Post #730173 by jimsflies on Thu, Oct 23, 2014 7:06 AM

Its been awhile since I updated my thread. I've been busy working on the tiki bar and will get some updated photos around showing progress. But now that cool weather is here and I am working on winterizing the lounge, I thought I would share some photos of the flora and fauna I took over the summer around the KioWai Lounge.

My awesome hibiscus died from the cold winter last year...but these lilies were looking good this summer.

Nothing seems to slow these trumpet vines. But conditions were very good for them this summer. There's always several hummingbirds buzzing around these flowers. Around Labor Day, I was out by the pool and noticed a strange hummingbird and upon further investigation, I realized it was a hummingbird moth. (I'm including a photo, but its not mine.)

This was the year of the shrew at the KioWai. I rescued several of these guys from the pool as well as many more that weren't as fortunate:

I had no idea the tree frogs got as big as this. This tree frog was about 4-inches long. I found him hanging out on some fence boards I had removed to work on the tiki bar.

Among my many summer projects, the biggest was replacing our drainfield. I had to replant the grass in my entire backyard and had several bales of straw brought into cover the seed. I was getting a bale off the pile which was eye level when I noticed these guys...

My bananas did a lot better this year since I started them earlier than last. Last year's batch didn't make it over the winter...admittedly, I didn't do anything to winterize them since last fall there was a good chance we were going to be relocating (which didn't happen). I dug these up last weekend and will try to keep them going inside over the winter. They are now about 5-feet tall and each leaf is bigger than the previous.

Thanks to another TC member posting about a tiki she found at a Home Depot in Texas, I was able to track down two resin tikis to add to my outdoor collection. Getting them shipped from a Home Depot in Arlington, TX was not easy...fortunately I found a sympathetic person at the customer service desk to help me out. They are the ones on each side of this photo:

[ Edited by: jimsflies 2014-10-24 08:01 ]