August 20, 2025
6:00 AM flight out of Phoenix.
Not many passengers in the rows in front of me.
Not many passengers in the rows behind me.
I had ten rows all to myself.
Arrived in San Diego about 7:30 AM
11:30 am flight out of San Diego – Not as lucky. Had to share my row with another passenger. Had a window seat on the right side of the plane,
As Dumas observed, “One must take the world as one finds it”
First glimpse of Maui.
View of Maui as we fly between Maui on the right side of the plane where I am sitting, and Hawai’i island on the left.
The pilot cuts across the top corner of the big island and I catch an aerial view of Hawi!
We land at 2:30 pm in Kona. I catch the 3:20 pm bus to Kona and do a little grocery shopping before catching the 4:30 bus to Waiohinu.
Arrive at Waiohinu at 6:20 PM. Neighbor comes and picks me up.
Arrive at property at 6:45 PM and open the storage shed. Set up the solar generator and the refrigerator in the gazebo. Hook up the batteries in the sleeping shed, and turn on the little refrigerator. Move my solar panels to the shed roof and hook them up to the battery system. I have a rat problem, so I set some traps.
August 21, 2025
I remove two dead rats from the traps I set last night. Then I reposition the solar panels on the roof of the gazebo. I restack the tire stack I use for my compost pile and pick out what little compost there is for use in the tire garden. I have five used tires stacked atop one another to create a container of sorts for my composting. Into this, I place my kitchen scraps, cardboard cartons, along with some odd grass and tree clippings. This ad hoc container was completely full when I left a month ago, but now, the contents have reduced in size considerably.
My planter with the onions looks like it could use some water – but the onions are still alive.
The tomatoes in the tires are not much more than dry sticks.
My tomatoes in the tomato planter are a slight bit better. . . but not much.
They all seem to be immitating the lost soul crawling across the burning sands of the desert while crying out, “water, . . . water . . .”
I answer their cries with lots of water, and tie up the branches to support them, while cutting off the dead ones.
I install metal edges to the bathroom roof and cover the entire roof with another coat of elastomeric roof coating – sealing the metal roof edges into place.
I have brought three 8 x 8 glass block with me in my luggage. I unpack them, and remove the styrophoam from the shower walls. Then I slide the glass block into the holes left from the removal of the styrophoam. Nice fit – just like it was planned that way!
The storage shed smells of rat, and they have eaten a hole in a cardboard box containing some food stuffs. I throw out the entire cardboard box and contents – dried soups, instant potatoes, a few granola bars, all opened and chewed on – , and set two rat traps in the storage shed,
Then I drive over to Ahi.
I get out the lawn mower and mow the entire Ahi road all the way to the corner of Palaoa Road, past the other five lots of my neighbors. Then I use the weed whacker and cut the tall grass around the water lines, at the top of the hill at the front of the property, and the flat area next to the driveway.
The solar panels are placed on the roof and hooked up with the batteries.
August 22, 2025
This morning, I read an email from the USGS, that in the early hours of the day, Kilauea began emitting lava fountaining into the air quite dramatically – over a thousand feet into the air, but fully contained within the caldera. I resolve to take the opportunity to observe this in person . . . but not today! I have too many chores to complete.
After breakfast, I again water my tomatoes, the onions, the two plumeria trees, my three coconut trees and the lone citrus along the side fence in the front yard area.
I attempt to seal the waterfall/fountain,pond, whatever – with some elastomeric paint.
I dispose of one dead rat from a trap in the storage shed, and add two mouse traps, while resetting the one trap.
I watch as a female northern red cardinal makes her way to the feeder. She is a variety of light brown colors, so I assume that this bird must be a female. Not long after she arrives there is a fully dark red male cardinal on the handrail of the lanai, intently watching her movements. She is interrupted by the arrival of two smaller red headed cardinals, who worry her into leaving so they can take her place. A dark brown cardinal shows up in the branches and hops from branch to branch and finally to the cross braces of the handrail. I assume that this is a young northern red cardinal that has not yet grown into its full color.
Leaving the birds to their antics, I place my 60 gallon water bladder in the back of the truck along with about 30 empty plastic jugs and two garden hoses, and head off into Na’alehu. I stop at the gas station/convenience store and pick up five plastic trays that are about 16″ by 24″ by 4″ tall. I plan on using these as the drawers in the shelves in the storage shed.
A stop at the post office allows me to pick up a package that contains two more water bladders – these are each 100 gallon size.
I stop at the trash transfer station in Waiohinu where the county has set up half a dozen hose bibs for dispensing water, and proceed to fill my water bladder as well as the other smaller empty bottles. One garden hose is attached to a hose bib and the end placed into the bladder. As it fills, I attach the other garden hose to another hose bib and proceed to fill the smaller empty bottles.
Once I arrive at the property, I find an email from the USGS telling me that the fountainng of this episode of the current eruption of Kilauea has stopped, and the caldera is just smoking and steaming from the north and south vents.
In order to make full use of the expanded area of the kitchen gazebo, I remove the sliding doors and reinstall them under the beam of the expanded section. I install them in a “fixed” condition – meaning that they do not move – no longer sliding.
August 23, 2025
At opposite ends of the gazbo extension are two walls that mirror each other. Today was spent framing in the upper portion of these walls, to include a window that is 9′ tall and 38″ long. One of these two walls will be the entrance with doors that open under the window. The other wall will have a counter or shelf, to expand the kitchen area.
Then I watered the tomatos, onions, plumerias, coconut palms, citrus, small avocado tree, etc., at Holowai. I used the water bottles from the truck that I had filled up yesterday. Also, I opened the package I got in the mail and spread out one of the new water bladders in a relatively flat area of the driveway.
and using a garden hose, I transferred the water from the bladder in the truck to this bladder – through the use of gravity.
In a couple of pots on the lanai, I have planted the seeds of some citrus – grapefruit, oranges, tangerines. I did not keep track of which seeds went into what pot, so that now that they have come up, I have a few citrus seedlings – which I do not know what they are. Five years from now, I will, because I took these seedlings over to Ahi and planted them along the Kona side property line. I also watered the other plants there – the norfolk pines at the top of the driveway, the poinciana seedlings with the papaya, the mango that looks like a stick now, the three groups of other citrus , and my macadamia tree that is struggling.
August 24, 2025
After parking the truck in the parking lot across the street from the hardware store in Na’alehu, I got on the 8 AM bus into Kona for some grocery shopping.
Then I got on the 2:30 PM bus back to Na’alehu, and I arrived at 4:45 PM
The bakery closes at 5 PM and they close and lock the gate at 5:30. This gave me 45 minutes to load up with some pallets. . . in the rain! The mouse traps in the storage shed have been tripped, but there is nothing in them. So, I rebait and reset them.
August 25, 2025
I excavated and built some forms for the base of a block wall at the Kona side of the gazebo extension.
It rained all afternoon as I took apart pallets tor the 1 x’s to be used as roof sheathing on the house.
August 26, 2025
My task today is to pour concrete. In the kitchen gazebo, there are three cells in the wall of what is to be a water storage tank, that are empty and deep. I am constantly dropping things, (spoons, bottle caps, etc), into these cells. It is with considerable difficulty that I retreive these items due to their depth being more than the length of my arm.
Therefore, when I mixed up concrete to pour the step at the top of the garden steps, I also filled these three cells so that when I dropped stuff into them, it would only be an inch or two away. I also poured the base or footing of the wall at the Kona end of the gazebo extension.
I had a small bag of vegetable plant food, so I opened it and spread some on the tomatoes, onions and other plants at Holowai. It began to sprinkle, so I resumed reclaiming 1 x boards from pallets. I can do this under a tarp I have put up between the house construction and the storage shed. One dead mouse in the storage shed trap!
August 27, 2025
I removed the forms from my concrete pours yesterday and laid block for the “west” wall of the gazebo extension. Took a drive down to watch the waves at the ocean. Stopped off and refilled the empty water bottles (but not the bladder). Stopped off at the post office – it’s like christmas!
August 28, 2025
Still being in a masonry frame of mind from laying block yesterday, I added another layer to the walls of the bathroom at Ahi.
These walls are now ready to be grouted. I picked up more pallets from the bakery.
August 29, 2025
At the Kona side of the gazebo extension, I want to create an oven. . . much like a pizza oven. I poured a base for this oven, and set the first course of block. I also got some pieces of slate to use as the inner liner for this oven.
Then, I disassembled the shower at the lower end of the property and moved it to the new shower location. I put together some 1 1/2″ PVC piping in a kind of a radiator to use as a solar collector.
August 30, 2025
I continued the block walls for the pizza oven.
My order of lumber arrived and they placed it along the side of the road in front of the property.
The order contains some pvc plumbing fittings for running a water line from my collection tank at the back of the storage shed to the bathroom, along with ten bags of cement.
I moved the plumbing fittings and the cement from the side of the road to a more secure place on the property.
I heated a piece of 2″ pvc pipe and created a 22 degree bend to use in extending the drain line for the shower in the bathroom.
At noon, the water coming out of my showerhead in the shower was quite warm, but it smelled like PVC glue. This is because of the glue in the fittings of the solar water heater radiator. When I took a shower at 4:30, the water had cooled off as the afternoon was cloudy and overcast. For dinner, I went to a restaurant in OceanView where I could watch the football game between the University of Arizona and the Unversity of Hawaii.
August 31, 2025
Moved the lumber from next to the road to a more secure location further back on the property.
Light rain all afternoon.
Spray painted the PVC solar radiator for the shower. Painted it black to absorb heat from the sun.
Built a form for a concrete counter in the gazebo extension in front of the oven.
August in Hawaii has come to a close.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 