Huali Lani Komohana, May 2018 miscellany continued...

Lots of batten.  And still lots of cute purple weeds.

Convoy is limited to local residents (and workers, of course), which means the highway beyond the end checkpoint is pretty sparsely driven.  So we're just walking down to the end of the highway, on the highway, to get to the beach that we have all to ourselves.  Perfect for a little frisbee throwing ...

On the convoy ...

Bullfrogs hide in our buffalo grass.  Hopefully they're smart enough to move out of the way before the mowers or weedwhackers whack them.  Because, it's not like we can see them if they're tucked in.

 

Cooling off after hot work in the sun ...

Errands day, rounded out with a trip to Kauai Coffee Plantation...

Another "out to town" day, with a side trip to beautiful Moloa'a Bay ...

Feeding bacon scraps to the local cats ... 

Up on our road, washed down by the flood ... big BIG boulder.
Note:  different headband, because I took Big Dude back to see the spectacle.

Thus ends our May Kauai adventures.

Huali Lani Komohana, May 2018, DRIVEWAY REPAIR

The picture directly below is our driveway in March (the debris on the side is our other neighbors'; they clearcut a bunch of guava trees).  Anywhoo, nice whimsical jungle-y intact driveway.

Then the flood happened.  A "rain bomb".  48" in 24 hours.  No prediction for heavy rain.  It just kept pouring.  The waterfalls poured right over our road, caused landslides, destroyed a couple homes, and wiped out portions of the road and a few driveways, including ours. Below is our driveway after the flood.  All the exposing conduit is for electrical lines. What a mess! 

All our fill dirt, concrete & asphalt fill, and gravel washed into our neighbors' field.  We had to collect and carry out all that washed away concrete and asphalt.  What a workout!  Crossfit Kauai style.

Btw, I'm not in these pictures.  'Cause I'm taking them. (duh)  But, let it be known: I carried my fair share of concrete!!

(parking up on the road, because driveway undrive-able).

Ok.  This is the Engineers getting all nerdy again.  Big Dude has been dying to use straps with the Jeep.  If I had a dollar for every time he's told me he's needs a winch for that car ...  Below, the plan is to use the Jeep and strap and crowbar (as a lever) to move a HUGE boulder into proper position.

Easier said than done, but mission accomplished.

So this is pretty much what the driveway looked like at the end of our time here in May.  Our "manual" labor tasks were to recover all the concrete and asphalt, untangle the conduit, brace all the conduit, and in general, get everything ready for when local landslide dirt could be delivered to us and spread down the driveway with a bulldozer.  Such a huge job.  Days and hours of labor and not feeling like we had much to show for it.  

The first load of landslide dirt delivered (woot!).

And the "after" picture of the field now that we've removed the bulk of the concrete and asphalt pieces.