Hawaii Vacation Gifts by Double Brush-Hawaiian Gifts & Blog

How Double Brush Saved Hundreds of Trees

This is our Hawaii blog post in celebration of Earth Day.

Our company Double Brush is located at our artistic art studio home in the middle of a natural Ohia rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii. When we had the opportunity to build our home in 1994, we carefully planned how to situate our driveway and house, in order to save the most amount of trees. For months my husband and I cut down Ohia trees with a hand saw and chain saw and carried them off to the side to decompose and return back to the earth. This way the bull dozer service we hired only had to doze our driveway and house pad as we only wanted to clear what was absolutely necessary.

After our house was built, we landscaped around our house utilizing the natural landscape and topography. We cleared by hand the invasive bushes and weeds so the native Hapu'u ferns and Ohia trees could have more room to stretch out and grow. The trees on our property are home to hundreds of birds including the native Hawaiian Hawk (I'o) and native Hawaiian owl (Pueo).

We live in the district of Puna in East Hawaii Island, and many of the land parcels out here are 1-3 acres. Many, many people (especially developers and speculators), in the last few years will buy a piece of property and completely bull doze the land flat as a pancake, so it is void of any of the natural endemic trees, plants and terrain. This is called "clear cutting" which some believe is a cost effective way to prepare for construction. Clear cutting is dangerous as it can also have another negative impact of altering water drainage patterns.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if trees were not so damn important. I feel if you don't like the forest, don't move to the forest just to cut it down. There are many unforested areas that people can move to. If everyone who had the choice to destroy all of the trees on their property did, our area would turn into a dry, hot, arid desert and then people would get worried but by then it would be too late, it takes a long time to grow a mature forest.

It is our native forest that attracts clouds and moisture to the area, and brings the rains that nourishes the native plant and animal wild life, waters our farmer's crops that produce our food, helps maintain our climate, and replenishes our water shed. Living in nature and with nature also communes with your soul by giving you a deeper connection to and respect for the earth.

The ancient Hawaiian people of Puna understood the relationship of the Ohia tree forest and rain when they named an area "Wao Kele o Puna" or the rain belt of Puna.

We are used to Rain in Hilo, but we Hate Floods

We have been offline since Friday due to some severe weather on the Big Island, Hawaii. Hilo experienced some major flooding in areas that previously were not known to have flood conditions, and in places that always floods such as the Bayfront road in Hilo. Roads and schools were closed and many outdoor events were canceled.

We are used to rain on the East side of Hawaii island, with the city of Hilo receiving a annual rainfall of 126 inches. In Keaau where we live, the rainfall total is 120-200 inches per year!

Rain is one thing put constant pouring buckets of rain is another. It was storming so hard at our home in Puna with loud cracks of thunder, that we unplugged the computer and moved it to another room--since we lost our computer to a lightning strike a few years ago.

Luckily we had lots of food and the power didn't go off although we did have a couple of "brown outs". If you live on the Big Island, a brown out is when the electric lights in your home go dim for a second than come back on. For that moment you hold your breath and hope it won't turn into a "black out" meaning no power at all.

The east side of the Big Island has been one big soggy mess with Waiakea Uka (upper mountain area of Hilo) receiving over 20" of rain on Saturday. It feels like we must have received that much also.

Visit my friend Richard Ha's blog for a first hand account of the Hilo Flood 2008 with lots of photographs like the one above.

Would You Enjoy Staying in a Hobbit House?

The world fell in love with Hobbits after J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the prequel "The Hobbit." The fame of Hobbits or Halflings was also greatly enhanced after the Lord of the Rings movies came out a few years ago.

For people who love all things Hobbit and have a fantasy of staying in a Hobbit dwelling or Hobbit House, well now they can. And to top it all off, it is located on the Big Island of Hawaii on a secluded hill top overlooking the ocean with unobstructed views--a fantasy house in a fantasy location!

The Hobbit house in Hawaii has been a very famous house for many years because of its distinctive features and visible location. Darlene and Bill Whaling started building their dream home in 1981. Through the years they have lovingly custom built their home with lots of wood for a warm old fashioned feeling, and added surprising touches of whimsy such as stained glass artwork and carved wooden relief details.

I always wanted to do a blog post about the Hobbit House, and was happy to find out that it is now a famous Hawaii Bed and Breakfast that was featured on HGTV Offbeat America as Hawaii's fairytale home. This handcrafted unique home doesn't seem to have a straight line in sight. From the rounded edges of its roof line, to the round window frames and crooked natural tree trunk supports--this is what a hobbit house to fit humans should look like!

Also like the Hobbits of middle earth who live in the shire, the Hobbit house is a green earth friendly house. They generate all of their own electricity through solar and wind power, use energy efficient lighting, low flow toilets, recyle, grow a Hobbit garden, compost and more.

Nearby is a enchanted forest of tall Eucalyptus and Norfolk Pine trees--I wonder if Elves live there?

Rates are for 2-3 nights and $150 -$200 per night depending. Visit their site Hawaii Honeymoon Bed and Breakfast, Hawaii Hobbit House, Big Island, Hawaii for more information and to make reservations.

Kilauea Lava Flows 25 Years--Uncle Robert at Kalapana Remembered

If you live on the Big Island, you have a relationship with Madame Pele (the Hawaiian Fire goddess who lives in Kilauea Crater) whether you like it or not. Some people have made peace with it, others are terrified, and the majority seem to be ambivalent about it. We live next door to Madame Pele and so try not to do anything to offend her.

This past Thursday, January 3rd marked the 25th Anniversary of the eruption of Kilauea Volcano. Scientists on Hawaii Island (Big Island) say that it is the longest Kilauea rift zone eruption in at least the last 800 years.

50,000 gallons of molten lava gush from cracks on the volcano's flank every minute--enough to fill Diamond Head crater to a depth of one foot every day. All of this lava has created 212 acres of new coastline making the Big Island that much bigger!

Besides Pele creating land, she can also be a destructive presence burning native forests and destroying whole subdivisions of homes. That is what happened in 1990 to the area known as Kalapana and a subdivision named Royal Gardens. My Hawaiian friends told me that Pele took back her aina (land) because she didn't like what the people were doing there on her land. There was lots of drug activity, lawlessness, and the people who lived there were selfish with natural resources that were supposed to be for everyone.

I don't know if that it true because I did not know anyone personally that lived there during that time. All except for Uncle Robert. Uncle Robert as he is known to local people around here, is an indigenous Hawaiian man of great faith--the Catholic faith. (In Hawaii it is not unusual to believe in Hawaiian beliefs and have a other religious faith also.)

Uncle Robert's house was spared from a lava flow headed directly towards his house and property in Kalapana near the beach. As the lava flow was approaching, he prayed and left everything in the hands of God as he placed his rosary onto his property's rock wall--then drove away with his family. When he came back later, the lava flow had diverted just enough to spare his property as it flowed past towards the ocean. I have been to his home and met him years ago. You can see a 10 foot? wall of lava that runs along one side of his property line!

The bible talks about having enough faith to move mountains, but to move a lava flow?! Now that is what I call faith.

Back then at Uncle Robert's house, people were laughing at my husband and I because our mouths were open as we walked besides this towering wall of lava rock, puzzled by what we were looking at. It was then that Uncle Robert told us the story about his home and faith.

Hawaii Thunderstorms Kept Us Offline Again

Aloha Everyone! I'm back!!

I have not been online much due to the awful thunderstorms on the Big Island we are experiencing.

The weather has been really terrible all week for all the islands in Hawaii with flooding, downed power lines, no electricity service, etc. The storm system is slowly moving away but it is still wet and rainy on the Big Island.

Last night the thunder was so loud and so close that I saw the walls and windows of our house shake! My husband saw a large lightning bolt strike the ground near our house. We heard a loud crack and this morning found two large Ohia tree trunks and branches that had cracked off from the tree top. They were both about 35 feet long and grazed our telephone line so that it was lying on the ground.

Since our phone still worked, my husband was able to secure the line back where it belonged. (I did call the phone company first just to make sure it was safe.)

It was also super windy and we have Ohia tree branches all over the driveway and everywhere. While in Keaau last week around 2:30 in the afternoon there was a black out for a couple hours due to the windy conditions. Many businesses closed down and everyone got to go home a little early. I was extra careful driving through intersections with no traffic lights.

Earlier in the week we were also experiencing vog (which I will post more about later).

Note: I wrote the above a few days ago, and was not able to finish because I heard thunder and quickly unplugged my computer and moved it to the other room again for the umpteenth time! Read my post, "Did you know you could lose your computer from lightning?" and you will understand why I do this.

It has been raining hard all day and night here, but thankfully no lightning for now.

Evelyn from Homespun Honolulu and
Kailani from An Island Life, what was Oahu like last week for you?

Did You Know You Could Lose Your Computer from Lightning?

Did you know you could lose your computer from lightning? I did not know it was possible till it happened to me 3 years ago. It was during a terrible storm with lots of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Suddenly, bolt of lightning came through the phone line and zapped my computer--which thankfully I was not using at the time. We saw a bright light, heard the crackle zap and sizzle sound, and then smelled an electrical burning scent coming from the computer. (We had a surge protector which was suppose to protect our computer but it didn't work--it was the cheap kind.)

When we tried to turn on the computer it would not turn on. I took it to a computer place and they said it was fried due to a high electrical surge, such as due to lightning and would cost a lot to repair, they recommended we buy a new computer. I needed to get this written repair quote for our home insurance which in the end they only gave us $300.00 for because the computer was 5 years old.

Since then, my neighbors up the street lost their computer due to a lightning strike, our other friend in Leilani Estates got their computer fried from lightning, and another friend told me of 3 other people she knew on the Big Island that lost their computers due to lightning storms also.

So now at the first hint of thunder and lightning, we unplug the computer and the DSL unit and physically move it to another room away from the telephone!

The past 4 days has been raining hard with thunder and lightning so I have not been online much which is the reason that I did not post as regularly.

When I first started blogging, I read a blog article about blogging that said no one wants to hear your excuses about why you have not been blogging, so I thought if I turned it into an informative post first, my readers would be understanding.

So, have you ever had this happen to you (losing your computer due to lightning), or heard of it happening to someone else?

Every Climate in the World is Located in Big Island Hawaii

The Big Island of Hawaii has every climate condition in the world as classified by the Koppen classification system of climates. The five main climate classifications are: tropical rainforest, arid and semi-arid, temperate zone, periglacial, and snow.

Actually, Hawaii is considered to have only four out of the five climate classifications because although there is seasonal snow on the mountain peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, the Koppen system places the mountain peaks in the periglacial zone.

The reasons for the diversity in climate on Hawaii Island is its enormous size coupled with the heating and cooling of the land up and down the mountain. This creates mini-climates that multiply the climate diversity.

The mountains of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa provide an immense diversity of topography, temperature, and vegetation. The tradewinds predominantly come from the northeast and hit these two large volcanoes which produce even more unique climates.

Where else but the Big Island of Hawaii can you wade under a tropical waterfall, drive up a volcano and play in the snow, drive through a lava desert, and sunbathe on a sandy beach--ALL in one day?

The Rainiest City in the US is Hilo Hawaii

Living in Hawaii, the fiftieth state of the United States, we also grew up hearing that the rainiest city in the US is Seattle Washington. However, even in you were only counting the continental US or mainland states, Seattle still ranks behind a lot of other cities in terms of annual rainfall totals. Chicago, Houston, New York City, Miami and other cities receive more rain than Seattle's 37 inches.

The reason Seattle got the reputation as the rainiest capital is:

...because while it indeed rains a lot here, it doesn't rain very heavily. It could rain all day here, and we'll pick up maybe 0.10" of rain. Meanwhile, a 20 minute thunderstorm in Miami could drop 0.75" of rain.

KomoTV.com Seattle, Washington

And now we come back to Hilo, Hawaii, on the Big Island. According to RSS Weather, where you can look up and search any USA weather by city, state, or zip code, Hilo receives over 126 inches of rain per year!

Where we live in Keaau on the Big Island of Hawaii we receive even more rain than Hilo--much, much more. 120-200 inches of annual rainfall!!

How rainy is it where you live?

Name the Five Volcanoes that Form the Big Island

Can you name the 5 volcanoes that form the Big Island of Hawaii? If you said Kilauea volcano, Mauna Kea volcano, Mauna Loa volcano, Kohala volcano and Hualalai volcano--give yourself a pat on the back.

The island of Hawaii is built from five separate shield volcanoes that erupted almost sequentially with one overlapping the other. The following Hawaii volcanoes are from the youngest--very active, to the oldest--extinct.

Kilauea is the world's most active volcano and located in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It has been erupting since 1983, and has made new land and destroyed old land at the same time.

Mauna Loa meaning Long Mountain in Hawaiian, is the largest volcano on earth! It is an active volcano with its last eruption occurring in 1984.

Hualalai is a dormant volcano with its highest peak at 8,271 feet above sea level. The last eruption was in 1801 but Hualalai is considered a potentially dangerous volcano that is likely to erupt again sometime in the next 100 years.

Mauna Kea the Hawaiian name meaning White Mountain because of its snow capped peaks during the winter, is the highest mountain in the world when measured from its ocean base to summit, and stands 13,796 feet above sea level and rises 33,000 feet from the ocean floor. It is a dormant volcano.

Kohala is an extinct volcano, thank goodness!

There is a sixth volcano nearby that is named Loihi. It is located fifteen miles off the southeast coast of the Big Island 3,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean. Someday, thousands of years from now, Loihi will emerge to form a new island.

We live on the Big Island in the Puna district and have recently observed the glow at night from the newest Kilauea lava flow.

Wild Pigs Get Stoned in Pig Feud in Hawaii

Did you know wild pigs get stoned in Hawaii?--and I don't mean that people throw rocks at them--wild pigs or feral pigs have been known to eat marijuana growing on the land. Maggie Kline from the east side of the Big Island in the rural subdivision of Fern Forest said the wild boars have devoured her medical marijuana, or as the Hawaiians call it "pakalolo" meaning crazy weed. She blames the increased influx of wild swine to the elderly neighbor couple that have been regularly feeding 100 or so of these wild feral pigs.

Retired and in his eighties, Sueo and Sharene Matsumoto live on their 12 acre lot densely forested with native Ohia trees. They first started to feed pigs when a few baby pigs they had seen with their sow mother showed up without her--their mother had been shot and killed, Sueo heard the shots.

Mr. Matsumoto said that humans are the most advanced creatures on earth, so they have a duty to care for animals. He puts his money where his mouth is and spends $600.00 a month for bags of pig food for these feral pigs, a cross between the domesticated Polynesian pig and the mean looking black, tusked, lean wild Eurasian boar.

A pig feud has erupted between the Matsumoto family and the majority of their surrounding neighbors.
The growing number of pigs are wandering into other neighbor yards and property and causing all kinds of havoc. From tearing up gardens, chewing on water pipes, making pig wallows, and leaving their poop all over--the neighbors have had enough.

The state and county have looked into the problem: the State Health Department said no health hazards were found in the Matsumoto's home they inspected, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said the state does not recommend feeding wild animals but has no authority on private land, and the Hawaii County Planning Department said no zoning laws are being broken as the wild pigs are not confined or being eaten so the property does not qualify as a pig farm.

What the county has done is approve $250,000.00 for the U.S. Department of Agriculture agents to trap and shoot wild boars on private property at the request of the owner. This is not an eradication program but a program to control wild pigs in residential areas.

Read Pig Feud on the Big Island for more details.

What is missing from the above argument is that the wild pigs are destroying the native Hawaiian forest and leading Hawaii's native bird population into extinction.

Pristine Hawaiian rain forests had little in the way of sites for Culex mosquitoes to breed. Culex is a tropical mosquito and evolved with mankind as a “cup” breeder, that is, it needs still, warm, nutrient-rich, small “cups” or puddles to breed in. The pristine forests in Hawai‘i had very few of these. Culex can't breed in running streams or ponds or any clean clear water. Pigs create lots of breeding sites in creating their wallows and especially when they hollow or “trough” hapu‘u, which fill with rain water, thus creating hundreds of breeding sites per acre. Pig fecal matter fouls the wallows, creating perfect Culex breeding sites. These many breeding sites have allowed these mosquitoes to adapt to higher and higher elevations, carrying the malaria and pox with them. Also, when the pigs dig for worms and roots, they cause erosion where rainfall is heavy, causing the siltation of streams and eventually siltation of the reefs. So, not only are they destroying the forest but also stream ecosystems and Hawai‘i’s reef ecosystems. Hawai‘i’s natural environment would be healthier without feral pigs.

From Rare Hawaii

Read our related post Wild Pigs on the Big Island for information on what attracts or repel wild pigs to your property.