The Next Chapter

Aloha. :D   The last month or so has been pretty chaotic. I decided some time ago that I was not happy at this particular farm and it was my intention to move onto another farm, preferably one with a more positive environment. I decided to stay over the last couple of months, however, because Michael and Penny have been teaching me a great deal about sustainable living and the infinite projects and successes that can be accomplished. In addition, about a month ago, Michael informed me that they were moving off the farm to go to Santa Cruz, CA where they would be putting together a race/design contest for high-mileage vehicles, at least 150 mpg. There's  a lot to do, he said, and he invited me to come to Santa Cruz where he would house and feed 8 of us that he'd invited and we would all get this project off the ground and growing. I was shocked, but I can't even describe how excited I was. I came to Hawaii to find something I could be passionate about and here was this opportunity to create a real solution (0ne of many) to the fossil fuel crisis, and it had just fallen into my lap. Unfortunately, as I've recently found out, Michael realized that he jumped the gun on inviting me in regards to a limited amount of money and had to retract his invitation. I was pretty bummed for a few days as well as completely taken aback by the choices that I suddenly had to make. So, I'm not going to CA, and I won't stay on this farm any longer, so what next?. It took me awhile to fully appreciate that I wasn't tied to anything, that I could up and move to Japan if I wanted to, or move back to GA, or stay on Kaua'i. Ultimately, I decided that I wasn't done with Kauai just yet, and besides, I want to be around for Kaimana '09, baby!!  

I spent a week stressing over whether to find a job and an apt. and just "live" on Kauai or find another farm to go to and see if I can learn more on Permaculture. *Btw, if anyone's looking for a really interesting periodical on permaculture and sustainability check out:http://www.permacultureactivist.net/index.html. ...I ultimately decided to find another farm. I have a meet and greet with another farm on the North shore next week, so I'm hoping that that will be the answer. 

Besides all that going on, the only other changes have been 3 other interns coming to the farm for ~3 weeks. There were two French Canadian 18 year olds from Quebec and a young man from Colorado. It was really nice for once to have company on the farm. Plus, Don finally had to fix the "intern car" and we got to go on some real sight-seeing. He finally fixed it because apparently he told the girls that they would have a car to take around and Maya made him go get it fixed when she found out. hehe. He's so daughter whipped. Anyway, they were some cool kids, I was sad to see them go.

LPS will be here Monday for our 10 day vacation/adventure/island hopping romp. I'm sure we'll have some stories to tell and pictures to show soon!

Hope everyone's well!

 This is Evan from CO, Andreanne(with sound accents somewhere), and Loury next to me.

It's been awhile...my b.

Yeah, lot's happened. I'm going to post about all the farm things soon, but first I just wanted to write/show pics of my last big excursion.

 I was super bummed to be missing out on the Savannah Hat tourney Memorial Day weekend, but it ended up okay because I went on an ocean kayaking trip to the Kalalau valley, on the Na Pali coast, and it was $$$$$$!

It had a bit of an ominous start, I'd stayed up til 4:30 am the night prior helping Don with a powerpoint presentation for some conference and was up to about 8 hour of sleep in two days before kayaking 10 miles on a choppy ocean. I went with 6 other people who all turned out to be adventure guides on the island. Anyway, we launched from a beach called Pollihale where the waves are pretty harsh and definitely "huled" (who-lead) the first time trying to launch. Hule means to fall over. So, basically we went swimming before we even started paddling. The paddle up the coast was pretty awesome, not gonna lie though, I got a little sea sick from the ocean and lack of sleep. I mean, really, who gets sick on a kayak?! Turns out, I do. We went through a couple pods of dolphins and saw some sea turtles resting on the reef. By the time we got to Kalalau beach I was completely worn out, but in shock at how beautiful everything was. Words can't properly describe, so I'm just gonna let the pictures talk for themselves.

We spent the next four days lying on the beach and in our "cave" under a rock face, fishing, hiking in the valley, sitting around a campfire, cooking, and socializing with other groups that were there. We built a huge fire each night and it brought people over, so we got to meet sooo many cool kids. Sitting around the fire was awesome in itself because we did smores and cooked fish that someone had caught spear fishing and listened to some Hawaiian guys playing on the ukulele and singing traditional songs. It was seriously something out of a book or postcard or something. Needless to say, an epic long weekend.