IASA #20

Caught one!

Watering the Lāʻī

Dane is off on Fridays & Saturdays. Because he is off, & he just planted the lāʻī (aka ki) on Wednesday, he asked me if I could stop by Lapakahi State Historical Park & water the 3 pots of lāʻī today & tomorrow. He put them in the porta potty so that the wind would not blow them around so much & hasten their transpiration. They looked good, but I did add a little dish washing soap to the water to break the surface tension & get the soil to absorb more water; he was having a little problem with that when he planted them. I think I will get some saucers to hold the water a little more while they get rooted.

Last night I saw Meyer Kitty Lemon come in really late at night to eat on the front porch. None of the other cats was around when he came by. This is only the 2nd time that he has come to eat since I moved back. I usually see him passing through about once a month.

I weighed myself this morning. And found that I had gained a pound over last week. But went from 31.4% fat to 27.7% fat. Which kinda implies that my weight gain was more muscle-oriented. Which I find hard to believe since I have not really done much over the past week to put on more muscle mass. The only thing different is that I went on 2 hikes of the 0.5 mile Lapakahi loop trail this week while assisting Dane with tours for school groups. 

When I went out to pick the ʻohiʻa ʻai this morning, there were 2 young mongooses in the fallen leaves & young ʻohiʻa ʻai sprouts under the tree. And since I had no phone to take photos with, one of them came within 4 feet of me! It was oblivious. The ʻohiʻa ʻai sprouts are about 6 inches high so it had to stand up on its hind legs to see over the top of them. I think I was so close to it that it was only seeing my legs & did not recognize me as a threat. The other one was about 15 feet away so when it stood up it could see all of me & immediately took off & ran in to the  pasture, leaving its buddy behind!

There were only a few ʻohiʻa ʻai on the ground. And signs that the piglets had come in last night. I did find marks along the front of the fence of where they came in. It is pretty apparent that I really need to do the piglet retrofit for the entire fence!

I picked an overfull bucket of ʻohiʻa ʻai this morning; I got 8.6 pounds without moving the ladder. While I am pretty sure the tree will be able to provide 10 pounds for Kohala Grown Market tomorrow, I am going to give a bunch to Masa since he is coming to mow the lawn on Saturday. I hope the thinning that am doing now will produce larger & more uniformly sized ʻohʻa ʻai for them to sell to Kohala Grown.

I spent about 90 minutes washing & chopping the green ʻohiʻa ʻai in to quarters. I am going to make pickles with the ʻohiʻa ʻai that I thinned. I thought I could get away with just splitting the smaller ones in half but ended up quartering even the smallest of the ʻohiʻa ʻai because it is easier to get the immature seed out of it when it is quartered. I'm not sure if the young seeds can be eaten so I decided to play it safe & go through the extra work of removing them.

I gave Jessie half the 'ohi'a 'ai that I picked this morning. I took the other half to Charlene at Minnie's when I went to pick up lunch; she was the only one working today so it was very busy & backed up. I had driven by on another day last week & saw they were closed; today I found out for June she is only open on Monday, Tuesday, & Friday. The parking lot was full, partly because there were so many people there, but mainly because a tourist parked as if it was diagonal parking & took up 2 of the 4 spots! Auē! Then his wife was complaining that next time she wanted to go to Bamboo! I would not be upset if they did, although it would have meant Charlene would have sold 6 less meals today; they had the kids & grandkids with them.

Before I went to Lapakahi this afternoon, I stopped at the post office. The new phone was there! It looks like it would have arrived sooner but they had the wrong address. It's a good thing the FedEx driver recognized that it must be going to the post office since there are no apartment buildings on this road! They had 54-73 Union Mill Road #8; it should have been 54-396. Not sure how they got it so wrong.

Getting the new phone set up & working this evening was a pain in the butt. I still can't use the phone; I got an error message that said, "Sorry, can't activate. Please call Customer Service ... for assistance." With what? Technology! Auē!

It drizzled again this evening. But I really wanted to put up more of the chicken wire to keep the piglets out. I quickly attached the top strand of another 30 feet or so of chicken wire before I got too wet; I still have about 35 more feet to block the front section of fence. Then I will go back & replace the white plastic fence pieces with chicken wire so it doesn't look so tacky. And also go back & really secure all parts of the retrofit.

Too bad I couldn't get the phone to work tonight, could have had some really cute photos of Hahai's kittens. She is apparently using the area under the ramp as her new location to keep the kittens. So when she goes off hunting at night, they play on the porch & ramp. I am glad I got Da Bird cat toy when I was in Kona on Wednesday; I attached it to the railing & they seem to really like attacking it! They have also been using the new cat bed that I got at the same time; I heard them meowing when Hahai came back & it looked like they must have been in the cat bed. They all followed Hahai out of view of the baby monitor, so I checked & the bed was warm! (I will have to move the other baby monitor back to viewing the cat bed.) Will load up some photos once I get the phone working.

IASA #19

My phone is dead. But I am still alive. (Kai is [sending this to the IASA group text] since I can send him IMs via my laptop.)

Meet Hahai's Kittens

I made most of the gender determinations this morning, but the photos are from previous days; I still do not have a phone. Hahai was the 1st of the cats to give birth on April 21st; she was also the 1st one of the moms that I was able to consistently pet. I originally thought it was because she had a bad case of ear mites; scratching the back of her ear was the gateway to being able to touch more of her. Then, I thought she was sticking around & letting me pet her because she was so hungry; she is the smallest cat with the earliest litter. Therefore, I thought, the oldest & largest kittens so she needed more food. Initially, I thought she had 3 kittens, but I have since found out she actually has 5 kittens! No wonder she is so hungry!

There are only 2 kittens nursing in this photo.

The 1st kitten I was able to definitely associate with Hahai was a tuxedo kitten with white tips on its front paws & socks on its rear paws; it also had a white spot on its nose. After some observation, I have named that kitten Pōloli, which means hungry in Hawaiian. And Pōloli certainly is hungry! He was the 1st of the kittens to come to the food dish.

Pōloli.

The 2nd kitten is a gray mackerel tabby with white tips on its front paws & white socks on its rear paws. This kitten would hiss at any of the other adults trying to move in on the food bowl when the kittens were eating. I named him Ho'okoa which means brave. He has continued to show his bravery by coming up to the food bowl when I am still close by & actually allowing me to pet him. I have also been able to reach out & add more food to the bowl without him running away like the other kittens do.

Hoʻokoa.

The next kitten I initially heard as she meowed out of sight as Hahai was walking by. When she 1st jumped out I thought she was another tuxedo because she was so dark. But she is a very dark calico, almost all black but with white tips on her front paws & white socks on her back paws. She also has two lighter orange spots over her eyes near her eyebrows. She is noticeably smaller than the other 2 kittens; the runt of the litter I thought since I had only seen these 3 on the 1st day. I named her Huali'i, the runt.

Hualiʻi.

The next day another kitten appeared & was nursing off of Hahai! I watched to see if any of the other moms was around & perhaps it had wandered over to nurse on Hahai, but no one else was around. Kitten #4 is an orange mackerel tabby with white tips on its front paws & white socks on its back paws; it has no white markings on its face. He is noticeably larger than Hual'i, about the size of Pōloli. Because he seemed shy I named him Hilahila.

Hilahila.

Then a day later another kitten was nursing on Hahai! Again I checked to see if other moms were around & again there were none. This last kitten is another tuxedo with white tips on its front paws & white socks on its back paws; it has no marks on its face. I named this secretive kitten 'Ōhuna.

ʻŌhuna.

My 1st task this morning, after feeding the cats, was picking ʻohiʻa ʻai & thinning the green ones. I gave Dane 4.75 pounds of ripe ʻohiʻa ʻai. I had 5 pounds of green ones that I picked in order to thin the bunches; I hope it gives larger & more consistent sizes of future ʻohiʻa ʻai that I will be selling to Jenevie at Kohala Grown Market. I will be making green ʻohiʻa ʻai pickles with these.

I spent the morning at Hawai'i Wildlife Center; it was a slow morning since all of the Nene are no longer in the isolation cages indoors. And only 3 are left in the outdoor flight pens. There are also only 2 Manu-o-Kū that are too young to be out in the flight pen. I hosed down the Nene poop in the flight cage, rinsed out the dirty linens, & started a load of laundry. I also spent some time talking to intern Madison; today is her last day of an 8-week internship. I was gone for nearly all the time she was here!

I left a little early from HWC so I could take a shower before going to help Dane with another school tour at Lapakahi State Historical Park. Today it was a very large high school group from San Antonio, TX. They are in a special week long cultural learning class at Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy. Students in this program come to Lapakahi every year (except during COVID).

I checked the mail today. No phone. I hope it comes in tomorrow, otherwise I am without a phone over the weekend.

This evening I spent about an hour putting up more chicken wire; then ran out of the galvanized wire that I was using to secure the chicken wire to the existing hog wire fence. I did about 30 more feet tonight; I have about another 60 more feet to cover the fence along the front of the yard. Then I will have to go back & remove the white plastic pieces along about 30 feet of the side yard & replace it with chicken wire. I did find that the piglets got in last night; all the ʻohiʻa ʻai that was on the ground last night were gone in the morning. But none of them came during the day while I was gone; ʻohiʻa ʻai were all over the ground when I got home. I left them to see if the piglets find their way around the latest portion of chicken wire that I have installed. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Winifred, Pete, & Stephanie! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻumi kumamālua e Brenda & Melanie! (Today I sent people e-mail greetings rather than texts since I still have no phone.)

No Photos For a Couple Days

My phone died this morning. Or maybe it was last night. All I know is I tried to turn it on when I got up this morning & it was totally dark. It acted like it was trying to do something because when I plugged it in to charge, it would warm up.

So I made a special trip to Kona today; that's where the closest Verizon store is. I know that you can change the battery on an S7 but it takes special equipment so it is not a do-it-your-self item. So I walked in & asked if they could change the battery; they could not, they don't have a repair section. They sent me to Kona Cell Phone Repair. I had to ask for directions since I had no phone to Google with. 

Chalene at Kona Cell Phone Repair had a battery & said it would take about 45 minutes to swap the battery out. I asked for lunch suggestions & she referred me to Ola Brewery across the street; she recommended their flatbread pizzas. May be I ordered something different than she does; I was not impressed with the food. 

On the way back, I was a little early, so I visited the Paradise Mexican Store which is in the same mini-mall as Kona Cell Phone Repair. It was packed to the ceiling with Mexican goods. I wish I had my phone to take a photo of the jar of huitlacoche to send to Kai! I bought a few things that we had when we were in Mexico visiting for an Aikido seminar & when we were hosting 2 women from Mexico who were in the US to learn English through an English language immersion program. But Paradise was all out of my favorite Jarritos soda, the tamarind flavored one. I will have to stop by the next time I am in Kona; Ivan said they have been there for a few years now.

The problem with my phone turned out not to be the battery. Chalene showed me how it would act like it was going to turn on but then the screen would go black & there would be nothing; although it would heat up. I returned to Verizon & checked to see if the insurance I bought a couple years ago was still valid. It is! So now Verizon is sending me an S10e for $0; it should arrive in a couple of days. (Normally it is a 24 hour delivery, but Will, the manager at Verizon, said it might take 2 days to get up to Kapa'au.)

While in Kona I also went to Petco to get more kitten food. On the day I was returning from my trip to visit Kai, cousin Bill called. He wanted to know if I had enough cat food since there was none in North Kohala & the shelves at Costco in Kona were also bare. He was going to give me some of theirs until I could find more. But I still had 1 bag so it was good. However, now that I am also feeding the kittens I was noticing I was running out of food faster! Fortunately Petco had both the Ultra all-stages grain-free catfood I got for the pregnant moms & their kittens, as well as another grain-free one for active adult cats. These should hold me for a while.

I also picked up a small cat bed to put out on the porch under the bench. And Da Bird cat toy; I have it attached to the railing so the kittens have something more to play with while they are waiting for their moms.

I also stopped at Island Naturals to grind my own peanut butter. But their machine was broken! Auē! I'll have to check on my next trip through Kona.

When I got back to Hāwī, I stopped to pick up my CSA bag. This week we got bok choy, kale, cilantro, basil, carrots (but no tops), eggplant, maiʻa (banana), ʻuala (sweet potato), a cucumber, an orange, & a lime. I am looking forward to having greens in my proothies again!

It rained again this evening. So I did not get to work on piglet-proofing the fence more. I have all of the south fence blocked in some manner; about 75 feet has chicken wire attached. The rest is white plastic screening material. I still need to do the front (west) portion of the fence, which is about another 75 feet. I checked & I must have scared the piglets away last night when I turned on the lights; there were still a lot of uneaten mountain apples on the ground under the tree. Since I can't get out there tonight, I hope it is that way tomorrow also.

Hau'oli lā Hānau e Sherry & Christina! Six years ago today is when I moved back to Hawaiʻi. Sadly it is also the day Momo got out of the house & was never seen again. None of the cats made it here to Hawaiʻi Island, but I don't think I will have a lack of cats here ...

IASA #18

 

One of the 4 litters of kittens.

IASA #17

Day 5 Negative COVID-19 test. Hulō!

 

I Mis-wrote Yesterday

I had said that Kai & I were "isolating"; I should have said we were "quarantining". In Public Health these terms are different. "Isolation" is used for someone who has the disease; "quarantine" is used for someone who has been exposed to the disease but does not yet have the disease. Basically, quarantine is for a person who is in the incubation stage like Kai & I are. Here is a good infographic that explains this in relation to COVID-19.

Based on the infographic, you may be thinking that Kai & I are going overboard with the level of quarantining that we are doing. I am being overly cautious because nearly everyone I would come in to contact with is in the 60+ year old category that is more susceptible to a poor outcome with COVID-19. My nearest neighbor is in her late 70's & also has co-morbidities that could make it fatal for her & my cousin is 95 years old. So better for me to be overly cautious. In Kai's case, he is also being more cautious in order to limit potential transmission. His landlord/roommate is having a lot of potential buyers come through the house, that could then spread the disease if he should infect them. And his 30-something landlord/roommate has plans to go on a motorcycle trip shortly; he would not be happy if he had to cancel due to getting COVID!

The Hawaiʻi State Department of Health also has a Release Calculator. I put in my information & came out with a similar outcome of not needing to quarantine. But I am still going to do it.

I got up this morning when it would have been about 8 a.m. in Washington; it was about 5 a.m. here. When it was finally sunrise, the weather started out partly cloudy but dry, then quickly became warm & sunny; in the afternoon it started to drizzle but cleared up in the early evening. It was a beautiful sunset!

Fifty-six minutes before sunrise.

Seven minutes before sunrise.

Forty-one minutes after sunrise.

Light drizzle at 5:56 p.m.

Sunny sunset at 6:43 p.m.

One of the 1st things I noticed during cleaning this morning was that the Roomba had not started up at 6:45 like it is programmed to. I had noticed that it did not do that yesterday but assumed it was because it did not get the signal from my phone which was in Airplane Mode when it would have been 6:45 in Hawaiʻi. But thinking back on it now, that does not make sense because all during my trip it was starting at 6:45 Hawaiʻi time while my phone was working on Pacific time which is 3 hours ahead. This morning I discovered that the Roomba had not properly parked itself on the charging dock on Monday when it had finished cleaning so it was not charged enough to begin cleaning this morning; I repositioned it so it could start charging again. I hope being discharged for a day did not harm the battery. We shall see.

About half hour after after start time it's still snoozing on the base.

It wasn't snoozing, the battery was just dead.

Cleaned the contacts & it woke up.

And went in to charging mode.

About 90 minutes later it was ready to clean.

About 65 minutes after that it finished cleaning!

It cleaned everywhere today!

I spent today cleaning up the travel aftermath. Plus cleaning up the visitor aftermath that I did not clean up before I traveled. That's what I get for scheduling my visitors so close to my travel dates! Auē! But it was fun having a visitor & I did enjoy the traveling after not having traveled for over 2 years. I sucked it up & cleaned.

The guest bedroom in need of cleaning.

My suitcase had been on my bed since last night; I did a load of travel laundry to get it out of the way. I had taken a bunch of extra t-shirts that were cushioning the jars of jam so I had a lot of t-shirts in this load. Tomorrow I will do sheets & towels.

My bedroom in need of A LOT of cleaning!

I am switching my clothes from the dresser that was originally in the room to the dresser I brought with me. Thatʻs the one that Ken repaired for me. I thought I would switch the location of the 2 but discovered the newer dresser needs more space to open all the way since it has doors; so I am leaving them in place.

The original dresser.

The "new" dresser.

The fence is looking good; the piglets have not tried to break through the chicken wire. Because I am quarantining, I did not go to Sunshine Hardware today to pick up more chicken wire to baby pig proof the fence. I called & let Jessie know what was going on. She said about a week ago Sam was over & said he saw the baby pigs in the front yard! Auē! That means they have learned to get in from the front so I will have to baby pig proof all the rest of the fence line! Jessie also said that Masa built a pig trap & set it in her backyard a couple days ago; I saw it as I was checking for pig sign in the back yard.

This section does not have chicken wire along the bottom.

The pig trap in Jessie's back yard viewed from my bedroom window.

All the cats are no longer pregnant, but I have not seen any kittens yet. Neither did Trudy. Hahai's kittens would be about 6 weeks old, Olomea's kittens would be about 5 weeks old, Mom Cat's kittens would be about 4 & 1/2 weeks old, and Holoi's kittens would be about 4 weeks old. So may be not quite ready to be running around by themselves yet. I tried to get a hold of the other person we heard about that does TNR (trap neuter release) but all the vet clinics in this part of the island are closed for an extended Memorial Day holiday.

Mom Cat peeks out at the 10:19 a.m. feeding.

She decides it's safe to come & eat.

Three minutes later Holoi (L) & Hahai come to look for food.

Hahai comes to eat while Holoi stands guard at the end of the ramp.

I was supposed to restart my CSA share today; I pick it up at the Kohala Food HUB distribution center. I texted & emailed CSA Coordinator Maya yesterday & told her to donate my share to a family in need rather than having me come down & potentially infect others.

Earlier today Janice sent me a photo of the truck that usually parks in her spot (she does not have a car); I had asked her about it since it seemed to be a tight squeeze for the Subaru Outback when I parked there. But it looks like it is also tight for the truck. And the neighboring car is now parked so the driver's side door is next to the vacant spot on its other side. (It was originally front-in when I parked; later I saw the owner had backed in like it is in this photo.)  

The Potential Most Favorite Roommate sent me a photo of the ʻohiʻa ʻai seedlings that have sprouted from the seeds I gave him. Right now there are 5 sprouting; I think I gave him a dozen. More may still pop up.

Newly sprouted ʻohiʻa ʻai (mountain apple) seedlings.

As I mentioned earlier, the feral piglets are still getting in. I saw 5 of them late tonight, munching on the grass along the fence line. Even when I took their photos they were not scared off by the flash. I had to turn on the porch light & go outside before they left the yard. I canʻt wait to be out of quarantine so I can get more chicken wire to finish baby pig proofing the fence!

I wonder how much a paintball gun & night vision goggles cost? I could mark repeat offenders.

Statewide there were 8124 new cases of COVID-19 reported over the last week, increasing the total known cases to 282,619. There were 6 new COVID-19 related deaths; increasing the death toll to 1457. The 7-day new case average for the State was 1210; marking the 10th weekly increase in the weekly case average. Over the last week Hawaiʻi Island has had 966 new cases, increasing the total known cases to 31,343. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Leigh, Kendee, & Martin!