Hi all!

We are loving south Kona on the big island of Hawaii. Finally we are both
enthusiastic about a place to live...but enough chit chat. ;)

Last weekend we visited Pangaia (the permacculture/instincto acreage that
Zephyr was associated with) in the extreme western part of the island (the
Kapoho area of Puna). It was as lovely as I remembered it and their fruit
orchards are _really_ coming along. Suffice it to say that most tropicals
and ultra-tropicals are represented.

A fine fellow named Manis (who I consider among the very few balanced
instinctos I've ever met) is the backbone and lifeforce of the operation.
He gave me his blessings to share the latest parasite story. He came down
with nematodes (sp?), apparently endemic to the area and carried by snails.
He now says he'll wash all fruits and veggies before eating them. He was
layed out for a couple weeks in extreme pain at times ("it must be what
women feel when giving birth"). There is no medication for the parasite and
one just lives through it's painful effect on the nerves. He considered
himself almost fully recovered since he had climbed a coconut tree the day
before we arrived for an afternoon visit. But he was visibly humbled by the
experience. He thought everyone would benefit from hearing about it...

Aslo, in a conversation about Zephyr's trich, he mentioned that even the
dogs won't eat the mongooses (mongeese? ;)) in the area. He has seen dogs
kill them and not eat them. He repeated that the mongoose is not indiginous
to Hawaii and eats anything and everything. So were the dogs that refused
to eat them, but I'm not going to pick nits ;)

There is a fluctuating population at Pangaia and there were five residents
there when we visited. There fruit is _stunning_ and it is probably
impossible not to overdo it in such a setting, but for anyone wanting to do
see (and/or do) some real work on a tropical permaculture operation, they
could hardly do better than a visit. They recently leased more acreage and
have started to keep some sheep.

Anyway, there's the latest from Pangaia, however it's spelled. ;)

Cheers,
Kirt