Islandoftiki's Hawaiian adventure!

[VW_TDI_02]

This is gonna sound stupid but I i didn't know there were "varieties" of bananas. I know there's a mini one, and then the normal. That's what I love about these forums, you learn something every day! My question is, once you have a bunch that are ready, what do you do with all the bananas? I know you can only eat so many and store some in the freezer for banana bread. I can't remember if you said, do you guys have a pineapple tree too?

 

The neighbor goat, how great that it comes to visit, or does it mess with your garage?. Do all the goats get along with each other? Are these goats milk producers? mmm.....I just thought of goat cheese grits with spicy shrimp.

 

Whale season. How incredible. I'm gonna take you guys up on that offer at one point in my life here.

Just an FYI, pineapples do not grow on trees but rather on a low plant similar to an aloe plant in shape but with less fleshy leafs.

[FlowerMama]

Just an FYI, pineapples do not grow on trees but rather on a low plant similar to an aloe plant in shape but with less fleshy leafs.

 

See what I mean! I learn something everyday, even if it isn't reefing related!

 

Here's another fact I didn't know, pine nuts, actually do come from the pine cone! I had no idea.

[1.0reef]

Pineapples are broms right?

[Islandoftiki]

This is gonna sound stupid but I i didn't know there were "varieties" of bananas. I know there's a mini one, and then the normal. That's what I love about these forums, you learn something every day! My question is, once you have a bunch that are ready, what do you do with all the bananas? I know you can only eat so many and store some in the freezer for banana bread. I can't remember if you said, do you guys have a pineapple tree too?

 

The neighbor goat, how great that it comes to visit, or does it mess with your garage?. Do all the goats get along with each other? Are these goats milk producers? mmm.....I just thought of goat cheese grits with spicy shrimp.

 

Whale season. How incredible. I'm gonna take you guys up on that offer at one point in my life here.

 

Oh, I love all of the questions! Let me take a stab at all of them...

 

Bananas, there are dozens of varieties. The ones you get at the supermarket on the mainland are the cavindish variety. I think there may be more than one type of cavindish, but I may be wrong. Regardless, the cavindish banana is in danger of extinction from a really invasive virus.

 

In Hawaii, the most common banans are Apple bananas, and as the name suggests, they have a more tangy flavor like a cross between a banana and an apple. They are about half the size of a grocery store cavindish and way more flavorful. They are one of my favorites. Pamela's favorite banana is the Nam Wah banana which are a little more difficult to find, but they have them at our local farmers market and we talked the vendor into selling us some keike (baby plants). And as of last week, we have our first fruit coming from them. Our latest harvest, we don't know what they are but we're guessing at lady fingers? We picked up some Ice Cream bananas at the farmers market the other day. Plantains are not hard to find, but I have no idea how to prepare them. Cuban reds are sometimes available. There are at least a dozen other varieties that are grown on the island that I'm not familiar with. We will certainly be sharing some of the latest harvest of bananas with the neighbors, friends and coworkers, and we'll be making muffins and other dessert treats that can be frozen.

 

We do have several pineapple plants. We haven't quite figured out how to grow them well. They're supposed to love full sunlight, but the ones in full sun always look a bit burned. The ones in the shade seem to be doing better. It might be the wind that they don't like. We'll get them figured out. The plants themselves look just like the green top of the pineapple (only larger as they grow), which you can cut off from the fruit, stick in the ground and make more pineapples.

 

Ganja, the neighbor's goat hasn't caused any issues, he was just super curious about everything. He has severely pruned several of our ornamental plants which we discourage, but otherwise, he's welcome to come visits. He is fixed, so he's welcome to visit our girls.

 

Our goats could be milk producers, but it's quite a lot of work. First we would have to breed them, and once they are milking, you have to milk them every single day or they will dry up. And Cherry is the only one would might put up with being milked. Syria doesn't even like to be touched. Syria loves to have us around, but to physical touching. Cherry always wants to cuddle though. They are best friends and can't be separated.

 

We're super excited about whale season. I'm hoping to get some underwater video this year. We had some amazing close encounters last year in the kayaks. It takes a lot of patience to get close to them in kayaks. You absolutely can't hope to chase whales down in a kayak, they're many times faster than we are, but if you pay attention to their routes, you can put yourself in an area where they frequent and just hang out. If you're not too noisy, they will be curious and come inspect you.

Pineapples are broms right?

Yes, I believe they are in the bromeliad family.

[Mariaface]

I should mention: This is the second time we're letting bananas go extinct. Go us!

[FlowerMama]

See, I like my cavindish bananas green at the stem so I bet I'd love the apple banana!!! I swear, this is like the Discovery Channel.

[Islandoftiki]

So, who knew that goats would be so easy to walk on a leash?

 

Instead of having to stop every 10 feet to smell something like dogs do, goats have to stop to sample the weeds on along the side of the road.

 

Right now, our girls are visiting a dwarf Nigerian boy named, Little Man. With any luck, they'll both get pregnant and we'll have baby goats! Baby goats!!!

 

<"https://youtu.be/JJV-pwpSSus">

[fishfreak0114]

That's so cool! And wow I read that last paragraph wrong lol. First. I thought that you meant human girls. Then I thought "someone named their kid little man?" And then I was like "you want your kids to get pregnant?!" Then I read baby goats

[Islandoftiki]

Speaking of goats, this is the goat from across the street that jumps his fence to come visit us on a regular basis. I'm not going to fool myself. He likes us a lot and all, but he's really here for the pods that our gigantic mesquite tree drops.

 

<"https://youtu.be/DPjQvw8Re-w">

[Islandoftiki]

I gotta tell you, gang... I miss this a lot.

 

<"https://youtu.be/v2YPZ5UlxkM">

[FlowerMama]

She was beautiful, intelligent, respectful, cautious and caring and just watching her made me cry as my girl just completed 3 yrs with me on 11/4. I occasionally look up tyour videos just to watch. My heart is heavy for ya. So sorry.

[Islandoftiki]

I love these things so much! They are called feeble shrimp. I discovered them a Kiholo bay where there is a large amount of freshwater flowing into the bay from underground. The top layer of water is freshwater and very cold! A couple feet down it's saltwater and quite warm. It's very strange to swim there! So, after seeing countless green sea turtles and an extremely rare and endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, I spotted these little beauties. They might be the perfect stars of the show in my next nano or pico reef tank here in Hawaii. After filming this, as you would expect, I had to interact with them. They were very kind and gracious enough to give me a light manicure. They were very interactive, a bit like a cleaner shrimp. They are small, like freshwater Amano shrimp.

 

<"https://youtu.be/bfx-htMyjaw">

[FlowerMama]

Very active. I noticed they preferred the shade some over the light.

[SquishyFishy]

Hey guys! Annette you can cut off the top of a fresh pineapple and root it in a pot of good soil, you can actually grow pineapple from the top of one.

[SquishyFishy]

John your little homestead is looking quite the green lovely place. Love all the plantings! I really was disappointed we couldn't get together last year...but maybe soon. Keep up the good work and acquiring new menagerie!

 

My brother n law just competed in the outrigger race over on Maui to Oahu last month, we watched the live stream on PC. Did you see it? We have kayaks, but no whales in these parts! LOL!

[FlowerMama]

Hey guys! Annette you can cut off the top of a fresh pineapple and root it in a pot of good soil, you can actually grow pineapple from the top of one.

 

I'll have to try that.

[Islandoftiki]

New updates folks!

 

We got more chickens! Several weeks ago, we picked up four Cuckoo Maran pullets. They're growing like weeds and yesterday, they joined the Buff Orpingtons in the main coupe after a lot of supervised interaction time to make sure there wouldn't be a nasty chicken style gangster beat-down. So far, all is going well and no blood has been shed. Chickens can be brutal.

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas decorations went up for sale at Costco at least a week before Thanksgiving. My favorite thing is the icicle lights. Because what's more Hawaii than icicles hanging from your eves when it's 78 degrees out? Answer: Nothing! Pamela was more than happy to ham it up for the photo.

 

 

 

One of the succulents that I picked up at the farmers market bloomed. For scale, those flowers are about the size of a dime.

 

 

 

So, there was a viral video circulating on Facebook showing a flock of chickens pecking at a xylophone and making funny random music, so we decided that we needed to experience this first hand, so we picked up a cheap xylophone from Amazon. Our chickens call it a "Nope!". They want nothing to do with it.

 

 

 

Speaking of succulents, our gigantic 12' tall euphorbia that lives next to the garage bloomed. This is somewhat interesting, but the more interesting thing about it is that it attracts flies to pollinate it!

 

 

 

On Friday, there was much excitement in downtown Kona! There was a bomb scare! They shut down about a 4 square block area due to a suspicious device found outside the front door of the sketchy tattoo shop! The area was evacuated from around 7am to around 5pm while they waited for the Army bomb technicians to come deal with what was clearly a very dangerous device. A friend of a coworker is the owner of the tattoo shop. They texted a picture of the bomb. Yep, they closed down half of the downtown all day for that.

 

 

 

The goats are back from their conjugal visit with Little Man. With any luck, we'll have baby goats in the next 5 months. We're not 100% sure Little Man was successful as he is really short. We're not sure if he could reach. We're happy to have them back. And as an added bonus, Syria (the brown one) lets us pet her now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's about it for now...

 

Oh, and by the way, the humpback whales are here!!!!

[Christopher Marks]

I always love these updates!

 

Those icicle lights are funny! Do you feel like it's harder to have a sense of seasonal holidays like Xmas when the weather barely changes? I grew up in Ohio with 4 traditional seasons, and after 12 years in Phoenix AZ it still never 'feels' like it's time for Xmas because it's not cold yet! Sneaks up on me every year.

 

I'm fascinated with the parallels to Hawaii's desert regions and Phoenix's Sonoran Desert, it seems many of the plants in your yard are siblings to what is in mine. Mesquite trees, cactus, succulents, euphorbia. That euphorbia of yours by the garage, I'd love to see a full shot of it! I keep a few different types of euphorbia in my landscape, but none of them get that big!

[gena]

I sure enjoy reading about your new life in Hawaii!!! I'm surprised the chickens aren't interested in the xylophone. They like shiny things..especially painted toenails LOL. Maybe try shining up the bars with some clear nail polish or something like that.

[FlowerMama]

We sure are glad to hear about what's going on in Hawaii. I think I heard something about snow and was wondering where that is in relation to you? Everything you post is so interesting, fish or not. And now it's whale season. Do you have kayaks?

[Islandoftiki]

I always love these updates!

 

Those icicle lights are funny! Do you feel like it's harder to have a sense of seasonal holidays like Xmas when the weather barely changes? I grew up in Ohio with 4 traditional seasons, and after 12 years in Phoenix AZ it still never 'feels' like it's time for Xmas because it's not cold yet! Sneaks up on me every year.

 

I'm fascinated with the parallels to Hawaii's desert regions and Phoenix's Sonoran Desert, it seems many of the plants in your yard are siblings to what is in mine. Mesquite trees, cactus, succulents, euphorbia. That euphorbia of yours by the garage, I'd love to see a full shot of it! I keep a few different types of euphorbia in my landscape, but none of them get that big!

 

Yes, it never feels like Christmas to us. People who have been here for many years say you eventually get used to it. This is our second Christmas on the island and aside from tons of Christmas junk for sale at the big box stores, it seems like any other time of the year. One nice thing about winter is that it's not so oppressively hot during the day. It's downwards of 68 degrees when I leave for work in the morning. We also turn off the A/C and sleep with the windows open at night, which is nice except for when we have 30 to 50 mph winds and the dirt and dust start flying. Dust is a way of life on this part of the island. You just can't keep up with it. Keeping everything in plastic storage bins is your best bet.

 

And speaking of the euphorbia, here's a picture of the beast...

 

 

We are in climate zone 12b. 20 minutes North and it's lush tropical rain forest.

 

 

We sure are glad to hear about what's going on in Hawaii. I think I heard something about snow and was wondering where that is in relation to you? Everything you post is so interesting, fish or not. And now it's whale season. Do you have kayaks?

 

 

Yes, we got snow on top of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea the other day! Here's a picture I took on my way home the other day.

 

 

We do have Kayaks and we're itching to get out and do some up close and personal whale watching this year. I have a GoPro camera that I'm going to mount on my head so I can share the kayaking adventures with you all. Last year we had whales swim right under our kayaks!

 

I'll leave you all with this photo I took the other night after we got our first good look at the whales. There was a whale under water just to the left of the sail boat.

[SquishyFishy]

John, I could barely look at the whale for the exquisite sunset!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Plantains are very starchy and less delicate compared with other bananas and as such are used in cooking more. They are best fried and in Honduras where we cruise to, they are like sweet potatoes as a main dish and are sauteed with sriracha and such and served with beans and fish tacos! Don't like them much, but everyone in the Caribbean does.

[FlowerMama]

John, I could barely look at the whale for the exquisite sunset!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Plantains are very starchy and less delicate compared with other bananas and as such are used in cooking more. They are best fried and in Honduras where we cruise to, they are like sweet potatoes as a main dish and are sauteed with sriracha and such and served with beans and fish tacos! Don't like them much, but everyone in the Caribbean does.

 

That just made me hungry. I've had some nice plantains that were sweet & tangy and it was reminiscent of a peach/mango the way it was made. Waiting for my mushroom pizza in the oven.

[SquishyFishy]

LOL now that's more like it!

[SquishyFishy]

John, we just got word from Todd's daughter that she is getting stationed on Oahu next year, so that's his brother and now Tabitha...looks like another trip coming!! Hope we can get over to Kona!