Lots of Rain at Lapakahi

When I went to turn on the drip irrigation system for the revegetation area at Lapakahi State Historical Park this morning, I noticed the ground near the valve for the niu was wet. And not just a little wet, like someone-emptied-their-water-bottle wet. It was rain-event wet! I checked the rain gauge & found we had 0.56 inches of rain yesterday! Well, that is my assumption. I don't think anyone else checks the gauge & there was hardly any rain in Kapaʻau since I emptied it on Tuesday except for yesterday. And Kapaʻau gets much more rain than Lapakahi. So I assume there was rain at Lapakahi only yesterday.

This area does not have this large of a wet area after irrigation.

Ground is saturated so irrigation water ponded here.

There is no irrigation in this area.

I only kept the drip irrigation system on for half an hour; usually we water for an hour so that we supply the plants with 1 gallon of water more or less. But because we use about 400 gallons with each watering & we were running low on water, I watered for only half the usual time due to yesterday's rain event. We now have only about 1200 gallons left.

The rain we had yesterday was statewide & there were also flood warnings issued for many areas. It was the remnants of Tropical Storm Norbert that were finally making it to our shores. Because these types of storms bring so much rain with them, I keep less water on hand than the recommended amount of 1 gallon per person per day for 14 days since I can collect rainwater off the roof for use for flushing toilets, filtering & boiling to wash dishes, & drinking water for Moʻo & the cats. 

As I was parking the car after I returned from Lapakahi, I saw what looked to be feathers on the ground flapping in the wind near the jaboticaba. My 1st thought was, "Oh, no! Moʻo got one of the chickens!" But as I watched it more, it looked smaller than a chicken so I thought it might be a Spotted Dove. I was relieved to find out it is just a fern leaf; a couple of the blades were broken so were easily blown around by the wind! 

From a distance with a couple blades flapping it looked like feathers.

Last night I stayed up a little later than I should have. I heard a noise out in the front yard & checked the security camera & saw ʻŌhuna jumping off the puakenikeni branch it is mounted on. Twice! About a half hour later, when it began to rain, I watched her climb back in to the cat yard,

Just hearing noises at this point.

ʻŌhuna makes her appearance.

And trots off in to the night.

Climbing back in to cat yard during rain event.

Here are thumbnails of ʻŌhuna & the other cats. The ones labelled "North" are in the cat yard; the others are the yards around the house. About half the time ʻŌhuna is outside the cat yard. 

L ʻŌhuna; R her brother Hoʻokoa.

ʻŌhuna outside the cat yard.

I also saw Olomea! She is Paʻipaʻi & ʻAlani's mom & Hoʻokoa & ʻŌhuna's aunt. Her birthday was on Tuesday.

Today I did the exercise regimen recommended by Next Level. It is called high-intensity SIT - Sprint Interval Training. I think I am going to like this since I like sprinting! It is a very simple regimen involving 8 seconds of intense exercise that raises your heart rate up to 85% of your maximum heart rate, followed by 12 seconds of easy exercise, repeat for a total of 20 minutes & do it 3 times a week. In a 2019 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise that she cites, a group of post-menopausal women between 47 & 59, did the high-intensity SIT for 8 weeks & lost fat, regained lean muscle mass, & improved their aerobic fitness. I am hoping for similar results! I did a session today & feel good about it.

Motek Bakery had a special falafel dinner tonight. The special combo included a dessert pudding called malabi. I will buy this the next time they have this dinner special.

Malabi.

Today I realized the 47 "Days practicing" on Lingopie does not mean the total length of time I have been practicing. It means just the days that I click on the "practice" tab. It was really 11 weeks ago that I started or about 77 days. So the fact that I am still remembering quite a lot of the words from 11 weeks ago when I started is even more amazing to me!

The picture shown with "golden leg" looked like ham.

Remembered almost 70% of what I 1st learned about 11 weeks ago!

I really like that Duolingo mixes in Hanzi practice with everything else they make me do. I also like that even within the Hanzi practice there is still practice for speaking & recognizing the character & its meaning. Today I am sharing how to write one of the radicals for "juice".

The remnants of Tropical Depression Fifteen-E are more than 1000 miles south-southeasterly of us in the Central Pacific region. Conditions in that area appear to be conducive to possible reorganization. It is predicted to have about a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression again. Just westerly of it is another disturbance that is predicted to have about an 80% chance of becoming a depression in the next 7 days. I better remember to close all the window before I leave! The only other disturbance in the Eastern Pacific does not look like it is coming our way.

There seems to be no current activity at Kīlauea that points towards another fountaining event occurring any time soon.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Aurolyn! 

Bō Luó Bāo (波萝包)

We went to lunch with Jackie & Lois at Happy Days Chinese Seafood Restaurant which has dim sum (點心, diǎnxīn) as well as a regular menu; Alan was unable to join us today. When the dim sum dessert cart came to the table, Kai recognized the pineapple bun (波萝包, bō luó bāo) from the criss-cross pattern on the top of the bun, so he ordered it. It was definitely filled with jackfruit & not regular pineapple. Besides that, for dessert we also got jiānduī (煎堆) with coconut filling, egg tarts (dàntǎ, 蛋撻), & a triangular-shaped flaky pastry filled with char shiu (chāshāo, 叉燒) that the server never told us what it was called, but I figured out later, it is chāshāo so (叉烧酥).

Bō luó bāo (波萝包, pineapple bun) on front plate. Photo by Kai.

Clockwise from front plate: chāshāo so (叉烧酥), jiānduī (煎堆), & dàntǎ (蛋撻 egg tart).

Kai talking with Jackie & Lois towards the end of lunch.

 

Our main meal included luóbo gāo (蘿蔔糕, turnip cake), nuòmǐ jī (糯米雞, lotus leaf rice), chāshāo bāo (叉燒包), fǔpíjuǎn (腐皮捲, tofu skin roll), páigǔ (排骨, pork spare ribs), &  steamed gai lan  (芥蘭, Chinese broccoli). The food smelled so good I started eating right away & forgot to take photos until we were almost done with everything.

 

Obviously I forgot to take a photo before we started... 🙄

Interestingly, if you Google "pineapple bun" or even "bō luó bāo", you will be directed to recipes that say there is no filling in the bun & that it was created in the 1940's by a Chinese family that was deported from Mexico. I trust the information in Good Morning, Breakfast more than I trust Google on this one! After all, Good Morning, Breakfast is a video made by native Chinese in China, so they should know more about the history of their own food & how it is made in their own country. The show is very clear that bō luó bāo is made with tree pineapple (aka jackfruit) as the filling & that is exactly what we ate today. 

I also discovered Wikipedia has a list of several dozen dim sum dishes (there are thousands) &, along with the English names, includes the Hanzi & pinyin names! (As well as Cantonese & Jyutping.) I will have to learn the Mandarin names & Hanzi of the dim sum they list & be ready for our next visit to Happy Days! (I should probably make a chart that also includes the Cantonese & Jyutping since it is mainly Cantonese that is spoken in Hawai'i.) 

I took a photo of the ticket they note down what you ordered; I will see if I can figure out what it means. I also picked up a newspaper that is in characters. I am hoping the newspaper is in the Hanzi that is common to both Cantonese & Mandarin; though I think the ticket is more likely to be in Cantonese. 

Hanzi is fairly straightforward, might have a chance with this one.

Highly unlikely I will be able to figure this one out!

I started the morning by walking with the Neighborhood Security Watch group; I used to do the weekly walks when I was still in Honolulu. Today the group was made up of Ron, Sue, Mark, & myself; we walked about 1.5 miles. Sue led us on the walk; we passed near the intersection where she was hit by a truck in May! (The driver was apparently not paying attention to the pedestrian in the crosswalk that he was stopped at.) Fortunately it was only the mirror that clipped her shoulder & twisted her around so she suffered only minor injuries from which she is still recovering; her back injuries from the twisting will likely take the most time to heal. 

While we were waiting for our ride to lunch, I walked around to see what landscaping changes had happened since my last visit. It was mainly potted plants being rearranged. I was glad to see the 2 water features are still here & seem to be doing well.

Later in the afternoon, Kekai came by after work to drop off the State Parks swag that Dane requested when we were visiting him at Wailoa Art Center. Since I was going to be here anyway, I offered to pick it up for him & take it back. Had a great time talking with Kekai while he waited for rush hour traffic to dissipate before he started his drive back home.

Today both Moʻo & ʻŌhuna were active in the early morning. At one point it looked like Moʻo had picked up ʻOhuna's scent; they never did cross paths.

ʻOhuna.

Moʻo.

ʻŌhuna.

ʻŌhuna headed towards cat yard back gate.

ʻŌhuna headed towards driveway.

Today I realized that earlier in the week I was only looking at the South & East cameras when I found out ʻŌhuna was escaping from the cat yard & was checking up on her. I checked all the cameras today & discovered she has actually been getting out every day since the 6th! Pōpoki kolohe! (Naughty kitty!)

07/06.

07/07.

In front yard on 07/08.

07/09.

07/10.

07/11, I think she encountered Olomea in Jessie's back yard.

Coming through fence to get out of Olomea's territory.

07/12.

07/13 early morning.

07/13 in the evening.

07/14.

07/15 early morning.

07/15 evening.

07/16.

07/17.

07/18 early morning.

07/18 late evening.

07/19.

07/20.

07/21.

07/22.

Here's a photo of a kitty who is not so kolohe. I adopted Keala about 6 years ago; the vet said she was about a year old which would make her 7 years old now. I left her in Kaimukī because she was the peacemaker between Luna & Smorsie; who both mellowed out when she arrived. They have mellowed out even more from what I remember they were like 4 years or so ago when I was last living here. And Smorsie is also less afraid of visitors; although I am not sure if she thinks of us as "visitors" or "housemates that are not around a lot". 

Kai & Keala in cat run; she is cat who likes being cuddled the most.

Kai & I watched Episodes 7 & 8 of The Apothecary Diaries & Episodes 5 & 6 of Judge Dee's Mystery. We try to watch things on the large TV in the living room; since it is mainly in use after the nephews get home from work, we try to use it in the morning. We did not have enough time to watch an episode of Chief of War before we left for lunch.

I reviewed ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi on Duolingo today. I want to do as much as I can to keep what I have learned so far intact. I sent a request to the contact email for ʻŌleloflix to find out exactly when the ʻŌlelojam is; the website says November/December. I sent it about a week ago & have not had a response. So I checked on other links they had & found the last post on their Facebook & Instagram pages was in 2024; so I won't be holding my breathe for a response. 

Been repeating these lessons for 6 months now, I had better be good at it!

Later in the day, I did a Mandarin lesson on Duolingo.  This lesson talks about rooms in an apartment & the furnishings.

Notice water radical in "ice" (bing) character.

In Japanese culture exposing feet like this is rude; I thought it was same for Chinese.

I also did a few minutes of Mandarin on Lingopie. Each slide contains so much information, I am moving so slowly towards completing the video.

The window for Episode 51 of the eruption of Kīlauea has been narrowed to between the 25th & the 29th. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Beverly!