Bill 147 Deferred

At the Leeward Planning Commission meeting today, the commissioners voted to defer the final vote on Bill 147 to next month's meeting. That will allow us more time to read through additional materials & more thoroughly digest all the information that was shared with us in the meeting today. If you are a glut for punishment, you can click here to view the 4 hour meeting. 

On my way to Kona for the LPC meeting, I generally stop at Juice 101 in the Maunalani Resort to get a Met Rx meal replacement smoothie. I do the chocolate whey powder with peanut butter & chocolate chips. Yes, I know, not really consistent with the diet plan. But it is not a boiled vegetable! So I can technically say it is part of the anything-but-boiled-vegetables plan! Besides, I generally only do it once a month so it should not really impact the overall weight loss journey. 

MetRx meal replacement smoothie on left. Haven't quite figured out how to do this kind of photo yet.

After the planning commission meetings, I run errands in Kona. After all, it is an hour away from home & there are things I can't get in Kohala that I can get in Kona or other parts of the island; since I am already in Kona, I should do it while I am there to reduce my transportation impacts on the environment. I stop at Petco to pick up Moʻo's frozen food. I go to Island Naturals for organic & other natural foods. I go to Office Max to get ink for the printer like I did today or other office supplies. I also go to Hawaiian Fresh Specialties to get fresh poi, poke, & dried aku; but they were closed today since it is Tuesday. (LPC meetings are usually on Thursday which is when they are open.) I also go to get the  car washed & waxed at the Kona Express Car Wash; today I had some free time so I also vacuumed the car.

Then, as I am driving back home, I call Kai & talk with him so the drive is not so boring. Over the past 2 years that I have been on the planning commission, we have discovered where the signal moves from 1 tower to the next & where the dead zones are along the hour long drive. I can usually get to within about 15 minutes of home before I lose him completely. We never call back since we have usually covered everything we need to for the month by that time. Today he enlightened me about my serendipitous decision to start learning Mandarin. He said the State Department rates Mandarin as the most difficult language to learn. But that wasn't quite true. Mandarin, along with Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, & Arabic, is in the Category V group of languages that the Foreign Services Institute of the State Department considers the most difficult for a native English speaker to learn. According to the FSI it takes about 2200 hours or 88 weeks of classes to reach the S-3/R-3 level of proficiency. (That's about 3&1/2 hours per day, 5 days a week, for 1 year & 9 months. I am doing about 30 minutes per day on Duolingo; which means it will take me at least 12 years to reach that level! I will be happy if I reach Level 25 in Mandarin in a year; that's the level I am at for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.)

This is about half of the Asian languages available.

I think this is more for embassy interpreters & translators.

Interestingly, to me, they have more than 1 type of Mandarin lessons. There is a section of courses under the Defense Language Institute; it seems to emphasize reading a lot. I'll let you guess what their main purpose might be. And then there is the Peace Corps course. It probably emphasizes more community-oriented words & phrases. I am thinking may be I should start with that last piece on verb usage patterns; I think I am noticing some as I listen to the shows but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

Under the Oceania section of courses, there is no ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. So I was surprised to see Pidgin listed! Turns out it is not the Hawaiʻi Creole English pidgin but the pidgin spoken in west & central Africa; which made me wonder, why did they lump it with the languages of Oceania? (My native language is Hawaiʻi Creole English, which is why sometimes my sentence structure in this blog might be a little strange. My 2nd language is Standard American English which I learned when I started grade school. I would say I am fluent in both of these. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is the 3rd language I am learning & Mandarin is the 4th; I would like to become fluent in these. I have also dabbled in Japanese, German, Spanish, & Arabic; in that order.)

Not Hawaiʻi Creole English.

Interestingly, I have already thought about moving on to Arabic once I finish Mandarin on Duolingo if they have not introduced more ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi lessons by then. So, Yay! Let's try to learn 2 of the 5 most difficult languages for native English speakers! Why Arabic? I had actually started to learn Arabic at a mosque in Washington because I was doing advocacy work with local Muslims who were fearful of the safety of themselves & their families. What is really cool is that the FSI has on-line courses which have both written & audio portions. And best of all it's FREE! Down side - there is no Hawaiian. Probably because the State Department is not needed here in Hawaiʻi & English is the 2nd official language of the state. Oh well, but it doesn't hurt to check if there might be something for ʻÕlelo Hawaiʻi; like finding out Wikipedia can be shown in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi!  

The fermentation of the sauerkraut & kim chee are coming along great! The red coloring from the Crunchy Garlic in Chili Oil that I added to the kim chee for Kai is turning everything red as the bubbling spreads the color around. The sauerkraut continues to leak a lot more brine. 

Not as much liquid spilled over; color is spreading nicely!

More liquid spilled over; color from red cabbage spreading to everything!

The window for the next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea has been narrowed. It is now anticipated that it will erupt some time between the 6th & the 10th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Cathy! 

Boring ...

Today I worked on finishing the readings for tomorrow's special session for the Leeward Planning Commission. This item was originally on our agenda for the June 18th meeting. It was moved to tomorrow since there were already 7 items on that agenda & this item already had 41 letters of written testimony that had been submitted by the 15th & more in person testimony was expected during the meeting. Now we have a total of 80 written testimonies; 39 more pages were submitted after the June 18th meeting. We will likely get a few more late arriving written testimonies that we will have to read before the meeting tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we will also find out how many in-person & Zoom testifiers there will be. It could be a long day. But that's our job, to provide an opportunity for the public to voice their support for or opposition to a code amendment (in this case) or certain projects. (We don't hold meetings for all projects, only the ones that require a public review.)

About 1/4 of testimony on this item.

 

The weather was kinda gray & wet at sunrise; it remained that way for most of the day. So it was a good day to stay indoors & finish all the readings & formulate the questions I had about the proposed amendments to the code on transient vacation rentals (TVRs). In a way, the weather helped me to focus more on what I needed to finalize for tomorrow's meeting. 

Sunrise.

It was raining really hard in the morning when I went to feed Moʻo. I decided to ignore the rain & check out how much was flowing in to the māla kalo; I had never gone out during a rain event to see how much rain was directed in to the māla. Its not easy to see in the photo below since I have not removed all the weeds but it was a good amount of water; I am pleased with how the māla is working!

It looked like entire māla was inundated.

The controlled rotting, aka fermentation, of the sauerkraut & kim chee is coming along well! More liquid has been pushed out of the jars by the fermentation process. And active bubbling can be seen in both jars.

About 1/4 inch liquid has leaked out.

Still foaming at vent.

A bubble escapes from brine. More are on the way.

Learning Mandarin is coming along slowly but surely. And apparently the words associated with sports are starting to stick better in my brain! I guess I just needed a little more repetition.  

Still doing well on these exercises.

And these, too!

I do well on these, too. But it is harder to show you what happens.

When you click on them & its correct, they go dark.

These are the flash card words! Got all correct this time!

 

In today's episode of Guardians of the Ancient Oath, a weapons rack can be seen to Baili Hongshuo's right. It's a lot bigger than the one I ordered & also a lot sturdier. It is meant to hold longer weapons (like spears) made of metal not of wood. The top tier is also a lot higher than mine will be, because, you know, some of us are vertically challenged!

The next episode of the eruption at Kīlauea is likely to be between the 6th & the 12th. More time & data is needed to figure out more accurately when Episode 51 will be. Hopefully, Kai will be able to see it this time; he has missed it the last 2 times he was here. He is arriving on the 9th.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Tony! I know some cool people; Tony is one of them. Some of his LinkedIn profile is below.

Last ʻOno Food Hui Class for the Year

Today was the last food preservation class that the Kohala ʻOno Food Hui is holding for the year. Sandra has now spent all the grant money for supplies. Michelle & I came on part way through the year to assist with the classes; we had both been in earlier classes. Today Sandra told us, when she writes the grants for next year, she will include a small stipend for each of us along with the amount she requests for supplies. She said if the supplies end up costing less than what was expected, they use the rest of the money to continue buying supplies but there are no stipends for the instructors. Next year she hopes to be able to do a couple classes in Honokaʻa as well as a freeze drying class at the Kohala Food Hub. Today was another Fermentation & Pickling class; these have been so popular we did 3 of them.

Sandra (center) demonstrates how to cut cabbage for sauerkraut.

My team watches demonstration; (L to R) Sandra, Cindy, Marian, Matt, & Candice.

I got a surprise today as class was starting; cousin Candice from Waimea was in the class! She & her husband Matt were the last ones to sign up. Apparently Matt has been wanting to learn how to make kim chee & other fermented foods; this class was her birthday present to him. They ended up on my team. FYI Candice is Leilani's daughter.

Matt & Candice (center) prepare to salt won bok for kim chee, while Cindy (L) & Marian watch.

I was supposed to meet up with Chris after class to talk about turning the closet at the top of the back stairs in to a canned good storage area. But I was too tired. Hopefully, we can set up another time to do it so the storage area can be finished before the canning classes start up again next year. 

I had originally thought that these numbers were for cumulative views over the previous 7 days. However, that might not be the case. The US has gone down by about 700 & Brazil has gone up by about 200, with Singapore dropping about 600 & Bangladesh remaining about the same. Oh well, more confusion for me. I think I will stop looking at these.

The next episode  of the eruption at Kīlauea is imminent! There was precursory spattering today & they thought fountaining would start today. Since it has not yet started, it makes tomorrow the more likely day for it to start.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Erin, Val, & Mariah! 

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! Once again 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. (FYI The extra 10 pounds might have been mainly fat. When I was at 100 pounds, I was also measured at 12% body fat. Yes, my periods were irregular. And I had a 6-pack.😕 May be I should only go down to 110 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!