Project 365, #276: Clearing Land.

Dad’s little tractor makes land clearing projects so much easier, especially since farming in the tropics means a constant battle to keep the jungle from taking over everything. This is Dad widening the turn-around area at the top of our driveway. The long sleeves and pants are not for warmth, but rather for protection from the bites of the aptly-named fire ants — the newest and quite horrible invasive species to colonize across the island.

Our house is in the background; the light blue section is part of the original house (half of which is the vacation rental), and the unpainted wood is part of the addition/studio apartment that Dad built our first year living on the island so we could have the vacation rental part available. The screened porch is attached to the studio, just to the right of this photo. It’s kind of a funky configuration inside for our part of the house, but it basically works like a duplex for the rental half.

Project 365, #109: The Fridge.

When I’m in a kitchen and the fridge isn’t covered in lists, notes, magnets, photos, and various other stuff, I get disconcerted by it. The front of our fridge (and in other set-ups, the sides of our fridge) is kind of like the family bulletin board. Family photos from Christmas cards and the really special magnets always have the place of honor, front and center. Various lists — grocery, library, egg count, who’s borrowing what, etc — also occupy eye-level places. Useful magnets, and often things like drying plastic bags, will be closer to the ground. Sometimes we have those magnetic poetry words out, and various phrases or poems. We had magnetic castle building blocks, and about once a week someone would come up with a new configuration. When grandkids came along, their artwork started going up.

In my family, as it has been for countless generations, the kitchen is the heart and hearth-fire of the home. It’s the center, the warm comforting embrace. It’s the nucleus that pulls us in and binds us together. The touchstone in our sometimes-busy lives, where we can fall into familiar patterns and share our adventures. And the front of our fridge is often the physical aspect of that: the silent witness, the shared journal. So when I see a fridge that’s bare of these markers of family life, I’m left to wonder, and to hope, if they, too, have a place for the hearth-fire in their home.

Project 365, #17: Screened outdoors.

This is our screened-in porch, although it’s actually more of an extra room.

Reasons why I like it:

• It gives me a place that feels like the outdoors while keeping mosquito-bate like myself a little safer from becoming the vampire bugs’ favorite chew toy.
• It looks out over the back yard and the farm, and further out over jungle.
• I can see Mauna Kea on a clear day (as described in post #11).
• I can keep an eye on the piggery (which I’ll post pictures of several times, eventually, I’m sure).
• I can watch the chickens on ‘bug patrol’, which is always entertaining.
• It’s use it as a staging area when bringing in crops (as seen by the squash on the table and the avocados on the smaller table).
• We have meals out here when it’s nice enough weather.
• We sit out here when visiting with friends.
• I often spend my computer time out here.
• I can listen to the birds by day, frogs by night, and rain whenever.

All in all, it’s one of the best and most relaxing places to hang out at home.

The other subject of this photo is my Mum. She was concentrating very hard on her laptop, and didn’t notice me taking pictures for several minutes, which was amusing. I was standing in the doorway to the studio part of our house, which is why the angle is a bit odd.