Ha Ha Ha!

Part 1: My Kamahele Family in Maku‘u

Richard Ha writes:

Today I was thinking about my grandmother Leihulu’s brother, Ulrich Kamahele.

Everybody knew him as Uncle Sonny, as if there was only one “Uncle Sonny” in all of Hawai‘i. He was a larger-than-life character. In a crowd, he dominated by the sheer force of his personality. Since I have been thinking about him, I thought I would write a several-part story about Maku‘u.

My extended Kamahele family came from Maku‘u. When we were small kids, Pop would take us in his ‘51 Chevy to visit.

He would turn left just past the heart of Pahoa town, where the barbershop is today. We drove down that road until he hit the railroad tracks, and then turned left on the old railroad grade back toward Hilo. A few miles down the railroad grading was the old Maku‘u station. It was an old wooden shack with bench seats, as I recall. That is where the train stopped in the old days. A road wound around the pahoehoe lava flow all the way down the beach to Maku‘u. That was before there were the Paradise Park or Hawaiian Beaches subdivisions.

We did not know there was a district called Maku‘u; we thought the family compound was named Maku‘u. Of the 20-acre property, maybe 10 acres consisted of a kipuka where the soil was ten feet deep. The 10 acres on the Hilo side were typical pahoehoe lava. The property had a long oceanfront with a coconut grove running the length of the oceanfront. It was maybe 30 trees deep and 50 feet tall. 

The old-style, two-story house sat on the edge of a slope just behind the coconut grove. If I recall correctly, it had a red roof and green walls. Instead of concrete blocks as supports for the posts, they used big rocks from down the beach.

There was no telephone, no electricity and no running water. So when we arrived it was a special occasion. We kids never, ever got as welcome a reception as we got whenever we went to Maku‘u.

And the person happiest to see us small kids was tutu lady Meleana. She was my grandma Leihulu’s mom. She was a tiny, gentle woman, maybe 100 pounds, but very much the matriarch of the family. She spoke very little English but it was never an issue. We communicated just fine.

We could not wait to go down the beach. Once she took us kids to catch ‘ohua—baby manini. She used a net with coconut leaves as handles that she used to herd the fish into the net. I don’t recall how she dried it, but I remember how we used to stick our hands in a jar to eat one at a time. They were good.

She would get a few ‘opihi and a few haukeuke and we spent a lot of time poking around looking at this sea creature and that. 

Between the ocean in the front and the taro patch, ulu trees, bananas and pig pen in the back, there was no problem about food. I know how Hawaiians could be self-sufficient because I saw it in action.

The house was full of rolls of stripped lauhala leaves. There were several lauhala trees and one was a variegated type. I don’t recall if it was used for lauhala mats but it dominated the road to the house.

There were lauhala mats all over the place, four and five thick. There was a redwood water tank, and the kitchen water pipe had a Bull Durham bag on the spout as a water filter.

Years later when I showed interest in playing slack key, I was given Tutu’s old Martin guitar.

She had played it so often that the bottom frets had indentations in it where her fingers went.

Part 2, coming soon: What I learned from Uncle Sonny about farming and life.

Wheeling Update

Richard Ha writes:

It seems that we won't fit under the definition of wheeling, which I discussed here. HELCO has been great at helping us find a solution. I'll report back when I hear the official interpretation.

HELCO's Tariff About Moving Electricity Across TMKs

Richard Ha writes:

Wheeling of Electricity:

1) Wheeling "is the movement of electricity, owned by a power supplier and sold to a retail consumer, over transmission and distribution lines owned by neither one." A fee is charged by the owners of the lines for letting others use them. (www.cepc.net/rewhl.htm)

 2) Wheeling is defined as ''the process of transmitting electric power from a seller's point of generation across a third-party-owned transmission and distribution system to the seller's retail customer.'' (Hawaii PUC)

Last week I learned that HELCO’s tariff does not allow the transmission of electricity across TMKs, even if it is entirely through property a person owns.

I cannot imagine how this could be illegal. There must be some mistake.

This could mean the end of our hydro-electric project, as well as our integrated community-based agriculture plan. We had planned to put in a hydro-electric turbine on one property we owned, then run a electric line through a neighboring property we owned to our packing house, which is on a third property we own.

We have a large cooler there that we are not using. Using hydroelectricity, we wanted to help area farmers consolidate and ship products to O‘ahu, thereby sharing transportation costs while maintaining freshness and quality.

We are actively pursing a Hawaiian sustainability project, where we would use the water from a new spring we just discovered for taro growing. The vision is to use this as an educational opportunity. We planned to use the hydro-electricity to power a processing plant where we would make poi and do value added processing for ourselves and participating area farmers.

Students who were interested could lease land from us for taro growing or other types of farming. One of the bottlenecks to food security is that there are places for students to learn about farming but limited opportunities to actually get into farming. We would like to help fix that problem.
With cheap electricity, we could even cold treat plants to force flowering during the winter. The possibilities are endless. Because it is difficult to raise our workers' pay, we had planned to set up charging stations for our workers to charge up their electric/hybrid cars.

Being able to transport electricity through adjacent, commonly owned properties is very important for Hawai‘i’s food security effort. I would even advocate for farmers to use renewable energy Kilowatt hour credits on non-contiguous sites, such as at farmers markets or at value added processing plants. For most farmers, 100KW is way large enough. At full usage it would not even approach one half of 1 percent of the total electricity used. Yet, it would make a major impact on food security. Looks like we have the tail wagging the dog here.

The Five Pound Challenge, Day 1

Richard:

Okay, I did tell Leslie that I was thinking about working out again. About a month ago I started thinking seriously about making a lifestyle change after the TMT decision. So I called up Jimmy yesterday, my friend who told me he would work with me if I wanted to work out. Jimmy knows everything about cardio training and nutrition. He said, put on your walking shoes and come down to the house.

During a 40-minute walk we discussed philosophy, motivation, strategy, nutrition, aerobic cardioovascular pathways, protein synthesis, bmi index, VO2 max, lactic acid, fat burning, liver, adrenal gland, antioxidants, juicers, etc. I understand all those terms.

Then he came to my house to check out my setup and he wrote me a 40-minute program.  I has to demonstrate that I understood the movements and got 20 more minutes of work out in. Then we went out back and went over everything for another 30 minutes.

Jimmy’s advice: Slow food and slow progress. He said to measure inches not pounds; the idea is that you don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment. I’ll check my weight once per week to see how I am doing against Leslie. But I’m settling in for the long haul.

Today I'll go with him to GNC to see what I will be using in smoothies. 

Leslie:

I don't enjoy exercising. Never have, never will. Also, my life is really busy right now and I don't have any obvious time available for such a thing. But about five unwanted pounds have crept on, and I'd like to lose them, so somehow I'll find the time. I know that exercise will be good for me for myriad other reasons, too.

I have an elliptical trainer, and my plan is to put on a movie and watch it while I make myself climb up on it and use it. I know I'll never do it unless there's something to look forward to while doing it. I love this idea and hope it works nicely.

As for food, I'm going to pay attention to what I'm eating -- three reasonable meals a day and two small snacks in between. My biggest personal challenge: not eating after dinner. I work in my home office late and eat late. Bad, bad. It's gotta go.

I'm glad to read that Richard is going for slow progress, both because that's a healthy approach and also because that gives me a better chance to win the challenge! (I told you I'm sort of competitive.)

The Five Pound Challenge

If you’ve been reading along recently, you know we’ve been discussing the TMT quite a bit.

Now for something completely different.

So Richard mentioned to me the other day that he was thinking about starting to work out again.

Richard and I are polar opposites on this subject. He likes to lift weights, knows what his resting heart rate is, and has used phrases here on the blog like “power lifting,” “cardiovascular workout,” “reps” and “crunches.”

I have never, ever used any of those phrases. I am not an exercise junkie by any stretch of the imagination.

I have been thin, I think, mostly because I was lucky in my genes. Now I guess I’m getting older, though, because suddenly my body would like to be about five pounds heavier than it has been. I would like to lose those pounds before they settle in for the long haul.

So when Richard mentioned in passing he wanted to lose some weight and might start working out again, I blurted out, “Let’s see who can lose five pounds first! I CHALLENGE YOU. We can write about it on the blog!”

He immediately accepted my challenge. And then I instantly regretted my impulsiveness, because I’m lazy about stuff like this and now I will have to do it.

And now, of course, I will absolutely have to lose these five pounds, because we are going to keep track of our progress here on the blog and I don't want to be publicly humiliated. And possibly I might even need to lose my five pounds first, because I am competitive. Oh my.

We will do our official weigh-ins on Monday. Stay tuned.

And you can accept the challenge along with us if you’d like, by letting us know in comments (or just privately inside your head). If you want to accept the challenge publicly, by letting us know here in comments at the end of this post, then you can post your updates in comments when we do, and we will all cheer each other on.

See you Monday.

- posted by Leslie Lang

TMT Selects Mauna Kea, Promises Big Island $50 Million For Education

Richard Ha writes:

After deliberating for two days, the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp. board voted yesterday to site its new telescope here on Mauna Kea, not in Chile.

Although I’ve been working on this project for almost three years now, I was not prepared for the emotional rush that came when Henry Yang, president of the TMT, called to tell me of the decision.

All I could think about was how this would help our people launch their kids into the middle class. All that most of us want is for our kids to do a little better than we did.

The median family income in Hawai‘i is around $56,000. Here on the Big Island, it is $46,000. But on the east side of the Big Island, the median family income is in the mid-$30,000s. And in some communities it is in the low-$30,000s.

We all know that low family income is sometimes associated with social problems. And Hawaiian families occupy the lowest rungs on the family income ladder.

Education is directly related to family income. The more education, the higher the family income. Education is the great equalizer.

The Thirty Meter Telescope folks have pledged $1 million dollars annually for 50 years, which will be administered by carefully selected community members, primarily for K-12 education.

We all know that many of our students who enter college fail, or lower their aspirations, because they are not prepared to succeed. We want this TMT fund to prepare students to succeed.

So if we are truly interested in elevating our people and taking them away from drug problems, abusive relationships and other social ills, then we must help parents to launch their kids into the middle class. For those who are prepared to succeed, the sky is the limit.

My pop influenced me at an early age. When I was 10 years old, he inspired me with the attitude of “Not, no can. CAN!”  So I know the value of influencing elementary school kids. They are very impressionable, and with the right environment and the right teachers, anything is possible.

This is why we created the Adopt-A-Class project. Sometimes the Keaukaha School kids come to our farm on their excursions. I tell them stories and give examples of how a positive attitude can overcome any problem. And at the end of the tour when I yell out “Not, no can!” they all yell back: “CAN!”  Right on!

I see the annual $1 million Education Fund as a way of opening up kids’ minds and making them understand that they can do anything. We do not want our kids to wallow in victim-ism. That is waste time.

What we need is for them to have an optimism and a pride that our people were astronomers and the best navigators in the world. We want all kids, not just Hawaiians, to feel that high aspirations and goals are normal and not out of the ordinary.

The TMT leadership—Henry Yang and Jean Lou Chameau—listened to our advice very early on. They went and talked to community folks, like Kumu Lehua and Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, and they understood that the common denominator on which people on all sides of the issue could agree was the education of our keiki.

We have our eye on a goal, and so yesterday’s announcement that the TMT Board has decided on Mauna Kea for its new telescope is a huge, huge deal.

Today is the Day: The Thirty Meter Telescope Site Decision

Richard Ha writes:

Today is the big day – The Thirty Meter Telescope Corporation’s board is meeting to decide where to site the TMT.

Will it be in Chile?

Or will it be in Hawai‘i?

We’ll have to wait and see.

We’ve come such a long way. It was three years ago when we first heard the TMT folks were interested in siting their telescope on Mauna Kea. Back then, the community was torn apart over astronomy and control issues.

Together with Roberta Chu and Bob Saunders, I volunteered to sit on the newly formed TMT committee of the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board. I was determined that if a new telescope was to be sited on Mauna Kea, it needed to be done right.

To me, “done right” meant doing things local style. And local style is all about building relationships. One must go talk story, again and again, until a certain level of trust is built. This takes time.

Spending time is an essential part of trust building. One cannot avoid spending the time.

Fortunately, Henry Yang, President of the TMT Corporation and Chancellor of U.C. Santa Barbara, and Jean Lou Chameau, President of Cal Tech and one of the TMT Corporation partners, both understood the importance of relationship building. They took the time to meet and get to know the people. They did this for its own sake.

If we are successful and the TMT is sited on Mauna Kea, it will be because of the foundation that was laid in the first few meetings. From there, we all just went out and built relationships.

A little at a time, in wider and wider concentric circles, people started talking to others and common ground was found. Groups started talking to groups – labor unions, business organizations, astronomy folks, university and community college folks, as well as many other groups and organizations that joined this coalition, which had as its purpose, the common good.

One of the most important things we learned from the Hawaiian community was that the process is the most important thing. Follow the process. Following the process meant that all participants in the process made for a better end product.

And, following that logic, we acknowledge and appreciate the contribution of all involved. So the process made all of us contributors to the end product. It was not “us against them.” It was just us. All of us!

We also need to aloha the early, loud voices for bringing up issues that needed to be addressed.

This is what I envisioned when I said that if the TMT comes here, it needs to be done right.

It also means that if the TMT selects Mauna Kea tomorrow, our work is not done. We must make sure that the four sub plans for the CMP are done right. We need to continue working hard to protect the rights of all the parties.

No matter whether Mauna Kea is selected or not, we did this right and we will have no regrets.

Aloha, mahalo and congratulations to all.

Akamai Observatory Internship Program

Richard recently spoke to 16 students in the Hawai‘i Island Akamai Observatory Internship program.

It’s an eight-week, paid summer internship funded mostly by the Center for Adaptive Optics (out of the University of California at Santa Cruz), though this year the Thirty Meter Telescope also contributed financially to the program by covering a budget shortfall.

Sarah Anderson is the program’s on-island coordinator and she explains the program’s three goals.

“One is to open pathways into astronomy, engineering and technology careers for local students. The second goal is the development of a work force for astronomy and technology, and the third is to continue to develop collaboration among the observatories themselves.”

The program starts with a weeklong preparatory course, and then there’s a seven-week internship at one of the Mauna Kea observatories. “They work on a single project under a mentor or mentor team for the seven weeks,” says Anderson. “And at the end of the seven weeks, they do an oral presentation at our symposium.”

Sarah says that during the first week’s “short course,” the goal is to prepare the students for their internship. “We do a bunch of science activities,” she says. “Hands-on, inquiry-based activities that are designed to help the students think on their own and develop their critical thinking, and their ability to start and get through projects.

“In addition, we try to get them thinking about their place in society as scientists, engineers and technicians,” she says.

“We asked Richard to come in to talk about business, sustainability and astronomy. They were very interested.”

photo by Sarah Anderson

Most of the interns either attend college at the University of Hawai‘i or one of Hawai‘i’s community colleges; four are local kids attending college on the mainland. Three are Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students.

Richard says it made him think of Paul Coleman, the first native Hawaiian astrophysicist, who now worked for the Institute for Astronomy. “He was really lucky,” says Richard. “When he was following his dream to study astronomy, there were no opportunities here and no programs available like this Akamai program. He had to leave Hawai‘i and he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to get back home. It was only because of a really unusual set of circumstances that he was able to find his way back to work in Hawai‘i in astronomy.

“I remembered Paul telling his story to the OHA board, and here were these students going through a program that did not exist for Paul when he was starting out. I looked at those kids teaming up with mentors and it just kind of took my breath away.”

– posted by Leslie Lang

The State of the Future

Two reports of note appeared recently.

The first is the 2009 State of the Future.

This is the stark warning from the biggest single report to look at the future of the planet - obtained by The Independent on Sunday ahead of its official publication next month.

Backed by a diverse range of leading organisations such as Unesco, the World Bank, the US army and the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2009 State of the Future report runs to 6,700 pages and draws on contributions from 2,700 experts around the globe. Its findings are described by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, as providing "invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its member states, and civil society."

…Jerome Glenn, director of the Millennium Project and one of the report's authors, said: "There are answers to our global challenges, but decisions are still not being made on the scale necessary to address them. Three great transitions would help both the world economy and its natural environment – to shift as much as possible from freshwater agriculture to saltwater agriculture; produce healthier meat without the need to grow animals; and replace gasoline cars with electric cars."

This is very interesting for us here, trying to live sustainable lives out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The idea about shifting to salt water agriculture has to do with limited amounts of fresh water worldwide. In Hawai‘i, we have the option of doing both.

The second idea, about producing meat without having to raise animals, is driven by anticipated grain shortages worldwide. In Hawai‘i, we can use the sun’s energy to grow grass for feed to make protein. That reduces our dependence on imported feed grains.

And the third idea has to do with decreasing fossil fuel energy and transitioning to electricity. On the Big Island, we have the opportunity to bring geothermal on line as base power so we can utilize maximum amounts of renewable energy.

The sooner we get away from thinking that we must depend on liquid fuel for transportation, the better. 

The second article I found of interest, written by Lester Brown, was in the May issue of Scientific American. Brown founded the World Watch Institute, and headed that organization for many years. It was an article in the World Watch Magazine many years ago that led us (Kea‘au Banana) to become the first banana farm in the world certified by the Rainforest Alliance as ECO O.K.

In this article, Brown points out that the rise in grain prices is now trend-driven. For example, Saudi Arabia just announced that it will be decreasing its grain production by 1/8 each year. This is because they would use up the water in the non-rechargeable aquifer. So they are leasing land in other countries to grow grain for their population. Similarly, 120 million Chinese and 165 million of India's population depend on grain growing on non-recharge aquifers. Many countries are making deals to protect their populations right now.

Those countries with rapidly rising middle classes want to eat higher on the food chain, putting further pressure on grain prices. People just cannot wait to jump in a car and drive to McDonalds.

If global warming detrimentally affects China's mountain glaciers, which provide water for summer crop production, it is likely China will go on the open market and compete with the U.S. for its own grain supply. Knowing that is possible, we need to see about growing our own cattle and fish food. Fortunately, we can.

The prospect of peaking oil production has direct consequences for world food security, as modern agriculture depends heavily upon the use of fossil fuels. Most tractors use gasoline or diesel fuel. Irrigation pumps use diesel fuel, natural gas, or coal-fired electricity. Fertilizer production is also energy-intensive. Natural gas is used to synthesize the basic ammonia building block in nitrogen fertilizers. The mining, manufacture, and international transport of phosphates and potash all depend on oil.

But surprisingly, the most energy-intensive segment of the food chain is the kitchen. Much more energy is used to refrigerate and prepare food in the home than is used to produce it in the first place. The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator, not the farm tractor. While oil dominates the production end of the food system, electricity dominates the consumption end.

In Hawai‘i, farmers need to get out from under the dominance of oil in the production end of agriculture. The grass fed beef cattle industry is doing just that. Avoidance of petroleum-based packaging wherever possible helps, too.

Legislation and incentives that help farmers move toward renewable energy sources are very helpful. It is very important that Ag and energy policies be coordinated. We need to address questions like: "Should we plant trees for transportation fuel, instead of grass for cattle feed?" We need a detailed analysis of the consequences. We know for sure that grass equals beef at any scale. At what scale will trees make biofuels?

How about someone figure out how to convert internal combustion engine farm tractors to ones that are battery driven? Can our Community College folks do that? Can we make our own nitrogen fertilizer from renewable sources? How about it, U.H. Engineering School?

The 2009 State of the Future report suggests: "Replace gasoline cars with electric cars." Absolutely, and use our geothermal resource to produce that electricity.

We on the Big Island have exciting opportunities ahead of us if we just focus on the future. Not, no can. CAN!

For Rent: Farming Opportunities

Richard Ha writes:

We are going to rent out seven of our nine hoop houses here at the farm.

A side view

They have been in continuous production for nearly two years, and are set up with a hydroponic system of floating rafts. 

Here's our green onion production in the floating rafts.

A bouquet of our green and red lettuces.

Some of the different lettuces we have grown in the hoop houses.

Each hoop house is about 100 feet long and has two raceways that are each 10 x 96 feet. Both spring and county water are available. Electricity is available at the site as well. I think that a family unit would be more practical to run this system than a corporate type like us. We are renting each house for $175 per month. Interested parties can reach me on my cell at 960-1057.

As for us, we have been simplifying our operations. We are now concentrating on bananas, tomatoes and Japanese cucumbers. We have leased some of our land to farmers growing sweet potato, apple bananas and for field vegetable crop production. We want to encourage poi taro production, as well.

Our goal is to achieve a balance of our own production with other folks’ production.

We are planning on constructing Value Added Processing so we can help farmers move their number 2 and 3 products, and make poi and other products.

When we finish building our hydroelectric plant, we will be able to refrigerate and consolidate Hamakua area farmers’ crops and ship them together with our products to O‘ahu. This will be mutually beneficial as we try to grow more food for Hawai‘i’s people.