Hi Everyone, Our neighbor, Tamala, who works at Kalapana Tropicals dropped these beautiful flowers off one day. Aren't they gorgeous? She is so sweet, always passing by and giving a shout out the window "Hi" to one of us whether she sees us or not.

Thought it was time for an up close picture just in case you were missing that smiling face. Also want to say thanks to the many that have emailed us and left comments here on the blog.

We've been experiencing some rising costs just like the rest of the you and decided to nip a few things in the bud before spending gets totally out of hand.

We've been keeping food in a cooler and that required ice which required traveling for the ice so we said time for a frig, but wait!! we don't have electricity! and you can't get power brought in until you have a building permit unless you want a temp pole which has to be installed by a licensed contractor. Okay then, we are all set with that to the tune of 1500.00 to 2000.00 plus we would have to pay upfront a sspp (special subdivision power policy) payment of 1500.00, per our location and because that is under 2k it must be paid up front. Over 2k the power co. will let you make payments over time. Being that we are not energy consious folks, as of yet, we figured a mthly power bill of 100.00 mth. Well we decided to look to alternatives and found that for the same money, actually a little less, we could get into a startup solar system and we could add to it yearly for the same amount as a yearly power co. payment. So we started with 3 solar panels, 4 deep cycle high capacity batteries, A 5000 watt inverter, charge controller and 75 amp battery charger for when there are long spells of rain. The system was fairly easy to install and within a day we were making our own power. This has given us back all our creature comforts and stopped the ridiculous spending we were doing on things like gas and ice. By the way when you see coolers advertised as 5-day coolers it absolutely means nothing as blocks of ice, at best with newspaper and extra Styrofoam , only lasts 3 days. It was costing near 200.00 mth just to keep food products cold. Our system is still a bit on the small side but we are able to now run a frig, water pump, tv, our computer and pretty much anything else we want with respect to drawing from a limited source. Once a day I also run our generator for 1 hour which has proven, for a couple weeks, to supplement during long periods of rain sufficiently. so we run with the sun during the day and batteries during the night. best of all no rate increases no power outages and best of all no mthly bill.

To offset the food bill, like we've always been used to, we have a garden growing. In just 45 days we are picking tomatoes and soon to pick string beans. We also have lots of other things growing as well and will soon be looking only for sources of protein. There are some very good buys on meat here as well as fish can be bought at the dock for half the supermarket price and sometimes less. Fruit, well the fruit here is quite frankly awesome!!!!! and either very inexpensive, at farmer markets, or free from neighbors or along the roadsides. The day I spent with the fellow I bought the solar equipment from Peggy sat outside and picked up all the mango that had fallen from his tree and I must say it was the most delicious mango we had ever had. Peg bought a pineapple, it has been in the pantry tent and this morning when I went in for our staples tote the smell of sweet pineapple had filled that tent, makes my tongue juice just thinking of it. As a matter of fact right after I'm done with this post I'll be cutting into that little darlin ; )

Well We're near ready to begin installing our permanent water catchment tank, a 21 ft round doughboy swimming pool but with a food grade liner so after filtering we will have drinking water for free as well. Our little camp catchment, which we don't drink from, is now full. that is some 500 gallons which we use to shower and clean dishes with. So we have it down to 1 needless trip for trash and drinking water. Things are coming together slowly.

More good news we have our house plans complete and in the hands of the architect for finally approval then of to the county for permitting still a ways off but we still have plenty to accomplish before building can begin. I was hopeful to start the posts and piers this week but I'm going to wait until the water catchment tank is up so maybe 2 more weeks. If you see our elevation drawings and don't quite understand them, we are building a post and pier home 8 ft off the ground with a 24 x 32 living space which is basically one large room like that of a studio with the bathroom being pushed out of the main living space onto the lanai (deck/porch) The entry side lanai is 10 x32 with an 8 x 16 L. The roof is metal the wall construction is described as single wall, no sheetrock!!!!!! no insulation !!!!!!! which is built with 4x4 studs @ 4ft oc with one continuous header around the whole place. the ceiling will be vaulted with a 6/12 pitch and the ridge beam will be a whopping 6 x 14 x 24 so there will be no posts in the living area.

Well that concludes this posting of Dave & Peggy's Great Hawaii Adventure........ALOHA !