Persimmon Harvest

Jeremiah came over today & helped me pick the persimmons. He climbed into the tree again like last year. We got about 8.5 pounds this year. 

Small & not the prettiest looking but they taste great!

I picked up the dried grass clippings from Trudy's yard. I spread them out around one of the maiʻa; at the Super Soil Health Symposium in November they said to mulch the maiʻa heavily because that is how they grow best. I hope it works; they need to grow taller quickly so the cows can't reach the leaves & eat them.

When I went to return the tarp that the grass clippings were in, Trudy showed me some akulikuli starts that she was going to plant. She was a little disappointed that the flowers were single ones & not the thicker double ones used for lei. I wasn't sure what mine were, so I took photos of them when I got home & sent them to her. Turns out my dark pink one is single, the pink & light pink look like they are doubles. 

Dark pink.

Light pink.

Pink. That's what the labels said.

At this time of the year I am getting up about a half hour before the sun rises. It is still quite dark at that time. It was gray & overcast at sunrise & stayed that way for most of the day. A Kona low storm was supposed to arrive this afternoon but did not affect our part of Hawaiʻi Island. Before I go to bed tonight I will be closing all the south & west facing windows so if it arrives later tonight I won't have to jump out of bed & close those windows. Kona low storms usually blow in from the southwest with a lot of rain. 

Thirty minutes before sunrise, when I wake up.

Sunrise from my bedroom window.

The window for the start of Episode 40 of the eruption of Kīlauea has now been narrowed for between the 8th & the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mary, Tom, Kristin, & Molly Mac! 

IASA #3-47

About a dozen of us helped make mochi for Oshogatsu at Kohala Jodo Mission.

Making Mochi at Kohala Jodo

Today was the annual mochi making day at the Kohala Jodo Mission. There were 14 people present with about 10 of us actually working with the mochi. The mochi "pounding" is now done by machines; very few communities both here & in Japan still use the stone mortars & wooden pestles to make mochi. Not only is it a lot of work but it also takes skill to turn the rice mass in the mortar without getting hit by the pestles! Pounding with the pestle also takes skill since with each strike the rice mass is also kneaded up against the side of the mortar; a mistake could break the stone mortar. Usually 3 men are pounding while a woman adds the water & turns the rice mass.

The steamed rice is now ready for kneading.

Almost pau with kneading.

There were 2 types of mochi that we made. The main reason was the kagami mochi, the rice cakes made as offerings placed on the grave sites & butsudan. Apparently we made about 100 of those; half were the larger bottom piece, topped with a smaller piece. We also made about 40 pieces of mochi filled with an & about a dozen pieces filled with peanut butter. 

(L to R) Fran, Billy, Joy, Glenn, Susan, Leslie, Joshua from New Zealand, & Trudy showing Joshua what to do.

(L to R) Trudy, Glenn, Susan, Leslie, Joshua, & his grandma Kathy.

Balls of an waiting to be wrapped up in mochi.

Joy & Glenn taking mochi out of machine, while Fran & Billy make an mochi & Joyce gets her apron on.

All the volunteers were given kagami mochi for their butsudan & an mochi for eating. We also ate some of the an mochi as a snack while there. 

Fresh made kagami mochi on our family butsudan.

The mochi making was followed by a potluck lunch; I forgot to take a photo of the potluck. Just know that, as usual, it was pretty tasty! During lunch, we learned more about Joshua. He & his family are visiting his grandparents Dan & Kathy who live in Kona. Dan was raised in Kohala & several of his family ancestors are buried at the Kohala Jodo Mission cemetery. Joshua just graduated from high school & will be enlisting in the New Zealand army next year; he & his family would visit Grandpa Dan & Grandma Kathy every 3 to 5 years & stay for about 3 weeks so he is familiar with life in Kohala but had never helped with mochi making. 

I usually get up at 6:30 am & usually take a photo of what the weather is like when I wake up. At certain times of the year, like now, I am waking up before the sun rises. Here is an example of what it looks like when I wake up versus when the sun rises.

Twenty-eight minutes before sunrise.

Sunrise!

The next episode at Kīlauea is still predicted to be between the 7th & the 14th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Bria! 

IASA #3-46

Had holiday celebration with Billy & Fran at Tuesday Night Special kiawe-smoked prime rib.

 

2025 Holiday Greetings!

Dear Family & Friends,

As anticipated, Chris finished the renovation of the last room needing work essentially by the end of March. Furniture & books have been moved in & the room is now ready for guests who donʻt mind sharing the space with 4 cats! All the windows in the house are also now impact-resistant so they are more likely to be able to withstand a hurricane.

Fred & his sons installed a new fence along the east & west ends of the anthurium garden & enhanced the height of the fence along the property line, creating a safe, escape-resistant, outdoor area for the cats. They now have their own hurricane-resistant room with a cat door that goes out to a large outdoor cat yard to play in. There is also a small deck with just enough room for a small table & chairs for me & my guests to have a pleasant outdoor meal along with Paʻipaʻi, the friendliest cat. 

The banana keiki that I replanted on my side of the back fence are doing well. The replacement dwarf coconut though, seems to have succumbed during the drought; I am now seeking a replacement for it. The laʻi that is now growing too close to the fence have been munched on by the cows in the pasture; I have replanted the others farther from the fence. I occasionally throw dropped fruit over the fence for the cows.

At the end of 2024 I was elected to be vice chair of the Leeward Planning Commission for 2025; I have now been re-elected for 2026. It has been a great learning experience & my 30+ years working for either the planning or public works departments has been very helpful. We usually meet once a month, but have just started looking at amendments to the Planning Department Rules which requires the Leeward & Windward commissions to hold a joint meeting when we are voting on the amendments. We had one meeting via Zoom in December & anticipate at least one more next year in-person in Hilo.

I made 2 trips to Washington state this year. The trip in August was to attend the 40^th Anniversary Celebration of the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation that I helped with during their inaugural year when I was pregnant with Kai. The 2^nd trip was in October to attend the annual conference of the Hawaiian Council (formerly Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement) that was held at the Tulalip Resort in the county where I worked for 30+ years. I had also worked on a large wetland mitigation site on the reservation; the forested area is now doing so well it is hard to believe it was just bare dirt when it began.

I had a little more time to harvest fruit this year. I harvested 20# Meyer lemon, 8# dragonfruit, 112# calamansi, & 87# jaboticaba; as usual, I gave about 85% of it away. This year the drought affected the mountain apple so there was no fruit. I also joined a canning hui to learn how to pressure can items; we made the salsa seen here as well as calamansi marmalade with fruit from our tree.

My 1^st visitors for the year were Tony & Taren from CA via WarmShowers.org in January, followed by Gage from SD in March; they all camped overnight in the backyard since the renovation was still in progress. Later in March I met Barbara & Bruce for a luʻau & took them on a tour of Kohala & whale watching. In April Shabbir & Ruqqyi (in photo) stayed for a week. Brendan from Australia stopped by for a night in June while on a motorcycle tour. And in November Barb stopped in for breakfast while their ʻohana was visiting the island. 

Kai was here for most of July; he came to help with the Kohala Reunion which is a 3-day celebration held every 5 years on the 4^th of July weekend. Cousins Tomiko & Rei also came to help with the Reunion. The Obon festivities were included in the Reunion so there was no separate event at the Kohala Jodo Mission. When he visited for the Thanksgiving holiday week, Kai helped install security cameras so I could keep an eye on the cats & dog even while I am off-island.

The ʻohana lost 3 kupuna this year. Cousin Lem (97 y.o.) passed away in late April. In late October we got a big surprise when Aunty Judy (84 y.o., #5 from left in photo) passed away. Then just two days later Aunty Daisy (96 y.o., #2), who had been in hospice care, passed away. On a happier note, Tomiko had a great opening of her photo exhibit Hatsubon at the Kahilu Theater in Waimea in June that a lot of ʻohana were able to attend. 

Hope all is well with you & your family!

A hui hou! Mālama pono! 

East Cam Now Live!

After we put up the very 1st camera in November at the very top of the roof gable, then found out while we were back on the ground that it didn't work, I now turn on my phone & check out the feed right after I connect the camera & am still at the top of the ladder. Here are a couple photos from that test. The 1st shows what the view from the camera is by itself.  The 2nd is what it looks like on the Unifi Protect app on my phone with the 3 cameras functioning. And the last photo is what it looks like on the monitor. The last camera I need to connect is the south one that will have a direct view up the driveway to the gate. I hope to get that done tomorrow. 🤞

The individual photo on the phone app.

The 3 functioning cameras.

What it looks like on the desk monitor.

It took me about 1&1/2 hours this morning to get the east facing security camera up & running. The extra time was to bend the metal siding & remove about 1/4 inch of wood from the backing for the solar panel hardware so I could push the connector for the camera through so it was inside the garage & less exposed to rain. 

The final result connecting cable to camera.

Initially, I had started to run the cable along the sides of the beams. But I noticed that the lines for the solar panels were attached to the top of the beams. Duh ... makes sense. Why fight against gravity? So I installed the cable on the top surface where ever possible.

Cable before installation.

After installation next to solar panel cables.

 

This morning it looked like it would be sunny today & it was. Which made it kinda difficult working on installing the cable for the camera; the east side of the garage wall heats up really fast on sunny days & today was no exception. I am kinda looking forward to see what the sunrise will look like on the latest security camera which faces east.

Twenty-three minutes before sunrise.

This morning Dena's daughter & son-in-law dropped off a flatbed truck at the house; it will be there overnight. Later I saw Hedge Woman checking it out from across the street. I have discovered she is far enough away that the camera does not identify her as a person so it does not record her; I just happened to see her so I took a screen shot.

The flatbed truck.

Hedge Woman contemplates the new truck.

Close-up of Hedge Woman checking out the truck.

On Thursday I brought back a bale of orchard grass for Trudy for her goats. Unfortunately I did not have the large sheet in the car that I usually use to line Moʻo's seat in the back so I ended up with a lot of bits of grass all over the back of the car. Today Trudy had me go over to her house so she could help vacuum it out with her shop vac; she kinda has a routine since she is always hauling hay for her goats. I forgot to take photos when she was done cleaning.

Definitely need to do something to contain the little pieces.

The next eruption episode at Kīlauea is still expected to begin somewhere between the 22nd & the 27th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Lembi & Jacqueline! 

IASA #3-45

Dane laying out pipe to get water to Lapakahi.