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.

March 14, 2023

Tuesday

Bright and sunny today.

Spent the morning at Holowai painting the deck boards for Ahi gazebo. In the afternoon I went to the Ahi lot and installed more solid blocking between the ceiling joist. I now have a row of solid blocking over each of the center beams.

Kind of a slow, take it easy kind of day. Some people might think I was retired!

TTFN

March 13, 2023

Monday

Painted some of the 2 x 6 decking boards for the Ahi gazebo in my “workshop” at Holowai.

Took a shower at a little after 11 AM using the water from my solar water heater.

It was quite warm. There was no breeze to make me cold while I showered!

Drove to Hilo to pick up the generator I had ordered. Stopped in at the gas station in Na’alehu and filled up with gasoline at $4.99 per gallon. When I got to Hilo, I found I could have bought gas for $4.69 per gallon! DANG!

I picked up my generator along with four more “t” straps for the gazebo, two more bags of cement, and a threaded rod to use as an axle for the two tires I had brought from Arizona.

I bought a papaya and some lettuce at the farmer’s market, then bought milk, paint brushes, juice and ice at the big box store.

Stopped in at the back of the auto parts store and picked up 5 more pallets – 3 on top of the car and two inside. It started to rain.

I drove back to Na’alehu. As I drove up the hill to Volcano from Hilo, the rain and fog got very thick and heavy. At one point, I could not see more than 50 yards in front of me. I followed the tail lights of the car in front.

At Volcano, the fog got really close so that visibility was cut to about 30 yards as I passed the sign to the entrance to Volcanoes National Park.

This low visibility continued all the way down the mountain until I passed the other park entrance sign at the other side of the park. Here, the fog lifted, but the rain continued.

As I passed the turn off for Punaluu Black Sand Beach and Sea Mountain Condominiums, it was like someone had shut off the valve. The road was wet, but no rain! As I looked to my right towards Mauna Loa, the fog and low clouds completely obscured the mountain. It looked like it was raining about 200 feet from the highway.

When I passed the turn off for Honu’apo and Whittington Beach Park, someone turned on the valve and it started to rain as I drove up the hill into Na’alehu. The rain continued as I turned on to Kama’oa Road, and had stopped by the time I turned onto Wakea and started down the hill. When I turned off Wakea onto the dirt/gravel/rocky road of MakaniAkua, the road was bone dry all the way to the property on Holowai. Fifteen minutes later, it started to lightly sprinkle and continued throughout the night.

TTFN

March 12, 2023

Sunday

During the past week, I have dug footings at the top of the driveway at the Ahi lot for “gateposts” – one on each side of the driveway.

As they will only be 2 feet tall, there will be no “gates”. These are only for markers to the driveway. Basically, they are a rock cube – 2 foot on a side and 2 foot tall with a poured concrete cap.

There are two steel pipes protruding from the top of each cap. I will fasten signs to each of these.

One will be the address sign and the other will be some kind of name for the property

I haven’t decided on a name yet.

Today I finished installing all the main rafters on the gazebo at the back of the Ahi lot. I also installed one row of blocking – 3 more rows to go.

I installed 2 x 4 angle braces from the post to the beam on the beam closest to the ocean (makai).

Yesterday, I helped the neighbors set up the door frames and expandable walls for their yurt. Today, we put up the center ring with the rafters from this ring down to a heavy cable woven into the top of the expanding walls.

An interesting design. I was interested in seeing how a yurt was constructed, so I didn’t mind helping.

TTFN

March 6, 2023

Monday

We went to the Ahi lot. Alanah painted 8 of the 2 x 6 rafters/ceiling/floor joists while I adjusted the heights of the posts under the beams. I picked up a 4 x 4 post that was 1″ short of what I needed. Rather than put a 1″ block under this post, I decided to cut 1″ off each of the other posts.

In order to do this, I needed to take down the beams. I got half of them cut when my battery powered saw ran out of power. While my batteries were charging on the solar system, I mixed more concrete for the driveway entry columns.

We had an early dinner because Alanah was leaving tonight to return to Arizona. I needed to drive her to Kona to catch a plane.

TTFN

March 5, 2023

Sunday

Bright and sunny today.

After breakfast, Alanah started to paint the letters for Ahi Road on the address sign for the Ahi road lot.

I went over to the Ahi Road lot and dug footings at the top of the driveway on each side. I want to build a rock column at each side to mark the driveway. I cut the rebar for the footings and poured two wheelbarrow loads of concrete in each one.

Then we went back out to the ocean at Honu’apo. There was a fisherman there fishing off the point near the two wading pools. We still went down and relaxed in the water of the pools.

Then we had a bit of lunch – cheese, crackers, tomatoes, smoked sausage, and pineapple. While eating lunch, we saw a pod of spinner dolphins moving up the coast.

If you look real close at this photo, you will see by the fisherman’s fishing pole on the right, something on the water. That is a spinner dolphin. We saw at least a dozen of them jumping and spinning out of the water. They were about 50 yards off shore.

This picture is a bit fuzzy, but that is a spinner dolphin.

After lunch, we went down to the pools again. Then we washed off with the bottles of fresh water we had brought. I placed them on the lava when we arrived and they warmed up. As we were preparing to leave, we saw a whale spout about 100 yards off shore.

TTFN

March 4, 2023

Saturday

I unloaded the rebar and the cement at the Ahi lot while Alanah cut some of the tall grass at the property line on Ahi Road.

I hauled the cut grass to the bottom of the driveway.

Then we went out to the shore line at Honu’apo.

We soaked in the small wading pools – there were more than normal and the usual ones were full.

While we were there, the waves crashed against the lava sending plumes of water into the air.

We saw some storm clouds coming, so we returned to the Holowai lot and as we arrived, it began to rain cats and dogs – for about an hour! Then the sun came out and the rain quit as if someone had shut off a valve!

I changed the oil in the Ford Escape.

Then we went into OceanView to a sports bar/restaurant for dinner and so we could watch the college basketball games.

March 3, 2023

Friday

Alanah is coming to Hawaii for the weekend. I will need to pick her up at the airport in Kona around 3:30 PM this afternoon.

So, I cleaned out the car.

I even took my little hand broom and swept the sand and dirt out of the back and raised the back seats into the sitting position.

Then I took all the bedding off the bed and changed the sheets and pilowcases.

Around noon, I took four 2-litre bottles from my solar water heater, along with a kettle of boiling water to my bucket shower and I took a hot shower and washed my hair!

Then I left for Kona. I arrived at about 2:30 PM and went to the lumber store for some bags of cement. Then off to the big box store for groceries. It started raining as I was leaving the store, and I got a text from Alanah saying that she had landed.

Off to the airport.

From the airport, we went to a different lumber store for rebar. The last time I was in Kona, cement was less expensive at the first store, than this one. This time, it is just the opposite. “So it goes!”

We arrived back at Hoowai around 6:30 PM.

TTFN

March 2, 2023

Thursday

Overcast and a fine misting rain along with a steady wind.

This trip has been that way so far!

For a week, I have had almost steady rain, and when the rain dies out, the wind picks up. I have had a steady wind for the past week. Not strong enough to knock you down, not even strong enough to move anything, just an annoying steady wind. Today, I get both.

Yesterday, I had a short break in the morning where it looked like the weather was changing to sunny, so I did my laundry. Now that my clothes are hanging out on the clothesline to dry, it is raining! As my grand daughter would say, “So it goes!”

The wind has made it difficult to keep the burners lit on the stove in the kitchen gazebo. I have taken a large tarp and tied it up across the end of the gazebo where the wind and rain most often comes from.

The neighbors at Ahi have some large cardboard boxes folded and laid flat at the entrance to their large tent.

The other day, the wind blew them over to my lot. I gathered them up and returned them, putting a large rock on them to keep them in place.

This morning, I find that the wind has blown them over again. So, I stacked them all at the bottom of my driveway and stacked cut grass. and small branches on them. then I ran over it all with my car to pack it down.

In the afternoon, I installed the last two beams for the Ahi gazebo. I do not have enough 4 x 4 posts, so I nailed two 2 x 4’s together to serve as a temporary post.

TTFN

March 1, 2023

Wednesday

I used the last of the propane last night fixing dinner and had none this morning for breakfast.

I was also down to one pair of clean socks, so I decided to do laundry this morning first.

As I was washing some shirts, something caught my eye up in the branches just above my head. I glanced up and right behind me, less than two feet away was Bert! Ernie was on another branch off to the side. My red headed cardinals! They were both intently looking at me as if to say, “Hey! Did you forget something?!”

After feeding the birds, I went in to town and got my propane tank filled.

Then I unbolted the 4 x 4 metal brackets from the tops of the columns. I washed them with muriatic acid to clean the concrete residue off them. When they dried, I spray painted them. This is the best chance to paint them one last time before I bolted them in place.

I measured the heights of my four corner columns in relation to each other and figured the heights to cut the 4 x 4 posts so that I would have some slope on the roof. . . not a lot, just a little to assist it to drain. Once the four corner posts were in place, I lifted the beams up and set them in place, I ran a string from one beam to the other, directly over the center columns and measured for the height of the center 4 x 4 posts.

TTFN