Hummus Masabacha

The breakfast special today at Motek was Hummus Masabacha. The weekly email said it is, "warm, whole, cooked hummus beans (chick peas) mixed with Al-Arz Tahini (the best tahini as far as we’re concerned), olive oil, lemon, parsley, a hard-boiled egg, pine nuts and a special lemon/garlic sauce. It is a very healthy and hearty member of the Mediterranean diet!" I liked it!

I also tried a Blueberry Muffin with Chocolate. It was okay, but I was finding seeds in it that were more like blackberry or raspberry seeds. I also took a photo of the Chocolate Coconut Ball I tried last week that was too sweet for me.

The sunrise this morning was looking a little hazy. But it cleared up later & became very sunny.

Masa mowed Jessie's lawn yesterday. He also sort of cleared away some of the scraggly vegetation along the property line shared with the Department of Water Supply chlorination shed. Though I'm not really sure exactly what he's doing since there doesn't seem to be any sort of straight line or really cleaned up area. 

You can see material on the ground along the fence & imaginary extension of fence.

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is predicted to start between today & the 1st. It looks like it is not going to be today; even at about 9:30 at night though there was a glow, there was no precursory activity preceding an imminent eruption.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Hannele, Dorothy, & Sheryl! 

Stargazing at Moʻokini

Tonight there was a very special event at the Moʻokini Heiau. ʻOhana Stargazing coordinated with caretakers of the heiau to have star gazing with astronomers from the university as well as observatories on Mauna Kea. The evening started with protocol to enter the sacred space, pule & oli, & presentation of hoʻokupu. Later there was moʻolelo about celestial events as well as kalua pig & cabbage dinner prepared by the Kawaihae Canoe Club as a fundraiser.

On my way down Old Coast Guard Road.

Maui as seen from dirt road out to heiau.

Cars in distance parked at heiau.

After dark, the telescopes were aimed at various things in the sky. I got to see the Ring Nebula, Antares, the Moon, a big bunch of stars called M31, & Saturn & its rings! The astronomers were from various places & included the deputy director of the Gemini Observatory! (Whom I asked if he was one of the astronomy graduate researchers. 😬 He was very nice & told me who he was. It was dark, couldn't really see much except that they had reflective vests on.) I learned that the amazing color depictions on the Internet that you see when you click on the links above are not what you see in real life. Those images are depictions based on the wavelength of the light emitted not what can actually be seen by a human looking through a telescope. Some of which were extremely sophisticated! 

Telescopes set up outside heiau while people enter to present hoʻokupu.

Forty minutes before sunset.

Eight minutes before sunset.

Twenty-five minutes after sunset.

Checking out the Moon forty-three minutes after sunset.

It was a pretty good sunrise this morning. Patchy clouds but nothing that might block out all the stars. It stayed that way throughout the day & in to the evening.

When I went in to the cat room, I found the Eufy robot vacuum stuck on one of the Muddy Mats. The side sweeper brush was so tangled in the mat I had to disconnect it from the rest of the machine to get it unstuck. But that was OK, I needed to replace it anyway.

I looked out the window & saw Hoʻokoa sunning himself on the rock wall. As I watched he quickly got up & pounced on something further along the wall. Unfortunately it was partially blocked by the tall grass so I don't know what it was. My guess is that it was a gecko, probably also sunning itself on the rock wall.

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is still predicted to be sometime between the 28th & the 1st.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Dwight, Angela, & The Roommate Who Likes to Wash Dishes! 

Podaxis pistillaris

Also known as the Desert Shaggy Mane, Podaxis pistillaris is found in dry areas after a rain event. I found these at Lapakahi State Historical Park today. Lapakahi has an average annual rainfall of 9", so I would say it is a dry area! This is the 2nd time I have seen these mushrooms here & the only mushrooms I have ever seen at Lapakahi.

There are 3 of them along edge of road.

While at Lapakahi I also saw a barge passing by; it was going to Kawaihae. I know I must have seen them before, but I don't really recall it happening. The Young Brothers barges start out in Honolulu where the barge leaves on Thursday morning & arrives in Kawaihae on Friday. That's how my car got here. (There is no barge direct from Maui to Hawaiʻi Island.)

There was a very insistent Yellow-billed Cardinal (Paroaria capitata) at the park this morning. It kept attacking its reflection in the mirrors of several cars in the parking lot.

When I stopped for ice cream at Our Founding Farmers, I discovered Mark has a new flavor; its starfruit. He said he finally found the right balance to get the flavor of the starfruit to come through. He has also improved on the flavor of the lilikoi ice cream; I ended up with a mix of starfruit & lilikoi today.

In the evening, as I was leaving to go to an event (that I did not know was canceled), I saw a feral pig in the pasture behind Jessie's back yard. I tried to get Moʻo to focus on it & run to the back to scare it off. But she kept thinking I was wanting her to get her toy. I need to figure out how to train her to look where I am pointing.

The start of the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is still predicted to be between the 28th & the 1st.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Bill & Yvonne! 

IASA #3-33

Cats went to see Dr. Hicks for annual check up.

 

Annual Check-up

For the cats, not me. They are about 3&1/2 years old, which would be about 30 years old in human years. Locking them in since last night made it easier to get them loaded up to go to the vet this afternoon but it still took me an hour. 

Waiting to get loaded in to the car.

In the car.

Waiting for Dr. Hicks.

They all did very well with Dr. Hicks & Jeremy. And since I locked them in last night I was also able to get a stool sample. Even though I don't know which cat it came from, it is safe to say if the sample had parasites, then they probably all have parasites. If it didn't, also likely that the do not have parasites.

ʻŌhuna is getting better about being handled by other people.

Hoʻokoa just wants everyone to know he is not really happy about this.

ʻAlani wants to get it over with.

Paʻipaʻi enjoying extra attention! Dr. Hicks had to hold her nose to stop purring so she could listen to  heart.

The morning looked like the day would be clear & sunny. And it was!

Three minutes before sunrise.

The County road crew was here again. Today they worked on my side of the road, clearing away grass that had grown in to the drainage way along the edge of the road and anything else that might slow the flow of water during the upcoming wet season. 

Front end loader scrapes away the grass & dirt.

The resulting cleared drainage way.

I checked on the kalo flower this morning; it never opened more & is starting to dry up. I think that was as opened up as the blossom gets. I also checked on the dragonfruit; several of them are starting to show some color. I think they are about 10 days away from being fully ripe.

Kalo flower starting to dry up.

There are 2 more fruit on other side of plant also showing color.

The wasps were acting strange this morning. Most of them were lined up along one side of the nest & not moving; & they all looked like queens. They were more spread out & active later in the afternoon.

I helped Wendy move this morning; her friend, also named Wendy, was helping as well. Things went really fast; it took about an hour for us to fill up 3 small hatchback cars & caravan over to her new apartment & unload. She now has sheep for neighbors on the uphill side & looks out on to a kukui plantation on the downhill side.

Sheepish neighbor peaking around the old fence post.

Kukui plantation.

After we unloaded the cars, Wendy took us to lunch at Gil's Lanai. I had the Catch of the Day Sammy. If I order it again I will ask for less of their special sauce. It was so loaded it was leaking all over every time I bit in to it; I used 6 napkins just to keep from dripping all over myself!

See the sauce dripping off my hand & on to the plate?

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is still anticipated to be between the 28th & the 1st.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Naomi & Roxanne! 

Staying Inside Tonight

The cats are shut inside tonight; I locked the cat door so they can't go out tonight or tomorrow morning. I need to keep them somewhat confined since tomorrow is their annual vet check & since they now have the entire cat yard to run around in I need to keep them confined indoors so I have at least half a chance of getting them all corralled in time for their appointment! They are not happy with me! 😾😾😾😾

Initially just locked door & put visual sign up, but they ignored it & tried to force it open.

Ended up stuffing a box in the opening.

Sunrise this morning looked like it would be a clear sunny day today.

Eighteen minutes after sunrise.

But it became overcast & about 10 in the morning there was a downpour with just enough of a breeze that I had to close the windows on the north side to keep things dry inside. I always close the easterly windows because that is where the prevailing winds come from. It lasted about 30 minutes, then stopped & slowly cleared up again.

I spoke with Harold this morning. I needed to check in with him to see if I can help Kai buy a place in western Washington without jeopardizing my retirement funds. He said it was doable, so we are taking the next step & checking it out more thoroughly including sleeping over a week or so to see if there might be any neighbor problems or weird noises that might make it unbearable for him.

I still don't really understand the details, but the bottom line is its doable.

I registered for the Māla Kalo Workshop this weekend. I had to do it through my phone because I could not get the link on my laptop to work. 🤷🏽‍♀️

 

This evening there was a flood alert but it was for Kāʻū so it won't affect me. I don't mind getting alerts for other parts of the island since if I am traveling around the island its nice to know whether there is something I need to be aware of.  

As I was trying to move some things in to the cat room this evening, Moʻo & Hoʻokoa wanted to play. As I tried to go in, Hoʻokoa slipped out & in to Moʻo's crate; this is the 1st time any of the cats have tried to get out of the cat room. Moʻo proceeded to paw him & slobber all over him. I think that's similar to the way she played with the chicks. 

The start of the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea still remains between the 28th & the 1st.

 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Kathy, Alan, & Stacey!