Cheap Property on the BI? (Hilo, Mountain View: rent, buying, camping)

[Tropical Daydreamer]

Aloha. I will be moving back to da islands soon and am struggling between taking a job and living near Waikiki (Love it there too) or buying my own little plot near Pahoa and living off the grid like I am now. I love camping and would really like to try living 100% sustainable. I liked Hilo when I was there for about a day and lived for a bit near Glenwood. Up into the rainforest there and it was a bit more rain n mud than I prefer haha. Hoping it's not quite so rainy in Pahoa...or maybe Ocean View? (But it looks like nothing but lava beds there) Mahalo for any advice, opinions, or suggestions. Regardless I absolutely cannot wait to get back to the land of Aloha!

-Dan

[CyberCity]

Waikiki vs Pahoa. I'm gonna sit back and watch this thread for entertainment.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Tropical Daydreamer

Aloha. I will be moving back to da islands soon and am struggling between taking a job and living near Waikiki (Love it there too) or buying my own little plot near Pahoa and living off the grid like I am now. ...

... Mahalo for any advice, opinions, or suggestions. Regardless I absolutely cannot wait to get back to the land of Aloha!

Aloha

My best advice for any new poster here is to get to know how to use the Search function, and spend as much time as you can using it to scan the archives for all the previous answers given to the general questions everyone seems to ask to start with. Read everything you can. There is a gold mine of information already posted here, and once you have dug into it a bit you'll be in a better position to ask more focused questions that are specific to you.

Good luck!

[hotzcatz]

You could try for a WWOOFing position somewhere on the island so you'd get a taste of organic farming. It is impossible to be 100% sustainable. Computer chips don't grow on trees, so the 100% sustainable part won't happen. But, still, it's easy enough to use local materials and eat local on the Big Island.

It's probably easier to grow a garden in Pahoa than Oceanview. Neither place has soil, but Pahoa has a lot more rain.

[whtviper1]

Isn't woofing more like a legal slavery?

[hotzcatz]

Well, it's probably easier to garden in Waikiki if you could find anything that wasn't covered with concrete.

[hotzcatz]

I dunno, the WWOOFers can leave any time they like. Some are okay sorts of positions, others are pretty bizarre. A lot of kids kinda use them as a hostel while they travel around the planet.

[Tropical Daydreamer]

Haha CyberCity! Love it! If I had my choice I would live on Maui, Lana'i, or Kauai and visit Waikiki every weekend :-). But in my price range I can only afford to buy on the BI...I have friends and job offers in Waikiki but I would love to own instead of rent and I'm very ok with my current off the grid situation.

Open D...I'm not a new poster, but thanx.

Hotzcatz...Great input! However, I have to disagree: National Geographic says that Volcano/Glenwood, etc. is the best place on the planet for 100% sustainability. I personally do not think that anything is impossible. Not sure I'm following you on the 'Computer chips don't grow on trees' thing...elaborate please?? But the comment you made about the soil in Pahoa not being good confuses me (I understand about Ocean View)...but when I lived near Mountain View the soil was the best I've ever seen! Apparently I need to look into this WWOOF thing. I've heard of it but wasn't sure what it was.

Mahalo to you all for your replies! I really do appreciate it.

[hotzcatz]

100% sustainable means you'd get EVERYTHING you need from your land or area. Unfortunately, computer chips, cellphones and photovoltaic panels don't grow on trees so we can't produce them ourselves. There will always be things brought in from elsewhere so you won't reach 100% sustainable, but the more you can produce yourself, the better.

If you can find a plot with soil on it near Mountain View or Kurtistown, it is a great area to grow things. There are a lot of plots there that have just a layer of composted leaf litter over lava rock. Good for growing some things, not good for others. It all depends on the specific area.

When looking at land, check out the trees. If they are skinny and growing without many branches, then you have a layer of lava rock under the leaf litter and the trees are growing in the cracks in the lava. If you find land where the trees have wide branches, then it is more likely to have soil or at least a'a lava below the leaf litter. Unless it's a type of tree with surface roots, then it could still have a layer of lava below the surface leaf litter. If you find broad clearings, it may be because of occasional floods. The terrain can tell you a lot once you learn what to look at.

WWOOFing is Willing Workers On Organic Farms and the idea is that you learn about organic farming methods while staying on a farm. In exchange for work, you get a place to stay and usually at least one meal a day. Each farm has it's own interpretation of the arrangements. Some have valid housing, others just give you tent space somewhere. Some are actual farms, some are sort of hippie communes. Each one is different so you have to check them out carefully.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

OP, I have friends who live in the town of Volcano, and they cannot grow the same tropical fruits that I grow in Na'alehu. It is too cool and wet at 4,000 feet elevation. For example, they can't grow bananas on their property. Mountain View may be a different story as it is lower and probably warmer, while still getting plenty of rain.

We are definitely a lot more sustainable in Na'alehu than we were in Colorado, but we still don't grow our own cows (for steak) nor do we grow cotton (for clothes) nor do we make our own furniture, nor we we produce our own rubber (for slippahs), nor do we make our own cellphones, etc. etc. So while your goal of being 100% sustainable is admirable, it may not be obtainable.