My grand children made short work of all the ripe one and took a sack home that should ripen in a day or so. It won't be long before I'll be carrying buckets full up from the tree to eat and freeze and try to give away.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Mango Season Hits Maui
My neighbors tree that hangs over my yard was a source of literally buckets full of mangoes last year. Even though the mangoes looked like babies on the tree, after weed eating around the tree we harvested nearly a half of a 5 gallon bucketful.
My grand children made short work of all the ripe one and took a sack home that should ripen in a day or so. It won't be long before I'll be carrying buckets full up from the tree to eat and freeze and try to give away.
My grand children made short work of all the ripe one and took a sack home that should ripen in a day or so. It won't be long before I'll be carrying buckets full up from the tree to eat and freeze and try to give away.
High End Condos, Maintenance Fees and Sustanability
As I read the Sunday May 23, 2010 edition of the Maui News about the dilemma's that high end condo owners are facing with foreclosures as one aspect, but Condo Maintenance fees being a big part of it.
They talk about monthly maintenance fees of around $1000.00 per month. This seems crazy to me, but apparently it didn't to many that bought these places for more than they are worth now.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that I remember growing up and going camping in the areas that now hold all these high end developments. As it was then and surrounding these places, it's a total dry land area. So to create then and then landscape them and dress them out to look tropical with water sucking vegetation seems like one of the big problems.
Perhaps if the landscaping was converted to plants or even no plants to minimize the water usage, they could not only help preserve our precious commodity of water, but drastically reduce their cost of the maintenance fees. I'm sure beyond other amenities such as gyms, pools and spas, the landscaping has to be a major portion of the cost.
I live in the sun drenched, windy central valley and while I accept that the lawn, which is very small anyways, will ultimately dry up seasonally and then come back in the rainy season, I find that my automatic sprinklers system only requires about 4 minutes a day of water and set for about 4:30am to prevent evaporation. So it seems that it is possible to make even small changes and still have a pretty nice landscape. My neighbors can spend an hour and usually more in the late afternoon with the garden hose watering their lawn, which is not much bigger than mine and yet their lawn in most cases is no greener than mine and in many cases is actually less green.
Just some of those things that make you scratch your head and wonder why this isn't apparent to others that should be thinking seriously about these things.
They talk about monthly maintenance fees of around $1000.00 per month. This seems crazy to me, but apparently it didn't to many that bought these places for more than they are worth now.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that I remember growing up and going camping in the areas that now hold all these high end developments. As it was then and surrounding these places, it's a total dry land area. So to create then and then landscape them and dress them out to look tropical with water sucking vegetation seems like one of the big problems.
Perhaps if the landscaping was converted to plants or even no plants to minimize the water usage, they could not only help preserve our precious commodity of water, but drastically reduce their cost of the maintenance fees. I'm sure beyond other amenities such as gyms, pools and spas, the landscaping has to be a major portion of the cost.
I live in the sun drenched, windy central valley and while I accept that the lawn, which is very small anyways, will ultimately dry up seasonally and then come back in the rainy season, I find that my automatic sprinklers system only requires about 4 minutes a day of water and set for about 4:30am to prevent evaporation. So it seems that it is possible to make even small changes and still have a pretty nice landscape. My neighbors can spend an hour and usually more in the late afternoon with the garden hose watering their lawn, which is not much bigger than mine and yet their lawn in most cases is no greener than mine and in many cases is actually less green.
Just some of those things that make you scratch your head and wonder why this isn't apparent to others that should be thinking seriously about these things.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Learning To Communicate Effectively In Japanese With little Known Secret
Have you have ever been frustrated trying to make heads or tail out of Japanese lessons, I have been there too. I tried a dozen classes before. There is a much easier way to do this.
It's not that you have a mental block with Japanese.
People that live in Japan or among Japanese speaking people learn much quicker.
Listening to how a native Japanese person speaks words and phrases in a real life conversation, and repeating what they say can speed things up dramatically.
Well here is a program that can help you do that from the comfort of your home, car or while exercising.
Here's How To
Speak Japanese Like A
Diplomat!
It's not that you have a mental block with Japanese.
People that live in Japan or among Japanese speaking people learn much quicker.
Listening to how a native Japanese person speaks words and phrases in a real life conversation, and repeating what they say can speed things up dramatically.
Well here is a program that can help you do that from the comfort of your home, car or while exercising.
Here's How To
Speak Japanese Like A
Diplomat!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Kikaida visits the Maui Matsuri Festival
Maui had a special annual visit on May 15, 2010 at the Maui Community College where the Maui Matsuri Festival was held. Beyond a day and evenings worth of displays, cultural dancing and loads of food, the infamous Kikaida Brothers were on hand to do battle with their arch enemies. For more on this you can visit http://bit.ly/MauiMatsuri on my website www.EmpowerMaui.com under Community Events. I've posted some video that my grandson and I were able to capture.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Make Mother Happy Today and Start a Garden For Her!
Aloha Everyone,
The 1 Stop Organic Farming course featuring the Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual will help you to grow some of the most nutrient dense food from your own garden. Your Mom would love a small garden with food that helps keep her healthy and saves her money on food, not to mention just the pleasure of watching it all grow and end up on the dinner plate!
Right now in addition to getting the manual itself, there are a host of other products thrown in to the package and all for less than you probably spent on the Flowers for Mother's Day.
Take a look and decide for yourself!
Click Here!
The 1 Stop Organic Farming course featuring the Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual will help you to grow some of the most nutrient dense food from your own garden. Your Mom would love a small garden with food that helps keep her healthy and saves her money on food, not to mention just the pleasure of watching it all grow and end up on the dinner plate!
Right now in addition to getting the manual itself, there are a host of other products thrown in to the package and all for less than you probably spent on the Flowers for Mother's Day.
Take a look and decide for yourself!
Click Here!
Electric Cars and Maui's Roads
As an add-on to my last post, I suggested an alternate roadway for the use of only slower moving and lighter weight Electric Cars in Hawaii and particularly Maui.
My suggestion was tempered by the cost and compared to how hard it is to even get our existing roads up to a usable standard.
Well, low and behold in This Sunday's Maui News is a story about a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group finding that Hawaii only trailed two other states in the cost of vehicle repairs related to the shoddy roads.
According to the report, the Hawaii driver spends an average of $503.00 annually to make repairs to their vehicles that directly relate to the condition of Hawaii's roads. I would suggest that figure is much higher on Maui and if the number of abandoned vehicle were consider into the cost. Many people just can't afford to do the repairs to a "Maui Cruiser" and simply stop using them.
In addition, the report attributes 34,000 traffic deaths across the nation due to poor road conditions.
So based on that information, perhaps an entire alternate roadway designed for lighter and slower moving vehicles to connect the major areas of the islands and even some scenic, pleasing, tourist attracting roads could be very affordable over the long run. The trend is to use concrete now for road as opposed to oil based asphalt, so another opportunity to used concrete or maybe an even greener and more flexible alternative could be a realistically feasible project.
Planning it out before the vehicles start showing up on the roads and begin to be manufactured in Hawaii would be critical and aid in the adoption of the Electric Car in Hawaii and on Maui.
My suggestion was tempered by the cost and compared to how hard it is to even get our existing roads up to a usable standard.
Well, low and behold in This Sunday's Maui News is a story about a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group finding that Hawaii only trailed two other states in the cost of vehicle repairs related to the shoddy roads.
According to the report, the Hawaii driver spends an average of $503.00 annually to make repairs to their vehicles that directly relate to the condition of Hawaii's roads. I would suggest that figure is much higher on Maui and if the number of abandoned vehicle were consider into the cost. Many people just can't afford to do the repairs to a "Maui Cruiser" and simply stop using them.
In addition, the report attributes 34,000 traffic deaths across the nation due to poor road conditions.
So based on that information, perhaps an entire alternate roadway designed for lighter and slower moving vehicles to connect the major areas of the islands and even some scenic, pleasing, tourist attracting roads could be very affordable over the long run. The trend is to use concrete now for road as opposed to oil based asphalt, so another opportunity to used concrete or maybe an even greener and more flexible alternative could be a realistically feasible project.
Planning it out before the vehicles start showing up on the roads and begin to be manufactured in Hawaii would be critical and aid in the adoption of the Electric Car in Hawaii and on Maui.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Hawaii's Electric Car Options
San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom Advocated Innovative Electric Cars 2009 and a rate structure similar to the cellular industry. With the announcement of CT&T from Korea striking a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Hawaii's Governor Linda Lingle to build and sell Electric Cars here in Hawaii, it would behoove us all to come up with various strategies to allow the cars to be in the hands of more people.
On Maui, while distance may not be as much of a problem and easily overcome with Electric Cars, we do have communities with roads that have speed limits higher than those allowed for with many of these types of Electric Cars.
For strictly City use a vehicle that can only run up to 30 MPH is great, but we have 45 Mph roads connecting the different parts of the island. Some possibilities are changing the laws, creating 30 MPH lanes alongside the faster lanes or an even safer method wold be to have a roadway system that was made for lightweight slower vehicles. No SUVs allowed. Knowing how long it take just to get our existing roads up to standards and the expense, it's not likely that new roads would happen, although with the A&B land barely hanging onto sugar production, it would be something to look into.
A series of charging networks located along the streets, since most have home and street lamp wiring existing, in conjunction with the Smart Grid even makes the street side charging a possibility.
With the said, here is a clip on San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2009 discussing the scenario.
On Maui, while distance may not be as much of a problem and easily overcome with Electric Cars, we do have communities with roads that have speed limits higher than those allowed for with many of these types of Electric Cars.
For strictly City use a vehicle that can only run up to 30 MPH is great, but we have 45 Mph roads connecting the different parts of the island. Some possibilities are changing the laws, creating 30 MPH lanes alongside the faster lanes or an even safer method wold be to have a roadway system that was made for lightweight slower vehicles. No SUVs allowed. Knowing how long it take just to get our existing roads up to standards and the expense, it's not likely that new roads would happen, although with the A&B land barely hanging onto sugar production, it would be something to look into.
A series of charging networks located along the streets, since most have home and street lamp wiring existing, in conjunction with the Smart Grid even makes the street side charging a possibility.
With the said, here is a clip on San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2009 discussing the scenario.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Lono's Bounty Some Background on Hawaii's Sustainability
Hawaii produced movie about an hour long, but worth the watch!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Kids School Lunches Money and Politics.
Only 11 days to go for them to reach the funding level to produce this project with the money from KickStarter.
I was buying food at Maui's new Whole Earth and saw a French film about kids and school lunches and thought rather than spend the money on a DVD I would just put that money towards upping my pledge.
It wouldn't take much and maybe it's something that all our children and grandchildren might benefit from!
Would you pledge a few dollars today?
I was buying food at Maui's new Whole Earth and saw a French film about kids and school lunches and thought rather than spend the money on a DVD I would just put that money towards upping my pledge.
It wouldn't take much and maybe it's something that all our children and grandchildren might benefit from!
Would you pledge a few dollars today?
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