Sustainability and self sufficiency have meaning

[aline]

Extend your ohana,include neighbors,the elderly and teach the people who need help. You can give someone a fish and feed them for the day but teach them to fish,garden,preserve food and you have a new chance at surviving the downturn and you give hope and sometimes that is all people have.

[Lin W]

My motto has always been, “When in trouble, when in doubt; run in circles, scream and shout.” Doesn’t work for oven fires and won’t work with this.

** So, guess I’d better say proactive. Actually, I’ve already started. I’ve been gardening with static hydroponics a la Pam’s example, have had good luck with lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, not such good luck with cucumbers and squash, but I’m not giving up. I was already considering getting chickens and perhaps a milch goat and seems like that should move up in priority. I limit trips to town to once a week, longer if I can stretch it. I’ll keep working at my job, paying my bills, enjoying my life, thanking God that somehow I ended up in Puna during this time of crisis, because here, even if I wind up with nothing but the shirt on my back, I will neither freeze nor starve.

** Having already tried panic (see motto above), working together cooperatively is an easy choice. Farm co-ops, grocery co-ops, neighborhood co-ops…

** Three+ things I/we can do:
- Kitchen garden, compost, barter, see signature line below.
- Buy/eat local as much as possible.
- Rediscover fishing. I used to fly fish mountain streams, have never fished the ocean but can certainly learn (fishing co-op?). A fun way to supplement a locavore diet.


use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without

[janeadams]

Folks,

My Mom and Dad raised 3 boys through WWII, and even when I came along, the modus was:

garden
put foods up during the growing season to enjoy in the winter
share (we're all better together than apart)
Rummage sales yield cloth to be re-designed into great clothing (learn to sew)
garden, both for soul and real food
have fun without spending lots of $$ (camp, hike, swim, etc)
garden to share produce with neighbors
be healthy through healthy practices

I grew up with veggie gardens yielding canned stuff for the winter. Bought lugs of fruit and canned all summer for winter fruit. Picked high mountain huckleberries for sublime taste, learned freezing, brewed root beer for kid libations, had a cooperative lake home (with aunt and uncle, built by all) for the very best of enjoying time out of the city... And most of all, knew that pleasure comes from small things. For me, singing while canning or doing Christmas dishes, and thinning baby carrots by eating those wondrous things.

Life doesn't have to be complex and full of whizzy stuff to be full of pleasure and good times. Enjoy what you've got and the area around you and the friends that share it with you. That's "RICH". Poor is being isolated...

Jane

[JWFITZ]

I think it's really important for those of us who saw this coming and are perhaps a little ahead of the curve and more prepared to realize that the larger portion of the responsibility of keeping our community intact is going to fall into our laps. It isn't going to be within the means of the "others" whether that's services, utilities, or governments to maintain the basic needs of society. Those "others" are officially bankrupt. We're going to have to provide those for ourselves or go without. Hawaii, and Puna, in particular, was hanging by a thread on that score anyway.

So, I guess, for starts plant a bigger garden so the kids next door will have something to eat next spring.

[pslamont]

JW... with that in mind... I have tons of land. Down side is I am so darned far from most of you (up on N. Glenwood Rd) but I would be open to some kind of communal garden on a large scale.... we certainly have the space for it. I could devote up to a couple acres to that.....

[JWFITZ]

Pam, you're not far from me at all. I may be in a position to help a bit with a project. I would recommend at this point perhaps 2 acres of Uala, that by spring with minimum care could yield perhaps 3 tons of perhaps very much needed food. I may well be able to provide enough cuttings from my place to get the ball rolling. Unlike many local crops, the Uala propagates very rapidly, and it could leap frog pretty fast.

[Daniel]

What economic problem? The sun came up this morning and it will go down the same as it always does. Continue to be self reliant, work hard and make wise decisions regarding your money and be happy.

Daniel R Diamond

[ForrU2Cry]

My parents knew this was coming they had my husband, myself and my two small children move to the island a little over a year ago. When they left Southern Oregon in the spring of 2005 to the BI.

My Husband and I found ourselves slowly slipping down where we were no longer able to just live. We have never had cable, had one cell phone, had one vehicle. He had been riding his bike to work 6 days a week 6 miles to and 6 miles home each day. He left the car for me to beable to transport the cildren in case of emergency. We worked our schedule to where I was able to work a part-time job in the morning and we did have to pay for child care. We still were unable to make it.

So Here we are living with my mother and father we have one vehicle one cell phone no cable (I prefer internet) and we are in better shape. Closer to Family, Warm in the winter, and vegetables and fruit to eat.

We have been here a little over a year and been looking for work and yet no luck. Very difficult to get a job here on the BI.

We have cut out what we did not need and we have done our part, What is there left for us to do?

[kani-lehua]

quote:

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Originally posted by pslamont

JW... with that in mind... I have tons of land. Down side is I am so darned far from most of you (up on N. Glenwood Rd) but I would be open to some kind of communal garden on a large scale.... we certainly have the space for it. I could devote up to a couple acres to that.....

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you are a good soul and from what i hear, a good teacher, pam!



"chaos reigns within.
reflect, repent and reboot.
order shall return."

microsoft error message with haiku poetry

[james weatherford]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kapohocat

down turn may be good for us all. Bring us back to reality.

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Is this 'change' back to normal?

hmmm



James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park