Fern Forest Vacation Estates

[mella l]

Jean I did a search for you, Emily had a grand thread in the Building Forum. The search was unsuccessful as the Building Forum has lost many many pages and only seems to go back to April 2007 as far as I can tell. Emily Eissner and her husband were living in a container, raising chicken and eggs. She was a good resourse but I can't locate the link to her site on yahoo. Sorry.

mella l

[HADave]

Well don'tcha know I just happen to have that there link and am more tham happy to share it,,,,,,,,,hope Emily doesn't mind kinda miss readin bout their adventure ayuh!

Enjoy with a little Aloha on the side!

http://360.yahoo.com/emilyeissner

HADave

PS... their progress is outstanding, some different then their days of container life! At-away Em&Greg

Edited by - HADave on 05/18/2007 14:32:38

[Larry T]

You need to read this.

http://sensiblesimplicity.lefora.com/201...f-y/#post1

[Kapohocat]

I do think you seem to have the right attitude for the project. FF is an area I like in the summer. The winters are too chilly for me but that's me. and Chilly is relative as we all know.

We are in Kapoho going to head the as off grid direction with our construction as far as we can in regards to water and power.

[tlboyles1]

I agree with DanielP concerning the Community Center and some of the people that hang there. Some people in my neighborhood told me to stay away... it's scary. Not so. We were nervous at first, because of what we heard, but there was no need to be. We don't live there yet, but have spent a couple of months total, spent quite a bit of time at the community center and met some really good people. And yes, some smoke, drink and even (horror of all horrors) smoke a little pot.

There are those that want to sterilize it "for the children's sake". The locals, those that some don't like hanging around there, bring their kids and the ones I met are well behaved, sweet kids, well adjusted. I'm talking about the little ones. Some even called me uncle. They are doing just fine even with people smoking or drinking a beer. Not the end of the world.

Besides, people who want to make it "child friendly".... What is that? It's mainland speak. If efforts are made to make the place sterile so it's OK for children, I have this to say.... That's how it is on the mainland. Have we done so well on raising good kids on the mainland? I don't think so. From what I saw of the local's kids at the community center, I would much rather be around them (the local's kids) than any kids here. At the minimum they are spoiled and over protected. From there it goes downhill to having no respect for anything or anyone, not caring for anything but "what's in it for them" and on to worse. I really hope mainland parent's values never get a chance to take root in Fern Forest.

[TrevorKane]

Re: Community center types. We have a nephew (we have lots of nephews, only one like this), in his mid 20s now, he's a basically good kid - has been tramping around the world (Central America, Alaska, various places on the mainland) since dropping out of high school. He didn't stay long in Puna (too many mokes, says he), but last we heard he actually got a "real job" in a grocery store in Oahu. During his time in Seattle, he picked up the needle habit - it's a hard thing to kick.

So, you might have seen him in your Community Center a few years back, he was the type to carry a tent and ask permission to pitch it on your land for a few days. I don't "keep tabs" on him close enough to know if he did any theft when he was at his low spots, I'm fairly sure he's never hurt anyone, and he really is trying to get away from the problem - more successfully this year than last, as far as we can tell from the e-mails and phone calls we get.

My point is, he and his friends are not bad people, willing to help how they can, some good musicians, but... not exactly living the standard American dream, and even good people with the heavy drug problems (not talking pakalolo here) will lose control at times. I'm not a big fan of the "standard American dream" per se, but some very bad stuff can happen when people lose control.

Just to ramble a bit here, I'm actually really fed up with the hypocritical control freak posturing of rural Republican America, they cause more problems than they solve with their "zero tolerance" double-talk. When a community looks out for it's members, accepts people for who they are, helps people who need help, and doesn't bother people who aren't bothering anybody else, I've seen the best come out of people.

So, to tie this back in a little bit, people might be a bit better off to interact with those Community Center types, instead of just fearing the place. If it really deserves fearing, then it needs to change - odds are if you get to know the people, there won't be a reason to fear them.

On the other hand, I, have hired this kind of people to work in my yard, and lent them my tools to do other jobs. Based on my experience to-date, I'd only risk as much with them as I'm willing to lose - most surprises have been pleasant, but I've also had them disappear with stuff and never return. Somehow that last statement reminds me of advice I give about investing in the stock market...

[missydog1]

Did you guys notice that the query that got bumped and this whole topic is 3 1/2 years old?

[tlboyles1]

Thanks TrevorKane, you said it much better than I did. I went on a rant because it really upsets me when people try to wash you down with propaganda before you find out for yourself. And there are some that will try their hardest to do that in Fern Forest; get in their first to steer your mind to their way of thinking before you can make up your own mind.

The Community Center has been closed by certain people, for periods of time, to get rid of the "riff raff". I think that is wrong. Communication is key, and these people don't want to communicate. They just want the "undesirables" gone. Some people that we met there didn't actually own property there, that is true. But many of them do own property in Fern Forest.

Just taking the side of the locals (born and raised there... in most cases not Hawaiian), it sickens me that people move from the mainland, often moving because they love Fern Forest and are kind of sick of the state of affairs on the mainland, then want to shove the haole ways they are trying to get away from down the throats of people who have been here much longer than them. And that includes the community center, demanding that it be made "child friendly" in the mainland haole sense. They can keep that. It hasn't worked so well, in my opinion, on the mainland. Why spread the poison here?

[TrevorKane]

KathyH, I wasn't speaking to the original poster, more just to life in general. I hope that some live and let live attitude is still left in Puna when we get there.

tlboyles, I had a girlfriend long ago who was Evangelical Christian. Very early in the relationship, she sensed my tolerance level for people telling other people how they should live (very low, for anyone who can't tell), and she basically didn't bring any mission / conversion / saving of souls into our relationship, which worked quite well. Afterwards, she went on to save those souls who wanted to be saved, and that's great for them. My sister in law is Jehova's Witness, and you can tell that they train them along the same lines - don't push it on people who don't want it. Unfortunately, the common religious right doesn't seem to understand this kind of respect for other people's lifestyles when they are different from their own.

90% of why we want to move to Puna is the cultural diversity and tolerance that brings with it. The weather doesn't hurt either, but we've got pretty good weather on our land in Florida, and better beaches nearby... The people we and our children will be interacting with are what really matter to us.

[PaulW]

Did JeanH ever take the plunge?