Now what do we do?

There's a meltdown going on. Excessive consumption is killing the World. We've got to take a break and catch our breath. We'll pause this adventure for awhile but it might turn out that "Camp" becomes sanctuary. Everyone is welcome. Bring a bag and some seeds.

Friendship at it's purest form

You know, it's so cliche, but good people are hard to find, and great people almost impossible to find. I have conquered that impossibility though, I have found a lifelong confidant and best buddy in Calvin. We spent 10 days together in a beautiful place doing the same things we have been doing together for years, but it's really about the things I don't get to do with him enough that I so enjoyed. We discussed just about every issue facing mankind in our many nights of scholarly debating, and came up with..........nothing really noteworthy to the advanced intellectual.... except a concensus that humans have a conscience and animals dont. It was: the conversations about our past(s), the revealing of our thoughts, our attitudes, our beliefs, our life-experiences, our struggles, our failures, our triumphs, and our joys that have shaped each of us, it is these that I treasure. We always laugh and bring humor to each others day, and I just don't get tired of hanging out with the Bucduke. I am thankful for the opportunities that Calvin has shared with me, and I know that in the future we will share more together. He is my sensei, my mentor. An excercept of a conversation after he shows me some cool little building trick......(check out the name links, its kinda funny)
Johnny "How did you do that? "
Calvin "Don't know. First time. "
A gifted craftsman and an artist, I have respect for Calvin on so many levels, yet it is his upright character and generosity that are so endearing.
Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know how I feel about my friend, you know I would do anything for you and Julie bro. I am sure that the Kilauea House will be the envy of all who have built mundane and common dwellings around you.
I guess I should tell you all a little about what we did in Hawaii. When I arrived I was immediately put to work the next day and we go a lot done, Calvin wasted no time in employing his new found resource. Calvin introduced me to Guillome, a French traveler who was in Hawaii mainly to pursue a romance with a little hottie from Nor-Cal, Jessica. Guillome doubled as a laborer and teacher, he dug holes as well as explained topography and climate in his native region. I was tutored in the entire French history condensed into a 30 minute lecture by this guy, who I really liked by the way. He grew up in Western France near the border of Spain in the Pyrénées, he is a French Basque. A lot of really cool traditions and history in that area that I probably never would have learned about. Guillome is a really great guy, and he taught me all about Facebook which subsuquently have produced some long lost friends of mine.
Calvin and I finished framing the substructure supports and forms a few days after I arrived and then went to the beach to celebrate our success. His college buddy Rich came over to help us for awhile to help us tie off the upright steel that reinforces the vertical concrete. Rich was a high energy guy, and it was a good thing too, for he had a daunting task that lay ahead of him. He and his wife Holly had come over to get their rental in nearby Princeville re-roofed and as it turns out, they did a lot of the work themselves. I have to say, Holly is the hardest working woman I've ever been around. She was out there everyday in 90+ heat and rain woking her tail off and putting the men to shame. Way to go Holly!
We poured the concrete walls on a overcast morning and several places looked as if they were going to burst at any moment and bring our hopes of going to the beach early crashing down in a wall of wet concrete, permanently casting our French compatriate in the Hawaiin landscape. The walls held however, and Calvin and I could breathe again.
The last few days we helped Rich and Holly a little and took a quick tour up the coast to marvel at the natural surroundings, and not so natural or beautiful creatures that had invaded the place. As quickly as the time had come to go and hang out with my buddy, it had come to an end. Coming back to California was bittersweet... I knew I would miss hanging out with Calvin but I missed my family terribly and couldn't have been away from them much longer without a total breakdown of some sort. So that's the synopsis, there are lots of details I've left out, but for the sake of brevity I will end my story here. Calvin, thanks for more memories!
By the Way: To any adventurers who may go over to work on the house, please note that only professionals should handle power tools..........especially drills. 私達は兄弟をやがて話す

"There's no place like home"

Camp has been buttoned up and I've returned to the central coast. I'm home with my Woman. Oh Yeah! I'll rest for a while, go on vacation and get the next phase planned and product delivered to the site. Like every other aspect of this project, providing utilities to the jobsite has been challenging.

















Water was quite a distance from the house but as you might remember from earlier postings "Grasshopper" tackled that problem. Electricity is not as far away but the utility company wants to boost the power, bring it halfway to the house and then transform it back down to standard current. It will cost ME ..... Tens of Thousands of dollars $$$ for them to "be happy". Duh? Not a hard decision. We'll just go off the grid!!! Solar is the word, Ryan. Photovoltaic & Wind. It's cheaper. Plus, Obama tells me he'll help pay for it. Rock on!