Happy 1st Birthday, Maiʻa!

I replanted the maiʻa (bananas) 1 year ago today so I am counting today as their birthday. If you recall, the maiʻa patch was dug up when the new fence was put in along the back property line last year. Travis & Owen dug a bunch of keiki up for me & I replanted them when all the activity there was done & the wet season rains were about to start. I have seen a variety of answers on how long it takes before a banana plant bears fruit; ranging from 9 to 15 months. Because of the drought, I think I will be lucky if I get fruit next year.

Final planting day on 10/17/24.

Today; far right is 2 maiʻa in bunch of laʻi which I did not know were there.

Here are the 2 maiʻa in laʻi; cows are eating both of them.

It was a little overcast around sunrise today. It never rained but was not very sunny either.

Eleven minutes before sunrise.

About a quarter of the time when Moʻo stands in the northwest corner of the property barking, it is because of one of the neighbors across the street who frequently stands by the hedge on her property line, apparently peering around it at her neighbor. I think Moʻo identifies this as suspicious behavior. Hedge Woman lives immediately downhill from the neighbor who is bothered by barking dogs; I think she is the one who told Barking Dog Woman that it was Jeremiah that was smoking on Monday night when Barking Dog Woman says Moʻo was barking all night. Why do I think that? Because Hedge Woman appears to be paranoid about people living in the house next to me. When I 1st moved back in to our family home a little over 3&1/2 years ago, she came over to warn me that the man who bought the property next to me (Del) bought it so he could spy on her for her ex-husband. She said she "knew" this because Del used to work with her ex-husband's father. She would not accept the truth I told her that Del had bought it because his wife Dena's mother who owned that property had died, willing the property to her children. Del & Dena bought out the other siblings so they could build a house for their daughter. Before Del died a little over 2 years ago; Jeremiah moved in about 6 months earlier to take care of the property since Del was fighting cancer. FYI I had met Del about 6 years before the interaction with Hedge Woman & knew what kind of a person he was. Dena's parents had moved there around the same time Grandpa & Grandma moved there in the mid-1960's. And Del used to live on the other side of his in-laws & raised his kids there! So, no, he did not move there just to spy on her. 

Frequently she is closer to hedge & appears to be peering around it towards Barking Dog Woman's house.

I checked the level of the gas today; I am trying to check it at every season change. So I am about a month late. But it still looks OK; still above the red portion. But even if it doesn't get to the red portion by January, I think I will call to have it refilled. The last time I did that was January 2024!  

Earlier today, Kīlauea was not expected to erupt until sometime between tomorrow & the 20th. I'm not sure why I took the boring screenshot of the glow in the vent this afternoon. May be I could feel something was about to happen?

Just before 8 pm, I checked again to see what was going on & noticed that there was some precursory activity. When that starts to happen, I keep a thumbnail view open on my laptop so I can keep an eye on it until it starts to erupt! To me it looked like that started about 10 minutes after I started checking it again. 

Precursory activity.

Now erupting!

Nine minutes after previous photo.

Four minutes after previous photo, fountain is now higher than frame.

From V3 cam.

Seven minutes later eruption is really going!

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Episode 35 officially started at 8:05 pm. I switched to having the V1 cam as the main view with the V2 & V3 cams as secondary views on the side of my screen. When I have to work on something on my laptop, & Kīlauea is erupting, I arrange the thumbnail screens along the right side of my screen. 

Large view is V1 cam; right top is V2, bottom is V3.

As I mentioned in the post about the tsunami, I think our Civil Defense has a more robust system for getting the word out about emergencies because of they have to deal daily with the volcano. They issued a statement just before 11 pm. I went to bed around that time.