December 18th, 2010

The ferry to Molokai was nearly ¾ of an hour late. It was truly amazing how much stuff was being brought on board, because Maui is the only place with stores bigger than Mom and Pop’s. Also there were a quartet of young men and one woman who were obviously planning to surf. I went downstairs and stayed there for the entire trip. Lots of families and young kids, people coming from work on Maui to go home and spend the weekend with their families, and commuters going back and forth to work. Without exception they helped each other and folks like me, beaming with beautiful smiles, asking where I was going to stay and where I was from. The ferry arrived around 8:30PM or so. Artie and John were there with smiles and hugs and a Haku Lei (a head wreath) to put on made from plants and flowers. One of the young men got my suitcase off the ferry for us, and we were on our way in no time.

Artie and John are such wonderful people. They are happy people, and live their lives in a very carefree manner. I love it. When we got to their home, after getting my luggage put away, we had ginger beer (home brewed and bottled by John, which is non- alcoholic). We had been gifted several dozen bottles by John and Artie last year at the build. It is wonderful. Artie got out her wonderful homemade vegan foccacia bread, and we all had peanut butter with bread, which was perfect for me that late at night. I went to bed feeling like I had come home.

I am currently reading a book of short stories by Thomas Steinbeck, John’s son. They are all about the Salinas/Big Sur area. So I read for about an hour, and then slept, a bit fitfully just getting used to new bed and new pillows.

I was woken up about 7AM with the roosters crowing. Yes, plural! Artie and John have seven roosters, and quite a few hens that live around and come and get into their garden and into the compost pile. Since they don’t eat eggs, trying to find the eggs is not a problem. They also have three cats, mother, daughter, and granddaughter, who live outside, but who can come in just to a certain point in the kitchen. Artie loves them, but is allergic. I fell back to sleep after telling the rooster to take a hike, and got up about 8:45AM.

Since I am living with raw vegans, the food is quite interesting, and Artie has become an expert in making everything tasty and nutritious. She even has her own recipe for mayonnaise, which is made with pureed cashews, vinegar, and assorted other things. It is to die for. Anyway, we had fresh fruit – bananas (grown here), papaya (ditto), and organic oranges. Then we had cooked quinoa and steel cut oats, mixed with some maple syrup and cardamon and cinnamon. Ate it with no milk, and it was delicious. That and mixed green and thistle tea, and we were ready for the day.

We took off in the electric car, which can only go 25 miles an hour, no more, and went to deliver some seeds Artie had dried for a friend, to the post office for the mail, and then to Coffees of Hawaii for good locally grown coffee. There we sat and talked with others, Artie and John read the newspaper out for people to read, and then a friend of theirs stopped and sat with us. His name is John, but his real name is Shanawatt. He is American Indian, but I am not sure which tribe (s) he is from. He told me that he had come here from 25 years in Alaska. He has been here for three months, and probably will stay on the island. He conducts chanting classes and he and another are in the process of designing and making tee shirts for sale. John was taking seeds out of cotton balls, which he had planted behind the library and is doing very well. So I helped him to do that, after I had gotten my knitting started. After all the seeds are out, Artie cards it and spins it into thread and uses it. Both she and John are weavers, and Artie has a spinning wheel set up on the porch, and a huge loom in part of her dining room.

We left Coffees, and after dropping off some pumpkin seeds to a friend, came back here where Artie put me to work to dice up apples and red onions for our lunch sandwiches. Artie took four slices of the whole grain foccacia bread, slathered each with cashewnaisse, put on that the diced onions, topped with the diced apples, some avocado (from here), put all of that on top of home grown lettuce, and then topped the entire thing with sprouts, which she has going all the time. We had a very good lunch.

Then I was put to work slicing Cuban Red bananas and another variety, length-wise, and putting them into the dehydrator to make banana taffy. The dehydrator is going now, set at 110 degrees for twenty-four hours. My next task was to go out and cut the broccoli that was ready and some of which was beginning to flower. Everything is used in this house. At the same time Artie and Shanawatt were out sawing down a huge hand of Cuban Red bananas, which they then sawed into three bunches, which they hung up in the carport to ripen. When at least one or more of the bananas begin to turn gold (they are deep purple when they are young), that is the time to saw down the entire bunch, and then saw down to the ground the stem they came from.

I had had enough, and my knee was beginning to act up, so I came in, and am now typing this! Other than the organic oranges, the red onions, the apple, and the garlic they get, everything I mentioned above is grown all around their house. Everything is set up to be as self-contained as possible. John is Mr. Fix-it. They have a banana grove with four types of bananas; they have papayas growing everywhere, several avocado trees, and lime and lemon trees. There is a farmer’s market every Saturday where they can buy things they don’t grow themselves. Some of the lettuces are obtained in that manner. People share here.

I am waiting for John to come in and help me get on line. I can do so, but I don’t have the right cord for hooking up to a phone line, although my computer has the outlet to do so. Then I will be able to post this…wasn’t able to post this here in the house. They use their phone for dial up. I will have to go over to Coffees of Hawaii to use the Wi-Fi there.

I wrote this off-line and inserted pictures, but they didn't transfer to my blog. Sometime I will learn how to do it!

Life is Good!

Adieu, Adios, Mahalo,
I love you all,
Sally