[tcb] Re: Still in Hawaii still
- From: Brad Tripp <bradtripp@xxxxxxx>
- To: "tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:51:16 -0500
No a mongoose kills snakes
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Duncan <whocanduncan1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> How fun but isn't a mongoose a venomous snake? I am deathly afraid of
> snakes, especially poisonous ones. My fear was so bad that in grade school
> they had to send my home because I touched a picture of a snake when I
> turned the page in a book.
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
> Date: 03/13/2013 10:01 PM (GMT-06:00)
> To: tcb <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [tcb] Still in Hawaii still
>
>
> We had a quiet week either hacking jungle around Dave's house or working
> on his bus. It took a long time but I think the problems were a combination
> of the little clips that hold down the brushes in his 12v generator and
> what turned out to be a bad battery. Piece of crap, only lasted 7 1/2 years
>
> Went to a place called Lava Tree Park. When the lava flowed over this
> place it covered the trunks of trees up to about 8 feet. When the lava
> settled and cooled, it cooled faster around the cooler tree trunks so it
> left these "lava tree trunks" sticking up. Pretty cool. This park also has
> really big holes and cracks that are pretty much bottomless. They have
> signs telling you not to go down in the holes. Duh.
>
> We were going to the water and saw that really pretty place called Puna
> Girl Farms had their gate open open. It was a neat and tidy Macadamia nut
> farm with a 6 acre mowed lawn cut from the rain forest. It had a view of
> the whole wooded slope and to the sea. Very impressive. She and her husband
> found an old overgrown Mac farm and bought it cheap because the seller said
> that all the trees were dead. They bought it and started cutting back the
> jungle and the trees all sprouted new growth within 3 days.
>
> Now they sell all the Macs they can grow to a chocolate factory in
> Honolulu called Hawaiian Host. Macadamias grow on a tree about the size of
> a live oak and the fruit hangs in bunches by a slender thread. When they
> are ripe they fall to the ground and are gathered there by hand. The fruit
> has a fuzzy skin around a super hard nut and that has the Macadamia we know
> inside. They are a bitch to crack open. An ordinary nut cracker won't do
> it. They use a special one that looks like a vice grip.
>
> Why are they so expensive? Well, besides gathering from the ground and
> keeping the jungle back, they have to surround the groves by really good
> fencing, including electric because the pigs will eat them all up. That's
> right, wild pigs. We met a guy who rents a house on an old Mac and coffee
> farm and he says that he takes care of the coffee trees, but lets the pigs
> have most of the Macs. He eats the pigs.
>
> By the way Puna Girl Farm is for sale, we found out later. $425,000. No
> house. No Electricity, but it does have County water. And what a view.
>
> So far I have encountered wild pigs, mongooses (not mongeese), wild goats,
> chickens and roosters loose everywhere, geckos in the bathroom, and wild
> long horn cattle. I didn't actually see the cattle, but I was warned about
> them. They are not docile cows, but feral wild longhorns. Very dangerous I
> read. And a Zebra.
>
> So, we packed up the bus, after tinkering with the brushes, and took out
> for the Kona side of the island to meet up with Ed Aragon and his family.
>
> I have spoken before about the climate changes, but now I lived them. Dave
> said to wear long pants when we left Pahoa and he was right. The books say
> that the temperature goes down 3 degrees with every thousand feet climbed,
> so at our first destination, the Village of Volcano at 4000' it was in the
> low 60s. After we passed Volcanos National Park (I will be back here later)
> and over a summit the temp went back up but now we were no longer in the
> deep woods, we were in the desert. It's not a sand dunes kind of desert,
> but scrubby bushes and yellow grass with lots and lots of exposed lava. No
> rain here. It never returned to the deep woods state. There were varying
> heights and number of trees, but just a complete climate change. Big wide
> vistas.
>
> We had lunch and a beer at the Southernmost bar in the United States, Dave
> tradition, and after a long drive came to the sea once again, but now the
> beaches and parks were like an oasis in the yellow grasslands. Did I say I
> saw a Zebra? I SAW A ZEBRA. Just standing there with the other horses. Not
> like at a petting zoo. And he was big. A zebra!.
>
> Then we were running up the West Coast and were in the land of coffee,
> avocados, and cocao trees. Road side coffee tasting and coffee shops and
> coffee farms right and left. Lots of fruit stands. Papayas, (including Thai
> green papayas. A completely different thing), oranges, grapefruit,
> ponderosa lemons as big as a softball, bananas, "BIG AVOS 1 BUCK", green
> coconuts and bags of macs (not cheap).
>
> We camped at a place called Ho'okene Park. You made a turn and are
> immediately moving straight down a windy windy road to a beautiful "salt
> and pepper" beach with big trees growing out in the sand for shade. Big
> waves pounding rocky cliffs and an area for swimming and belly boarding.
> Lots of friendly people. Don't tell Jan, because she will yell at me, but I
> was in the sun for about 20 minutes and I burnt. Burnt bad. All around me
> were people with chocolate tans and my puke white and repulsive self turned
> fire engine red in 20 minutes.
>
> Later I read in a guide that since Hawaii is at the 19th parallel the sun
> is shining at a much more direct angle and through less atmosphere than on
> the mainland you will burn much faster, thus you should use 500 SPF
> sunblock, and if your from Arkansas, well, just stay inside.
>
> So, this campground is down on this isolated and rock surrounded beach.
> There is no electricity, no cell service, so you are kind of "off the
> grid".. I am not sure I have ever been completely of the grid, but I
> survived. But the funny thing is that when you climb the 1000 feet in 2 1/2
> miles and finally get to the main road you will see groups of people using
> their phones, so it wasn't just me looking for society.
>
> This has been a long message so I am going to stop and get ready for the
> Woodstock type art and craft and food and music hullabaloo that is
> Wednesday night at Kalapana. I have had the wood fired pizza and the spring
> rolls with spicy peanut sauce and the warm malasadas and the Chinese char
> siu BBQ and the perogie from the Russian lady...I wonder what Ill eat. Hope
> I see the Volcano.
>
> Dave is looking for the guy with the $10 Rib Eye dinner.
>
> Next I will tell about the great Aragons and the billion dollar resorts
> of Kona.
>
> "Try slow down. Mohalo". A hand drawn sign on a little windy road.
>
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