As the work-day ends, our progress on the treatment center today leaves us with the two storage tanks filled with water, and all the wiring and plumbing set for the first pressure test. All we are waiting for is the power supply to run the equipment and then we can run a test before the borate is loaded for bamboo treatment.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Aloha. It feels like winter has finally arrived. The length of the days is shrinking and the rains are back for now. The shooting of the bamboo has been slightly postponed from the dry conditions that we had been experiencing. WIth the recent blessings of rain, the shooting process will take off again. In the meantime, we have been working diligently to finish our bamboo treatment/processing shed. We have one more concrete pour to do on Tuesday before we will start construction on the end walls. We have also been working in the nursery propagating bamboo and cleaning plants for off island sales. All plants leaving Maui for the other islands need to be free of scale, mites, ants, and other pests to curtail their spread throughout the islands. Sometimes the plants have all their leaves clipped off prior to shipping. This is no problem as the bamboo leafs out quickly within 10-14 days to its original fullness. We are very pleased to see sales pick up again. Please help me make the your blogging experience better by telling me what you’d like to hear about.
Today we worked on bamboo propagation and transferring bamboo into larger pots. I’ll have another “how to” on this mode* of propagation later. but the news I have to share is the rain during work. For the seven months I’ve been on island, this is the hardest I’ve seen it. It was pouring so hard, not even my rain jacket kept me dry! We are all very excited to see it raining this hard due to the fact that there hasn’t been enough rain for the past seven years. We are all praying for more rain like this. So for all those who have too much rain, send it our way. 
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
- Oscar Wilde
* this mode being root division
We also unpacked our pressure treatment vessel. It felt like Christmas pulling all the parts out with the anticipation of an assembly project.
The pressure treatment vessel for our bamboo is here. We have been gearing up for this stage for a long time. Our first harvest will come soon and we will most likely have certified organic and biodynamic bamboo poles for sale in the new year. There is still much to do to get it operational and we are most likely a month out till our first batch goes through the steps of treatment. Here are some great photos of the day it came to the farm.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I appologize for making you wait over a week for a new post. Today, the crew worked up near the top of the property planting a new plot. We planted 137 new plants, not including all the nitrogen fixing plants. 4 jack fruit 10 sandal wood 12 peach palm 8 nene leau 68 koa 12 kukui 23 a’ali’i . after we finished the planting the crew worked in the nursery weeding and maintaining the plants.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The construction crew working has now finished the footer for the quonset hut. The stem wall pour comes next, and then after that, the concrete floor. All of our achievements always excite us and make us feel grateful for the blessings of this life.
The other workers went back up into our most recent planting and finished weeding the young plants and replacing the ones that the California grass swallowed. We replaced the empty spots with 10 Kokui, 13 Koa, and 5 Sandlewood trees!
P.S. If my posts seem a little boring, please forgive me, I’m still figuring out life (haha Ryan Funny edit) the details of this website. Any comments on my postings would be appreciated.
We have two new workers from Hana on the construction crew: Bryer and Lyman. We are right at this moment pouring the foundation for the quonset hut! Here are some pictures I took about 30 minutes ago. I’ll add the video when I figure out how to upload it from my phone in the right format.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
In the nursery,The Malay Dwarf propagation is going well. We have more than 500 cuttings started so far with a total of 1000 being our goal.
Check in again often to see more on the construction and other farm activities!
Thanks to Obama’s new program for putting youth in full time jobs, the first month’s salary comes courtesy of the federal government. Two new workers are here on the farm to help us build the building for the bamboo treatment center. Uila (We-La) and James have been doing a professional job and both are great workers with experience in construction. The purpose of this program is to put young people in full time jobs hoping that they will end up finding themselves invaluable to the employer and staying on.
In other news, the crew worked in the upper plantation weeding our young plants and doing some guava clearing. In the areas where the trees didn’t survive, the crew planted Koa and Sandalwood trees.
Today we cleaned the Atter bamboo. The team used sawzall’s to cut shoots that were too small or to crowded. This afternoon’s work is going to be propagating Malay Dwarf keikis. We have been making these starts for a while now, and are about halfway to our (don’t quote me on this. I’m probably wrong) 1,000 keiki goal. For more information on bamboo propagation, I found this website. Bamboo Propagation
Quote of the week:
When I was walking down the hill, I felt like Godzilla. Walking all slow going “rawr rawr rawr”
Today, I am showing Nathan how to update and keep the blog going for all you loyal viewers. We have certainly been remiss about adding entries, but are very happy to get it going again. This morning on the farm the crew was in the nursery cleaning malay dwarf bamboo for shipment to Oahu. We are now ready to ship out the 200 2 gallon Malay Dwarf plants.
We do have many new apprentices now, including another cook, whom agrees with our “localvore” diet.
The pictures illustrate the work we have been doing to create a space to build a quonset hut to house the bamboo soaking vessel.
