Kaokane

Madam Pele seems to be just playing with us.  She stopped just west of Gary’s house and appears to have started flowing toward the ocean.  I just took the opportunity to start experimenting with some rock walls.  Not to keep Pele out, but the pigs.  And keep the ducks in.  They will be able to fly out, but it will give me a defined area to feed them and maybe attempt keeping the mongooses out.  Tomorrow I will go back to writing about some of the plants I have at Kaokane Farm and Gardens.

The lava hasn’t made it to our property, but close enough for some brush fires to sneak in.  We were dropping Mitch off at the airport in Hilo and got a call from Gary that some grass and brush were catching fire from the lava on his and our property.  On our way back from Hilo I sang any song that had the word rain in it and I’m sure there were many others that sent prayers to the universe, because after one of our hottest and driest days since we moved here it started raining and hasn’t stopped.  It could not have been more welcome!  We just did a couple hours of clean up and wished Gary a “Good Night”.  With the lava just a few yards from his house, he may not be sleeping much tonight!  We will head back in the early hours to see what’s left.  We may see a miracle, or I may have to wait for the lava to cool before re-planting.  Either way, I still love Kaokane Farm and Gardens and don’t plan to ever leave!

Well, Pele continues to show us who rules this island.  Today she took out the remainder of the parking area for visitors and cut off our access to the old government road (red road-hwy 137).  Fortunately we have great neighbors and we can still access the Kaokane Farm and Gardens.  Long term we are looking at our options for access to any building sites.

Everyone seems to be just keeping with the flow and not worrying ab out things that are beyond our control.  We can just wait and see where everything ends up!

Keneke took a few photos, so I’ll see if I can add one or two soon.

Aloha for now.

Noni.  Morinda citrifoli.

We have lots of these growing around the property.  I will have to learn more about harvesting and using the fruit, even if it means taking them to the processing plant.

Mitch helped today moving some of the lava rocks that I have been breaking up at the new garden area.  Now, I just need to find some good soil to plant things in.

Tomorrow I may play with some rock wall building, just to see if I can get some of the basics.  I will definitely need to keep the pigs out if I am going to be successful growing a garden.

?.  ?.  Echeveria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echeveria

I am not sure of the species, as I got this as a cutting.  I’ll have to look around and see if I can find the best match.

I just did watering today, as Mitch is arriving from Honolulu.  I hope to get back to the farm tomorrow and get some more work done on the garden and/or some fencing for goats!

Since I was only doing some watering today I took my shirt off while I worked, so I got a bit burnt!  I should know better, but I am now old enough to claim alzheimer’s!  All I can remember is that I live in paradise here at Kaokane Farm & Gardens!

This was actually yesterday’s post, but I forgot to publish it!  Back to that alzheimer’s excuse!

Ulu.  Breadfruit.  Artocarpus altilis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit

I don’t have this tree, yet, but it is high on my list.

Since I am not going out to the property today, I thought I would put a plant on my blog that I don’t have.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll list a new one!

Beach Naupake.  Scaevola taccada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaevola

Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for the individual species, but it does have the genus.

I got some of these started from cuttings.  They are still in a pot, but I will be putting them in the ground tomorrow.

I did get more of the garden area cleared today.  I have a lot of the lava piled up where I was planning to put the dry stack wall.  I am looking forward to putting some time into doing this right.  The wall doesn’t have to be very tall.  It is just to keep the pigs out.  I still haven’t come up with the best way of “fencing” in the goats, or chickens/ducks.

There will always be plenty to do at Kaokane Farm & Gardens.

Kukui.  Candlenut.  Aleurites moluccana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleurites_moluccana

I’m going to try this as my new format.

Hawaiian name.  Other names.  Scientific name.

wikipedia link and the wikipedia photo.

Since I am starting over, I am going to start with this post and the Hawai’i state tree.  It also happens that this is the tree that I planted at Kaokane Farm & Gardens today.  I stopped to say, “Hi” to Peggy this morning and she helped me grab the 2 kukui trees that she wanted to give me.  They are both about 4 feet tall and I had places to plant them all ready prepared.  It would have helped if I had a hose to water them in, but I had to rely on the old 2-liter soda bottles that I re-use as my watering system.  I try to refill them each time I drive/ride to the farm.  I have about 20 of them now.  I can obnly carry about 10 at a time on Ebie (our electric scooter), so that is what I try to bring home at the end of the day.

Enough blathering.  It was just another gorgeous day at Kaokane Farm and Gardens!

Casuarina equisetifolia.

We have several ironwoods around the property, but I prepared an area east of the house site for some more to block the wind (and view) toward the subdivision.

I was going to do some more clearing today along the trail, but the chainsaw gave out on me.  It looks like its back to Homo Depot tomorrow!

Ficus elastica.

This is another “banyan” tree that I wanted to get out on the property and I finally got a cutting.  It’s still just one leave, so it is going to be a while before it looks like the giant banyans around the world!

I started clearing the spots for the posts.  I should finish that up tomorrow and then I will need to start buying materials.