In 2019, my husband brought home a sick duckling. I nursed her back to health, and she became the duck that started our flock. Unfortunately, my husband went off the rails. He got kicked out of the military and abandoned us. We lost our home and couldn’t afford to stay on Oahu anymore. (Which meant I also had to leave my job.)
So, we moved to the Big Island to start over.
I found a job and a place to rent, and then I began my search for a home to buy. I couldn’t afford much on my own, so I was looking at small off-grid cabins with some land to rebuild the food forest my flock used to enjoy in Wahiawa.
Now, I am in the process of buying a small off-grid home on some land where the ducks and I can start fresh.
It’s taking every dime I have to buy the place, which means I won’t have money to build them a safe coop and run, put up lights and security cameras, and dig a well to make sure we always have water.
To get the homestead started, I estimate I need about $30,000. I’m working full-time for the State of Hawaii, and I’m cleaning houses on the weekends. I’ll be paying my own way as much as I can.
However, I was hoping you folks could help with the start-up costs. Dirt, baby trees, wood and chicken wire for the coop, and that kind of thing. Oh, and the land isn’t even cleared yet, so I guess I’ll need to start out by buying a chainsaw.
It will take a lot of work to rebuild what we had. I’m not the type to shy away from hard work. I’ll do the work. But if you could help with the material costs (very high in Hawaii), it would mean so much to us.
Losing my home and mature food forest was hard. Having to leave my job at the VA was hard. Getting a divorce was hard. In fact, I think 2025 was the hardest year of my life so far. But, I want to build a better life in 2026. Help the peeps and I get our life back! (Short video here)
Most of them are rescues and some of them came with names, like Sizzle and Betty. But, they are my flock, and I would do anything for them. So, I am asking for help to build them the kind of safe enclosure they need, and to secure the home and property so we’ll all be safe.
Pictured: Jay with his gyroplane, which you can take a ride in through SkyLand Air.
When I was a child I used to be filled with wonder whenever my parents put me on a plane. Back in the 80’s, you could walk your child right to the boarding area, pass them off to a fight attendant, and someone else could pick them up on the other side. Flying was still something people in the United States thought of as a lavish adventure. The food wasn’t bad, and the seats weren’t small and cramped. It wasn’t the 1950’s-level luxury experience, but before all the security lines and cramped spaces of modern aviation, it was still fun to fly.
I used to sit in my seat -always by a window- and watch the world fall away. My imagination ran wild as we flew through white, puffy clouds and across vast expanses of forests, oceans, deserts, and cities. When my parents waved goodbye, I was a child they were glad to be free from. When I landed and my grandma or aunt or relative-of-the-summer picked me up, I was an extra burden for them to carry. But in the sky I could be anything. I was a Pegasus from a magical cloud kingdom, a bird having an adventure, or a resident of a vast cloud city.
At some point, flying became An Ordeal. Buying tickets became increasingly stressful as airlines invented non-refundable tickets, baggage fees, and other forms of torture. Security became a harrowing experience. Waiting at the gate became worse as chairs got smaller and less comfortable. Seats on planes got smaller, and no one ever got upgraded anymore because there was an empty seat in first class. It became a thing I dread, which I only do because I like to be new places and have new experiences.
Over my lifetime I’ve been sky-diving, been on an extremely dangerous flying pedal bike in Mexico, and been in a helicopter with a former fighter pilot. I’ve owned and rode a motorcycle down a freshly paved freeway through the warm, inky nights of Phoenix, Arizona; (which is almost exactly like flying). And, in my travels around the world, I’ve been in every size and description of commercial plane.
However, I was 43 before I ever went up in a Gyroplane.
We all know from history class that Leonardo DaVinci drew the first plans for a rotating-wing aircraft. If you love flying, you might also know that Juan de Cierva -a Spanish engineer- designed the first Autogiro in 1923. Later, and American aviator named Harold Pitcairn would further refine the design. The gyroplane is easily more than 100-year-old technology, even if you don’t count DaVinci’s designs.
I’d seen plans for a gyroplane before, but I’d never had the opportunity to fly in one.
I met Jay Eisenberg because of his rescue duck, Sizzle. An undersized Muscovy duck, Sizzle was rescued from an abusive owner who fed her nothing but Macaroni and Cheese. Jay wanted to know more about caring for ducks, so he reached out to me. I have several rescue ducks who have an Instagram account, and he found me through there. I brought some of my ducks to meet Sizzle, and we talked about feeding, bathing, and general care. I never even asked him what he did for a living or where he was from. I was laser-focused on sharing duck facts.
However, he reached out again when Sizzle wasn’t feeling well, and this time we did the pleased-to-meet-yous. Turns out Jay is from Ottawa, which is the capitol city of Canada. He started out in the air by skydiving, loving it, and becoming a sky diving instructor. He never thought about flying a plane until years later when a friend offered to take him up in a gyrocopter. He went up once, and was hooked.
Small planes like Cessnas provide an often-bumpy flight. Being in a helicopter can feel like you’re fighting the air itself. Even large commercial planes hit patches of turbulence and provide a jarring ride much of the time. I expected the gyrocopter to be a similar experience, particularly flying out of Dillingham Airfield and over to Ka’ena Point where the winds from around the mountains come together. It wasn’t anything like I expected. In fact, it felt like I was a bird taking flight and landing as easily as if I’d been born with wings of my own.
The gyrocopter has some body paneling, but it’s only for aerodynamics. The frame is the spinning blade -much like a helicopter’s blade- the propeller blade on the back, and the engine which isn’t much bigger than what was in my Kawasaki ZL6 Eliminator motorcycle. Gyroplanes are pretty basic in construction.
The engine turns the propeller which moves the craft forward. The unpowered rotor (like a helicopter blade) spins freely, providing lift as the air moves over it. The craft has actuators that tilt rotor backwards and forwards to help control its position in the air. Due to this arrangement of features, gyroplanes are known for their short takeoffs and landings, meaning they require very little runway. The technical aspects of it are pretty neat, and you can look into that if you’re interested, but the best part is what it’s like to actually fly in one.
Takeoff was seamless and far more graceful than one of my ducks taking flight. We simply lifted off the ground as if it was easy. Gaining altitude was smooth, free from jerks or bumps. Cruising at about 1,500 feet, we headed towards the point. You’re high enough up to get a good view, but low enough down to make out schools of fish, whales breaching, and albatross couples dancing together in the air during their nesting season. At the point we climbed to 2,500 feet to get the best view of the Waianae coast on the leeward side of O’ahu. Seeing it from a commercial plane you barely get a glance because of how fast you’re moving and how high up you are. Seeing it from an open-air ultralight, it’s not just seeing, it’s experiencing it.
I thought it would be windy and cold. I flew in a helicopter with the doors off on a tour once, and it was gale force winds and frigid temperatures. I held on for dear life as the awkward machine struggled around in the air as if trying to buck us off. I saw some of the scenery, but with the noise and the turbulence, it was also a bit of an endurance test.
In contrast, being in the gyrocopter there was barely a breeze, and we weren’t high enough up to be cold. It’s not even as intense as going over the H3 in a convertible. In fact, it was really peaceful. I don’t think I’ve felt peace like that in the air since I was a kid dreaming about the shapes I saw in the clouds while a flight attendant occasionally “supervised” me.
My hair didn’t get destroyed by the wind. My skin wasn’t raw from the cold. I barely had to pop my ears when we landed. It was amazing. The best part isn’t even how calm and zen it is to hang in the air in a gyroplane. You see, Jay doesn’t give tours; he gives lessons. I didn’t just get in a plane and go for a ride. I got instructed in the controls, and then when we were at cruising altitude, I got to take over the controls and actually fly the plane myself. My first time out. I flew the plane.
For those who live on O’ahu, Jay will actually instruct you for the full 20 to 40 hours of flight training required to pursue a Gyrocopter pilot’s license. For those who are just visiting, it’s an opportunity to get a taste of flying an aircraft which might lead them to try for a pilot’s license when they get home. For those who don’t want to go for a pilot’s license, they can keep the certificate for the successful completion of their first lesson as a memento.
When we touched down -as gently as a bird landing on wire without moving it- I felt a disappointment that I wasn’t prepared for. I hadn’t even realized how much fun I was having until it was over. All I wanted to do was go back up in the air and fly around some more.
From the air, these islands show so much more of their beauty. You can see the contours of the land; from the ancient lava flows that became reefs with sand settled between them, to the pods of whales breeching in excitement as they celebrate the birth of babies You can see the way the clouds settle around the mountains and hug them so that they look majestic and surreal. From the air, Hawai’i is even more beautiful than it is on the beach.
Instead of giving this experience a recommendation, I feel that it should instead come with a warning. Flying a gyrocopter is pretty amazing, and it’s one of those things that’s easy to get hooked on like good coffee or gambling. At $250 a trip, it’s more expensive than good coffee but cheaper than the average night of poker or roulette. Like gardening or raising chickens, it’s easy to convince yourself that it’s okay to spend the money because it will pay off later. However, I doubt I’d use a pilot’s license for anything beyond decorating my wall. I guess it could keep my degree company. I never use that thing either. At best, they could be a good start towards a collection of very expensive pieces of paper.
So, buyer beware. Flying a gyrocopter is both peaceful and addictive. And, it might be the best way to see our island home.
Thank you to my friend Jessica who agreed to a photo shoot because I’ve never loved pictures of myself, and also because a bunch of selfies seemed less useful than pictures from a distance that let you take the whole experience in.
My pet ducks have an Instagram. Leading up to the election, I made campaign signs for them as a joke. Honestly, I would have been happy if Catarina and Chaos Duck went to the White House. They ran a good campaign. (Worms for all! Fish at bedtime! Everyone gets their own cage!)
Instead, Donald Trump was elected President.
Maybe the new privacy policies would have happened either way. I can’t say. What I do know is that my Facebook accounts were flagged as “having the potential to reach a lot of people,” and I was told that I needed to turn on “advanced protection” features in order to keep them.
I clicked the link to read what “advanced protection” meant. It meant two things:
1. I would have to agree to the new “advanced protection privacy policy” that would force me to let Facebook to hot mic my phone, track my location, and monitor all my internet usage on every website and app.
2. I would have have to prove my identity, and then use a 2-factor authentication service like Google Authenticator each time I logged in to Facebook.
That’s scary, but it’s not surprising.
Way back during my first year in South Korea (ah -my younger days) I used to hang out at the Military Intelligence bar in Anjeong-ri outside of Camp Humphreys. I remember folks telling me that someday they would track everything you said or wrote, and artificial intelligence (AI) would screen for key words the government didn’t want you saying. If you said or wrote any of those key words, a human would review your content and then the FBI or some other serious men in suits would visit you.
I guess we are now through the looking glass and into the part of the story where things get surreal. Although now, it looks like it’ll be drones instead of the FBI, and more “Jennifer Government” by Max Barry than “1984” by George Orwell.
Keep in mind, I don’t talk about anything illegal or do anything illegal. I’m a home owner who spends most of my time maintaining my house. I have pet ducks who are semi-famous on Instagram. I work for the government. So does my husband. We vote. We pay taxes. We should be considered “model citizens.”
Of course, I haven’t been a saint.
When it came out that the National Security Agency (NSA) was recording all the phone calls that Americans make and flagging them for key words like “bomb,” I would joke about it on phone calls sometimes for fun. Small acts of rebellion, you know? I would say that I’d never bomb anything, and that I didn’t think people should assume that everyone of Middle Eastern descent was a terrorist. You see, I wouldn’t say anything bad, but the key words were there. Some poor schmuck at the NSA would have to listen to my boring phone call to make sure I wasn’t planning anything nefarious.
However, this new censorship -in the form of “enhanced privacy” policies- isn’t being done by the government. It’s being done by corporations.
Maybe the corporations and the government are coordinating. Maybe their interests simply align because campaign contributions are all politicians care about and money is speech now. I don’t know. But, I know I won’t consent to a government or a corporation accessing my location, everything I say, and everything I do on my phone.
I have no doubt they are doing these things, but let them do it illegally if they insist on doing it. They won’t get my consent.
I know most of you already have bugs in your homes. Smart TVs, Alexa Devices, Roombas, and all manner of technology with user agreements that include lines like: “You consent to the corporation using your speech to train word recognition software in order to enhance the user experience.” (Which means: To listen to everything you say.) I just feel more comfortable without all that stuff in my house.
Side Note: I like when people first visit my home and try to figure out where the TV is. Surprise! There isn’t one.
If you think not having a TV is bad, wait until you hear about how I like to go to the beach and leave my phone at home. I go to the beach to swim. Leaving my phone in the car would only invite people to break in. Leaving it the hot sand seems like a bad call, too. So, I leave it at home. All by itself. I also leave it in the house when I am gardening so it doesn’t get muddy, run to the store without it, and spend entire days not checking it. If you’ve known me a long time, you’ll know that I:
• Resisted getting a cell phone for years after they were widely available.
• Resisted getting a Smart Phone until my elementary school students bullied me into it in 2012.
• Have never used Uber or any similar service. Guam was too rural for such things, and so is my home in the mountains in Hawaii.
• I’m not a Luddite. I had a BBS back in 1995 when it was cool. I learned to program in HTML and CSS as soon as the internet became a thing. I love my laptop and my phone. I’m just cautious of technology and how it is used by people, governments, and corporations.
I mean, aren’t you afraid of how they transitioned search engines from an algorithm that indexed information available on websites into an AI-driven bit of programming that can return you the results that corporations want you to have?
The internet has become extremely censored, and it happened overnight. I feel like almost no one noticed.
Anyway, my social media accounts were all flagged as problematic because I complained about corporations not paying taxes, about how they were artificially inflating prices, and how they were buying up all the single-family homes to prevent US Citizens from becoming home owners. Basically, I was complaining about corporations doing the things that they are actually doing. Since they don’t want you to think about those things, they flagged my accounts. Just like that, I was banned from social media (though hilariously, the ducks were not).
I sort of expected this to happen a little at a time. I wasn’t prepared for the entire country to just become censored within the span of a few months. Also, I thought it would be the government censoring things, not corporations. I admit that I was wrong about who and how. I just wish I was wrong about it happening at all.
Maybe I’ll start blogging more. Maybe I’ll hole up and write a few more novels. I don’t know. All I know for sure is that I won’t be on Facebook or other social media because saying things about how corporations are squeezing the working class and manipulating the government will get you banned.
Look me up on Instagram, because ducks never complained about the profits-over-people attitude of US corporations, so they still have an account. WordPress may also censor me for this, but here is a graphic of the things I said on Facebook that got me flagged as a radical.
My long-time friends might have no problem seeing me as a dissident. After all, I used to be a journalist. But, I guess we all assumed I’d be a government dissident, not a government employee being branded as a dissident by corporations. Max Barry once signed my copy of Jennifer Government at a book store in Phoenix, and I hope someone tells him that he was right all along about the US. You hear me Max? You were right.
We spent our first year after we bought our house just doing renovations. But, this year we had time to do more things. We took our ducks on a lot of great adventures, and we enjoyed the island as much as we could.
We planted a lot of flowers to help feed the bees. It was fun watching them collect their pollen and head off to make honey.
I went to Mexico for some dental work. While I was there, I got to see Chichén Itzá. I have always wanted to see it, so it was pretty cool.
We also planted milkweed and raised Monarch caterpillars. Monarchs are endangered and nearing extinction. Planting milkweed and helping protect young caterpillars is a great thing you can do to help!
It was our garden’s second year, and our dragon fruit finally started making us some food. No fruit on the trees yet, but we are getting closer. Of course we also still have our vegetable beds, too.
We still snorkeled when we could. Rich can’t swim in the winter because he has warm-water hypothermia. But, we can snorkel in the summer, so we do.
We are so grateful to still be able to get out and do things. It’s not as easy as it used to be, but we do our best.
When I’m not working, I spend most of my time taking pictures of ducks. Our ducks have gotten kind of famous on Instagram, and so I try to make sure to take lots of pictures for their fans.
I hope all of you have a happy holiday season and a joyful new year! We think of you often and we are sending love.
It’s been a long life filled with adventure. I backpacked around Southeast Asia, visited Europe, lived in South Korea and Guam, and met more amazing people than I could ever tell you about. I’ve always been kind of a rolling stone, walking the Earth looking for adventure.
Then I got married to someone who is possibly the most stable person on Earth. So, we bought a house and put down roots (literally, because we planted an awesome garden and beautiful trees.)
I’ve never really been one to take on responsibilities. My only pet I had in my adult life was a snake that my friend David gave me. But, Rich LOVES animals. We went to a petting zoo on a farm in Waimanalo and he saw a duckling for the first time, and he had to have one.
Of course, once we had one, we had to get a second. It turns out ducks are flock animals and they get lonely if they’re by themselves. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell the sex of a duckling when they are babies, so we eneded up buying a boy. Turns out if you have a boy, you need at least two girls. So, then we had to get another duck.
I had my doubts about ducks as a pet a first, but it didn’t take long for me to fall completely in love. I met other duck owners and it became one of my Autistic Special Interests. I annoy people with how much I talk about them. And, I’m okay with that.
It’s true, I avoided pets because I never wanted to hold still or stay in one place. I always felt restless and wanted to travel, and pets stop you from doing that. But the truth is, these last few years settling down and having a little farm and some ducks have been pretty good. I am finally tired enough to rest a while, and so I sit in my rocking chair on my porch, and I watch the ducks play in the garden, and that’s my life.
The house we are moving to doesn’t have mail delivery. People think every home in America has access to the USPS, but that’s not true. Reservations, rural areas, and any home in a city where “the driver would have to dismount” are ineligible for delivery of mail.
If you want to send me a letter or card, you will now have to use my P.O. box.
Jenifer DeLemont
P.O. Box 861631
Wahiawa HI 96786
As always, my e-mail address is still jenifer.delemont@gmail.com. I’m happy to get e-mails instead of snail mail, if you prefer.
The house I’ll be living in isn’t too far from the post office. Unfortunately, it’s set back from the street in a way where it isn’t eligible to be added to the USPS route (yes, this also means we can’t get package delivery.) It’s a small house, but it has a yard that the ducks will enjoy, so that’s nice.
In October of 2019, Rich rescued a malnourished Muscovy duckling from a feed store here on Oahu. The duckling could not stand or walk, which is common when they don’t get enough nutrients as they grow. We didn’t know if they were a boy or a girl; only that we had to save them.
It took her weeks to learn to walk and run
By December, we had determined that the duckling was a girl, and we had named her Catarina. She turned things around for herself by eating all the food we gave her and working very hard to learn to walk.
Catarina once her feathers came in
We decided not to clip her wings when her feathers came in. She still trips over her feet, so I don’t see her evading any predators on foot.
However, we learned that ducks get very lonely on their own. They need the company of other ducks in order to be happy. That is why, on December 9th, we brought home a week-old duckling to join Catarina.
Chaos Duck sitting in his food
Of course, the second duckling wasn’t malnourished at all. It was healthy! We’d never cared for a healthy duck before, and we soon found out that it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of jumping, loud peeping, and general chaos.
Chaos Duck started out so tiny!
So, we named the second duckling Chaos Duck.
Can you tell that we got Chaos Duck in December?
It turned out that Chaos Duck was a boy. So, we have found ourselves with a pair of Muscovy ducks.
They got a photo with Santa
People often ask about the quacking, but Muscovy ducks don’t quack. They’re very quiet, and mostly only make quiet hissing noises.
We built a sand man instead of a snow man
This is because Muscovy ducks are descended from Geese, rather than from Mallards (like most ducks.)
Chaos Duck grew so fast!
Muscovy ducks are not Native to the Hawaiian islands. They came here with the Spanish and the Portuguese several hundred years ago, and those that escaped were able to flourish because Hawaii is a fairly pleasant environment most of the time.
Rich and Chaos Duck
It’s actually not very different here from the Muscovy duck’s Native land, which is South America. Yes, South America.
At the North Shore
You’d think they’d be from Russia because of the name. However, they just got that from being sold to Europeans first by Russian traders. They’re Native land is the mangroves of South America, where they live in brackish water and dive for fish.
At the black sand beach where the mangroves grow
Catarina and Chaos Duck love to swim. However, they do have the trait that most Muscovy ducks have under-performing oil glands. This means that they don’t love to swim for more than 30 to 45 minutes. After a while they start to get waterlogged, because they’re just not very water-proof.
We took them kayaking
They are loving ducks who beg at our feet just like dogs when we eat dinner, and who love to snuggle and play with toys. We even taught Catarina to play ball, although Chaos Duck never quite caught on.
At Likeke Falls
Right now, we live in a house with a very small back yard. Since they don’t have a big yard to play in, we try to take them on as many adventures as we can.
In an orchid tree by the house
We’ve taken them hiking, kayaking, and swimming. They love adventure, and are generally excited to get in the car. I am not sure I would recommend ducks as pets. They are a lot more work than a dog, because they poop a lot more than a dog. But, we love them.
As I’ve said before on this blog, I grew up on a farm around dangerous chemicals. I’ve had several tumors as a result of this. I’ve been fortunate, and they’ve all been very survivable. However, I had number four out for my birthday this year, and it’s really forced me to take stock.
Cheers to you all for being in my life. I’m grateful for every one of you. My life has been extraordinary in spite of the health challenges that I have faced. I’m very lucky, and I’m very thankful.
I move in less than a month. It’s also our anniversary month, and my birth month. So, there is a lot going on. Rich and I are not looking forward to living apart for six months while he goes to school and I set up a home for us in Hawaii, but that’s just part of the military life, so we’ll make it work.
The Wooden Show Tulip Festival on a trip back to Oregon from Guam.
I have really enjoyed everything we have done here on Guam.
I loved the work I did to help the animal shelter here (called Guam Animals in Need.) I loved the volunteering I did with NOAA to help monitor the reef, and to donate photos for promotional materials. I loved the friends I made and the reefs I snorkeled. And, when I was working, I loved Sea Grill and Pika’s.
At the coast on a recent trip back to the states.
Now, it’s time to look forward.
I guess we won’t be able to be as eager for visitors in Oahu as we were in Guam. We had more space in Guam, and I had time to show people around. I am afraid those are luxuries we won’t enjoy in Hawaii.
We’ll do our best, of course. But I think if you visit us in Hawaii you’ll need to get a hotel near by and see us on the weekend. Different island; different life.
At GAIN helping a puppy calm down after surgery.
I’m nervous to look for a job on Oahu. I’ve heard that the wages are low and the cost of living is high. If there’s anyone you know or any professional connection you have that could help me, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. My email is still jenifer.delemont@gmail.com.
On a trip to Maui where I went on a black sand beach tour.
Oahu offers all new hikes and all new reefs. I am looking forward to that. Guam has been lovely, but it is very hot and tropical here. The cool breezes of Oahu will seem like a dream come true!
I am sure I will spend a lot of happy weekends under water and out on hiking trails, which is something I am really looking forward to.
Last summer we went to the family reunion and then visited the glacier on top of Mt. Hood.
I guess what I am trying to say is: the future looks bright.
I may not update this blog for awhile because I’ll be busy with house-hunting and job-hunting. However, I adore you all very much, and I promise to tell you all about my new home once we settle in.
We are moving this year, and we sure are going to miss our place in Guam! I know we’ll never get a beachfront condo again (where else could we afford such a thing?)
It has been amazing to wake up and see the ocean each day, but it’s time to go back to seeing a fence and more houses behind it. Setting aside how much I will miss our home here in Tumon Bay, moving with the military involves a lot of paperwork and red tape. I thought I would write about what it is like, for those who don’t know.
People keep asking “Have you started packing yet?”
The answer is no. We aren’t allowed to pack our stuff, because then we could hide drugs or guns in it. They pack it for us (like we’re children.) We have no say over how things are wrapped or boxed. Movers come, pack our things, and take them away. We get a receipt and the vague hope that we’ll see any of it again one day.
I have also had many people ask “Are you throwing away all the trash in your house?”
Again, no. Both of us are so used to moving that we don’t keep things that we don’t need in our house anymore. Sometimes this means regretting that I threw away something that could have been useful later. However, I have moved more than twenty times in the last twenty years. Rich has moved six times in the last ten years. At this point, we just re-gift or throw away pretty much everything (I say this with the sincerest apologies to my mother, who likes to get me things like artificial snowballs.)
I feel bad, since I know that the reason people ask this stuff is because they want to relate to us and say “Oh yeah, I know what that is like.”
Believe me: I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you for trying to relate to me and make connections with me. It means so much! But the truth is that it’s this whole different world when you live a nomad lifestyle. And with the military, it’s a whole different world, plus red tape. It’s just not an easy life to relate to.
The View From Our Home in Guam
Now, I may not have to worry about packing or throwing away trash. But, there are a lot of things that I do have to worry about. With the military, we are required to fill out more paperwork than you can imagine.
We have to have a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) binder. They require special forms and appraisal information for my paintings. They require very thorough medical checks for both of us. Then there is the power of attorney forms we have to get so we can sign for each other (since he’s going to school in Japan and I am going straight to our next duty station in Hawaii.) There is also the checklist to make sure that our phones, cars, etc are all sorted, and that has to be turned in to the command. Not to mention all the paperwork we have to turn in to housing.
As to the cars: Yes, the military would pay for us to ship one vehicle. A lot of you have said that we should take what is owed to us and ship one of our cars. However, I have never owned a car nice enough that I think your tax dollars should be used to ship it. We buy beater cars because we’ll only have them for a couple years, and then we sell them when I go. It’s just easier that way, and means we don’t have to wait months on the other end for our car to show up.
There are two shipments of our stuff: Household goods and express. Both will probably take 16 weeks to get from Guam to Hawaii, so we’ll get to live without our stuff for quite awhile. As to why they call one of them “express,” many jokes are made about that in the military, but the real answer is that no one knows.
On top of a Mountain (We love hiking)
Another fun thing is that they aren’t really going to give me enough money to stay in a hotel while I house-hunt. Rich will be off at school and they will be paying for him to have a hotel and per diem as well. But me? All I get is the housing allowance for Hawaii (enough for a two week hotel stay.) I either get to make friends to stay with really fast, or try to make it work staying in the youth hostel in Waikiki with all my stuff.
I suppose normal couples get to look at houses together, but they are not in the military. In the military, they just send the spouses ahead with a boatload of paperwork and not enough resources, and expect us to set everything up for our active duty spouses. (Then find a job and help with the mortgage because BAH -or Basic Housing Allowance- is way too low in Hawaii.)
I have been asked why we don’t just rent, and I get that. I am sure it seems like it would be easier. However, most people build personal wealth over the course of their lives by owning and paying off property. If we just rent everywhere we go for the rest of our lives (with rents everywhere being higher than mortgage payments), we’ll have nothing when we are old.
A mortgage costs less than rent in Hawaii, and that money is going to equity in the home (meaning we can get it back by selling.) Since housing will take up 70% of our total income in Hawaii, it sure would be nice to get some of it back, don’t you think?
Also, even though no one has asked: Yes, I’m nervous.
I’m scared of job hunting and house hunting and starting all over again. I am scared of having to make new friends and learn new street names. I am scared of having to buy us a house, get us two cars, set up our utilities, and get furniture off craigslist all without help. I am scared of having to deal with all the military red tape and paperwork without Rich to sort it out. I am scared that something will happen to him in Japan (he did get hit by a car the one night I left him alone in Korea- so I worry!)
But, I am also excited. This is our next adventure! Will we have a house as nice as the one in Guam? No! We really won’t. But I am hopeful that I will find a great job with fun co-workers, and that we’ll make awesome friends and find all new beaches to enjoy. I am always looking forward, and I am sure we’ll make our next adventure a good one. It just might take a while to settle in.
One thing I know I am looking forward to is Leonard’s Malasadas. My family used to live in Hawaii (I still have relatives on Maui) and because of Leonard’s, I grew up eating homemade malasadas at family gatherings. Nothing else tastes quite as much like love and family.
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