November 2022

Early November called for a return to the Big Island.

Changing planes in Oakland

The approach to the island was much the same as usual, lots of clouds gathered around the mountains covering their mid elevations with the peaks of the volcanoes poking their heads through.

Mauna Loa with the east coast of Hawaii

A view over the plane’s wing at Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa in the background

A view under the wing of Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa in the background

Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa shrouded in the clouds in front of the wing

Coming around the Kohala Coast gave a clear view of the shoreline approaching the airport in Kona.

The west coast of Hawaii above Kona airport

The property on Holowai Street is much the same as when I left, no one has poured the footings for the house – darn!

The footings I dug at the Holowai lot during last trip

I did find that there were still guavas on some of the guava trees.

A visit to the Ahi Road lot showed the driveway still unfinished at about halfway down the hill and a pile of branches where I left them. The neighbors have moved their trailer down onto their lot along the property line and their truck and camper is at the lower edge of their lot.

A days work of cutting the branches at the bottom of the driveway and I was ready for another load of fill from Gary.

Backhoe Greg was called upon to come spread the dirt/rocks downhill and over the branches.

Still not enough to make it possible to drive to the bottom of the hill. I will need to pile more branches up and cut them into small pieces – then another load of fill dirt!

The neighbors arranged for a load of topsoil/mulch to be delivered and I talked with the driver about some inexpensive fill for my driveway. He said he would check with other truckers and see what he could come up with. A phone call the next day from Dave, arranged for another load of fill dirt to be brought in for the driveway.

I will need to chop up the branches before spreading any more dirt down hill. With the branches covered and two days of hauling dirt with a wheelbarrow, and I was comfortable with driving to the bottom of the hill.

In my spare time, work progressed on the gazebo/playhouse/shed I want to build at the back corner of the Ahi lot. A couple of days got the footings dug.

Then the footings were poured with rebar for the block columns.

Steadily, the columns began to take shape and seemed to rise from the midst of the jungle.

During my last trip in September/October, I had enticed some small birds to come down to the lanai next to the gazebo for crumbs of bread or crackers. They were timid at first, but got bolder each day. I called them Ernie and Bert! For the first few weeks of this trip I did not see them at all, but eventually they returned and started picking up the crumbs.

The work on extending the driveway to the bottom of the hill continued as well as work on building the columns for the new structure at Ahi.

On the morning of November 28, I got a call from Alanah. She told me that our neighbor in Scottsdale had just told her that Mauna Loa had erupted in the middle of the night. There is a complete separate posting about this titled “Thar She Blows!”.

Alanah arrived on the island on the 30th for a long weekend. We took a drive out to the shore at Honuapu but it was cold and windy. the swimming holes were only half full, and it was too cold to think about swimming.

On Sunday the 4th, we rode the bus to Hilo and rented a car to drive up to the Saddle Road and hope to catch a glimpse of the lava flows. While waiting for the bus in Na’alehu, we admired the huge trees that line the main street.

While in Hilo, we drove past the bridge on Wainaku street over the Wailuku river that empties in to the ocean. A real cool looking bridge built during the depression in the early 1920’s and 30’s.

There were a lot of huge trees here with roots/branches/tendrils that extended down to the river.

The weather did not cooperate and the low clouds hid most of the lava activity, but we did see off in the distance about 2 miles away from the highway, a few flashes of red as the lava burst forth from the leading edge of the flows as they spread across the flats of the saddle area.

Monday saw Alanah head out to Kona in the rental car to return to Arizona and I returned to the columns at Ahi.

With the columns all at 3’4″ above what will be the finished grade, I moved the lumber from the middle of the jungle and piled it up on the columns to try to keep it a bit dryer.

This trip saw progress on clearing the front portion of the Ahi lot, a completed driveway at Ahi as well as the columns for the structure. I must return to the mainland until February.

TTFN