April 19, 2023

Wednesday

I have been lazy. Not that I have been lazy in my work, I have been lazy in not writing in this journal! Now I have to try to catch up!

The gazebo at Ahi is complete – it is complete as a gazebo, that it. If it is to become something else, well, time will tell! There is no floor, just gravel. All the deck boards have been put in place and screwed down. A 1 x 3 trim has been installed around the perimiter of the roof to cover the ends of the deck boards, and a 1 ” square shingle strip has been added on top of this.

I have continued on the outdoor shower in the corner of the lot near the road and opposite the driveway. I have built 4 rock columns in a square pattern about 10 feet apart. Each column is about 2 foot square. In between the two away from the driveway, I have built a fifth one. This will create an opening/doorway on this side. Each of the full length sides will have woven bamboo curtain/walls between the columns as a visual barrier. The same for one half of the side away from the driveway. Each column is about 6 foot tall.

I have also begun building “doors” for around the gazebo at Holowai.

So far, I have made 4 doors 24″ wide and 7’4″ tall. I have put these on the side of the gazebo that faces Holowai Street.

Two of them are fastened in place while the other two are on an overhead track and slide past the two stationary ones.

For the other two sides, I will build 6 doors for each side, each door to be 17″ wide, and trifold them to fold open against the columns. Normally, they will be open but when the wind is blowing, or it is raining sideways, I can close them.

Today, it is raining. Totally clouded over! No sky, just gray clouds. I cannot see the ocean, just gray clouds. A light misty rain is falling continuously, and once in a while, it gets heavier, for a short time, but then returns to a misting rain.

I decide to go to Hilo. I have a list of things i would like to get in Hilo so I have decided that since I cannot do anything today, I might as well make the trip! I have been putting it off for a while, so it is actually a good thing! I left around 1:30Pm and arrived in Hilo around 3. I did my grocery shopping, got some things at the lumber/hardware store, and stopped at a plant nursery. It was after 5:30 before I headed back to Na’alehu.

It rained from Volcano until I got to MountainView, but as I came around the corner and headed down into Hilo, I saw clear skies ahead. This did not last. It rained most of the time I was in Hilo, and it rained most of the way home. I arrived backm in my driveway at Holowai at 7:55 PM. Even thoughn I had a written list of things I wanted to get, I still forgot two items! So it goes!

TTFN

March 23, 2023

Thursday

Rain again today

Spent the morning in the gazebo at Holowai writing letters.

Disassembled a couple of pallets.

In the mid afternoon, the rain lightened up so I went over to the Ahi lot. I hauled 6 more of the white painted deck boards over and hoisted them up on to the roof. While I was there, I installed the last row of solid blocking between the rafters/ceiling joist.

TTFN

March 22, 2023

Wednesday

Steady rain all day until 4 PM.

Tried to put a tarp over the framework of the gazebo at Ahi, but the tarp I chose has many holes in it! I only succeeded in getting soaked!

Took one battery to the auto parts store in OceanView to have them test it. Test result is – Bad Battery! DUH! Need to take the other two over and have them tested as well!

TTFN

March 21, 2023

Tuesday

Went to OceanView for paint. Got a gallon of red and a gallon of white. At the hardware store in OceanView, I get a discount on Tuesdays because I am over 60 years old!

Painted the boards at Holowai white, and the boards at Ahi red. . . OK, not ALL the boards, . . . just the ones that needed to be painted for the gazebo at Ahi.

Mixed more concrete and built the columns higher for the shower enclosure

Having problems with the solar syatem. Batteries don’t seem to be holding a charge – or even charging up at all!

TTFN

March 20, 2023

Monday

Worked on concrete and rock for corner columns of shower enclosure at Ahi lot.

Solar system at Holowai is not keeping up with the refrigerators. Need more panels &/or more batteries.

Pulled weeds from another of the footing excavations at Holowai.

Went to Honu’apo and went swimming in the swimming pool – even though it only had three feet of water in it. Ocean very calm.

TTFN

March 18, 2023

Saturday

The solar power system is hit and miss. Partly due to cloudy skies, partly due to cheap batteries, partly due to trees blocking the sunlight.

I took the last of the fully painted deck boards over to Ahi. The last time I was there, I counted that I needed 14 more. I have 10 partially painted at Holowai and 4 unpainted ones at Ahi. Need more white paint!!! Started another row of solid blocking at the mid span of the rafters/joist with the red painted boards I have. Need more red paint!!!

Started on an outdoor shower in the northwest corner of the Ahi lot. It will be a rock enclosure that is 25 feet from the road and twenty feet from the Kona side property line. I had to create a pathway from the end of the driveway to be able to wheel the wheelbarrow up to this location. I dug footings at the NE and SE corners.

TTFN

March 17, 2023

Friday

Turned over the boards that I painted yesterday so I could paint the other side. Then I stood them on edge and painted the edges. I got the second side and one edge of each board painted before I ran out of white paint! Each board needs the second edge painted. I guess I should have painted faster!

Then I went to the Ahi lot and installed the blocking behind the splices on each side of the gazego barge rafters.

Yesterday, I had plugged in the larger 110 volt mini refrigerator to a second power inverter. As long as the sun was shining directly on the solar panels, it continued to operate, but at about 5 PM when the sun was not directly providing new power, the inverter went into the “overload” mode. This morning I trimmed more branches from the trees above and around the shed roof to get more sunlight on the solar panels. Then I turned on the inverter before going to the Ahi lot. When I returned, the inverter was screaming “overload”! I figure that it will work if I turn it on at about 9AM and then turn it off around 4:30 PM each day.

TTFN

March 16, 2023

Thursday

I have all the main rafters/joist installed on the gazebo. Working on the deck boards and the fascia and barge rafters.

Sorted out the last 15 of my deck boards for the Ahi gazebo roof/ceiling and began painting them in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to Ahi and cut 45 degree mitres on the ends of the 2 fascia boards. Then I installed them at the two ends of the gazebo. I also cut 45 degree mitres on the 4 edge rafters that could be called fascia or barge rafters and I installed them. On the two long sides where I spliced these barge rafters together, I want to install a block directly behind the joint to reinforce it. I’ll do that tomorrow – after all, I AM retired!

TTFN

March 15, 2023

Wednesday

I took six of the painted deck boards over to the Ahi lot. While there, I painted the two fascia boards and one more 2 x 6 to be used for blocking. Then I ran out of red paint.

Then I returned to Holowai. Using some scrap wood, the threaded rod and the 6″ tires I brought from Arizona, I made a carrier for moving a tree trunk from the Ahi neighbor’s property to mine. A while ago, there was a strong wind that came through and blew down two of the five trees that they left standing on their lot when they stripped it bare. I helped them cut them into smaller pieces and asked if I could have the trunk from the larger tree. I will use it somewhere as a post or a beam. I need to move it to my property and it is too large and heavy for the three of us to move. Maybe if I put it on wheels???

I also made a frame for the Ahi address sign, painted the back of the sign and varnished the front to preserve the painted words. It is hot and sunny, so I went to the ocean at Honu’apo for a swim.

The tide pools are gone! The wading pool at the point has 6″ of green slimy water in it and the swimming pool has maybe a foot of water in it.

The areaI call the “estuary” is bone dry. There is a concrete/rock column with a large metal bar at the top that looks like an anchoring point. This is normally surrounded by water a few inches to a foot deep. It is high and dry!

The ocean is very flat and calm.

Past the estuary, towards Hilo, there is a metal cross that someone has erected. Some idiots have spray painted graffiti onthe lave. The lava is so pourous that the letters they have painted are all blurred out! Kind of like spray painting on chain link fences! Near this cross, at the ocean side, there is a natural bridge/arch about 15 to 20 feet long and 8 feet tall. Normally, you cannot see it because of the water and waves, but today it is very visible.

It is just like when I was here on February 15th!

Even the turtles were back!

They probably are always here, but because of the waves crashing on the lava making it impossible to get this close to the ocean without getting washed away, I don’t usually see them.

Again, I hung around for a while watching the turtles. there were at least fourm of them swimming back and forth in the action of the waves. Every once in a while, one would stick it’s head out of the water to get a breath of air, and then right back down to continue gathering whatever it is they eat. Each one is at least 3 feet across their shell – one of them looked like it had a head the size of a cantaloupe.

After watching the turtles, I headed back to town. i stopped off at the park in Waiohinu to fill up the 20 or so water bottles I had with me. Then back to Holowai.