Africans in Hawaii

                                    11/12/10 KNOW THY ENEMY

                                                                                                                   

When you see photos of the tops of the forest canopy in Hawaii and there are large patches of bright red-orange (and sometimes yellow–orange) they will most likely be the blossoms of African Tulip trees.  Here they are an invasive weed that crowds out many of the native trees and the older orchards.  I’ve written about them and my efforts to control them more than once.  Today I had time to take a closer look so, along with a photograph; I’m going to tell you how they make such a nuisance of themselves.

As the African Tulip trees have very soft wood they are easy to cut down but from each stump 2 to 8 new shoots will sprout in a couple weeks.  In six months the shoots can be six feet tall and 1 ½” diameter.  In addition, like many tropical trees they have wide ranging surface feeder roots and they can send up sprouts and certainly will when the trunk is cut.  Even the logs laid on the ground will grow a sprout about every 4 feet in the right conditions and they will keep on doing so for a couple years in spite of my cutting them off every 3 or 4 weeks.  So far I’ve not applied herbicide to the stumps but I might some day.

Recently on the first sunny day after 3 days of rain I was sitting on the North shore of the Hakalau River mouth looking south.  The macro view was of a steep canyon wall covered in dark green of many different species.  In between, in the air over the river and the park on the far side, the air was sparkling with the drifting white winged seeds of the African Tulip.  The seeds have the shape of a Chinese Elm – a disk with a wing all around it – but they are 2 or 3 times the diameter.  It was a calm day so the seeds were descending with the drift at about 12:1.  Except, I then noticed, about one seed in 30 was rapidly assenting.  As I watched it became apparent that individual seeds were suddenly changing from decent to assent for several seconds and a climb of 12-20 feet then reverting to decent.  I couldn’t tell if an individual seed could do this more than once but I knew from a past observation what was happening.  At some point in the drying of these seeds they are capable of flapping their wings to gain elevation.  Not only that but the tree also has evolved the right mechanisms to open its pods and release those seeds at the proper time to give them the best chance of flying the longest distance.  The days a lot of seeds are released are always sunny days after a rainy period.  I’d love to see this in slow motion cinema so if you know of such footage please let me know.

Another thing African Tulips excel at is the abundant numbers of seeds they produce.  Each 4” x 4” flower produces a pod 7-9” long.  Each pod has a wall down the middle from which the 550 to 900 seeds grow.  The pods split open from one side only so that first the chamber on the open side releases its seeds.  The following day, if the weather is dry, the umbilical wall drops out and the remaining seeds can scatter.

Because the pod usually only splits from one side the empty pods look like little canoes and they work quite well for that purpose.  You can see flower, green pods a half open pod and an empty pod in the picture.

Hilo Coastline

Hilo has many miles of accessible coastline.  Inside the bay most are smooth grey sand.  South of the bay most are black (and sharp) lava like this one.  The nice white sand beach exception is Onekahakaha where a almost solid rock reef protects the sand.  If the tide is in it is a calm place to swim but when the tide is out it gets too shallow.
We have snorkled some of these but Kapoho is so much nicer for both fish and clarity that it is worth the longer drive south.

Green sea turtles are common all over Hawaii but we are sometimes surprised at what rough waves they will feed it.  This one is resting in shallow water.  Often they will be seen on very crowded beaches.  Sometimes we see them as small as 12" but most are around 36" long and 32" wide.

Banyan Drive, along the bay in Hilo is lined with giant Ficus trees like this one that Myrna is standing in front of.  The common ficus leaves are small.  The large leaves you see here a kind of philodendron vine.
There is at least one true Banyan towards the North end of Banyan Drive which has a larger leaf and prop roots.  Yes, this is only ONE tree in the picture.

    




 Here I am standing in front of the hotel that Myrna stayed in for two months while our house deal was closing.  The other end of the building is nearly within fishing pole reach of the bay.  Rent by the week or month was quite reasonable.

Akaka Falls

Akaka falls is in a misty draw only 2 miles south of us.  The circular path to it goes by very dense bamboo stands with diameters up to 8" and two smaller water falls.  Most of the time when we visit there it is raining but it is still worth it to take the whole circle.  There is a side walk the whole way so you won't get muddy but as you can see in the picture below, there are lots of stairs!

Photos

 Our first papaya from a plant that we had planted as a 4" pot start.  That plant only took 8 months to get six feet high and to bear its first fruit.  Not only that but the flavor is far better in all the local papayas then those I had tried that were shipped to Washington.  Each of those little seeds, we found, could grow to first production in our garden in 10 to 12 months.  We now keep 6 plants in our garden and usually need to eat two fruit each day.

This is our talapia tank that is watered by two downspouts from the roof.  I regulate how much flow by bypassing one or both downspouts when the fish don't need fresh water.  We have a small airator going all the time and too much fresh water would be undesirable because it would dilute the algae that are a large part of the fishes diet.  In this year of drought there have been a few days when we wanted more rain for the fish.  At this point there are 60-80 4"-5" fish and we haven't eaten any except one of the breeders that we started with.  It was the best talapia I've ever had.


The Green Sea Turtles are always present around Hilo.
At least, I can always find some one of four places.
They seem to be only of mature size here while on the Kona side it is common to find immatures in the one foot size.  I guess that is because we don't have any sandy beaches on the windward side.  Once, at Hilo's Carlsmith Beach, we spotted a mature with an injury that had a radio glued to its back.  We were later told that it had been treated for a boat inflicted wound on Oahu and released there.

FINALLY HOME ON HAWAII

JULY 6, 2009 ON HAWAII

I’ve now finally joined my wife as a resident of the State of Hawaii and the island of Hawaii.  I didn’t quite get everything out of the old residence but hopefully was close enough that my son and friends will finish for me.  So much Stuff I will never have again!

I arrived mid afternoon on the forth of July and was at my first luau by 6:00 pm.  It was a graduation party for the son of one of the people that Myrna works with and the people (about 200) were all very friendly.  The 3 piece string band included an amazing electric ukulele player.   We ate several new things and saw the Hilo fireworks as we left.

Sunday we did a lot of unpacking and I started assembling the bookcases, some for the third time and I hope the last!  At the end of the day I took a short bicycle ride to Wielea and toured the art exhibit and museum that is always open, as in door standing wide open, next to the BUDDHIST BED AND BREAKFAST where I will suggest you stay if you visit when our guest house is already full.  It was nice to see the history of this neighborhood and to feel that here were kindred spirits in the sense of community organizing for good causes.

Monday morning as Myrna headed off to work I went for a hike down the gully below our house.  I’m always on the lookout for wild foods I can try and this morning I was hoping to find some ripe bananas because although we have lots of them on our place and the vacant lot next door, none are ripe just now.  I saw lots of bananas all right, including some red ones that I’d like to try but they weren’t ready either.  I did see 2 or 3 kinds of yam and gathered a couple called air potatoes because they grow above ground.  I’ve read that some of the yam tubers can grow to 20 pounds and more but the air potato kind only gets to a couple pounds.

I went under the highway through a 6’ X 6’ cement waterway that was dry, then around the lava stone culvert beneath the old railway grade that was smaller, darker and unsafe looking.  I saw a large avocado tree with round fruit a long way from ready.  Every where there are lots of invasive weed trees of different sorts changing the ecology of the area.  Here there are African tulip trees, Alexandra Palm and ironwood trees crowding out the old species.

The sound of surf became very loud before I reached the edge of the cliff over looking waves breaking over rocks.  I’d guess the drop to the rocks was 130’ and I was reminded of the many migrant workers who were so over worked in the sugar fields and so underpaid before unionization that they could never get out of debt to the company store so that in despair they walked over the edge.

The bottom of the gulley had lots of taro which is the old reliable standby food from which poi is made.  On our Island it is called Kalo.  I don’t like poi but I’ve heard the root is good fried so I would have brought some back to try except that I did find a ripe clump of bananas as I returned home and that was all I wanted to carry (I didn’t worry about a property owner intending to harvest these because the gully was too rugged for sending workers into and these already had been started by the birds eating them which is why even if they are in your backyard you always pick them a little before they ripen).  It turned out that this clump tastes like Cavendish (the most commonly grown commercial variety) so I’ll still be looking forward to our own which have better flavor.

Not long after I returned from my hike the cable installer arrived so now we have the fastest internet we’ve ever had and you get this story of my day!

We ate the air potatoes in stir fry.  They were good.  I later learned that they are not recommended because they are a bit poisonous unless thoroughly cooked.  Desert was best though, smoothie made from 3 frozen bananas and one mountain apple (looks like apple, tastes like a mild pear and is related to neither) from our own plant/trees and a papaya from the farmers market in Hilo.  Now we’ve had our evening walk and it is time to let the coqui frogs sing us to sleep.

9/14/10 HOME AT LAST

                                                      9/14/10 HOME AT LAST

On August 4th I flew back to Spokane County, Washington to work on the house we used to live in and to try very hard to sell it.  Last year it drew only four tours in the four months we had it on the market when prices were dropping and the banks were scared.  Then we took it off the market and leased it with option to buy.  The monthly payments were usually late and the leaser won't communicate so we never knew what to expect.  Even though we had paid the electric for the first four months with our State solar incentives credit that we earned with the photo voltaic system I installed there, still I had only received one electric payment since.  After it became clear that the renter would not be able to buy the house at the August 16 end of the lease, we put the house back on the market in mid July and had one prospective buyer.  When I arrived it was obvious the renter had made no move to pack and she evaded talking to me.  The garage door was broken and what had been a new rug had a big hole dug in it by the inside dogs that were not allowed.  In fact she had three outside dogs and two inside dogs and four kids.  When I finally cornered her she said that she didn't have time to move till maybe the end of the month.  I did manage to collect the 5 months back electric but even at the end of the month she had not started to pack.  In the meantime I was trying to work on the neglected yard and make some repairs but she said I was making too much noise.  I talked to a lawyer and hired him to start the very slow 

legal process for eviction as a back up just in case she wasn't out by the end of the month so she ordered me off my own property that she had no legal right to be on.  The lawyer said she could do that until we got through the process.  In the meantime the earlier prospective house buyer had signed a contract to close by 9/17.  I didn't finally get home again until Tuesday evening, one week after finally getting the squatter (former renter) out out of our old residence in Chattaroy.  Before I left I signed the sale papers and today, 9/17, the new owners should be taking possession. 

For us to regain possession of our own house required hiring a lawyer (Thomas McGarry, in case any of you in Spokane are in need), waiting through 3 stages of warning my former lessee and finally paying the Sheriff to have a deputy go in and order her out “in five minutes or you’re going to jail.”  Then some of my very best friends and I had to box and remove most of the belongings of 5 people (they had removed one load the day before).  Her friends arrived and started hauling things away from the stacks we’d made in a couple hours.  I spent the next few days cleaning repairing and painting.  It was a terribly stressful situation to be in but I needed to have the house ready for the closing date and the squatter had lied to me all along and could not be trusted.  

So now I am home just in time to vote in our state primary.  Today I’ll take the late afternoon for the last pre-election action then Saturday we vote.  Meanwhile the sun has now dried off the grass enough that I’ll go work on the gardens that I’m much behind on.  The string beans seem to have gone through most of their production cycle while I was gone.  Most of our purple sweet potatoes need digging.  The old broccoli plants are about done and I need to start new ones.  I had some kohlrabi when I left but I don’t even see them now.  Our avocados that had barely started when I left are all done (but other kinds are just beginning elsewhere).  Our pamelos are nearly as big as my head and still not yellow!  The tilapia that were 1” when I left are about 3” now.   The old lawn mower that broke a drive belt when I wasn’t here to fix it has been replaced by a new one.  The guy who owns the agricultural land across the street has started cutting down all the invasive trees in the gully.  The two breadfruit trees in back of the guesthouse that looked they wouldn’t have a worthwhile crop this year are suddenly loaded with fruit.  We are at one of those unusual times when there are no ripe bananas in the yard so I’ll need to hunt some.

The Weather cast for the next week is lows of 68 and highs of 81 to 85 degrees.

Aloha!

Rico

FISH AND FISHING

                                                   FISH AND FISHING

On the 5^th of July I noticed that I finally had free swimming baby tilapia in my 12 foot wide roof fed tank.  They were only the size of medium mosquito wigglers but their fathers were no longer protecting them so they were on their own.  As they were in three separate groups I assume they were from three separate spawn.  By four days later they had merged into one school and had doubled their size.  Four days later they had doubled size again.  I think there are 60 of them and I’ve decided to leave the breeders in for one more spawn before I pull them out.  All the breeders are now much bigger then when they were put in but only the biggest is the size that would be a good meal.

Although I continue to feed the tilapia meal worms or earth worms when available I feed commercial feed three times a day usually.  If you know any good home grown fish food recipes I’d still be interested.  And although I wasn’t successful in getting the fish to eat much sweet potato at least the dog usually will eat it mixed 50% with her kibbles.  My hopes of attracting significant insects to the fish with floating solar lights has not proven very effective either and, in fact, the termite queen flights have been very much lower in numbers this year than last.

Soon, by the time the fry tilapia are 1 1/2”, I will need to add aeration to the water.  I’ve put it off because there are several ways I could do this and I’m not sure which is the most effective or cost effective.  I need to crunch some numbers today and buy what I need so I will be sure to have it installed before I leave for the Mainland trip next month.

Another fishing experience occurred for me last weekend at Volcano National Park where there are no fish.  We attended the annual Hawaiian Culture Festival up there and besides the all day music, hula, games and crafts there was instruction in throw net fishing.  Although that is a skill I doubt I will ever practice, I took training and on my second cast might have had a productive result if it had been onto fish instead of lawn.  I think from all my snorkeling that I could pick places to throw a net that might bear results.  Since I think the reef fish mostly have too much pressure on them I’ll just keep that information in the back of my head.

While at the Culture Festival I took interest in the making of paper cloth (kappa) from the cambium layer of mulberry shoots 1-2 inches diameter.  All the steps took hours and I just followed it by checking in on the progress of one woman at three different points.  I also volunteered at the palm frond hat weaving circle to make ‘set ups’ from whole fronds for the students to use.  I’m not good at the weaving (maybe my fingers are too big and blunt?) but since I had the sharp clip knife with me, that Rob gave me, I was able to catch up the hopelessly behind set up department. Meanwhile Myna made a perfect hala woven bracelet at another teaching station and a feather flower at a third.

As the Culture Festival took place on the grounds of “Military Camp” which was a Japanese internment center for three years spanning ’43-45, we took a short walking tour to see what it is like before leaving.  It seems the buildings have been all well preserved and are currently used as rentals if military families who have first priority for leaves don’t take them all.

On the way down the Mountain we ‘had’ to stop at the orchid propagator who has a large retail store on the highway.  Myrna added two more varieties to her growing collection.  They don’t require much attention here except for the ones that need to be watered because they’re under the eves of our house.  Myna now has about 20 including two useful ones – vanilla bean orchids!

Lychees are all finished in our neighborhood now and the avocados have begun.  The year around bananas and coconuts are very numerous so we have been drying bananas to take on trips and making coconut milk to use in place of milk.  The lilikoi (passion fruit) in our yard and neighbor’s have been producing 3-4 quarts of juice for us each week.  The pole beans I planted two weeks ago are about 10” high but the squash are again getting insects (multiple kinds) boring into their stems even though I have traps for the kind of fruit fly that I thought was the main problem last two plantings.

I’ve been doing more political action this past week.  I attended a two person sign waving and a 21 person sign waving for the Neil Abercrombie campaign.  Tonight I plan to attend one that we hope to have 50 people on and I did some telephoning for that.  Next month they expect to be reaching 100 people per event.

Since we’ve had such relatively dry weather a lot this year I’ve been swimming many mornings when I take the dog for a run to the old mill site on the Hakalau River.  Last week I encountered a group of 3 couples about to take a hike up river which is daunting jungle and cliffs.  I asked to join and they were agreeable so Kea and I stepped in line.  I had been that way before but gave it up in a swampy tangle of brush where the trail quit.  But when the river is low, I learned, the way to go is on a tail that runs right into the river and then crosses back and forth depending on which side has some shoreline that is not straight up.  The river crossings were not a problem because I was wearing Crocs and everyone else was wearing water shoes or Crocs.  But in many places we were hopping from bolder to bolder and Kea, our dog, was having a hard time keeping up.  This is compounded by the fact that Kea hates to swim and some times we were wading deeper than she would follow.  Near the end I left Kea to find her own way.  The goal was a waterfall 30 or 40 feet tall with a large rock lined pool below it.  We swam and relaxed there enjoying the massage of the waterfall then I dressed to start back while the rest of the crew ate lunch.  Almost as soon as I left the pool I found a very tired Kea and we took our time getting back to the car from this idyllic Hawaiian scene.  If you visit during dry weather and have good balance and strong legs I’ll take you there and, this time, remind me to bring my camera!  Don’t ask when that dry weather is going to be but you probably won’t feel like being wet half a day in the winter three or four months.

ALOHA!

P.S.  Much latter I learned that one of the ladies on the waterfall hike fell and broke an arm on the way back down the river.