Aloha one and all! I'm back at last and ready to get y'all updated. First I want to let you know that I've added 2 new albums of photos which will almost get you caught up with our building progress. Just use the address on the sidebar here to get you to my Picasa page; the newest albums are called 'Building the Studio-3' and 'Pahoa Christmas Parade'.
The holidays seem like a long time ago already, and it doesn't even feel like how we think of wintertime at all. So now that I'm feeling well again (after a horrendous cold that lasted over a week) I'm just charging right ahead with Spring! Planting seeds, transplanting, weeding and watering when it goes too long between rains ~ not often, but it happens occasionally even on this wet side of the island. There are baby squashes setting on the vines. The chayote has climbed w-a-y up the ohia in the frontyard but has yet to set any fruit. The second crop of green beans is coming up nicely. Everything's growing so well and the flowers are blooming like mad now that the days are getting a little longer again. We had rain for 5 weeks straight, every day and night. Didn't like that so much, but since then it's been lovely, really a nice mix of weather: some rain, some downpours, some sunshine, some clouds, rainbows.... yeah, like that :-) So if that's our wintertime weather here, we can certainly handle it.
The studio-ohana is coming along nicely. Bob Dakujaku is a great guy who did the plumbing and wiring for us. He's been so nice and great fun to talk story with. The plumbing inspector was all smiles when he came out, even gave us a bagful of rambutan, a spiky red fruit - delicious! Now we're waiting on the electric inspector to get here, do his thing, and give us a pass so we can proceed with putting up sheetrock. Mike's still keeping busy with all the fiddly bits that need doing. He created some great skylights in the livingroom, so we don't have a dark cave in here anymore! Yay!! Right now, he's working on finishing off the doorway between the existing house and the studio, and the new doorway into the Lagoon Room. Oh, he just walked in to inform me that he got the sliding glass door installed just now! Yes, he keeps busy :-)
The Shanghai Circus came to Hilo and we were excited to be able to see them in real life! With balancing acts, Chinese acrobatics, jugglers, contortionists, kung fu demonstrations, wire acts, and so much more... they were totally fantastic! I highly recommend them if they ever come your way! Then yesterday, we all spent the day in Hilo again, ordering kitchen cabinets, comparing flooring options and countertops, choosing fertilizer for the fruit trees and palms, discovering a cute little lunch place (Millie's), getting our library cards, and finally, picking up groceries on the way home. What a long day. I sure slept well last night!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sunday, December 16, 2007
More Photos!
Letting all of you know that I've added more photos at last!
Use the link on the sidebar to get to my Picasa albums. (Oh wait, it doesn't come up as a real link, does it? Well, copy & paste; that'll work.)
The newest albums are 'Building the Studio 2' & 'How Does My Garden Grow'. They're best viewed as a slideshow, so you can read the captions.
More coming soon, so stay tuned!
Aloha!
Use the link on the sidebar to get to my Picasa albums. (Oh wait, it doesn't come up as a real link, does it? Well, copy & paste; that'll work.)
The newest albums are 'Building the Studio 2' & 'How Does My Garden Grow'. They're best viewed as a slideshow, so you can read the captions.
More coming soon, so stay tuned!
Aloha!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Holiday Greetings!
A big Kona storm hit last week with winds gusts up to 70mph! A Kona wind blows from the southwest instead of from the east. This brings a lot of extra-moisture-laden air up from the tropics and also allows the vog from the volcano to settle over Hilo area, except that these winds were blowing way too hard for any settling to occur. We spent much of one night restrapping the canopy over the open part of our roof where the studio addition ties in. Very exciting and more than a little harrowing with lightning flashes and thunder booming all around as well as the big winds! So no more cutting off the roof during the rainy season! Fortunately for us, we didn't have any damage beyond a few smaller branches; not everyone was so lucky. We lost power off and on for a while, and the water system lost their main pump so we didn't have water for a couple days, but everything's back to 'normal' now, with trade wind showers (read: downpours) blowing through, and all utilities working again. Mauna Kea still has a mantle of snow above us all.
We spent yesterday looking for something to use for a focal point inside for the holidays - think 'Christmas plant' rather than 'Christmas tree'. What I had in mind was a decorated palm tree, and there's actually one variety called a Christmas Palm, but it was nowhere to be found. There are plenty of fresh cut Northwest trees shipped across the ocean in container loads, but since we're living in a tropical locale, I wanted something entirely different. Besides, to me a Douglas fir looks so much better when you've been tramping around the woods behind your house for an hour or two, through the snow, looking for that perfect specimen to bring down the hill and into the house. And I'm having a hard time now and then with NOT having all the aforementioned traditional family-oriented holiday activities this year, so there's another reason to do something new this time around. In the end, I chose a huge 4-foot wreath, big enough to hold my ornaments, maybe some lights, and not take up too much space in our cozy little livingroom. I think it's just perfect!
Pahoa puts on a darn good annual Christmas Parade, and we had a blast watching it last weekend, even in the rain (tail end of that storm). There were marching bands, many, many decorated floats from various groups and clubs, bellydancers, pirates, horses & llamas dressed up as camels led by three wise women, all the while being narrated by the funniest emcee talking in pidgin most of the time. Santa arrived on his outrigger canoe! It was great! They passed out bubbles to the crowd beforehand, so we could blow to our favorite parade entries; there was a pretty steady stream blowing the entire time which lent a festive atmosphere to all of downtown Pahoa. Well done!
The Winter Solstice is coming right up. Solstice has always been a pretty big thing with our family. That's when we would have our big holiday gathering with fireworks, family & friends, and a huge bonfire to bring back the sun. Some of our new friends here have invited us to join in their celebration of this ancient winter rite. We're all very glad to have that to look forward to soon!
Here's wishing all my readers a lovely and loving holiday season, whichever way you choose to celebrate it!
Aloha, Liz
We spent yesterday looking for something to use for a focal point inside for the holidays - think 'Christmas plant' rather than 'Christmas tree'. What I had in mind was a decorated palm tree, and there's actually one variety called a Christmas Palm, but it was nowhere to be found. There are plenty of fresh cut Northwest trees shipped across the ocean in container loads, but since we're living in a tropical locale, I wanted something entirely different. Besides, to me a Douglas fir looks so much better when you've been tramping around the woods behind your house for an hour or two, through the snow, looking for that perfect specimen to bring down the hill and into the house. And I'm having a hard time now and then with NOT having all the aforementioned traditional family-oriented holiday activities this year, so there's another reason to do something new this time around. In the end, I chose a huge 4-foot wreath, big enough to hold my ornaments, maybe some lights, and not take up too much space in our cozy little livingroom. I think it's just perfect!
Pahoa puts on a darn good annual Christmas Parade, and we had a blast watching it last weekend, even in the rain (tail end of that storm). There were marching bands, many, many decorated floats from various groups and clubs, bellydancers, pirates, horses & llamas dressed up as camels led by three wise women, all the while being narrated by the funniest emcee talking in pidgin most of the time. Santa arrived on his outrigger canoe! It was great! They passed out bubbles to the crowd beforehand, so we could blow to our favorite parade entries; there was a pretty steady stream blowing the entire time which lent a festive atmosphere to all of downtown Pahoa. Well done!
The Winter Solstice is coming right up. Solstice has always been a pretty big thing with our family. That's when we would have our big holiday gathering with fireworks, family & friends, and a huge bonfire to bring back the sun. Some of our new friends here have invited us to join in their celebration of this ancient winter rite. We're all very glad to have that to look forward to soon!
Here's wishing all my readers a lovely and loving holiday season, whichever way you choose to celebrate it!
Aloha, Liz
Thursday, November 29, 2007
End of November Update
Quick, while it's still November, time to update my blog! It's not that nothing is happening: We have been busy with Life and I haven't taken the time... At the moment I'm trying to cool down with a tall glass of lime-water, after spending a long hour in the Outback (beyond the fence) pulling out tanglefoot fern and in-sensitive plant (see previous blogs for descriptions of these). The mosquitos and biting gnats are fierce this afternoon. So it's a good opportunity to finally spend some time here again. I've transplanted several of the birthday orchids into my garden areas, some wired to ohia trees and some set in between big lava rocks. This is a perfect climate for growing orchids inside or out, and they seem to be enjoying their new locales. The tomato seedlings have just about all succumbed to rot from too much moisture here. But my squashes and chayote are growing well in their beds, the green beans are starting to climb the chainlink fence, and I can hardly keep up with the basil! Still need to transplant the bananas, ulu, and cacao, hence the work in the Outback.
Mike's brother, Matt, flew over from Maui for Thanksgiving weekend. We had the big turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and for an island touch I cooked the local sweet potatoes - they're purple inside! A wee bit drier but with the usual delicious flavor. For dessert, we had a pumpkin pie and a pineapple cheesecake. It took us several days but the 15# turkey is but a fond memory. While Matt was here we had great weather the whole time, perfect for doing a few sight-seeing things, soaking in the warm ponds, and getting most of the beams up on the roof of the new studio.
We didn't get the huge storm that hit the other side of this island and some of the other islands yesterday. In fact, it was a lovely day, overcast a bit with nice tradewinds. We spent the afternoon at Panaewa Park with friends from the homeschool group. Mike & Kerry both got a little worn out playing soccer with Pohaku, and I had a wonderful neck & shoulder rub from Molly, and we all got in some good visiting.
Kerry's job search has yielded nothing so far and she's starting to get discouraged. But we have been finding other ways to occupy our time. We're both taking a tai chi qigong class twice a week, just up the road in Pahoa Town. We've been learning some interesting Chinese Traditional Medicine, practicing good gentle exercise, and meeting new people who live close by. That's a big plus right there. And soon she'll be getting her first aid/cpr certificate from the Red Cross, and is looking into the possibility of CNA training, too. Seems like something will come through for her sooner or later.
We found some gorgeous 16" ceramic tile just north of Hilo through craigslist, drove up and bought 4 boxes of it for the studio bathtub surround. I guess we'll be learning how to do tilework before too long! Well, it actually may be a while before the finish work gets done. The roof beams have slowed down Mike's rapid progress. He's at the part now where each beam must be measured separately and tied into the existing roof; very time-consuming work and a very long slope to work on. Meanwhile, that part of the roof is protected from the rain by a high canopy. It's working well, but we're all looking forward to getting the tin up so the whole place can dry out.
Mike's brother, Matt, flew over from Maui for Thanksgiving weekend. We had the big turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and for an island touch I cooked the local sweet potatoes - they're purple inside! A wee bit drier but with the usual delicious flavor. For dessert, we had a pumpkin pie and a pineapple cheesecake. It took us several days but the 15# turkey is but a fond memory. While Matt was here we had great weather the whole time, perfect for doing a few sight-seeing things, soaking in the warm ponds, and getting most of the beams up on the roof of the new studio.
We didn't get the huge storm that hit the other side of this island and some of the other islands yesterday. In fact, it was a lovely day, overcast a bit with nice tradewinds. We spent the afternoon at Panaewa Park with friends from the homeschool group. Mike & Kerry both got a little worn out playing soccer with Pohaku, and I had a wonderful neck & shoulder rub from Molly, and we all got in some good visiting.
Kerry's job search has yielded nothing so far and she's starting to get discouraged. But we have been finding other ways to occupy our time. We're both taking a tai chi qigong class twice a week, just up the road in Pahoa Town. We've been learning some interesting Chinese Traditional Medicine, practicing good gentle exercise, and meeting new people who live close by. That's a big plus right there. And soon she'll be getting her first aid/cpr certificate from the Red Cross, and is looking into the possibility of CNA training, too. Seems like something will come through for her sooner or later.
We found some gorgeous 16" ceramic tile just north of Hilo through craigslist, drove up and bought 4 boxes of it for the studio bathtub surround. I guess we'll be learning how to do tilework before too long! Well, it actually may be a while before the finish work gets done. The roof beams have slowed down Mike's rapid progress. He's at the part now where each beam must be measured separately and tied into the existing roof; very time-consuming work and a very long slope to work on. Meanwhile, that part of the roof is protected from the rain by a high canopy. It's working well, but we're all looking forward to getting the tin up so the whole place can dry out.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Work, work, work!
All of you who were holding your breath waiting for pics can go ahead and gasp for air now!
Photos have been posted at this site: http://picasaweb.google.com/elizacacia
Work on the studio proceeds apace. The floor is all done, the first inspection has occurred, the Trex porch is on (our 'deck' has a porch!), and at this very moment Mike is sawing off the roof overhang - VERY noisy as his saw cuts through the corrugated metal. Remember, there is no insulation in the walls in these climes, and windows are single pane, so every noise comes right on in even with the doors and windows closed. Thank goodness for those noise-cancelling headphones that we got for airplane trips! They really help during some of the more noisy bits of construction.
We had our first snow! Yes, even in Hawaii! At 13,796' elevation, Mauna Kea (white mountain) does indeed get snow, although the locals say it didn't get any at all last winter. It's very pretty and just far enough away that we can appreciate it. Mostly though, we've been getting lots of rain. It is the rainy season after all. But seldom does it rain all day long. Or over all the island at once. So we just enjoy whatever comes our way.
Kerry passed her PADI SCUBA certification yesterday! Yipee! It has been a life-goal for her for years now, and although there was a bit of a rocky start to the program, she has ended up really learning a lot and enjoying the experience. She says she'll definitely do more diving, and soon! Winter brings in some of the best dive conditions for this island, so I guess the timing was pretty good after all. (We kinda wondered with all this rain and runoff and flash flooding.)
My garden now has 2 kinds of bananas, the baby cacao tree, and an ulu (breadfruit tree) awaiting planting. Oh, and a coconut palm that we got from a local school at their Arbor Day giveaway. I thought Arbor Day was always in April, but apparently it's in November on the Islands. It makes sense when you think of the right time for tree-planting; since this is the start of the rainy season, it's time to plant trees... and gardens. All my many seedlings are growing rapidly and, as they get big enough, being transplanted into the free-form beds I'm creating. I've also been hard at work - and it IS work, believe me - clearing the Outback, as we call our land beyond the chain-link fence. It's full of shoulder high tanglefoot fern and sticker vines - I refuse to call it sensitive plant anymore but that's what it is. Every part of the plant from roots, to vines, leaves and even seed pods, is covered in little thorns that scratch you, or worse, break off and irritate the skin. 'Insensitive plant' would be a better name! The tanglefoot fern is almost fun to pull out in comparison! I'm making paths through this jungle to get to the spot where I want to create my tropical garden, with the fore-mentioned trees and other jungly fruits & vegies.
Lest you think we are working at the expense of playtime, let me put your mind at ease. We take our morning and evening walks almost every day, especially enjoying the flocks of little birds, the sunrise/sunset colors, and getting to know our new neighbors a little. We've been spending time at the beaches and took the whole day off on my birthday to meander about along the coastline, exploring every little pocket beach and even discovering more lava-tube caves to explore further. The warm ponds are only a 20 minute drive from here, and we take advantage of that every now and then; not nearly often enough I'll grant. And we're all doing a lot of reading when it really is too rainy, or too sunny, to do anything else. Now that's luxury!
Photos have been posted at this site: http://picasaweb.google.com/elizacacia
Work on the studio proceeds apace. The floor is all done, the first inspection has occurred, the Trex porch is on (our 'deck' has a porch!), and at this very moment Mike is sawing off the roof overhang - VERY noisy as his saw cuts through the corrugated metal. Remember, there is no insulation in the walls in these climes, and windows are single pane, so every noise comes right on in even with the doors and windows closed. Thank goodness for those noise-cancelling headphones that we got for airplane trips! They really help during some of the more noisy bits of construction.
We had our first snow! Yes, even in Hawaii! At 13,796' elevation, Mauna Kea (white mountain) does indeed get snow, although the locals say it didn't get any at all last winter. It's very pretty and just far enough away that we can appreciate it. Mostly though, we've been getting lots of rain. It is the rainy season after all. But seldom does it rain all day long. Or over all the island at once. So we just enjoy whatever comes our way.
Kerry passed her PADI SCUBA certification yesterday! Yipee! It has been a life-goal for her for years now, and although there was a bit of a rocky start to the program, she has ended up really learning a lot and enjoying the experience. She says she'll definitely do more diving, and soon! Winter brings in some of the best dive conditions for this island, so I guess the timing was pretty good after all. (We kinda wondered with all this rain and runoff and flash flooding.)
My garden now has 2 kinds of bananas, the baby cacao tree, and an ulu (breadfruit tree) awaiting planting. Oh, and a coconut palm that we got from a local school at their Arbor Day giveaway. I thought Arbor Day was always in April, but apparently it's in November on the Islands. It makes sense when you think of the right time for tree-planting; since this is the start of the rainy season, it's time to plant trees... and gardens. All my many seedlings are growing rapidly and, as they get big enough, being transplanted into the free-form beds I'm creating. I've also been hard at work - and it IS work, believe me - clearing the Outback, as we call our land beyond the chain-link fence. It's full of shoulder high tanglefoot fern and sticker vines - I refuse to call it sensitive plant anymore but that's what it is. Every part of the plant from roots, to vines, leaves and even seed pods, is covered in little thorns that scratch you, or worse, break off and irritate the skin. 'Insensitive plant' would be a better name! The tanglefoot fern is almost fun to pull out in comparison! I'm making paths through this jungle to get to the spot where I want to create my tropical garden, with the fore-mentioned trees and other jungly fruits & vegies.
Lest you think we are working at the expense of playtime, let me put your mind at ease. We take our morning and evening walks almost every day, especially enjoying the flocks of little birds, the sunrise/sunset colors, and getting to know our new neighbors a little. We've been spending time at the beaches and took the whole day off on my birthday to meander about along the coastline, exploring every little pocket beach and even discovering more lava-tube caves to explore further. The warm ponds are only a 20 minute drive from here, and we take advantage of that every now and then; not nearly often enough I'll grant. And we're all doing a lot of reading when it really is too rainy, or too sunny, to do anything else. Now that's luxury!
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