September 16, 2025
Watered the plants at Holowai
Took apart three more pallets
Finished installing the blocks between the rafters on the makai side of the roof and started on the driveway side
September 17, 2025
Unloaded the pallets and the lumber from the truck. Disassembled 2 pallets. Took the bathrom door over to the neighbor’s property to use his electriciy and palm sander to sand the door. Returned to property and used 2 cans of spray paint to paint the door. Not enough for 1 side – need at least 4 more cans.
Put water bladder and some one gallon jugs into the truck and went in to town. Bought 2 bell peppers and a papaya at the farmers market and stopped at the transfer station for water. On the way back, I stopped at Ahi and watered the plants there. At Holowai, I drained the bladder into the other bladder that is in the driveway.
In the afternoon, I worked on the header framing on the opening at the driveway side.
September 18, 2025
Worked on the header framing over the opening at the gazbo end.
Watered the plants at Holowai and Ahi.
Experienced a great sunset.
September 19, 2025
When I tried to cook breakfast this morning, the stove would not light. The propane tank was empty. So I removed the propane tank and put it in the back of the truck. While I was there, I threw the empty water bottles (close to 100 of them) into the back of the truck along wth a garden hose. Then I removed the propane tank from the generator. It feels like it is about 1/4 full. I attached this to the stove and made breakfast.
Before beginning to work on the roof, I checked my email. I had a message from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) about Kilauea – episode 33 of the ongoing eruption began at 3:15 AM with lava plumes up to 500 feet in height.
It is now 10:30 AM. Most episodes last between 7 and 13 hours. Do I take everything out of the truck and go? – No – I decide to install blocks in the roof and then fill my water bottles and the propane tank first.
At noon, I try to check the webcams at the volcano (they have three cameras constantly monitoring the eruption that can be accessed through their website) but I cannot sign on to the internet. I have no phone service! I want to check that the episode is still going on before I drive over there.
I drive down town Na’alehu – still no phone service. I get propane and water – still no phone service. I return to the property – still no service. It is 2:30 PM. I unload the truck and take a shower. The water is warm, not hot, and not a lot of pressure. It still smells like PVC glue, but I have a good shower none the less!
At 3 PM I have phone and internet service. I open the web site and view the webcams. There are no plumes. It is just smoke coming out of the vent! It is not worth going. I missed another episode!
September 20, 2025
It is totally overcast this morning, and it lightly sprinkled rain on and off all morning. No phone service again this morning.
Started the generator and worked on the headers over the three door openings on the mauka side (the side away from the ocean, or the side facing the mountain).
I completed the installation of the blocking over the two side doors on this wall as well as the outer portion of the header framing on all three openings.
By 3 PM the rain had stopped and the clouds slowly moved off.
Two yellow birds showed up at the feeder around 11 AM and again around 5 PM. These little birds are not intimidated by the other birds.
They even hold their ground in the face of the threats by the Northern Red Cardinals which are twice their size.
September 21, 2025
I spent the day working at the Ahi property. Mowed the grass on the road in front of the property and in front of the next two properties. Used the weed eater to cut the grass around the waterlines at the top of the propeerty next to the road.
Using the long handled clippers, I cut the tall, heavy grass for about 30 feet southeast of the outhouse.
Up on the road, and at the northwest corner of the property, I located the property pin – a metal pipe – and moved the rocks next to the pipe to create a hole. I filled this hole with concrete and imbedded rocks in the concrete. Then I stacked rocks up on top to create a rock column that is just inside the property lines. This will help to identify this corner of the property.
I started to pile up rocks behind the wall of block wall of the bathroom to create a level area. Here, I will place some water containers like barrels, or maybe a water bladder to hold the run off from the roof to be used in the bathroom for flushing the toilet. . . maybe even for the shower, if I add a filter and a pump.
September 22, 2025
Sifted the last of the sand/gravel next to the road at Holowai.
Worked on the corner rock column at Ahi. It is now 18 to 24″ tall
Grouted four cells in the mauka (the side towards the mountain) bathroom wall.
Located the opposite property corner pin – another 3/4 inch pipe – at the north east corner of the property – the corner closest to the driveway. And excavated to create a foundation for a corner column. This one is a bit more challenging as it is on more of a slope than the other corner.
Used the last of my sand/gravel from Holowai to mix concrete for this foundation.
Back at Holowai, I sprayed some termite treatment chemicals called borate, on the inside portion of the walls under the floor. Also coated the outside of the four columns under the floor level as well. Then I sprayed the outside of the west end of the front wall (the wall facing the street) from the floor to the roof.
Then I sprayed both sides of two sheets of plywood and cut and installed them on this corner of the structure!
September 23, 2025
The birds have started frequenting the waterfall/fountain. I have seen them using it as a birdbath, Cool!
When Alanah was here, she commented on how difficult it was to carry water to the front side yard to water the three coconut palms there. There was a large limb at the edge of the gazebo extension that you needed to manouver around. I removed this limb.
Also, there is a large pile of big rocks at the edge of the gazebo that were difficult to walk on. I straightened them and fit them together better to make it a little easier and flatter.
Sprayed more borax solution onto the exterior walls and plywood and installed it on the front wall.
I have needed to trim some branches in order to install the plywood. I have stacked these branches down by the chipper.
September 24, 2025
My neighbor Scott has lost his cell phone at his property. I spent the morning helping him look for it. I try calling it, but it goes directly to voicemail so there is no chance to listen for it ringing!
Went downtown to the post office, Picked up a package with two containers of screws and a letter from Alanah with two N-85 masks for me to use when spraying the borate chemicals.
Worked on miscellaneous blocking and straightening of the framing.
September 25, 2025
Again, I spent the morning trying to find the neighbor’s cellphone. If he lost it outside, it has most likely gotten rained on and is full of water now.
More work done on the rock column at the north east corner of the Ahi property – the corner near the driveway.
Poured two batches of concrete – mixed in the wheel barrow- on the corner rock column.
September 26, 2025
Beautiful sunrise this morning.
Cloudy all day with a few sprinkles. Almost 2 inches of rain yesterday and last night.
I use the tall extension ladder to go over the plywood I have installed and put the necessary screws in place – 6″ on the edges and 8″ in the middle of each sheet.
The yellow birds take over the bird feeder whenever they come by, which is not very often. But they do not let any other birds in the feeder while they are there.
September 27, 2025
It has been overcast the last few days, so the soar systems have not had enough sunlight to recharge. The one in the shed has 11.6 volts this morning and last night at 6 PM it got down to 10 volts, so I shut off the small refrigerator. As long as I do not open the door, the refrigerator will stay cold overnight. I only hope to get some sunlight to increase the voltage in the system so I can turn it back on sometime this morning.
The system in the gazebo was down to 11% when I got up this morning. When the refrigerator thee in the azbo cycled on, it pulled out so much power that it shut off the system. So, I cranked up the propane generator and plugged in the solar generator to recharge it.
While I had the generator running, I cut my plywood for the exterior walls. I am one sheet short!
Scott told me that he had found his cell phone. It was in his wooden hot tub, under the wood burning eater! e put it into a bag of rice to try to dry it out! I think it is too late for that, and a waste of rice!
September 28, 2026
I worked on installing an extra row of blocking that lays flat on the top plate of the walls between the rafters. Then the rafters are screwed to these blocks. This is an additional hurricane hold down, in addition to the H25 framing anchors I am installing. I finished the side facing the street and the end by the gazebo when it started to rain. So at 2 PM, I left for Kona. I went grocery shopping, picked up five more sheets of plywood, more borate termite chemicals, black spray paint for the bathroom door, and two wax rings for the toilet – one standard size and one thicker. I also picked up four more pallets.
September 29, 2025
As I disassemble the pallets, I just throw the boards into a pile. Kind a helter-skelter!
I spent some time sorting these boards and stacking them according to size. I made two piles. One that has boards that are at least 5 1/2″ wide, and another that is at least 3 1/2″ wide. OK, I actually made three piles. The third pile is those that are not 3 1/2″ wide.
In the pile that is 5 1/2″ wide, there are about a dozen that are almost 6″ wide. I separated these into a fourth pile. Then I ran them through the table saw, cleaning up one edge of each board. Then I moved the rip fence on the table saw over the thickness of the saw blade and pushed them through again, cutting off the other edge. Now I have boards that are the same width and are smooth on both edges. Using these boards, I began installing them on the roof as sheathing. I started on the side closest to the driveway – one of the two smaller parts.
I repeated this process with the rest of the 5 1/2″ boards, running them through the table saw twice. Each board has to be cut for length or cut on an angle to fit the hip. I use my cordless skillsaw for this. . . it is light and portable and has no cord to get tangled. Except – it is not running properly. When I pull the trigger, sometimes it runs, and sometimes it does not. If I shake it, or tap on the side, most times it runs. This makes me think there is a loose connection inside the saw. I can either take it apart and try to fix it, or just “bite the bullet” and buy a new one.
Even with the saw not working properly all the time, I was able to install boards about 1/2 the way from the peak to the wall.
September 30, 2025
The northeast corner of the two Holowai properties has turned into quite a project. Initially, I was just going to make a square pile of rocks 18″ to 2 foot tall to mark the corner. I have ended up building a double sided rock wall with concete in between, along the front of the property for about twenty feet, and down the side of the property for about thirty! Today I spent time stacking more rocks on the thirty foot section.
Since the skilsaw isn’t running properly, I decided to work on the oven walls. I have cut the block to fit around the counter, and mixed mortar and layed three courses of block.
This is the height I want for the oven. Next step is to install some stone on the inside as a heat barrier and complete the top.
It started to rain, so I covered the table saw.
And September comes to a close. See you in October!
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 