Just about a year ago, I found myself with an open four months between my final college class and graduation in May. Instead of getting a job or planning my wedding like any reasonable person would do, I flew out to a tiny town on the Big Island of Hawaii to do work trade at a ten acre organic garden sanctuary through a program called Wwoof Hawaii. Most of my friends and family thought I was crazy, but I believe it was one of the best things I have ever done for myself because it gave me a much needed break between college and my future life as somebody’s wife. Plus, any chance to miss out. on a nasty Michigan winter should always be pursued.

I learned so much through that experience, both about farming and myself, and in a lot of ways it prepped me to live in West Virginia. Now that Ian and I have our own chickens, I decided to reblog one of my previous posts about a fabulously simple composting system that can be built and utilized on just about any homestead. Read on, build one if you dare, and when your chickens thank you for all their new yummy treats, just remember to tell them I was the one that inspired you.

March, 2015

A wild pig got onto the farm last week. The entire property is fenced in, so this is a rare occurrence. In fact, he is the first one to get on the property in ten years. A young boar, this unwelcome guest was the size of a Labrador retriever and very sneaky. Extensive searching through the ten acre property didn’t reveal his whereabouts, but in the morning the scattered shred of leeks and kale in the garden revealed ample evidence of his nighttime feasting. Pigs are a huge nuisance in Hawaii; they devastate local ecosystems by eating native plants and are responsible for spreading songbird malaria by uprooting trees and creating good habitats for mosquitoes to breed. Locals see them as an unavoidable nuisance, but killing them is encouraged and any trip into town reveals posters everywhere advertising pig hunting classes. Here at Lokahi Garden Sanctuary, that was going to be the best solution. So, after the pig had been on the property for 24 hours, farm owner Richard’s son in law Yumbel went out with a gun and an overly enthusiastic border collie to track him down. It didn’t take long before a single shot rang through the air and Yumbel, victorious, ran to tell us the good news.

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