Now welcoming dinner guests

Except for a few finishing touches our kitchen remodel is complete. Chris has worked really hard this past year on home improvements, and he's especially put in a lot of effort this past month since we tore out the old kitchen.
Jordie Braugh with Original Craft built the cabinets using African mahogany with a clear finish. We are really impressed with the quality. Chris and my dad did the rest of the work, including tiling the floor, installing granite tile counter tops, painting, installing track light and the list goes on.
It doesn't quite feel like our kitchen yet because it's just so darn nice, but I'm sure it won't take long to get used to! It reminds me of the fancy houses I visit when I do write-ups for our newspaper's real estate publication. Now I should learn how to cook fancy food!

This is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in.
It's hard to tell from the photo how worn out the cabinets were or how the smelled.

One month ago today we removed the old cabinets and started smashing up the old tile.

Celebrating our Independence

What a great fourth of July.  Despite rising surf, Chris and I went diving and shot three fish that we brought home and cleaned. Then it was on to a picnic at Duane's where we had good fish, not just reef fish. He served us ono, ahi (cooked or seared), mahi mahi and swordfish, which is Chris' favorite. We ended the day by sitting at the water's edge and watching fireworks that were launched from a barge in Kailua Bay.

Eating raw tuna may not sound as American as hot dogs and apple pie but that in itself demonstrates some of the things I like about this country: the freedom to do (or eat) whatever we want, and diverse cultures and backgrounds. Sometimes it's easier to dwell on where our country has gone wrong rather than celebrate advantages of being American. Recently, I read a book about a woman who survived six years in a North Korean prison camp. That made me appreciate the freedoms and due process we have in American and made me extra proud to fly Old Glory this July 4th.

My mom took this photo of fireworks over Kailua Bay from her house up the moutain.

Birds of Paradise

We planted seven bird of paradise plants last year and now they are blooming. It's been neat to check on them every day and see how the flowers opened up. One of the plants have two blossoms on one stem - I've never seen that before.

Kitchen Demolition

We had a small 3.7 earthquake Friday but that's not what happened to our kitchen. Chris and I smashed up the tile on purpose because we are getting new cabinets this week and we'll re-tile the kitchen to match the living room. I've always liked smashing things up, but it didn't take long to realize removing tile is hard work. We borrowed power tools but in the end, the most effective way to break the tile's grip on the plywood floor was by banging on it with hammers. Our whole house is now a dusty mess but things can only get better from here.
The cabinet removal was a breeze. Chris found someone who wanted the cabinets so they took them down and hauled them away.

Our old cabinets were loaded into a giant moving truck and hauled to their new home in Hilo.

I don't think we'll be having anyone over for dinner this week, our kitchen is a little smashed up.

Summer Camping Trip

I had a few days of vacation time from work that had to be used so I took last week off. Besides lots of chores and working around the house, Chris and I camped on the beach one night, and another night my dad and I camped at Volcano. We cooked brats on his grill and right around sunset 12 endangered nene geese flew overhead. After that, we stayed to watch the steam plume from Halemaumau crater glow red from the lava lake below.
The next day we decided we had explored the park many times, but one place my dad had never been was to Lake Waiau on Mauna Kea so we drove through Hilo and headed up the mountain.

I thought there was a bear at our campsite but it turned out to be my dad hiding behind a chair.

Halemaumau at night. It's a spectacular sight, but living downwind from an active volcano has its drawbacks, the pollution has taken away Kona's bright blue skies and it's probably not healthy to breathe.

A view of Mauna Loa from the 13,000 foot elevation of Mauna Kea.



Sunlight streams through the forest and shines on this Ohia branch.

My dad and I at Lake Waiau on Mauna Kea.

The "Slot Canyon" of Mauna Loa

In 2010 I wrote about a gigantic Mauna Loa lava tube here and here, too. We explored the cave going down and it went about 1.5 miles with no cave ins, but Chris and I never explored the cave heading up until recently. On Memorial we rode our dirt bikes to the entrance of the cave and explored the upper portion. We went about 1/2 mile when we arrived at a cave-in that we could not get down into without ropes so we had to quit. The cave is absolutely enormous and the upper section had many cave-ins, which allowed sunlight into the cave so we could get a good look at its features. We appropriately named the cave slot canyon because it is taller than it is wide and it's so enormous it feels like canyon from inside. Awesome!

To get an idea of this cave's size, look for the silhouette of Chris near the center of the frame.

This section had several cave-ins.

Mauna Kea sets the backdrop with the entrance to the cave in the foreground.

Looking out from the lava tube.

Tennis Ball Cannon

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?

Irish Washerwoman

Here's a fiddle tune for St. Patrick's Day. Be sure to notice the beautiful Celtic sweater my mom knitted for me as a Christmas present. I am so proud of her handiwork, it's the most gorgeous sweater I have ever seen.

More "year of progress" photos

A while back, we made a nice parking area out of grass blocks so that Chris would have a nice surface for parking his truck. It's also a good spot for turning around once cars come into our narrow gate. It took several trips to Home Depot to haul the heavy blocks, and more wear and tear on our gloves to carry the abrasive cement objects, but this area of the yard is now much improved.

I am also happy with the progress of our gigantic weed piles. A yard waste pile in the front yard was three feet tall, three feet wide and almost 200 feet long, but we have since removed the sprouting monstera roots from the pile, smashed it down with our dirt bikes and raked it into a very small pile about four feet by four feet. The other pile by the bananas also shrunk due to rotting, dirt biking on it, and finally using a chipper to get rid of a lot of the sticks. The chipped wood is now keeping our pineapple patch weed-free.


Our yard waste pile was pretty huge.


The waste pile today is much smaller and the area around the bananas looks a whole lot better as a result.


The new grass is growing through our grass block parking area.

Seventy-six pineapples

Seventy-six trombones are great for parades, but when it's breakfast time I'll take 76 pineapples anyday, and that's how many we have planted. I can't believe I haven't posted a picture of our pineapple patch yet because I'm so happy with it. Our friend who works at a hotel got us a bunch of pineapple tops, Duane gave us a few prized white pineapple tops, and I occasionally pick up a pineapple at the farmer's market or swipe the tops from decorative fruit platters at parties and Realtor events. We then dry the pineapples, remove the bottom leaves, soak them in water for about a week until roots sprout, then we plant them in good, muddy soil.

The result is our kick-butt pineapple patch. It normally takes two years to get a pineapple once the top has been planted, but we already have one plant with fruit and another with a flower.

Prickly Planters


Several months ago we finished putting in planters, now I am waiting for our first bird of paradise flower. The planter along the rock wall is 33 feet long and it contains 13 Tahitian tiare gardenia. The planter along the front of the house has seven bird of paradise and seven white bird of paradise, and the planter along the side of the house is filled with croutons.

Just clearing the weeds and digging holes is a chore in a place where weeds get 20 feet tall and the "soil" is mostly lava rocks. Once the ground was prepared, Chris and I made several trips to pick up black, flat pahoehoe lava to create the border for the planters and red, razor sharp a`a lava to fill them. The price for the materials was right and the planters look great, but Chris' truck and several pairs of leather gloves took a beating during our trips to the lava fields to pick up rocks.


Planters under construction


Planters finished.


Our gloves are finished, too.

As blind as a snake

Chris found a Blind Snake in our pile of yard waste today and he placed it in the wheelbarrow until I could come have a look. It is common belief there are no snakes in Hawaii, and, well, that's almost true. This tiny snake resembles a skinny earthworm but it obviously slithers like a snake should. It is believed blind snakes came to the islands in potting soil in the 1980s, but unlike many other invasive species, they pose no threat to the ecosystem. That's according to this website that looks reliable enough to me.

Underwater Views

I haven't posted any underwater pictures for a long time, so here are a few I took last weekend at Makalawena.



A honu floats near above the reef.


Squid are pelagic and nocturnal but I have seen them close to shore a few times in daylight. They are strange creatures but they are also very quick- especially when being hunted by pods of dolphins.




A quick dive under an arch at Makalawena. Listen closely for the singing Humpback Whales.

A Year of Progress

Chris was looking back on last year's calendar and he noticed we rented a moving truck one year ago on February 20. When I look around at all the progress we've made on the house it feels like we've been here much longer. Listing off the projects in my head makes me feel good about the hard work we've both invested, and I am especially proud of my husband's skills and impressive motivation.

The biggest changes have been in landscaping and remodeling the garage. We've planted 45 areca palms, 12 fruit trees, a killer pineapple patch plus we added planters along the front and side of the house and brought in a few truck loads of soil. Chris has done lots of repairs like fixing water leaks and toilets, making a drain so the car port would stop flooding, fixing rotten wood on the deck where a tree had grown through, plenty of painting and power washing, replacing appliances, building a "housing" for the electric meter, installing a vent in the bathroom and closing off an existing doorway, installing countless lights, fixing the broken gate, insulating hot water pipes, repairing and replacing screens and sliding doors, caulking, scrubbing algae off of the roof, fixing a boarded up window, carpet cleaning, and the list goes on....


A Google Street View picture taken before we owned the house:

Less than a year after we moved in:

Giving is fun

We planted a tomato bush from seed and the plant just keeps on giving. The funny part of this is I do not like tomatoes and Chris has determined he is allergic to them. So we've been giving them away right and left. It's really rewarding to watch folks enjoy these tomatoes. I gave some away at orchestra and people were waving them around, eating them onsite and yelling across the parking lot about how delicious they were. Many have told me they are the best tomatoes they have ever eaten. In case you want to try some for yourself, they are called Better Boy Hybrid. Find the seeds today at a store near you.