The Tin Man

Life in Hawaii includes living with an aluminum roof -- a material that will hold up in rainforest conditions.  The side effects include an intriguing array of audible manifestations ranging from subtle to percussive.  It took some getting used to the first few weeks -- and we joked about "living with the Tin Man."

With a constant range of temperature, there is little sound.  However, since we have enormous billowy clouds passing over all day long, the roof temperature can change dramatically in a few moments.  When the sun is out in all its glory, the roof heats up and expands with syncopated fillips at every joint.  When the sun goes behind a big cloud and the temperature drops, there are snap-crackle-pop sounds the full length of our 100' house.  Expansion and contraction happens throughout the day, but is especially noticable in the morning and evening.

When it rains, which it does nearly every day (although frequently at night) -- the sound can vary from a whisper to a roar.  During the heaviest rains the only way to converse is to shout.  Fortunately that doesn't happen too often, although the monsoon-like rain we experienced in December and in February created a background noise like standing next to a waterfall.  To add further to the back-beat sounds of our rock and roll, we discovered shortly after moving in that the former owner and builder did not adequately secure the roof panels along the north side.  So, in addition to all these described noises, the trade winds will frequently lift up a panel or two, slapping them down with a crash that startles all of us -- especially Dexter.  (Our contractor has promised to fix this while working on our 2-story addition.)

Forest & Jungle

We live in a tropical rainforest here in PUNA, which means that no matter what, you measure growth in inches-per-day, and feet-per-month.  It is widely rumored that the invasive albezia trees (which we had on the property) grow 4-6 inches per day.

Obviously the previous owner's focus was on building this wonderful house -- not on the forest that surrounds the house.  Here is a typical shot of the edges of the property. 

 We are fortunate that when the land was cleared lots of the native Ohia trees were left, and the center of the property is pretty clean.  While waiting for the moving company to deliver our container, our working time was spent either working on the outside property building lava walls for new beds, or inside, making improvements to an "almost finished" house.

Here's Phil beating back the jungle.  When we moved in, for example, these palms were completely overgrown with vines, ferns and fast growing shrubs.  The driveway you see is bounded by forest, and trees surround us on all sides.  We also have a wonderful variety of birds living in these trees.