It is ALIVE!!!!!

In case you're not hearing it in your head as I intend it to be heard, you have to think back to the very old, black and white version of the Frankenstein movie, here, watch this...

OK, so now you're hearing it right.  So what am I talking about?  Well, what could I be happy to see springing to life?  

Think back to January and our awful ice storm.  There were lots of trees completely torn apart, some were nearly shorn of all their limbs, some were damaged to a point that they just had to be removed.  I had one that had splayed open but when the ice melted was standing fairly well.  The redbud tree near my arbor in my back yard.




A couple years ago it had a pretty good twist and split going on in the trunk so Rick made a figure "8" out of wire to support the drooping half and keep it from falling.  When it was covered with an inch of ice that wire held the 2 halves together so the whole thing was unable to just split apart.  




When the storm cleanup began I lopped the branches on that redbud and studied up on how to save a tree with broken limbs or other major damage.  I found out that boring straight through and bolting it together is a safe method of tree repair.  The most important thing is to keep the bark intact, that's what'll kill a tree for sure, to remove too much bark.




So Rick and I used ratcheting tie-downs and 2x4 leverage to pull the two halves back to a fairly solid trunk again.  Then I bored holes through the 9 inch trunk and inserted threaded rod all the way through.  I put large washers and 2 nuts on each end and CRANKED hard.  I did 3 rods and it looked pretty good.  But will it sprout?




Seeing that I cut off the branches that would normally sprout the leaves I had to wait longer than normal to see if I had, indeed, saved my tree.






When I got back from Hawaii in late May this is what I saw:


IT IS ALIVE!!!!

A New Pet

No - not mine, my MOM's!

Try as she may, she just can't not have a pet.  I suppose if her neighbors, who actually, supposedly own this cat, were better pet owners Mom wouldn't have a new pet.  But they're not, so she does.  It was their dog, Teddy, for a while, but that issue got resolved so now it's the cat.  They could care less about the cat so Mom picked up the slack.

Meet "Notmycat".  I think that's an extremely odd name for a cat but it's what Mom insists the cat's name is.  She points to the cat and says adamantly "That's Notmycat!"  OK! OK! That's Notmycat!  I get it!

Notmycat is a very lovable, neutered, male, tabby-and-white with a voracious appetite, thanks to his little intestinal friends.  Mom feeds him dog food, since he was raised with a dog and only knows dog food (lousy owners, remember?) and he eats nearly a full, large can every day!

While Rick and I were there we gave him lots of attention and he just ate it up!  Such a cute brat.  Turns out he's learned that catching birds will also get him attention so sometimes he does it just for that reason.  Mom actually saw him carrying a bird and stop to let her catch him and then release the bird.  He can't possibly actually need the food so it's more an issue of getting the attention.

And like so many cats, or maybe it's more of a tabby trait, he loves to pose for pictures...












Here he's hanging with Mom in the carport...












And inspecting his territory...  













And sleeping anywhere he finds interesting...






I think it's a good thing for my Mom to have a pet.  She should stop trying not to.

Our Ocean Weekend 2012

As a family, for some strange reason, my kids and I enjoy renting a big house and all living under one roof for a weekend every year, usually in some exotic place like Ocean Shores or Leavenworth. This hasn't occurred for a couple years but this weekend it did - in Ocean City, just north of Ocean Shores. 

The house we ended up renting is an old, converted, 2 story store, which worked perfect for this mob. It now has 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and a huge open living space downstairs. It's tastefully decorated in vintage garage-sale furnishings and addressed nearly every need. 

We arrived different times Friday, Rach, Tony and Hunter got there midday but had to endure downpours and fog on the trip. Rick, Keith and I arrived around 7ish but had to endure traffic. Then the rest (Kev's whole family and the newlyweds) arrived about 9:30.

So this house went from nearly dead silent to WILD CHAOS! when the 2 boys got out of the long car ride and joined their cousin and all ran around this big house, enjoying their freedom! 

Saturday was our big day for fun and, while the weather was forecast to be cool and showery, it was quite a bit nicer once the morning past.Originally the plan was to make this our "Family Day" weekend where we would be doing a gift exchange (to some degree), that fell through once Denny and Heather informed us they could not join us. But we still wanted to do something for the boys, I had bought them kites and this is the place where you use them. So Shirley came up with a brainstorm and we made a collection of identical, cheap toys (mostly), put them in boxes and buried them on the beach, then made up a map and had the boys collect pirate garb before they got to the actual "buried treasure"! Joe was designated Captain (since he can read) and it was quite entertaining to watch the hunt unfold. 

After allowing the boys some time to play with their new stuff the gang decided to go check out the go-carts in Ocean Shores. We finally found some in town and everyone took 2 spins, one on the regular track, then one on the "slick" track where the cars were faster, the track was smoother and they sprayed water on it so drivers could drift around the corners. I was the only one not driving so I got to take lots of pictures! 

After going home and snacking for lunch we went to the beach to fly some kites and the boys ended up wading in the water. The weather had improved so much that it was possible to enjoy at least getting your feet wet (our beaches and water are always COLD!)We went home, had dinner, the kids played with silly string (which I bought them so I instituted the silly string fight and they ended up chasing after ME!) and bubbles, then we headed back to the beach, which was now considerably colder than it had been a mere 3 hours earlier, for a special family photo. 

As a school project for Joe we did a big JUMP picture 2 years ago and needed an update. I thought one that would be mostly just our silhouettes in front of the sunset would be cool. I ended up adding a special filter to the picture and then Chelsea made a comment that Tony looked like he should be holding an umbrella and voila! a new family photo! We rounded out the day with a friendly (ha!) men vs women game of pictionary while the kids went upstairs to watch a movie and fell asleep. So WE were the loud ones (women beat the men, as though you didn't already figure that out).

The last day, Sunday, was eating, cleaning, vacating, then a quick check at the shops right at the beach entrance in Ocean Shores.  Dane and Chelsea wanted some more pictures of themselves to put in some picture frames they got as wedding gifts so we did a short trip to the beach one last time to get a few shots.  The weather again was very nice and the beach was swamped!  Unbelievably it was about 1:30 when the short picture session was done and we headed home.  

If we go back in another couple years I think it's safe to say we'll be staying in "the Summerhome" again!

More Fun on Kauai

OK, so let’s jot down some moreof the highlights of the FUN part of my visit this year…

Rico and I had another couple full days of fun to have, since the ceiling was up already!  We did spend a day doing more around the house, those fun filled days are exhausting.  On one of those days I asked Rick to build a corral for the folks’ trash cans.  He couldn’t quite figure out what exactly it was he was building but he did a great job!  Just something to keep them all in one spot and standing up.  I think I did yardwork while he did that…

So the fun Thursday was spent on the other side of the island.  But first we had to shoot the little shack at Waipouli beach, right where all the drug deals go down.  That’s my opinion anyway, there’s always some dude hanging around and usually on his phone.

Then we blasted over to shoot the tree tunnel on the way to Poipu.  Just outside Poipu was the National Botanical Garden that I’ve been wanting to visit.  That was about a 2 hour visit.  It began and ended with a short tram ride which, of course, was Rick’s favorite part.  We got to see the plants that provide us with chocolate, vanilla and black pepper.  It was pleasant and relaxing.  I don’t think Rick totally hated it…

But, at last it was over and we could go veg in the sun at one of my fav beaches on the island, Salt Pond.  Rick stripped down to his little bikini skivvies and toasted in the midday sun.  I took the opportunity to take mom’s glass float ball for another visit back to the ocean that he spent so much time in,  He always enjoys my visits because I take him to the beach.  This time he got to visit a waterfall, wade, and ride some small waves in a tide pool.

I wanted to catch the sunset at Waimea so we headed in that direction and looked for someplace for dinner.  We found exactly 2 places in Waimea.  A “Steakhouse” and the other I think was a burger joint café that was a real dive.  Steakhouse it is.

So, the Wrangler Steakhouse in Waimea.  Hmm.  A little pricey.  Can we just have the salad bar?  Not too impressive.  Itty bitty salad bar.   What’s this?  Pickled onions?  Something orange.  Lettuce.  Ooh!  Snow peas.! Nope, they’re wooly and woody.  Well, we managed to eat enough to not be hungry any more, and we had drinks.  

So we headed to the beach after that barely adequate meal and pulled right up onto the sand.  We were parked right next to someone’s imu, getting ready for the luau.  The sunset was not where I expected it but we got some nice shots nonetheless.  I spotted a sandpiper running down the beach and caught him in the sunset light on the wet sand, pretty nice shot!


Our next full day out was, I think, our favorite.  We headed down the street to the local beach to grab some coral for mom’s garden and found the whole beach where the coral can be found roped off for a mama and baby monk seal.  We got some shots of the pair and did a little beachcombing.  There were TONS of man-of-war on the beach but we both managed to avoid stepping on any and getting stung.

It’s getting harder to find new places to explore on Kauai but I found one and near Anahola.  The book calls it “the Pools of Mokolea”.  It’s just a rock outcropping full of tidepools and backed by a cliff teeming with tropicbirds, shearwaters and even an occasional albatross!  We thoroughly enjoyed meandering on the black rock.  Rick dared to swim in a large tidepool right on the ocean’s edge.  We made our way to the end of the trail where we were looking across a bay to the Kilauea lighthouse.  

To get to the trail we had to ford a freshwater outlet on a beach called Kahili.  It was an interesting beach and the fresh water was warm so we decided to scare up some lunch in Kilauea and come back to lay in the sun, swim and grab some color for Rick to take home with him.  As it turns out we already had plenty of color from our trek on the rocks. . . oops.

It was one of the nicest spots, I really enjoyed laying in the sun and when I got warm enough to want to get wet (even my HAIR!) I wandered over to a rope swing Rick had already tried out.  I can’t recall if I’ve ever done one before but this time it sure felt good!  Not the coughing fit I had as soon as I got my head out of water, but the cool, but not too cool, water.

So we decided we’d gotten enough sun and then drove to the end of the road, Ke’e beach.  I really don’t care for that beach, I’ve been there a number of times, stay a few minutes and leave, disappointed.  Maybe it would be better with high surf or during a storm.  I think it’s just always too crowded with tourists.

Rick still had some gifts to pick up for his mother and daughter so we went to Hanalei next to look at some of the shops there.  He found a cute bag for Sarah and I coerced him into buying me a really nice dress that I won’t wear nearly enough to warrant what he spent on it!

The plan was another sunset next to a pier, this time Hanalei.  The sun was much better situated!  We were hovering near a couple with a Canon on a tripod.  I finally noticed it was a 7D (my dream camera) so struck up a conversation with the woman handling it.  We had a nice visit with the couple from New Zealand.  Turns out she’d just bought the camera, her step up from the same camera I just moved up from and for the same reasons I moved up.  But her camera was a much bigger leap financially.

Rick’s last day we decided to attempt a hike.  The soil there is very clay-like so if it’s wet it’s downright treacherous.  It had been dry for a few days so we figured it was our best opportunity.  

The trail I was eyeballing was up one of my favorite roads, Kuamo’o, the Kuilau trail.  Apparently there was a trailhead that had been abandoned but was still marked as though it’s the trailhead.  We got to it and I stopped dead, I couldn’t even begin!  It was steep and slippery!  But then we found that there was a better, smoother, drier trail.  We ended up hiking in probably a mile and a half.  There was some light rain and slick spots but overall it was nice.  We enjoyed seeing the natural Kauai, and discovered that the chickens are out there in the woods, away from the city as well!

Since it was Rick’s last night it was dinner at Duke’s.  Maybe that’ll be the last time.  Prices are going up and personally, I would rather do a plate lunch at Hanalei and watch the sun set…

Are we having fun yet?

Well, the job we came here to do is done and has been for a couple days already. 


So we have been playing!


Yesterday we stuck kinda near home. We stopped at the "Kauai Fair" that's always set up down in Kapaa and looked at the wares for gift ideas. Then we grabbed some McD's for lunch and headed for the beach to sit and eat. And get a little sun - at last. All the while we watched for photo ops.

We enjoyed our cheap fast food lunch, then headed to the thrift store, then further up Kuamo'o road to see Opaeka'a Falls. They seem to always be rather dry so we were hoping there would be more water flowing and it was quite nice, very veil-like. And the usual tropic birds were there flying and swooping. On that same road we saw some stairs leading up a small hill and wondered what was up those steps so we had to check it out. Another cemetery! Japanese tombstones all facing the east. There was a heiau at the base of the stairs, a Hawaiian burial ground. An old burial ground and a new one!...

Next we stopped at the Wailua river dock to see the river, kayakers and whatever else offered itself to our viewfinders. WE headed next to Lihue to see an old falling down bridge that Rick spotted when we hit Walmart the day before. It was hard to get to and ended up not being very photographic. But the street we headed down to look for it had a few interesting offerings including a couple of long-forgotten concrete buildings whose wooden floors had rotten out years ago and trees had grown up in their places.

Last time Rick was here we went to the Ninini Lighthouse and while there some Air Force transport planes flew overhead so low it was as if we could reach up and touch them. He wanted to go back and see if they'd be flying again so we headed for the lighthouse. It was a lot easier than the last time! We got out there and had some liquid "snacks" and just as we were leaving a normal passenger plane flew overhead. Not what he was looking for but still cool.

We wanted to head to the Kipu area, it's one of my favorite areas on the island. It looks like Jurassic park or Africa, so lush and green, with these trees with light smooth bark and flat sections of leaves. We continued on out that road and found, much to my dismay, that the Kipu Falls area has been fenced off, no more access to that! I'm just glad we got to see it, and I videoed Dane swinging on the rope and falling into the pond at the base of the falls. On the way to finding that road (I wanted to see the "Menehune fishponds", which were "meh" at best) we ran into the Niumalu Yacht club. Not a lot of yachts but I always enjoy visiting a marina.

Today we headed a little further south and west, to the Poipu area. On the way we stopped at an abandoned sugar refinery. Then we grabbed lunch and ate at Shipwreck beach, where we can watch the surfers. After we ate and soaked up some sun we headed out the dirt road a ways to see the cave I saw on a map. It turned into a nice little adventure, the cave was interesting and there was shady, cool waterways on the back side. There were alien looking sandstone formations near the water. Lastly we headed to the Spouting Horn, another "meh" site.

One more big day of fun tomorrow. We're leaving early and staying late. I want to see the sunset on the west side so we can't even start heading home til well after 7. Since we'll be out there I want to try a long exposure on the crashing water at the Poipu area.

I think maybe Thursday we'll stay home and recover from all our fun...

Supermoon - Kauai Style

While Rachyl was driving us to the airport for our flight to paradise she mentioned that there was going to be a "super moon" Saturday night. For any of you who don't know what that term means, it's that the moon is at it's closest - and therefore its largest - point in its revolutions around the earth. 

So I immediately started putting together a plan of attack.  I wanted to take advantage of that seldom phenomenon and get some really cool full moon shots.

Easier said than done.

I wanted stuff in the foreground and I wanted it over the ocean.  So in our travels to and from stores and such we started looking - where to go?  We decided on Kealia beach.  It's close, there's always lots of waves and there's all kinds of stuff to put in the foreground, trees, shelters, a lifeguard shack, etc.  The moon was going to be rising right above it, not far off in one direction or the other.

So we headed out around 6:40 for the 7:08 moonrise and Rick turned on his phone to the app that gives you the times of sun and moon rises, zeniths and settings, and lots of other useless info.  It actually, at that point, had a countdown to the moonrise running! 35 minutes to go!

We had a little time to kill so we headed on into Kapaa to pick up more beer for our third (and hopefully final) day of hanging drywall on the ceiling (it's looking pretty nice!)  Then when we headed back to the beach people were already lining up for the big show.  Apparently we weren't the only ones who knew about the supermoon show.  Why did you tell all those people, Rach?

We picked our spot and set up our gear and waited.  There were clouds on the horizon so we didn't actually get to see it until it was a bit above the ocean.  But once it started to come out it was fantastic!  Rick sat in his spot while I ran up and down the parking area taking pictures here and there with my new camera on a spindly tripod.  There was a breeze (in Hawaii?  hoodathunk?) and the tripod shivered in lots of my pictures.  The trees, of course, were also moving and the shots had to be of long duration so the movement became blur.

Overall, though, I ended up getting some nice stuff.  I won't win any awards with them but I like them...

Welcome to Kauai!

Wasn't I just here? It sure feels like I just left! But the growth of the koa trees and refuse from the winter winds displays that it's been a while. 

Fortunately we arrived the day before a meeting day so dad told us that we would not be working on our first full day here. He gave us strict orders to GO PLAY!!!
So play we did. 

Before we knew that we'd be having a fun day, though, we decided to try to walk to the beach down below us via "the trail". So we headed out on foot down the road, cameras in hand, ready for an adventure. One of the first thing to greet us was one of the local dogs chasing a chicken that was keeping itself just barely out of reach - until it got to a fence. Then it was trapped and the dog won. Rick was wondering if maybe the dog's owners give it orders to fetch a chicken at least once a week for their dinner! The dog ran it home while it was loudly begging to be let free! 

 We made it out to dad's cousin, Winnie's, house to inquire where this trail is that I've been hearing about for years. Well, it isn't. Due to neglect it has become overgrown and now has goats residing on parts of it. So we came back to the house and let dad know that the trail is no more. 

Then we found out that we would not be working all day so we decided to go on an adventure. In all our exploration on Rick's last visit (that was pretty substantial) we didn't get to a pretty little beach on this side of the island, Anini beach. The name is actually an accident. It used to be Wanini beach but hurricane Iniki removed the "W" from a sign and the new name stuck - Anini. It's a beach that's slightly inset (I guess not enough to be officially called a "bay") that's protected by a long coral reef, very calm water and not a lot of sand. I drove to the end of the road and we parked and got out to walk out into the water like we saw others doing. There was a small river flowing into the water right there and a curved sandbar was formed around the delta. So we could walk out and around to get to another section of beach that led to a point before heading on around to the north and west. Once we got to the other section of beach we still walked in the water most of the time because there were large overhanging trees that had limbs low enough that Rick had to duck beneath them. Then the weather is typical Hawaii spring weather, sun - showers - downpours - sun, etc. We would wait out the heavier rain showers under the large-leafed overhanging trees. We took our time meandering the beach and when we decided to go back to the car it decided to shower a bit longer than it had been doing. And we couldn't take a shortcut, we HAD to walk back on the sandbar (we hadn't noticed this on the way out). 

Next we headed over to Hanalei to get something for lunch and found the Subway shop inside the Big Save grocery store had been replaced by an over-priced sandwich shop so we looked around more for something more to our liking. We ended up getting sandwiches and fries at L L. I got a teri steak sandwich which I was very happy with, not something you'd find on the mainland too often. Teriyaki steak is gristly but I'm used to that. It had some kind of sauce, mayo or ranch on it and it hit the spot. Rick got a regular cheeseburger. 

We took our food to Hanalei beach and ate it in the car since it was raining. When we first got there it was so heavy with rain that we could barely make out the hills on the opposite side of the bay.
I had turned on the headlights because of the rain and, as usual, forgot to turn them off when I parked (I drove because I know my way around, Rick will drive when we get our rental car). So when we were done eating and decided to just head over to Walmart because it was still raining, guess what? The car wouldn't start! Rick ended up wandering around, trying to find someone to give us a jump. I just sat in the car and eventually waited long enough that it had built up enough juice to get start again. I drove around a bit to see if I could find Rick and after being unsuccessful headed back to the beach park to pick him up there, knowing he'd head back there. 

It had actually stopped raining again and was looking beautiful so we decided to explore a little more. With all this rain the waterfalls on the sides of the mountains are flowing so I wanted to get closer to see if I could shoot some of them. I turned up a road on the mauka (mountain) side of the highway and followed it to its end. It wasn't a long road and there was a Japanese (I think) cemetery at its end. We got some shots of the crusty, moss-covered, lava rock tombstones and decided to head back towards home, then on to Walmart, then to Ahukini Pier for some more photo action. 

We got to the aforementioned pier and walked around to the picnic table on the land overlooking the pier instead of immediately heading to the pier itself. There was a flock of chickens hovering, waiting for a handout. We cracked open our beers and started snacking on some nuts. One rooster was particularly curious and too brave for his own good, he'll end up in someone's cook pot one day. But we enjoyed his friendliness. We shared some of our nuts with him and he rewarded us by allowing some very up close and personal photography. At one point we looked down the road toward the parking lot and there was a chicken family trotting toward us "They have FOOD!!" they were saying... 

That was most of the day. We managed to squeeze in a meeting and then crashed around 10. Tomorrow no more playing - WE WORK!