Visited with Walter and Greatha. Walked in just as Greatha was cooking
breakfast, so I lucked into amazing waffles, fresh fruit, real syrup. Kit came
over from next door. Afterwards, I geeked out with Walter (he has the exact same
laptop!) and used the GPS to give him a precise location to plug into his star
chart screensaver.
Afterwards, went over to Richard Waller’s. Richard was there, just waking up.
We had a great long visit, all day. Gave another complete demo of the VTP
software (4th time this trip). Richard told me lots more about surveying, and
about a really cool project starting in Waimea to turn the middle of town, along
the creek, into a park, with native trees, education center, multi-use pathways,
etc. The project is thanks to private funding from well-off people who have
moved there recently. He has a brand-new Dell with a Radeon, but the web
browser was freaking out. I
was able to use his ISP to download drivers for the external ZIP that I borrowed
from Walter. Why didn’t I just bring a CDROM with the VTP stuff on it?? Wasn’t
expecting to find people ready and interested in running it.
When I tell Richard about Tim’s desire to top the cypress trees, he is alarmed.
“That’ll kill them!” he says, and hands me literature describing all the
problems with topping trees. He’s a landscape architect, so he knows. He
photocopies the literature for me to take to Tim.
In the morning, I hear a lawnmower again, this time coming from the Oldfather
house. Going, down, I find a fellow behind and enormous, 15-hp lawnmower. This
turns out to be Chris, a middle-aged fellow with an Australian accent. He hasn’t
seen me since I was a teenager, so we catch up. Chris used to be in video
production in New York long ago, and then lived off the grid above Ookala for
many years. We talk while he hangs his laundry inside the ancient greenhouse.
It is truly amazing that this greenhouse is still standing – it is the original
structure that I remember from the 1970s. After talking some more, I mention
that I would love to clear some areas on my property, and Chris says he’d be
interested in looking at doing it himself. So, we walk around the land together,
looking at the fence, the trees and the grass. For the first time, I walk behind
the eucalyptus tree line above the garden – it’s actually quite passable. It
rained during the night, and the grass is really wet. We slog down along the
perimeter, don’t quite brave the gulch at the far corner, and head over toward
the evil red weed. We discuss plans for getting rid of it. He says he’ll take a
stab at the upper fence line later this week, then give me a better idea of how
much work the whole job would take. Nice chap!
Next I head down to Honoka`a for breakfast. At the wonderful little restaurant,
I get a plate of cinnamon taro banana pancakes (yum!) and a big cup of coffee.
This place is so great – totally casual, the cook / owner mostly sits at a table
with some other local ladies, drinking coffee and talking story. I stop in
at the new café behind the health food store, for a sandwich, then at Teri’s
cloth store. Laura doesn’t do her stuff there anymore, and Teri is sharing a
corner of the space with another woman’s antiques. Teri tells some great
stories, including some about turkeys. It seems that the wild turkeys around her
place have actually become useful. She throws a small amount of cracked corn on
the ground, and the turkeys go there and scratch – clearing the tall grass in
the process. She says she has several large koa trees that she does this for,
and it works great. The turkeys learn to go back there for more corn, and keep
the ground clear, without digging it up.
Back at the house, Stbon drops by to pick up a little more stuff, and I go out
to chop up wood into kindling. There are Sugi branches and also avocado – some
of it a little damp still. I chop a big box of it (fun!) then make a fire.
In the early morning, still dark, the phone keeps ringing. Eventually I get
up and answer.
It’s Cassandra. “Someone just hijacked a plane and flew it into the World Trade
Center! And the Pentagon!” she says.
“Yeah, uh, right.”
“No! Really! I’m serious!”
“Uh…. “ I’m still waking up. “I think i saw that movie. It had Bruce Willis in
it.”