A Hui Hou, Maui

Long version of our goodbye to Maui. Read if you need to be bored.

A funny thing happened on the way to a long-envisioned Maui-based retirement. As each set-back, sidetrack, and unanticipated fubar compounded and expanded to an "epic-fail" situation, eventually it made our presumption untenable that we could manage being in Maui. After much research and real estate evaluation, we found a ranch alongside a river in Oregon, just a few miles from the coast, within reasonable reach of family and friends, at a very reasonable price, once all the details worked themselves out. We packed up our stuff and set it adrift along with our cars. Some stuff made it here, some is evidently taking a tour of other ports of call, but we are getting the new place functioning, much like starting up an antique touring car that has been sitting in a rundown old barn for several decades.

I didn't have much time to explore the wildly overgrown and generally neglected areas of our 10 acre ranch yet. Winter has been rolling right at us, so cleaning and painting the exterior, repairing and replacing so many systems and components, and preparing for the cold and wet times took priority. Are we ready? Hmmm, need some boots, the old slippahs won't cut it.


We will miss the island's old beauty. Hopefully, the economy of the islands will recover, along with a return to more rainfall to end the drought. I didn't build my multi-paneled PVC windbreak, sorry to say, and I never quite succeeded to grow the great variety of stuff like Jane, Julie, and many others, but I did manage to load my neighbors with papayas all year, and even managed to bring my coffee bean seedling up to a nice crop of beans, which turned red in the  last few days we were there. I wish I could have harvested and roasted some! I wish everyone a fond farewell, with many mahalos to those folks we learned so much from, and those we counted as our friends.

I will start up another blog at makindirt.blogspot.com if anyone wants to see our new old ranch. I already found information about growing citrus and avocados in this area, and even bananas could be grown, with a greenhouse. At least I will get a garden tractor next year!

A Hui Hou, Maui

We moved to Oregon. I managed to unwittingly delete the long-winded version of this post, just as I tried to add a picture. No good deed... I will miss the good friends and unique features of Maui. I left just as my started-from-seed Kona coffee bush finally put out a nice crop of red fruits, but I didn't get to harvest a bean. The windbreak I had just begun to put together is not to be, nor will the lightweight planters and garden "art" be finished (gulch-fill now). I will resist adding a picture here - it was just another rainbow, anyway, and Mauians get them almost every day.

I've opened a new blog at makindirt(dot)blogspot(dot)com for those who might want to see how we adjust to 4 seasons at a long-left-alone ranch along a pretty little river. The rainy season just started.