Regional Agrifood Summit

This evening Sandra, Kathy, Michelle, & I staffed a Kohala ʻOno Food Hui information table at the Kohala Agrifood Summit. This County initiative is being held around the island; tonight was the 1st session. It was well attended & we signed up 11 new people who are interested in the food preservation classes that we will be holding again next year.

This is crazy! Once again overnight the views for this blog went up by almost 1500! Now there are over 1000 views each in the US, Singapore, & Brazil. Of the top 10 countries, I only know people in the US; though I have emailed with 1 person in Ukraine. Of countries 11 through 19, I know 3 people in Indonesia, 5 in Mexico, 1 in Spain, & 1 in Canada. Why the sudden interest from people I do not know? Dunno. But when I checked for the annual number of views, I found the highest month was in August 2023 which I am sure is because of the Lāhainā fire that occurred on 08/08 that year. 

Today is my last day feeding Ginger's cats. And the chickens were a big problem today! I warned Vicky about them; she will be taking over feeding tomorrow. 

Darn chickens! Kept circling around house & getting on to porch.

About mid-morning, Moʻo started barking in the back yard; it was not her cow bark or intruder bark. As I watched her on the security camera, she came to the garage to see if I was coming out to check what was happening; when I did not come out she went back out & barked more. As I was deciding whether to go out or not, I smelled smoke! That made the decision easier! Turns out it was Jeremiah & Kaiza; they were collecting bees that had swarmed & were on a papaya plant in Dena's back yard. The smoke was from the bee smoker that beekeepers use to keep the bees calm when they are moving them. Good for Moʻo recognizing that smoke is a possible bad thing & also not letting me ignore her barking!

Kaiza removes queen from swarm.

Jeremiah & Kaiza have moved bulk of swarm to empty hive.

I was doing some background research regarding my earlier weight loss journey to help me with this new attempt. It was interesting to read about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic & how totally messed up things got. For Curtis & I, increasing our knowledge of COVID-19 came on 03/09/2020 with the announcement of the 2nd case here in Hawaiʻi; our friend The Bronco Dude had been on that same plane the patient had been on & we had lunch with him right after he got off the plane! The Maunalani Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, where Dad was, asked us to stay away until 04/10/2020; little did we know that would be the beginning of the New Normal. My last weigh in before that started was on 03/13/2020; I was at 110.0 pounds. (FYI The extra 10 pounds might have been mainly fat. When I was at 100 pounds, I was also measured at 12% body fat. Yes, my periods were irregular. And I had a 6-pack.😕 May be I should only go down to 110 pounds?)

(03/13/2020)

Because we would not be able to visit Dad for a month, I decided to go to Kohala & work on the house. Before I went, though, I checked in with The Doc, a fellow walker on Maunalani Heights who is an emergency room doctor; he gave me some good advice & also said going there would be safer due to the lower population in Kohala where there are less people in the entire 132 square mile district than there are in 1 square mile in Kaimukī! The pandemic had greatly reduced the fares for interisland travel so that part of the decision was easy. It was so nice to be there enjoying social distancing on Hawaiʻi Island! The only person I was in close proximity with was hoa hānau Tomiko's friend Grey who was sailing internationally when the World shut down. I also checked in with friends in other places to see how they were doing; long story short, most of my friends & family have survived COVID-19 with little or no serious problems. And I have gained new friends through volunteering with the Medical Reserve Corps on vaccine PODs & COVID-19 outreach & education & doing contact tracing. 

Social distancing Big Island style! (03/26/2020)

As I was writing this post it began to rain, a lot! Which means I don't really have to water anything tomorrow! But I did have to close some windows that had been left open to help keep things cool during the day; I will have to remember to open them up before I leave tomorrow morning. 

 

There was a small M 3.8 earthquake early this morning; I did not feel it. This one was near the area of the M 6.0 earthquake on 05/22 but is not believed to be related to that earlier earthquake. I hope Derek & his family did not suffer any more damage; they had some major damage from the earlier earthquake.

Episode 50 of the eruption of Kīlauea is still anticipated to occur some time between the 24th & the 27th.

 

Hauʻoli lā hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanahākumamāhā e John & Ruth! 

COVID Weight Loss Plan

COVID-19 did a number on my weight loss plan back then. I had gained 20 pounds after injuring my back & was using the 3 times daily walks from Dad's room at Maunalani Nursing & Rehabilitation Center for exercise. I was also trying a combination of the keto diet & just being more mindful of what I ate; I could not go no-carb like Curtis because I refuse to eliminate what I regard as culturally significant carbs! With that regimen I had lost 10 pounds in about a year & only had 10 more pounds to go. I'm OK with going slowly since making long-term lifestyle changes is more sustainable than a crash diet. Then COVID came along ... I gained another 20 pounds! Auē!

My post-COVID weight.

When I was trying to find out whether actor Zhang Linghe was a rider before he became an actor, I learned that he had lost a bunch of weight while in college before he went in to acting. It was inspirational; I decided to start up again. But I could not do his only-boiled-vegetables routine that was reported. Steamed, yes. Baked, yes. Grilled, yes. Air-fried, yes. Boiled, NO! They are too mushy for my liking & you lose nutrients in boiling. What I am currently doing is fermented vegetables; specifically the mak kim chee, sauerkraut, & pickles we have been making in class. I know they are loaded with live probiotics since they are home made. I round it out with tofu & other high-protein foods, including dried aku & pipikaula for snacks. I also could not do the daily running. Sprinting, yes. Running, NO! I was on the track team in high school for the sprinting which I loved; I could do wind sprints for an hour if you let me! That's also why I enjoyed racquetball & wallyball! But they made us "warm-up" by jogging at least a mile before practice; sometimes on the track, sometimes on the beach, but way too much for my liking. I quit after the 1st season ended. What I am doing instead of running is increasing the amount of time I ride my bike on the trainer, more walking & standing, more yard work, plus more training with Moʻo. We shall see what happens this time around. (FYI I believe he lost 50 pounds over a 4-month period. Not going there either, that's too fast for me. So I'm not really following his weight loss plan, just his inspiration.)

Tofu (豆腐）with hoisin sauce, mak kim chee, & pickled cucumbers.

Ginger feeds 6 feral cats. Today 5 of them came to eat breakfast.

After lunch time I picked up Aunty Maile & Spencer from the airport. She had gone to Colorado for a family gathering; they were there for almost 2 weeks. She had a good time! We stopped to pick up lunch for them but they decided to take it back home to eat since I had to take Moʻo to her training class about 2 hours later. Although I told them not to worry about it since I had plenty of time they insisted. About halfway back I got a text, class was canceled due to Father's Day! Oh well, we could have taken our time & eaten in Kona; then leisurely taken our time to get back to Kohala! 

I try to remember to check the level of gas at the solstice & the equinox. Today it was at 75%. I last filled it up in January, but previous to that it was January 2024! I have decided next year, instead of waiting until the tank is down at 20%, I will fill it in June since family comes to visit in July. The intent is to fill it annually in June so that I don't have a huge bill every other year & I don't have to worry if I have enough gas when the family comes to visit! 

Still doing well on the Mandarin speaking exercises, I think. But still not getting all those tones correct. I will have to start paying more attention to see if there is a particular tone that I am consistently screwing up on. I also found an on-line article about the 5 tones; hoping that it will help more than confuse me! I think the error below is the 1st tone. Which, "[w]hen your voice becomes higher and flatter, you produce the first tone. The syllable is pronounced with a drawn-out tone that does not drop or rise." OK ... 🤔

 

I can't believe it! There were almost 1500 new views last night! Singapore is still trailing behind the US but has surpassed 1000 views; Brazil is close behind.  

The next eruption of Kīlauea is still expected to occur between the 24th & the 27th.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Shannen, Mary, & Vi! 

Ginger's Cats

I've been feeding Ginger's cats for about a week or so; she is taking a well-deserved vacation from work. Over the last couple of years I had fed her cats before when she was off-island for work. With everything going on yesterday, I forgot to feed them! 😧 So this morning I went over as soon as I finished feeding Moʻo; 3 of them were so happy to see me! One kept brushing up against my leg, soon another did the same thing. Number 3, however, just watched. Monday is the last day I feed them, then Vicky takes over for the last week that Ginger is off-island. 

Not sure where No. 3 disappeared to.

Because I have been so busy since I returned from Oʻahu, I have sort of been neglecting the blog. Today I decided to dedicate a bunch of time to update the blog so that those of you who use it as a way to quietly check in on me do not get anxious that I have not posted something in a while. Each day I generally start writing the post for the day but may not get around to adding the photos & proofreading before something comes along & knocks the particular post out of the "most important thing to do right now" position in my life.

When I am working on the blog, I go to the Stats tab to get to the place where I tell Blogspot not to count my views as I do the previews to make sure it looks right before I post it. The Stats page is somewhat surprising to me; this morning it showed that this blog has had 13.4K views in the past 7 days! The highest number of views was from the US; not surprising though last week (when the total was much lower) Singapore had twice as many views as the US. I guess what is most surprising to me is the different countries that have people viewing this blog. And here I was, thinking it was only family & friends viewing it! Although I do have friends in other countries that know about this blog, I do not have friends in all the countries that the Stats page says are viewing this blog. I wonder what they find so interesting about my rambling on about inconsequential things?

What is so interesting about these top 10 posts?

 

When I went to bring Moʻo in for the evening, she was at the back fence barking at her cow buddies. I tossed the oranges that had fallen over the fence towards one of the yearling steers. He really liked the oranges! Though I was initially concerned that he might swallow it whole & choke on one!

Happy navel orange tree.

Happy steer!

I learned how to say "four" in Mandarin, which is "sì" & also how to write it in Hanzi. Sort of. I already knew how to write it in Kanji, where it also means "four" but is pronounced "shi". And apparently in Mandarin it is also not a favorable word because, like in Japanese, it sounds like the word "death". I also learned the Mandarin word for "really", which is "zhēn de ma". "Really" in English can be said with several different inflections, each conveying something different. I need to find out if I use those same inflections in Mandarin will it change the meaning? Will I get in to trouble saying something I should not be saying? 😳

Volcano Watch had a great article about the difference between an episode & an eruption. Basically, when magma moves from subsurface to the surface, that is an eruption. When there are breaks in surface activity, even though the magma is still present underground, it is considered an episode.

The window for the next episode at Kilauea is between the 24th & the 27th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Tracy, AJ, & Tristen! 

Walking to Kona

I met an interesting guy today. His name is Horace. He showed up at Lapakahi State Historical Park today, asking if we had a water fountain. I told him no, but we did have a water dispenser that he could fill his water bottle up at; but Horace did not have a water bottle. I had seen him earlier walking along the road as I was on my way to Lapakahi; I was wondering where he was going since he was in a stretch with no nearby houses. After a short conversation I found out Horace lived in Hāwī & was walking to Kona! He shattered the screen of his phone & was headed to the Verizon store to buy a new one. And he had missed the bus so he was walking. FYI there is only 1 bus in the morning that goes to Kona & 1 in the evening that comes back from Kona; it is a commuter bus for resort workers. 

So Horace was walking. I found out he has only lived in Kohala for a month so I explained to him that it was a really long walk to Kona, but he was undeterred. So I closed up the visitor center & drove him to Kawaihae; which would have taken him 4 hours if he had walked! His wife & the friend that usually drives them around, all work in Kawaihae. I hope he realized he would not make it to Kona by walking & went back home to Hāwī with his wife & friend at the end of the day. But just in case he decided to continue walking to Kona, I gave him the water bottle I use to carry water to Lapakahi for the birds; he really should not be walking along this coast without water.

Horace would arrive well after closing time at Verizon.

I took him to Kawaihae; a 14-minute drive.

He still would not make it to Verizon by closing.

When I arrived at Lapakahi, I noticed the goats have been eating the bark off the kukui tree by the staff parking lot. I think the one branch is going to die since they have removed the bark around the entire girth of the branch for several feet. They also grazed on the pohinahina that Terraformations planted alongside the building without any goat exclusion devices; they said goats did not eat pohinahina. Not. Forgot to get a photo of the munched on pohinahina, will do that on Tuesday.

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has been narrowed down a little. It is now expected to occur between the 24th & the 27th.

 Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Tom & Bruddah Ace!

IASA #4-19

Lunch at Motek Bakery with nā hoa hānau (L-R) Beryl, Galen, & Alisha. 

 

Merry Christmas to Me!

I was curious as to when I really did finish all available levels of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi on Duolingo. So I went back & checked; I had been thinking I got to that point about 2 months before I started the Mandarin, so around mid-March. Turns out I had actually reached the end of the available ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi classes on Christmas day last year! So more like 6 months ago! No wonder I was getting bored with the refresher courses.

I haven't shared what my mornings look like in a while. This is what I see when I wake up. I have no curtains so I can easily see what is going on with the weather. The cows are the only ones around who can look in to my bedroom window.

Forty-five minutes after sunrise.

I took a couple of photos of the māla kalo this morning as I was watering it. I have relocated the Palehua so they are now between the Moi & the Bun Long. I have not yet planted the ʻIliuaua; I still need to weed that end of the māla.

The big leaf in center is from a Moi kalo.

Here is how big it is!

This morning I went to a community talk story held by Kamehameha Schools. There were 17 of us there; 6 of them were opio from the local high school. I mainly listened, as I usually do. I think the underlying feeling is that there needs to be more support for the opio. KS is doing a series of these talk stories around the island & will report back to the communities later in the year.

Lunch at the kūkākūkā.

I had talked to Dane as soon as I got there, he needed to run some errands & asked me to water the plants at Lapakahi after the talk story. So I did. I will also water them on Friday.

Plants in goat exclusion area. 

The niu gets its own dedicated water source.

As I arrived at Lapakahi, Emily called. Moʻo had gotten loose! She had run up the road then disappeared down a side road. I was pretty sure she was heading to the pasture so she could play with the cows & chickens. When I got back to the house, I checked in with Emily; she was kinda upset that Moʻo got loose. Fortunately, I guessed right. As I was finishing talking to Emily, I saw Moʻo in the pasture! When I went to the gate to go into the pasture, she saw me & came running up to the gate; I put the lead on her & secured her to the fence while I unlocked the gate. Next time I won't be home when Emily comes to mow I will put Moʻo in her crate in the house so she can't get out of the yard!

Moʻo waits while I unlock gate.

 

I watched Episode 30 of Mirror: The Tale of Twin Cities tonight. SPOILER ALERT - In this episode we finally get to see the face of Lord Zhi Zhe who had appeared a number of episodes ago but wears a hooded cape that masks his form & identity. Even when he 1st appeared I was pretty sure he was being played by Zheng Ye Cheng based on the portions of his lower face & neck that were visible; I think its a biologist thing since we have to make quick identifications on birds flying by or fish darting away & not always getting a good look at the entire organism. Zheng Ye Cheng is also Crown Prince Zhen Lan; as Lord Zhi Zhe he speaks in a weird raspy voice. It sounds to me like it hurts to talk that way, but it is a good way to differentiate the characters & I give him credit for doing that. 

How Lord Zhi Zhe is usually seen.

Finally shows his face in Episode 30!

Its very early to tell when the next eruption episode at Kīlauea will begin. The window is currently between the 24th & the 29th. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Sherry & Christina!