Maui Trip

Our 2011 trip to Maui with a ton of fish photos and references (sorry non-fish enthusiasts). In backwards chronological order.

Mala Warf 
In the early 90's a pier collapsed and created a great dive. There was a large variety of sea life including lizardfish and sharks.

Whitetip reef shark cruising the concrete and steel wreckage. Near the end of the video it looks like he eats something. Also, this poor guy had a hook in its mouth.  

Concrete pilings from the pier. 

Goatfish

Lizardfish

This fish was first spotted in Hawaii in the 1990's, now they are quite abundant. It's an Indo-Pacific Sergent Major. 

 Nudibranch 

Make an Eel do all the work.
Today while diving, Shelley and I stumbled upon an Pacific Trumpetfish following a Whitemouth Moray Eel. The trumpetfish was hoping the eel would chase out a fish right into his mouth. It was funny watching the trumpetfish look disappointingly at the eel each time it would emerge from a hole without a fish.

The Tree Fell

This page is about a sequence of events that led to a giant tiki head in my yard.

Part 1: The Tree Falls
Sitting on the couch watching The Simpsons has never been so eventful. Shelley suddenly grabs me and we both run to the other side of the house as I see a giant tree falling towards our house. The tree was our neighbors pine tree and the intense rain was too much for the already leaning tree. The tree fell blocking our entire driveway (trapping 3 cars) and just brushing our house. It was raining and dark, but the photos below show what the tree looked like when it first fell. The last photo shows the sidewalk ripped up by the tree's roots.  

 
 Part 2: Dad to the Rescue
After checking for downed power lines and ruptured gas lines, I called my dad and he quickly arrived with a chainsaw, mom, and Spencer. After several hours of cutting and clearing tree we were able to free two of the three cars from the driveway. 

Part 3: The Day After
When the sun came up the next day it was easier to take photographs.

Part 4: Clean Up - Send in the Pros
With our driveway cleared (except for one car that was pinned under the tree), it was time to send in the professionals. Solano's Tree Service (mrsolano@att.net) arrived and took about a week to cut and clean up the tree (including the stump). I approached them as they began to cut the largest part of the trunk and requested a 7 foot section. I removed part of the fence and it took five guys to push and roll the log into my yard. 

Part 5: Moving the Log
I asked the tree trimmers to leave me with a large section of the trunk. They gave me a 7 foot long log that weighs approximately 2500 lbs. It took the removal of the fence and five guys to roll the log to my property and it took my dad and I three hours, some hydraulic jacks, and my car three hours to move the trunk to where the it will be displayed. Here is what we did.

1. Flatted one side of the log with a chainsaw and an ax.
2. Nailed 2x6 rails to the flattened side.
3. Rolled the log onto its rails with metal pipes underneath.
4. Pushed and pulled the log with my car on the pipes. 
5. Used 4 ton hydraulic jacks to lift the log up one step in the back of the property. 

 

 

Part 6: Carving

We started roughing out the head of the log. It is too moist to carve more, so for now it will just dry out for a few months. Here is Heidi with the head so far.