The Other Side of Paradise

Some of you picture Hawaii this tropical paradise, which it absolutely is. I’m going to provide a balanced view for you, the other side of paradise.

Gecko Poop – it’s everywhere. Be careful what you leave uncovered. We have one that must live on the ceiling, because there’s a fresh deposit on my dining table everyday. I’m ok with that. It would be wonderful if it would poop in the same place everyday; no surprises, I know where to look to clean up. I have found the poop next to my teacup and also next to

my breakfast brownies (both uncovered).

I believe these are moth “nests”. They’re a beautiful, funky lime green. I hung my new robe up and the next day there was one of these and I could feel something alive inside. Ewwwe....

Spiders. I don’t even bother taking the webs down, I’d have to do it everyday. The spiders have been the easy ones to make friends with, I have found.

Dumping the potty…remember, the toilet is down the stairs, around the path and 500 ft from the house.

Mosquitoes: it’s been 19 years since I lived around mosquitoes in Minnesota. They were a pain, but I never welted up from them. There are 6 kids of mosquitoes here. Four come out in the daytime and 2 at night. I find the daytime ones viscous! They are black and white striped with nasty red eyes. They come and get me while I’m distracted and making dinner. By the time I’m done with dinner, my legs look like this. Our house is not screened and really doesn’t have the possibility to be, the way the windows were put in. I’m told I won’t taste so good after I’ve been here for a little while. Where we were first staying there were mosquitoes that Jonathan and India reacted to and didn’t bother me. The opposite is true at this house. Clothing has been my best defense and once dinner is prepared, they all go away (or at least most of them!). (I know! I can't believe she showed that picture either!)

Ants – they’re roommates that don’t pay rent, eat your food and don’t clean up after themselves. Another critter I have just surrendered to being in my life. As long as they stay OUT of my packaged food, I can live with them.

Gardening

The whole reason for moving to this home was to garden. The property of 5 acres came with garden beds and a raised nursery.

The hurricane winds blew down the covering on the nursery and the ex-husband didn’t leave the beds ready for gardening as he said he would.

After seeing what the pigs have done to this yard and hearing what they’ve done to neighbor’s gardens, I have not been anxious to do any planting. Not to mention that the day-to-day living activities take more time here.

I felt like a hypocrite when my techy guy starts to plant seed with India. I must tell you something about Jonathan. He makes everything seem absolutely effortless. NOTHING is a big deal. He can watch India, clean the house, cook a full meal and have the dishes washed without breaking a sweat or feeling stressed at all. Maybe I just make everything seem/look really hard (that is something I’m looking at and working on – he is such an inspiration to me).

So they started some seeds: Cilantro, Lemon Cucumber, Hubbard Squash and Cumin.

The squash are so fun because they sprout so quickly, India asks to go out everyday and see them. We’ll keep you posted.

Now Jonathan is also my Garden Hero.

My Yard Hero

We are renting a place on 5 acres of Hawaiian Rain Forest. It rains here about 150” per year and the daily temp is 78 degrees. That means that EVERYTHING grows, A LOT.

I was apprehensive when we went to sign the lease. I am not a lawn mower/weed whacker. I’ve hooked up with a tech guy with baby soft hands (they are really very nice). Anyway, I was worried about all of the lawn maintenence, but J assured me that it would be no problem.

Well, 4 weeks went by with no lawn mowing. He hired a guy to mow and whack and he worked at it for 3 hours, just doing the basic stuff. He wasn’t very meticulous and J wasn’t as happy with his results as he had hoped to be.

Two weeks went by and lots of talk about mowing and I suddenly heard the sound of a gas powered engine! Yes, he was out mowing!!! He came in and said that was quite a job and that he really would rather work an hour and pay someone to do it. That just takes too long, how long was I out there anyway? “One hour.” One hour! That’s it? All that time and it was only one hour?! “Yes dear, that is great meditation time.”

That was 3 or 4 weeks ago…no sound of a gas powered engine except from around the neighborhood. People wonder about our neighbors. Across the street they’re on 20 – 25 acres and each family member is building a “house”. Next door there are 4 family members on 6 acres, each with their own home. They are our closest neighbors. Behind us is a Guava grove and someone has a home there for painting (from what I can tell, they’re never there). For the most part our home is very private – you’d have to WANT to see us to see us, if that makes sense. Our bathroom is outside, so it is good that our property is pretty hidden. Now if you have binoculars…enjoy the show! J

Rainbows

I am enjoying living here. I love this house and this land. I’ve been getting up early, because we go to bed so early, but also, because I want to see the sunrise. Some days it’s uneventful and some days it’s breath taking. Today you could see the top of the volcano clearly – it’s usually cloudy up there, so that’s neat. I also saw a rainbow that took my breath away.

It was close and bright and I could see BOTH sides!

And it was a double. How much more amazing could that be?

Look how vibrant the other side is!

The weather is wonderful – 66 – 68 in the mornings and then around 76 during the day. I really love the 70’s...very comfortable. It will be sunny, cloudy, rainy, sunny, rainy, and cloudy – all day long, that’s what today is like, you get all of the weather.

Did I mention I noticed a seasonal change the last of August? I’d been in Nevada for 18 years and it’s pretty flat seasonally. I did not anticipate coming to Hawaii and experiencing seasons. Granted, this is the 2nd season I’ve been in, we came just in time for summer to start, and now fall. In Vegas we didn’t get cooler weather (fall weather) until October, so it’s fun to have “fall” again. I LOVE fall. I know I won’t get to enjoy the leaves turning, but I love the slippers, robes and sweaters. It’s not sweater weather yet. I’ll take a picture and blog when it is, that’s for sure. I’ve already been into the Chai Tea in the mornings. That little India, she loves everything I love to drink. Today I had some Chocolate Caramel coffee, I know, I don’t drink coffee and when I did I didn’t drink flavored. We’ll, it looked good and was $4.99 @ Ross. A few times a month I enjoy it. It’s hard to say “no” to her all day long, so she got some w/ a little 1/2 and 1/2 and Chocolate Stevia - “yummy!” she said and hers was gone before mine. She’s definitely like her grandmothers, can’t keep her cup filled (those poor waitresses)!

Bananas

I got a little lesson in bananas from my neighbor last week. He told me that they like room, air, space and light and that I needed to trim the leaves and move the keikis (young banana trees).

I got the gumption the next day, after it rained. I got the hatchet and trimmed all but 3 leaves on every tree. It was amazing! Tiny tree frogs (I think) were leaping from the leaves. Even the earthworms were “jumping” from inside the branches. The earthworms here are wiry, feisty and strong. They really “jump” or hurl themselves into the air. (I would too if I could and was in that situation.) The branches are filled with water and worms (if you knew me in my worm composting days, or my youth, you would know this is very exciting for me – I love worms).

By the time I was done I was soaked and there were giant banana leaves all over the ground.

There are two stalks of bananas waiting to ripen and then I’ll need to chop those trees down. They die once they’ve produced. When you keep things thinned down and cleaned up all of the energy can go into the producing plants.

I think it takes 9 months for the banana to flower and ripen and 18 months from the plants start to finish. If anyone wants baby banana trees, come on over!