Hale construction 2

Work continues on the hale with the main structural frame complete and most of the roof subframe is in place.

A few photos of the work show the progress. Children from a nearby Hawaiian school visited yesterday: they sang to us and also helped organize the palm leaves that will form the thatched roof.

Hale construction 1

This week at the NTBG [ ntbg.org ] is a special project to construct a "hale" - a Hawaiian style house. Specifically, it will be an open building set in the McBryde garden.

Building with unmilled wood instead of lumber, the structure incorporates all the curves and branches at times of the natural wood. Lengths are measured by string for the most part. Joints are cut mostly by eyeballing the angles, orienting the wood according to its bent shape. Then the pieces are lashed together with nylon cord pieces tied in "shakas" - a kind of figure-8 wrapping on the hand that I learned how to do.

The "hale" is based on traditional designs but we use modern tools and materials: chainsaw, grinder, and nylon cord for lashing. No nails, no level.

The structure is made from ironwood which also isn't traditional, but was brought here by Westerners from Australia. It's like pine but harder and tends to grow fairly straight. The wood is placed on the beach so the saltwater treats it to resist bugs and as fire retardant.

Structural pieces are cut by chainsaw, fitted into place, marked, and adjusted to fit snuggly before lashing them. Working with a large group we have people up in the structure and more on the ground, passing the large pieces of wood up and down. standing on the temporary scaffolding already built in that will be disassembled eventually as the structure is completed.

The work is led by a rambunctious fellow from Maui (brandishing the chainsaw in the photos) with each work day starting with Hawaiian chanting and I believe hula based warmup. The NTBG garden staff turns out along with volunteers; today we had military folks from the PMRF (in Kekaha to the west) facility helping out.

Here are a few photos from Monday that should be self-explanatory from the text above. It's fascinating to work on and watch it come together, but also hard work at times. Today we had hot weather and mid-afternoon a downpour suspended work early.

Sugarloaf

UPDATE: Now you can buy it online.

In the nineteenth century when Sanford Dole was developing the pineapple market he needed a variety of pineapple that would hold up to the canning process - fibrous and high in acid. That's what the world now knows as "pineapple" thanks to his industrious efforts. Today pineapples are jetted to market all over the world and there are varieties sold at a premium like Maui Gold, but Sugarloaf is in a whole league by itself.

Sugarloaf pineapples are sweet, low in acid, and not as fibrous. Most people discard the core of a fresh pineapple but with Sugarloaf you will want to eat it all - everything but the outside skin.

Sugarloaf pineapple is only available in the Hawaiian islands and I haven't seen it in the supermarket - just in the local farmer "sunshine markets" and usually only in summertime. Sugarloaf is best picked ripe and eaten soon after so it doesn't ship as easily as your garden variety pineapple.

A local Kauai farm [ http://tokauai.blogspot.com/2012/12/hole-in-mountain-farm.html ] is specializing in Sugarloaf and working on bringing them to ripen year round. I highly recommend it (purchase at the link below the photo).

When your box of Sugarloaf pineapples arrives, it's shipped ready-to-eat ripe so don't wait. Ripe Sugarloaf is often green skinned and people mistakenly let it sit around too long. Don't make this mistake: trust the farmers to send it ripe. Remember it won't last long. We have cut it up and it's fine 2 or 3 days later refrigerated. Be prepared to experience pineapple at its best.

Makauwahi Cave Reserve

The NTBG volunteers got a special tour of the Makauwahi Cave Reserve [cavereserve.org] last Tuesday, another beautiful sunny day on the south shore. Located just east of Poipu near the shore area known as Mahaulepu. To get there, drive to the Poipu Hyatt and keep going on the dirt road, turn right at the CJM Stables sign, bear right at the fork, and park near the stables (unless you want to brave the tough-looking dirt road to the left into the reserve proper).

Panorama below shows both the north (left) and south (right) cave entrances from the sinkhole, almost 360. Scroll way to the right to see the full image...

Dr. Burney who runs the place with support from the NTBG where he serves as director of conservation showed us around. The site centers around a cave just inland on the south shore that turns out to be an ideal repository of fossils preserving the history of the island. Long ago the center of the cave ceiling collapsed leaving a sinkhole with north and south cave portions opening onto the central open area. In addition to its scientific significance, the site was used for a number of scenes in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

You enter through a low natural portal into the north cave, a large room well lit from the sinkhole it opens onto. Along the west wall is one of the active digging sites, currently filled with water, where Dr. Burney digs down layer by layer through thousands of years of sediment, painstakingly piecing together the biological and geological history of the site.

On the opposite side of the sinkhole opening is the south cave whose main room is of comparable size. However, the south cave has several passages leading deeper into an extensive gallery of more caves for spelunkers to explore, i.e. not practical to casually wander around in by any means. The farther recesses include some burial sites and the deepest darkest parts are home to rare cave-adapted animals, completely white and eyeless.

Dr. Burney has been transforming the surrounding terrain replanting native plants long ago crowded out by invasive human-introduced species, using his diggings to inform what plants and animals originally thrived in this spot hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Beyond the cave area, areas of the adjacent abandoned sugar cane fields have been planted with original native plants in a broader effort to demonstrate that it is possible to restore natural areas to their former composition. Forsaking chemical spraying, weed control is an essential challenge in this effort and they have adopted a unique solution: tortoises. The restored plant areas are fenced into sections expertly weeded on a continual basis by eleven (and counting) tortoises, who work long hours for free weeding and fertilize the plants for no extra charge.

Of course there is plenty of human support needed to keep up a garden of the scale of many acres, and for what the tortoises can't manage they hire workers from the neighboring island of Ni'ihau (where there is 100% unemployment since the island is for residences only and the last place Hawaiian is spoken as a first language).

All in all it's a wonderful success story. Much accurate scientific knowledge has been and continues to be gleaned from diggings and research here, including updating our best estimates of first human settlement of the island (to be more recent than earlier thought) to 800-1000 A.D. Large scale replanting with native species has been demonstrated and the terrain continues to morph into what it was before those troublesome humans showed up. Perhaps soon the last plant extinctions on Kauai will be followed by a resurgence toward larger scale restoration of native species toward building a more diverse and robust environment.

Waimea Historic Town Walking Tour

Most Monday mornings at 9:30 if you go to the West Kauai Visitors Center [ http://www.westkauaivisitorcenter.org ] -- call at least by Friday business hours ahead to reserve -- you can join the walking tour.

Puna leads the walking tour, and she does it beautifully, in addition to being a living island treasure. Her life story is deeply entwined with Waimea where she was born and raised.

The tour begins with a brief introduction to some of the main displays in the museum section of the visitor center, showing native crafts such as tapa (cloth made from mulberry leaves), poi (pounded taro korm), and more.

From there the tour sets out -- at a brisk pace at times -- for historic points of interest including old churches, site of plantation hospitals, down town merchant shops, and much more.

All the history and cultural insights are interwoven with personal stores of Puna's childhood and life in Waimea, really brining it alive. Here and there she walks right into the yards of friends (with permission) to show off the lovely flowers in a back garden or sharing macadamia nuts fallen from a tree in the yard (everyone gets a few). We went out to see the beach on her land there.

After the tour some of us dropped by her house -- I'm pretty sure this is not usual for the tour -- to taste a few things she mentioned earlier. We had "V-apple" (not much like apple at all), saw the noni plant, and tasted and took home jars of her wonderful mango chutney.

Even without that last part the tour is a real treat & absolutely free. Mondays 9:30 to 12:30 (or a little longer). After the tour I reommend the Seared Wasabi Ahi tacos at Island Tacos right down the road from the visitor center.

Garden flora

Last week I took some macro shots of flowers in the little garden outside my rental.

Blog workaround

I still don't have Internet service where I'm staying but not I can blog again regularly. I should get back to roughly daily posts now.

My smartphone has Internet connection - unreliable and slow, but it works - but what stopped me from blogging was that typing was so tedious.

The solution is a keyboard: I now have a Bluetooth-connected keyboard that works great and enables me to post with ease. The tiny screen is not a problem at all so long as I can really type.
You need Android version 3 or later (I tried some hacks with version 2 that were a mess, at least the free ones, but now it's properly integrated). I got the Logitech K810 ... it isn't cheap but works fine and the rechargeable battery so far lasts and lasts. Keyboard touch is pretty good: I recommend it.

Kawaikoi Stream Trail

Sunday headed out at the crack of dawn for Koke'e. A new local friend offered to drive his 4WD truck off-road so we got to go to trails I would normally be able to reach with my rental car.

First stop was at the Waimea Canyon lookout to watch the sun come up over the mountains across the valley.

We were headed for Miloli'i Ridge trail ... but the gate was locked. Attempted to get through from another entrance, but no luck. Plan B was to go out Polihale Ridge ... also locked gate.

Plan C was to drive in to Sugi Camp ... a good five miles by dirt roads. Definitely good to have a tough truck with 4WD though the road was in good condition - not much mud, and not so dry that we raised a lot of dust either.

We walked about a mile up Kawaikoi stream. Far from the highway there are few people around and it's perfectly quiet. Ideal to observe birds and see plenty of flora.

Late lunch at the Koke'e Lodge - Apple salad (lettuce, apple slices, macadamia nuts, feta cheese, with a mustard dressing) and cornbread: recommended, especially the salad.

I learned that ferns here can be dangerous according to my friend who was full of local stories. He said the ferns grow densely layer after layer, sometimes reaching out over the edge of a dropoff or cliff. Hikers have been known to tromp out over the ferns, and once past the edge the ferns won't support their weight and they plummet down over the edge in this insidious trap by the local flora.

Photos:
Sunrise over Waimea Canyon
Leaf backlit by early morning sun
Dried out ferns

Making bread & chutney

Saturday was filled with cooking with friends in Waimea. We met at Puna's for a nice breakfast followed by a bread-making session. Two ladies were interested in learning how to bake bread so I brought extra starter for them, and we prepared the bread together so they could learn.

While waiting for the bread to rise, we prepared mango chutney together -- another cooking process that takes a long time -- so we kept pleasantly busy all day long.

The bread came out great and we had an afternoon snack of fresh-baked bread together. The chutney took considerably longer so Puna finished it up herself that evening. And she baked bread herself as well; it came out "perfect" she says.

Today I picked up a pint and a half of the chutney and had a taste: it also came out "perfect".

Mark Twain

Over a hundred years before there were blogs Mark Twain wrote a series of letters for the Sacramento Union of his adventure to Hawaii in 1866. He aptly describes Hawaii as "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean."

The writing is wonderful although dated in some respects and very informative about the old days when it was a sovereign republic. Twain never did visit Kauai, but spend most of his time in Honolulu with a visit to the big island.

His writings include quite a bit of detailed economics statistics, for example, the booming sugar production.

• 1864: 10.4 million pounds, 
• 1865: 15.3 million pounds, 
• 1866 (through September): 27 million pounds.

Apparently the series was an early prominent success in his writing - sold a lot of papers - and upon his return he lectured on his Hawaiian travels thereby starting those performances for which he later became renowned.

His irreverent perspective certainly puts missionaries and western officials of the Hawaiian government in their place. While he shows due respect to Hawaiian royalty and parts of the culture, he comes off a little too superior to the common native and pokes somewhat ignorant fun at their "savage" ways.

The Days are just packed

Apologies for the decreased frequency of blogging - no Internet where I am staying and dismal cell service even. Additionally, I have developed a routine that keeps me busy but isn't especially new or particularly interesting. Sunday to Honopu Trail was what seems to be the weekly hike.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday I'm working in the Allerton Garden, doing whatever the gardeners happen to be doing that day. This week we weeded on Monday (not especially fun, but the area needed cleaning up. Tuesday I made arrangements for my stay here into March - the current plan is to return March 8 - and did laundry and such.

This week there is special preparation collecting and preparing materials for a hale construction project at the end of the month. A hale is a Hawaiian building which is being built in the McBryde and also one in the Limahuli garden - I believe there are no hale anywhere on Kauai today. Already they have built a rock foundation and erected a wooden skeleton.

Wednesday we de-barked a bunch of wood they had cut and stripped of branches on Tuesday. The wood is young ironwood pine which grows quite straight and tapes from a good three inch diameter at the base to a tip like a fishing pole. The first few I used a scythe to strip the bark in a rather tedious but easy process. The George showed me how to do the job with a hammer which works surprisingly well. Apparently in old times that's how they did it, striking the bark with a short piece of wood that makes the bark split and separate from the base wood quite cleanly. The stripped wood is taken down the the beach where it will be washed by waves in salt water a few days -- this protects the wood from bug infestation.

Thursday (instead of Friday this week) I helped cut palm leaves for the thatched roof of the hale. Specifically, they use fan palms that are dried naturally and hanging down. They can be tricky to cut down when the tree is tall. They needed well over a thousand of them so we were scouring the garden everywhere to find material that we piled up by the cart-load in front of the nursery. Tomorrow they will tie these into bundles of five in preparation for the construction of the roof later in the month.

A couple of friends were interested in learning to make bread so Friday I am preparing some starter and dough to show them how it's done on Saturday, and will probably bake some as well. Hike Sunday and there goes the week.

These days I make simple breakfast each morning at the house (fruit, yogurt, eggs), pack sandwiches for the garden, and some kind of snack evenings for dinner. Hardly eat out much at all lately.

Next week my wife visits so it will be more of a tourist week but I'm looking forward to it.

Following week is hale construction and then back to the usually weekly pattern I expect.

Honopu Trail

Coastline view of Na Pali from end of Honopu trail

This past Sunday I hiked the Honopu Trail - it's a rather obscure trail, not officially signed, hard to find and hard to navigate, but with help from a guidebook I managed it just fine. And I had the trail all to myself -- I saw nobody else on the trail and it's definitely out-and-back trail so I would have run into anyone else out there. Great to have it to myself, but not so great if there had been trouble. I was solo but from the low traffic - on a Sunday (locals are more likely to hike weekends) - I would advise for this one not to go it alone for safety. Honopu is the valley immediately to the west of Kalalau.

The trail is fairly challenging, definitely not for novice hikers: there are some confusing intersections - when in doubt go in the direction of the ocean, it's narrow in sections, some slipper steep parts - not advisable after wet weather, and out by the ridges the ground is crumbly and you have to be careful. Long pants are advisable as you tromp through quite a bit of scratchy fern on narrow trails.

 Panoramas give you the best idea what this views are like out there.

View to the west, upper trail

View to the west, near end of trail

View to the east, near end of trail

Trail head as seen from the road

The trail head is a turnout about 1/2 mile past the 17 mile marker on the Koke'e state road, just past a prominent dip down into a low spot just past the (signed) Awaawapuhi trailhead parking area, on the makai (ocean side, or on the left driving out the road from the Koke'e Lodge). If you come to the (first) Kalalau Lookout you have gone too far. The turn out is about three cars wide and goes about fifty feet back off the road. The trail begins in the back of that area on the left side (back to the road) and proceeds, with quite a lot of winding around, generally toward to the ocean at 90 degrees to the road.

Honopu beach from the ridge 2500 feet above

As with the Nualolo and the Awaawapuhi trails that also lead out to ridges that overlook these Na Pali ("the cliffs") vallies, the first section climbs a bit and then descends through Koke'e forest, through some sunny meadows overgrown with fern, and then down into the more arid sections out to the ridge leading to the bluffs overlooking the valley. The trail is quite narrow in places, there are obstacles to crawl under or over or go around, and it can be slippery - both mud-slippery and crumbly-slippery.

View of the ridge portion of Honopu Trail

I was concerned that wet weather would blow in and mist obscure the Honopu valley on the right going out, but it was basically clear throughout. (A misty rain began to fall just as I got back to the car, developing into quite a rainfall as I descended through and out of Koke'e.) Use good judgement as to how far out the ridge you want to go - there is no "end of trail" marker out there - and it gets increasingly challenging. No sheer cliffs here but the slopes are steep and gust of wind can appear quite suddenly so take it easy - I don't think the view gets particularly better beyond a certain point which is easy and safe to get out to.

This hike is a little shorter and easier than either of the Nualolo and the Awaawapuhi trails - at expense of being a little tricky to find and navigate - and gives you the great views of the coastline and cliffs. For all these trails I suggest waiting a couple days after rainy Koke'e weather (although Koke'e probably gets a little precipitation daily, just avoid the significant rains) for easy trail conditions.

Looking for this trail I found an abandoned underground room of some kind right at the bottom of that dip in the road, ocean side. Shades of "LOST" it is quite surprising but I expect it's just filled with old junk, perhaps a remnant from WWII or something.

There were a lot of helicopters out there - the noise is really a shame given the wonderful quiet that usually prevails out there. Eating lunch out on the ridge I notice what sounded like a waterfall that have been "turned on" about the time a helicopter was buzzing the Awaawapuhi valley to the west. It was a small rock slide I finally realized, and I couldn't exactly place it but I wondered if the helicopter downdraft could have precipitated it. Often I've seen them flying fairly low - and it seems they certainly could trigger a rock slide: please leave a comment if you know if it could or not.

Allerton garden

Tuesday I toured the Allerton garden, where I have been working, on the guided tour as a guest. By coincidence the tour guide was Frank, the same guy we had in February last visit.

The Allerton is unique as a somewhat formal garden with statuary and some structures in a tropical setting. Organized as "rooms" partitioned by greenery, it's much like walking through a museum.

For now let me put up some photos and work on a proper writeup of the garden. The Allerton is a wonderful place, as you can see, at the end of the rainbow. Highly recommended, even if you don't like garden tours particularly.

Lawai beach as seen approaching the Allerton

Morton Bay fig tree - famous for the Jurassic Park dinosaur eggs

Diana

Friday I trimmed philodendron on left.

One of many fountains throughout the garden

Mermaid

Water feature

The water feature above is quite remarkable in design, copied from just such a fountain Allerton saw in Italy at what is now the prime minister's residence. With just a gravity feed of water from above, each of the small chambers down the gently sloping line is separated by a mahogany wood dam at each of the narrow points that the water flows over. At the top (far end) the water flows smoothly ... about half way down it begins to oscillate ... and by the bottom the water is coming in waves pulsating about one per second over the last dam. Based on Allerton's description the garden staff cast this and they say it just worked first time.

Kalaheo digs

I'm staying in a little house in Kalaheo for January and February. It's a small apartment next to the main house that looks like - and may be converted from - the garage for the house. As you can see in the picture, the little house is at the end of the driveway where a garage would be. That's my rental Jeep on the right.

The unit has a separate entrance around on the right side. It is mostly one large room with a small but decent kitchen and a small bathroom and shower. There's a laundry room shared with the main house. The main house is rented out to a retired couple from Texas. Have seen a variety of bugs in the kitchen but the bug guy has been out twice and the ants appear to be gone for now.

Just up hill is Kukuiolono Park which makes a nice local walking destination. The park was left to the community by the McBryde family who owned the local sugar mill, now closed. In addition to a nine-hole golf course and restaurant there is a park area, a Hawaiian garden, and a Japanese garden.

Last Week

Without an internet connection at the new place life it different and blog postings become rare. At the same time, to some extent I have settled into a weekly pattern that I like but is rather uneventful -- something like real life I suppose. Weather has been a little wet (and "weird" a local said) in Kalaheo. I certainly keep busy and continue to enjoy my time here, but it does feel less and less like "vacation" or "travel".

Monday I went in to Waimea to visit my friends at the West Kauai Visitor Center. I helped them set up a web site using Google's free-for-nonprofits enterprise web service but the account become unusable for them recently. It seems the account somehow was switched to a business trial account which after 30 days expired ... I re-signed-up and it seems to be working again. We had lunch from the local Mexican truck (pretty good but pricey) and chatted for a while.

Worked a couple of days in the Allerton garden helping the grounds crew. It's a great place to spend the day (tourists pay good money for a tour, and I get to spend the day here for free) and as a regular volunteer - which is unusual it seems - I've gotten to know the crew a bit. Also you get to go places and see things not on the tour ... you do have to work, of course. One day we weeded - not a lot of fun with the mosquitoes out in force and working a rocky area - and the other day trimmed philodendron mostly.

On Thursday I swapped rental car out for another, driving into Lihue airport. At times rental cars can become scarce here - obviously when the island supply is rented out there are few alternatives - so I reserved the car by phone before heading down. When I arrived I got upgraded to a Jeep for $10/day extra and this time the nice lady at the counter upgraded me to another Jeep (a little nicer one) gratis. In Kauai at least, I heartily recommend Hertz after two good experiences.

Today I dropped by the sunshine market at KCC (the community college) in Puhi and bought some local produce and eggs and more Midnight Bear bread from Ursa. Then out to Hanapepe library where I've been fighting to get a wireless connection with the admirable help of Ed on staff.

Technical details - unless you know and care about the network problem stop reading now. The HTTP 302 redirect goes to a domain that does not DNS resolve (wireless.librarieshawaii.org) preventing me from logging in with library card number and getting a connection. Turns out the explicit DNS server IP address settings my ISP requires were the problem - removed those and it worked. Disappointingly the library IT staff kept giving highly bogus advice - reboot the laptop, don't use more than one browser.

No Internet

In this day and age I didn't imagine there would be rentals that do not include Internet service, but I found one. I had stopped checking that this year, assuming it was standard by now, but apparently not, and I'm here two months. This should be interesting. To be fair, I do have Internet via my T-Mobile to my phone but it's very poor service -- "the bars" go up and down and many connection problems -- so it hardly counts, though eventually email comes through and if I am patient I can browse a little.

Blog posting will likely become intermittent unless I can figure something out.

I hope this unexpected inconvenience will turn out to be a blessing. If nothing else I certainly am already appreciating the convenience of having all the world's information at one's fingertips.
I can get a connection at the local library or the West Kauai Visitor Center, but that's about it.

Island Breadmaking

My grandmother Alice baked bread from a "starter" - a yeast culture that is increased and some saved - reconstituted from a small amount brought over. Slowly growing it back up as I moved around, transporting it in closed container for the car trip, and after not having a working oven the last two places, I am baking with it today.

I heard from Evan that Ursa baked with the starter and liked the result, and also learned that they live very nearby the place I am in now, right around the corner. It will be interesting to see what a pro can do with the starter in the coming weeks.

The kitchen here is minimal and the selection of equipment sparse but good enough. The countertop here is not suitable for kneading which is a special challenge and ensures the bread will be poorly shaped, not that I was expert at that anyway. The intermediate risings have been very promising in the warm humid climate here, expanding 3 to 4 times with lots of nice big bubbles in the dough.

The bread came out fine but stuck terribly to the unfamiliar pans. The climate here seems to be great for it so I'm looking forward to baking more soon. I got a local bread pudding recipe I will try with the leftovers as one batch is more than I can eat and I only managed to give away one loaf.

Robert Allerton

Spending time in the garden that Robert Allerton created it occurred to me how rare it is that human artifice manages to enhance natural beauty: quite an achievement, especially in what was such a stunning setting to begin with. Here's a bit of the history of the garden that I learned; I'll be writing more about the Allerton for sure.

The property was originally owned by Queen Emma (wife of Kamehameha IV) with a house up above the valley in the flat lands. The McBryde family bought the property after the queen's death for $5000. The McBrydes farmed sugar in the fields surrounding the valley, who had Emma's house  moved down into the valley to make room for the cane fields.

The beach area is not hard to imagine the property as Allerton first saw it in 1938 by happenstance when he visited first Kauai. Thanks to his hotel in Honolulu being overbooked, their friend there suggested flying to Kauai and stay there -- surely there must have been accommodations elsewhere on Oahu! -- and the same friend just happened to suggest that they see beachfront property in Lawai. The previous owner Alexander McBryde was recently deceased and the Kauai innkeeper happened to be the executor of his estate. Quite an incredulous story, a smooth sell, or a remarkable serendipity.

Allerton was born into wealth, pursued an art career until abruptly deciding it was not to be, and stewarded Robert Allerton Park in Illinois featuring formal gardens and statuary he collected. Deaf since childhood, Robert was said to be "unique, eccentric, and marvelously gifted in all the arts." He was also notably for many years the wealthiest bachelor in the United States. Robert was already in a relationship with John Gregg when they first saw Lawai-Kai as they named it, and the garden and buildings are very much a collaboration with John who he legally adopted as his son later in life when Illinois law allowed it.

Allerton died in his nineties peacefully in the garden and John lived there many years after until his death there as well. Both of their ashes were scattered in the waters off the beach of the garden they loved so much and gave to the world.

Source:

Robert Allerton : the private man and the public gifts

Author: 

Burgin, Martha.

Holtz, Maureen.

Holtz, Michael.

ISBN: 

9780979842078

Publication Information: 

Champaign, IL : The News-Gazette, c2009.

Friday

Yesterday I worked in the Allerton garden down by the visitor cottage out near the beach. The crew only gets out there rarely so it was a treat to work in that historic location not on the garden tours. We cleaned up the sidewalks, hedges, pulled weeds and vines, trimmed back excess growth, and cut back the bougainvillea along the road.

George dropped me off to work with Howard and Mike in the morning. Howard has been gardening at Allerton since 1989 and is a fountain of knowledge about the place. Mike is relatively new there, and it turns out lives in Hanapepe right next door to the rental I was in when I first arrived here.

Hauling the waste out was actually the most interesting and interesting part of the job that day. Most of the bulk was the bougainvillea which has huge thorns. Using two pitchforks we rolled a tangle of the bougainvillea cuttings onto the back of the pickup truck and I rode along with Mike to one of the dumping areas. Each load they grab several old dried palm branches that fall from the trees here and there in the garden and put those in the truck bed. At the dump, we both just grabbed the palm leaves and pulled and the whole load slides right out. On the way back we scanned the grounds for fallen palm branches, dragging back a few right through the middle of a tour group that looked surprised but not unhappy (I'm sure they had no idea why we were gathering them.) Loading the rest of it onto the truck the fork piece of the pitchfork I was using pulled out and stuck -- turns out it was quite loose. Howard took the tool to show me how to use it anyway and swinging it around into position the fork flew out right into the river. (I was very glad that I hadn't done that!) After a few minutes they fished it out and we got another tool to finish the job.

Work ends early on Friday and I have been going to get a beer at the local brewery in Eleele just a few miles down the road. The Cane Fire Red is quite good. Did some grocery shopping - I moved to my January/February location in Kalaheo - and went in to Hanapepe.

Had an early dinner - Ono plate: 3 pieces, mac salad, rice - at Bobbie's right next to the Hanapepe Cafe. While waiting for the food I fell into conversation with Willie, a retired cop working in the area doing private security. He told me about his career in law enforcement, interest in flying airplanes, time on the mainland, gangs in Hawaii, and more. Quite a character and like many folks here, young looking for his age (62) which as in Japan they tend to mention.

Bought some sweet potato filled buns from Midnight Bear Bakery stand that was excellent: filling is slightly sweet with a touch of spices.

Day in the Life

Today was a very nice and also typical day in the emerging pattern of my daily life here in Kauai.

Awoke before daybreak (not due to cocks crowing though I did hear them) and got up, checked email, did yoga, and departed before 7am in early light for Kalaheo.

Breakfast at the Kalaheo Cafe -- veggie omelet with hash-browns and cornbread muffin, two cups coffee. A tourist just arrived on the island asked me where to see the sunrise (the sun was already up).

Drove down to the NTBG -- the south side visitor center is in Poipu near Spouting Horn, but the garden administration, research, and support buildings are in Kalaheo and there is a back entrance to the same gardens from there at the back of the Lawai Valley. Stopped by the volunteer office to check in, commiserate about their attempts to use Facebook (which I couldn't help with at all), and buy a volunteer T-shirt.

Proceeded down into the garden first to see the hale (traditional Hawaiian structure) currently under construction in the rear of the valley. I am hoping to be able to volunteer helping with the remaining construction tentatively planned for late this month.

Found George and got going weeding a section of the Allerton garden. The Allerton is a fabulous garden -- I'll write all about it after I get a tour (gratis to volunteers) next week. Today I was weeding a relatively modest section [map] of the garden where a collection of fruit trees were. One tree was tagged as a Black Apple which I had never heard of -- it was still small and not yet bearing fruit. My job was to pull weeds, primarily a white flowered vine, from the grassy area around the trees. The ground here is quite rocky so they can't mow it as they do a similar section nearby, hence, hand weeding is needed. To get the vines out by the root requires tracing them down through the thick grass to the ground and then yanking it the crown which is usually firmly attached to a chunk of lava gravel.

In a full day I got about 1/5 of this large area (above, right) weeded, but enough that it shows. The panoramic below is shot standing where I was weeding showing the road that runs around the fruit orchard. None of these pictures even begins to do justice to the Allerton: this was the set for Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 movies.

Had lunch with George and learned a bit about the gardening work to keep the Allerton going. They are done to six (from eleven) full timers now and are constantly overwhelmed with the workload, but they do a great job.

Bird in tree right where I was working.

After lunch, George took me on a short private tour all the way out to the beach where Allerton's house is situated and showed me all the old structures such as the greenhouse, destroyed by hurricane Iniki over twenty years ago. Later I rode along to dump the weeds I had piled up -- we went across to the west side of the stream and up, through two tunnels to the garden waste dump (still unclear why it's so distant). The dump is at the furthest usable part of an old road that used to lead to sugar cane fields further down the coast. With disuse the road has become overgrown with bougainvillea beyond where we dumped the weeds. The spot overlooks the house and beach and has got to be the most exotic and scenic garden waste pile in the world.

On the way back from the NTBG, I have made a habit of stopping by Kauai Brewing (the western-most micro-brewery in the USA) for a draft -- I like the Cane Fire Red.

Next in Hanapepe I picked up some Taro Ko chips -- purple sweet potato with li hing mui (salty dried plum) flavor. Stanley was low on product because their slicer is broken and until it's fixed they can't make more. They produce the chips right there in the little house-cum-factory. He always gives me an extra free bag when I buy there -- maybe he does for everyone?

Had fish tacos in Hanapepe at Paco's Tacos (OK, not great). Then back to Waimea to shower and change and go for an early evening walk along the beach after sunset. The ocean has been very calm the last couple of days with waves hardly a foot tall if that gently rocking up and down the dark sand.

Not a bad day at all.

Wisdom of Audrey Sutherland

A bit more of the wisdom from Audrey Sutherland's book previously mentioned worth sharing.

Selected things every kid ought to be able to do by age 16

• fix a meal
• splice a cord
• change a tire
• change a baby
• listen to an adult with empathy
• set work to be done and do it

What to do if you fall off a mountain

Roll onto your back: you dig in better with your heels than your hands, your vital parts are better protected, and you can see ahead where you are sliding. She adds, "sort of" to that last one. Makes sense.

Quotable quotes

"The ability to live in a variety of styles, city or country, with people or without, in different languages and cultures, with enthusiasm for the small luxuries, gives me a power over the future"

 

New Year's Day on Kauai

I was most fortunate to be invited to two parties: one on the beach here in Waimea and one in Koke'e up the mountain. Since the Koke'e folks were depending on me to bring champagne (I managed to get the next to last bottle in Ishihara Market) I needed to be there on time.

Before leaving town I went by the beach but they were just setting up the tent, so I dropped by Puna's place where she had been baking with help from Uncle Stanley, a school classmate. They invited me to sit down for freshly baked banana bread and mango bread, lilikoi gelatin, and coffee. It was a delicious pre-dinner treat and after chatting they presented me with baked goods for the other party and I headed up the mountain.

The Koke'e party was at a beautiful airy cabin a mile or so off the main road. A spacious porch opened off the main big room in the backyard was set with a long table and candles. Potluck pupus (appetizers), dinner, and dessert were great and plentiful. Some stand-outs were fresh guacamole, lau lau turkey (turkey roasted wrapped in ti leaves), and lemon meringue pie.

After dinner we were treated to a set of Hawaiian guitar music - three of the guests played guitar - and then champagne. I got back to Waimea in time to get out to the beach just before midnight when all the fireworks went off. A few soaring lanterns were launched successfully, drifting up until no larger than a bright star. Fireworks and firecrackers continued on until well after 1am before things settled down. I understand that here fireworks are strictly a New Year's thing, not on the Fourth of July.

Happy New Year's to all!