The Water Catchment Tank

Hi I'm Barney, Dave & Peggy's

neighbor from across the road.

Well things are still progressing at a snail's pace but there is progress. We been doing more clearing which helps with air movement. In doing so we occasionally run across some very interesting photo opportunities. Just off our soon to be lanai is a tree, that we do not know the name of yet, but it has the craziest looking roots. Finding them, buried deep among the rest of what grows here, is pretty interesting. This first photo which may be hard for you viewers to appreciate because it is only a small piece of the whole thing but it truly makes you stop and wonder, is it tree or ............

To put into perspective from the top of the root ball to the ground is about 5 feet.

Well, we have a water catchment tank, yet another piece of the plan in place. We decided before we arrived to pack and bring an above ground swimming pool, We substituted the original style vinyl liner for a black potable liner. The potable or safe drinking water style liner will allow us, once we get better at this catchment process, to have ample storage for all our water needs. All that's left to do is the cover and plumb in a supply line, from the homes gutter system. We think it has better curb appeal than the standard corrugated galvanized tank. The cover frame which we designed from materials we bought here was a pretty successful project and saved us big money. The cover itself will be a complimenting light brown poly style cover with a long twenty year warranty. It is something we have to order from the mainland and have it shipped directly to us unfortunately the shipping cost is more than the product.....but we will still be saving by using this approach. a picture with the cover will have to come later.

I must tell you we were and still chuckle about making it a swimming pool only because it is so hot and it looks so inviting but for now we stick to the plan and who knows one day we may decide on another for lounging with a cold drink and a good book.

Here was the process





There is actually two heavier courses beneath what was being spread here, some very large rock and then some 2 inch stuff. This is a first run sand mix that gets compacted well in place and then the number 4 sand, no rocks.

Here after compacting the vertical piers in place and laying the bottom rail all was level and ready for the wall.

Ok one last compaction, in the rain, It make not appear to be raining but water was dripping from the top of my head, the reason for the silly grin....

The pool wall up in place, boy what a buggah the roll started at 200 plus lbs and just about the time was over help showed up. I've decided that was a good thing because no one working for free need be called upon for such a task. Besides there was plenty left to do and many thanks to Scott for his help with the vertical supports lots of screw driving..

The frame work above the pool is my creation for a cover support. This will keep the tank free from debris the cover from making contact with the water. The cover is ordered and coming soon. Then it will be time for some plumbing and filtering. We've decided on a reverse osmosis system with the ultraviolet sanitizer for clean healthy water.

The strawberry guava is ripening and we have been sampling the couple of varieties we have, they are plentiful and most folks think they should be eradicated . The tree itself grows quickly, it is also a very hard wood and I'm sure will come in handy later on for other things. We are told that the wiley pig loves them when they fall to the ground. Neighbors say that the wild pig can be a real problem ,though we have not yet seen any at our place .........YET ; ) boar and sow are usually accompanied by up to a dozen piglets why just today we saw two that someone decided to make road-kill of I know gross huh but they are a real problem here and are very destructive We have a plan for their coming to our home............LUAU hahahaha Actually many folks do hunt for the meat.

Well things in the garden have been struggling lots of different bugs eating all our favorites so we decided to erect a small green house. Here you see the beginnings attached to the container. I said the guava tree would come in handy....

This is a continuation of our garden mostly the plants that folks gave as welcoming gifts...Gosh we just love the banana trees and Japanese pumpkin plant has gone crazy believe it or not it is growing out of a little 8 inch grow bag the vines must be near twenty feet now and show no signs of stopping.

Same area but more around the curve of the driveway. Yep that is D road in the background or should I say Alula Road Mostly folks say D road.







A frontal view of the greenhouse note the lattice we thought it gave it some curb appeal....hahahaha

I've also been clearing more all the time this will be the view from the front lanai looking abit left gives you yet more examples of how rough the landscape is on a 500 year old lava field.

Thanks for stopping by and Aloha !!!!!

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 !

All Play & No Work

Wow! how time flies mid July and before you know it summer will be over !!!............but not here ; ) We are all tied up with blueprints and permitting processes. the good news is we have drawings and as soon as i can share them I will. We have decided to build a wide open floor plan with a wrap around lanai (porch/deck). The lanai will near equal the square footage of the interior living space and the whole thing will be up on 8 foot posts all snuggled up close to the trees so we should have a nice tree house effect when completed. We hope to start construction this week. Please remember this is a one man show so things progress but very slowly. I mean why would one want to work when they can could be someplace like this....

Aahhh....... the ocean, a humbling place that simply reminds you just how insignificant we really are. The photo is of the coastline at McKenzie State Park.

The park is an Ironwood forest and the floor is covered in ironwood needles so it makes it great for tents. Although there is no admittance fee a permit from the county is required and a time element is involved. I suppose so folks don't take up permanent residence looks like a great home away from home to us !!!

Here are some more coastline shots

Amazingly the drive there has the same amount of wow factor to it most of the time we were on one lane dirt/mud roads very little sunshine due to the canopy foliage incredibly thick so thick what use to grow on the ground now grows in mulch plies mother nature made among the crossing branches. I'm sorry the photo just can't quite capture the awe of it all.

This road went on for miles through the jungle with very little appearance from the sun, the canopy is so thick.....

The deeper into the jungle we went the darker it got and the road became narrower and much less traveled practically a jeep road......thankfully we have a jeep !!! ; ) and being a booney crasher from way back Peg did a great job of negotiating the pot holes and the occasional coconut lying about.

Here are some shots of the tide pools of Kapoho where the snorkeling is out of the world, sorry to say the film camera that is needed for under water shots isn't quite full yet so I'll save those shots for later but here are some of the area.

The tide pools from the water world is amazing one second your in 2 inches of water and the next 15 feet. The coral variations and colors are far greater here than most any other spot. I'll try to get here often. There are many other photos and We'll try to squeeze them in from time to time

In closing our little excursion we ended the loop passing by our favorite little volcano who seems to be quite busy down at the coastline. For those not familiar with this volcano it has a main crater and many legs or rift zones and at certain locations along these rift zones new vents occur from time to time which is what happened last July and it is this new vent that has fed new lava to the sea via tunnels. The point of entry into the ocean is explosive and best viewed at night here a couple of shots one day one night from different directions.

Till next time Boys & Girls ALOHA!!!!!!!!

Gettin Busy

Camp is good, all things considered, we learn our lessons enjoyably slow and we take time everyday to give thanks for all the wonderful people, places and things we come in contact with. From the rain pounding on the ceiling tarps to folks dropping by with gifts of welcome. Wonderful folks like Scott & Julie, Randy & Tamala, Patrick & Virgina, Richard & Lily, Matt & Borum, David & Kelly, Paula, Katherine, Annie and Mr MacDonald. We'd like to Thank everyone for their Warm Alohas and many gifts you've made us feel so welcome.
















Cruiser is a chameleon changes color from brown to vibrant green, he hangs around camp along the driveway. I was lucky enough to have Cruiser pose for pictures.








On a more serious note it's time to report on the state of the project............Oh !!!that's right we're building a house.. For two weeks we have lugged rock and filled a major trench through the middle of the proposed sight, not a good time. Trench filled with 4 truck loads, of 1-2 man minus ( it's a local term for rock size) Then all the rocks are rolled and turned and fitted together like a puzzle. Time consuming but does a nice job of making a deep hole filled with nearly solid rock to make a nearly level level surface on which to build our house. From this point we ordered up some 1 inch minus red cinder to fill all the small "pukas" holes/spaces around the big rock. The cinder, 3 loads, we spread with the tractor and raked out the finish product........aahh starting to look like something now!!











rock by rock, biggest in the bottom - smallest to the top,



















All the rock in place, our pad now ready for a finer coat of rock





















The red cinder not good for anything but looks and filling holes, very light and washes away easily












































also generated another two truck loads from the cesspool hole. Cesspool ??? Well here, because drainage is so good, they allow these 7 ft round 12 ft deep holes for all household waste a pretty simple and straight forward method.

An example of one of the many gifts folks have dropped by with. The plant name is Vandiea, a gift from Tamala

The next area we've begun working on, clearing trees and stumps and soil, is the site for the water tank, a 21 ft round pool with potable liner and like the house pad it too has a major low spot so looks like more rock to lug.......Peg's turn !! ; )





ALOHA!!

Picture Day

I've decided to have Picture Day. As time permits and interesting subjects become available I'll post them on a Picture Day

Here are some shots from around the yard and our ocean view, from the driveway.........)

......................Aloha !

click where there should be a picture it will take you to a group of them

The Campsite

Well we finally have graduated from sleeping in the back of the Jeep to a somewhat real bed. A queen size inflatable high riser, pretty comfortable all things considered. This past week has been beautiful weather wise, high 80's bright sun. The day actually starts out quite damp and cool but within minutes of the sunrising the temp soars, the sky brightens and the birds, dogs and roosters begin their morning call. Fortunately the dogs and roosters are fairly far off so we are mostly blessed by the 49 million morning doves !!! Pillow over the head kind of morning doves. They do seem quite extreme with their short repetitive call.

Camp has come along quite nicely we decided to be off the ground because it is so uneven with so many things that go stab in the night !! We built a raised plywood floor of some 500 sq ft which gave us his and hers tents spacious kitchen and dining complete with all the joys of camp life. We even have a combo shower & lua tent and yes the shower flows on demand hot water. I could elaborate on the bathing from a bucket but like the experience of it, a bit personal........ So really that's about it for this week it was work work work but we are done for the holiday!!

Please enjoy these few shots of our new digs