THE CUCKOO REVUE '07

As 2007 exits and 2008 comes rushing in, we thought we would take a look back at the year in CFC. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to read of our Adventures in Haiku, Maui. Get ready... there are a lot of pics. Sit back and enjoy as your New Year's Eve Hangover wears off.

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

JANUARY

Boxes were being packed and lots of stuff was being donated.
Nerves were on high.

FEBRUARY

Left New York.

Toured the country visiting friends and family for 3 weeks.

MARCH

Arrived at our new home on Maui.

Conn's sister visited.
Bought our first car.

APRIL

Planted our garden.

Volunteered at the Dalai Lama event.

MAY

Finished the painting of the walls, and recovering the sofa and dining room chairs.
Planted Surinam Cherry and Rainbow Shower trees.

JUNE

Conn's mom and Grandma visited from Indiana and Florida.
Our friends Josh and Maya made a visit from New York.
Conn's cousin Jenny and her husband Jon also visited from Indiana.

JULY

Weathered Tropical Depression Cosme.

AUGUST
Got ourselves a fancy new camera.
John's friend Allison visited from New York.
Stayed up very late to watch the lunar eclipse.
Made it through Hurricane Flossie high-n-dry.

SEPTEMBER

Conn's friend Robert visited before moving from San Francisco back to New York.
Hit the Maui County Fair.

OCTOBER

John's mom and dad visited from Upstate New York.
John and his folk's visited The U.S.S . Arizona War Memorial on Oahu.
We re-modeled our kitchen.

NOVEMBER

Finished the back splash in the kitchen.
Ate Thanksgiving Dinner outside!
Worked a lot this month.

DECEMBER

We altered the size of our tractor shed to conform with county permitting.
(it's a long story... look for details in the coming year.)

And as if all that was not enough....

WE DID A LOT OF THIS.

WE SAW A LOT OF THESE.

IF WE COULD GROW IT, WE ATE IT... AND WE ATE WELL.

Please visit us often in 2008 for the New Adventures of Conn & John In Haiku, Maui.
We will have some new renovations and projects coming up that will be very exciting.
To those of you who visited... we loved seeing you and hope you had the time of your life.
We hope to see you again soon... and for those of you who have not visited...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Aloha Nui Loa
c&j

CHRISTMAS ON KANAIO BEACH

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner here at the house with our neighbors, Della, Everett and their friend Auntie Lois who came over from Oahu.

The Menu:

Tortellini soup
Gnochi di Noce
Pork tenerloin
Roasted sweet potato
Sauted swiss chard and bok choy with bacon
Crab legs
Dressing
Cranberry sauce
Taro rolls
Chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies

The kids also came over for a bit and we tracked Santa on the internet which made them so excited they rushed home and went to bed around 9:00. After they left I managed to get this image of Santa delivering packages right here in Haiku!
Yesterday we took ourselves on a Christmas day hike across the lava fields to Kanaio Beach (we were the only people there) on an ancient Hawaiian trail known as The Kings Highway. To get to the trail you go to the southern tip of the island to La Perouse Bay. The Hoapili Trail was built in its present form by Governor Hoapili (1824 -1840)...for whom the trail is now named. It is a mile hike to get to this sign from the car then another 2 miles to get to the beach. We continued past the beach for about another mile, so by the time it was all said and done we hiked off some of those baked goods I have been making on an 8 mile hike. We started at 2:00 and finished around 6:00... just as the sun was setting behind Kaho'olawe. Here are a few pics from the hike to warm those of you up back home in NY and Indiana.
We hope you had a wonderful day too.

Stay on the trail.

A few spectacular cloud formations on Haleakala.

Beach combing and an urchin.

John taking a snack break.

Sunset over Kaho'olawe.

PETIT NOEL

Thanks to my aunt Emily for sending us some Christmas cheer in the form of tiny cakes! And what a great surprise when I opened the box. Now that's multitasking--a holiday greeting you can eat. We here at at CFC wish everyone a relaxing day off. We're gonna go stuff our faces now. Merry Christmas!

PARTY TIME

Last night we went to a holiday party down the road at our neighbor Peter and Sheila's house. An amazing multi level home over looking the ocean. It was a great opportunity to meet many of our neighbors from up and down the road as well as a road or two over. All very nice and welcoming. We took a box of the Lemon Snowball Cookies, but this time I made them a bit different. I made a lemon icing and topped each one with a small drop. It added just the right amount of extra lemon-i-ness! The box of 7 dozen was down to about a dozen by the time we left.... so I guess they were well received. 

NIGHT LIGHT

Last night we went on a drive to check out all the holiday lights. We drove up Kaupakalua Road and wandered around Makawao. There were some pretty tricked out houses that were depleting the power grid for sure. There was one house that had a FULL ON miniature village (well over a hundred buildings with lights and trees) set up in their carport on card tables and one had even gone so far as to cover the yard in fake snow. Another that we saw from the side of the road was covered ...I mean COVERED ... in lights and mechanical sculptures and music and, and, and. We could not find the actual road to get to it so we don't have any good pics of that one. In fact, we did not get good pics of most. By good pics I mean clear pics. But I think these pics are beautiful in their own right.

CUCKOO FOR COOKIES

LEMON SNOWBALLS

ORANGE ZEBRA TURNOVER COOKIES

Here is yet another epicurean post. 'Tis after all the season of baking right? I just can't help myself from concocting tasty treats from our fruitful harvest. I used lemon and orange in these two tooth decaying treats. For the LEMON SNOWBALLS I used a recipe I found online. They are delicate and full of chopped pecans and lemon zest. The Orange Zebra Turnovers are made from a few recipes that I combined to make my own creation. The filling is fresh orange pulp cooked with flour and sugar into a jelly like consistency. They too are delicate in texture and flaky. The dough is made with butter & cream cheese and not a drop of sugar. Final touch is to drizzle with dark chocolate and dust with powdered sugar. As you can see... I enjoy starting my day with a few cookies and coffee.

"CASE" SOLVED!

JEEPERS, CREEPERS! Thursday night I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and I noticed this piece of flat brown dirt moving across the counter top. Or was it a small piece of leaf being blown by the breeze. Was I that tired? DID THAT DIRT JUST MOVE? I swear I did a double take and shook my head like a cartoon character to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. Is this is a joke... who is pulling this leaf like thing on a string? Then it happened... a black head popped out. Then it started pulling itself across the counter in small jerking motions. THE HORROR! JOHN!!!!! GET IN HERE AND LOOK AT THIS. I captured the unusual teeny tiny beast and put it in a jar. A quick search on line by typing in the term "flat cocoon" and I had my answer. The really amazing website, WHAT'S THAT BUG? told me all I needed to know. It is a Case Bearing Moth Larva. A completely benign creature.

Come out come out.

I took many, many images and could never get in close enought to get a really sharp image. The casing looks like a piece of dried leaf... but then when I took a photo of it and zoomed in I noticed it looked like very fine sand. It is about 1/4" to 1/2" long and has 2 openings... one on each end. First it pops it's head out of one end then the other. The openings are so small, you can barely see them without the aide of the camera. It really is the wildest thing and we have spent way too much time watching it in the jar. Case closed.

SHINING STARS

We put up and decorated our tree on Saturday. It is our favorite plastic white Martha Stewart tree we got a few years ago. In place of our usual 5 strands of lights... we went with 2. Why you ask??? Christmas lights are energy hogs and drain our batteries quickly. We would have gone with LED's, but we could not find any on white cords... not to mention our color lights (pink and orange). It's always something right? No worries - we made do and I have to say it looks better than it ever has. Have you ever noticed that the tree looks better lit up in the daytime than it does at night?... Or at least I think so. When it is lit at night the ornaments just turn to black silhouettes. What fun is that? It's almost as if you need a special light to light the lit tree. Anywho... we got some fun tiki ornaments which are the stars of the tree this year. The really dark ones were key chains that I got for $1.50 each. Each tiki has a special power that it provides you like... health, money, safety, success etc. Hey we need all the help we can get right? Who says ornaments have to be from the ornament department? John made the perfect bright and sparkley 3-d star topper in pink, orange and gold metallics. And a touch of glitter too boot.

I'm also really into this glass orchid which fits right in with the tropical tiki's.

I WANT CANDY!

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD... well... er... uh well it used to be food. After squeezing 17 lemons - half of them the size of a grapefruit and 18 oranges yesterday, I thought I would try my hand at making candied citrus peel. Here is the lemon version, half of which I dipped in a dark chocolate. It is fairly easy to do, except for the removing of the pith by running a very sharp knife between that and the skin. The pith is the dry white part lining the citrus. Once all of that is finished then you boil the peeled 1/4" strips for 20 minutes then drain and boil once more. Next, take 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar and boil with cooked peels about 45 minutes stirring constantly... you do not want this to scorch. The peels should now be somewhat transparent and firm... from all the sugar. Remove and spreed over a parchment lined cookie sheet - let drain/dry for about 10 minutes. divide into small groups and place in a covered bowl or bag and toss with 1/4 cup superfine sugar until evenly coated. If too wet the sugar will clump instead of dust the surface. Then dip each one in a bit of chocolate... or you could lay them all out on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the chocolate.

The boiling yummy sugary sweetness.

Save the syrup that boils down (now lemon flavored) and store it in the fridge where it will last quite a long time. It's perfect for ice tea or even on ice cream. By the time I went to bed, I was so hopped up on sugar that I was awake half the night. But it was worth it... this is the best candy ever!!!!! Tomorrow I am going to make and orange and a tangerine version.

While we are on the subject of sweets.... here are pics (for mom) of our desserts from the tasty meal at Mama's Fish House on Friday night. I had the Liliko'i Creme brulee and John had the Banana crumble with Tahitian Vanilla ice cream. Can you taste the Liliko'i creme brulee mom? Thanks again for the treat!

THE SUN AND THE RAINFALL

For those of you following the news of our unexpected storm yesterday, John and I are fine. The islands did take a bit of a beating with the news reports saying Maui was hardest hit. The areas worst off were those that rarely see the kinds of rain we do here on the North shore. The storm blew in from the South via the Kona winds and soaked the driest areas of the island. We did get LOTS of rain yesterday and some pretty high winds, but all in all it was rather calm at our house. Reports were that we were getting 4 inches of rain an hour. There were pools of water that formed here and there in the yard and drive. We did not experience any of the flash flooding or power outages that many of the other residents did. Of course our solar panels were not able to collect rays from the sun, but we turned on the generator and were good to go. The only problem was we lost our internet connection yesterday around noon and did not get that back until this morning. Our cell service was out all day yesterday and today until this evening. The storm has cleared out for the most part, but looks to be swinging back around and is passing back over Kauai tonight. We could see more in a day or 2.

Even though it may rain for an entire day, you can still count on a spectacular sunset. It's amazing how it always shows up rain or shine.

Haleakala National Park has been closed for 2 days because of wind gusts of 100 mph and it was just reported tonight that the summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island are under blizzard advisories. It is downright cold here tonight... long pj's, socks and hooded sweatshirts again with all our windows closed. It does make for cozy sleeping though. So for now we are fine.

Lots of other things to talk about, but too tired.

Friday night we are heading to MAMA'S FISH HOUSE to celebrate our 7 year anniversary (which is actually today, Thursday). Compliments of my mom. THANKS MOM... I'll have the Liliko'i Creme Brulee for you.

SHED REDO

We love it when we can reuse something instead of throwing it in the garbage. Pictured here are the old cabinets that we tore out when remodeled the kitchen (repainted orange, of course). They found new life in the car shed which was in dire need of storage space and counter space to actually work.

I also finally got around to fixing the door to the garage too. It would never close in a nice, smooth manner. It always had to be tugged shut. I took note of where it hit the jam and planed that area down on the jam and the door itself so now it closes with ease. And while I had the paint out...well you get the idea. It's such a relief to have that work space all organized.

WH-WH-WH-WHITE OUT

As I made my way into town on this very ... VERY overcast and rainy day I was eager to make it to Ho'okipa to see what the waves were like today. It was a complete white-out everywhere you looked. Now I have grown up seeing a lot of waves, but I have always wanted to see giant waves. Today I finally got to see some really big waves which were projected to be 12'-20'+ today. I would say that these were most definitely 20+. I pulled off and took these images at Ho'okipa this morning and this evening on my way home. I stopped at Baldwin Beach in the morning and had to turn around as the parking lot was flooded. As I came home I noticed that both Baldwin and Ho'okipa Beach parks were both closed, but that did not stop everyone from pulling off the side of the road to witness the crashing waves. It's really hard to illustrate just how big they were in these images, but trust me... they were BIG! My eyes just could not believe what they were seeing. It was a spectacular sight. And from the way the surfers hanging out on the side of the road were talking, there are bigger ones to come as we head into January. I'm looking forward to seeing some monster waves with a clear blue sky.

The next 5 images is a series of one wave as it broke at Ho'okipa Beach Park. You can see the sand of the beach being washed out at the bottom of the image. This particular location is usually filled with surfers and windsurfers, but not a surfer of any kind in the water anywhere... it was much to treacherous.

Below images of Ho'okipa Beach Lookout today and March 2007 how we have usually seen it.