Aloha 'Oe e Niu

The new neighbor across the street had the 2 coconut trees in the front yard cut down this morning. 😢 I wonder if she realizes what a great source of food she has removed? Both of them also appeared to be dwarf varieties & were as productive as the 1 I had on the property line that had to be removed about a year ago when the new fence was put in by the owner of the 94-acre pasture behind me. Last December I planted a dwarf coconut that had a root but not a sprout near the location of the original niu; it finally sprouted in July this year. Hopefully I will have some nuts for coconut water in about 5 years. Too bad the neighbor did not keep her trees; when I started to see fruit forming again I was going to tell her I would pay for Joey to come harvest them when they were ready & she could have half the nuts. Guess I should have told her that when I 1st met her a couple months ago.

Used to have nice niu in front of Cook pines & another in space between pines & bamboo.

When I went to drop off omiyage with Jessie, I saw Henrietta & her chicks. There were 8 of them with her! Which is how many live chicks Jessie had told me about the day I returned. I also saw the dead chick she had told me about.  

Henrietta & her 8 chicks.

The dead one.

I also saw & heard Sugar or Spice trying to crow. Whoever he is, he still needs more practice!

Today I also sorted out the omiyage I brought back; I had a rough idea how much I needed. Most of the omiyage was from the Seabear Smokehouse gift shop which is in Anacortes about 15 minutes away from where Kai lives. Besides salmon products they also have things from their Chukar Cherries company in eastern Washington as well as other seafood.

These are for Trudy; she likes Trader Joe's Sweet & Hot Pepper Jelly but its seasonal & not in stock now.

These cherry items are from SeaBear's eastern Washington orchards.

I have a couple of these in my hurricane emergency supply kit.

Omiyage for the cats & dog.

I also got a bird for Trudy; she does not have to feed this one! There was also a life-sized male Northern Cardinal but it was larger & had more pointy bits that might get bent or broken in my suitcase. I opted for the Black-capped Chickadee, which is about 50% larger than the real deal. It's from The Olive Shoppe in LaConner.

After the NKCDP Access committee meeting I picked up Fran & we went to the Kohala Night Market. Tonight's activity was a bon odori hosted by the Kohala Jodo Mission; Joy was the MC & Glenn was in charge of the music. Trudy was also there handing out water & hachimaki for the dancers. We sat by Trudy & ate our chicken hekka dinner. 

Chicken hekka.

Hurricane Kiko is now about 1600 miles easterly of Hilo; it is moving westerly at about 9 mph. Maximum sustained winds have increased to about 130 mph making Kiko a Category 4 Hurricane. It is possible it may get stronger as it moves closer to the Central Pacific Basin which it is expected to enter some time Friday night. Currently hurricane force winds extend out 25 miles, with tropical storm force winds extending outward up to 80 miles.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Sophia, Ian, & Darien!