Some more pictures

Hello everyone! We arrived safe and sound in San Francisco after 12 hours of bouncing around the Pacific in pressurized metal tubes. We're staying with my old roommate Charlie in Mt. Davidson, just below the giant cross where Dirty Harry got beat down by Scorpio. He apparently has a great view of the city from his deck, and if the fog ever lifts I'll take a picture of it. It was such a change to leave the jungle, where the temperature was in the high 80s, and arrive in the concrete jungle, where the temperature is in the low 50s. People were wearing winter coats and gloves on the way to work.

Here are some pictures of Hawai'i that we didn't or couldn't post until now. Enjoy.


Us, unnecessarily close to the current Kilauea lava flow.


Pololu Valley


Nechung dorje drayang ling ("Immutable island of melodious sound") temple. The dictionary definition of "tranquil" should have a picture of this place.


A Big Island traffic jam.


Some vine-covered albizia trees. Sometimes I felt like we were walking through Jurassic Park.


Feasting on homemade coriander burgers and peanut noodles with Mohamed.


Hilo Tropical Gardens hostel. A cheap and scenic place to camp, 45-minute walk from downtown Hilo. See our tent?


Our ride to the airport.

Sus and I will be spending the next six days exploring San Fran (and probably exploring thrift stores for warm clothes). We'll post again soon.

P.S. Last night I thought of one more thing that we missed while on our adventure: pillows!

Counting the days...

Hello again,
It seems like the time flew by, doesn't it? Then again, we have done and learned so much in just 5 months on the Big Island it feels like a year since we left Boston. And now with our flight back to the contiguous 48 fast approaching, it's hard not to feel some pre-nostalgia for our time here (I don't say mainland because it makes Hawaii sound unimportant). Every day has been a new and wonderful experience for us. Many of the people we have met here treated us with so much malama (care) and pono (respect), we know they will be lifelong friends. This island is a place that is very giving and has very positive energy to it.

There are so many things I will miss about living here. Number one is probably sleeping under clear starry skies with the ocean dancing a stone's throw from our tent. I will also miss the abundance of fruit and vegetables found here. Mangoes and papayas are so plentiful that even nomadic travelers like us never worry about going hungry. Coffee and noni fruit and coconuts grow on the side of the road everywhere and cheap farmers' markets are plentiful. We hitched a ride today with Joshua, an island semi-celebrity/tour guide who hasn't bought food at a store in six years. That brings me to another aspect of Big Island life that has certainly made our lives bearable: hitchhiking. Travel for us would be almost impossible here without the kindness of drivers. People have given us hundreds of rides covering thousands of miles in our time here, often going out of their way to bring us to our destination. Sure, we have had some long walks down hot or rainy highways, but for the most part hitching has been an easy and pleasant experience. Without it, Susannah and I would not have seen a beach during our first three months here, or been able to get into town to go to the market and get online to post on this blog, or made friends with locals and tourists alike. Hitching is certainly the best way to meet a wide variety of people. In Boston it is easy to get around without a car by biking, walking, or public transportation. But riding underground in a metal canister surrounded by tired or annoyed people is not exactly conducive to making new friends.

Then again, there are things that we will be glad to have back in our lives, not least of which is electricity. We have lived without refrigeration or electric lights for so long those things seem like luxuries. Hopefully we won't take them for granted when we get back. Another thing we're looking forward to is having personal space, like closets and rooms and beds. Living out of backpacks for 5 months in a tent measuring 8'x8'x4' is a hard thing for two people. We had a brief respite at Josanna's Garden, where we had a real futon bed and could stand up in our space. Still, I know we are both getting a little tired of carrying our home on our backs everywhere we go. Now I know why turtles don't own clothes and books.

One thing we don't miss (perhaps surprisingly) is having a toilet. Outhouses are convenient and easy to use, don't waste water, are cheap to maintain, and return the food we eat to the land we eat it from. With a little microbial encouragement they will not smell bad or overflow, and will create new usable soil in just months. Having a toilet is a waste of water and resources. Still, the middle of the city is not a good place to implement a composting toilet system, so we'll be stuck with modern bathrooms for a while yet.

Also, because of our good fortune hitching, we have seen just about everything we wanted to on this island at least once. There is very little in the way of nightlife and live music here, so it will be nice to get out there and hear and play music again. We can think of only one or two things that we haven't yet experienced here, but I'm sure we won't regret not doing them, and so now seems the right time to leave the island. Without a job or farm to work on, life can get tedious even in paradise. With that said, we'll be glad to be home again, wiser if not wealthier, and look forward to seeing you soon.

Also, don't worry, we'll keep posting pictures and thoughts as they come. Talk to you soon!

Hot stuff

Hi everyone, Sus and I have left our temporary home at Pohoiki beach in Puna and successfully hitched the 100 miles to Spencer beach in about 4 hours. Before we made the move we decided to take a hike out to where the latest lava flow from Kilauea meets the ocean. Kilauea has been continually "erupting" to varying degrees for over 27 years, so lava is nothing new to most people who live there (in fact the area is overrun so often that they don't bother to repair many of the melted roads and highways). Boston on the other hand is nowhere near a volcanic hotspot so we wanted to see it firsthand.

There is a sign on route 130 past Pahoa that used to have town names and distances printed on it, but now they are all taped over and it just reads: END OF ROAD - 1 Mile. After the road ends there is another gravel road that winds through the debris of older lava flows and eventually leads to a strip of vegetation spared a fiery death. There is a path set back from the road that leads to the rocky coastline and from there it's a ten minute walk to the lava.

As we walked toward the plume of steam rising from the ocean the rocks beneath our feet got hotter and hotter until I thought they were going to melt the soles of my sandals. Pieces of pahoehoe were flaking off and blowing away on the sulfurous breeze. Our hearts were pounding as we approached the outlet and began to worry that any of the rocks we stepped on could give way and drop us into a cauldron of magma. At some cracks in the rock we looked down and saw them glowing hot just two feet beneath our two feet. It was exhilarating to see how these islands were formed and continue to grow inch by inch. Yesterday morning we could honestly say that we were standing on the newest land on the planet.

I'm not able to post pictures of it right now but you can see some of what we saw online at hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/images.html

Beach bums

Hi everyone, I'd like to give you the latest on what we've been doing since we set out on our own Hawaiian vacation, unattached to farms or daily work schedules. After bouncing around a couple of friends' places for six days, the X-Crew decided to rent a car for a week and see the parts of this island that we hadn't been able to reach just by hitchhiking. The car was just large enough to fit four people and their stuff, but just small enough that we were glad to get out and stretch whenever we got the chance.

We set out from Hilo planning to make our way around the island clockwise. The first overnight stop we made was the same campground Sus and I found on our midnight voyage to Volcano National Park. We awoke to the sound of chainsaws, as a park crew was cutting down old trees and dead branches that might have fallen on unsuspecting campers. After a delicious breakfast and a peaceful stop at a museum of local artists' work, we set out for Ho'okena Beach where we planned to spend the night camping with our friends Tim, Luke and House. On the way, we stopped in at Green Sands beach, a tiny cove at the southernmost tip of the island, and consequently, the US. The wind blows so hard there all the trees are permanently bent over to the point that they almost grow sideways, and there is a giant stand of wind-power turbines in various states of disrepair along the road. We also made a quick visit to a Buddhist temple near Na'alehu where the only sound was the melody of windchimes and the occasional outburst from one of the beautiful peacocks roaming the property.

Ho'okena Beach had no open campsites that night, as two class field trips had reserved the whole beach for two nights. Tired of driving and undeterred, Sus and I set up our sleeping bags in a concrete pavilion while Wendy and Aubray sneaked onto the beach and hid behind a rocky outcrop, House slept in his truck, and Tim and Luke walked away from the beach down the coast to hide overnight. Only Sus and I were discovered in the morning and made to pay $5 each for our transgression. House was told to leave but not charged, and the other four were never found. We figured $10 was a small price to pay for a sleeping spot.

The next day we drove north up the Kona coast, stopping in Kailua for lunch and a free tour of the Kona Brewery. They make some delicious beers there, including one flavored with lilikoi juice, and they distribute through Red Hook Brewery in New Hampshire if you want to give it a try. The next 30 miles or so are rocky coastline with no real landmarks except tall palms marking the swank resorts set up in the middle of the desert to take advantage of 363 days of sunshine a year. We stopped at an internet cafe and booked a couple nights at Spencer Beach, not wanting to keep sneaking around at night to find camping. Spencer is beautiful and only a few miles from some of the best beaches on the island, plus there are indoor showers and plenty of outdoor sinks and brick ovens for cooking.

Those few days we spent lounging on the beach during the day (actually, the girls did plenty of lounging while I went to the library and post office to send my dad a birthday present - happy birthday dad!) and one night we made the long drive up to the visitors' center on Mauna Kea for some stargazing. Its cold dry air and lack of light pollution make the summit of Mauna Kea one of the best places in the world to see stars. We didn't drive all the way to the observatories at 14000 feet, only to 9000 feet or so, but it was a humbling experience to look through telescopes at other stars, planets and galaxies. I highly recommend the stargazing to anyone visiting this island, but wear warm socks and shirts when you go.

We also ended up meeting with our friend Mohamed from Honoka'a, now living in Waimea. This was fortunate as our permits for Spencer were going to expire and our next intended destination was booked for campsites. Around 4pm on "moving day", we still had no idea where we were going to sleep, so we retired to happy hour at a local bar do discuss our options, which included: sleeping in the car, sleeping in a public park, and setting up large hammocks between trees deep in the woods surrounding Waimea. Mohamed to the rescue! He graciously let us all sleep on the floor of his room, which measured 100 square feet and wasn't really designed for five people. It was around this time we really began to appreciate our rental car as not just a vehicle but a closet and changing room.

We knew we couldn't stay all weekend though, we still had a lot we wanted to see and do in our last two days with the car. We managed to visit Pololu Valley, which is picturesque and easy to hike down into. We also hiked into Waipio Valley, which is equally gorgeous but much harder to reach. It's a 30-minute walk from bottom to top, most of it at a 40-degree grade. Plus it's either raining or scorching hot. Well worth it though. We then headed down to Hilo again and through to Isaac Hale campgrounds at Pohoiki Beach. We unloaded all our things and spent the night, returning the car the next day.

And that's where we are now, living at Pohoiki until Sunday, just a few steps from a warm soothing ocean and an even more soothing natural hot tub. We are happy and healthy (and somewhat sunburned) and look forward to the next few weeks of living at the beach. Talk to you soon!

Lion's Den

The Arch


Sus at the Arches just before leaving the farm


Greg plays Poseidon as the waves crash against the rocks


Greg at the Arches


After leaving Josanna's Garden Greg, myself, Aubray and Wendy dubbed our fleeing group the Exodus Crew (or the X Crew for short) because we were the last of the Exodus from the farm, leaving only one WWOOFer behind. Excited about our proactive decision to leave the farm but having nowhere to go, we gathered around a table at the local joint in Pahoa with about ten others who had all been "evicted" from the farm or left on their own accord. Within the first minutes of sitting down we received offers to stay with a few different friends while we figured out the next step. We decided to take up one offer to stay with our friend Lion on his undeveloped land.

The next day the four of us packed our many belongings and got a ride from a friend on the farm to Lion's place. He is living on 18 acres of jungle, just up the road from the farm, with the purpose of developing it for friends. We arrived and immediately got to work machete-ing spots for our tents in the cane grass. It's very satisfying work when you know that it will allow you to be able to set up shop for the night in your portable home. We also cleared a path to be able to walk to our tent sites. Lion was very hospitable and kept reiterating that we were doing so much for him by just being there and walking around and living on the land. The spot that Greg and I cleared for out tent was right near a tree that had fallen into another tree causing it to make very loud talking noises, so we named our campsite Talking Tree. We also named the area where Lion lived on his tent platform "Lion's Den" because it was just that. We stayed with Lion for three nights before deciding to move on to our friend House's house for the weekend. He has a place in Hawaiian Acres outside Kea'au, a real fixer-upper that has just about every pest infestation known. Still, we were comfortable. After leaving House's house the four us decided to rent a car for a week to travel around the island camping and seeing all the last sights before leaving the island. The car would also double as a great storage facility for all of our belongings, which we found to be very true! More to come about our week's adventure soon!



Sus using the toilet seat cutting board at Lion's Den


Aubray Sus cooking


Lion's Den


Wendy & Aubray


This face gets us the rides when we are hitching ; )

Josanna's Garden pictures

An aerial view of some of the farm from a precarious treehouse near the road.


Jackfruit can grow to the size of large watermelons and taste just like bubblegum, or rather, bubblegum tastes just like jackfruit. The seeds can also be baked and taste a lot like chestnuts.


Mountain apples hang like little red bells from the tree and taste more like pears than apples.


A rollinia the size of my head. When ripe, this spiky yet soft fruit will turn yellow with black spots and taste sweet and milky.


Mamey sapote. The way to test its ripeness is to scratch the skin to see the color of the flesh beneath. Green=not yet. Orange=ready.


Soursop


Jaboti caba, a tree native to Brazil that is reminiscent of grapes but also nothing like grapes. Definitely a fruit you have to try for yourself, this is one of my favorites.


White pineapple, apparently extremely rare and even sweeter than regular pineapples.


Vanilla hanging from an eggfruit tree. The bees that pollinate vanilla in its native Central America do not survive in other climates so it must be pollinated by hand, often using a toothpick or, more romantically, a paintbrush. Eggfruit is a starchy orange fruit the size of an orange that tastes a lot like yam with syrup on it. For this reason we often mashed it to make pancakes for breakfast.


The "jungalow" (our temporary home).


It's just what it looks like: a bass made from a gas can and rope. Sounded real good, too.


A lone papaya tree towers over a row of plantains


Bananaland


That's just cool.

A long story...

Hi everybody. The last time we posted we had just arrived at Josanna's Garden in Kapoho. It's been so hard to get computer time in town that a month later we haven't been able to tell you anything about it.

The farm is so beautiful it's like paradise, with dozens of fruit trees spread out over six acres of rich volcanic soil. It's well off the grid, with no electricity except what can be generated on a solar battery system and no water except rainwater they catch and filter, with a deep well for backup. It's less than a mile from the easternmost point in Hawaii, where the trade winds and ocean currents bring us the freshest air and water anywhere in the world.

The land here is shaped by the temperament of the active volcanic region to the west, where spontaneous lava flows sometimes emerge and meander across the landscape heedless of road or farm until they reach the sea. The result is islands of lush jungle between reefs of jagged lava rock and steam vents. The active earth also provides some wonderful features, like ponds and caves where heated fresh water seeps into ocean tide pools, making natural hot tubs and saunas. Floating in one of these ponds looking up through the trees at blue sky is one of the most relaxing experiences I've had in this life. There are also tide pools cut off from the sea by a'a rock, where we can swim with tiny tropical fish while giant waves break on the shore just feet away, sometimes rolling over us and turning the water into a roiling whirlpool for a few seconds.

Josanna's Garden has 60 varieties of fruit and vegetables, some of which I've never seen in bloom or even heard of before. A partial list includes: coconut, pineapple, white pineapple, ten varieties of banana, tangerine, orange, lemon, meyer lemon, coconut, lime, tahitian lime, avocado, papaya, cacao, coffee, mango, brazilian cherry, plantain, mulberry, vanilla, cashew apple, mountain apple, star apple, turmeric, blue olena turmeric, galangal, ginger, lychee, summer lychee, soursop, white sapote, mamey sapote, rombutan, rollinia and more... If you've heard of all of these, give yourself ten points. Needless to say we've had some amazing meals recently. The setup is also gorgeous, with cabins and yurts for workers to live in strewn around the property under and between the fruit trees. Our home was affectionately dubbed the "Jungalow". The weather is often sunny and warm.

The downside to all of this is that the woman who runs the farm is what some would call a quirky personality and what others would call unstable and verbally abusive. Susannah and I arrived at what seems to be a stressful time at the farm. They are thinking of selling most of it to a man who came from California to live there for a while, and his arrival started a spate of rumors and seemed to create a rift between workers and management. There was no communication of goals or a real work schedule. No one cooperated or collaborated on projects but did whatever they felt was best. In short, Sus and I felt that as much potential as the place had to be a learning and nurturing place, we were not learning anything or being productive. Of course we want to enjoy ourselves while on this Hawaiian adventure, but we also want to gain organic gardening skills and apply them. Because of this, seven days ago we decided to leave the farm.

We teamed up with Wendy and Aubray, a couple from Winnipeg who had come to the same decision, and set out on a brand new adventure, which I will have to relate in future posts. For now know we are happy and healthy and having fun. Stay tuned!

Volcano National Park

Hi again

Hello everyone,

Last time we posted for real we were about to embark on a long weekend vacation from our longer Hawaiian experience. First off, it took over an hour to get the rental truck. I wasn't sure if my credit card had insurance built in to cover rentals, so I called the company to find out. I spoke to someone who said that I was covered for rental cars. What about rental trucks, I asked. Yes, I was covered for those too. Great! So I signed the papers and we headed out. After a mile or so my mother called to say that she had talked to the same credit card company and they told her trucks were NOT covered. So, we had to go back to the place and buy insurance, an extra $39 a day. Thanks a lot, credit card company.

Anyway, we drove back to Honoka'a to get our bags from the tea garden. We didn't arrive until about 4, and then it took us a while to get our things together. We dragged our feet a little, having tea with the Inos, packing up slowly. After just 3 months living there it had come to feel like home, so it was hard to leave. Finally we got back on the road, trying to make it to Volcano National Park to camp there for the night. We didn't get there until 11pm or so. The gates to the park are always open but they don't bother to staff the place after dark, so we drove right in and stopped at the empty visitors' center to look for camping spots. There were notices up that much of the park was closed to traffic due to high levels of sulfur dioxide, and we didn't want to drive around late at night looking for a campsite that might be closed, so we left the park and camped in a stand of tall eucalyptus and koa trees a few miles down the road.

In the morning we went back to the park, this time paying $10 to get in. I'm glad we had a car to see the park; it stretches over many miles, with old lava flows and lava tunnels spaced out at random intervals. We'll post pictures of the park soon. After a morning of playing on old pahoehoe (the wavy rock created by cooling lava flows) we made the long drive around the south of the island to Captain Cook.

Captain Cook is possibly the nicest place on the island. It's got almost everything Hawaii has to offer in a small area, great vistas, tropical forest, crystal blue waters (Sus said it was like kayaking in Listerine). The town is set on the steep sides of Kealakekua Bay, and the bed and breakfast we stayed at had an amazing view of the bay from 1500 feet up. The place we stayed would make movie stars jealous. It was a beautiful house owned by Kurt and Kana Weigel and their 4-year-old daughter Jenna, whose hospitality was really wonderful. We had a giant bed and bathroom to ourselves, and access to a kayak and other fun stuff. Kurt grows his own coffee and fruit and nuts on his property, so we had the freshest of breakfasts each morning! Talk about keeping food miles down, we were dealing in food inches. It's funny that we are used to being on Hawaii by now, so our vacation wasn't seeing the sights but having a bed and flushing toilet!

We reluctantly left Sunday morning to start our new adventure on our new farm, and in the process I threw my back out, but that's another story. We'll post again soon with pictures and a description of the beautiful jungle farm we live on now.

Hi

Hi everyone, sorry to keep you in suspense wondering how our new farm is and how great our weekend getaway was, but you'll have to wait a little longer. It's harder for us to get to a computer here. Just got to the library but they close in one minute. We're doing great and we'll talk to you soon.

On the road

Hello again friends.

This morning we left Mauna Kea Tea Garden, marking the halfway point of our 6-month trip. Our first three months flew by, but we learned and experienced so many new things in that time. Our destination is Josanna's Garden, a 6-acre fruit farm in Kapoho, just southeast of Hilo. If you imagine the Big Island like a clock, Honoka'a is at 1 o'clock and Kapoho is at 3:30. We will be leaving the cool mountain air for a mix of salty breezes from the sea and caustic vog (volcano fog) from inland. Still, the air here is as clean as anyplace on earth.

We are now in Hilo, about to go embark on a long weekend of sightseeing. We are going now to get our rental car, a pickup truck that was the last rental in town. See, when Sus and I planned our long weekend we figured it would be no trouble to rent from one of the 5 or 6 agencies located in Hilo. Unbeknownst to us, this weekend is the Merrie Monarch Festival, the largest hula dance festival in the world. When we called around two weeks ago every place was sold out except for this one truck. Of course they jacked up the price because of the demand for cars, but I think it will be worth it. We'll be heading back to the farm to pick up our tent and bags, then exploring vocano national park and sleeping there tonight. After that we're off to a relaxing two nights at a bed and breakfast in Captain Cook on the leeward side of the island and then settling in at our new farm Sunday. Hopefully everything goes to plan, although most adventures don't.

Talk to you all soon!

Mauna Kea Tea Cookbook

Hi everybody,

In honor of our last few days at the tea garden Susannah and I will be cooking a delicious meal for our hosts at the farmhouse tomorrow night. We are usually limited to two outdoor propane burners when we cook... no electricity, no oven. Despite lacking what many modern cooks may consider essential technology, we have managed to compile a cabin cookbook to leave at the farm for future interns who may feel gastronomically uninspired. I'm going to give you a sneak peak of tomorrow night's menu.

SPICED CARROTS

Cut 3 large carrots into matchsticks (julienned)

Saute in olive oil 5 minutes

Add 1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbs fresh lemon juice

Saute 2 more minutes, stirring constantly

Add 1 tbs rice or white vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds (or mint leaves, or whatever)

Saute 5 more minutes, serve hot


EGGPLANT CURRY

Heat olive oil in a large pot

Add 1 tbs fennel seed
1 tbs fenugreek
2 tbs curry paste or powder
1 diced onion

Cook 5 minutes

Add 4 small eggplant, quartered
3 tbs coconut oil

Cook 5 more minutes

Add 4 small tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp hot pepper flakes

Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally

Turn off heat and stir in 1 handful chopped basil

Serve over rice


PINEAPPLE LASSI

Mix equal parts plain yogurt and pineapple

Add 2 tbs sugar and 1 tsp cumin or cardamom for each cup yogurt


As you can see, this meal has a strong Indian influence. Try these recipes yourself and let me know what you think!

Some more pictures from Hawaii

I have really grown to love the winding mountain road on which we live. Here's just one reason why.


A virtual sea of ginger plants. In our area this ginger grows wherever it can, which is everywhere, including rock faces. It holds so much water and energy in the stalks that even if it's chopped in a lawnmower into tiny fibers, each fiber will grow a new plant. If only it were tasty! Unfortunately it's not the delicious kind we eat normally, but tastes like what it is, a root covered in dirt.


This is the vista from what our guidebook calls "the most beautiful road in the world", route 250 outside of Waimea. I admit it's a great road, but it's all a matter of perspective. It features about 15 miles of well-groomed cow pasture with white fences and expansive views of the northwest coast and central mountains. I'm partial to overgrown jungle roads myself. Forgive me for thinking Susannah and I are the most scenic part of this picture.


The gorgeous view of Pololu Valley on the northern tip of the island, near Hawi. We didn't hike down into the valley but apparently there's a beached whale there that's become quite the tourist attraction. The Big Island is a hiker's paradise: it has tall rocky mountains and wide lush valleys and everything in between.


I named this guy Eddie Lizard (or if it's a gal, Lizzie).


Sheep hate garlic! Fortunately, so do the worms that live in their stomachs. Here the sheep we call "big mama" takes her medicine.


Today the winds on the farm reached 70+ MPH and knocked over our shower. The damage was minor, and we plumbed it right up.

A new adventure

Hi everyone,

Sorry we haven't posted in a while, it's so hard to get computer time at the Honoka'a library.

Oh how time flies! After almost 3 months at Mauna Kea Tea Garden, we are getting ready to pack up and move on to another farm in Kapoho, a fruit farm this time. It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving this wonderful place in just 10 days. Taka and Kimberly really made us feel like part of the family. It's been great working on a farm that is only five years old; we got to see every part of the process, from clearing land for fields to harvesting from mature tea plants. So much of a farmer's work is long-term, doing things that will pay off a year or five years in the future, so it's very rewarding to see our work make a difference in just a couple of months.

We have learned and experienced so much at MKTG that it naturally feels sad to move on, but we're also excited about continuing our adventure, doing new things and meeting new people. Our next farm is in Puna, also on the rainy side of the island but not at such a high altitude. We have heard much about Puna and are looking forward to experiencing it firsthand. People say it is a younger, more artistic community with lots of markets and music. Sounds like a wonderful place to be for the summer months! It also is closer to the beach than we are in Hamakua, another plus.

We will be adding more pictures and doing more things before we leave though, so stay posted.

An existentialist can of worms

Today was a dreary day on the farm... we woke up to the relentless percussion of torrential rain and soon discovered it was too wet to do any field work. We went up to the farmhouse to collect two more chickens for us to feed and care for in exchange for eggs. We clipped their wings (a painless operation) and put them in with our other hens. They immediately started fighting and scratching for the top spot in the pecking order. They didn't stop bickering until I dug up a bunch of worms from the garden and threw them into the fray. I guess it will take them a while to get used to being cooped up together.

But this brings me to the cause of my dilemma. Shortly after our chickens started giving eggs, we noticed that rats and mongeese (or mongooses) were raiding the coop at night and stealing the hens' food and eggs and generally terrorizing them. We hatched a plan to catch these pests by baiting traps with cheese and peanut butter. Yesterday morning we caught a rat in the snap trap. We found it already dead, and we put its body in the larger cage trap, knowing that mongeese are scavengers attracted to the smell of dead animals. This morning we found our egg thief in the trap, scared and very angry. We knew we couldn't let it free again, so one of us interns took it down to the flooded gulch stream and drowned it.

Worms, rats, mongooses, even intraspecies violence, so much suffering in the name of a few nutritious eggs. It has me thinking about the collateral damage caused by our appetites. How much harm is done just do satisfy our desires? Where should we draw the line? Why is it more repulsive to me to kill a mongoose than a rat, and why do I feel more guilt about killing a rat than about tossing a dozen worms to their deaths? Even living on a natural farm, as conscientiously as possible, we cannot help but disrupt our surroundings and make them unnatural.

Some would say that it is "natural" to own domesticated animals and to protect them from other animals with fences and traps and weapons, that causing such suffering is an extension of the violence endemic in nature, where animals kill each other all the time. This kind of rationalizing is a thinly veiled way of shirking responsibility for the hubris and destruction perpetrated in the name of our current way of life. I have already mentioned a number of creatures that would be alive today if not for our taste for chicken eggs. Even our hens have been genetically selected to produce unnatural amounts of meat and eggs, to the detriment of their longevity (why bother to breed a healthy chicken when you plan to eat it when it's 2 months old?). The fact is that we bred these chickens to be totally helpless without human care, placed them in the middle of a forest full of hungry animals, and then feel it is our right and duty to kill those animals for trying to take what is "ours". This is only a microcosm of the many ways in which we take what we want from nature at great expense.

The amount of animate and inanimate resources wasted by human societies is unsustainable and untenable. But how can we mitigate the imprudent and improvident effects of our lifestyles? Is the answer to revert to a prehistoric standard, to erase the benefits as well as the shortcomings of modern technology? Of course not. So how can we live in better harmony with nature without de-evolving into cave people or devolving the responsibility to our children and their children? Perhaps we can come close to equitable equipoise with better accounting of the true cost of our actions and appetites, from giant icecaps to tiny tropical worms.

Rain, rain, go away...

Seeing as we couldn't work much during our recent week-long rainstorm, I took some of our free time to go exploring in the gulch next to our farm. Usually it's just a dry streambed and sometime wild pig highway, but during the rain it flooded and made for some nice pictures.