SUPER CUTS

Well Lauren, here it is at long last! The picture you have been waiting for.Yesterday was our first day we stayed at home all day and tended to the yard. We broke out the lawnmower and did a good amount of weeding as well as organizing the work shed. Mowing the lawn took almost 3 hours which was fine, but I might want to put a sun shade on the mower - that is if it is not too windy. We are never without a good "breeze" or should I say "gale".

We have / had a few rows of hedges here called Wiliwili that were infected by a Gall Wasp and were destroyed. It was an island wide epidemic that has nearly wiped out the endemic Hawaiian tree. John just knocked some down and began making a "fence" to disguise a brush pile.

We will plant something in front of this to disguise it even further.

And remember those ornamental pods from the palms I said i would find a use for? Well... I worked them into a row of dead Wiliwili's to create a more rail like fence. Eventually we will get rid of all the Wiliwili stumps, but for now this is a good fix.

Halfway through the day John made another batch of fresh lemonade.

Our basket of plenty.
A beautiful and tart pink guava.
The eggplant bush. There must be 40 eggplant on this thing. We better get to eatin'.

With all the abundance of treats from the garden, we incorporated a few into our dinner. Guava, eggplant, tomatoes, oranges, lemons, limes and papaya. I am not all that into eggplant, but on the advice of Parnell I whipped up a grilled vegetable salad that was amazing. For the chicken I marinated it in fresh guava, crushed garlic, grated ginger salt and pepper.

Recipe for grilled vegetable salad as follows.

Brush eggplant, red, yellow and orange peppers, tomatoes and pineapple on both sides with olive oil and grill.
(use any combo of veggies that you like... Parnell suggests asparagus and okra as well)

Dressing:
juice of 1 fresh lime
lemon zest
1 clove finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 chopped scallion
1 teaspoon chopped mint leaves
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
dash or 2 of ground coriander
pinch of chili flakes
1 tablespoon Raw Brown Sugar dissolved in 1.5 teaspoons hot water
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon shoyu sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

After veggies are grilled, dice and place in large bowl. Pour dressing over, toss and serve.
Good the next day as a cold dish as well.

BLUE CRUSH

So this is it! We bought this cute Atomic Blue Honda Element on Friday night. We had been looking at cars since we arrived and we were getting overwhelmed. Car shopping sucks. Fist we said we were going to get a Toyota pick-up but that did not suit us. We thought about the FJ Cruiser but the MPG on that is rotten. Then we moved on to the Nissan Xterra in bright yellow. That was a cute ride, but a pretty big one and not so good on the MPG either, not to mention the sticker shock. We looked at a few used lots and nothing. Feeling run over from the sleazy salesmen, we made one last stop into the shared Jeep and Honda lot to look at the Jeeps. We parked near the Element and took a look... never making it to the Jeep side. John took it for a spin and it was nice. It was the last they had and the salesman said what if we make you an incredible offer? We said ok make us an offer. So we go in and sit down and fill out some forms and the guy says, Now, what would you feel comfortable paying for this car?" to which I said.... OH NO - YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE US AN INCREDIBLE OFFER, SO MAKE US THE OFFER. He was a little shocked and said "well I need to take a number to my boss". I said no... the deal was YOU MAKE US THE OFFER AND WE SEE IF WE LIKE IT. So off he went and came back with a pretty good offer... the best we had all week, but we just had to get him down a bit more and we did. YAY! 4 hours later we left the Honda lot with our new ride!

SOMEWHERE OVER OUR HOUSE

Yesterday we spent the day with my sister (Heather) and her boyfriend (Jeff) driving the road to Hana. We went hiking Pipiwai Trail in the Kipahulu area of Haleakala National Park to Waimoku Falls. They loved it and the falls were really flowing. We had dinner at Paia Flatbread Co. - a new pizza eatery in Paia.


Two views of the Road to Hana. the first image was shot around 11:30 Am and the second about 7:00 PM.

Heather and Jeff are the 2 specks at the bottom of the 400 foot Waimoku Falls.


Today John and I left the house in hopes of doing a good deal of car shopping but we were hindered with news that our riding mower was arriving today instead of next Monday. We made it home 10 minutes before it arrived and we were thrilled to be getting it early only to find out after the delivery comapny left that it would not start! Sorry, no pics of me riding it today. We think they sent it to us with a dead battery since the headlights won't turn on. John called Sears and they told us to bring the battery in to test it and if it is bad they will give us a new one. UGH! So we did some palm trimming instead of unpacking and we were treated to an amazing double rainbow. Since I could not fit the entire rainbow into frame, I have included a short video clip of it here.



John trimming the palms.

The left behind ornamental pods and seed branches.I plan on finding a use for these.

A spectacular shot of the rainbow beyound the palms.

THAR SHE BLOWS

TUESDAY MARCH 20, 2007
Thanks to all of you for your recent comments! Some of you have been asking to see pics of the house and we will post some soon. Right now the house is full of boxes and as soon as we have something more settled into to show we will post something.

Monday we spent the day with my sister and gave her a driving tour all of our part of the island... Kula, Makawao, Paia & Haiku. She was in awe of the views, especially from Kula. It was an impossibly gorgeous day as you can tell from these 2 images. We stopped back at the house so she could see our new digs and John made a pitcher of lemonade with fresh lemons from the garden... Delicious.

John and Heather whale watching.

Wind surfers at Ho'okipa Beach.

We stopped at the scenic lookout near Ma'alaea to see if we could spot any humpback whales on our way home from dropping my sister off at her hotel and we hit the jackpot!!! There were several pods and although the sun was setting and it was hard to get them on film we managed to film this pod of 4 whales.

TOUCH THE SKY

Today we spent most of the day shopping. We bought a riding lawn tractor with canopy attachment and pull behind cart/wheel barrel, a self propelled push mower, a gas powered weedeater, chain saw and hedger, a gas grill with cover and cooking utensils, and a stop at costco for the month's groceries. That's right, just spending money like we have it!

Here is a beautiful shot near Ho'okipa Beach Park on the North Shore where they do a lot of wind surfing and surfing. It's about 15 minutes back towards the airport from the house. We stood along here the other day and spotted several pods of Humpback Whales. They were tiny from the shore, but just imagine how big they really are if you can see them breechig and spouting water from their blowhole at that distance. It was pretty exciting.

This was the view as we left Costo looking up the slopes of Haleakala. The clouds today were insanely heavy and this one was so low that you were literally able to touch the sky in the towns of Makawao and Pukalani, which I am told means Little Hole as there is always a hole in the clouds above Pukalani where the sun shines through. You can see it just to the right of center where there is a clearing in the clouds.

SEEING RED

This afternoon while I was standing in our conatainer, I was being serenaded by the most impossibly red cardinal I have ever seen. He sat atop a 50 foot Cook Island Pine singing his heart out.

Click the images to see larger.

Also, here is a shot of the baby blue plastic adirondack chairs we bought. I just love them and the only thing better would be if they were orange.

A view of one of the banana patches near sunset.

Self Portrait. And no... I have not combed my hair ALL DAY!

A tangerine tree.

John with his prize tangerine.

And finally, this HATEFUL looking spider was hanging out in the rafters of the deck this afternoon and when I saw it I almost died. Notice the top part of that beam is 4" wide so that means the spider was at least 4" across. So I turned my back on it and when I turned back around it lowered itself eye level with me and I swear it licked it's chops! It was me or the spider... guess who lost! I mean you had to be there. The way it lowered itself was so surreal and sinister like right out of a cartoon.

That's all for today.

E UA ANA PAHA (perhaps it will rain)

Well we made it. After leaving New York a few weeks ago John and I did a small amount of visiting folks before we arrived on Maui. John went to Upstate New York and I went to Indiana and San Francisco. John had never been to California before so we met up in Los Angeles and stayed there 2 days. In all it took us 18 days to get to our new home.
THE WEST MAUI MOUTAINS. This is the first time we have seen the entire mountain like this without being covered in clouds.

We arrived on Tuesday the 13th and and it rained most of the day. We went shopping right away to get an inflatable mattress, plates, cups, food and cleaning supplies. We got 2 great baby blue plastic Adirondack chairs at K-mart... Very Philippe Starck. Got to the house and walked the grounds to discover we had papaya ready to eat as well as several baby pineapple that will be ready by the end of summer I hope. Cherry tomato's and lots of eggplant. Too bad I don't like eggplant. We can't wait to plant the garden and have fresh food!
PAPAYA READY TO EAT
PINEAPPLE IN THE MAKING
JOHN GATHERING TOMATO'S

Wednesday we woke up and made coffee and sat outside. Our neighbors came over with flowers and fresh bananas. They are really cool folks with 3 kids, 2 dogs and 3 cats. The 4 leggers come to say hi quite a bit which is cute. We went shopping again and it rained a lot. Stopped to wqatch a few whales breech in the waters on the north shore. It had stopped raing late in the afternoon and we had a beautiful sunset.
A VIEW TO WAIPIO BAY AT THE DRIVEWAY ENTRANCE. Our neighbors told us that whale and dolphin can be seen frolicking in the bay.
A VIEW OF HALEAKALA CRATER FROM THE FRONT YARD
ANOTHER VIEW OF HALEAKALA AT SUNSET FROM THE GARDEN

Thursday the container with all of our stuff arrived right on schedule. It was amazing that it was all strapped in and in place just as we had left it in New York. A few boxes shifted and we cannot tell if there is any real damgage to things in the boxes yet, but all in all it looks good. We also got our internet service up and running today which was shockingly easy. We picked up this wireless modem that you plug into the wall and that's it. It gets it's signal from a satellite. YAY!!! We decided not to put up a mailbox, so we stopped into the post office and got a PO Box. TaDah! Done!
THE CONTAINER ARRIVES EXACTLY ON SCHEDULE
AND THE UNPACKING BEGINS. It's nice to have our things with us.

What else can I tell you? The sound of the rain here is rather soothing and the smell of the air is so clean. At night it is so dark out you cannot even see your hand in front of your face, but you can see every single star in the sky... I mean every one! The sky looks like black velvet with silver glitter. At times we can here the surf in Waipio Bay just behind the house. The bird sounds are a constant symphony. The garden and grounds are beautiful and the house is really cute. We do have some work to do on the house, but are going to make changes later.

Ok. I think that is all I can tell you for now. Besides that's too much reading anyway.
ALOHA!

ALOHA 'OE

Well... we're off! The container came this morning, was loaded in a mere 2 hours and is now on it's way to meet up with us in Maui. It goes by rail to LA and and leaves there by ship on March 3rd. Arriving in Honolulu then on to Maui on March 13th. And get this, without any planning at all, it should arrive the exact same day we do! Fingers and toes! More soon.

All lined up in the hallway.
We really lucked out with a prime parking spot right in front of the service entrance to the building... and no ticket!
The conatiner and a look back up at the apartment.
Packed to Pussy's Bow. With room to spare. And we were worried that what we had it edited down to would not fit. NICE!
And this is how it will look sailing across the Pacific. Hopefully we will not suffer a peril at sea... i.e. the container jumping ship.

GNOME-ORE COLD WEATHER

Thursday was the last day of work for John and I. We both had hysterical going away gatherings at Waikiki Wally's on the Lower East Side. Friday we rented a U-haul and unloaded the storage unit in Chelsea which was more of a nightmare than we expected. It was freezing and snow was piled everywhere. The drive from the apartment to the unit took 45 minutes each way in horrible traffic and we made 3 trip across town. In all we thought we would spend 3 hours and we ended up taking 6...YES 6 HOURS!!!! If we would of had to do that drive everyday we would killed ourselves long ago! Yeah... we made 3 trips up the freight elevator and it just goes back out on Thursday. Well we asked for it.

As I was packing today I looked out the terrace door and saw our little Garden Gnome peeking out of the snow beneath the Japanese Maple...That is how we felt yesterday... except we were buried in storage crap. What was I thinking...keeping that storage unit? I got rid of about half of what was in there. Word to the wise... if you are thinking of putting stuff in a storage unit, I say forget it. It will just be out of sight and out of mind.

The countdown is on...6 days left in NYC.

STAMP OUT CANCER

As you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Fight. Find a Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that affects so many of our Mothers, Sisters and Friends. Instead of the normal 39 cents for a stamp, this one costs 45 cents The additional 6 cents will go to breast cancer research A "normal" book costs $7.80. This one is only $9.00. It takes a few minutes in line at the Post Office and means so much. If all stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $35,000,000 for this vital research. Just as important as the money is our support. What a statement it would make if the stamp outsold the lottery this week. What a statement it would make that we care. I urge you to do two things TODAY:
1. Go out and purchase some of these stamps.
2. E-mail your friends to do the same.
Many of us know women and their families whose lives are turned upside-down by breast cancer. It takes so little to do so much in this drive. We can all afford the extra $1.20.

ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES

Well it appears as though the fire that swept across 2,291 acres in the Kula Forest Reserve was indeed caused by a cigarette. With pockets of unburned terrain within the 16-mile fire perimeter, the area actually burned is estimated at 1,700 acres. According to the Maui News, investigators narrowed the origin of the fire to an area “the size of a desktop" then they got down on their hands and knees to look for the source. The cigarette butt “was very, very obvious,” “Everything was black and the butt was burned on one end but still white.” “Everything was black and the butt was burned on one end but still white,” he said. The cigarette butt was found on the upper Waiohuli trail about 150 feet from the access road.

THIS END UP

WOW! I cannot believe that it is February 4th already. We are in full on packing mode at the moment. ONLY 18 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE MOVERS ARRIVE! We are trying our best to use only recycled boxes and packing materials and so far the only thing we have had to buy is tape. There are 3 motives behind our madness for this and they are as follows.

1. This is a VERY expensive move and we are trying to save money. So far so good.

2. We really think it is a shame when boxes that are in perfectly good condition just end up on the curb.

3. We are moving to a remote island... we need to be conscious of our waste from now on. The island is only so big and we need to add as little as possible to the land fill.

We are only using recycled plastic bubble wrap for only the most delicate of objects. It's important to take the least amount of non-biodegradable materials with us. Otherwise we are using paper for all of our packing. We bought a paper shredder and that makes for graet cushioning around those fragile pieces.