Adventures with Booch

Since arriving in Hawaii our only transportation has been a company car that we can only borrow a couple of days a week. Hearing our plight, our coworker was generous enough to let us borrow one of her three cars. It's 23 years old, paint peeling, transmission problems...but it runs, and for that we are grateful! The car's name is Booch (the name carved on the dashboard cover when our coworker bought it) and since our first day with him he has been an adventure! The very first night we drove it 10 miles or so to McDonalds and when we came out, it wouldn't start. Amy had the magic touch (she claims they have a special bond since they were born the same year) and got it going again. Then we couldn't get it to go into reverse. These are the things we expect every time we drive him! Yesterday we decided to go farther than we have gone past Kona to the Waikoloa shore. As we were walking down the shore access path we ended up going right behind the Hilton hotel. There, in front of us, were hundreds of beach chairs, most of them empty, in front of a gorgeous pool. Since it was extremely windy that day and we didn't want to get pelted with sand all day, we decided to lay out there instead. It was heaven! The chairs were so much better than lying flat on the sand and the wind cooled us enough that we were able to get quite a bit of sun. Here are some pics of the hotel:


When we had enough sun (too much in some places) we went to Macaroni Grill for a late lunch / early dinner and then did some shopping. Finally, we were exhausted and decided to head home. Just as we pulled out onto the highway Amanda pushed the gas and we heard the transmission slip out of gear. Suddenly she was pushing the gas and going nowhere, so she pulled over. We tried to get Booch to shift, we checked the transmission fluid, but to no avail. We were stuck about 45 minutes from home. We called our supervisor at work, and his girlfriend but neither of them answered their phones. We ended up calling Jake, another supervisor and our neighbor here. He was kind enough to drive all the way out to where we were, and use his AAA membership for a free tow. We were very grateful that he was so willing to help us, as the tow would have cost over $200 otherwise! Thank goodness for good people everywhere!

Now Booch is RIP on the company property, until my coworker fixes the transmission or decides to scrap the car. Though we were only with him a short while we will always remember the adventures we had with him, especially this last one!

Site seeing on the Big Island

As I said in my last post there hasn't been a lot of time for site seeing, but we have managed to squeeze in a few sites:

A few weeks ago we drove down to see the volcano (which looks amazingly like Craters of the Moon...not really worth the drive!) On the way we stopped at a black sand beach. It was beautiful but VERY windy! Here are a few pictures of the beach:













The volcano was not too exciting. A new hole has opened up with lava just 700 feet below the surface so they have closed down most of the road around the rim. We were able to see the crater from the original 1959 eruption that lasted for weeks, and a lava tube.












On the way home we ate here:


The food wasn't amazing but at least we can say that we have been as far south in the USA as we can go!

Ups and Downs of Paradise

Wow has it really been over a month since my last post? I guess time just flies when you are having fun. Or working like crazy! The reality is that we have been working six to seven days a week which doesn't leave a lot of time for playing...which means I don't take many pictures...which means I don't have anything to post! This is going to be random but here is a sampling of my life in Hawaii so far:

First of all, as I said, I've been working. And a direct result of working with bees: bee stings. I go through weeks with no stings and then the bees will be angry at me or something because I will get stung a lot. And although the initial sting does hurt pretty bad the worst part for me is the swelling, redness, and itching that happens for at least two days afterward. Here is just one of my many injuries:

My right hand is what my hand is SUPPOSED to look like. You can see knuckles and veins and everything. My left hand is what happens when you get stung on your knuckle. I was so swollen I couldn't even close my hand all the way! I guess it's all part of the job!

Another benefit to Hawaii: the free food!
Yes, this picture is of an avocado. They grow EVERYWHERE this large and beautiful and you can pick and eat as many as you'd like! We also have a pitcher of freshly-squeezed tangelo juice in our fridge which we picked for free. I'm going to hate paying for all of this when I get home!

One downside to Hawaii is the amount of bugs, especially SPIDERS. Everyone that knows me knows that I HATE spiders, and here they are literally everywhere. Spider webs block us from walking into our front yard. They will spin them in our pathway during the day while we are at work. They are everywhere and they are disgusting, but here is a picture anyway!


Hawaii may have a lot of bugs but it is a direct result of it's gorgeous weather, which I can't complain about at all! Another result of the warmth is the vegetation. Plants just sprout out of EVERYWHERE here without any encouragement. It is lush and green and gorgeous!

This is Amanda on the highway we live on. This is what most of the island is like. Lava rock wall on one side of the road (with the rest of the island going sharply up from there) and a steep drop-off on the other side (going down toward the ocean). You basically need a 4x4 to drive here! But at least you have beautiful scenery!

These flowers just grow cascading over the road. There are pink, purple, and orange varieties and they are just beautiful! My poor photography doesn't do them justice!

So overall, Hawaii is interesting, different, and definitely beautiful! With all it's ups and downs I've been glad to have the opportunity to experience it...and I promise to try to post more often!

What I do at work...

I've been struggling with writing a blog about what I do at work because it is such an unusual field. In order to explain I'd have to give a long vocabulary lesson, start at the beginning of the process, etc. But I managed to find a few pictures online that are very similar to what I do when catching queens so you can get an idea:

That frame is about the size of the smaller hives that we call "pee wees". You open the hive, pull out the middle frame, check for eggs to make sure there is a queen and she is laying properly, then look for the queen. If there are eggs but no queen she is either on another frame (in which case you pull out the other two frames and look for her) or the eggs were laid by a "laying worker". Like I said...lots of vocab. But you can see for yourself how it is handled. Once you find the queen you grab her by her wings and put her in a cage. In the pic above the man has caught the queen and is putting her in a small wooden cage that she will later be shipped in.
The most challenging part is finding the queen. The bees are actually quite calm, you rarely get stung, but all of the bees are moving around in the hive and you have to find the queen amongst them. Can you find the queen in the picture below?
And... yes, you do it all bare-handed. Some people don't even wear veils but I'm not quite that brave. Actually I've thought about it but I had a very negative reaction to a sting on my upper arm and I'm not eager to repeat it on my face! So there you go...that's a small part of what I do at work. Any questions?

Catching Queens

So, here's the big news! I caught........drumroll please..............44 queen bees today with my bare hands without getting stung once! (I got stung twice later but let's not talk about that...) It feels totally crazy but bees are not as scary as everyone thinks. They don't sting you unless you trap them, or provoke them...usually. So if one comes near you just leave it alone and you will probably be fine!

Bees and Beaches

I had a fairly interesting day today. First of all, I picked up a bee with my bare fingers. Granted, it was a drone (male bee with no stinger) but I did it nonetheless. Tomorrow I have to do the real thing. Pick up queens out of a frame filled with bees WITH stingers. Still not excited. We'll see how I survive.

The second interesting thing was that our boss let us off at lunch time AND let us take his car for the day. So we hit up the beach! It was warm and beautiful even though the sand was hard on my ankle I LOVED it! I'm still in awe that I'm actually here in this beautiful place. How lucky am I?

If you want to see pics check here

Aloha, Aloha

First: I'm too tired to post much about Hawaii. At least now you know that I made it in one piece and I am surviving the job (barely!) I will definitely update you later but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures. First, this is the view I have every day while I eat lunch (if it wasn't so foggy a.k.a. "vloggy" [they call it that because it's caused by the volcano] you'd be able to see the ocean better. It is GORGEOUS as the sun goes down all orange and beautiful)


Second, here is the photo you've all been waiting for. Drumroll please......


Yes, I actually do wear the suit. Most of the people here don't but I am trying my very hardest NOT to get stung. So far so good. But tomorrow we are supposed to catch queens and you have to do that bare-handed, so my luck just might run out!