Gray Francolins

It was nice and sunny this morning so I did my walk along Kynnersley Road. But even before I left the house I heard the Gray Francolins calling; shortly after that I saw the pair walking down the driveway! It was a very sunny morning and not a good one to have forgotten to bring my sunglasses; fortunately I had my hat so I pulled it low enough to keep my eyes shaded from the rising sun.

Gray Francolins walking down the driveway.

Twenty minutes after sunrise on Kynnersley.

Remnant sugar cane.

The feral pigs were rooting around the side of the road.

There was a flock of about 50 Common Waxbills by the water tank; this one came back to look at me.

Looking down the road at the ocean.

Looking at Maui from the living room window.

As I was on my walk, I found out where the cacao farm is! It is just on the other side of the Kohala Ditch from the house. It is currently for sale. Do you want to buy it and come and be my neighbor? They're only asking $3,998,000 for 141 acres; that's only a little over $28,354 per acre. There are 800 Criollo cacao plants already producing for Madre Chocolates which buys all that is grown. There are also outbuildings for the cacao production, a 3-bedroom home with a 2-car garage, orchards of avocado, coffee, kava, & macadamia nut, as well as views of the ocean and Maui.

Today was Dad's Care Conference at Maunalani; because I was off-island I participated via conference call. It worked most of the time. But that also might be because there have not been many changes for Dad and not any controversy over the changes that were requested.

After the call I headed to Waimea to HPM to pick up the hollow concrete blocks for the platform under the electric meter. When I first arrived Tristan helped me figure out which type of block would work best for my use. I figured out I needed 17 blocks; as I started to load them up Eric showed up and found a pallet with only the smooth edged blocks. He helped me load up the remaining 14 that I needed.


Back at the house I decided I did not want to move the blocks twice so I grabbed the weed cloth and started to build the platform as I unloaded them. I discovered that there are a lot more of those small red bricks buried in the dirt where I need to construct the platform. And also large rocks. I ended up placing 11 of the blocks; the rest are still in the car. I decided I needed the right tools to do the work, plus I needed pots & potting soil to dig up the mondo grass to save it for future projects. I decided to shower, get ready to meet with Kellie, and pick up tools at Sunshine True Value before I met up with Kellie.

Before.

During. Hmmm, needs more work.

I want to extend the weed cloth down the side so there is a 3-foot wide clear area around the house.

At Sunshine the main tool I wanted was a tiling spade. We used one referred to as a Montana Sharpshooter for work; I got one built similarly but it had a shorter D-handle. I also got a 1 cu ft bag of potting soil, 2 larger 6" plastic pots, 20 small 4" pots, a hand trowel, a kneeling pad, rat bait, and 3 additional colors of flagging tape.


I left Sunshine and met up with Kellie at King's View Café; she had wanted to go to Sushi Rock but they didn't open until 5:30 and that would be too late for us. Kellie ordered a vegetarian pizza and I ordered the Chicken Salad with avocado & tomato. It took forever for Kellie's pizza to arrive but the timing for us to finish our meals together was almost perfect. I was so hungry I forgot to take photos.

I was focused on the ice cream flavors for Uncle Kazu.

As usual, I hosted an evening of pie & ice cream with Lem, Jessie, & Joy; Wayne was in Hilo for work and Arlene was off island. Cousin Kellie also joined us! Kellie & I were originally going to go out for dinner in Waimea but this gave her a chance to see Lem and also meet someone who knew her great-grandparents. Joy brought an apple pie from The Big Island Candy Company and some Talenti Madagascar Vanilla Ice Cream. As usual, a good time was had by all! And I forgot to take photos again.

Hau'oli lā Hānau to Bernie! (No, not that Bernie, my friend Bernie!)