Regional Agrifood Summit

This evening Sandra, Kathy, Michelle, & I staffed a Kohala ʻOno Food Hui information table at the Kohala Agrifood Summit. This County initiative is being held around the island; tonight was the 1st session. It was well attended & we signed up 11 new people who are interested in the food preservation classes that we will be holding again next year.

This is crazy! Overnight the views for this blog went up by almost 1500! Now there are over 1000 views each in the US, Singapore, & Brazil. Of the top 10 countries, I only know people in the US; though I have emailed with 1 person in Ukraine. Of countries 11 through 19, I know 3 people in Indonesia, 5 in Mexico, 1 in Spain, & 1 in Canada. Why the sudden interest from people I do not know? Dunno. But when I checked for the annual number of views, I found the highest month was in August 2023 which I am sure is because of the Lāhainā fire that occurred on 08/08 that year. 

Today is my last day feeding Ginger's cats. And the chickens were a big problem today! I warned Vicky about them; she will be taking over feeding tomorrow. 

Darn chickens! Kept circling around house & getting on to porch.

About mid-morning, Moʻo started barking in the back yard; it was not her cow bark or intruder bark. As I watched her on the security camera, she came to the garage to see if I was coming out to check what was happening; when I did not come out she went back out & barked more. As I was deciding whether to go out or not, I smelled smoke! That made the decision easier! Turns out it was Jeremiah & Kaiza; they were collecting bees that had swarmed & were on a papaya plant in Dena's back yard. The smoke was from the bee smoker that beekeepers use to keep the bees calm when they are moving them. Good for Moʻo recognizing that smoke is a possible bad thing & also not letting me ignore her barking!

Kaiza removes queen from swarm.

Jeremiah & Kaiza have moved bulk of swarm to empty hive.

I was doing some background research regarding my earlier weight loss journey to help me with this new attempt. It was interesting to read about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic & how totally messed up things got. For Curtis & I, increasing our knowledge of COVID-19 came on 03/09/2020 with the announcement of the 2nd case here in Hawaiʻi; our friend The Bronco Dude had been on that same plane the patient had been on & we had lunch with him right after he got off the plane! The Maunalani Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, where Dad was, asked us to stay away until 04/10/2020; little did we know that would be the beginning of the New Normal. My last weigh in before that started was on 03/13/2020; I was at 110.0 pounds. 

(03/13/2020)

Because we would not be able to visit Dad for a month, I decided to go to Kohala & work on the house. Before I went, though, I checked in with The Doc, a fellow walker on Maunalani Heights who is an emergency room doctor; he gave me some good advice & also said going there would be safer due to the lower population in Kohala where there are less people in the entire 132 square mile district than there are in 1 square mile in Kaimukī! The pandemic had greatly reduced the fares for interisland travel so that part of the decision was easy. It was so nice to be there enjoying social distancing on Hawaiʻi Island! The only person I was in close proximity with was hoa hānau Tomiko's friend Grey who was sailing internationally when the World shut down. I also checked in with friends in other places to see how they were doing; long story short, most of my friends & family have survived COVID-19 with little or no serious problems. And I have gained new friends through volunteering with the Medical Reserve Corps on vaccine PODs & COVID-19 outreach & education & doing contact tracing. 

Social distancing Big Island style! (03/26/2020)

As I was writing this post it began to rain, a lot! Which means I don't really have to water anything tomorrow! But I did have to close some windows that had been left open to help keep things cool during the day; I will have to remember to open them up before I leave tomorrow morning. 

 

There was a small M 3.8 earthquake early this morning; I did not feel it. This one was near the area of the M 6.0 earthquake on 05/22 but is not believed to be related to that earlier earthquake. I hope Derek & his family did not suffer any more damage; they had some major damage from the earlier earthquake.

Episode 50 of the eruption of Kīlauea is still anticipated to occur some time between the 24th & the 27th.

 

Hauʻoli lā hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanahākumamāhā e John & Ruth!