4/22/11 THE SPICE OF LIFE

If variety is the spice of life I guess we’ve had a well seasoned April and there is still a week to go.  We started the month still in the drought then had 10 days of rain that included one day of 2.4” and another of 6”.  Since then it has been mostly dry again and the garden will need watering tomorrow if we don’t get a shower tonight.  The bananas have loved it and I’ve kept the food drier busy at least half the days.

We’ve improved our tropical sustainability skills this month by starting to harvest our kalo (taro) and learning to steam it instead of boiling it first before making other things so it doesn’t get too slimy.  We still like it best fried but I’ve added about 2 cups steamed grated kalo to each of the last two four-loaf batches of bread.  It makes the bread very smooth and fine textured and everyone liked it.

We also learned to better utilize our coconuts thanks to a friend from the Hakalau Crew giving me his old coconut shredder.  It is a 4” hemisphere shaped tool with burrs and a shield over the top of it that is mounted on ½ hp. motor.  This saves us having to dig the meat out with a knife then cut it up then shred it in a blender.  It is not only quicker but also does a finer job resulting in richer milk or smoother pudding if that is the end product.  I had to rebuild the shield and make a table strong enough to clamp the motor base to.  I also mounted a 1” steel spike to a porch post for husking the coconuts so I guess that I tripled my speed at both jobs and will probably get faster.

We also made three trips this month, one to a new place and two to old favorite snorkeling places.  In Volcanoes National Park the Chain of Craters Road has always been blocked at Mauna Ulu as long as we’ve been here because of dangerous gases.  This month the road was reopened so we decided to go see it quick before it closes again.  The road runs from the summit, at 4,000 feet, along the east rift zone to the Ocean where the road was blocked by several lava flows from ’77-’92.  There were some beautiful views on the way down and it is mind boggling how many million acres of lava have boiled out of the ground but it was hot at the lower elevations and got monotonous by the time we drove back up to the summit in order to return home back down the other side of the rift. 

Some lava pictures are attached. The Photo with the face in the lava is from the Mauna Ulu area and the rest of the lava pictures are from the end of the road.  The nose on the face was placed there by a human I believe.  

The 2 snorkeling trips of the month were to “two step” and the Kapoho tide pools.  For the first we were joined by our visitors Rick and Linda and we made it an around the whole Belt Road in one day starting to the South.  While Rick and Linda toured “the place of refuge” archeological site we snorkeled the adjoining wildlife refuge.  It was not the best of conditions there so soon after the storms because the water was not as clear as usual and the fish were less numerous.  It left us yearning for the always clear water of the Tide Pools.

A few days later we drove to the Tide Pools knowing that a long dead whale had been in and out with the tides and was now on the rocks there somewhere.  As we approached the tide pools I got a whiff of stench but by the time we got to the diving parking we were no longer down wind.  We could see the grey mound of what was left of the whale south of the tide pools but didn’t smell it there at all and we had a good dive including spotting an eel (Magnificent Snake Eel) for the first time in that location.  The parking here is is part of the private development and no facilities are provided probably because the local residents want to avoid having more visitors.  Since this is such a special place and part of it is already a marine preserve, I think it should be purchased by the county 2% Fund (same as the Conservation Futures Fund in Spokane County) but there are already a long list of properties in waiting, though I think most are much less worthy.  In addition, due to the economic crisis payments into the Fund are currently suspended to bolster the general fund and a move is being made to reduce it to 1% in the future.

     Aloha!