Cleaning Up

Last night when Lem & Fran came over for dessert, Lem brought some pineapple and a dragon fruit from his yard. And since we were talking about the avocado tree and how much we were going to miss having avocados while a new tree grows he brought over avocados this morning.

Pineapples and avocados; the dragon fruit was already peeled & eaten.

One of the tasks I set for myself today was to clean up the patio area at the foot of the back stairs. Aunty Florence had cleaned the portion immediately adjacent to the stairs so we wouldn't track things up the stairs, she even hosed it down! Today I swept out the rest of the area, cleaned up the table, found a big centipede, & relocated furniture. I also put the new table cloth on the table. It looks a lot better!

June 5th before cleaning.

June 5th, after cleaning.

July 4th, after Aunty Florence cleaned the area at the base of the stairs.

Today. Looks like its nearly ready for guests!

This morning James and Rick from Aikane Nursery were back. What I thought was the finished product yesterday was not; they were doing the final clean-up today. Rick was cutting the heliconias back away from the mountain apple tree; he cut some flowers for me to take to the cemetery. Later Rick showed me 2 avocado trees he found after he trimmed the heliconias back. Yay! I won't have to start from scratch; the wait for avocados will not be as long as I had feared. In the meanwhile, James was cleaning up all the rest of the debris. When they were done it looked very neat. I can't wait for the grass to grow in and cover the bare dirt. I wasn't bothered by a single mosquito as I walked through the area; I think the breezes were too strong for them. Yay! Now I will be requesting an estimate for year round orchard maintenance for Aikane to train the trees and work with them at the appropriate time of the year to encourage the best fruit production and health of the trees.

Looks like a whole different place now! No longer an overgrown jungle.

Here are photos showing the area by the persimmon tree. They had just started when I had to leave the last time. The area is now more open.

June 5th, before any work by the persimmon tree.

June 6th, the panax hedge has been removed.

June 7th, starting on the persimmon tree.

July 5th.

Got a bunch of messages today. Curtis says Dad is definitely not coming, which means he won't be coming either. Dad apparently said he wasn't going to travel anywhere. Kai also let me know that, while Gizmo had eaten about a cup of food in the last 24 hours, he decided not to come so he can get Gizmo in to see Dr Sodhi, the holistic vet we took all our cats to. Dr Sodhi also does Ayurvedic medicine for companion animals. Our other cats thrived under his care; our oldest cat Fuji was almost 22 when she died. And cousin Laurel won't be able to make it to dinner on Friday evening; she will be in Honolulu for a medical test, but we will see her on Saturday at Obon.

Happy Birthday to Kathy, Gregg, & Everett!