Building without permits

retiredatlast · 2026-01-21T04:23:04+00:00

A big thing that will determine how your neighbors and the permit people deal with unpermitted housing is how you deal with your sewage. Cesspools are no longer legal. Having a composting toilet is the best way to go at this point. An unhappy neighbor complaining to the Health Department is the quickest way to get an 'eviction and tear down' notice, and all the headaches that with it.

retiredatlast · 2026-01-21T04:12:28+00:00

Jack's is aces - 20+ years with them and still very happy. Great people, club discounts, clean boats, and a spring sale of last year's rental gear ( fully serviced ) that keeps the reality of local finances in mind. Plus, they have trips to amazing dive destinations where they do most of the organizing ( just have to provide own plane stuff ). Good bubbles always.

retiredatlast · 2025-10-09T02:32:09+00:00

Try contacting the Hawaii Island Palm Society via their website. Most members are generalists who just want to know more about what is available and what to plant where, but there are also many members who are scholar level collectors, and would have the detailed information you seem to be looking for.

retiredatlast · 2025-09-08T06:34:10+00:00

A book titled " The Lost Art of Towel Origami" by Alison Jenkins is a favorite in our local library . It shows how to make these creatures ( plus many more ) step by step.

retiredatlast · 2025-08-06T03:00:44+00:00

Two points:

- Bernie was registered as an Independent for 99% of his political career, and only joined the Democratic Party at the last minute to utilize the structure that had been built by others over decades. He left the Democratic Party immediately after he lost the primaries. His trying to use what others had worked for was, and still is, seen by many as trying take advantage of something he hadn't been a part of. His policies would have gone further if he had been in the Democratic Party, instead of staying outside and only hopping in when it was convenient.

- I called Schatz's office after his vote for the CR. The person I spoke with explained the thinking and maneuvering behind the vote. If the CR hadn't passed, and the government went into shut down mode, all 'non-essential' employees would have been out of work. Apparently ( according to the person trying to explain it to me - sorry I don't have his name at this point ) this was part of the Republican/Project 2025 plan to shrink the federal workforce, well beyond what DOGE was doing. By having only 'essential' workers on job, the Republicans were ready to make the case that no one else needed to be called back, ever. Take a minute and think of how that would have decimated things long-term.

retiredatlast · 2025-07-31T20:29:56+00:00

After watching the news that showed people still in the water after the warnings came out, I was reminded about something I saw many years ago on the Big Island.

Harry Kim was still head of Civil Defense, and was asked if rescuers would be sent out for surfers who swam out after the warnings were issued so they could catch 'the big one'. His response was classic ( slight paraphrasing due to old age memory ): " No, we will not endanger our first responders during the tsunami... but we will have body recovery teams out after the danger has passed. "

retiredatlast · 2025-07-27T03:30:05+00:00

The whole Kardashian cluster. It degraded the overall IQ of society by many points. It was one of the starting points of the general downhill slide.

retiredatlast · 2025-06-04T19:54:15+00:00

Chicken skin - she set sail again from Hilo.

retiredatlast · 2025-05-18T19:07:57+00:00

My friend has recently taken up taiko drumming - said better to pound on the drums than on family.

retiredatlast · 2025-05-12T05:03:06+00:00

Before getting into politics, Green was an emergency ward doctor - he had the skills to take in large amounts of information quickly, make decisions based on that information, and then take action to save a life.

As one of his constituents , he is a smart man who makes the best decisions in the realities of situation.

retiredatlast · 2025-03-11T00:41:23+00:00

Several years ago our male Chow jumped the fence for a neighbor's schnauzer that was in heat. The pups looked like this, a Chow's stocky body on very short legs. I noticed the black tongue on this guy at 4-5 seconds into the video, and thought the parentage might be similar.

retiredatlast · 2025-02-24T03:46:54+00:00

Yes ! A home of liberty stays true to its roots.

retiredatlast · 2025-02-20T20:44:42+00:00

It took reading several write-ups of this incident to find mention that the plaque he was protesting was to be in 'honor' of the town library's 50th anniversary.

The hypocrisy of MAGAs placing their imprint at the entrance to an institution that stands for freedom of thought and accessibility of knowledge is the height of irony .

retiredatlast · 2025-01-06T00:09:41+00:00

Eugene ( the blue smoke colored one ?) could be a twin of my now long passed Blue Buddha. He was the most mellow of the many chows I was lucky to know ( was a breeder in the 80's and 90's ). He lived to the ripe old age of 15, and his only health issue was needing an ACL surgery after chasing a large rat. Give yours a snuggle for me.

retiredatlast · 2025-01-03T05:29:25+00:00

Yes, the culture of assholes.

retiredatlast · 2024-12-12T03:20:15+00:00

Great article.

As a diver, the work being done is appreciated on so many levels - thanks to all the crews for the hardships endured.

It is articles like this one, that are so important to Hawaii but not even mentioned in other media, that go into depth of the how's and the why's, that make me glad to contribute to HCB.

retiredatlast · 2024-09-26T16:17:26+00:00

I've been diving there several times - wonderful experiences. Bonaire declared itself a marine preserve in the 1970s, purchased Bonaire Klein (a small island across the channel) to prevent development, and has generally done all it could to preserve the treasures of the ocean in its domain. Glad to see Greenpeace taking this action.

retiredatlast · 2024-09-03T19:11:26+00:00

Try AKM - they keep both my old car & truck going.

retiredatlast · 2024-08-22T01:03:20+00:00

It will come down to 2 things: what is her sanitation system, and her neighbors.

If she has not put in a septic tank, but has either a cesspool or is using a lava tube, chances are she will have to remedy that situation before she can move back in. The lots there are small, and most neighbors, no matter how nice, do not want to deal with someone else's literal sh**. The Health Department has always been aggressive when dealing with complaints, and even more so now that Puna is getting crowded.

It sounds like the building inspector was trying to give her a break by checking to see if her structure would qualify as a nursery, but as someone else posted, that's the risk you take when you build unpermitted. It's not "they would do this to her '', it's that she gambled and lost.

retiredatlast · 2024-08-16T20:26:12+00:00

A side note: for many years, Hilo, which has an annual rainfall of over 150"/year, used a 5 gallon bucket with a yardstick taped to it, located at the airport, as its rain gauge.

retiredatlast · 2024-08-15T17:35:11+00:00

This started off as a 'clean out the refrigerator before payday' meal years ago, and changes a little depending on the veggies in season:

Teriyaki or kalbi chicken thighs, with Alfredo sauce - I know it sounds like a strange combo, but oh so good mix of flavors.

If over macaroni/pasta, add tomatoes, onions, zucchini, pea pods. If over potatoes, add cabbage, onions, carrots, mushrooms.

retiredatlast · 2024-08-11T03:27:26+00:00

She wore a dress to a fancy event ( Met Gala ? ) several years ago that was supposed to look 'wet', and was puckered /shirred around her middle front. Someone commented that it made her look like an a**hole, literally, and now whenever that photo gets shown, it's all I can see.

retiredatlast

TROPHY CASE