My Summer vocation

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I visited my family 5 weeks this summer alone, spent most of my time at mom’s house.

Cooking, washing, cleaning, and chatting at the same time; I tried to devote as much time as I can to my family, most was to my mom. Without Terry and Sonny on this trip, I put all of my attention and energy to my family, wished I could do more for them.

Mom aged a lot, one day feels good, next day might feels bad. She can’t do much any more, which she never imagined it will happen to her too. Her wrists feel too weak to lift a full thermos, have a hard time to pour hot water into her tea cup. I made tea for her every day and added hot water into her cup whenever she needed. At her sick day, I even bathed her which I never did before. One day, she said:” Ah, It’s so good that you are here serving me full time, I love it. I wish your sister can do it too.” I laughed and said:” Don’t forget my sister has to work, take care her kid and do all the house works. And I’m different, I have no job here, all I’m doing here is taking care of you.” I’m glad that she enjoyed my visiting.

My mom didn’t learn to read and write, she can’t even speak fluent Chinese, but she is the wisest woman I’ve ever known. She gave me best advices when I need one, helped me make up my mind, chose the right one along my growing up.

I remember, we were visiting my family few years ago; an old lady who was also living in the same building, said:”You married so far away from home, even you miss your mom, you can’t come back to visit her often.” I don’t remember what I said exactly, might just some agreeable words.

When I told my mom what the lady said, she said:” Don’t look at the thing in that way. If you have a good marriage, doesn’t matter where you live, I know you have a good life, it will always make me, make our whole family happy. If you married to a yuck man and had a bad time, even you live at next door and see me every day, it will only make me sad and feel sorry for you.” That is how my mom always help me to look at things from a positive view.

I cooked soup noodle for breakfast every morning, wheat noodle or rice noodle. With simple ingredients but I can’t get in Hawaii, the noodle tasted very good every morning. My little nephew would only eat the noodle I cooked, not his mom’s cooking. Even my mom praised my cooking skill, said my marriage life changed me, made me a better cook.

 

 

 

My mom’s elder sister still lives in the village, not too far away, but they haven’t seen each other for years. A week after I arrived, I called my cousin and he came to visit with my aunt, aunt spent a week with us. They both had hard lives, saw lots of changes in their life time, their experiences became history. I want to know more about their life, got them both telling me their childhood story, and about my grandma who I don’t remember very much.

 

During my vocation, there was the Swing Festival of Aka people, one of the biggest festival except New Year Festival. Our relatives from different villages invited us, but we only went to my aunt’s village.

Beginning I thought that I could shot some actual swing video, but they didn’t build a swing in aunt’s village this year. So we visited several relative’s homes, had meal after meal, my brother in laws couldn’t get away without drinking, they were drunk at the end.

 

 

This was the first meal we had at one of my cousin’s house. The table is made of rattan which is the traditional item of my tribe, it’s very light and can be hung on the wall after meal. Living in jungle, my ancestors learned to use materials from forest. My mom and aunt told me, when they were young, from rice bowl, spoon, wine cup, rice container, to big round container for steaming rice, even container for making vegetable pickles were all made of bamboo. Dinning table, seat, basket were made of rattan. Less and less people use those items now.

As a guest to visit any household at any time, you can’t go with empty hands, that is one of our tradition. When you leave, the host won’t let you go with empty hands either. At this festival, sticky rice cake is the special gift from the host to the guest, which is the food I miss a lot.

My cousin’s wife made some sticky rice cakes the day before, I told her that I missed this food a lot but don’t know how to make it. She made a small batch right away, to demonstrate, so I can make it myself here. She and her husband have very close relationship with my family, they never hesitate to do a favor for us at any time.

She steamed sticky rice, pounded in a stone mortar with a heavy wood stick; fried sesame seeds and mashed it with salt, then coated it on the rice; made small round cake shape and coated with sesame one more time, it’s done. We had some fresh rice cake right away, and took some home, heated up whenever we want it.

 

 

 

My elder sister fried some rice cakes as soon as we got home, but heated it up on hot charcoal is the old way and better way. When it cooked, it will puff up, crispy outside, soft inside. It kept sticky rice’s natural taste and a hint of wood fire flavor, this was my snack between my meals, I love it.

My time over there seems so busy, even I didn’t do anything big, just lots of small things. When I was not doing anything, I would spend the time chatting with my sisters and my mom, watching TV with them. Life is so busy over there, I couldn’t find a quiet moment to read or think. It made me missing the life as a Kona coffee farmer very much, and made me cherish the life I’m living in morethan ever.

When my vocation time got shorter and shorter, I was glad as I would see Terry and Sonny soon; at the same time, I was sad that I had to leave my mom and my sisters. I had to tell myself, that I had a very good visiting and did what I wanted.

My mom woke me up early on the day I was leaving, so we could spent peaceful 2 hours and talk alone before every body get up. She told me, she was getting old but she still had many promising years to live, and we would see each other again. She is happy for me as I have a happy family of my own. She is a such wonderful mom and kind person, there are many beautiful stories about her. I’ll share more story about my mom some day.

 

 

 

 

Bamboo Shoots, a Gift From Nature

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At this time of year, it’s bamboo shoots season, a yummy food from mother nature; so quite often we have this dish on our dinning table, we love it.

The previous owners planted this bamboo 50 years ago, right behind bedroom shack. He didn’t realize the bamboo could grow so tall and expand so big; some bend over and brush the roof, make scratch sound; some lean on the roof.

Bamboo clumps need to be taken care of, otherwise, they grow too crowded and tight, hard to get shoots or bamboo from it.

First year I moved to here, Terry spent 2, 3 weeks to clean one third of the clump. He used regular saw to cut dead one and some green one, pulled it out and burned it. I watched him working on it, know how hard is it to cut big bamboo; I can imagine to do it myself. Next season, I talked to my mom on the phone, asked her how to cook bamboo shoots properly. Since then, I harvest the shoots every year, keep the clump small and easy to maintain.

From harvesting the shoots to cooking, take quite bit of time and effort. First I use a saw to cut the shoots, and use a machete to peal off the outside layers; then slice them and soak in water for 4 or 5 days, every morning and evening change the water. First couple of days, the shoots and the water are light yellow color, slowly the shoots turn to pure white. Next, I’ll build a big fire with coffee wood, use a big pot, cook the shoots with plenty of water for 3 hours at least. After that, season the shoots and they are ready to eat.

Often, I just stir fry the shoots with oil, garlic, salt and chicken base paste; add some green onion before take them out from fry pan. It’s simple and easy, the shoots are very tasty. Sometime, I’ll make a spicy bean sauce to go with plain shoots.

 

 

 

There is another way to prepare the shoots. After pealing off the outside layers, cut the shoots to two big pieces, then cook it for 4, 5 hours, change the water 3 times. Using this way of cooking, instead of pure white color, the shoots are light yellow and have stronger bamboo shoots taste. I use this way to cook, when I have plenty time after I harvest the shoots.

 

 

Most times, I get one or two 5 gallon buckets of shoots at one time, there is no way to eat them all by ourselves, we give away most of them. Sometimes, we have to work very hard to give away all the shoots if we have too much; and not every one knows how to make it into a yummy dish.

I found, giving the shoots to Japanese lady or Asian woman is a easy way to get rid of my shoots. Because they know how to cook it and appreciate it very much.

John is our friend, his family had a Japanese lady as a nanny when he was a little boy; this lady is 90 years old, still lives on his family’s property, near his house. If I give some shoots to John, always give an extra bag to him, ask him giving it to this old lady.

One day, John visited us and brought a gift to me, a package of Japanese dessert from this lady( like Chinese moon cake, but different ingredients ). She bought it from her temple’s fund raiseing event , went over to John’s house, asked him to give it to me who she never met. It moved me.

I give the shoots away, is because I have; and need other people helping to eat it. I didn’t expect them give me anything for returning, so her way of thanks moved me. I can’t help to love this old lady, and continue giving some bamboo shoots to her, I know she enjoy it.

What did I gain from it? It’s not a secret, let me tell you. I gained the joy of giving, and big satisfaction of my hard work.

 

 

Coffee deck project

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We’ve been very busy last few weeks.

Coffee borer beetles make our life as coffee farmer not easy anymore; even we are fighting those beetles hard and constant, it seems no hope to really get rid of them at all.

Last season, after coffee had been picked, pulped, soaked over night, on the drying deck beetles kept eating away the whole time. That made us thinking and decided to buy a coffee dryer, it will not only dry the coffee but also kill the beetles still live inside coffee bean. Sun dry coffee time is over, we ordered a small coffee dryer hope to get it before this coming season.

Then we need to find a place for the dryer; one decision lead to another project. Terry decided to take the rolling roof down, rebuild and raise it up, make a permanent roof and a place for coffee dryer.

When Terry decide to do something, he’ll just do it and move on. He worked very hard at time like this. It only took him 2 days to take apart the old roof and rebuild it, I only can gave very very little help. Only a few times, he needed me to hold a lumber straight with level, so he could nail it down. I couldn’t hand him a piece of metal sheet of roof, it’s too heavy; I helped him to move these metal sheet around though. I washed all of the clear plastic sheet, took nails out from old lumber to prevent any bad accident.

During the whole working time, only few drizzling times; lucky we got the roof back up over our heads before rain pouring down, since it’s raining season.

In Sonny’s card to Terry for “Father’s Day”, he even wrote ” You are my hero because you built the roof in two days”.

Here is another conversation I had with Sonny on ” Father’s Day”.

We didn’t prepare any gift for dad, he suggested:” We can buy a present for dad and me”.

I asked :” It’s Father’s Day, not a young boy’s day. Why should you get a present ?”

Guess what he said, he said :” I’m a boy, when I grow up, I will be a dad too; so I should get a present for Father’s Day too.”

I’ll never guess this answer myself, said :” Well, wait until you are a dad, then you can expect getting a present on Father’s Day. ”

 

 

I found this old photo, green roof was the rolling one, blue lumber was the rolling rail. It’s a nice photo, you can tell, it was a beautiful sunny day.

 

 

Terry was wearing red shirt on the roof, screwed down the roof. Sonny was saluting to me, pretend to be a soldier. Mimi, our cat walked into the scene just to be a part of the picture. All three of them made this photo unique, my camera captured this special moment.

 

 

This is how it look like right now. We like to have our meals at the front part of the deck, nice view up there. Another good part of it is, Terry made two laundry lines on back section. I love it, a scene with clothes drying on laundry line is wonderful and homey. A scene tells story of alive household without a single person in it.

 

When we were working on this project, we hired Tom who is live in neighborhood, sprayed BotaniGardES for us.

Last week, we threw another round of fertilizer, ran out of fertilizer, Terry just finished last four bags yesterday.

 

 

 

A boy’s new dream

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We met Frank who is a scientist a few weeks ago, and we had a wonderful time with him. Meeting new people in your life is so interesting, in so many different ways; but meeting nice people is always the same, which is the pleasant and enjoyable moment you have with them. So many nice people we will meet in our life’s journey, how wonderful and fun it could be. I think about it, and appreciate it every time when I meet nice person.

A week later we got some mail from him, enclose with some photos and a four color pen for Sonny. That afternoon Sonny and I went to the upper chicken coop to let them out, we had a little conversation on the way back to house.

Sonny asked :” Mom, do we know any scientist ?”

I :” Yes, uncle Frank is a scientist .”

Sonny :” A real scientist ?”

I :” Yes, a real one .”

Sonny :” Wow! that’s so cool, we actually know someone is a real scientist.”

Await two seconds, he asked :” Does he have scientist jacket ?”

I :” What jacket ? Is a scientist have to wear some special jacket ?”

Sonny :” The white jacket, scientist always wear. ”

I :” Well, I don’t know. You can ask uncle Frank next time when you see him again. ”

That evening, he took the 4 color pen apart, said :” I’m investigate and learn to put the pen together. I’m going to be a scientist when I’m grow up.”

I couldn’t help,and said :” Good, mom will be much happier with you as a scientist than a fight jet pilot. ”

Right away he said :” Maybe I can be a scientist in army.”

Silent, no more words from me.

Think it over right now, a child can have many many dreams about what they are going to do, who they want to be, when they grow up. It’s so natural to them, seems build in their young life. As we grow older, we lose some dreams and gain some new ones; we always need good dreams to look forward. With no dream, our life could be like a dead water pond. Dreaming won’t hurt, it costs nothing, and it’s keeping your interest to  life, and keeping your heart stay young.

Have a dream, or have many dreams, it’s up to you. But sure to have a good one.

 

Frank’s wife posted his write about visiting our farm on a Blog, click the link to read the article.

http://glenniacampbell.typepad.com/silenti/2012/06/kona-coffee-roasting-company-a-travelers-tale.html

 

 

Dakine coffee farmer

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Last two weeks we have been working on pulling suckers, they are extra shoots growing on coffee stump and branches. We cleaned half of the field.

Quite often we see bird nests on a tree, I saw this nest with three eggs last week. Sonny was in Summer break, and was hanging out with us in the field. So I showed him this nest, he was very happy to see it. Even myself felt very good to see it, it added an interesting little story to our working day, lighted up my spirit.

Last Thursday I saw another nest with three baby birds, pink tiny little things without any feathers. Today I visited them again with my camera, they grew twice as big and full of feathers, it surprise me how fast they can grow. They might just had a good meal not long ago, since they didn’t wake up from their dream when I bended the branches to take a shot.

 

 

Our gardenia is going off right now, so many and so beautiful.

 

 

 

Even we are doing same job, but we are quite different on the way we are doing. Here is how Terry works in the field.

 

 

Epiphyllum nights

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Friday night, I was on the path from our living room to bedroom, the air was filled with a strong fragrance. Next moment, what I was doing was a flash light on my hands, watching and enjoying broad-leaved epiphyllum flowers.

This type of epiphyllum bear large, strongly fragrant flowers that bloom for a single night only. How could I let the chance of viewing those flowers slip by, I watched and enjoyed the sight of blossom. At that moment, I was happy and pleased by their presence, marveled at mother nature again. It wasn’t my first time see this flower, but the smell and sight swiped through my body and my senses like first time. The feeling was so fresh like no other, it was not the first time, but it was those flowers’ only time.

I took their photo before too, not good. This time was accidentally I used flash light to lit them up, and it worked much better. First I used my mouth hold the flash light, then I hung the flash light on the stem of epiphyllum, or set the flash light between coffee branches. We had rain that day, coffee trees were wet. There was me, ducking under the coffee trees, trying to capture the beauty of the night blooming flower, with the only light source from my small flash light. Smiling, I was pleased with what I was doing, for a moment, I was a very young little girl again.

They are so elegant, like a queen of the flower world, without great force of imposing posture.

 

 

 

Those were flower buds which bloomed last night.

 

 

 

May day celebration at Honaunau school

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May day celebration is a big event at Honaunau school. All of the kids worked hard to practice dancing and singing, teachers and parents worked together to prepare for this day, since it’s fund raiser event for the school too.

One week ago, I went to school to help making mango pickles. It’s a very big job, need many hands to do it. Picking mango, peeling, cutting into 2 pieces, digging the seed out, slicing into small pieces, salting, adding warm sugar water with food dye, one week later we can buy yummy mango pickle on May day. It brings good money to our school.

On mango pickling day, there were teachers, parents and community O’hana volunteers. Peeling and digging seed are easy but take time, cutting and slicing are harder, need good tool and strength.

I volunteered for this project last year too, I got two blisters in 2 minutes after I sliced mango with small knife. I learned my lesson, good tool can do better and faster. So I had my big cleaver with me this time, I sliced lots of mango; got one blister at the end. I wasn’t feeling well that time, could feel the cold was approaching to me. After I did it for 8 hours, my hand and fingers were so sore; my cleaver didn’t listen to my mind, cut my finger instead of the mango I was holding. I knew that’s the time for me to quit.

Last Friday evening, I volunteered making sushi. There were 4 ladies making musubi, they made 200. We had 5 ladies rolling sushi, and we made 150.

They always had someone making lunch and supper for all of volunteers.

Most volunteers were local, same faces showed up last year too. Worked with them, I experienced truly aloha, working together and get thing done. While we were working, their conversation seems always involved family, friend or community member; once a while, someone threw in a joke or comment, made everyone laugh. Even at quite moments, the atmosphere was light and loose; I don’t know most of them and had very little to say, but I felt comfortable with them. How should I describe my feeling? Through those community working party, my participation helped me entering the door of community O’hana; they saw me and acknowledged me as a new member of O’hana. They are easy, big heart, not complicated people, I love them; to understand them, I have to see things from their view.

On May day celebration, I took lots of pictures, share some with everyone. All of the kids are so sweet, they look so lovely after dressed up. Be a young child is a wonderful thing, and I’m glad to be able to see their pure beauty, cherish those moments, my eyes filled up with their sweet faces.

When I was a little girl, we celebrated May day too. But I don’t have any pictures to remind me how my friends and I look like, except my memory can tell some stories. Think about it, it’s kind of sad.

Well, let’s see those happy faces, and appreciate their presence, be the beautiful ones around us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egg collecting boy

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Living on a farm, it’s very hard to imagine without any animals around. We have cats and chickens, once we even raised a pig. ( it seems too much work to raise a pig )

Raising chicken is really fun, we enjoy it very much. When we had new born chicks, I visited them several times a day, they are so cute and fun to watch. We have wild mongoose here, it caused us many times of failing to raise chicks. And we have loose dog problem too, our chicken coop didn’t protect them from a pack of dogs. One time, dogs killed all of our chicken, I was so upset, decided to quit from it for a while. Later on, Terry built a coop up above ground, and we keep it right beside our house.

Collecting egg is another fun part of raising chicken, I was the one doing it most time before. But this year, Sonny is BIG boy, he want to take the responsibility to let chicken out and collect the eggs. He loves his job, asked me to take a video.

It’s really fun to watch, and like to share with everyone.

 

 

 

Generous tooth fairy

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Sonny had a loose top front tooth for a while, he heard tooth fairy story. He was working on it every night before sleep, because he wanted be rich. (Expecting tooth fairy leave money under his pillow )

Last Friday early morning, about 4am, Sonny woke me up from my deep sleep.

“Mom, Mom, I lost my tooth, turn the light on, I need to find my tooth.”

“The light is too bright, use a flash light.”

He found the lost tooth, and put it under his pillow carefully. I told him to go back to sleep, so the tooth fairy can visit him. He had no trouble go back to sleep in a few minutes.

Terry came back to bed from his early morning reading coach, I told him what happened.

He said:” Well, I better put some money under his pillow.”

I asked:” How much are you going to give him?”

” A hundred ”

” It’s kind of lot to me, and he has more loose teeth, what are you going to do next time?”

” Oh, it’s only for the first big front tooth, next time, give him ten cents.”

“All right, he will remember this for a long time.”

We got up and did our morning routine. Sonny was playing with his Lego toys and forgot about his tooth, we had to remind him to check under his pillow. Terry and I sat on coach waiting in the living room, then we heard his running step from bedroom, and his excited and happy voice,

“Hi, guys, guess what I got from tooth fairy?”

I asked:” what did you get?”

” A hundred dollar, I’m rich.”

” Wow, the tooth fairy is very generous.”

He put his tooth into a tooth chest which he got from dental check up on the same week, he went to school with it. That day he was the boy who had a story to tell.

One day later, he put the same tooth under his pillow, just in case, tooth fairy visit again. Silly boy!

Here is another earlier Sonny beach picture, he was a naked boy for a long time at beach. Before we went to beach, I always helped him put on bathing suit; but as soon as we arrived at beach, first thing he did is taking off his bathing suit. It became an old story of him, no more naked Sonny at beach. I’m so glad that I caught many precious moments with camera.

Love naked baby at beach, they are cute and beautiful.

Good idea, we get presents on dad’s birthday!!!

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Terry had his birthday yesterday, one year older, still works in the farm, feels good about life.

Before his birthday, I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, or anything he wanted for his birthday. He said:” I don’t really need anything, I have everything I need. How about I buy a present for you?”

I smiled, said: ” Really? ……. OK, let me see, do I need anything?” Searched in my mind, there is one thing I need to buy. Then, Terry suggested another thing, I agreed it without hesitating.

Sonny was doing his home work and heard it, he said:” Good idea, dad. Buy me a bag of toy soldiers too. On your birthday, mom and I get presents, on my birthday, I get some presents again. Yeah!!!” He was really loud, we got his message. He even wrote down “toy soldier” on a piece of paper, handed it to dad, make sure we won’t forget his present.

So Terry and I went to shopping on his birthday, bought toy soldier, Lego and some camouflage clothes for Sonny;then he ordered the present for me on line.

Sonny liked his new toys, played with them before bedtime and the morning time before school time.

I made birthday cake.

 

 

 

Here is one of Terry’s old pictures, a good one, he looks very cool. He still looks great, he is a wonderful man.

Happy birthday to the man of Da Kine!!!