Running Errands

I needed to pick up 2 bags of cinders and 1 bag of manure for Kamaka to back fill the hāpuʻu planting holes with. I had not seen cinders or manure at Sunshine, but I had not gone looking for them either. So I stopped there first. They only had cinders, no manure. I had done some online research, looking for places that would have garden supplies. Besides Sunshine, the only other places that popped up were in Hilo and Kona. So I headed  for the closest place in Kona, which turns out to be the Home Depot where I picked up the towel bars.

They closed the register to allow for the 6-foot physical distancing.

While at Home Depot I saw some lava rock stepping stones! I had been wondering what I should use for the walk way through the anthurium garden; now I have a possibility! There were 2 types of lava rock stepping stones; tumbled and brushed. I like the brushed because it is less finished looking; it looks more lava-y.

Brushed (top) & tumbled (bottom) random lava pavers.

I like this rough look better; it looks more like a rock.

I also picked up a healthy looking pot of portulaca. But I could not find any simple glazed pots with attached saucers to plant them in. So for now they will just sit in the holding area until I find some pots that will help them survive being neglected at the cemetery. I did find a nice orchid pot for the popcorn orchid.

I picked up several large plastic planting pots. I think there will be 3 hāpuʻu stumps that will have to be removed from the half nearest the house. I have plans to plant 2 immediately; the 3rd will go in to a pot in the holding area. I will probably give it its own mister. If any more are broken off accidentally, or I find more at risk of being mowed over, I will pot them up and put them in to the holding area until I figure out what to do with them. Home Depot had manure but no cinders! So I stopped at Sunshine on the way back and picked up the cinders.

This morning the Saffron Finch was up early as usual; after it woke me up I went back to sleep as usual. When I did get up, it looked like it was going to pour soon. It was a good thing I had planned to run around getting the cinders & manure for Kamaka.

Birdrise twenty-two minutes before sunrise.

Looking across the channel at the weather.

It was drizzling fairly steadily as I went to open the gate and start on my errands. As I drove on the Akoni Pule Highway it started to clear up a couple miles outside of Hawi near the old Coast Guard station. On the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway it was nice and sunny as it usually is.

Looking across the road.

Going down Kynnersley.

On the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, headed to Kona.

On my way back, it looked like it had never stopped raining in the mountains! Then I was slowed down on my return by a traffic jam going between the junction to Kona and the mountain road junction; there was a road crew mowing the brush on the side of the road. As I started up the mountain it was drizzling up ahead.

On the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, heading towards Waimea.

Traffic jam on the road to Waimea.

Mowing along the sides of the roadway.

Passing by the Hawai'i Preparatory Academy; looking towards the wetness in the mountains.

I stopped at Minnie's to pick up lunch and was pleasantly surprised to see that she now had seating for customers out on the lanai; Uncle Kazu & I would always eat there because it was easier for him. Frequently, he would be greeted by locals coming to get lunch there, too. Charmaine had closed off the indoor dining area; it cost her about $1000 per month to rent that portion. Now she could only have 3 tables in the area so it was not worth keeping the indoor dining area open.  

When I got home I put food out for both the cats and the geckos; or at least for Martina. I did not see any cats eating, but I did see that food was disappearing.

What the food looked like when I put it out.

Another shot 9 minutes later; someone's been here!

I tried to put the popcorn orchid in the orchid pot I had bought for it but its root mass was too large. I will have to take part of it off so it will fit in the pot. I think I will attach the part I remove to one of the old stumps in the anthurium garden. 


After I propped the popcorn orchid on its pot, I checked out some of the other plants. I found another ripe mountain apple on the ground; I still could not see where they were coming from. The tangerines are almost ripe. And the guavas are very ripe; but they are too tall for me to reach with the stepp ladder. Aue!

Mountain apples.

Tangerines are almost ripe!

These 4 were too high for me to reach.

And when I got back in and was answering emails Martina did come up to briefly lick the peanut butter; but as soon as I reached for my phone she started walking away.



This is what the refrigerator art looks like now. I got rid of some of the very old pieces of paper that were starting to really be affected by the acid in the paper; and some of the newspaper articles were only 6 years old!


There were 9 new COVID-19 cases reported today! Aue! It turns out 4 were older cases that had been improperly counted. Regardless of that, there were still 5 new cases which is the most we have had in over a month. The last time we had at least 5 new cases reported was April 30th! Our total number of known cases is now 664; there are no new deaths or hospitalizations. The total number of peope who have been removed from isolation has slipped slightly to 92%.

Cases within the last 28 days.

Testing appeared to have increase for one of the past few days.

They have disaggregated the race data since last week which makes it more useful. Previously Native Hawaiians & all other Pacific Islanders were lumped together & it appeared that the group had a disproportionately higher number of COVID-19 cases than their occurrence in the population. The disaggregated data shows that Native Hawaiians actually have significantly less COVID-19 as compared to their population; it's other Pacific Islanders who are doing much worse. Similarly Asians previously looked like the occurrence of COVID-19 was what would be expected when compared to the state population. The disaggregated data shows that not all Asians are doing well; Filipinos have more COVID-19 than compared to their state population.