Gathered up some scrap pieces of 1″ and 2″ boards to use as forms for the caps on the columns at Ahi.
The load of sand and gravel was delivered today. I had most of it dumped in a pile on Ahi Road near the driveway, and about a quarter of it dumped on the driveway.
A truckload cost $500.00
I started to pull some of it down the driveway as well as haul, some back to the gazebo to fill and level the floor area. A full wheelbarrow will go speeding down the hill, so I can only fill it about 3/4 full. I also place most of the load in the back part of the wheelbarrow and drag the metal support legs through the gravel/dirt to act as a brake. A couple of times, I lost control and the wheelbarrow would tip over and dump the load down the hill – helter skelter! When I did get a wheelbarrow load to the bottom of the hill, I would shift the load towards the front onto the tire to make it easier to push. I cannot just wheel this material straight to the gazebo as the pathway is quite rough. I have to place a few loads in places on the pathway to fill and level it so the wheelbarrow will move through.
At the beginning of the path, near the bottom of the driveway, there is a large rock in the pathway. I took my small sledge hammer and a steel stake and tried to break it up. I was able to remove enough of it so the wheelbarrow will go past.
Also, just before the gazebo is a small gully. The path drops down about a foot and a half in a distance of about 8 feet, and then there is a steep up-hill slope for about 4 feet. I have dumped 3 wheelbarrow loads in this area to raise this gully and build up the path. I have succeeded in dumping 2 wheelbarrow loads in the middle of the gazebo. I’ll probably only need 20 more!
Finished the block work on all six columns for the gazebo at Ahi.
The next step is to grout them (fill all the cells with concrete) and pour a concrete cap with anchor bolts to hold the metal post bases that I made in Arizona. I brought them in my checked bag (a cardboard box).
Ordered a truck load of 2 1/2″minus (sand and gravel that measures 2 1/2″ in diameter and smaller) for the driveway. It will be delivered in the morning. I will spread it on the driveway to reduce the slope and make it easier to drive up and down. I will also sift some of it through a screen I made to remove the larger rocks (anything that is larger than about 1″) and use this material and add cement to make the concrete to grout the cells of the columns.
Very windy today. All day, the wind blew from the south.
Worked on the columns for the gazebo at the Ahi lot. Four of the six columns are up to the 4’8″ height I want. This is a deceiving figure, as some of the columns are six foot tall from the footing level. The 4’8″ height is above finished grade. I hauled more block – enough to finish the other two columns. Not sure if I have enough sand and mortar cement.
Also worked on the pile of disgarded limbs and branches that were dumped here many years ago. Used the chainsaw to cut some of the larger ones (some as large as three feet in diameter) into pieces I could carry. Of course, in order to do this, I had to put on a new chainsaw chain. I only hope there are no rocks imbedded in this wood.
I am still stacking them on the Hilo side (south? East?) of the driveway. Gathered some of the downed branches from along the fence line towards the ocean (rhe makai side). These, I piled at the base of the driveway slope and used the chainsaw to cut into 4″ pieces.
Back at the Holowai lot, I heated water on the stove to add to the water from my soda bottle solar water heater and took a shower.
Bright and sunny. Very few clouds on the horizon. Good for my solar system – I saw 12.1 volts at one time during the day!
Worked at the Ahi lot most of the day. Moved the pile of lumber I had stacked on top of the partially built columns for the gazebo.
Using my clippers, I cut the grass along the sides of the driveway. It had grown to almost two feet tall. I threw the grass I cut onto the driveway to give more traction in the gravel.
I hauled a few more large branches/logs from the pile at the back of the lot to the new pile I am making along side the driveway. Delivered 16 block for the columns.
Very windy today – had difficulty keeping the burner lit on the stove.
I hauled some of the branches from next to the road, back to the wood yard area above the septic field. Using the chainsaw, I proceeded to cut them into 4″ to 6″ pieces. One of the larger logs was a root that had some rocks imbedded inside the root. Now I need a new chain for the saw! 😦
After destroying the chainsaw chain, I tried to start the chipper. There was gas pouring out the throat of the carburetor, so I took it apart. The float bowl had a layer of brown gunk that looked like rust. I don’t see any evidence of any rust in the rest of the carburetor, but I sprayed it all with carbutetor cleaner and wiped it with a cloth. Then I adjusted the needle valve and put the carburetor back together and reinstalled it on the chipper. It started right up!
There was a pile of branches next to the chipper. The pile is about the size of a Volkswagen bug (a small car) The pile was almost all gone – it had been chipped up into a smaller pile that would fill 3 or 4 five gallon buckets – when it started to rain. Within a minute, I was soaked to the skin!
The solar system is struggling because it has been overcast all day. It never got above 11.8 volts!
Later in the afternon, my order of block and lumber and corrugated roofing came. Now I need to remember what I was going to do with this! Oh yeah, I am going to build an outhouse. Need to decide where! The block is for the columns on the gazebo at the Ahi lot.
I got an old rusty table saw from my neighbor Scott. I have seen it sitting out in his yard the past two times I have been in Hawaii and I have been covetous! I asked him about it. He said that his brother had gotten it at a yard sale. He had never used it, didn’t know if it worked, and I could have it! I gave him twenty bucks for it and a 55 gallon plastic barrel. I can use the barrel to catch rainwater off the shed roof (need to put up some gutters) but the table saw will need a lot of work.
Off to the market in OceanView for milk, juice, ice, eggs – Eggs cost $8.99 per dozen! I’ll do without the eggs!
Unpacked my two checked bags (cardboard boxes), my roller bag, and my backpack. Put up my solarpanels on the roof of the shed, and connected the batteries – got my fingers crossed. It was cloudy and overcast much of the day, but in spite of this, after a few hours, I had enough solar power to be able to turn on the refrigerator. It got to 39 degrees. At about 4 PM, the voltage in the solar system dropped to 11.2 volts and the power inverter for the refrigerator went into overload – OK, it probably should be called underload instead of overload, but whatever you call it, it quit working, and turned off the refrigerator. I was glad that I had the ice. I was able to charge the battery in my laptop giving me about 20 minutes, and my cell phone got a full charge.
The last time I was here, there were tomatoes growing in a small wooden planter. The tomato vines are almost whithered up now, but there are a dozen tomatoes ripe and ready to eat.
I cut down most of the branches and tree stumps under the power lines and phone cables in front of the main lot. I carried the branches down to the chipper and some of the larger branches to the area above the chipper. Then I got the chainsaw and proceeded to cut the larger branches into 4 to 6″ pieces. There are still more to carry back but the property is quite open in the front along the road, and the area behind the rock wall next to the concrete steps is getting filled in with the small pieces of branches.
That’s all the sleep I got last night after watching the college basketball game. I was concerned that if I went to sleep, I would not wake up in time to catch my plane. I had a taxi scheduled for 4:15 am to take me to the airport and give me plenty of time to participate in the TSA charade before boarding the plane headed to Oakland, California, at 6:05.
Oakland???? Why Oakland? After spending two hours in Oakland, I would board another plane and fly to Kona. It is almost second nature now for me to be going to Hawaii. I tend to take it for granted. Most people get excited about traveling to Hawaii – it’s just something I do now.
The flight to Oakland was half full. Half full, half empty . . . depends on your point of view.
The flight from Oakland to Kona is chock-a-block . . . regardless of your point of view!
After going through the door into the plane, I am stopped when a girl who is sitting in the front row stands up holding her backpack in her arms. In the front row, there is nowhere to stow your backpack (your “personal item”). In other rows, you can stow it under the seat in front of you, but in the front row, there is no seat in front of you!
I stand there just inside the door while she tries to find a place in an overhead bin. The first two overhead bins on each side of the plane are already full, so she has to go back to the 6th or 7th row before finding an open space. She lifts the backpack up into the overhead compartment. Then she changes her mind and brings it back down, placing it on the floor. She pulls out a water bottle and places it on the floor next to the backpack.
I can feel the line of people behind me growing impatient as they crane their necks around to see what is the delay. There really is no indication of any impatience, just my own feelings.
She picks up the backpack and puts it back into the overhead compartment. She walks back to the first row, and just before she gets there, she stops and turns around and goes back to the 7th row. She picks up the water bottle she left on the floor and struggles to put it into the backpack that is stowed in the overhead bin, but this time, in an outside pocket of the backpack, then returns to her seat in the front row.
I walk down the aisle of the plane followed by the line of people behind me. I find an empty row of seats in row 13 and I step out of the aisle so that the rest of the passengers can continue on towards the empty seats further back.
Yes, there are no assigned seats. It is first come, first served – a “cattle call” some have called it. You board according to how well you are able to time your “check-in” 24 hours prior to the flight time – unless you are a family traveling with small children, military in uniform, disabled and need extra time to board, or are willing to pay a premium for the right to board earlier than everyone else.
I chose this row, not just because it is currently empty, but also because the overhead compartment is empty as well and I will be able to put my rollerbag and my backpack up there. Standing in my row, out of the aisle, I take out what I think I will need on the flight – my tablet, my glasses, a pen, my notebook – and then place it in the overhead bin because there is a break in the flow of people still boarding and looking for a seat.
I wonder why there is break in the flow of people and if that means that everyone is on board, and I glance towards the front of the plane. There is that same teenaged girl from the 1st row (she looks to be 16, 17, or 18 years old) struggling against traffic, trying to get back to row 1 from row 7. She has her water bottle in her hand.
One of the flight attendants picks up the microphone next to the entry door of the plane. She stumbles through trying to pronounce the names of three passengers and asks them to raise their hand if they are on board. She is partially hidden by the people standing in the aisle still trying to find a seat, or stow their luggage in the overhead bins as someone in row 8 or 9 raises their hand. I wonder if she sees them. A few minutes later, she asks again for one of the original three.
We wait an additional 45 minutes past the time we were supposed to take off – I don’t know if it is because of this “lost passenger” or some other reason. Eventually, they close the door and we push back from the gate. The flight attendants proceed with the safety briefing.
The flight to Oakland, the layover in Oakland, and the flight to Kona were rather routine and uneventful. As we approached Hawaii we were given the typical State of Hawaii Agriculture form. Some of the passengers were dismayed/confused/pissed off about the form. They did not understand that it was absolutely meaningless – like so many of Hawaii’s official rules from their overreaching “nanny” government. It asks you to declare any fruits, vegetables, soil, seeds, animals, etc., that you are bringing into Hawaii. The form threatens you with huge fines if you do not declare these items. what nobody points out, or stops to think about, is that from the shear number of these forms collected every day, there is no way that anyone could ever be able to read, tabulate, file, sort, etc., these and they probably put them into a cardboard box and take them to the landfill, or stack therm somewhere for the cockroaches to have something to eat! The new lie that is most common in Hawaii is “Due to staff shortages, it will take a while before anyone from the department responds to your request!” This has surpassed the old lie, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you!”
The flight attendant had to explain, numerous times, that while this form was mandatory, it was the government of Hawaii that was mandating it, not the airlines!
Also, the back side of the form that asks where you are staying, how many times you have been to Hawaii, how many are traveling with you, what islands you plan to visit, etc., is purely optional! Furthermore, once you give the form to the flight attendant, they stack them together and turn them in to someone at the airport. There is no one that correlates the forms with the passengers, or checks up on what you put on the form.
I was on the side of the plane that faced Maui, but Haleakala (the volcano on Maui) was totally obscured by clouds.
When I picked up my two checked “bags” (they were cardboard boxes), one had been opened and then resealed with about a mile of clear packing tape. Inside, I later found the standard form inside from TSA that said that they had opened it. The other one was so wet, (it was raining in Oakland so it probably got wet out on the tarmac) that I thought the cardboard would melt, but it made it all the way to the property.
Brian Jones (my neighbor on Ahi) picked me up from the bus stop in Waiohinu and gave me a ride to Holowai. The property looked much the same as when I left – just a bit more green.
The internet/phone cable provider had hired a tree trimming crew to come through the subdivision and trim all the trees out of the cable wires on the power poles. They cut everything within about 6 feet of the cables, leaving about 10 feet of trees/stumps/branches below. The good thing is that they ran everything they cut through a chipper instead of just leaving it along the side of the road.
It was lightly sprinkling and I hurried to get my bags under cover. Then I took the car into town for ice, but the market was all out of ice! I heated water on the stove for ramen noodles and a warm drink before putting sheets on the bed.
Early November called for a return to the Big Island.
Changing planes in Oakland
The approach to the island was much the same as usual, lots of clouds gathered around the mountains covering their mid elevations with the peaks of the volcanoes poking their heads through.
Mauna Loa with the east coast of Hawaii
A view over the plane’s wing at Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa in the background
A view under the wing of Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa in the background
Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa shrouded in the clouds in front of the wing
Coming around the Kohala Coast gave a clear view of the shoreline approaching the airport in Kona.
The west coast of Hawaii above Kona airport
The property on Holowai Street is much the same as when I left, no one has poured the footings for the house – darn!
The footings I dug at the Holowai lot during last trip
I did find that there were still guavas on some of the guava trees.
A visit to the Ahi Road lot showed the driveway still unfinished at about halfway down the hill and a pile of branches where I left them. The neighbors have moved their trailer down onto their lot along the property line and their truck and camper is at the lower edge of their lot.
A days work of cutting the branches at the bottom of the driveway and I was ready for another load of fill from Gary.
Backhoe Greg was called upon to come spread the dirt/rocks downhill and over the branches.
Still not enough to make it possible to drive to the bottom of the hill. I will need to pile more branches up and cut them into small pieces – then another load of fill dirt!
The neighbors arranged for a load of topsoil/mulch to be delivered and I talked with the driver about some inexpensive fill for my driveway. He said he would check with other truckers and see what he could come up with. A phone call the next day from Dave, arranged for another load of fill dirt to be brought in for the driveway.
I will need to chop up the branches before spreading any more dirt down hill. With the branches covered and two days of hauling dirt with a wheelbarrow, and I was comfortable with driving to the bottom of the hill.
In my spare time, work progressed on the gazebo/playhouse/shed I want to build at the back corner of the Ahi lot. A couple of days got the footings dug.
Then the footings were poured with rebar for the block columns.
Steadily, the columns began to take shape and seemed to rise from the midst of the jungle.
During my last trip in September/October, I had enticed some small birds to come down to the lanai next to the gazebo for crumbs of bread or crackers. They were timid at first, but got bolder each day. I called them Ernie and Bert! For the first few weeks of this trip I did not see them at all, but eventually they returned and started picking up the crumbs.
The work on extending the driveway to the bottom of the hill continued as well as work on building the columns for the new structure at Ahi.
On the morning of November 28, I got a call from Alanah. She told me that our neighbor in Scottsdale had just told her that Mauna Loa had erupted in the middle of the night. There is a complete separate posting about this titled “Thar She Blows!”.
Alanah arrived on the island on the 30th for a long weekend. We took a drive out to the shore at Honuapu but it was cold and windy. the swimming holes were only half full, and it was too cold to think about swimming.
On Sunday the 4th, we rode the bus to Hilo and rented a car to drive up to the Saddle Road and hope to catch a glimpse of the lava flows. While waiting for the bus in Na’alehu, we admired the huge trees that line the main street.
While in Hilo, we drove past the bridge on Wainaku street over the Wailuku river that empties in to the ocean. A real cool looking bridge built during the depression in the early 1920’s and 30’s.
There were a lot of huge trees here with roots/branches/tendrils that extended down to the river.
The weather did not cooperate and the low clouds hid most of the lava activity, but we did see off in the distance about 2 miles away from the highway, a few flashes of red as the lava burst forth from the leading edge of the flows as they spread across the flats of the saddle area.
Monday saw Alanah head out to Kona in the rental car to return to Arizona and I returned to the columns at Ahi.
With the columns all at 3’4″ above what will be the finished grade, I moved the lumber from the middle of the jungle and piled it up on the columns to try to keep it a bit dryer.
This trip saw progress on clearing the front portion of the Ahi lot, a completed driveway at Ahi as well as the columns for the structure. I must return to the mainland until February.
As most of you should know by now, Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano erupted on November 27, 2022 at 11:30 PM. And I was there, on the Big Island of Hawaii, on the south slope of Mauna Loa, and I slept through it!
Mauna Loa with snow on top – This photo is from December 21 – over a week after Mauna Loa quit erupting.
That means that there are now two volcanoes actively releasing lava on the Big Island within 40 miles of each other!
On the 28th, my wife called me from Arizona and told me that the neighbor lady had just told her that Mauna Loa was erupting!
At that time, it was spewing lava at the summit from 1 or 2 fissures within the caldera (the crater at the peak of a volcano is called the caldera) and was all contained within the caldera. Later, it broke out of the caldera and started flowing down the northeast side of the mountain – the opposite side of the mountain from where my place is located.
Later that night as I was going to bed, I looked towards where the summit of the volcano was and I could see a red glow in the sky as if the sun had just disappeared below the hills. Very cool! By the time I could find my camera to try to get a picture, the clouds moved in and the red glow was gone – within a couple of minutes!
The most active fissure has been what they labeled as fissure 3 at about 11,500 feet elevation. This has sent lava down towards the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea where it is currently pooling between the two at about the 7,000 feet mark.
On Sunday, December 4th, we drove around to the saddle road (The major highway that runs between the two volcanoes and connects Hilo on the east side with Kona on the west) to see if we could catch a glimpse of the lava.
The weather was not being cooperative. We were at about 6000 feet elevation and heavy clouds were at about 8,000 feet, so we could not see the summit.
Looking across the saddle, once in a while we could see faint small flares of red as the lava burst through the front of the flow line, but most of the lava flowing down the side of the mountain was dark black, and undistinguishable from the older flows.
This is what we were hoping to be able to see:
HAWAII, USA- NOVEMBER 30: A view from Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began to erupt overnight, prompting authorities to open shelters “as a precaution” on November 30, 2022 in Big Island of Hawaii, United States. ((Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images))
Back in May, I posted about the poncianna trees I have planted in our front yard here in Arizona.
Arizona really isn’t the correct planting zone for these trees as they thrive in hot, wet, humid, tropical locations. While Arizona is hot, and for two months it is humid, I would not say that Arizona is wet, or tropical. Exactly the opposite! Dry and desert, yet there is one growing outside the Arizona Senate building in downtown Phoenix!
We have had these trees growing in the front yard for twelve years. For the past two years, we have been getting the red flowers on top. Two years ago, we even got one solitary bean that had no seeds in it.
I was sweeping the front walkway this morning when I just happened to look up.
TropicalCastaway 