Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is there anything we can do to increase our economy? My neighbor and I have been hatching out chicken eggs and selling the chicks. It's not a lot of "production" but we are at least producing a little something to sell. If everyone produced something, would that be enough to increase the local economy?
That would help a lot. If everybody did their part, we'd all be better off. Were I living on a single family lot, I'd plant a garden, or at least get some hydroponics going. Grow papaya and banana trees. Egg-laying chickens are great. Just keep your eye on the birdies. They might end up disappearing one day. Another idea is to buy lots of sprouting beans, e.g. soy, mung, black eye beans, red beans, etc. All ya gotta do is soak them for a day, then rinse 'em through water for 2 days and they'll sprout. Very nutritious and will save you $. You can find them in Chinese markets.
Maybe we should start a thread on this topic of self sufficiency and survival. Heck, man, I'd rather be ready and resourceful then entertain the prospect of standing in soup lines.
In reply to KonaKat, yeah brah, when I moved there in 1987, I had a job lined up with General Appliance in Kealakekua and when I got there 3 weeks later, he changed his mind so I went into competition with him and did great but there was lots of growth room for a good appliance servicer.
In reading the rest of the posts, this is what my experience was . In 1987 in Kona, the local stores attitude was if we don't have it, you don't need it and we won't order it. That's why I ordered my complete building package from Container Home Supply in Seattle at half the cost. When Costco was coming to town all the local shops feared going out of business but most expanded to compete and actually did much better as you no longer had to hop a plane to Oahu to get what you needed or mailorder it. Kona grew for the better and I miss those days where everything was only 5 minutes from my home in Kealakehe. As to prices, once a few larger stores came to town, prices were the same as in northern Calif where I had moved from as stores like Safeway had a zone which included Santa Rosa and north to Seattle and over to Hawaii in the same store zone and prices were the same. (we didn't shop there because the local markets and farmers market were much better as was Costco). We now live in Lanesboro, Minnesota where we own a 10 room inn. Our heat bill is over 1000 per month and we are shut down for the winter with heat set at 45 except for our living quarters. Real estate taxes are over 500% higher because we are surrounded by cows, soybeans and corn for ethanol production. The farmers pay almost no tax yet consume large quantities of roads surrounding their property so the rest of us fools have to subsidize them and they have no trouble popping for new $350,000. combines as an almost gift from their federal tax subsidies.
I'm not one to let out the great myth but Hawaii by far has been the cheapest place I have lived since I first got out of college in 1970. Yes there are issues but when you don't have to heat or AC and food grows 365 days a year and you can feed your family from an acre of lava rock and as Triumph the Insult Dog says: Oh my God! Hawaii has a cloud!!! It's Armageddon! I can't think of a better place to be right now. Fishing is free, fresh water can be obtained Hawaiian Style from ocean shore springs and food can be grown everywhere. If anyone would like to trade me, it was 30 below zero last week and this week we had a heatwave. It got up to 10 degrees!
It's going to be minus 12 tonight and minus temps at least 5 of the next 7 days.
One thing that has really started to stand out here in Kauai is the rise of petty crime. Every day the Garden Island paper seems to report a different break in somewhere and doesn't even cover the smaller crimes that take places.
Yeah, I'm surprised at the number of local restaurants that are now pau. Seems like they closed up overnight. I've noticed several tourist related shops that are now empty as well- areas like Nawiliwili and other places too. I know at least one major building project (Kauai Lagoons) has been suspended. All these places employed local folk.
Let us not even mention that the entire west side of the island continues to be completely at the mercy of the federal government. Funding for PMRF and congressional plus-ups keeps this area alive.
All-in-all, I would say things aren't so good and they're almost certainly going to get worse. I'm also sure that eventually things will recover. It is just a matter of how long, and how many casualties happen along the way.
In today's West Hawaii Today, article about unemployment rate for the state, and Big Island's rate is 7.1%. Up from 2.8% this time last year. that is a BIG increase, folks.
The state rate is 5.5 % in Dec., the highest in 10 years. One year ago the rate was 3.1%
That would help a lot. If everybody did their part, we'd all be better off. Were I living on a single family lot, I'd plant a garden, or at least get some hydroponics going. Grow papaya and banana trees. Egg-laying chickens are great. Just keep your eye on the birdies. They might end up disappearing one day. Another idea is to buy lots of sprouting beans, e.g. soy, mung, black eye beans, red beans, etc. All ya gotta do is soak them for a day, then rinse 'em through water for 2 days and they'll sprout. Very nutritious and will save you $. You can find them in Chinese markets.
Maybe we should start a thread on this topic of self sufficiency and survival. Heck, man, I'd rather be ready and resourceful then entertain the prospect of standing in soup lines.
Great minds think alike, I guess, there's a jar of alfalfa seeds sitting on the counter now after the seeds were soaking all night. I get my sprouting seeds from the health food store since I like the alfalfa and clover sprouts. Hmm, might be able to get them in bulk from the place we get our wheat, I'll have to look into it.
Even if all you have is a lanai, you can still grow quite a bit of food. When I lived on a boat in the Ala Wai, we grew a lot of stuff on our dock boxes and those were only three by five feet. You can put two corn seeds in a half gallon pot and grow a couple of ears of corn. Several other boats also planted corn and we had the "Great Ala Wai Corn Fest" in the late summer and ate our whole corn crop at once. Then Harbors Division made everyone get rid of their plants. Sigh! The main reason we moved off of boats was to get a more reasonable landlord than DLNR.
Try growing lettuce in a flower pot, it doesn't take much room to grow. We grow hydroponic lettuce in milk jugs. Set a net pot into the top of a milk jug, add an oasis cube, a lettuce seed and put some hydroponic fertilizer in the water of the jug. Oh, use a tin coffee can or cover the milk jug with aluminum foil to keep the light out. When the water is all gone the lettuce is ready to eat. Here's a place you can get lettuce seeds inexpensively: Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center - Seed Program
So, I guess this is a commentary on the local economy, we are down to trying to grow our own food to save money.
Great minds think alike, I guess, there's a jar of alfalfa seeds sitting on the counter now after the seeds were soaking all night. I get my sprouting seeds from the health food store since I like the alfalfa and clover sprouts. Hmm, might be able to get them in bulk from the place we get our wheat, I'll have to look into it.
I got a gallon can of alfafa seeds from ebay. Cost me like $38, plus shipping.. What health food store did you go?
Even if all you have is a lanai, you can still grow quite a bit of food. When I lived on a boat in the Ala Wai, we grew a lot of stuff on our dock boxes and those were only three by five feet. You can put two corn seeds in a half gallon pot and grow a couple of ears of corn. Several other boats also planted corn and we had the "Great Ala Wai Corn Fest" in the late summer and ate our whole corn crop at once. Then Harbors Division made everyone get rid of their plants. Sigh! The main reason we moved off of boats was to get a more reasonable landlord than DLNR.
Maybe DLNR thought you guys would start growing something else.
I know, you can't do agricultural stuff on conservation land, right? Or maybe you were using horse and chicken manure as fertilizer.
Try growing lettuce in a flower pot, it doesn't take much room to grow. We grow hydroponic lettuce in milk jugs. Set a net pot into the top of a milk jug, add an oasis cube, a lettuce seed and put some hydroponic fertilizer in the water of the jug. Oh, use a tin coffee can or cover the milk jug with aluminum foil to keep the light out. When the water is all gone the lettuce is ready to eat. Here's a place you can get lettuce seeds inexpensively: Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center - Seed Program
What's a net pot, and where do you get your hydroponic fertilizer?
So, I guess this is a commentary on the local economy, we are down to trying to grow our own food to save money.
Sign of the times, man! The other guyz that are laughin at us will be regretting it soon.
By the way, everyone should listen to this radio interview yesterday with a world reknown trends forecaster:
Any general comments about the stability of the banks in Hawaii? If there's a more professional place to look for data, pls let me know. I'm wondering because I'm closing on a house, and the title company says deposits are only insured up to $100k and that's also the total of all of their accounts, so if I'm not their only customer, then chances are my money will be outside FDIC protection. This would be a major hawaiian bank. Don't want to name it.
From what I've heard (but I'm not a banking professional or have a valid opinion of this) the Bank of Hawaii is supposed to be a fairly sound bank. There was the previous housing bubbles of when the Japanese folks came over and bought land and houses then defaulted followed by the dot commers who came and did the same thing. Because of this, the Bank of Hawaii had learned about lending to less than qualified folks as well as the volatility of housing prices so they now have less exposure to sub-prime mortgages. However, I don't know about their exposure to all the other oddball derivatives that are floating around out there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. What health food store did you go?
