The Mercury

This morning Tomiko posted a photo of the camera that Uncle Kazu gave her. She said, "... When I opened the case I saw the The Mercury, this wild half-frame camera Uncle Kazu (from the last post) had given me. I had a lot of fun with it, at half frame a roll of 35mm film makes 72 frames, which is ALOT. I did film strips and faux motion studies and then developed the film at my grandmother’s house in Kohala, in the old sewing room I had turned into a makeshift darkroom. This pre-digital panorama self-portrait was in a larger work “Passage” about place, identity, migration. A year or so ago, I came across the portrait again, and have been using it as my bio pic (of a younger self!) Here it is on my website. Nice to see all these pieces come full circle, feeling how people touch our lives, actions and choices in so many indirect ways we often cannot see." I read this when Laurel & I went to see him this afternoon; she said it looked like he was smiling behind his mask.


I'm not sure why I woke up so early this morning; may be it was that darned Saffron Finch! But as I was going through my email I found one for a free webinar on "5 Simple Steps to Fresh Cooking"; I thought, "Why not?" Especially since I am surrounded by a lot of fresh produce! It was interesting, and of course, he's trying to sell you something at the end. But the joke is on him, I fell asleep during the sales pitch! After all, I had been awake since about 5 am!



















The Saffron Finch did show up again, a half hour before sunrise. I wonder why it is so much earlier than the other birds?

Thirty-two minutes before sunrise and its already singing!

Six minutes before sunrise and foggy.

When I unloaded the dehydrator this morning I tried to see if I could fit all of the dried mountain apples from a fully loaded dehydrator into one quart-sized Ziploc bag. The answer is, yes, but it is very full. I think splitting the results between 2 quart-sized bags is more reasonable.



Those darn House Sparrows! When I went to check if the cats had eaten all the food I found that one of the birds had pooped in the cat bowl! That settles it! I'm only putting cat food out in the early evening.



Later in the morning I picked 62 mountain apples! My bucket and t-shirt were overflowing with mountain apples. I only had a couple hours before I needed to leave to pick up Laurel, so I decided to just wash them and leave the slicing until after I got back. I ate a leisurely lunch and took a quick nap since I had been up so early.







After I returned from the hospital I started slicing the mountain apples and filling up the trays. I ended up with 31&1/2 left over, which included the 3 from yesterday so I used 33&1/2 to fill the 9 trays. I have decided it is easiest to dry them first then sprinkle stuff like cinnamon or li hing powder on them after they are dry; it will also be better for my screens and trays since they won't be covered with salt or oils from the spices. I put the remaining mountain apples in the refrigerator; I will be taking them in to the hospital tomorrow for the staff & Laurel.

I have decided to make one of my evening chores chucking the fallen mountain apples over the fence for the cattle. Since about the same amount fell after I cleaned up the other morning, I decided if I waited until the evening there will be less food for the feral pigs to eat and I would only have to do the clean up once a day. The pigs seem to have found another way in or perhaps the little ones are squeezing under the gate; I'll have to find out a way to check on that.

There were 13 new cases reported today for a total of 499 known COVID-19 cases with 9 deaths. So far 44 people have needed to be hospitalized and 310 people (62%) have been released from isolation. The epidemiological curve has remained essentially the same, but that's because the necessary data has only been collected on 2 more cases; there are still 112 (22%) that need to be resolved.






 Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Shawn! Me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanao #34 e Bo & Barbara!