White Road Wonderland

One of my favorite hikes was officially "closed" after the earthquake of 2006. We're generally compliant and we don't condone trespassing or breaking the law so I hadn't done the hike since it closed and Chris has never done it. But we kept hearing of friends taking the White Road hike and we needed a cool place to go that wasn't too far to drive, so we finally broke down and headed to Waimea. The trail is clearly being used, we passed several people that day and the rules are obviously not being enforced. I also did not see any landslides or damage the earthquake may have caused that would make the hike more dangerous. There is a small strip of land that is leased by a private family from the state that one must cross to get to the forest reserve where the trail begins. They do not want trespassers, so I don't feel entirely right about doing this hike, but we did, and it didn't disappoint. What good is a forest reserve if it is inaccessible, anyway?

The hike winds through incredibly thick jungle beside the Hamakua ditch, which irrigates farms in the area. After about an hour, hikers find themselves standing on the top of the 2,000-foot high cliffs of Waipio Valley. We hiked at least one more hour to the very back of the valley through mud and thick kahili ginger. On our way, we saw several teens swimming in the concrete ditch and sliding down a crazy steep, slippery section of the ditch.

The jungle is green and gorgeous, and the misty clouds obscuring rugged ohia trees are downright enchanting. There really is no other hike like this, and it brought back lot of fond memories of hiking here with my dad years ago. It's truly amazing, and I just might be willing to break the law again someday.

Bathroom Take Two

I tried posting this a few months ago with before and after video walk-throughs of our bathroom remodel, but the video upload took forever and I gave up on posing this until now.
Back in March, Chris really tore into our bathroom, which needed some work. It felt small, the shower enclosure was tiny, the wall had some rot, the counter top was crummy, etc.

To increase the sense of space, Chris ripped out part of a wall so that it would be a half wall. He removed the small shower and a tiny vanity next to it, removed another portion of wall that was doing nothing besides filling space, then he made a gigantic shower finished in travertine with super nice fixtures and a made in Germany rain shower head. It's really sweet!

Instead of fixing the vanity, he painted the old one, added drawer handles and finished the top in large granite tile and put a vessel sink on top. A lot of work and expense went into the project, but the bathroom is amazing now. We turned one of the home's eye sores into a real selling point, and every time I take a shower it feels like I'm vacationing in a fancy resort.

My husband's skills continue to impress me. My dad and Christoph were also a huge help.

Before

 

After

 

Our old shower enclosure was small, the shower head was broken, and the adjacent wall was rotten.

 

My dad helps install the shower bladder.

We're really happy with the linear drain.

Three shower heads to choose from, all made in Germany. Christoph helped install them using the German language instructions.

A bizarre blessing

Chis came across an unusual find while doing yard work yesterday. A poor turkey had run into a little trouble while flying through or roosting in our banana trees and it hanged itself. It was hard for me to believe, but there I was staring at this turkey hanging from the tree. It was pretty injured but still alive, so Chris cleaned it and we had a nice turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and fresh green beans from our garden. Money doesn't grow on trees, but apparently, sometimes, free groceries do. I was also struck by how colorful the features were up close.

I never realized how gorgeous turkey feathers are.

For the birds

The federal government continued this week their efforts to eradicate or at least control the feral sheep population on Mauna Kea. The sheep eat native mamane trees, which the endemic and endangered palila bird rely on for food.

Hunters don't like this destruction of their game, so as a consolation, the government makes the meat available to those who sign up in advance and take the trek up the mountain to salvage the carcasses. Chris and I went up Thursday and got three nice sheep! We could have had at least one or two more, but we knew three would max out our freezer space.

Fifteen trucks showed up Thursday to receive the free sheep and I counted that at least 60 sheep were given out, but we left early, so the number may have been even higher. They shot 44 sheep the previous day. A helicopter rounds up the sheep and shoots them, then drops them off in a sling in batches of 10-15. Then people take turns choosing a sheep.

Chris has done this before, and our fabulous meat grinder was featured in this previous blog post. For the first time I went with Chris just for the experience. I learned a few things about butchering an animal, different cuts of meat and criteria for choosing a good sheep.

If anything struck me, it was how comfortable all the attendees were in the presence of animal carcasses and how they knew just what to do. Some folks I know probably thought it was strange I would take the day off to skin dead animals, but the people there saw the practicality of not letting this perfectly good meat go to waste. After all, it's organic, local, free-range, grass-fed meat. People were planning to make smoke meat, jerky, and one lady saved all of the hoofs to make musical rattles and drumsticks. We packaged ours into steaks, roasts and ground meat. We've enjoyed the meat in the past, and two of the animals we got were young ewes so we're hoping for some good, tender eating.




The helicopter brings a sling of sheep.

These guys brought a wheelbarrow.

Leg of lamb and some sheep steaks.

We are blessed with a full freezer!