Monthly Archives: October 2006

How We Do It

Be Gone

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

At Hamakua Springs Country Farms, we use techniques of Integrated Pest Management to control insects and plant diseases.

Integrated Pest Management is a program of prevention, monitoring, and control. It lets us drastically reduce or even eliminate the use of pesticides, and also means we minimize the toxicity and exposure of any pesticide products we do use.

Say, for instance, we find an insect tunneling through the tomato leaves, and that there are so many of them the leaves are drying up, causing the tomato plant to shrivel up and die.

First we send an insect sample to the Extension Service office for identification.

Having identified the insect, we learn as much as we can about it, such as its life cycle, enemies, likes and dislikes. Then we figure out how to encourage insects that feed on that pest, while also looking for ways to make it difficult for the pest to grow. If we have to spray, we choose the least toxic chemicals as we know that sooner or later insects become immune to chemical sprays. That’s another reason it’s not good to rely on chemicals alone.

The leaf miner, for instance, tunnels through a tomato leaf and causes yields to decrease drastically. But we know that there’s a tiny wasp that will lay its eggs next to or on the leaf miner larvae, and as the wasp eggs develop into adults they feed on the leaf miner larvae. This is all in miniature, as the leaf miner is about 1/16 of an inch long, while the wasp is approximately 1/8 of an inch.

So our job is to encourage the wasp (by not spraying it with chemicals). After a time, the wasp and the leaf miner will find a balance. At that point the leaf miner will no longer be an economic problem.

This is an example of how we deal with one problem insect at the farm. It’s been a success—leaf miners are no longer a problem for us.

Still, it’s a big leap of faith to go from chemical control to Integrated Pest Management. From time to time, I will write about how we use these methods to control other insects.

Losing Weight, Travel

Weight Loss on the Fly

Richard Ha writes:

We’ve been in Las Vegas since ten days ago, when June and I flew here suddenly because June’s mom went into the hospital. She left the hospital yesterday, but the doctor says she cannot fly. So we are arranging to bring her home on one of the cruise ships that visit Hilo. Tomorrow we drive to San Diego.

I did not bring my heart rate monitor and haven’t had a chance to weigh myself. I’ll try to post my weight loss statistics next week.

Trying to lose weight under these circumstances, while eating hotel food, has been a real challenge. For the first few days, we ate a combination of hospital cafeteria food and hotel food. I exercised by walking for an hour each day through the mall and around the hotel. But it was not very useful since I hardly broke a sweat.

One day I even walked the stairs of the hotel’s six-story parking garage. I didn’t realize it was so high. The stairs are like a fire escape on the outside of the building, and it got a little hairy up on the top floors when I was breathing heavily and hanging on to the railing closest to the wall.

I finally had to acknowlege that the hotel food was way too much volume and too many calories. I had to tell myself, “Even if you paid for it, you don’t have to eat all of it.” Getting over that idea was a big deal.

Since I don’t gamble, even for entertainment, I was able to justify paying to go to the spa. It’s a place where people go for manicures and massages, and where the walls and ceilings are mirrored and the trim is done in wood tones. The ambience is quiet and sedate. There was a pitcher of ice water for guests that had slices of lemon and cucumber in it. It was not your ordinary power lifting gym by any means.

But I was on a mission and I went twice. The first time, I wanted to do a long session at a 125 heart rate or so. I started at 5:50 p.m. and at 7:00 they told me the spa was closing. Two days later I went in and did three intervals–one at a 138 heart rate for ten minutes, another at 145 for five minutes and the last for three minutes at 153.

I don’t know what my weight is because I did not go into the locker room where the scale was. I know that I have gained a few pounds. But not many.

I started to get control of the situation once I realized that serving sizes were twice what I needed and adapted to that. As far as exercise, it’s been the first time I ever set out with the intention of walking as far as I could for an hour. I had to take side trips so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself as the guy who was coming around the block again. But it was enjoyable as I saw a lot more of the place than I otherwise would have.

Once we reach San Diego, we will be in a more stable environment and I’m sure losing weight will be much easier then.

I wasn’t able to plan the exercise portion of this trip ahead of time because we had to get here as fast as we could. But I’ve found that I can adapt and maintain my weight even under unplanned conditions.

It’s been a great learning experience. There have been obstacles in the way of my continuing the weight loss program. But I feel I’ve adjusted well and I am more convinced than ever that I will succeed in losing 39 pounds in 39 weeks.