I Live!!! / How I'll be Living

Yep. I'm a survivor.

First of all, I took my first solo venture into town. It's going to take some time to get used to getting around, especially since all of the street names are in (believe it or not) Hawai'ian!

Take Kamehameha to Kinoole then to Kanoelehua to Komohama to Puainako....after a while, especially through the rain, they all start looking the same. But somehow I made it to the store, and to the gas station and back again without incident. Hooray!

Another tale of survival: We had our first noticeable earthquake today. Magnitude 4.0 off of the coast.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/hv00033291.php
Of course, I've been in some minor earthquakes before, low rumblers is all, but this one was just one big THUMP. I was over at Linda's at the time, and it felt like someone had backed the tractor into the corner of the house or something.

I knew in moving out that the whole island is a volcano, but I guess I never thought about the subsequent earthquakes that go along with that. Live and learn, I guess.

Anyway, on to the more detailed aspects of my life here.

Work:
As you all know, I'll be working on the farm here. I'll be doing typical yard work (weed whacking, maintenance, weeding, that sort of thing) and once the crops start coming in I'll be doing a lot of harvest work, and then maybe doing some selling at the farmer's market in town.

As some of you know, I was thinking that I'd grow the produce for, make, and sell salsa at the farmer's market. Alas, upon visiting there since I've been here, there are now two (not even just one!) salsa stands at the market. Dang. Dang dang. Double dang. So if any of you have any ideas about what I can grow/make and sell, they'd be much appreciated.

I know that it may be difficult to come up with ideas without seeing the market firsthand, so sometime in the up and coming weeks, I'll put together an entry all about the market, and the people there (as soon as I get to know a few of them)

Apart from the work on the farm, I'll also be working for Puggy (sp?) and Linda down the street. Turns out they're the largest koa dealer in the world (talk about starting at the top floor!). For them I'll be taking over some of the things that Skye's been doing for them, being computer work (selling wood online) and manual labor (planing, grading, and sorting lumber) and some craftwork (turning bowls).

Living Quarters
For the moment, I'm crashing on Skye's futon. His wife, Kaleo, is at school on Oahu, and only comes back once every two weeks. Once we get a few days of no rain, we'll finish the yurt, and I'll be there permanently. Until then, I really don't want to be butting in on the newishlyweds' rare time together. So if they yurt's not built by this Thursday, I'll be crashing for the weekend in a shed that Puggy and Linda have on the property next door to us. (expect pictures of this one). But either way, no matter what, cross your fingers for a few dry days. I only need three.

That's about it from here at the moment. Hopefully it'll be a couple of days before I can write again, and then I'll be doing so from the yurt.


Hawai'ian Word of the Day:
Ao Pua'a: This is another two-parter. The area we're in is known as Ao Pua'a. "Ao" means "cloud" and "pua'a" means "pig". This area is called Ao Pua'a because in Hawai'ian folklore, Pele would hunt the boar, and the boar, to escape, would change into a cloud and hide in this valley. Mainlander translation: MMmmmmmmmm bacon cloud........