Handy Tricks 8: Island Handy Tricks

Handy Tricks 8: Island Handy Tricks! Do stuff with stuff on an Island.
I go back to Maui periodically, so watch this space for more tricks.

To see even more handy tricks, check out the rest of the saga at
Handy Tricks 9: Oodles of random tricks
and Handy Tricks 7: Bike Mods and Projects
and Fifty Handy Tricks.
and 40 More Handy Tricks
and Australian Handy Tricks
and Guatemalan Handy Tricks
and Yet More Handy Tricks
and Handy Tricks Six!
For a bunch of things that didn't work, check out How Not To.

First Trick: Old tires are perfect to park a boat on.
These are the Maui Wailea Canoe club's 6 person racing canoes. The canoe never touches the ground. The paddlers pick it up in the water and carry it onto land. They set it on tires or in cradles lined with carpet scraps.

Step 1 Canoe Dolly with Golf Cart Wheels

Wailea Canoe Club has this slick homemade dolly for putting boats in and out of the water. Purpose-made beach wheels are expensive. Wheels from junk golfcarts are free.

Comments

[qolque]

Ok, regrettable the way it works, but you can't seriously mean this as a handy trick?! You suggesting I try this on my island??

[sockless]

It's the same here in New Zealand, we have honesty boxes on the side of the road and in workplaces, some of them even have open boxes for the money, so you can get change for your fiver. Sadly some people are ruining this custom.

[biggy smalls]

i singe the hairs off of my prickly pears.

[mikaelthemycologist]

When I made prickly pear jelly a few weeks ago I  boiled the fruit before I peeled them to soften the glochids.

[CapnChkn]

Prickly Pears are one of the most cosmopolitan cactuses in the world. As cactus goes, fairly mundane, some of the species are downright evil! Cactus is common here in Florida, and I can tell you getting a spine in your flesh is not a fun project. The hairs are a nuisance at best. All of the hairy spiny things that come from a cactus are barbed, and not meant to be pleasant by any means. I remember one drunk night where I finally laid down only to wake with the hairs from a cactus all down my back. Euell Gibbons, and who remebers him? He says in one of his books (Stalking the healthful herbs?) to use some heavy gloves, slit the pear down the side, and peel the skin from it "untouched by human hands."

[erosser]

"Stalking the Wild Asparagus"! Amazing book, and an amazing guy...

[Johenix]

"Stalking the Blue Eyed Scallops" and "Stalking the Good Life" too. All three need a reprinting, maybe in a single volume.

[Lego man]

Here in Kingman, Arizona jumping cholla is notorious. You barely touch it and it hooks on to you and gives a painful sting

[pyrotechnical]

TO take the hairs off you can take a bucket of sand put your pears in it cover them with some sand then shake away, and the hairs come off after a lil.

[andresm]

aren't prickly pears called "dragon fruit"? in Mexico in only one small town going thats between Guzman and Guadalajara is the only place in the world that you can find different colored "prickly pears"or dragon fruit or the spanish name "pitayas". they are white, yellow, red,purple. the white ones are the sweetest.

[HolyTracker]

its not the only place in the world, and i know because ive bought pitayas in Puebla from the farmers there. They had even a pinkish variety claimed to be "unique", so you get the point. Pitayas are not like dragon fruit (altough they could be related, i dont know). But for what i know, and i live in Mexico and have some knowledge of it, pitayas are just a variety of "tunas", (fishy name, uh?), this is, the fruit of a cactus called nopal. I know this is a very old thread, but guessed it should be fine to spread the light :D

[Legion]

I believe it is legal so long as the cab of the truck is full. I seem to recall that in the driver's manual.
Hawaiian hitchhiking is a wonderful way to get around and meet interesting people though.

[Tobita]

I used to want to open a coconut plantation. Then I thought of coconut crabs....

[rsakamaki]

got it wrong here. Lau is leaf, hala is pandanus.

[TimAnderson]

Mahalo Nui! My mistake, it's fixed now

[BoeroBoy]

And yet MORE toilet worship. That makes 4! :-)

[BoeroBoy]

Star seems to have a toilet fetish. Rage against the Latrine and now this? Hmph.

[dmdeford]

I plan on moving to Hawaii someday, if only for a short while. Which island/city do you all recommend? I was thinking either Hilo or Kona on the big island.... Thanks!

[SG1Oniell]

Slow down this aint the mainland, that's great, Island Time was so relaxed.

[SG1Oniell]

Nice, I used to live on Maui at Makena for a while, I loved it there. Beautiful work, reminds me of the good days. And the sugar cane, reminded me of how badly it smells when they burn it. Driving from Makena to Lahaina town was a pain whenever they were burning. The Coral fort and Banyan tree still there?

[ninja cat 09]

I Here in Mexico they sell sugar cane cut up in bags, and they even sell cane juice. Yum!

[ramedia]

The life guard station is on skids because it needs to move back in the winter and forward in the summer. That is the same here in Los Angeles. Not to say that your beach isn't eroding.

[scafool]

We used to pick them with tin cans, we used to scorch them with a quick fire (grass, straw) to get rid of the spines.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Excellent nipple-thorn removal technique. lol Though for anyone with actual hair on their chest, it might be a debate as to which is worse. lol

[jwilliam]

Not sure it's really worth the comment, but that style of flame has been around the custom paint scene for quite a while. There are online tutorials and books on how to do that. I think it came from a Californian, but it's been a while...

[dchall8]

I drive past about 1,000 bushels of pear fruit every weekend. My aunt used to make pp jelly that was amazing with a very delicate pink color. I have always been tempted to pick some of the fruit and make some, but now I'm glad I didn't. I've had those tiny thorns in my hands from cleaning up my mother's cactus garden as a kid. It is NOT pretty and is definitely something you remember for the rest of your life. I like the canoe dolly and the umbrella ideas, too.

[Lithium Rain]

Ich, we have people who use toilets for planters here, too... :/

[BigD145]

Or maybe give Hawaii back to its people.... Unfortunately, I doubt that.

[Hoopajoo]

The best way to get the barbs out of your skin is to coat the affected area with white school glue, let it dry and carefully peel it off. It carries the thorns with it. Seconding Sleighbedguy, singing them is the best way to avoid the barbs. I use a pair of heavy leather gloves with a thick fleece lining to pull the pads and pods. then I get a good bed of coals going and burn the thorns off. Also, a potato peeler is perfect for skinning the pads and pods.

[sleighbedguy]

Try singeing the fruit before you pick it. This removes the cactus spines(thorns) before they get in your skin.

[shooby]

That coconut milk blending islander was pretty pasty looking. Maybe spend more time climbing coconut trees, less time in the kitchen.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Good tips! I'm looking forward to picking some of those prickly pears this year