Hand of Doom, Fig Pickin' Fingers

 [Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

7/2/22

Aloha Everyone -- 

Hope you're enjoying your summer.  Well, weather-wise anyway.  The world at large and our country in particular seem to be going berserk these days.  I try to keep up with what's going on, but the news is almost always a depressing flood of gloom and doom.

100 Decibel Coqui Chorus

Speaking of doom, since we returned on June 7,  I've caught 34 coqui frogs.  They've met what I call "The Hand of Doom."  Actually, I'm an ambidextrous coqui catcher, so I guess it should be "HandS of Doom."  Anyway, it is a lot quieter now around our place, though the little devils are still noisy in neighbors' yards who don't control them.  As I've mentioned before, besides just being obnoxiously loud, coquis are bad because they eat beneficial insects that normally control other pests.  They were introduced accidentally from Puerto Rico and here they have no natural predators to keep them in check -- except THE HAND, of course.  I'm up to almost 200 kills over the past couple of years, and my neighbor who also hunts them is probably twice that number.  The goal here is not to totally eradicate them, which would be as impossible as getting rid of all ants, say. But controlling with spraying and hand catching is definitely possible.  And being the weirdo that I am, I kind of enjoy the challenge of the hunt and the macho thrill of the actual catch!

The coquis are super-abundant this year because of the unusual amount of rain we've had this spring and summer.  The rain has also made our fig tree produce more fruit than ever.  This is a variety called "Brown

Tasty "Turkeys"

Turkey" and they are very tasty figs -- to us and to a number of other critters, including birds, mice, and rats.  Every day I have to pick the ones that are ripe before they're eaten by somebody else. We usually get a fair number of figs around this time of year, but this season there are dozens, and like other homegrown crops (zucchini comes to mind), we have way more than we can handle all at once.  Karen has made some fig jam, we've given away a bunch to friends, and we're now trying to freeze them. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.  I've found they keep pretty well in the refrigerator if you put them in a sealed container with some paper towel to absorb the moisture, but this week we had four containers taking up precious space -- way too many.  Two ways we like to eat them are in a salad with goat cheese, and as a sauce with pork.  There are only so many times you can do this, though.  What a dilemma, eh?

We've had a few sunny days this week and the pool is up to 84d, very nice.  Karen and I played golf again on Thursday and managed to finish 16 holes before we got rained out.  Overall I did lousy this time, but I did some good moments, including one par and the best tee-shot I've ever had, at least 600 yards (that's WTD, or "Wishful Thinking Distance).  We didn't see as many Nenes this time, nor any white Peacocks (actually Peahens), but quite a few baby Peacocks, including one mom with four!  It's hard to stay negative about your game when this is what you see.

I spent a fair amount of time this week working on our fall itinerary in Europe.  I've made hotel reservations in all the places we'll be visiting, and Karen made a car reservation. Most of our stops will be the Czech Republic rather than Germany, but we will wind up in Berlin at the end and fly home from there. The more I researched our route, the more I became convinced that this will be an interesting and fun trip.  Making the arrangements also reminded me of how much I enjoy the process of planning itself.  It's challenging and time-consuming, but very rewarding in terms of the feeling of accomplishment and in the satisfaction of learning so much.  I was a little rusty after the hiatus of the Covid years, but the strategy details came back pretty quickly.

That's about it for this week.  Take care. Stay safe. Stay positive.