Aloha Garden of Peace

Our mission for the Aloha Garden of Peace

Grow food-bearing and native plants and trees for the purpose of giving the plants and trees to people who have a place to grow them on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Our vision:

Right now, many thousands of residents on the Big Island receive aid from food pantries from churches, community centers, and senior communities. The food given is often canned goods, cereals, and other processed foods from the mainland. This isn’t sustainable. It would be better to give away food bearing (and native when possible) trees and plants so that more people have a sustainable food source growing on their own land. 

This is a new clarification of what we have been doing and working on for years. We are in the process of figuring out how best to accomplish this, and if setting up as a 501(c)(3) would be a right fit for us. Let us know in the comments!

We love our new home!

The Aloha Garden of Peace will soon be 12 acres! We made an offer and it was accepted! We will keep you updated with news when it comes! We love you all!

Dear Friends,

Many of you might be wondering about the current eruption from Mauna Loa.

This link (https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/mauna-loa-has-begun-erupting) is the best resource to learn all about it. The same website keeps a watch on all sorts of volcanos in Hawaii, California, Alaska, and up and down the West Coast.

Last night, we flew back to Hawaii after being away for a week, and here are two photos that Mark took on the plane.

With love to all!!

Sincerely,

Rachel and Mark

Today, we met the Founder of Domegaia, Hajjar Gibran. We are inspired and hopeful at the prospect of building an aircrete dome home on our Aloha Garden of Peace!

The whole drive home was filled with clear direction for the steps we need to take. We stopped to take pictures of the sunset, and only after getting out of the car did we see the DOUBLE RAINBOW!! So magical and beautiful!!

In a few of the pictures, you can see mountains Mauna Loa on the left and Mauna Kea on the right.

For those who might be curious, here is our action list:

Hand clearing by us
Excavations by a neighbor including the
Septic system,
new homesite,
water catchment tank ordered, purchased, delivered, and installed on a level base mode of black sand and aircrete band around the catchment tank circle.
Form up and pour the capital I shaped slab in between the containers and across the ends of the containers (780 sq feet).
Order, purchase, deliver, and install a 30’X50’ greenhouse from Greenhouse Specialists / and or Rudy’s shade.
Barn doors on the east end of the containers and greenhouse.

We will also need our solar panels hooked up, but we will do that hopefully this Summer.

Bathroom

On the plane yesterday, I wrote this and here it is.

We made it!! These past days, weeks (and months), we have been working steadily to sort and repack almost all of our belongings in CA that we have acquired since coming from our property in Hawai’i in 2015. I am so grateful to George Strong from Fern Lodge in Castro Valley, CA for allowing us to be able to stay at The Valentine House for this work. I want to say thanks to Mark for his steadfast cheerfulness and hard work, complaint-free, right into the wee hours of the morning as we finished our packing and cleaning up.

Going forward, Mark and I will live in Kona with a friend with whom we have mutual agreements and sharing. We will be with her generally on the weekends. During the week, we will be on our property. More to come!!

There is certainly an abundant expression of good here at the Aloha Garden of Peace!! 

Two days ago, fence was put up in front of our first lot.

We harvested two pineapples from our property, and a neighbor brought another pineapple as a gift!

Our wedding anniversary is today!! and the same neighbor will be taking us out to the neighborhood pizza place tonight. 

This morning, we got our truck repaired in a major way! We replaced the radiator, the water pump, the belt, and spark plugs. It is running MUCH BETTER! 

On Sunday, we will have a potluck picnic in Kalakaua Park. 

That is the same park in which Mark performed his first play, Measure for Measure, a dark comedy by Shakespeare.