Well, after many have asked, “Are you journaling this?”, I have decided to finally set my pen to paper and start this thing called a blog. It is for no other purpose than to record the events of this extraordinary and radically out-of-the-box season of our lives.
It is appropriate that I start on this day, my 43rd birthday, as I sit here in my hammock chair under the banyan tree surrounded by the most pristine natural beauty. I have been showered with incredible gifts that are beyond my imagination or dreams. It is with abundant gratitude that I want to share our experiences to ensure we never forget the journey, the life lessons learned or the miracles witnessed along the way.
This journal will primarily be a record of events living off-the-grid, raising four children and learning the ancient Hawaiian way to create a sustainable farm to support our family and hopefully inspire a community.
Before I begin to record events, I have two disclaimers.
- I am not a writer so if you are reading this and discover less than perfect prose let me just say that for the past 13 years, I have mostly been communicating with pre-school vocabulary. Now that my last child is three, I am hoping to progress past two-word commands and work my way back to elementary English.
- This is by no means a piece of advice or an opinion column. If you find what we share offensive, I apologize. It is simply real life for us at the moment. A blog is the best way to hold me accountable for journaling. If I can pretend that there is someone out there actually interested and who is expecting the next entry, I am more likely to sit down and write.
So here we go…. I will have much back-tracking to do as there have been so many events that deserve to be shared. Let’s just start with a dedication…
We are Kapalai Farms. Do we have several farms? No, just one at the moment but who knows what the future holds. Can we call ourselves farmers when we only have seven acres of land and only about one in cultivation? I’m not sure. But I know that we would like to be and we are striving to be. Maybe most of you would consider us to be gardeners. Perhaps that is true. Gardener or farmer our mission remains the same. A quote from the book both Dean and I are reading right now sums it up perfectly. We are, “people who love the land, dedicate their lives to a little piece of it, make of it a true home and work unceasingly to keep it a place of peace, beauty and good food”. That’s us. It’s exactly what we are trying to do. It is incredibly hard work but the rewards far outweigh the costs. This lifestyle is extraordinary in every way. By that I mean it is far from the ordinary lives we were living just four months ago. We have discovered that extraordinary living requires extraordinary sacrifice, work, commitment, and FAITH. From one day to the next, we never know what life will bring. We are completely at the mercy of all created natural forces surrounding us.
We have just begun our journey and have much to learn. From what we have learned and experienced so far, our whole family has gained a deeper appreciation for those who have gone before us, who pioneered the way, who homesteaded land to support their people and build a community. I dedicate this blog to all of you who have loved a piece of the land, grown good food and have worked unceasingly to keep it for the future of our keiki.
Let the blogging begin.
