Just visited Hawaiian Paradise and Hawaiian Beach; my thoughts (Halawa: insurance, crime)

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Jonah K

Actually, fruit thieves (along with rats and wild pigs) are probably more of a problem than rotting fruit and birds…

Only mentioned birds specifically as neighbor had a banana tree - he/she didn't pick them - and ultimately the birds got well fed. Avocado will simply drop to the ground and rot if not "stolen" - same thing with limes - fruit trees don't maintain themselves.

[terracore]

Bananas are plants, not trees. Rats will nibble on (ruin) bananas and avocados before they drop.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by terracore

Bananas are plants, not trees. Rats will nibble on (ruin) bananas and avocados before they drop.

Do you need to wrap a metal band around the trunk of a banana tree (tree form plant), in a similar way that is done with coconut trees to stop the rats from climbing up the banana tree, to protect the fruit?

[leilaniguy]

Umm, that won't work. It can work on Avo's,for awhile, they need expansion bands every couple years or they split apart. But bananas are perennials, and metal won't adhere to such soft flesh. You just have to harvest before the rats arrive.

[hotzcatz]

When the bananas are green but a yellow green instead of the unripe dark green and the tips are kinda filled out, then you chop the 'tree' down and harvest the whole stalk of bananas. Generally, the 'tree' can be chopped into chunks and just left to feed the other bananas. I guess banana plants are cannibals? Or would that be bananabals?

In any case, the bananas are harvested before too many rats or birds start nibbling on them. Wear old clothes when you're doing this, banana sap stains things brown. We hang ours up at the edge of the carport or on the clothesline and then cut off hands from the stalk as they ripen.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by rhbj03

After a year of planning, I finally made the trip to BI to scout out the properties I have been contemplating. <SNIP>

Was very much of your pre-trip planning useful? Which parts were the most useful and which parts weren't?

It generally seems like there's a lot of folks who do a lot of planning about moving to Hawaii before they've visited. Now that you're a bit further along the process, RHBJ03,do you have any new thoughts on what might be useful for them to know?

[glassnumbers]

Please don't recommend the Big Island Thieves facebook group. its filled with white people who apparently have zero reading comprehension, complaining about people driving poorly. If it was being used properly instead of illiterate haoles, then yeah, it would be a useful resource.

Why is this a problem, you may ask. Because if people are complaining about bad driving, how the **** can I trust them to actually complain about a real theft? These people are so petty that they complain about **** that's totally unrelated to theft, making them extremely unreliable.

[davephan]

Thanks for the advice about rats and birds trying to feed off of banana trees (or plants). We'll ask a friend in the Tampa area if they have similar issues with pests attacking their bananas.

[rhbj03]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Was very much of your pre-trip planning useful? Which parts were the most useful and which parts weren't?

It generally seems like there's a lot of folks who do a lot of planning about moving to Hawaii before they've visited. Now that you're a bit further along the process, RHBJ03,do you have any new thoughts on what might be useful for them to know?

The pre-trip planning, especially the chats here, was definitely helpful and valuable. The process I followed was to:

1. Understand what my goals are
2. Understand what my options are
3. Get as many FACTS as possible about the places, especially about what each route requires
4. Get as many OPINIONS as possible from forum members, both good and bad and in case of bad, the worst case scenario.
5. Take a trip again, and if necessary again, to see the places
6. Narrow down targets until eventually making the decision

To me, no opinions are bad opinions, even if my own turns out to be different; so I appreciate everything I heard here (thank you all). The biggest challenge has been my own shifting goal. I started focusing solely on an oceanfront lot because I that was a must-have feature for this homestead project, and it seemed between west coast and Hawaii only Big Island's Puna coast offers something desirable and within my affordability. Lots of research and discussion were done on that, then by a stroke of luck, an oceanfront opportunity became available in CA and I grabbed it right away. So now my options with Hawaii have become wider -- I can consider just a regular lot and maybe even a condo.

And actually, now after seeing the place, I think the oceanfront properties in PUNA are way too much work for me to do, to produce a homestead that my wife feels comfortable staying in. I am now in a stage of re-evaluating my goal, my capabilities, both financial and physical, and matching them to the good and bad facts and the pro and con opinions.

I think I very likely will end up getting just the cheapest fee-simple condo first, just to get my feet wet, then go from there to see if I have the left over energy to attempt to set up a tropical garden. I already have plenty of that to do on my 1.5 acre in CA. Here is a shot from the edge of the bluff top on my lot.

[hotzcatz]

Thanks, rhbj03, it's always nice to get feedback from folks on what works best for them. As well as how things went since I'm sure the journey is different for everyone.

Doesn't look like much beach on your California lot, if you made it out of black lava, it'd be similar to a Puna oceanside lot.

Aren't gardens easier to grow inland, though? I've grown things near the ocean and there's a lot of plants that aren't that salt tolerant.

As well as houses aren't all that salt tolerant, either. Anything metal is gonna rust unless it's brass (still corrodes), bronze, stainless steel (306 and above is better than just regular SS), aluminum (still corrodes), titanium (super expensive), etc.