I know this is a bit late. I wanted to write this on Christmas day, but my daughter got an iPad, and I picked it up and started playing with it, and nothing else got done that evening.
Last week on the Kapa’a bypass, there appeared the most incredible sight: a snowman on Kaua’i!
Of course, since we don’t have snow, it’s just hay and white spray-paint—but nobody’s complaining (or griping about how Frosty songs are discriminating to Hawaii). I’m assuming it was made by the employees of the Farias Cattle Company who manage the ranch on the land around the bypass.
If you look closely, it’s a real lasso, and I do believe the other hand is a shaka. Because Kaua’i (and much of Hawai’i) recieves plenty of rain and sun, the pastures are rich, and cattle are outside the whole year. And because they are not enclosed in feedlots, there is still a need for real cowboys to round up the cattle from the pastures. At least that’s my theory for why a real cowboy culture, complete with lassos and rodeos, still exists in Hawai’i.
The photo above has Makaleha mountain in the background, with some waterfalls. Here’s another view with Nonou, the Sleeping Giant, behind. Maybe all the Sleeping Giant needs to wake up is an old hat with some magic still in it:
And the question about snow on Kaua’i is still open. I have heard some winter temperatures up in Koke’e have been cold enough for frost (not this year that I know of), which means cold enough to snow under the right conditions. But I still don’t have eye-witness accounts or photographic proof of actual snowflakes falling on Kaua’i, let alone sticking and not melting.
This is the best I can do for now:
Farias Cattle Company? That’s my familys company! Bobby Farias is my uncle, did you take the pictures outside the ranch?
Hi Cheyann, I took these pics along the Kapa’a bypass road, at the gate to the “ranch.” I believe they run the ranch but do not own the land. Even though this is between Kapa’a town and the Wailua neighborhood, you see livestock (cattle) grazing from the road. Right now, there are lots of cute calves.
Aloha Cheyann,
I have two guest here from Spokane, WA. They would like to tour your ranch. Do you have a number they could call? They are interested in meeting Bobby Farias, Sr.. These men are cattle ranchers from Montana and Washington.
Mahalo!