Surfing

This is Haleiwa on the north shore. I estimated the swells at 16 to 18 feet (trough to crest).

 

Best Chinese SPAM ever?

Large Great White Shark Eaten by Something Larger

I hope my great-white-shark-loving nephew hears about this.

Double ‘bow all the way across the sky!

Black Mamo

Look at this guy. Completely ridiculous. It was endemic to — where else? — Molokai. The black mamo went extinct a hundred years ago because it didn’t stand a chance against post-contact rats and mongooses. Its understory habitat was quickly destroyed by the charming cows, pigs and deer that were let loose on Molokai for some reason.

Whole Wheat Sourdough

I wanted to make a whole wheat sourdough in the bread machine, but people said that it was impossible, it couldn’t be done, that I would die trying. Similar things were said to Chuck Yeager and Roger Bannister. After much trial-and-error, and two whomping disasters that required an hour+ cleaning of the bread machine, this one worked out perfectly:

It requires more than 8 hours in the bread machine, and it might’ve be longer if we didn’t live in a jungle with a very potent sourdough starter. I’m using a white-flour starter at this point, but I’ll convert it to a whole-wheat starter soon.

Adapted from here.

1 cup water
1 cup starter (50/50 water/flour mixture)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
4 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 teaspoons salt

Homemade setting on bread machine (Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso 2-Pound Bread Machine):

REST: OFF
Knead: 30 min
Shape: off
Rise1: 2:30
Rise2: 2:00
Rise3: 2:00
Bake: 1:15
KeepWarm: OFF

 

 

Red-footed Boobies

This morning we got to sneak out to the end of the marine corp base in Kailua (the one where Obama does his presidential stuff when he’s here over Christmas). There’s a firing range at the end of a beautiful penninsula that is also one of the only places the red-footed boobies hang out on the Hawaiian Islands. Strangely, it is still used as a firing range, but we were reassured that anybody that intentionally fires at a bird is reprimanded. Super! Really, can’t they shoot stuff ANYWHERE? Like Nevada?

The boobies were all nesting in trees with babies that looked more like a pile of soap bubbles than birds. They adults had bright red feet and blue and red pastel bills. There were hundreds of them. Photos. I got to use my favorite telephoto lens, the $9 Minolta 135/3.5, though this one was the most popular in our group of bird enthusiasts.