Last Book Boxes Moved

I moved the last 10 boxes of books in to the sewing room. According to the Moving Organizer Pro moving app that I am using, I brought 65 boxes of books with me. But that's not all the book boxes I have, a bunch came from Mom's Hawaiiana & cookbook collection that are not listed in any moving app.

Empty boxes on top shelf to discourage cats from leaping to shelf.

Once I moved the last book boxes out of the living room, I vacuumed & mopped that area just like I did the book wall yesterday. I then started moving boxes out of the guest bedroom into that location. I am having guests during the 1st week of April so I need to get that guest room back in shape! 

Beautiful!

Guest room "before", looking in from doorway.

Guest room "after".

This is where printer & shredder used to be.

I moved the printer & shredder out of the guest bedroom & in to the sewing room. I now have all my office-related tech adjacent to each other & not in another room like before. It will make things so much easier.

Printer (foreground) & shredder (background).

I also worked on the old blue rocking chair & Uncle Ken's old footlocker. I put felt slidder pads on both of them & removed the cardboard that Chris had placed them on so they wouldn't scratch the floor. Then I sent the Roomba in to clean up the floor. 

Speaking of the Roomba, it still hasn't learned that I took down the cat gate. May be it will  be different tomorrow; I had to unplug the Roomba & I also moved it about 3 feet further west when I cleaned up the floor where it was originally located. 

I had a rude awakening this morning. I was in bed doing my Duolingo lessons when I heard a thud followed by yelping. I got to the living room in time to see a medium-sized brown dog running up the hill & a silver pick-up truck with a horse trailer slowing down in front of Jeremiah's place. Another man was running up the hill calling the dog's name. It sounded like he finally got the dog to stop running just past Jessie's house; the dog probably realized it had no where to run because of the fences. All its legs appeared to be working but that could have been adrenaline, it probably has some internal injuries. Moʻo was very nervous when I went to let her out soon after that; she was shaking. I think she was wondering if something happened that she needed to be worried about. It all happened so fast I was unable to get any photos.

Breakfast from Motek Bakery was Uncle Yosef. I am now eating it like I overheard David telling a customer, "pick it up like a slice of pizza". It is faster & just as tasty.

I spread condiments in little container over it before I start eating.

I had a good view of Maui this morning. Now I need to get rid of that pesky puakenikeni seedling that is growing at the top of the hapuʻu stalk for a great view.

The fitting that Junior & Bill helped me put together a week ago & that I went to have Bill tighten down even more yesterday was still leaking. So I took it back in this morning. Bill took it apart, put on more pipe tape & added pipe threading compound. He said if that didn't work he had no other solutions. It didn't work. I think my only solution now is to order the part & have it shipped to Kai for $7; then have him mail it to me for $10 instead of the $100 that Cat Genie wants to send it to me.

Bill working on fitting.

Attached new, improved fitting, turned on water ...

... & it's still leaking. Auē! (Bottle directs drips in to Cat Genie.)

My tool bin.

Henrietta still has 2 chicks & they're getting bigger. I saw them three times today; all times with Roger & Dolly as well. Maybe she is getting more comfortable having them wandering around more.

Around 11:15 this morning, looking for bugs under old ʻulu leaves.

About 11:45 searching along the fence line.

About 3:45 in the afternoon checking the back yard with the flock.

I worked on adding call numbers to 10 more books. Tonight there was only 1 book that I was unable to find a Dewey decimal number for. I discovered that the Hawaii State Public Library system uses the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) for their call numbers. I can search their catalog online; if they have it, I can find the call number. Hūlō! So I went back to look for the 2 books I could not find last night which were Hawaiian books. Auē! Apparently for newer books (which all 3 are) they use a different system & not the DDC. 😦

Auē, no DDC.

 

Last night, when I let Moʻo out in the evening to lua, there was a coquí frog in her water dish. I swatted it but it jumped away & under the car where I could not reach it. Today I checked & found a dried up frog; I think it was the one I swatted at last night. I really don't want this invasive species to become established here on the property.

The eruption at Kīlauea is still on pause.

 

Hauʻoli lā hānau e Marian, Mike, & Sandy! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻumi kumamāiwa e Maria & Michael!

What's Going On?

There was a whole lot of pounding going on under the house this morning. Not sure who it was, but either Chris or Spencer was running the wires to the circuit breaker panel in the garage. And at the end of the day the water heater in the Cat Genie room was wired! It's still not functional yet but getting closer.

I checked at lunch time & found this.

Today they also made more progress on the rest of the Cat Genie room; they installed more of the waste water piping for the laundry tub & put in the vented fan to blow any stinky cat poop smells out of the house! 

 

The final thing I noticed was that they have painted the exterior door to match the other exterior doors; Chris will also be installing a screened panel to mimic the old plantation house doors.

 

We're still under the wind advisory that started yesterday morning.

The eruption at Kīlauea is still paused. It is anticipated to begin again within the next 5 to 8 days.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Jeff! 

Mauna Kea Resort Lūʻau

My friends Barbara & Bruce are visiting from Washington; they wanted to experience a lūʻau so I met them at one this evening. They chose the lūʻau at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. It is a bit pricey but I would recommend it to others; besides food it also included some cultural education, history, & entertainment over about a 4-hour period.

(Clockwise, L plate) Ahi poke with limu manauea, mahimahi, rice, puaʻa kalua, chicken long rice; (R plate) hōʻiʻo salad, poi, lomi salmon, purple ʻuala, pipikaula, shrimp cocktail. (Mauna Kea Resort screenshot)

The lūʻau started with a mai tai or non-alcoholic beverage & kukui lei when you check in. You can then watch as they remove the pig from the nearby imu. 

Screenshot of hot imu rocks being prepared to receive pig.

Uncovering roasted pig in imu.

Puaʻa kalua getting readied to go to buffet table.

While you wait at your table for your turn at the buffet, there is live entertainment playing in the background. There were a lot of dishes; a handful were traditional mea ʻai lūʻau, about half of the rest were modern mea ʻai lūʻau, & the remainder was just ordinary food so the less adventurous could still have a decent dinner. Below is a screenshot of the menu.

At least I remembered before I ate it all!

I did not try every dessert.

Traditional: ahi poke, poi, kalua pig; modern: sweet potato salad, salad with papaya seed dressing, lomi salmon, fern shoot salad, pipikaula, grilled catch, chicken long rice, teriyaki steak, stir-fried veggies, rice, taro rolls, sweet bread, desserts.

Throughout the evening there was live music; after most were finished eating, they started their program of hula & other Pacific cultural practices. The MC was my neighbor-down-the-road Minnie's sister, ʻAnakē Nani! Both Minnie & Nani are well-respected hula practitioners; it kinda runs in the family as a lot of other relatives are either in hula or musicians or both! The program included both hula kahiko & hula ʻauana. It also included Tahitian dancing as well as Samoan fire dancing. (No photos were allowed so here are screenshots from their website.)

I gave Barbara & Bruce blue jade lei when they arrived at the Mauna Kea Resort. I bought the lei from ʻAnakē Maile; she is raising money to fund a scholarship for a student at Kohala High School. For the 2 lei, I donated $40 to the fund; she is now up to $750!  

ʻAnakē Maile with finished lei.

Bruce & Barbara wearing the lei; they match so nicely with their alohawear!

ʻAnakē Maile's blue jade trellis.

We were under another Wind Advisory for the day; it goes until tomorrow morning. It included both North & South Kohala; the Mauna Kea Resort is in South Kohala. There was more wind there than there usually is, but fortunately it does not get as windy as Lapakahi during a normal afternoon or North Kohala under a Wind Advisory; though a few napkins & paper cups did get blown off the tables.

 

In the morning, when I wake up, I almost always check my email. This morning I saw that Kīlauea started erupting again around 2:30 a.m.; this is Episode 13. I sent a text to Barbara letting them know it might be their only chance to see an active eruption on this visit. They had been to the Kīlauea viewpoint on Friday when it was paused but steaming & decided to just keep the livefeed running at the condo rather than making a rushed trip to see it, then rushing back for the lūʻau. When the volcano is erupting, I like to keep the livefeed visible in the corner of my screen when I am working on my laptop. Here's what it looked like this morning. 

Today Chris & Spencer worked on installing the water heater in the Cat Genie room & starting on the stairs down to the anthurium garden.

Close-up of electric demand water heater; it's smaller than a loaf of bread!

From Reference point F.

Close-up of stairs.

More ʻohiʻa ʻai flowers are blooming. Here's a close-up of the flowers, notice how they look like the flowers of the ʻohiʻa lehua. More stamens are also falling to the ground; soon it will be very pink under the tree.

I picked a small bag of jaboticaba to give to Barbara & Bruce. There is probably only about 10 pounds on the tree for this harvest.

This is the 13th eruption episode. Past episodes have lasted from 13 hours to 8.5 days, with an average of 34 hours. The pauses between eruptions has ranged from 16 hours to 12 days, with an average of just over 4 days. 

For those who are concerned about my safety, here is a map of eruptions on Hawaiʻi Island over the last 1000 years. As you can see, I live near the north end of the island where Kīlauea has not flowed. Ever. Mauna Loa is in the way of a lava flow from Kīlauea getting to where I live. Mauna Loa has an elevation of around 13,700 feet, while Kīlauea is at about 4,700 feet. It would take an awful lot of lava to reach me; if Kīlauea starts putting out that much lava, they will evacuate the entire island!

Kīlauea flows are red area to right of thick black line.

Right now lava has to fill up caldera 1st before it starts flowing out.

As I mentioned earlier, Kīlauea entered its 13th Episode of eruption. Fountains of lava were estimated to be over 600 feet high!

As I was getting ready to leave the house & meet Barbara & Bruce for the lūʻau, I noticed the livefeed on my laptop was no longer red. The fountaining had stopped & there was now only a grayish-white gas cloud coming out of the vent. It was 3:20 p.m. When I got back from the lūʻau the official status report had arrived; it noted that the eruption had paused at 3:13 p.m. It only lasted about 12&1/2 hours.