Birds, Beams, and Brainstorming

My mind was a blank for a title for this post. So I asked for suggestions for a title. This is what I got!

May 12, 2025

Breakfast at the gazebo includes a visit from the birds.

Yeah, I agree – watching the birds? Sooo boring – totally, how can I say it? . . . totally for the birds!

However . . .

This morning, the pair of red headed cardinals brought their chicks with them. More correctly, the chicks simply followed them.

The fledgling young are a little different than the parents. Their heads are a dull gray color and their wings are not as bright black as the older birds. Also, the kerchief under their neck area is more like a dirty brown. As they get older, their coloring changes. The feathers on their head become a deep red, their wings get deep dark black as well as the kerchief under their neck.

The chicks are “fluffier” as the feathers on their bodies seem to be more like down than feathers.

This may be why they appear to be larger than their parents – fatter – more plump – bigger.

And maybe, looks are not decieving – maybe they ARE larger than the parents??

I watch them as the young hang out in the branches of the trees above the lanai as the parents shuttle back and forth from the feeder to gather a beakful and then deliver it to the chicks. As they get a few days older, the young venture down to the handrail around the lanai, and eventually down to the feeder itself.

But, the young still just stand there and wait. Even though they are surrounded with more than they can eat, the chick still waits for the parent to feed it.

The adult bird gathers a beakful and then delivers it to the chick. Then repeats the process, over and over. Sometimes the baby bird gets impatient and begins to flutter their wings rapidly, They may even be squalking, but I cannot hear them.

If the chick is not in the feeder, or on the handrail, the parent will go look for it!

These birds take parenting very seriously!

At least, the feeding of the young part!

I have noticed that there seems to be a “division of responsibilities” at least with this pair of red headed cardinals.

I have seen three young chicks with this pair of parents. Each parent seems to concentrate on feeding one specific chick, and they share the responsibility for the third. If the chick that is not “assigned” to that specific parent wants to be fed, the parent will look around for “their” chick, ignoring this other chick. – Interesting!

Little Charlie, the bold honey creeper is becoming bolder, with his venturing further into the gazebo while I am there.

All the other birds stay out on the lanai, as if there is an invisible barrier at the edge of the roof extending down to the floor. When I am sitting, standing, cooking, etc., in the gazebo, they come up to this invisible barrier, but no further. When I am not in the gazebo, I have seen them in there on the chairs and the table, but when I am there, they keep this small distance between us. Except for this one little bird!

With the posts up, I need to access the 4 x 12 beams that will support the floor, as well as the 2 x 8 floor joist. they are stacked under a tarp next to the garden steps. On top of the stack, there are some 2 x 4 x 16. I need to move these before I can get to the beams.

So, I move the 2 x 4’s out to the flat area down by my tomato planter.

I worked on installing 4 x 4 wooden posts on top of the masonry. I used brown pressure treated material and placed a plastic base under the post to provide drainage and keep the wood off the concrete, in hopes to control or delay any moisture damage.

Now, I need to support the 4 x 4 posts to stay upright as I install the 4 x 12 beams.

May 13, 2025

Once again, I start the day with breakfast with the birds.

Today, I have a new visitor.

I haven’t seen this bird before. It is different than any of the others that frequent the feeder and my lanai.

When Alanah was here, she planted some seeds. Tomatoes in the tomato planter box, turnips where the compost pile had been (I moved it to mix the contents), squash seeds in the planter where the single papaya is growing and in a couple of the tires.

There are little tomatoes poking their heads out of the soil.

I picked up a broken plumeria branch from the neighbor and stuck it in this planter with the one that is growing there.

There are squash plants growing in the planter with the single papaya.

Looks like there are some tomatoes coming up in a couple of the tire planters.

Turnips have come up where the compost pile had been.

Up near the lanai, I had placed a handful of squash seeds. They have sprouted.

Near the kitchen gazebo, we have a plumeria that is doing well, along with some sort of an orchid! I had picked up a few pieces of an old decorative garden fence that someone had discarded because the bottom had rusted out. I used these 3′ square panels to support the orchids.

My neighbor periodically mixes up a batch of fire ant deterrant using peanut butter, vegetable oil, some other stuff, and a product called Tango – which is a growth inhibitor that causes the eggs to be infertile. The peanut butter attracts the ants and they take the Tango back to the queen in the nest, which makes her infertile, so she cannot produce more workers.

Anyway, this seems to keep the fire ants at bay, so every six weeks or so, we spray this concoction into the trees, which is where the fire ants seem to be most prevelant. We mixed up a batch today and using these spray bottles I treated the property. The mixture is about the consistency of yogurt and tends to clog up the sprayers. After a few applications, the sprayers no longer work as they are not made to spray that heavy of material. So it goes!

One bottle will usually treat about 1/2 acre.

With some incidental trimming, I am starting to create a pile of branches that will eventually need to be run through the chipper.

Kama’oa Road is the road that leads past my subdivision, over to South Point Road to the west, and into Naalehu to the east. The county highway division is grinding up the asphalt surface – removing about 3″ of aspahalt – and installing new asphalt on the section from South Point Road over to Discovery Harbor.

This makes the road much smoother, and I hope they continue past Discovery Harbor, and on Past Mark Twain Estates (my subdivision) and down the hill to Waiohinu and Naalehu.

I picked up a pinapple from one of my neighbors. It looks to be a bit green yet, so I will let it sit and ripen for a while – Yum!

May 14, 2025

In the shower area, I give the ground some slope toward the drain, and poured a concrete floor. This is the base on which I will install some sort of a finished floor – perhaps tile, perhaps stones, I’m not sure yet.

At the far northeast end of the properties directly on Holowai, I have built a rock wall to identify this corner. In doing so, I have created a sort of a hollow area behind the wall that will need to be filled. I have begun filling it with my garbage that I do not put in the compost bin. Bulk material that I will eventually cover with wood chips and compost. Possibly not an approved process, but . . . so it goes!

The next step on the house is to install the beams. To move them over to their location, I use the same two wheeled method I used to move them off the road.

I can lift each end of each beam up on to the masonry next to their posts. Now I need to figure out a method to lift them up into place. They are much too heavy for me to simply pick them up and set them in place. Also, I will need to figure out a way to keep the posts still as I place them. Trying to do this on a step ladder is a recipe for disaster!

I return to the gazebo to sit and think, and the birds start to come in.

I bend down and hold out my hand full of cracker crumbs, but they are not having anything to do with it, so I scatter some on the floor on and around my shoes . . . maybe, it is my face and hands that makes them cautious.

The red headed cardinals are not as bold as the honey creepers. They come close, but they will not come near my shoes.

One honey creeper is bolder than the others – Charlie?

I withdraw my feet and he/she comes closer.

As it gets later in the day, I still have not solved how to lift the beams, and how to hold the posts steady!

May 15, 2025

Charlie the bold honey creeper gets a little bolder.

Two new visitors showed up today.

I have seen these small yellow birds – about the same size as the honey creepers and the red headed cardinals – around the neighborhood, but I have not seen them here at my property.

They make use of the tiered water fointain at the edge of the lanai as well as grab a bit from the feeder.

And Charlie is coming closer.

I went over to the Ahi property to water the plants I have over there and check on the property, I have not seen either of the two people who live next door since I returned to the island. I wonder what is happenng.

When I was here a month or so ago, the neighbor told me that his wife had gone to the mainland to be closer to her two tenaged boys who live there with their father. Maybe he has returned to the mainland as well, and maybe he has “gone walkabout” as the aboriginals in Australia would say! But, their property looks abandoned, like he went to the grocery store, and hasn’t come back yet. Wierd!

Whatever the situation, his pineapple plants and his banana plants have fruit on them. It would be a shame to allow them to just die, so I am using their hose and watering their pineapples and their bananas.

Over by their house, there are about twenty small pineapple plants still in their pots that I will water as well.

May 16, 2025

By attaching some of the 16 foot long 2 x 4’s to the top of the posts, I have tied all the posts together to steady them. I can use these to keep the posts steady when I lift the beams up into place. Now, all I need to do is figure out how to lift them!

I can pick up one end, but doing this on a ladder will be tricky.

A little more sittng and thinking is needed!

May 17, 2025

Turnips

Tomatoes??

Looks like squash.

More squash

Yet some more squash!

There are lots of small tomato plants coming up in the tomato planter!

We have gotten a little more than 2″ of rain in the last week. I need to figure out a way to catch some of this rainwater.

My sitting and thinking has paid off. By using the pallets I have gathered, I create a couple of platforms – scaffolds? – from which I can safely lift the beams into place.

I lift one side up onto the 2 x 4’s, and then lift the other end. I can slide the beam on the 2 x 4 as needed.

It is necessary to move the pile of pallets as I lift the beams.

This seems to have been a good solution.

All six beams are up onto the 2 x 4’s and up at the top of the posts.

May 18, 2025

Off to Hilo to do a bit of shopping. The farmers’market in downtown is a great place for fresh fruit and vegetables.

There are over a dozen different vendors, but I think they all agree on prices. The only difference might be quantities available of certain vegetables, but they all are much the same. Across the street, there are vendors selling “authentic” Hawaiian souveniers – shipped in straight from China, and made in some third world country.

Your typical tourist destination!

Stopped off in Volcano to get a sub sandwich The sandwiches here are great, and will suffice for dinner! Not a great place to buy gas unless you are desperate!

May 19, 2025

As they repave Kama’oa road, the highway department is leaving small piles of black pea gravel sized material along side the road. Each pile is about the size of the bed of my truck. I stopped one day and went up to one of the guys who looked like he was in charge – he was basically sitting there doing nothing.

I said to him, “I don’t know who to ask, but I figured that I should ask someone, because I don’t want to get in trouble.”

He and the two guys sitting in the four wheeled ATV with him just looked at me, expectantly, as I continued.

“I see that you have been leaving small piles of the ground-up asphalt along the highway, . . . “He interrupted me and said, “You can take all you want.”

I said, “Thanks.” and turned around and went back to my truck and left. Enough said!

Today was spent shoveling this stuff into the truck and hauling it back to the property.

Nobody has stopped and asked me what I’m doing, . . . in fact, one of the guys driving a dump truck nodded to me, and another waved, so I guess it is OK!

The first two loads, I spread in the driveway at Holowai. This makes it much smoother and much easier to walk on.

I won’t get much else done today, but I’m real glad to get this material.

After half a dozen trips, I figured it would be dark before I finished another, so I climbed up on the gazebo roof and fastened the metal roofing down better with some screws I picked up in Hilo the other day,

TTFN