A Day on the farm. Recent Activities

Good morning Kalaeha Farm, Ninole, Hawaii!

Up with the chickens. A new day and some new peeps!

Repurposed materials make a great chicken shack. The creation of uber worker Reggie.

Happy hens make delicious eggs.

Greenhouses provide plants and soil shelter from heavy rains.

Raised beds being prepared for a new crop of Kale.

Amaryllis add beauty to the farm and are a good cash crop.

Tuber Rose

WOOF-ers digging a new veggie bed on a sunny Hawaiian day.

Volcanic soils are augmented with rich compost.

Guavas grow wild here.  In this photo the product of some adventures in wine making. Fruit of the vine, guava wine!

The original building on the farm. Now in its 4th location.

The glass shack.  A one of a kind visitor's lodging on the edge of a rain forest ravine.

Dragonfruit,flower, a catcus-like plant which blooms at night.

Sunflowers and Peas



Two plantings of sunflowers

 

Organic farming is sometimes easier when the crops respond well to the soil, water, sun and the myriad of both beneficial and harmful  organisms that are found in the environment.  Sunflowers, it seems, like it here.  Several small test crops thrived last year so we have planted more in  a bigger field.  The soil in these rows has been augmented with biochar and compost.  What will become of the eventual crop of seeds?  Perhaps used to supplement chicken feed, perhaps for human use in cooking, or perhaps pressed into oil.





The pea patch is doing well.  Bamboo twigs are used for plant support and fencing helps keep the feral pigs out of the patch.
Peas "fix" valuable nitrogen into the soil while providing a desirable  item for local market sale.
Delicious!








A recent Woofer/philosopher made this sign.  It helps remind us to not created muddy paths as we go about our day.  It also seems to express the nature and attitude of some the people who find their way to Kalaeha Farm.

 

 

 

The end of another beautiful day.

Sunset over Mauna Kea

 

Poo to Loo to Avocado

One of residents on the farm is experimenting and using a simple composting toilet system.  The goals are simple, as is the design:  Using a simple, inexpensive toilet create compost from human waste.

This is the loveable loo.  See how it works?  Do your thing, then cover it with carbon based materials, here peat moss.  When the bucket is full, empty it into the compost bin and let the composting process begin.  The waste decomposes rather quickly here in warm wet Hawaii.

Here is the composter.  You could make one simple enough or get a commercially made unit.  The opening at the bottom allows for the finished product, nice, rich, clean, sweet compost, as seen here in the buckets, to be collected.  New waste goes in the top.

The finished compost is put on flowers and trees, seen here are several 1 year old avocados. 

Good for the plants and good for the environment!

If you'd like to learn more go to http://humanurehandbook.com/store/LOVEABLE-LOO-Eco-Toilet.html

June, Early Summer

Biochar has an ancient history and a hopeful future. 

Anne and Magi haul biochar to the greenhouse.

Here on the farm it is made and used as a soil amendment.  It helps stabilize the moisture and nutrients essential to plant growth and health.  Known as soil's best friend— because of biochar's physical and chemical nature, it has a unique ability for attracting and holding moisture, nutrients, and agrochemicals even retaining difficult to hold nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous.
It also is beneficial in the process of sequestration of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gasses from the atmosphere, which are causative factors in creating the "greenhouse effect" and ultimately the warming of Earth's climate.

Later this month we will gather, friends and neighbors, and enjoy the bonfire that creates the biochar from waste wood, as we celebrate the onset of summer and the gifts that its bright sunshine brings us.

Happy summer!

April Showers

Clearing the fence line

It was a rainy April, even for these parts.  Our records show 30 inches for the month!  Of course the rain combined with generous sunshine makes things GROW!

Here we find recent woofer handy work clearing the fence line of ferns.  You might pay good money for these in a garden shop back east...but here they are beautiful weeds.

"A"

Here are some of the many plants that are blooming this month.  Can you identify them?  Answers at the bottom of this post.

"B"

"C"

"D"

This circular dig is the beginning of a pad for a large water catchment tank.  We've had a lot of rain recently, but we've also had drier than usual months like this past January and February.  So store we must!

Water catchment pad

Speaking of digging, here is master digger woofer Reggie enjoying some time off.  There is a drawing pad in his lap.

Chillin'

Aloha!









"A"= Amaryllis (and corn)
"B"= banana
"C"= apple
"D"= strawberry

Season of the Lambs

New lambs!  Very exciting!!  And triplets!!!
-Photo by Venus

February Farm Life 2016

Lots has happened since the last post.  Here's a brief mention of a few of the projects and activities as well as a few photos.

Strawberries!  Yum, a market favorite.  The berries seem to come in heavy every so often, and now is strawberry season.  All berries vines in the two large patches started from a few plants given to Scot a few years back from our dear neighbor Victor.  Thank you Victor.

Strawberries, so ono!

Several construction projects have been completed.  The shop, with tools and spare parts, has been moved out of the mail greenhouse and into a newly constructed hoop house.  This will open up more space for plant beds for delicious veggies.  By the way, greenhouses are used here to protect delicate plants and the raised beds from wind and tropical rainstorms.

A new section of the lanai at the main house
 has been added making for space for meetings and meals.  You'll find dog Sadie lounging here on warm afternoons.

As this is being written one of out original ewes is about to give birth.  Twins??  Triplets???  Sheep are animal weed whackers, helping keep the fields mowed.  Pictures of the newborns will be posted soon.

Photo credit in this post:  Venus Parks

Sheep and "WOOFER" shepherds

The glass shack.  One of a kind cottage cantilevered over the nearby gorge.  Made almost entirely with repurposed construction materials.  Once is not enough!