Removing Invasives

Before kahikū (mid-morning) I began to cut back some plants that I have been trying to get under control; then I would paint the cut end with full strength Roundup. This is one of the methods we would use for weed control in our mitigations sites especially for blackberries and black locust. I have a paintbrush that is only used for this purpose and I wear gloves when I do it; this method minimizes harming plants near your target plant since there is no overspray. I am trying to get rid of the heliconia between the mondo grass area and the house wall, as well as the very tenacious African tuliptree sprouts that are still coming up from 7 stumps. I also cut and painted some schefflera and syngonium that were not near any plants I want to keep. When we used glyphosates in our mitigation sites if the target plant's roots were closely intertwined sometimes there was collateral damage of plants we were trying to grow. I should be able to see some results before I leave.

The African tuliptree on the fence line.

I also went after the weeds at the edge of the rocks.

I was up at kakahiaka nui (early morning) waiting for the Saffron Finch; it did not arrive. I later got up when my alarm went off at kahikole (after dawn).

Twenty minutes before sunrise.

Eight minutes after sunrise.

Now that I have picked up a guava, I place a fresh slice out every day for Martina and any other gold dust day geckos that are bold enough to climb up on the table. Today Martina came in before breakfast to feed on the guava; she also came back several other times throughout the day. And once I saw Spot, but he quickly ran off as I came in to the kitchen.

Martina having breakfast.

Martina at lunch.

She came back several times for lunch.

 

Before kahikū they were working on Jessica's hedge again. Now that they have reduced the height of the hedges I can see they have 2 Dwarf Samoan Coconuts in their front yard and that their neighbor has a tan roof!


I washed the ʻōhiʻaʻai (mountain apple) and put them in the refrigerator; I am still unsure what I want to do with them. I don't have enough for a full dehydrator and I would like to take some back for Lori & Jenny & The Roommates. I also want to try vacuum sealing some and freezing it for me for when I am off the keto diet; fruits are the reason I would not be able to be on the keto diet forever.

There were 2 ʻōhiʻaʻai that were quite mushy, so I took them to the back fence and tossed them over for Toto's cattle. While there I was going to toss the mountain apples that had fallen off my tree over also but found that in the past couple of days, even with the evening rains, that most of them had dried up so the cattle would not eat them. And I couldn't put them in the compost bins; they would just roll out of the holes. I did find a couple of mountain apple seedlings in the compost bin from some of the ones I threw in there before I knew the cattle ate them; there were also several stalks of blue ginger sprouting in there, too.

The ʻohiʻaʻai are drying up.

One ripe ʻōhiʻaʻai about 2 feet off the ground.

The compost bin with ʻōhiʻaʻai seedlings & blue ginger starts.

I found a fruit on the citrus tree behind the macadamia; I think it might be an orange tree, I'll have to watch it and see. Later I checked for more macadamia nuts and I also got another coconut. This one had split when it dropped last night and the juice was running out; I managed to get about half a cup of coconut water from it. Now I have 5 coconuts for Wayne!

I think this is an orange.

Todayʻs harvest.

I also washed Delphine's bucket and around awakea (early afternoon) dropped it off in his garage; I left my business card so he can call me on the phone next time instead of standing by the fence and yelling towards the house! When I returned from dropping off Delphine's bucket, I spotted Wiley running from the ramp to the mock orange bush by the fence. I think Wiley heard me come out the front door and thought I had filled up the food dish. When I got inside I filled up the scoop and loudly poured the food in to the bowl while calling for the cats. Within about 2 minutes Wiley was at the bowl eating. I peeked over my phone and let Wiley see me a couple of times before I began talking to Wiley. At first s/he jumped back, then s/he settled down and kept eating even though I was talking. I think I will continue doing that.

I put the food out.

About a minute later Wiley starts up the ramp.

In less than 2 minutes Wiley was eating.

I peaked over to look at Wiley.

Something else has her attention.

I start talking to Wiley.

That's a scary sound!

But I really want that food!

There it is again!

It's still going on.

I continued talking; Wiley couldn't figure out whether to eat ...

... or run!

Eating won!

All pau!

I immediately put more food out & called Wiley.

Less than a minute later, Wiley was back!

I let Wiley finish that little bit in peace.

I made a Pizza Topping Casserole for dinner tonight. It was done about 15 minutes before the FAQ webinar started. I had it and sauerkraut for dinner while the webinar was going on.


Around ahiahi (evening) I called in to the department of health's "COVID-19 FAQs" webinar by Jonathan for the MRC support services volunteers. The FAQs are currently a 25-page document that Jonathan says he updates every couple of days since there is so much new information that is always coming in. It is on the department of health's website as a live link and he suggested we come back every week or so to see what new information has been added. The thing he emphasized the most to us was the importance of physical distancing, washing your hands for 20 seconds, wearing a cloth face covering, and staying home if you are sick. Here are a few pages of the FAQs; since it is updated so frequently it's probably best for you to click on the link above to get the latest information.










One of the people I sent one of my COVID-19 survival kits to was my friend Janice; she was supposed to have come to visit me in May but because of the 14-day quarantine for all incoming visitors she had to cancel her visit. The survival kits I send are for people's emotional & mental health; for Janice I sent her a box of matcha macs, a Kohala Koolie cooling scarf, & a Hawaiian print cloth face mask. She sent me a photo of her with her goodies. Janice recently had 2 papers she co-authored on "Patient and Family Engaged Care" and "Restoring the Story and Creating a Valuable Clinical Note" published on the same day!


I had also seen Wiley around kahikū (mid-morning) lying at the edge of Jessie's yard in the sun. Mom Cat was not there. Although I had put food out just before kau ka lā i ka lolo (high noon), no one came to eat it; I think the workers cutting the hedge across the road were making too much noise and moving around too much for the cats.


There was an earthquake in New Guinea just before ahiahi. Although it was magnitude 7.3, a tsunami was not generated.

(From US Tsunami Warning Center)

There were 19 new COVID-19 cases reported today, bringing the total up to 1311 known cases. There were no new deaths but there were a few more new hospitalizations. The number of people released from isolation is just above 74%.

Oʻahu is getting really red.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Dottie & hoahānau Leilani!