Vacation is Over

February 8, 2025

My sister and her husband have left the big island for Oahu, so it is time for me to get back to work.

Alanah had arrived on the 6th for the weekend and I wanted her to paint the overhang of the bathroom. I had painted the boards prior to building it, and they had gotten scuffed and they have nail/screw holes and joints that need repair before repainting.

I caulked the joints with construction adhesive to help keep them together prior to this repaint.

Using a stiff putty knife, I filled all the nail/screw holes.

I borrowed some flexible form material from my neighbor to form the walls of the shower. He had used these to form the driveway we poured on the hillside leading up to his parents’ place. That’s how I knew he had them,

By stacking them in this fashion, I have created a half circle with a radius of almost 4 feet!

I imported a crew from the mainland for mixing the concrete and we got started.

February 9, 2025

Alanah painted the overhang on the bathroom

while I did some work inside the bathroom

February 10, 2025

Alanah returns to the mainland this afternoon so we went down to the ocean

The swimming pool is clear

and the ocean is calm. A good day!

February 11, 2025

This morning, I spent some time watching the birds. OK, I spent the entire morning doing that, but I don’t have to clock in anywhere, so . . .

These little green and orange and yellow birds that I think are Hawaiian Honeycreepers are quite intersting. They seem to show up in groups. When I notice only one at the feeder or the lanai, it isn’t long until there are six! Where, with the Red Headed Cardinals, it is usually only a pair, or maybe two pair. The Northern Red Cardinals usually show up one at a time, but when I see a bright red male, the dull brown female is not too far away.

Most of the time, they take turns going to the feeder, and they search around on the lanai around the feeder for any dropped crumbs while waiting their turn.

The HoneyCreepers seem to be the rare exception, where they often share the space in the feeder. That does not mean that they are always welcoming. Sometimes one of them will harass the others into leaving or not coming into the feeder. I think that this is a personality thing of a specific individual.

It could also be a “family” thing with birds of one clutch of eggs sticking together and protecting each other’s backs.

And it seems that the HoneyCreepers are not intimidated by the larger Northern Red Cardinal in the same way the Red Headed Cardinals are. Of course, this could be simply a matter of safety in numbers!

February 12, 2025

I had a load of sand and gravel delivered to the property at Holowai. Cost me $580. I will use this to mix concrete for my various projects. I will separate the larger rocks and use them to build up the path from the driveway to the house and as fill material around the block walls.

Up until now, I have been using the material I had moved back by the bathroom on my last trip for mixing concrete. It is all used now, so I will start using this from out by the road.

With the generator and mixer out by the pile, it is a simple matter of shoveling it into the mixer, and adding water and cement.

After it is mixed, I pour it from the mixer into a wheelbarrow and then shovel or dump it between the rocks I have piled up and the forms on the inside.

Now, I will ,let this setup and tomorrow I will remove the forms and reinstall them higher up.

February 13, 2025

A little mechanic truck work is the first order of the day today. I had ordered some new shock absorbers and they were delivered the other day, so now I need to install them. When I drive over a bump – which is constantly on these roads – I hear a hammering or a thump from under the right front corner of the truck, so I figure it probably is the shocks.

Another chore completed from the to-do list.

Afterwards, I gathered the guavas that were ready to pick.

There are six layers in my concrete form. By removing the lower four layers, the upper two will support the forms as I go higher. I start by moving the 1 x supports up to the top two layers. Then I remove the lower forms and reinstall them above the two that I left in place. This exposed the concrete wall I had poured, showing a little bit of honeycombing, but not too much!

With all six layers of form in place, I am ready to build the rock portion, add rebar, and pour another section of concrete.

On the outside, I need to stack up rock to form the outer side of the shower wall.

February 14, 2025

In order to provide some light in the lower section of the shower, I want to install some glass block in the shower wall. As I do not have them on hand, I will have to create the opening as I pour the walls and then install the glass block later.

So, I have made some styrofoam cubes that are 8″ square. After the walls are done, I can easily remove the styrofoam, leaving an 8″ square opening – at least that is what I hope for!

February 15, 2025

The only styrofoam I have is some odd shaped packing material I have picked up. I cut pieces from the styrofoam and tape it all together using clear packing tape to create the cubes.

It is very time consuming and very messy, with little beads of styrofoam flying around from when I cut it. I do this in the kitchen gazebo where I can sit down, and hopefully contain the small pieces of styrofoam.

The 8″ cubes will extend all the way through the wall. I have also made one that is 6″ wide and 12 ” tall and only 4 1/2″ deep. This one will create a cavity for a shelf for shampoo bottles and soap.

I fastened these to the forms with long screws to keep them from moving while I pour the concrete around them.

Once the boxes are in place, I stack up more rocks, and tie in some rebar. Now I’m ready to mix more concrete.

February 16, 2025

The truck has been making a kind of a humming/scraping sound coming from the front end. I needed to check the fluid level in the transfer case. The transmission has a dipstick to check the level in it, as well as a dipstick for checking the oil in the engine, but for the transfer case, you have to remove a plug from the side of the transfer case and visually check the level. The correct level is to have fluid up to the bottom of this plug. In order to remove the plug, I needed to lift the truck. A mechanic shop would put it on a lift or hoist to do this, but I do not have one of these, My neighbor Brian has some metal car ramps, so we used those to give me room to get under the truck.

After removing the plug, I added about 3/4 of a quart of transmission fluid to the transfer case before the fluid level was up to the bottom of the hole! The guys at the repair shop in Naalehu told me that the fluid could be either standard fluid or the newer synthetic type. You must use the same as is in the vehicle, and you cannot mix them. In order to find out which type, I had to call a ford dealer and have them look up the VIN umber. I called the Ford dealer in Honolulu and was on hold for over an hour waiting for the parts/service department to pick up the phone, so I called a Ford dealer in Scottsdale Arizona and got right through. They verified that my truck originally had standard fluids, not the synthetic type.

Everything I try to do is delayed by some minor glitch like trying to find out what type of fluid for the transfer case! This took most of the day!

February 17, 2025

Today, I helped Brian with the second rock gate column at his parents place.

This time, we installed some upright corner posts to give us a guide while stacking the rocks.

This column turned out just a little straighter than the first one on the other side of the gate.

TTFN