The lost people of Fern Forest (Hilo: buy, DMV, camp)

[Badatta2de]

Did i mention my coqui population also disappeared? I can only assume they are tasty cuz the chickens don't bother with skinks.

[mangodog]

Originally Posted by mangodog

Better to do the drinking at home and not on the Belt Hwy. Those winding roads especially to and from Kona are too dangerous to be drinking. You go off the shoulder into Eternity.

If you want to keep the porcelain toilet bowl super clean and white - here is a neat trick. First use a small mirror to examine the under rim of the inside of the bowl where there are small holes circling the bowl and where the water comes out when you flush - (under the rim but inside of the bowl NOT THE TANK ), If the holes are black and or clogged, you can dislodge mold or algea with a paperclip or small wire. Next, you can whiten the holes by taking damp toilet paper with full strength clorine bleach and push the now wet toilet paper up where it can soak for 30 minutes. When you flush the toilet after an hour, the water will wash the paper away and the process should leave the holes much cleaner.

This can also be done to whiten the dark rings around the top edge of the bath tub where the grout is. Take a 12 inch stretch of toilet paper and hold it against the area while you gently splash a cap full of bleach over the toilet paper. Let it stand for an hour. Then remove the paper and the area underneath should be much whiter.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Badatta2de

Did i mention my coqui population also disappeared? I can only assume they are tasty cuz the chickens don't bother with skinks.

Really?! This potentially the best news of the year! (... um, well, I live a hermit's life, isolated pretty much on my boats and mainland cabin in the woods ... doesn't take much to entertain me, I guess) ... I have long toyed with adding a piece of Puna dirt to my life afloat in Hawaii, but the coqui have kept me from getting serious. As a kid on a farm I experienced the chickens doing impressive rodent extermination service and it makes sense they might gobble the noisy amphibians in Puna -- assuming the coqui don't have any noxious secretions.

Anyone else have success ridding coqui by chicken? Never thought of that!

[mdand3boys]

The Dept of Agriculture says chickens should be "introduced" to the taste of coqui frogs and that after that, they will eat them. I am not sure how one does that... ?

[mangodog]

Originally Posted by mangodog

If you want to keep the porcelain toilet bowl super clean and white - here is a neat trick. First use a small mirror to examine the under rim of the inside of the bowl where there are small holes circling the bowl and where the water comes out when you flush - (under the rim but inside of the bowl NOT THE TANK ), If the holes are black and or clogged, you can dislodge mold or algea with a paperclip or small wire. Next, you can whiten the holes by taking damp toilet paper with full strength clorine bleach and push the now wet toilet paper up where it can soak for 30 minutes. When you flush the toilet after an hour, the water will wash the paper away and the process should leave the holes much cleaner.

This can also be done to whiten the dark rings around the top edge of the bath tub where the grout is. Take a 12 inch stretch of toilet paper and hold it against the area while you gently splash a cap full of bleach over the toilet paper. Let it stand for an hour. Then remove the paper and the area underneath should be much whiter.

There is a great deal of wrong information and ignorance regarding rat control. Many people resort to poison use for rat control, and this is a mistake. When the rats die, the fleas that they are carrying hop ship and infest the home. In short, poison does not solve the problem. The proper way to solve a rat problem is by stopping the root of the problem. If you want to get rid of rats in your house or attic, you must first find out how they are getting in, and seal off those entry points permanently. Once that is done, the rats should by physically trapped with a snap trap and removed from the house. It is also a good idea to clean and decontaminate the mess that they've made. Take the dead rats to the dump or bury them.

[mangodog]

Originally Posted by mangodog

There is a great deal of wrong information and ignorance regarding rat control. Many people resort to poison use for rat control, and this is a mistake. When the rats die, the fleas that they are carrying hop ship and infest the home. In short, poison does not solve the problem. The proper way to solve a rat problem is by stopping the root of the problem. If you want to get rid of rats in your house or attic, you must first find out how they are getting in, and seal off those entry points permanently. Once that is done, the rats should by physically trapped with a snap trap and removed from the house. It is also a good idea to clean and decontaminate the mess that they've made. Take the dead rats to the dump or bury them.

Driving around I notice more people bulldozing their land - Is that because they like the desert look? Should we just bulldoze the entire subdivision and get rid of all those pesky trees and ferns ? And the wild orchids, they are a public nuisance and weed control should be liberally employed on them. If we got rid of all the trees in FFVE then we could keep a better eye on what our neighbors are up to. Good Idea ?

[Badatta2de]

Md, my chickens attack the frogs cuz the move lol.
Mango, more and more people mowing over hapu'u and ohia and I will never understand why.

[mangodog]

Originally Posted by mangodog

Driving around I notice more people bulldozing their land - Is that because they like the desert look? Should we just bulldoze the entire subdivision and get rid of all those pesky trees and ferns ? And the wild orchids, they are a public nuisance and weed control should be liberally employed on them. If we got rid of all the trees in FFVE then we could keep a better eye on what our neighbors are up to. Good Idea ?

If we all bulldoze our 3 acres then we can have the nice desert look like the Ka'u region - rolling black lava as far as the eye can see. Maybe we can get discount if we all contract at the same time.

[mangodog]

Originally Posted by mangodog

If we all bulldoze our 3 acres then we can have the nice desert look like the Ka'u region - rolling black lava as far as the eye can see. Maybe we can get discount if we all contract at the same time.

So is this what our Forest is slowly becoming ? Bulldozing the trees back to reveal the black lava ? We can change the name to: Ka'u Vacation Estates.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by mangodog

So is this what our Forest is slowly becoming ? Bulldozing the trees back to reveal the black lava ? We can change the name to: Ka'u Vacation Estates.

Personally, I don't understand at all the "pin-to-pin" bulldozing style that some people employ, usually followed by landscaping with non-native plants which require a lot of maintenance. Big green lawns are the worst. Who wants to mow lawns in Paradise?

I mean really, why come to Hawai'i and then make it look like like somewhere else?

I live in Volcano at 3,900', mauka (up the mountain) from Highway 11. Volcano is a very tight knit community with active social and community groups. I was welcomed into the community and achieved instant street cred with the locals because I decided not to bulldoze at all, and to do only hand clearing. I kept all but one of the ohia trees, and all the hapu'u treeferns (moved a few) and the olapa and the huge old sugi in the corner, taking out only the invasives like guava and Russian olive.

In keeping the basic structure of the forest intact, i not only preserved the natural beauty of the site, I also kept the abundant bird life thriving. I have all three kinds of honeycreepers on my land daily, plus cardinals, sparrows, doves, canaries, Kalij pheasants, hawks, and an owl. The birds are my constant companions during the day, providing a feast of visual display and melodic birdsong. And I met more of my neighbors during the first thirty days than I had met in my previous ten years on the mainland. I've never felt more "home."

Contrast that with the West Coast type who bulldozed his lot clean a few years ago, border to border, then put up a California style house, complete with expensive non-native landscaping. The community shunned him, and he lasted here less than 4 years before going back to wherever. But the tragedy is, that lot is now lost forever as bird habitat. Ohias are the key food source. Since we're in the "bridge" corridor between Volcano National Park and Ola'la National Forest, keeping natural bird habitat healthy between them is key to the survival of a number of endangered species.

As to the coqui frog invasion, the altitude and colder temperature here inhibits them somewhat, but they have been popping up makai (toward the ocean) of Highway 11, and there is an active coqui control effort here to search and destroy them wherever they are heard. They spray them with vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or sodium bicarbonate solutions to kill them, because both disrupt the pH of the frog's skin and internal system. Most of the coquis that show up here are hitch-hiking up on nursery plants and construction vehicles, so education about quarantine and inspection is important.

To my brudda here who said his coquis seem to have disappeared, I fear they will likely be back in the spring. They've probably just gone dormant for the winter.

Mele Kalikimaka y'all.

OpenD