February Draws to a Close

February 18, 2025

My dirty laundry is piling up, so it is time to do something about it.

I get out my two “washing machines” aka wheelbarrows. After putting in some water, I add laundry detergent to one of them and dump some shirts and socks into it. I agitate it with my hands and then scrub each article individually, before ringing out the soapy water. Then I throw it into the other wheel barrow to rinse it. After doing the shirts and socks and kitchen towels, I dump the wash water into the empty water bottles to use when mixing concrete, and add some detergent to what was the rinse wheel barrow. This now is my wash and with clean water in the other, it becomes my rinse for my shorts and my jeans.

A couple of ropes strung up between the trees becomes my clothes line.

This view looking to the east from on top of the bungalow at Ahi shows a rain storm down on the coast.

The view to the south also shows more rain. Maybe this wasn’t the best day to decide to do laundry!?

The view towards the ocean back at the Holowai property is totally obscured with clouds, and I think that rain storm I saw from Ahi has arrived!

February 19, 2025

On each side of the truck, there are running boards. Running boards are intended as a help to step up into high profile vehicles. This is not a high profile vehicle. While it IS a 4 wheel drive vehicle (even though the 4 wheel drive does not function), it is not high peofile and these running boards are more of a hindrance than a help. Couple that with the fact that they have beed damaged and are rusted beyond repair, Yhey are not only an eyesore, but are actually dangerous as someone could get injured by them. I have wanted to remove them, but have not made a concerted effort to do so. Today, I decided to do just that!

I removed them from both sides of the truck and discarded them in true Hawaiian fashion by throwing them over a rock wall to let the jungle grow up and take them!

Then I began to build forms for pouring a concrete cap on top of the four columns and the four corner walls of the house.

A trip downtown seemed like a good thing to do, along with a visit to the ocean front at Honuapo

I stop off to visit the “vegetable lady” a location where there is a tent with a local “farmer’s market” style stand is set up each Wednesday.

I get my lettuce and tomatoes here. Even though I suspect that most of the produce probably comes from the mainland.

Down at Honuapo, there is a natural rock bridge out at the ocean’s edge.

Today, the waves were crashing just right!

I could watch this all day!

February 20, 2025

Down the road from the Holowai property, someone has begun clearing the trees from the lot across the road from the neighbor.

Typically, a property owner hires someone with a bulldozer to clear the lot, and the bulldozer knocks down everything and pushes it into a big pile along the sides of the property – sometimes even onto the neighoring property. This is the way that they protect the environment – by first creating a different environment, one that they can maintain instead of the original environment.

This time, they have used a track hoe with an attachment that is like a very large weedeater – it chews up the vegetation. They have chewed up the trees along the side of the road back to the property line, and then cleared the lot behnd a row of trees that they have left. Progress!

Back at my property, I built forms over the walls in one corner of my “house”.

Over at Ahi, there are quite a few guavas beginning to ripen.

February 21, 2025

I have less than two weeks left until I return to the mainland, so I need to begin thinking about wrapping up any projects, putting things away, and securing the properties. I return to Arizona on March 5. My flight is at 10 am, so I will need to catch the 6 am bus to get to the airport in time. The 8am bus gets me there at 10:15 – too late! Gotta start thinking of the logistics!

First, I need some milk and eggs, so I go to the grocery store in Oceanview, about 10 miles away. Milk in Naalehu is $12.99 per gallon, so it is worth the trip.

Returning to Holowai, I need to work on the generator. It has been giving me problems and for the past two days, I could not get it to start.

After re-doing the connection to the spark plug and some cleaning fluid in the carburetor, and a few special words of encouragement, I got it started.

I mixed concrete for the shower wall. Then I built more forms on top of the house walls.

February 22, 2025

Once again, I raised the forms on the inside of the shower wall, and began stacking up rock on the outside.

The concete wall is looking just like what I wanted it to be.

It is tedious fitting the rocks together to contain the concrete I will pour into the wall.

I have been able to stack rock, add rebar, pour a bit of concrete, then stack more rock, pour concrete, stack rock, etc to get it almost up to where I want it.

As I build the wall, I try to wash the excess spilled concete off the rocks. But this is not always successful, so I have been spraying muriatic acid (pool acid) onto the rocks and them washing it off. I even have an old paint brush that I use on the stubborn spots.

Before pouring the final concrete on the wall, I cut some 2 x 4 templates for the wood frame walls that will be above the concrete. I need to use the templates so I know where to place anchor bolts in the wet concrete. These anchor bolts will hold the wood walls in place on top of the concrete/rock wall, and the templates will be the top plates of the wood wall that sits on the concrete/rock wall.

February 23, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, there was a guy at the corner flying a drone. A week later, Alanah found that the property on the corner had been listed for sale on a website, and it had pictures that were taken by a drone. The owner is asking $52K for a lot that is .38 of an acre and is 200 feet long along Palaoa road, and is less than 40 feet wide along Holowai. Additionally, the elevation of this corner lot drops dramatically from the elevation of the road. I am concerned that someone looking at the photos would think that the property extends from the corner, all the way to my driveway.

So, I decided to identify the corner of my lot so there cold be no mistakes. In the past, I had placed a pile of four or five rocks next to the road near the corner. These were not real obvious, and I want to make it obvious!

So, I cut the vegetation from my lot up to the other lot.

In doing so, I found two coconut palm trees that I had planted a couple of years ago. I had planted three but only two have survived.

And, I started to build a rock/concrete wall at the corner

February 24, 2025

The last segment of the concrete/rock portion of the shower wall is done.

Using the 2 x 4 templates I had cut, I was able to place anchor bolts in the wet concrete that will hold the frame walls.

I also poured concrete in the first two column caps, and imbedded some straps and bolts.

February 25, 2025

All of the forms have been re moved from inside the shower. This reveals the 8″ squares where I will install glass block as well as the rectangle soap/shampoo holder.

On the outside, I lined up the templates I had cut and used to place the bolts. I fine tuned the cuts and used these as templates for cutting the bottom plates, which I cut from some pressure treated brown 2 x 4’s.

February 26, 2025

I stripped the forms from all of the columns as well as the two corners where I had poured the caps.

Using the same material I used for the other forms, I built forms on the last two corner walls for concrete caps there.

Out on Holowai. I had piled up the branches I had cut from the corner of the property to build a rock corner wall. I started to drag them down to the chipper.