Huali Lani Komohana, March 2018

This trip's goals were to complete paint, to install more batten, and to complete pressure-washing the roof.  And, I think, we actually had 2 days of sun.  Or maybe just 2 half-days.  So, we got *some* painting done.  And not much batten.  But rain doesn't put the kabosh on weed-whacking, and since other projects were put on hold, we finally attacked a bigger section of a corner of our yard with beautiful rock walls that are completely obliterated by tall, out-of-control, buffalo grass.  

A couple weeks before we returned, one of our neighbors cleared out a bunch of guava trees from their property.  With the trees gone, now we see a waterfall stream from our kitchen window!

Look closely: a cardinal and his bevy of beauties ...

Little Dude's online Latin class starts at 4:30a hawaii time.  Yawn.

Love how the sunrise spills down the ridge ...

And now for oodles of weed-whacking images. 

I want to remember how it looked for just this one time.

Because it will have grown back by our next visit.

The joke is that when we leave CA, we wonder which plants will have died in our absence.

When we leave Kauai, we wonder what will be overgrown by the time we come back.

Nearly done.  SO MANY HOURS ON THE ROOF.

When Big Dude wasn't on the roof, or in the field, he was building this neato monkeypod table.

I'm blogging this months after the fact.

These are the pictures I took as we left.

All these pieces will be different next time we return.

The bridge will be torn apart and be in the midst of rebuilding.
(a project that has been months in the planning stages)

The neighbor's field will be covered in rocks, boulders, cement and asphalt debris.

Our driveway will be washed away and undrive-able.

The hillsides along the highway will be long-term altered by massive landslides.

"Da Big Flood" (50" rainfall in 24 hours) will have occurred.

Huali Lani Komohana, Jan/Feb 2018

This was the trip we planned to mostly get the painting of the exterior house done, along with the installing of some batten (as in board and batten), and the finishing of the porch cable railing.  Since we only had about 2.5 hours of sunshine the whole trip, our painting was mostly confined to the covered porch area.  My handy-dandy father-in-law finished the cabling and my green-thumb-gardener-extraordinaire mother-in-law tended our yard (she also brought a nifty cleaning cloth and made the house interior sparkle as it hasn't done since we've occupied it!!). We managed to fit some fun and sightseeing in between all the projects.

Note above:  we have exactly one windowsill that gets 1-2 bars of internet.  It's a popular hangout :-).  The other popular hangout (when there aren't mosquitos): the hammock.

Below, our porch is so pretty and clean and uncluttered when we arrive. 
And then it quickly becomes the holding zone for all the project and yard tools ...

Getting ready to make a bunch of sawdust...

Limahuli Gardens was our one must-do, and only-planned activity for this trip.
But it kept raining everyday.  And we kept waiting for a clear opportunity to head over for a couple hours.  It came down to the last possible day, which looked like it might or might not rain. 
We grabbed our umbrellas and headed over.  It's SO BEAUTIFUL. 

Below includes the basket of fruit we picked from our yard (minus the avocado -
we bought that from a neighbor avo-stand down the road). 
Also, we gathered fresh eggs. 
Big Dude started pressure washing the roof - you'll see the before-and-after images
are pretty dramatic!  That was one dirty roof!!

It's super slippery on the roof with all the algae build-up. 
Big Dude engineered a strap to help him not to fall to his death ...