SIGH!

SIGH! was Originally Posted on June 22, 2013 by lavarock

The rain finally let up the other day and it has been raining every day for about two months. If it doesn’t rain long, it rains heavy and as you may know, it is difficult and dangerous to cut grass when it is wet. There are some spots on the farm where even in dry weather I must be careful not to tip the tractor on hills.

The mower I use is a big heavy flail mower. A flail mower has hammers (like curled fingers sticking out from a hand. They swing around and cut the grass but as the hammers get older and more blunt, they rip the grass out of the ground. That is OK with me by the way. The grass looks good when it is cut, but I almost would rather just rocks or dirt and not spend a couple days every few weeks cutting it. When I took out all of the macadamia nut trees this grass just grew. The main problem is that there are spots of very tall grass (looks like corn stalks) that grows 6 feet tall very quickly. I am trying to kill it but it is fairly resilient.

The mower cost $5,000 and I have had it a few years. I got the flail mower because it is better on land where there are rocks than a mover with blades. I am often hitting rocks and some are larger than a grapefruit. I swear the rocks grow in the rain! I do know that when I am mowing, I see rocks the size of baseballs eject from the mower. Some day one may hit me, I’m afraid. The rocks may be planning something because I have crushed their brother.

So I started mowing again the other days and a bolt broke off. I found a replacement (although lower quality then the one called for) and it lasted a couple hours before it too broke. I now have a heavy duty bolt but no more heavy duty nuts and hope I can find one today. It will mean that even though the sun is out now, but the time I find a bolt, it may be raining.

These bolts are heavy duty and not the kind you normally find a Ace Hardware. I ordered them through a tractor dealer and they took about 60 days to arrive. Perhaps they could have sent them via post office but there was one large metal shield I also had to order and that made it a freight shipment.

These bolts are meant to hold many hundreds of pounds of weight and those little cheap ones found locally are not strong enough.

I am just tired of having to replace bolts and nuts and so on every few days, plus trying to get everything else done here.

I had found a guy who was dependable and easy to teach what I needed. He would ride 10 miles or more on a bicycle here to work for the day weeding and so on. I only had work for him a few days a month, but gave him projects when I could afford it or needed things done. I called him a couple weeks ago to come weed wack but he is back on the mainland, I assume for good. He had some family issues and had moved out here to live with a friends family. His job back there was a union job laying asphalt. We don’t have that many jobs like that here, especially for a newcomer trying to start out when local union people are waiting for work too.

This guy was paid $15 an hour to work, I let him work whatever hours he wanted as long as he got the work done. I supplied him bottles of water, an occasional ride into town (and a meal), I supplied the weed wacker and fuel and tools. It is unfortunate that things didn’t work out here on the islands for him.

I have hired people in the past from Craigslist, but a police friend of mine told me that the one couple I had here would do an “OK” job but they were really here to case the farm and would return to rob me. I found a reason to not have them continue working here.

There is a group called WWOOFers (Weekend Workers On Organic Farms) who will work on your farm in exchange for a place to sleep, perhaps meals and the opportunity to learn about farming. Many people join just to have a place to stay while they do part time work on a “vacation”. Others want to learn about farming and also help teach farmers things that seem to work on other farms they have been on.

This can work well but not in my case. I am not an organic farm and that particular group really wants to stress organic and “healthy”. There are other groups that are similar and do not use the word “organic”, but I don’t think those organizations are as well known or as structured and WWOOF is. Still it is a possibility.

Depending upon the farm and the workers seeking a tradeout, the farm can supply a spot for people to pitch a tent, they may supply a tent, a cabin or a place in the farm owners house. The workers may also be offered meals with the family or be allowed to prepare their own meals, often with products from the farm. Transportation may also be arranged from rides, access to a bus or use of a bicycle.

Each farm is different and these are the types of arrangements that may suit one person over another. These workers will usually be from far away and not have transportation (especially if they come to Hawaii).

The number of hours requested to work per day and the type of work is specified in advance. In the case of the WWOOF website, both the farmer and the workers have an opportunity to grade and comment of the other, helping to vet each other for the future. UI have seen comments such as “The farm said they wanted help picking fruit, but all we ended up doing was sitting at a farmers market selling things. That is not what I was told I would be doing”. Other times you may see a worker complain about an owner, and 3 or 4 previous WWOOFers come to the defense of the farmer. Like a hotel or restaurant reviewer, there can be some people on either side of the agreement that are not happy. Still, I think the idea is a good one.

So what does a helper do when their work is done for the day? Here they may go into town or explore the island. They might help at another farm for money rather than trade work for a place to stay. They may go out to eat rather than cook, or they may join in family activities with the host. Here, many seem to gravitate to the ocean where they snorkel or surf.

These workers may stay a few days, weeks or months, depending upon their agreement and I would guess the stays might be kept sort initially. If I was to arrange with someone to come, I woudl hate to think that I had a person coming for a month only to find out that they didn’t like the arrangement or could not do the work after only a day or two. That is why it is important to vet the person and the farm in advance to help ensure the person has the desire to work and learn.

I could get a tent and sign up for helpers, but can’t prepare food for them yet and don’t want people in the house. I also have a room downstairs that would be great, but it needs some work, things like adding an outside light, clearing out the utility room and adding a shower there (currently there is only a 1/2 bath). I would need to cut a door on the back side of the hallway to make easier access to the room and bathroom. I bought an on-demand water heater that would be perfect if I had people staying here. I also already have new carpeting I could lay down and I would need a new mattress.

The room has my deep freezer that I use and I would move that out to the utility room. I would buy a small refrigerator and maybe a hot plate. I could also put in a more permanent propane grill outside.

All in all, doable but would cost a few thousand dollars I expect. The plumbing in the utility room is already there because there was a washer and drier there before and access under the house there is easy for new connections.

So, if I’m about ready to fix that up, why haven’t I started? Logistics. Right now I am mowing and clearing weeds. Until I hire pickers I will have to pick coffee myself and that may start this week. I took money out my retirement to help tide me over until the crop comes in this year. I hope O`Lena has a big litter this year and that will help even out cash flow. At some point, I have to remodel the kitchen and at least one bathroom upstairs.

You have heard that farming is hard work and let me tell you, it is harder when you try to do everything yourself. I see others here who have all sorts of money they can throw at a project and it just happens. I could do that but then have no emergency fund to fall back on. I would rather move slower and have the option of just stopping at any time and not be worried that I have no reserves. If I was one of the only coffee or fruit farms out here, I might not be so worried that I would need to find buyers.

At least I can say that I made all the decisions and turned an unproductive farm into a viable place. I can proud of that, even if I am too tired to appreciate it for long