his things to a storage place. We resolved to go back to Hilo instead of staying on at the farm and working for the previous owners.

What a weird situation! I can't say much because we didn't really interact with her much but we heard from other wwoofers that the owner was often drunk and verbally abusive to wwoofers. I didn't want to work in those conditions, especially knowing how much work there was to do to get the place back up to running speed.

Luckily we didn't have to go far to find a place to stay. Our friend Sean offered us a cabin for a week, no strings attached. We had a great time with him, making lots of food together and getting around Puna a bit.

For New Year's Eve we went camping on the easternmost tip of the island, 25 feet away from huge waves breaking against the lava rocks. We had a bon fire complete with hot dogs and set off some fireworks at midnight. We awoke at dawn to see the sun rise over the ocean. A nice way to start 2011!

We're back in Hilo now at Uncle Bob's, mustering up our strength for the next leg of our journey. We're set on going to Kona side to check out the farm we'll be working on come February and hopefully we'll find a place to work/stay in the meantime. I've been a little disappointed by the farms we've found so far, especially in Puna. It's a beautiful place and I'm sure all the working farms are full up with great wwoofers and that's why we never got a reply from them.

The Puna area is just packed with organic farms and it's a vibrant community. Even being there for two weeks, we were starting to feel like locals. But it just isn't our scene: sitting at the health food store talking about what kind of yoga you're doing or how you're dropping red meat from your diet or that ayahuasca ceremony/rave you went to... There are gems amongst the hippies but so many hippies...

Not having rewarding work to do and lots of organic food to eat like our previous wwoofing experiences has left me a little bummed and homesick. I'm sure things will start looking up soon after all, we are in Hawaii!

Lots more updates soon on funny jungle stuff and check out my photos!

New Year's Eve! (or Once in a Blue Moon...)

Hey all,

This is Jay here. I know that Janet writes on this thing for the most part but I figured that I would take a turn informing y'all as to the progress of our meanderings.

Today we left the Chestnut Ridge after a month of chilling out and being farmers (more chilling than farming to be sure). It was a fond farewell as the time we had spent on that hill top was the shit. Tom fed us like crazy and treated us like family. I got to play with chainsaws and built a log table among the many more mundane, but still fun tasks of everyday property maintenance.

Christmas was rad as hell too. The sun was shining and the temperature hovered around fifteen degrees for most of the afternoon. We spent some time suntanning in the far orchard, reading and drinking beer. I bought Janet a giant chocolate bar, our only contribution to the consumerist shit show that is the holiday season.

Driving down from Tom's was a bit ridiculous. Nobody in this country uses turn signals. I figure Americans must a sixth sense that picks up the random movement of traffic on the nations freeways. I wish I had this skill as we were cut off at a rate of twice a mile over the last half hour before crossing the Golden Gate bridge. Elwood managed to emerge from the trial unscathed and we even caught a glimpse of Alcatraz as we descended into the city.

Now we are sitting in our friend Jess' living room in San Fransisco waiting for party time to arrive. It seems as though we will be going to a house party featuring a bouncing castle as well as free tacos and Pabst. I don't know how this event could get any better.

Take care my friends,

Jay