Early Birthday Pie

When I went to drop off a plate of dinner from the Kohala Jodo Mission potluck with my friend Libby, she gave me an early b-day pie! Specifically chocolate ganache pie with raspberry drizzle! A wonderful addition to my acceptable sources of lipids for the anything-but-boiled-vegetables meal plan! (She knows I like dark chocolate.)

There were too many things going on today! The Kohala Jodo Mission's Obon observance started this morning with the blessing of the graves at 10 am. It was then followed by a veterans memorial, then the Hatsubon service for people who have passed away since last year's Hatsubon service. At nearly the same time there was a service for hoa hānau Lem's buddy Clifford & also a service for Marcia, the wife of Joe, one of the very active kūpuna leaders I have come to know in the community. Joe was also a classmate of my Aunty Judy. Fran & I stuck around for the lunch after Clifford's service; he had specifically told Fran he wanted her to be there. I strategically chose my carbs & proteins. With the blessings of Clifford's wife Cynthia & half-sister Lehua, I made a plate to take home for Kai.

Top row - carbs including culturally significant ones; Bottom row - proteins.

In the evening we had a choice between going to the ʻOhana Kilo Hōkū stargazing at Moʻokini Heiau or the dinner potluck at the Kohala Jodo Mission. We ended up deciding on the potluck since the weather was turning & a bunch of clouds were moving in that would make stargazing less than ideal. In the end, Kai did not go to either; he was too burned out from the morning activities at KJM where he was representing the family. It was a little too much for him & he was out of spoons.  

I went to the dinner potluck, & like the lunch, tried to be selective with my protein & carb choices for dinner. I made plates to take home for Kai & Libby who had also been invited to this potluck but was too busy preparing for a trip to Oʻahu.

I did the bare minimum in Mandarin in Duolingo to keep up my streak. But Lingopie takes more time & effort, I was unable do anything so I ended up losing my 4 day streak. I will have to avoid starting so late in the evening with Lingopie so that I can finish a decent amount of Mandarin to keep the streak going.

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is likely between now & the 13th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Kasimir! 

Fermentation & Pickling Class

Today I helped with the fermentation & pickling workshop hosted by the Kohala ʻOno Food Hui. We made sweet cucumber pickles, mak kim chee, & sauerkraut. Sandra was the main workshop leader with Michele & I assisting.  

Sandra leads class in reading info on fermentation & pickling. (Photo by Danie)

Sandra demonstrates testing pH of sauerkraut she made a month ago.

Chopped won bok being brined in gray tubs.

Students & instructors. (Photo by Sandra)

The final products.

I started rewatching The Imperial Coroner this evening; this is the one that got me started down the rabbit hole. The things that got me interested in this series was the diagrams of the coroners report & how Chu Chu the coroner & Commandery Prince An role play the attack on the victim to try to figure out what happened.

Chu Chu inspects corpse & identifies what she has found.

Commandery Prince An acts as murderer while Chu Chu who is standing behind scroll acts as victim.

The Hanzi is interspersed with the regular listening portions of the Mandarin lessons on Duolingo. Here is the Hanzi for the words "this is". In this exercise they are showing the stroke order for the 2nd component of the phrase. One thing I have noticed is that the Mandarin word order is much like English word order, not like ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi where the order is reversed when using adjectives. 

Episode 48 of the eruption of Kīlauea is currently forecast to begin some time between the 24th & the 26th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Clancy!

OMG!

I was watching an episode of Love of Nirvana tonight & started to read the Chinese subtitle & I recognized the Hanzi character for "water"! (Which is 水.) A quick glance at the English subtitle confirmed that "water" was one of the words! I can't believe I could remember that after only 3 days of starting the Mandarin course on Duolingo! I am trying to do at least 1 Mandarin lesson a day, while doing about a half hour of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi; I want to retain what I have learned while waiting for Duolingo to develop more ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi lessons. (FYI I start my day with Duolingo when I get up in the morning at around 6 while lying in bed.)

I am truly amazed at the neuroplasticity of the human brain! If you had asked me when I started the Mandarin lessons how long I thought I would have to practice to be able to start retaining the Hanzi characters, I would have said at least a month. Or more! But 3 days? I can't believe my brain was able to do that. (I have also figured out how to add the Pinyin keyboard to my MacBook Pro so I can incorporate the Hanzi characters into these posts. Kinda like how I figured out how to incorporate the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi keyboard. But that was kinda easy to figure out since I have been playing around with computers for about 40 years.) 

Today was the Celebration of Life for Aunty Doris; it was a wonderful event. I got to meet more cousins & their significant others; it was Kellie's kids & their partners. And also great-granddaughter Leila! Most of the others in attendance were Aunty Doris' students & friends from the senior center.

Doris Hisae Takatani Takimoto, July 7, 1933 - April 18, 2026

This is only the desserts!

At the celebration, the person who led the prayer to bless the food & event, talked about grief & love. As I listened to him I realized that the expression of grief by Tantai Jin in Till the End of the Moon showed his deep love for his wife Ye Xiwu who sacrificed herself so he could stay alive. I am not an emotional person & had not previously made that connection while watching it earlier this month even though it did make me cry. (A rare thing for me. Kai thinks I am on the autism spectrum.) If you don't like watching gut-wrenching scenes, avoid the 2nd half of Episode 28. 

SPOILER ALERT - Tantai Jin becomes so grief-stricken he has a mental health crisis. He lays down next to Ye Xiwu & starts a fire in the memorial hall to create a funeral pyre. Even though I am tearing up, I am thinking, Wait a minute, you're on a foot-thick block of ice. The fire will have to 1st melt the ice, then evaporate the water from the melted ice before it can incinerate your body. And, oh yeah, you are the Demon Fetus who will become the Devil Lord so fire is not going to do anything at all to you! Did you not take the How to Be a Devil 101 course? And do you not remember that part where your Master taught you about thermodynamics? (Which is why you can boil water in a paper cup over an open fire.) FYI This is on the "Watch Again OK" list even though it uses Hollywood physics. Because swords, horses, martial arts...

The window for Episode 48 of the eruption at Kīlauea is some time between the 22nd & the 26th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e hoa hānau Scott! 

Making Mochi at Kohala Jodo

Today was the annual mochi making day at the Kohala Jodo Mission. There were 14 people present with about 10 of us actually working with the mochi. The mochi "pounding" is now done by machines; very few communities both here & in Japan still use the stone mortars & wooden pestles to make mochi. Not only is it a lot of work but it also takes skill to turn the rice mass in the mortar without getting hit by the pestles! Pounding with the pestle also takes skill since with each strike the rice mass is also kneaded up against the side of the mortar; a mistake could break the stone mortar. Usually 3 men are pounding while a woman adds the water & turns the rice mass.

The steamed rice is now ready for kneading.

Almost pau with kneading.

There were 2 types of mochi that we made. The main reason was the kagami mochi, the rice cakes made as offerings placed on the grave sites & butsudan. Apparently we made about 100 of those; half were the larger bottom piece, topped with a smaller piece. We also made about 40 pieces of mochi filled with an & about a dozen pieces filled with peanut butter. 

(L to R) Fran, Billy, Joy, Glenn, Susan, Leslie, Joshua from New Zealand, & Trudy showing Joshua what to do.

(L to R) Trudy, Glenn, Susan, Leslie, Joshua, & his grandma Kathy.

Balls of an waiting to be wrapped up in mochi.

Joy & Glenn taking mochi out of machine, while Fran & Billy make an mochi & Joyce gets her apron on.

All the volunteers were given kagami mochi for their butsudan & an mochi for eating. We also ate some of the an mochi as a snack while there. 

Fresh made kagami mochi on our family butsudan.

The mochi making was followed by a potluck lunch; I forgot to take a photo of the potluck. Just know that, as usual, it was pretty tasty! During lunch, we learned more about Joshua. He & his family are visiting his grandparents Dan & Kathy who live in Kona. Dan was raised in Kohala & several of his family ancestors are buried at the Kohala Jodo Mission cemetery. Joshua just graduated from high school & will be enlisting in the New Zealand army next year; he & his family would visit Grandpa Dan & Grandma Kathy every 3 to 5 years & stay for about 3 weeks so he is familiar with life in Kohala but had never helped with mochi making. 

I usually get up at 6:30 am & usually take a photo of what the weather is like when I wake up. At certain times of the year, like now, I am waking up before the sun rises. Here is an example of what it looks like when I wake up versus when the sun rises.

Twenty-eight minutes before sunrise.

Sunrise!

The next episode at Kīlauea is still predicted to be between the 7th & the 14th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Bria! 

2025 Holiday Greetings!

Dear Family & Friends,

As anticipated, Chris finished the renovation of the last room needing work essentially by the end of March. Furniture & books have been moved in & the room is now ready for guests who donʻt mind sharing the space with 4 cats! All the windows in the house are also now impact-resistant so they are more likely to be able to withstand a hurricane.

Fred & his sons installed a new fence along the east & west ends of the anthurium garden & enhanced the height of the fence along the property line, creating a safe, escape-resistant, outdoor area for the cats. They now have their own hurricane-resistant room with a cat door that goes out to a large outdoor cat yard to play in. There is also a small deck with just enough room for a small table & chairs for me & my guests to have a pleasant outdoor meal along with Paʻipaʻi, the friendliest cat. 

The banana keiki that I replanted on my side of the back fence are doing well. The replacement dwarf coconut though, seems to have succumbed during the drought; I am now seeking a replacement for it. The laʻi that is now growing too close to the fence have been munched on by the cows in the pasture; I have replanted the others farther from the fence. I occasionally throw dropped fruit over the fence for the cows.

At the end of 2024 I was elected to be vice chair of the Leeward Planning Commission for 2025; I have now been re-elected for 2026. It has been a great learning experience & my 30+ years working for either the planning or public works departments has been very helpful. We usually meet once a month, but have just started looking at amendments to the Planning Department Rules which requires the Leeward & Windward commissions to hold a joint meeting when we are voting on the amendments. We had one meeting via Zoom in December & anticipate at least one more next year in-person in Hilo.

I made 2 trips to Washington state this year. The trip in August was to attend the 40^th Anniversary Celebration of the Adopt-a-Stream Foundation that I helped with during their inaugural year when I was pregnant with Kai. The 2^nd trip was in October to attend the annual conference of the Hawaiian Council (formerly Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement) that was held at the Tulalip Resort in the county where I worked for 30+ years. I had also worked on a large wetland mitigation site on the reservation; the forested area is now doing so well it is hard to believe it was just bare dirt when it began.

I had a little more time to harvest fruit this year. I harvested 20# Meyer lemon, 8# dragonfruit, 112# calamansi, & 87# jaboticaba; as usual, I gave about 85% of it away. This year the drought affected the mountain apple so there was no fruit. I also joined a canning hui to learn how to pressure can items; we made the salsa seen here as well as calamansi marmalade with fruit from our tree.

My 1^st visitors for the year were Tony & Taren from CA via WarmShowers.org in January, followed by Gage from SD in March; they all camped overnight in the backyard since the renovation was still in progress. Later in March I met Barbara & Bruce for a luʻau & took them on a tour of Kohala & whale watching. In April Shabbir & Ruqqyi (in photo) stayed for a week. Brendan from Australia stopped by for a night in June while on a motorcycle tour. And in November Barb stopped in for breakfast while their ʻohana was visiting the island. 

Kai was here for most of July; he came to help with the Kohala Reunion which is a 3-day celebration held every 5 years on the 4^th of July weekend. Cousins Tomiko & Rei also came to help with the Reunion. The Obon festivities were included in the Reunion so there was no separate event at the Kohala Jodo Mission. When he visited for the Thanksgiving holiday week, Kai helped install security cameras so I could keep an eye on the cats & dog even while I am off-island.

The ʻohana lost 3 kupuna this year. Cousin Lem (97 y.o.) passed away in late April. In late October we got a big surprise when Aunty Judy (84 y.o., #5 from left in photo) passed away. Then just two days later Aunty Daisy (96 y.o., #2), who had been in hospice care, passed away. On a happier note, Tomiko had a great opening of her photo exhibit Hatsubon at the Kahilu Theater in Waimea in June that a lot of ʻohana were able to attend. 

Hope all is well with you & your family!

A hui hou! Mālama pono! 

Outhouse Mentality

This evening Uncle Jeff had a book reading at the Kohala Heritage Center; it was jointly sponsored along with the Kohala Culture & History Advisory Group. Uncle Jeff's book, Outhouse Mentality: Kohala, Rural Lifestyle, is his recounting of the moʻolelo of Kohala told to him by Kohala kūpuna as well as experiences he had. I had heard some of the moʻolelo he shares in his book from my grandparents. The title of Uncle Jeff's book is taken from an epithet directed at the Kohala community for not backing a plan to designate Kohala as a historical district in order to develop the area for tourists; the speaker suggesting the community members were, "stuck in the uneducated past of plantation life with houses without indoor toilets." For Uncle Jeff, he sees it as, "being grounded in what truly matters: your relationship with the land, with each other, and with God." A copy of his book can be purchased on Amazon.

 A decent size audience in spite of continuing rain showers & World Series game.

Uncle Mark (L) & Uncle Jeff share manaʻo.

One of the drier moments of the evening.

At sunrise it was gray & drizzly. About a half hour later it began to rain in earnest; showers such as this continued throughout the day. I saw the chickens heroically searching for food in Jessie's back yard in spite of the rain; the roosters' tail feathers were soaked & limply dragging behind them.

Six minutes after sunrise.

About half hour after sunrise.

Sugar & Spice doing their best on this wet day.

There were rain showers all day, with intermittent drizzles in between. It has now rained every night except one over the last week; the wet season is here! Hūlō! 

Around 9:45.

All the cats chose to sleep indoors today.

 

There was a break in the rain around mid-morning so I headed to the transfer station to dump my rubbish. A lot of other people had the same idea so there was a short line but it went by fairly quickly.

Silver truck backs in while red truck unloads; 2 vehicles are usually at drop off area.

Today was Josie & Camillo's grandson Gaige's 1st birthday. So in the local tradition there was a 1st birthday paʻina with lots of ʻono food! FYI Gaige's nickname is ʻOpihi.

My pupu plate.

My lunch plate; I ate too much pupu! I forgot to take photo before I started.

My dessert plate; I ate too much! But it was all so ʻono it was hard to stop.

 

There was a flyer at the post office about a plant giveaway at the upcoming Kohala Night Market. I was unable to get the QR code to open so I am not sure what is available for the giveaway. I am assuming it is food plants.

Duo says that I am doing well. But Duo also says that I have so much more to learn on Duolingo! I am finding some parts easier, like trying to figure out what the new words mean. But other parts are more difficult, like how to construct a more complex sentence in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! It would be really nice to have a fluent speaker to practice on. 

 

While looking at places for Kai, I made the mistake of trying to get in to the Realtor.com page. I am now getting a ton of emails from them that do not fit the criteria I entered to access the page. Today I got 6 different emails before 5 am! Unacceptable. I unsubscribed but they say it will take 24 hours for my request to be processed. We shall see.

 

Because of the Red Flag warning & high wind alert, the Powerall system is in standby mode. During this period the Powerwall battery is held at 100% even in the evening & power to run the house is drawn from the grid. This way, if the grid goes down, I still have power available.

Here is the official Red Flag warning from the Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense. The Powerwall system uses the warnings issued by the National Weather Service. (I think the NWS cancelled the Red Flag Warning because of all the rain. Red Flag means the winds are hot & dry.)

 

The start of Episode 36 of the eruption at Kīlauea remains likely some time between the 6th & the 12th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Diane & Rei!