At Home In The Jungle

It's almost noon and the trade winds have died to almost nothing. This Pacific Northwest gal is sitting here doing a minor grumble about the weather – sticky. But it's hard to do more than a minor grumble about the weather here in paradise. It really is never too hot nor too cold and our humidity, though more than I like, never reaches the levels of much of the South, Midwest or East Coast. Puffy white clouds are floating in and will back up against the mountains soon to cause rain in the higher elevations. We may not see any.

Last night we had a termite swarm. They are early this year. I hate them. Besides the damage they can potentially do to the house, it means lights out as soon as we see them. If they have no light to be attracted to, they are less apt to land and settle in. So I'm reading my book by flashlight under the covers after going to bed at eight o'clock. Talk about flashbacks to teenage years.

Today we put in a new water system. We live in an area with no public nor private, as in community, water supply. Our water is supplied by what lands on our roof with the rain. It is collected into a large tank and stored for future use. This means that my water is literally rain water soft but there are possible hazards from contamination. So today we added a new system that runs the water through two filters and then an ultraviolet sterilizing process. We drank the water before this system but I'll feel more comfortable doing it with this change over.

We live on six acres of barely controlled jungle outside of Kea`au, Hawai`i on the Big Island. We are about eighteen miles from the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Our land is covered with ohia, palms, guava and a variety of other trees. We also have a large collection of orchids, anthiriums, tree ferns and vireyas growing on the property. Vireya are tropical and sub-tropical rhododendrons. The picture is of the vireya Veryl Ann and it was hybridized by Mitch Mitchell of Volcano Hawaii. And yes, it was named after me.

Our family consists of myself, my husband Glenn, two dogs Hoku and Kip, and a flock of eight chickens. Hoku and Kip are what we call poi dogs here in Hawai`i. Anywhere else they would be called mutts. Hoku has Rotweiller and German Shepherd in her but I think she also has terrier in her mix. I always swore I would never live with a terrier and I find that all the behaviors of Hoku's that drive me nuts are those that I can attribute to terrier in her background. Kip is a bigger mystery because she was found wandering in the forest near Volcano but we think she looks like she has a lot of Australian Cattle Dog in her. She is our self appointed watch dog and overall cuddle dog.

So now you know a little bit about us and where we live. Oh and the fiber part. My creative passions are worked out in two areas – fiber arts and writing. You will hear much about both as this blog continues.