grains of truth for future generations
Oct 18th, 2009 by lgsue
In 1981, Darlene (Tom) Sue, visited Bok Miu, the ancestral village of the Tom family, in Zhongshan Province, China. She met her first cousin Eu Quon and his family. Steve, Alan and Linda Sue would later use these pictures to find the Tom family cousins on a visit to China some ten years later.
Oct 17th, 2009 by Steve Sue
Here’s the Sue Family homestead in China. Apparently, houses are supposed to be willed to the eldest boy, so this should be Ed Sue’s house now, then pass to his son Jon Jon thereafter… sorry Wendi and Lucas. But may be it’ll be a good place for him to find a nice strong, child-bearing, Chinese wife so he can settle down to live a fruitful life as the farmer he was intended to be… never mind this designing facebook games stuff…
Henry Sue's house in Sun Loo Village, China, 1981
In 1981, a brave and merry band of traveling relatives went back to China in to renew ties with the homeland.
Left to right: Darlene Sue, Helen Sue Owyoung, John Sue, Epaw Sue, Alice Sue, Aunty Fong, Aunty Janet Goo.
Oct 17th, 2009 by johnsue
Installed by an older do-it-your-selfer.
CONSIDERATIONS:
It’s too much to manually water the lawns of a 15,000 sf property, and lawns without water turn brown, look or are dead, in Kaimuki, Hawaii.
So it’s time to build an irrigation system. PVC pipes and fittings have to be buried to protect them from UV. Galvanized steel pipe is heavy, labor intensive, prone to rust. With many unmapped existing shallow waterlines, I wanted to avoid running into them so judged it impractical to hire a backhoe or ditch digger to do the job..
In Hawaii, finding laborers to dig the trenches is difficult, or expensive, major considerations for an aged do-it-your-selfer. Anticipating a lot of digging for trenches and planting holes, I bought a Hilti digger/concrete breaker. Weighing about 30 lbs.costing about $1500, it has plenty of punch for the job.
Trying the tool, I happily dug for a while through very hard soil and tough Bermuda turf until I hit a shallow 1″ potable water line, The water erupted into a 15′ high geyser, totally covering me with red mud, and endowing me with a new respect for hidden utilities.
As a retired Landscape Architect with considerable design experience in irrigation, I mulled over the limiting considerations for my unique tropical automatic sprinkler system. My early conceptual layouts indicated most of the pipe runs could be concealed under existing eighty year old hedge rows, with the rotor heads to operate from the top of the hedges. This design is unique but as I plan to replace much of the lawns with plantings, having them high up and not on the ground, I predict, will work just fine. Small heads and/or drip lines will water smaller areas.
I decided to use copper pipe, which can be left exposed. As the copper should not be adversely affected by UV, it ages to a reddish brown color similar to the Hawaiian volcanic soil. Our system will automatically irrigate the property with large rotors, 17” to 35’ radius. To not encourage termites, all water will spray away from structures. Using copper throughout, may seem extravagant, but on our 15,000 sf property it has added only about $1000 -$2000 to the costs of pipe and fittings. I suppose the labor savings should compensate for the added costs and make the superior material worth while.
BBQ anyone?
I am slowly progressing with the installation of the system in the mornings and evenings to escape frying in the sun and should have it completed by November 2009, so I can leave my plantings to take a trip to the mainland. Should you wish to see the installation, call (808) 732-1014 or come and visit us in Hawaii.
Oct 15th, 2009 by Steve Sue
Memories by Helen Owyoung…
In 1923, upon their arrival in America, my parents Henry C. Sue and his bride, Lum Suk Hin settled at a Peach Ranch in Fairfield, California. I was the first born at the Peach Ranch.
They were supposed to return to Calexico, California where my Dad was a partner in a grocery store. But his partner told him not to come back as the store was destroyed by fire. My Dad later discovered that it was a false story concocted by his partner to gain the business. My Dad also eventually lost the ranch during the Great Depression because he had used it as a collateral to help out some friends in need.
After we lost the ranch, we moved around the surrounding towns when my two sisters, Gladys and Edith were born. I recall that Gladys and I were playing with the Red Mavis Powder cans on the porch of our Vacaville home when our sister, Edy was born at home.
Asians were not allowed at any of the hospitals, so all the births were at home. There were actually seven kids in our family. Mom had given birth to a brother after me and one after Gladys but they both died at birth.
During the Great Depression, Dad relocated our family to Oakland, California where he became a gardener for folks who lived in Piedmont. We had some enjoyable times growing up as he would be home whenever it rained, as he didn’t work on rainy days. I can remember Dad making won ton skins by galloping them on a large bamboo.
Dad was very progressive in his thinking. He had an Italian friend, who played the accordion. So he hired a teacher for my sister and I to learn how to play the accordion. Unfortunately, we loved to hear music but were not great at playing tunes. He encouraged us to meet other folks by giving us a coin to join the others to dance. He also took us to Moss wood Park and Chinatown for treats on Sundays.
We had some happy times until September, 1937 when tragedy struck. A neighbor shot and killed our beloved father who was trying to tell them to be good neighbors. My Mom was left with 5 young children from age 13 to age 3.
Our grandparents told Mom to move to San Francisco to be near them. Mom found employment in the sewing industry. We all lived in a small apartment with one bedroom, a living room, a small kitchen and a community bathroom (25 cents per hour for the use of it for several hours). We had to climb 2 flights of stairs to get to this apartment. I guess those stairs gave us the strength we needed to get home every day.
Oct 9th, 2009 by Steve Sue
John Sue, Baby Diana, Dana, Helen Owyoung, Ed Sue, Brian, Alice Sue
Once builders, always builders… Here’s the Sue brothers building their Mom’s house just two blocks down from sister Helen’s rug-rat-infested abode. They went on to build many homes, apartments and small commercial buildings in the Oakland area.
