Last Citizen Forester Field Day

Today the Kaimukī-Kapahulu Citizen Forester group did a Potential Planting Site inventory around Maunalani Park. It was Francisco, Cindy, Joe, Dan, & me. Dan & I teamed up to do a couple of the side streets while Franciso, Cindy, & Joe did the other side streets. We did a little over 2&1/4 miles & about half of it was uphill. I asked Francisco to keep me on the list that when he sends out information about upcoming inventories & I will sign up if I will be back on island. I also told him I would not be at next week's inventory since I have to take the Crosstrek to Young Brothers.

I only saw one Kōlea at Maunalani Park this morning.

On Sierra 1 hour & 15 minutes after sunrise.

I also did my Maunalani walk this morning; the timing was perfect to do the 2 almost back-to-back. While I was walking I saw Sherry & Geri. Later, as I was driving down to the park I saw Loy waiting at the bus stop; the bus came by before I was parked so I was not able to go up & chat with him. I am glad to see that he is still healthy & seems to be doing well.

On Maunalani 17 minutes past sunrise.

I stopped to talk to Sherry; she is the person I got Keala from. I told her I was moving to Hawai'i Island next week & leaving Keala with The Roommates since Luna & S'mores got along better when Keala was around. She gave me a bunch of avocados from their tree. She said it had way too much fruit for them & they were constantly falling.

When I got home I made another dinosaur kale proothie. This is the last of the kale that I bought. I think I will get one more bunch before I leave since I will have 4 more days of proothies before I pack up the Nutribullet & ship it over to Hawaiʻi Island in the Crosstrek. I will also be sending all the non-perishable proothie ingredients over in the Crosstrek.

I got an email from my friend Terri early this morning. She is strongly considering coming to visit me within the next few months. I will be glad to see her & take her birding! She also wants to see whales & sea turtles; not sure if I will be able to provide those experiences for her but I will see what I can do. And I will definitely see if she wants to open coconuts & drink fresh coconut water! 

It looks like Kai will be moving in about 6 months. Which means I might be making a trip to Washington to help him find a new place to live. Stay tuned!

I got an email from Marjorie today; it was sent out to Medical Reserve Corps volunteers on Hawaiʻi Island, Kauaʻi, & Maui. So now I am on the Hawaiʻi Island list as well as the Oʻahu list. Although I donʻt think they have much going on right now on Hawaiʻi Island.

For dinner I tried to get a little fancy, wrapping the bacon tempeh around the plant-based "chicken" nuggets. Real bacon works better; the tempeh bacon only succeeded in providing a little insulation to the frozen "chicken" nuggets which ended up being a little lukewarm on the inside. The tempeh bacon also does not wrap itself around things as easily; it is somewhat brittle & tends to crack when you wrap it. I wou0ld say this culinary experiment was less than successful.

I might attend the Waimea Community Association meeting tomorrow evening for a short while to hear what is going on. Waimea is about 45 minutes away from me & is the largest "urban" area close to me. The topics of interest to me are the COVID-19 resources available, update on the County council, & the economic development grant to expand the island's food resources & work towards minimizing food imports.

Hawaiian Electric gave out a bunch of grants to mitigate climate change; one of those grants went to Trees for Honolulu's Future, that's Dan's group. The Potential Planting Site Inventories that Citizen Foresters are doing is in conjunction with Trees for Honolulu's Future.

Kīlauea is still maintaining its low level of activity. The Mauna Kea summit still has large patches of snow.

The Aix weather app forecast partly sunny all day for Honolulu; that was pretty accurate. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast drizzle in the morning & late afternoon through the evening; Big Island Now forecast partly sunny with scattered showers in the morning, then mostly sunny with isolated showers in the afternoon & a 40% chance of rain. The Honomū weather station did not re3cord any precipitation. For Marysville, Aix forecast rain beginning at mid-morning & increasing throughout the day & evening; the traffic cam showed a dry morning but it did not look like it was pouring in the evening.

Marysville looking northerly at 6:38 a.m. HST.

Honomū looking northerly at 6:39 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 6:41 a.m.

Kaimukī looking easterly at 6:48 a.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 6:49 a.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 11:12 a.m.

Kaimukī looking northerly at 2:06 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 3:44 p.m.

Waikīkī looking easterly at 4:41 p.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 4:43 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 4:43 p.m.

The surf was forecast to decrease on the north & west facing shores, increase on the south facing shores, & stay relatively the same & small on east facing shores.

Laniākea (N) at 4:40 p.m.

HIlo Bay (E) at 4:41 p.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 4:42 p.m.

Banyans (W) 4:43 p.m.

There were 1177 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total know cases up to 221,533. There were also 10 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 1191; currently there are 35,053 cases that are considered active. As of today there were 2,724,770 doses of vaccine administered providing 74.9% of the State population with full vaccination & 82.1% with at least one dose; 34.9% have received a 3rd dose. Currently there are 314 cases that are hospitalized with 48 in the ICU & 31 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for the State is 1682 with a positivity rate of 11.5%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mrs. Toyama, Jennifer, & Sean!