It's been raining like crazy these past few days, even more than the usual rainy amount we get on this wet side of the island. Got another 4" just today, and it wasn't even raining nearly as hard as it has been!! Everything's growing madly - it's a jungle out there! Some of our screenhouse plants are not enjoying the extra humidity levels though (it hovers between 86-98%) and are succumbing to various humidity-related diseases, especially the tomatoes. We're still getting a few but I think I'll replant them with a more resistant variety. I need a bigger screenhouse already! The green beans have reached the ceiling and are cascading back down and the snap peas are following suit. It's an 8-foot ceiling, by the way!! We need a step stool just to pick vegies for our dinner!
The baby White Pearl chicks have graduated to the big pen with the others. Everybody seems to be getting along just fine, establishing their pecking order and squawking over the coconut halves that Mike splits open for them every couple days. It'll be another few months before we start getting eggs from these birds.
I had to pack away most of our books to protect them from the high humidity. I'm having a heck of a time keeping the mildew in check in the studio side of the house. The older hale/guest house side doesn't have as much trouble with this, probably because there's less stuff in it, but also because it has dried out over the years. This is the first winter for living in the studio and it hasn't quite dried out all the way after the drenching it got during construction! It's odd for me to not have a bookcase full of favorites and references ready at hand. We bought some shallow plastic storage bins, fixed weatherstripping along the rim of each to create an airtight seal, and added in silica desiccant along with the books. I can still get to them, but it's a bit more hassle. Better than losing them to the moisture though! We've done this for other susceptible items as well; it really helps. In our 'real' house, we are going to build a 'dry room' big enough to be a library too. Don't know when that'll be, but I'm having fun drawing up plans for it. :-)
Still not missing the snow. There's snow on Mauna Kea, almost a foot last I heard, and everyone's excited to see it. Hope everyone's surviving the winter weather in whatever form it takes in your area.
Here's wishing you all a Happy New Year in 2009!
Aloha, Liz
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Going Into Winter
Aloha One & All~
I have a few minutes while the brownies are baking (for the beach day potluck) to get you caught up with the latest. After a long bout of the flu and subsequent sinus infection, I'm feeling much better these days, almost back to my normal amount of energy. The winter season is definitely here with our nighttime temperatures dipping down to - don't sip anything hot - 60*. I know, I know, but it really does feel chilly! With the humidity up to 97% at night, it gets to us. I guess we're thoroughly acclimatized.
Last week we attended a very interesting talk at the Lyman Museum in Hilo, 'Growing Vanilla in Hawaii'. Actually, the speaker went into various cultivation methods that he's seen around the world. He and his wife (who was sitting right behind us) run a good-sized vanilla farm up north in the Hamakua mauka (upcountry) area. They are also a homeschooling family, so we had fun talking to them about that as well. It's amazing how much time goes in to vanilla production! For example, did you know that a vanilla flower only blooms for 4 hours, during which time it must be fertilized by hand? It takes 9 months to grow a vanilla bean from the time it's fertilized,and another 9 months for the curing process. So although vanilla is productive year-round, it's no wonder the cost for the real stuff is so high. And well worth it too, in my opinion, since the imitation product is made from wood pulp - yech!
I'm taking a Hawaiian Herbal Medicine course, taught by David Bruce Leonard who wrote the book Medicine at Your Feet. This class is just what I've been looking for! I am finally learning who all these green growing things are and what they can be used for. He takes us on herb-walks, too, and forest hikes, as well as classroom time. And the emphasis is not just on endemic plants or just on Polynesian introductions, but on everything that grows here which makes so much more sense from a food and herbal perspective. So I'm finally recognizing some of the 'weeds' in the yard and finding uses for them which, of course, brings them out of the weed category. And I'm finding some cool new places to hike!
Our chickens are all growing fast. Haven't lost a single one which is something of a minor miracle in these parts from what we've heard. Mike's mongoose-proof fencing is working like a charm, and we often hear very frustrated mongoose swearing at us from the jungle! We can see where they've tried to dig through the cinder to get under the fence, but with that extra skirting around it, they can't get through. Every few days, Mike will chop a coconut in half and lay it out in the chicken yard; chickens love coconut! And they've learned that the greens we toss in are not going to attack them after all but actually taste pretty good. Silly birds. Fresh eggs are still months away - sigh. But fresh produce from the screenhouse is ongoing! We've had 4 pickings of green beans already, and loads of lettuce, mizuna and cucumbers for salads. A few stray strawberries now and then. The bok choi is all done and the peas have yet to bloom. I declare this screenhouse experiment a complete success!
Pahoa had its annual Christmas Parade yesterday. This brought home to us the fact that we've lived here for over a year now. Events are starting to repeat themselves. Picture of last year's parade are on my Picasa page; I didn't bring a camera this time. But here is a wonderful little local news video of the parade: http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/puna/20081206pahoaparade.htm
(You can see us standing in the background once in a while! We're leaning against the yellow building across the street from the judge's stand, along with good friend Willow. At the very end is the easiest to see us.)
Oh, the brownies are done - time to get ready for Beach Day! Gotta smear on the sunscreen, fold up the beach chairs, and sort out the snorkel gear. I don't miss the snow one bit!
Aloha,
Liz
I have a few minutes while the brownies are baking (for the beach day potluck) to get you caught up with the latest. After a long bout of the flu and subsequent sinus infection, I'm feeling much better these days, almost back to my normal amount of energy. The winter season is definitely here with our nighttime temperatures dipping down to - don't sip anything hot - 60*. I know, I know, but it really does feel chilly! With the humidity up to 97% at night, it gets to us. I guess we're thoroughly acclimatized.
Last week we attended a very interesting talk at the Lyman Museum in Hilo, 'Growing Vanilla in Hawaii'. Actually, the speaker went into various cultivation methods that he's seen around the world. He and his wife (who was sitting right behind us) run a good-sized vanilla farm up north in the Hamakua mauka (upcountry) area. They are also a homeschooling family, so we had fun talking to them about that as well. It's amazing how much time goes in to vanilla production! For example, did you know that a vanilla flower only blooms for 4 hours, during which time it must be fertilized by hand? It takes 9 months to grow a vanilla bean from the time it's fertilized,and another 9 months for the curing process. So although vanilla is productive year-round, it's no wonder the cost for the real stuff is so high. And well worth it too, in my opinion, since the imitation product is made from wood pulp - yech!
I'm taking a Hawaiian Herbal Medicine course, taught by David Bruce Leonard who wrote the book Medicine at Your Feet. This class is just what I've been looking for! I am finally learning who all these green growing things are and what they can be used for. He takes us on herb-walks, too, and forest hikes, as well as classroom time. And the emphasis is not just on endemic plants or just on Polynesian introductions, but on everything that grows here which makes so much more sense from a food and herbal perspective. So I'm finally recognizing some of the 'weeds' in the yard and finding uses for them which, of course, brings them out of the weed category. And I'm finding some cool new places to hike!
Our chickens are all growing fast. Haven't lost a single one which is something of a minor miracle in these parts from what we've heard. Mike's mongoose-proof fencing is working like a charm, and we often hear very frustrated mongoose swearing at us from the jungle! We can see where they've tried to dig through the cinder to get under the fence, but with that extra skirting around it, they can't get through. Every few days, Mike will chop a coconut in half and lay it out in the chicken yard; chickens love coconut! And they've learned that the greens we toss in are not going to attack them after all but actually taste pretty good. Silly birds. Fresh eggs are still months away - sigh. But fresh produce from the screenhouse is ongoing! We've had 4 pickings of green beans already, and loads of lettuce, mizuna and cucumbers for salads. A few stray strawberries now and then. The bok choi is all done and the peas have yet to bloom. I declare this screenhouse experiment a complete success!
Pahoa had its annual Christmas Parade yesterday. This brought home to us the fact that we've lived here for over a year now. Events are starting to repeat themselves. Picture of last year's parade are on my Picasa page; I didn't bring a camera this time. But here is a wonderful little local news video of the parade: http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/puna/20081206pahoaparade.htm
(You can see us standing in the background once in a while! We're leaning against the yellow building across the street from the judge's stand, along with good friend Willow. At the very end is the easiest to see us.)
Oh, the brownies are done - time to get ready for Beach Day! Gotta smear on the sunscreen, fold up the beach chairs, and sort out the snorkel gear. I don't miss the snow one bit!
Aloha,
Liz
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