Monday, November 16, 2009

A Seft-Sustainabile Hawaii....Getting there...

Sustainability has been on alot of people's radar here in East Hawaii lately, thats why the Puna Sustainability Expo has come into fruition with the outstanding support of the kanaka council, malama o puna and other local organizations.


I decided to check out the expo to see what's viable, and what I can learn and do immediately to live a better, greener, and healthier lifestyle.

I'm amazed by the turnout for this event even in the middle of a major storm front. For being the 2nd annual event held in Puna, there were alot of participants that covered the gamut from recyling, organic farming, invasive species, new energy technology, raising bees and making honey and so on.



Following are some participants that I ended up talking with and gaining a better understanding what they were doing and how I can also following in their footsteps....




From sustainable show

The Master Gardeners are very active in East Hawaii, sponsor senior container garden seminars, childrens educational garden talks, fruit fly eradication techniques and a future ethnobotanical garden.




From sustainable show



Having your own chickens is a very popular hobby here...I just might have to pick up a couple of these cuties.





From sustainable show



Recycle Hawaii is very active with reducing our overloaded dumps and increasing recycling centers throughout the island to increase recycled options like paper products, green waste, plastics and glass/aluminum that actually gets recyled into many new uses sold abroad or within the islands. They have been active with community clean ups, illegal dump sites erradication, education in schools, and sponsoring artists talking about the benefits of recycling.





From sustainable show



Paper products, utensils and sterno made with cane sugar are all biodegradable products and are available through Sustainable Island Products in Hilo.





From sustainable show



Puna Geothermal is producing more power with the addition of new heat usuage wells along with their steam production wells. They produce an equivalent of 36 megawatts or enough power to supply over 25,000 households in the Big Island alone along with other areas. They are creating a stable source of energy and saving over 5 million barrels of oil consumption and expanding to other islands as well.





From sustainable show



Sawyer Water Filtration is a portable and potible water filtration process that provides a low cost filtration service compared to large scale catchment systems which are predominant in this environment. This beats having to go out to the county water spigots regularly with those small gallon containers.






From sustainable show



Cool pic of a guy that cuts out tires into fun things like swings and garden containers.






From sustainable show



Growing your own honey is a popular hobby that is starting to get more attention due to the declining bee populations in Hawaii. Classes and kits are available through Best Big Island Bees.





From sustainable show


LEDs are starting to become more common in the marketplace...hopefully they'll start coming out with a better yellow glow version down the road...florescent just doesn't work well on my skin....

Friday, November 13, 2009

Happy Aloha Friday..

A Prose Poem On Hawaii




No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.

Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitude; I can hear the path of its brooks.

In my nostrils still lives the breath of a flower that perished twenty years ago.

~ Mark Twain ~





Here's a beautiful Aloha Friday Video for you to enjoy...









Video by Izumisan on YouTube

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Wordless Wednesdays



From Poihiki










From Poihiki










From Poihiki










From Poihiki










From Poihiki










From Poihiki










From Poihiki

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Lets go do this......any takers?



This would be a fun fantasy garden tour...wanna come and join me and my friend Martha for a nice Lunch at her farm in Bedford, New York? Boy,  if this wasn't such a long flight from Hawaii.....sigh....:(







http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/11/bid-on-dinner-and-lunch-at-martha-stewarts-house-omfg/


Bring five of your friends to Cantitoe Corners, Martha’s home in Bedford, New York for the exclusive opportunity to tour Martha’s legendary gardens with her and gardener Shaun Kass. Afterwards, Martha will host a picturesque lunch on the farm for you and your friends.

Terms: Includes: a tour for six of Martha Stewart's gardens in Cantitoe Farm, Martha's home in Bedford, led by Martha and her personal Gardner, Shaun Kass. Based on a mutually agreeable time.

Estimated Auction value $10,000.....any takers?

These Orchids are sooooooo nasty....

Sunday at Macuu (farmers market in Pahoa), all the vendors are really pimping their girlies for a fast sale....

I know you want me.....

From farmers market


No baby.....you want me first......

From farmers market



Hey Mister, you want me, cheap, cheap......

From farmers market


You know I'm curvy in all the right places...wanna sample?

From farmers market



Hmmmmmm....baby smell gooood....yeaaaah that's right......

From farmers market



You want some nasty? Take a look at this......

From farmers market



I'll keep blooming for you....just the way you like it baby....

From farmers market



Haven't you been fatasizing about me for a loooong time? Come and get me now......

From farmers market


Get your mind out of the gutter..you can buy any of these girlies at any orchid vendor stall every sunday at the Macuu Market in Pahoa...have a wild party!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aloha Friday...


Happy Aloha Friday around the world...I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the weekends. This is going to be another busy weekend for myself, starting with our Hilo Black and White Ball which is one of the biggest events in Hilo of the year. Basically its a huge block party in black and white theme, all the stores, restaurants, and galleries are open to promote Hilo town. I'll post some pictures of this event in a later post with all the highlights.

Caught this funny video on YouTube recently, it shows some funny scenes with pigeons talkin pidgin around Honolulu....enjoy.




Video by megelmoose on youtube.

The Potager Garden in Hawaii Grows...




I've started the process finally...the ground has been broken and I've officially started my quest to build a potager garden on this land. Funny thing is that there's no home yet, no soil, no water, no nutrients, no mulch...just pure lava rock and weeds, trash plants and my determination to build my kitchen garden in East Hawaii. Also the potager style of kitchen garden is not a common garden type here in Hawaii. Even though I've always had a fascination about developing a more formal kitchen garden. I envision this being a hybrid style of formal, meets tropical planting... instead of apple and peach allee's, I'll be doing cherimoya, cacao and papaya arbors and borders. In place of blackberries and strawberries, I'll plant pineapple and poha berries. Fortunately herbs can grow anywhere and I'll be fortunate to be able to harvest year round.

Well outside of dreaming about this garden and starting to push some rocks around, I needed to have a game plan. After mulling over the property on where the potager should be placed, I decided to really make this more formal and plot a design plan of how I want this to look....isn't it funny how things get created on little pieces of paper and that's exactly how i started my garden plan...on a wrinkled, garbage tossed out piece of paper. Well, I actually did a few revisions of this plan, bet here's what it looked like when I decided to do an initial draft.

I know this does seem a little bit more hap-hazard than some of the more elaborate plans I've seen like the top picture of the The King's Gardens at Versailles. Needless to say, I was planning a much more scaled down version to that potager, and it would be my very own Hawaiian kitchen garden.


Well, before I go on into the next phase of my journey, I'll be posting some inspirational sites/videos that I've stumbled across on the web. Here's a YouTube video called The Secret Garden - Nocturne, that i enjoyed seeing and listening to at the same time....enjoy.


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