Rainy Day Chores

It was raining when I woke up. It is raining as I write this. In fact, for most of the day it either rained or drizzled.

But even when it's raining, it's nice to be able to look outside & see what's happening.

Adam & Cy came by this morning to haul the rusted metal roofing, termite-eaten wood, and other miscellaneous stuff to the dump. I asked them to keep the larger pieces of 2" x 12" in order to make cat trees for the next phase of the renovation work.


Branden & Gregory from Aikane Nursery also came by this morning. We discussed the next steps for the landscape work. An important piece is rejuvenating the anthurium bed & also moving the hapu'u and anthuriums that will be in harm's way when the sewing room is enlarged. While talking to them about it we saw fresh pig sign; I thought I heard something last night! They have been getting in to various yards and digging things up. Auwe! I do not want them to dig up the anthuriums. Or worse yet, to knock over the hapu'u & eat the starchy core, which will kill them; Grandma planted them about 50 years ago & they are becoming beautiful specimen plants.

Fresh pig sign in the path north of the anthurium garden.

Fresh pig sign just inside the edge of  the anthurium garden; base of hapu'u seen in the upper left.

Both Adam & Cy hunt pigs; I told them they could come & get these. Adam also has a friend that has a pig trap; he will talk to his friend this weekend to see when he can move his pig trap to the back yard & start getting rid of them before they do more damage.

Adam found that the pigs are coming through a hole in Jessie's fence.

One of the other things I want Aikane to do is plant a couple of shrubs along the front where the invasive shrubs & trees were removed. There is too much of a gap now & people passing by on the road can see all the way to the house. Branden suggested 'ohai (Sesbania tomentosa); I have looked it up & think it is a good start. Later I also want to plant mamaki (Pipturus albidus), which is a food source for the endangered Kamehmeha Butterfly (Vanessa tameamea), and mamane (Sophora chrysophylla), which is a food source for the endangered Palila (Loxioides bailleui). Both of them are found on Hawai'i island and loss of their food source is thought to be one of the things impacting them.

There used to be a bunch of invasive shrubs & trees blocking the view (& noise) from the road.

Now you can see all the way to the house.

After Branden & Gregory left I went to visit Uncle Kazu. He said he was ready for his ice cream so I ran up to King's View to pick it up for him. While we were eating it on the lanai at the hospital Maha the cook came by. She is have a large orange flag made for Uncle Kazu that says "Athlete in Training".

There was a rare break in the weather today after I left the hospital so I put out the stakes for the corners of the extension for the sewing room. I also took a bunch of measurements.

I am extending the sewing room 8 more feet so it is the size of a more normal room; it's only 6 feet wide right now.

Currently I am considering a small landing on this side, with stairs going down along the back wall (the one with the rusting metal roofing) so that the cats & I can access the anthurium garden, which will be fenced to keep them in.

This hapu'u & the anthuriums around it will have to be moved.

I also spent some time trying to figure out what kind of  hapu'u is growing here. There are 3 species of native tree fern in Hawai'i and several non-native, invasive species. I know these are not the non-native species. So that left the 3 Cibotium species. I think these are hapu'u pulu (Cibotium glaucum).

The hairs seem to go well beyond the base of the fern.

The underside seems to be glaucus rather than bright green with tan hairs.

I also found several moa ferns. I want to keep them; they can be used for making lei.

Psilotum nudum.

While I was outside I saw a pair of 'io overhead. When I first saw them they were flying over Hanaula Gulch on the other side of the ironwoods. Then they flew right over the house! It looks like a mated pair of birds.

L to R: female (larger) & male 'io (Buteo solitarius).

I packed the avocados in to my carry-on for tomorrow; these 7 are still rock hard. Of the dozen that Laurel & Bill gave me I had to throw 2 out (unknown bugs making large holes in them), gave 2 to Jackie, and took 1 to the Ohaka. I'm sure Dad will be very happy to have avocados from Uncle Kazu's trees. I also packed 2 Meyer lemons, 2 blue ginger tubers (Dichorisandra thyrsiflora), a bag of Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies, and the granola for Curtis in the carry-on. I'm glad DT & Brent got me one with wheels!


Happy Birthday to Tina & Trish!