Lots and lots of wood

So despite last week and this week only being 4 work days, I still found myself to be very busy. This week began with my cousin's Eagle Scout Ceremony which was really awesome. It was pretty cool of him because his Dad had been an Eagle Scout and it was interesting for me because my Dad had been one too. I think Boy Scouts in Hawaii must be awesome with all the perfect locations for camping and hiking. Really, the outdoors activities were pretty much the only reason I ever did Girl Scouts, and for the cookies.

Then right after I darted off to a "work event" which was more fun than work. It was the opening of the Hawaii Wood Show and while pretty much everyone there either worked in forestry or used forest products, there were a lot of familiar faces. It was nice to see people all gussied up though. The pieces were absolutely amazing. I wish I was loaded so I could buy each and every one of them. There were categories for furniture, turnings, sculpture, musical instrument, open, and novice. I had two favorites, this fern bowl because I absolutely love ferns and the yin yang concept was really well executed. And this table was just ingenious because it truly looked like it was fabric. Even the wood on the top of the table simulated wrinkles. It made me believe that the artists probably get inspired from the wood rather than having an idea and then just picking a piece to use.

The next day included my first all women's soccer game since I played back in NZ, almost 2 years ago. It was pretty great because it gave me time to work on some skills that I wouldn't normally get to do in my coed games. I also learned that polynesian girls, not so easy to "body" off the ball. There was one girl that I went for it and all I pretty much did was bounce completely off her; she was like a stone wall. Not trying that again. In the end we won, which was incredible since I guess this team hasn't won in over a year. So hopefully we can repeat that tomorrow.

Young sandalwood 

Monday I got to sleep in, but then quickly had to pack for a 2 day trip to the Big Island. Recently theres been a big "to do" about Sandalwood, called 'Iliahi in Hawaiian. There was a bill recently introduced to help us monitor the export of Sandalwood out of Hawaii. Hawaii used to be known for a large amount of Sandalwood but it was harvested unsustainable in the 1800's and is now considered a rare species here. We even have a few endemic species to Hawaii. There are only two exporters of Sandalwood in Hawaii and one of them invited us to look at his property and the entire sandalwood production. Once up there, it was hard to believe this tree is considered rare. There were seedlings growing everywhere! Sandalwood has the ability to do copiccing, which means that it can resprout from the roots of a dead tree. This is how most of their sandalwood was growing, and therefore, didn't need a host plant (they are hemi-parasitic). We spent all day off roading around this property and looking all the sandalwood in these little blue tubes. We also got to see theprocessing site and the smell of the Sandalwood was overwhelming. Overall, it was very educational and another interesting component of this sandalwood debacle.

Sandalwood Root balls. Fun fact, the ones with stones stuck in them,
like the one on the left are called pearls and are worth more because
artists like to use them in furniture or art pieces. 

In other news, my friend Sam recently bought a website for our NZ girls to do bucket lists and then blog about our adventures in our various cities. It may have some overlap with this blog but will most likely include non work activities. I will let you guys know when its up and running!