Mountains and Islands

The past several days have been more wet than dry, with the past two all wet. In fact, we were cranking up the volume on the TV to hear it over the sound of the downpour. Today, however, is showing the promise of some blue sky peaking through the clouds. We'll have to wait until the foliage dries out a bit before we can mow. The rain was the result of the remnants of tropical depression Daniel. The storm began as Hurricane Daniel, then became Tropical Storm Daniel as it got nearer to us, then became a tropical depression (whatever that is) then because nothing more than some rain. It wasn't very exciting. We didn't lose power or anything. Ron and I have a new thing when the power goes out. We hang out on the lanai with a giant flashlight and play scrabble. We have too much stuff. Despite our efforts to purge in Colorado before the move, we still have more than we need, want or have room for. This is a tiny house, after all. We've been making trips to Wal-mart and Home D

Life is mellow here in the rainforest. We erected a shelter for our tractor last week so we could move the machine off the driveway to make room for stuff. The stuff came, all the way from Colorado. We are now finding places to put the stuff, one box at a time. Despite our attempts to simplify our lives and purge a huge amount of stuff before moving here, we still find we have too much stuff. That's the American way though, right? We converted an old dog Kennel just off the driveway into a storage shed. We were planning (and still are) to actually build a structure there, but in the meantime, we opted for tarps, a shower curtain and some 2x4s. Hey, there are people living in shelters less attractive and secure than this. Hey. It works. We had both a bad and good car buying experience this weekend. We recently decided that, since my old purple truck is now deceased, we should buy an economical commuter car to zip to town and back when we don't need the utilitarian virtues of the

We have a lovely pair of cardinals that visit our back lanai every morning and afternoon. This timing generally coincides with the feeding of the cats outside. They swoop in and steal the cat food. When there's no cat food out there, they chirp incessantly until there is. We hung a big seed ball for them, but they prefer the kitty kibble. Oh they'll nibble at the seeds. But given the choice, they'll take tuna and salmon flavor over sesame and sunflower any day. They've become carnivorous. Yikes! Keep all the small children inside! My friend Gail once told me about some wrens visiting a little bird house she'd put out. I asked if they were looking to buy or simply wren-t! Ha ha ha.... Tonight, I was looking for a saucepan big enough to steam some extra long green beans without cutting them. Somehow, I began singing ala Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam "She dreams of colors, she dreams in green... can't find a bigger pan.....It's too small. These beans they won

Howdy ya'all. Oh, and alo-o-o-o-oha! I heard word this weekend that a giant double cottonwood tree in the front yard of my Colorado cabin was blown down by the wind. That is a big tree so it must have been some strong wind. It toppled over roots up, with one segment going across a portion of the driveway and one toward the road. The good news is that it didn't hit the electrical wire that runs very nearby, nor did it hit the barn or the house or anyone's car or anyone's head. Whew! My renter-buddy Mark is already on top of the situation, having begun the arduous task of cutting it up. He'll have plenty of firewood this winter. The fourth of July festivities were pretty low-key at our house. We dosed the dogs with herbal doggie mellow-out pills, then did our best to keep them calm as the neighbor's grandkids fired off bottle rockets and other noisemakers. We also roasted a leg of lamb in our new smoker/bbq/grill. It's a very cool little contraption, and it wa

Aloha all you blog fans. Sorry it's been several days since my last post. We've been busy, taking advantage of the nice weather, to mow, scoop, plant and till. Ron has continued his frenzied quest to rototill the entire island, or at our entire five acres, grinding up patches of dirt in one place to scoop up and drop into another place. His tilling has been curtailed, however, because of the huge amount of water it takes to clean the thing after each use. With the nice weather, our water catchment tank went from full to half in a very short time. So, it was either cut back on the tilling and subsequent need for massive amounts of water or resign ourselves to schlepping the dirty clothes off the the Laundromat and taking showers at the pool. Today, however, it is pouring. Mother Nature is doing her part to replenish our supply so we could be tilling again in a few days. That is, of course, weather permitting. I have now planted all our fruit trees. Last week, we purchase 10 coff