Oregano

Now I have two kinds of oregano. I have the small leaf variety, and got some clippings of the large variety, and rooted them in a glass of water. It rooted very easily, and I just transplanted it to pots as you can see. This fresh oregano was so very good on the homemade pizza I made last week.

before and after photos

So, I never got around to weeding,tilling,adding compost, and manure to my garden until August. (That is the before photo.) The after photos are the sunflowers,papayas,tomatoes, and tomatillos 3 months later. Thank you Ko family for the papayas!
Maybe I will make papaya salsa.

Free shipping pallets and shoe boxes

Here are the pallets, they are still in pallet form, and not in chicken coop form.Things are pretty crazy busy around my house.

We are quickly approaching Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child, Nov.17-24 2008.
The drop off site for Hilo, here on the Big Island is Hilo Missionary Church,1044 Komohana St.,Hilo. Mon.-Fri.3-5,Sat.10-1,Sun.12-5.
We will be at Wal-Mart in Hilo on Nov.8, 2008 if you want to pick up a box, or brochures, or if you would like to drop off your box at our booth that day you can do that too!
Here on the Big Island Operation Christmas Child brochures can be found at all KTA stores island wide.
Call 1-800-664-7563 for local info or to leave us a message and someone will return your call.

Will I have a chicken coop before Nov. 24?Not sure...I am sure the awesome people of the Big Island will bring record breaking numbers of shoe boxes.Yes!

Chickens and old pallets

Goompy

We will be making hen houses using old wooden pallets and hopefully getting 12 or more chickens, hopefully more. We have about 9 pallets collected now, and we know where to get plenty more. Wooden pallets are an excellent recycled building material.

They would be chopped up at the dump and made into mulch, but I don't think this kind of wood mulch is very healthy for gardens. I would rather have beautiful chicken coops.I will post pictures of them soon.I hope.

Torch Ginger

These beautiful flowers grow like weeds here.Torch Ginger. You know those "Rubber Tree" plants that people keep in their offices and homes? Well, here in Hawaii, they grow to be an enormous, quickly spreading,60 ft. tree. Also, Morning Glory vines can grow to be over 50 ft. tall here. Our growing season is all year. Imagine the possibilities.

Eva Mendez

Eva Mendez
I would love to have kitchen drapes out of this fabric.I don't mean this in a bad way. I like the dress too.

Ye Ole Leather Smith at the Farmer's Market

Here is Wolf Daniel Braun, the leathersmith at our local farmer's market in Sea View.He is seen here holding a goat leather bag with Celtic designs, and an antler horn button. It was lovely to meet Mr. Braun, who is originally from Chicago. He has been working with leather since 1977. Braun custom makes shoes,boots,sandals,purses,briefcases, and amazing feather masks. If you would like to purchase one of his hand made leather items, call (808)895-4383 or write to: Wolf Daniel Braun
P.O. Box 1273
Pahoa,Hawaii 96778

Kimchi

I just read that Kimchi is listed as one of the top five healthiest foods in the world! Here is some Kimchi I picked up at our local farmer's market.

I love Kimchi, and have been eating it since I was a child when my mom made Kimchi. My favorite way to eat it was actually with grilled cheese sandwiches.

I might add that although I love Korean food, I am really bad at remembering the names of the foods I like. You know that yummy beef stuff that is coated with egg, and then you dip it in a delicious sauce that has soy sauce, carrots and chili pepper in it? I love it. I love all the different kinds of kimchi, that daicon one, and the cucumber one and especially the one that is made from cabbage.

I would never have imagined, when I was a child slurping up kimchi, that it would someday be considered a super food.
There is a kimchi pancake, kimchi space food, kimchi air conditioners, and even kimchi clothing.

The Carnival of Aloha!

Homespun Honolulu opens its 14th chapter of The Carnival of Aloha! Guess who is featured there?*Smile*

Homespun Honolulu is another blog about stuff, but specifically stuff(headline news,community events,politics,science and biology,arts and culture,food,etc) on the island of Oahu.

A blog about stuff....

Here is Kealani and yours truely at a lovely Purim party back in April.


I know there are about ten trillion blogs about stuff out there, and I know I don't have a chance in H E double hockey sticks of winning the BEST BLOG ABOUT STUFF award, but could you all vote for me anyway?? Thanks and mahalos.The end.

At the Sea View Farmers Market

For four weeks now, I have been selling bread, and Kealani's Kona Coffee at the Sea View Farmer's market.
My friend Noelle,seen here with Kealani, is baking multi grain bread with flax,mini sweet potato pies,freshly ground peanut butter,cashew butter, and whole grain English muffins. Sometimes Noelle makes cashew lime bon bons, and cashew chocolate bon bons.I must say that Noelle is a lovely lovely young lady, who is beautiful in every way, but the only two pictures I took of her, her eyes were almost closed. So, this was the most bright eyed of the two pictures.We love you Noelle! I love selling bread with you!

I have been making sourdough bread, French bread with garlic and basil,olive and feta,rosemary, and oatmeal. I have also started making rye bread,Peruvian Chili pepper bread, and hamburger buns with sprouted wheat.We serve a "Greek" breakfast plate too.

Anyone have a good recipe for sprouted wheat bread? I think the buns were good, but the wheat berries were a little too crunchy.

If he ran away and joined the circus

Isaiah at the Hiccup Circus

One day long ago, my son said, "Mom if you don't stop feeding me spinach, I will run away and join the circus."
So, I said, "Isaiah my love, I want you to grow big and strong, so please eat one bite of your spinach."
"Mom, said he, I can't, so I will be leaving, good bye."
"Son,I said, I don't care if you leave, but know this, I will follow you no matter where you go."
"Isaiah said, with a nod of his head, what if I go to the end of the earth?"
"Then I will drive to the end of the earth in my car."I said.
Then he said,"Mom, what if I get in a space ship and fly to the moon?"
"That is easy, I exclaimed, I will get into a rocket ship and get to the moon with great speed."
"What if I eat one bite of my spinach instead?" he said.
"I love you son."I said, and I promptly kissed him on the head.

Big Island Boy gives up Christmas!

Here is Tony during his interview with Carl from "Living In Paradise"(a local T.V. show about life on the Big Island)


Tony Briski,age 13, first heard about Operation Christmas Child two years ago in class at Christian Liberty School in Keaau, and his vision and heart for other children around the world just continued to grow. Briski's teacher Ms. Chester, explained that Operation Christmas Child delivers gift-filled shoe boxes to children in need around the world. Kids who have never had a Christmas gift in their lives, kids who are living on rubbish heaps, kids in war torn countries, and children who are orphans, or have survived natural disasters. She placed a container in the class for her students to donate money for the project. Soon the container was full, and they used the money to fill shoe boxes with school supplies, basic necessities like tooth paste, and tooth brushes, toys and other items.

A sixth grader at the time, Briski really enjoyed shopping for the shoe boxes, and decided to do more if he could. That year, in addition to the boxes they filled at school, Briski's family donated their own boxes to Operation Christmas Child. Briski thought he could do more, so he told his parents not to give him any Christmas gifts. Instead of presents that year, he wanted to make more boxes for OCC. "We take so much for granted, and we have so much. When I make shoe box gifts, I try to think about the basic necessities first, then after that I put in toys." said Briski.

The eighth grader is an example to all of us. Lets not just give out of our excess, let's sacrifice something so we can send a hurting child a Christmas gift. If we all sent one shoe box gift, how many smiles could we create this year? If you would like to pack a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child or for more information, please call OCC's toll free number 1-800-353-5949, or pick up a brochure at: all KTA stores island wide,Hosanna Christian Bookstore,Footlocker,and Wiki Wiki Video. Or check out www.samaritanspurse.org.