Camp Break

We decided to take a break from our work so we did a one-night backpack along the Kohala Coast. My dad has been talking about camping lately, and he hadn't been in a really long time, so he came, too. We had a nice time and cloudy weather made for a cool hike back across the lava field.

Clouds were welcomed for the hike home.

Cooking oatmeal on the Pocket Rocket.

Improvement Update
We ripped the carpet out of our living room last weekend and placed it under the house. It will be easier to store our surfboards and junk now that the rocky ground has been leveled out and covered with caret. Chris was supposed to ride his dirt bike in the house for a photo op. before we started ripping into the carpet, but we were so anxious to get working that we forgot.

Chris and my dad worked all week on leveling our very uneven living room floor and laying down 1/2 inch plywood so we can begin tiling. The whole house was shrouded in a layer of sawdust created by griding down lumps in the floor. Chris also started installing track lighting in the kitchen, and my dad fixed a damaged door frame. He had the whole living room filled with his tools. We are grateful for his talents and time.

My dad brought a whole wagon of tools over.

Chris painted our entire great room except for the accent wall.

Ripping up the carpet.

Good things big and small

We have planted 77 pineapples in the past 8 months or so. Normally, it takes two years to get a ripe pineapple from a plant, but for some reason, one of our plants flowered and produced a pineapple almost immediately. It is smaller than a softball, but we'll take it!

What's more interesting is the humongous hand of bananas our dwarf banana tree produced. We propped the stalk up with a board and finally, the stalk bent over from the weight of the bananas anyway. We don't have a scale but the hand weighs at least 50 pounds.

A cute, premature pineapple from our patch.

I could barely lift this hand of bananas for the photo.

Warning: work ahead

Chris is going to be busy for the next couple of months. We have four crates of travertine tile for him to lay in the great room and kitchen. We also have new kitchen cabinets coming in a few weeks, so he will have the whole room ripped up. He has lots of painting and wall texturing to do, and he has a weird closet door to tear out, and track ligting to install. I am happy to help, but I offer only unskilled labor.

He and my dad tiled the lanai for practice this week with the same tile we'll use inside the house. It looks great! Chris bought some plywood to put down first that is supposed to make the surface level for tiling and the product is terrible. The boards are warped and won't lay flat and they had a hard time getting the tiles perfectly level. We'll use something different inside the house. It's also harder work than Chris thought, and it's taking longer. He and I worked on grout for more than two hours yesterday and only did 2/3 of the lanai. Yes, Chris is going to be busy for the next couple of months.

Chris installs plywood that's supposed to create a level surface for tile.


Tile is in but we're not finished grouting. What a difference it made to our lanai that used to be dingy, blue carpet.

These boots were made for walkin'

In 2006 I hiked the Grand Canyon in inferior hiking boots and I lost my two big toenails as a result. One still has not grown back properly. As soon as I returned from that trip I went down to see Jim the French horn player at Jim's shoes and he sold me the best pair of boots I have ever owned. They made it through rivers and lava tubes, over mountains and to the bottom of valleys and canyons. They have performed hours of yard work and travelled to several states, two continents and even Japan. They kept up with Chris through our courtship and through almost four years of marriage, while Chris burned through many pairs of combat boots. There is no way to replace a pair of boots like these, so when the day came, I went down to see Jim and purchased another pair just like the last. I wonder where these new boots will take me?