Hey, howzit, Kaiwiki Clay! I'm in Hawaii, too. Not very far from you, all things considered. Same road, 1400 foot level! We're neighbors.
Just recently getting into the goal of permaculture, but have not done too much. We're raising chickens that cruise around the yard for bugs and stuff but they're still eating feed from Dels. We had a vegetable garden that eventually got weeded over and so now we're starting over with a rain shelter/greenhouse that is nearly finished. This is less from the idea that the rain creates an impossible situation (it seems that way sometimes), but more from being realistic about our desire to go out and weed a patch of mud after two weeks straight of rain. Plus, on our first go around I had added so much sand and compost to the clay that it lost its natural stickiness and we problems with soil erosion/loss in heavy rain. So our solution is to keep the rain off. We have a goal of eventually feeding the chickens only on what comes off our land. And also a plan of raising rabbits.
We have a very tiny plot compared to most of Kaiwiki, so our possibilities are more limited. I have a lot of ideas and do a lot of research but have not put a lot of these ideas in action yet. Mostly we'd like to move toward growing some food with composted inputs from our own land and feeding chickens and rabbits from the land. We've also put charcoal in the ground with the idea of trying anything that might work. Building the greenhouse from scratch has been the major project lately. The next project is replanting the vegetable garden and then planting some trees that could be sources of green manure.
It would be fun to trade ideas. Although, it sounds like we could learn a lot more from you than the other way around.
Please drop by or contact back throughout he thread! Our address is 2579, the first driveway above the one lane bridge that's above Kaiwiki park and the old chapel. I don't think we've met already...? Are you the place with all the funny street signs?
Aloha,
Mike
