My Summer Vacation: Lau ʻUala

Jon & his crew came by this morning to do the yard. So I got out there before they got here so I could harvest some lau ʻuala; they usually move it out of their way by piling it to the side. But then it gets covered with little bits of grass so I like to harvest before the get here.

Backyard, before lau ʻuala harvest.

Backyard, after lau ʻuala harvest.

Backyard, after maintenance.

ʻUala patch, before harvest.

ʻUala patch, after harvest.

ʻUala patch, after yard maintenance.

While I was out in the back yard, I also checked on the navel orange tree. It is doing well; regular watering makes a huge difference in how much it produces. I picked one orange today; I am the only one that regularly eats oranges but I am restricting myself since I am limiting my carbs for the short term.

The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes stayed home today. The discussion last night had been that he should definitely stay home if he was feeling worse, but also involved discussing with his supervisor what their protocol is regarding flu-like symptoms & a negative COVID test; she told him to stay home. (He just recently started this new job.) This morning he said the runny nose was better but the chest congestion was worse; probably a good idea to stay home & rest.

Even though I had 4 beets left, I made a lau ʻuala proothie today. The beets last a lot longer than the lau ʻuala. I had only been harvesting enough to fill my storage container but had tried blanching then freezing them once; I did not like the resulting proothie as much as when it is fresh. I will take advantage of the fact that I have fresh, organically grown lau ʻuala to use; it would also be fairly freshly harvested so would not lose as much nutrients as something sitting on the grocery shelf for days.

This morning I got an email from Smart Trees Pacific; it was their November Citizen Forester Newsletter. The big item for this month is that it is Arbor Month; this Saturday is Arbor Day & there are several Tree Adoption events. I am helping at the one at the Kapiʻolani Community College Farmers Market. The newsletter also lists all the tree inventory groups & the Potential Planting Site training. And there is also a tree quiz plus a list of You Tube webinars that are available.

For lunch I heated up the last of the Lil Smokies that I had left over from making the screaming snails. I also ate the last of the fern salad that I had picked up from Kokua Market.

For dinner I air-fried the Brussels sprouts that I picked up at Kokua Market. I added 3 slices of chopped tempeh bacon. I think it needs more tempeh bacon to make it a more hearty meal.

I almost forgot to take a photo; there was about double this much when I started.

I missed this last week; it is a virtual tour of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi's exhibit Okage Sama De. Due to the small space the exhibit is housed in, it was very difficult for people to adequately distance themselves so the exhibit was closed; JCC has now pivoted to offering the exhibit online. Last week was the 1st of 6 chapters about the history of the Japanese in Hawai'i; each Wednesday a new chapter will be released. The 1st chapter, Departure & Arrivals, is linked below. I will provide a link to todayʻs chapter tomorrow. The other 4 chapters will be linked each Wednesday as they are released.

My maternal grandfather & his parents arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1901; Mom & I found the documents that were issued when they arrived. I'm not sure exactly when my maternal grandmother's side of the family arrived but it was before 1907 when my grandmother was born on Hawaiʻi Island. My paternal grandparents arrived before 1913 when Dad's oldest sister was born on Kauaʻi. FYI When I 1st started working for OmniTrak doing the 1st contact calls, we were using the large conference room on the top floor of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiian Electric is proposing to construct more pubic EV charging stations. They are currently looking for input from the public as to where new stations should be located. Looks like there are lots of requests on Oʻahu. And then there are some trolls who added pins to Kahoʻolawe; there are no roads on this former Navy bombing target which is now a cultural reserve. FYI The maps below are at the same scale, which will give you an idea of how the islands compare to each other is size.

Niʻihau & Kauaʻi.

Oʻahu.

Molokaʻi, Lanaʻi, Maui, & Kahoʻolawe.

Hawaiʻi Island.

Keala was once again the only cat visible this morning.

Halemaʻumaʻu crater of Kīlauea volcano continues to erupt, though it looks like there is perhaps less lava being ejected based on the size of the lava lake as seen in the thermal images.

At 8:16 a.m.

At 4:08 p.m.

At 8:16 a.m.

At 4:08 p.m.

The Aix weather app forecast rain until mid-afternoon in Honolulu with a break until rain again later in the evening. In actuality, there was no precipitation until the evening when there were a couple of light drizzles beginning shortly after 5:00 p.m. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast drizzles until mid-afternoon, then becoming rain throughout the remainder of the day; Big Island Now forecast mostly sunny with isolated showers in the morning becoming scattered showers in the afternoon with a 50% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station did not recorded any precipitation for the day. For Marysville, the Aix forecast was similar to that for Kapaʻau; it looked pretty accurate.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 8:09 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 8:09 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 8:10 a.m. HST.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 4:10 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 4:10 p.m.

Wet pavement in Marysville, looking southerly at 4:10 p.m. HST.

Light drizzle Kaimukī, looking easterly at 5:16 p.m.

The surf on the north facing shores was still very large; I did not see any surfers out there. The south shores were almost flat; wet & east facing shorelines had surf heights between those 2 extremes.

Laniakea (N) at 8:12 a.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 8:13 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 8:14 a.m.

Banyans (W) at 8:15 a.m.

Laniakea (N) at 4:04 p.m.

Hilo Bay (E) at 4:05 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 4:07 at p.m.

Banyans (W) at 4:07 p.m.

There was a magnitude 5.3 earthquake south of the Aleutian Islands late tonight, it did not generate a tsunami.

There were 176 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, raising the total number of known cases to 84,578; this number is higher than the last 2 days combined. This wide fluctuation between weekend & weekday numbers is the reason epidemiologists look at the 7-day new case average; today that number is 108 with a positivity rate of 1.7%. According to Health Department Director Dr. Libby Char, we need to get it consistently below 100 in order to avoid overwhelming the health care system in our state. There were also 3 new deaths reported, increasing the number of fatalities to 919; currently there are 1649 cases considered to be active. As of yesterday, there were 2,209,740 doses of vaccine administered, providing 71.5% of the population with full vaccination & 81.5% with at least 1 dose. According to the latest information available, there are 71 cases that are hospitalized with 16 in the ICU & 13 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 55 with a positivity rate of 1.6%.