The Saga Continues

Mauna Kea

Well We're back, armed with more news of our Great Hawaii Adventure. Pictures and tales of our life experience here on the Big Island of Hawaii. So Boys and Girls when last known we were completing our water system and still waiting on our building permit. Fiiiiinally we have our building permit in hand and are underway with the construction of our home. The tents are okay and we have everything a house would have but the time has come.

First however I have a few funny tales to tell. If memory serves me correctly we had been at friends for the evening and had returned to camp to settle in for the night. The stockings were....oops wrong story. Shortly after lying in bed for a while we thought the bed was feeling a little soft, coleman queen size double high air mattress Cadillac of camp comfort.... so we adjusted things a little and signed off for the night. Well .....I guess it was round 2ish am we woke to deciding we had a leak after doing the math we decided on more air and fix it in the am, nite nite..........6 am butts on the flloor head and toes on the ceiling we lie......Ok maybe we should be careful how we move off......no no no move up.....no no no move sideways well you get the idea we are laying hammock like and of course you had to laugh as to cry but once one of you started to move the other was flopped about as though on a sloshy water bed. This just isn't kind of fun older folks need so early AM.....fllipping flopping and laughing and coughing and of course everyone has to pee... lookout!!!!!!! OOOPS!! I got out first and Peg went from the hammack to ceiling and crashing to the floor the moment I got up away from the bed i didn't check but she musta peed the bed ...............Well the story ended with a new coleman cadi and things couldn't be bettah..

The Night of the Wild Pigs,

We've told you we live in a rural area eh? Dirt roads limited power and phone and very private jungle like surroundings. Deep in the jungle lives the wiley pig "The Silver Bullet" as they are called by some locals. They seem to be in great numbers to hear folks talk and they are exremely destructive. They can turn a garden or flower bed or whatever to barnyard muck in no time flat. ok ok ok anyway we've never seen any or herd any but then we live on a well traveled connector road, we figure this keeps them at bay. Meanwhile the stories of passing neighbors begin to arouse our couriosity. So we think about the day or what we might do to prevent a late night visit. The dog of course would immediately alert us to any foreign smell. Countless stories and accounts of how dogs have been ripped open from confrontations with these lighting fast jungle critters. I need tell you now of Joe and his three dogs, Joe who lives some distance away travels in and out via the road we live on and everyday Kua alerts us to them coming There is always a young retriever leading the way on a steady run usually followed by joe, in his pickup, and the other two dogs in the body both older and each a bit larger than the one before. The young dog always runs to the top of the hill and sits and waits till joe arrives hops in the truck, and away they go. Ok Thats joe and his dogs, one morning the two older dogs were in our back yard whining and jumping on their hind legs appearing as those they were confused with somthing now the old dog has light blue/white eyes big shepherd looking dog bigger than ours, freaky looking. I thought having not really met joe or the dogs perhaps it was blind and lost and in a panic. Then I heard joe's truck down the road so out I went. I find joe down at the intersection of 9 road our furtherst boundary line. So I wave a few times and after abit he comes up intros himself and I tell him his dog is in the back freaking out. He says "yeah yeah they are chasing pigs, had been through the night." So, now we are on High Pig Alert!!!! I can tell Peg's bothered because she isn't talking about it. anyway That evening, I thought, they have now been chased into our area so maybe soon. 3:30 Am, a mid night pc and back to bed awoke Peg and she grumbled a bit, as I was countering, there was a very loud grunt! The sound filled the air, Peggy responded "Is that a pig!!" as I was about to say yeah and get up, a second later comes this shreaking squeal like the biggest baddest pig of them all was right out side the tent, now bare in mind the the stillness of the air. Ok, a little background, dog is barking, pigs are squealing, dark as can be and us trying to get up, get dressed, get out, get control of the dog, calm the wife and find the pigs. Yeah ok sure out I go flashlight and BB pistol in hand, all is quiet. So I look around still see or hear nothing then I think I hear something and Peg speaks out. "Get the keys get the jeep !!" Ok yeah lots of light and noise. In the jeep onto the house pad high beams no pigs shut off the engine listen...no pigs hmmmm then the jeep door opens and in piles Peggy and Kua I ain't staying out there, so there! we sat there till sun up waiting for the biggest badest wiley pig of them all and still we see No Pig!!! This was late August and we have not seen nor heard of any since unfortunately there are no pictures of pigs though we hope you enjoyed this gripping story................

We've been waiting forever for our building permit for ever now don't you think Well there was good reason and a good story as well lesson # 34 learned. Anyhow we finally have our building permit and are ready to go. But before we get to the building stuff lets have look at some of the players. From early on we were given the name of a fellow who runs a small dump truck and lives here in The Acres. He goes by "Bear" but his name is Mike and he has come to be a good friend as well as a trustworthy business man. More than once Bear has saved us through his connections. Bear rides with a sidekick named Hermione, a 2 year old female golden retriever her nickname is hermie. Full of mischief and sweet as can be is how I think of her. then there is Annabelle, she would be the truck, making her job easy is everyones first concern. Bear recently brought Betsy, the rock hammer over and installed a 16 ft temp phone pole so we can get some inexpensive phone service and high speed internet. Here are few photos of the gang.

Oh Oh Oh ,so much to remember, Our neighbor Matt has a small animal collection and everything in his world is unique in it's own way . I've told Matt he should offer his property up for filming. To step on his property is to step into another world. 25 years ago Matt came and built and landscaped with many tropical plants and trees and today everything is monstrous and mostly overgrown. His critters are the big attraction for us, lets see we have Fred and Barney the pigmy goats that can't be left alone, Jasmine the 300lb pot-belly pig and a new arrival Tara another pot belly pig that was pregnant and ,of course, the alarm clock group roosters and chickens exotic bantams very very pretty. Of course the piglets are the showstoppers, I guess it was a couple three weeks after they were born we had a rather heavy overnight rain event and Matt let them out of their pen to sleep under the house with the other animals. I guess come morning they decided they would all go out for a walk and came down to our place at sunup. Peg was getting ready for work and I was making morning rounds when she yelled out David there are pigs in the yard, now she was not all that familiar with the new family and thought they were wild and were after our garden. I came out from the container to see that it was mother pig and the piglets so I went over to them. Immediately the piglets were on the run and mother pig was on high alert that I was coming near. I reached out gave pig a rub and called her to follow. Meanwhile little pigs are scurrying up the side of the road single file until they disappeared one by one into Matt's driveway. so funny to see their little feet all going together up the road. Matt gave them all names a few of them are bootsie, spot, inky, supersow, I forget the rest..... I must say it's been fun watching them grow and get into mischief.

Here also is another as they have aged some.. Of course Fred and Barney are always good for a laugh Just the other day Matt was out walking Makela and stopped for a minute to talk and visit. After a short time you are first alerted by the sound Maaaattt Of course Matt turns and angrily says "yeah I can't go anywhere out of their sight." He is trying to train them to stay home yeah? but they keep coming after him, once again up the road yelling YAH YAH.....

Oh yes the house stuff well after final grading came the first load of foundation material concrete piers, posts and beams its always bad when you dread the first step in a project but these pier are 150lbs + and their placement must be exact. A hand truck proved to be a useful tool for the job. 32 posts and piers will support us just nine feet up off the ground. This has made for some interesting challenges so far like the weight of the material. Having been saturated in a borate treatment, for insects, the wood varies in weight some pieces near twice their normal weight. But i've kept everything at a manageable length so at worst the heaviest is right at my handling limit so far so good. Of course help is always available as far as a phone call or as close as a shout. This safety net eases the stress level considerably. I was rather excited when the first load came. It had pallets, now keeping things off the ground here is very impotant if left on the ground i suspect the jungle would eat it up in no time. Almost all of the piles of brush we created has been absorbed. On quiet rainy days you can hear the jungle falling in on itself as some of what grows out here is very soft and fast growing.

After about a week of setting and leveling and squaring we were ready for posts, brackets and beams. I'll tell you , having got through this step gives me hope hahahaha ..Here is the sequence of shots

The foundation made rigid with the cornered shear walls. There are five rows of 4x10 beams 32 ft total length. This is ready for floor framing.

The floor framing, main house 2x10, lanai 2x8 all spaced 16" this is another change to the plan I've made, the draftsperson called for 2x8 spaced 24". I'm glad I made the change. I've also included more than required blocking in the frame. We will now be better prepared to make finished floor selections, anything we can afford is doable. I spent an extra week here with brackets bolts and blocking now the subfloor is complete it i'm very pleased with the floor framing. The lanai flooring will be 2x6 treated fir.

Here is something you get to experience occassionally Vog volcanic gases in the form of fog. We don't usually experience it but this is a shot of how things looked one morning and the sun comes through the trees. Rather smelly like sulfer lasts untill the wind kicks up and then it blows clear within minutes. Other parts of the island arn't so fortunate even some of the other islands get socked in. It's all good in Puna!!

Remembering to stop and smell the roses
gets you other kodak moments like this one of the clouds and they are always so close seems like you could almost reach out and touch them ...

Peg went to a semi annual plant/tree sale
she came home with a whole array of fruit trees this pictured is a veregated lemon among others were orange, lime, star-fruit, cinnamon. tangerine, fig, grapefruit, kumquat, avocado and a gardenia. Most things were fruited and all are dwarf size trees.

Off course now we have this permit we can really get flying except now we are in the rainy season and more times than not things get put on hold. Ok so today we think we have a plan, it's a proven method and depending on height limitations it has the potential for providing a dry environment in which to keep building. Let me tell you as I type this morning it is some wet out there. Good though gave me a chance to walk in the rain it kinda like smelling th

e flowers, actually I'm more interested in how the water flows and where. It was crap shoot when we got here, with regard to how the water would flow but now six months later we are getting a feel for things. There will be times, I'm sure that we will be very very happy we have built so high off the ground.

Well yet even more Great News !? PeggyAnn went back to work !! shsjnfbkjnbd!!!! the fuel costs getting so far out of control makes everthing more expensive so a little faster trickle of nickels has become neccessary. The outfit she works for, HPM Building Supply Co. Big high priced outfit but handy if you happened to building a house.......actually it is more Island Mana at work that and our good karma is driving this adventure machine of ours. She works 8-5 mon-fri, she travels 15 mins and more like 30 in the morning because of the traffic coming down the mountain. So it is official she lives and works and registers her car in Hawaii.

Hopefully one day when this speed and connection issue gets worked out completely she will post some of her take on all of this. It can be demanding on ones' patience some times the photo uploads can take close to 30 min. So we now have our official pole and we need just a couple of minor things along with the install date and we should be good as long as they have room for us as a dsl customer if not I' m afraid it is broadband wireless.

I hope this catches you up to date on our adventure so far we have hunkered in for the winter and wish warm breezes your way ..........drive safely now !

Oh! wait a minute there is still more to tell. There is someone new in my/our life her name is Makela and she is 2 years old she has come to stay with Uncle Matt and Auntie

Bo. She hollers from the road each day while on her walk with Uncle Matt. She loves to quietly and slowly walk among our things. I introduced her to lettuce, from my garden and she has fallen in love with it. Matt was saying he had a nightmare of his goats , Fred and Barney, were coming down to eat all our new fruit trees and garden things. I told him after watching Makela eat my lettuce that maybe we should watch her not the goats!! she continues to bring something special to our life and we hope and pray she has a wondeful life.

Made some upgrades to the camp, we bought a used frig and dishwasher and new washer so Peg doesn't have to go set down to Suds and Duds on her day off. I'm amazed at the ability of our little power plant to run a full size frig, waterpump, charge a cell phone, charge a computer and Watch 4 hours of TV everyday. Then wash 4 load laundry vacuum the floors (In Tents !! ) and iron Pegs' clothes weekly. Now we are doing this with the smallest of solar systems and a backup generator that we run 1 hour a day just for keeping things in good supply. Those of you that know personally would laugh your behinds off to see this up close for those just lurking and wondering this is a very doable adventure so stop thinking and start doing...........

In Hawaii,

Dave & Peggy

and Kua too!!