Māhukona Huakaʻi

The Kohala Culture & History Advisory Group met at Māhukona this morning for a huakaʻi. Our 1st speaker was Uncle Kealoha who reminisced about growing up in Hawaiian Camp at Māhukona. He also shared a document about Alfonso & Haruko Mitchell who also lived at Hawaiian Camp. Interestingly, Alfonso was cousin Tomiko's swimming coach when she was a student at Kohala Middle School.

Keone, who is the Hawai'i Land Trust steward at Māhukona talked about their restoration efforts along with providing a place for students in the Kohala High School Naʻau ʻOiwi program to learn more about Aloha ʻĀina. He then took some of the group that was interested on a short hike to view other parts of the 642-acre site he manages.

Some of the plants started by the Naʻau ʻOiwi students.

Milo (Thespesia populnea) seedlings.

Windbreaks help plants get established.

One of the places the group walked up to was a viewpoint where they could see the navigational heiau. 

Maui in background, navigational heiau on hillside to right.

Close-up of navigational heiau.

Uncle Kealoha had talked about a sacred stone at Māhukona Harbor that was a protector of the harbor. It had been moved by one of the former ship captains because one of his crew steered a small launch in to it damaging the boat. After the rock was moved, the harbor slowly lost business & was finally closed around 1955. Uncle Kealoha feels it is time for the sacred stone to be restored to its rightful place now that there are community efforts to create a new park for the community. Some of us went to visit the sacred stone after the huakaʻi ended. 

Stone outlined in red was originally in dashed outlined area.

I have not had ice cream for a month or so now, so I stopped in at Our Founding Farmers on my way back from Māhukona. While there I saw a guy walk in with 2 plastic containers & walk out with them filled with ice cream. I checked with Jacqueline, she said if you bring in a container they will fill it for you. I will have to do that next time there is jaboticaba ice cream so my friends can try it when they visit me.

Pistachio & chocolate.

As I pulled in to get ice cream, I saw a food truck in the lawn next door; they were selling Thai food. After I finished my ice cream I went over & checked out Peek Street Thai Food. Lisa, who used to own As Hāwī Turns & retired a couple years ago after selling the store, had just ordered the Thai ceviche & chicken larb; it was her 2nd time here & she said she liked it. I decided on the Pad Thai since that is my test dish for new Thai places that I check out. Kai, the fellow taking orders, did not ask me how many stars I wanted & that was how many stars I got; it did not have any heat at all. I think I shall try some other things there as well.

I will order this again.

I also stopped at Takata for some supplies. While there I saw the Little Fire Ant test kits so I picked one up. I want to make sure there are no fire ants on the property. They can cause blindness in cats & dogs if they bite them around their eyes.

This morning, when I was getting the Trader Joe's items that I got for KCHAG together for lunch today, I heard a noise outside the kitchen window. I looked out & saw ʻAlani on the railing get ambushed by ʻŌhuna from under one of the hapuʻu fronds. ʻŌhuna can look quite fierce when she comes popping out of the weeds! ʻAlani ducked in to the house to escape.

Surprise!

ʻAlani heads for the safety of the indoors as ʻŌhuna looks on.

She's must be feeling good about the ambush!

Later in the day the cats were making a ruckus when I had to enter their room. I was going to fill up 1 of the water containers for their water fountain. For the most part, the cats get along with each other; the best buddies are ʻAlani & Hoʻokoa. They even try to sleep together in the top tier of the cat tree, which is only sized for 1 adult cat.

Though it looks like kitty jail, they actually never try to get out when gate is open.

Almost completely filled fountain.

I have not done anything to the wasp nest; Kiko is moving well to the north of us & will not be causing enough wind problems that I would need to move the screens. Today I saw the queen quite clearly.

Here's the queen.

About an hour before sunset there was a brief shower. Shorter than the one last night & also not as intense. You can hardly see the streaks of rain in the photo. Kiko is too far north to provide us with a decent amount of rain to ease the drought. Even the shower an hour or so later was quite light.

Light shower at 5:19.

Another light shower at 6:18.

Hurricane Kiko is now about 300 miles east-northeast of Hilo & has slowed down to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph; hurricane force winds extend out about 45 miles & tropical storm force winds about 125 miles. Kiko is forecast to steadily weaken as it passes northerly of the state through Tuesday & Wednesday; it is anticipated to diminish to a tropical storm tonight. Currently it is moving northwesterly at about 14 mph. 

The infrared image shows Kiko becoming less organized. Compare with Saturday's image.

  

The next eruptive episode at Kīlauea is now predicted to begin some time on the 18th or later.

Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanahā kumamākahi e Joan & Gary!