Citizen Forester, Module 2

The 2nd Module of the Citizen Forester Program training was Tree Assessments. Morgan led us through the different measurements & observations that are taken in order to make the assessments. The training on Modules 3 & 4 continues tomorrow evening, then on Saturday we have a field training session.

Our field session is actually on Saturday.

I had a kale proothie this morning. I'm glad that I was able to help use the decorative accents for the fruit basket instead of them just being thrown away! FYI If you blend it well enough you won't have large chunks & if you add enough other stuff you can't taste the kale.

 

Since I was sipping my proothie very slowly it took a long time to finish. I was still full around lunch time so I just skipped lunch.

In fact, I had only water until dinner. There was no tempura left from the birthday celebration so I just had chicken katsu along with some of the things I had picked up from Kokua Market.

The cats were put on a diet a few months ago since all of them had gotten quite chubby. The vet recommended canned food to be fed twice a day; with 3 cats each eating a can a day they have generated quite a number of cans! It is in fact the bulk of the items in our recycle bin.

 

When The Roommates got home they were looking for Keala since she had not come to the door to greet them. That's when I realized I had not seen her all day; usually at lunch time she occupies my chair so that I have to pet her to remove her. They later found her in the cat bed under their bed; she had gotten her lower jaw hooked in to her collar! She was probably that way since the morning & had gone to hide because not being able to bite made her vulnerable. I checked her out & found no broken bones; I think she only had some strained jaw & neck muscles. She seemed to be doing better later in the evening; she ate all her food though slightly slower than she normally would. We're keeping her collar off for now.

The alert level for Kīlauea has been downgraded; there are less emissions of gasses & volcanic ash than earlier in the eruption. There is also less lava flowing out of the vents; the surface of the lava lake has only risen 3 feet in the last 24 hours. At the beginning of the eruption it was rising at about 1 foot an hour. Here is a good video explaining the latest activity.

At 7:56 a.m.

At 7:56 a.m.

At 6:54 p.m.

At 6:54 p.m.; note areas that have cooled since morning screenshot.

There was an earthquake this evening on the flanks of Kīlauea near Pāhala. The magnitude 4.6 temblor was in the Soutwest Rift zone; it did not generate a tsunami & at this time there are no indications of an imminent eruption in the area.

The Aix weather app forecast partly cloudy skies throught the day for Honolulu; my personal experience says that was true. But the traffic cam for Kaimukī is still stuck at 4:47 a.m. yesterday so I can't show you what it looked like; the next closest camera is also stuck; they might be on the same feed. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain all day; the local paper said scattered showers with a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station showed no precipitation in the morning but had recorded 0.04 inches by 6:52 p.m. For Marysville, Aix forecast moderate rain in the morning, tapering off throughout the day & in to the evening. The traffic cams showed there had been a light drizzle or brief rain in the morning; no precipitation was visible in the evening.

The screenshot from 7:48 a.m. today.

The screenshot from 6:51 p.m. today; it's broken.

Honomū looking northerly at 7:49 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 7:49 a.m. HST.

Marysville looking northerly at 7:52 p.m. HST.

North facing shorelines seemed to have the best surf conditions today; this was apparently generated by a typhoon in the western Pacific.

Laniakea (N) at 7:49 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 7:51 a.m.

Waikīkī at 7:54 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 7:52 a.m.

There were 91 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the number of known cases up to 80,414; this number is artificial low since less testing was done on Sunday than on other days of the week. There were no new deaths reported so the death toll remains at 811; currently there are 4035 cases considered active. As of yesterday 2,043,156 doses of vaccine have been administered, providing 68.7% of the population with full vaccination and 77.1% with at least one dose. Currently, 169 patients are hospitalized with 39 in the ICU and 32 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 155 with a positivity rate of 3.5%.  

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Lori & Karen!