Vicky Durand’s Adventure Blog #29

Welcome to BOG #29

August 19, 2023

It has been another very heavy hearted week here on Maui. I am not connected to the direct news, but every day more sad stories emerge indirectly about Lahaina, once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It is really a tragedy beyond belief!kA

Hana is now mainly occupied just with locals after sending the 45,000 tourists home. Hopefully all the little businesses will survive. I feel like we have lived through the third world tragedy-911, Covid and now the deaths and destruction of Lahaina

Civil Beat this morning reported that the State told the Maui Emergency Office it should consider sounding sirens before the fire spread. Nothing was done about this. If Maui’s top emergency had sounded the sirens it would have at least alerted people that an emergency was happening. And, now he has no regrets and has stepped down. This makes me wonder just how much more inefficient can a bureaucy get.

And, this same thing is about to happen with the beetle desecration of the coconut trees. Rather than moving in to take immediate action and move forward to remedy the situation the authorities are standing back doing little if nothing positive. The trees will all be dead before they decide on a viable course of action.

Meanwhile, I am thrilled to look up and see a nice space that has been cleared for as many coconuts and breadfruit as possible to be planted here at this pu’uhonua. Lots of invasive trees and vegetation have been cut to make this happen. In the next few days we should hear about the recipients of a reforestation grant that I applied for with the help of my friend and coconut scholar/practioner Indrajit Gaunasekara.

Moving along on the farm shed progress. The patio rafters are pretty much finished and looking gorgeous just like I imagined. Today we are cleaning up the inside building materials and sawdust for putting the flooring down on Monday. They said it should be finished by the end of the week. YEA!!!

I drove to town for another load of building materials this week. The traffic was much less than usual although just past Haiku there was a car turned upside down on the road.

With the help of Derek I got the all twelve white native immaculatus hibiscus finally in the ground. For the past months I have been nursing them along in pots. The immaculatus is endangered and I was happy to discover the hibiscus is the native plant of Hawaii. I am looking forward to the fragrant blossoms. Tomorrow we will plant the Surinam and Brazilian Cherries along the property boundary to camaflogue the hau on the neighbor’s property.

This week I harvested my first crop of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and bananas. Things grow so well there is an abundance of food and squash. I planted squash as a ground cover and I am now giving it away. Also the papayas are starting in full swing with extras for friends.

With the help of Derek I got the all white twelve native immaculatus hibiscus finally in the ground. The immaculatus is endangered and I was happy to discover the hibiscus is the native plant of Hawaii. I am looking forward to the fragrant white on white
blossoms. Tomorrow we will plant the Suriname and Brazilian Cherries along the property boundary to camaflogue the hau on the property line.

Thursday evening I was invited to attend a dinner with friends and concert at the Hotel with Amy Gillion. It was a lovely evening for all and slightly buffed the sad feelings for all of us with music.

Better get going now. Thanks for tuning in.

Someone said I need more pictures of me

Aloha Nui from Koali Niu Farm

Several weeks ago at the Ranch House with family and friends.