Back To Work

September 11, 2024

After yesterday’s little diversion down at the shore. I got back to working on the steps for the gazebo.

After removing the stakes and supports for the forms for the first step that I poured yesterday, I formed the next step down.

With the forms in place, I backfilled using some of the material from the pile in the driveway.

Then I started up the mixer and poured the step. I am using the same method of finishing these steps as I used for the gaeden steps. I use a sponge to suck up the excess water and swirl the sand and cement around the surface. This leaves a “sand” finish that will not be slippery when wet.

While I had the mixer going, I poured one of the two remaining sections in the bathroom floor. I am troweling these sections and hoping that they will not be too spillery.

It takes water to mix concrete. This left me with guite a few empty bottles that I use to haul water.

So, I loaded up the truck and headed off to the transfer station in Waiohinu where the water fill station is located.

There are six hose bibs stationed about 8 feet apart along the entrance to the trash transfer station.

When I was in the water down at the ocean yesterday, I got out of the swimming pool and ventured out into what I call the arroyo that feeds the pool. Waves from the ocean come throgh this 30 to 50 foot gap in the lava and flows into the pool. This arroyo has places where the water is a foot or more deep. Coming straight out of the ocean, it is the same temperature as the ocean. which is typically about five degrees cooler than the water in the swimming pool, as the swimming pool is warmed by the sun as well as the black lava surrounding it that also has been warmed by the sun.

The wave action in this arroyo caused me to step back and step onto a sea urchin. Ouch! One of the spines found a way past my pool shoes and into my big toe. It has been bothering me all day! I tried to dig out as much as I could. but ended up just pushing it in deeper. So, before going to bed, I applied a bit of this drawing ointment and a bandaide to see if it would draw it out!

TTFN

Just Another Day in Paradise

September 10, 2024

More concrete!

Mixed up enough concrete to pour a step leading up to the gazebo.

That’s enough work! Time to go down to the ocean!

The ocean is pretty calm today, The sky is blue. The sun is shining, There is a slight breeze blowing. What a great day to be in Hawaii!

There is not a lot of wave action, but yet there is still a bit of splashing as the water meets the lava.

The swiming pool is calm and clear!

But there are clouds gathering over Kilauea in the distance – about 40 miles away to the east!

The sky is quite clear in the opposite direction off towards South Point (Ka Lae), Milolii, Kealakekua, and beyond, to Kona!

TTFN

Playing in the Mud

September 9, 2024

In the morning, after breakfast, I mixed concrete and poured two of the squares in the bathroom floor.

I set up the mixer in the driveway about 20 feet inside the gate and used the smaller material I had separated when I moved one of the gravel piles from outsde the gate..

Then I continued mixing and filled the forms for the column caps, filling the columns as well.

While I had the mixer running, I mixed up enough concrete to pour a third section of the floor for the gazebo extension.

This helps to define the area of the gazebo a bit better. Now, I need to come up with some pattern for the rest of the floor.

In the afternoon, I was able to remove the forms from the two sections in the bathroom floor, making it ready to pour the remaining sections tomorrow.

I also removed the form on one side of the section of the gazebo floor I poured this morning and set up forms for a step.

TTFN

A Pebble in my Shoe

September 8, 2024

After struggling with trying to come up with a clever pattern for the floor of the bathroom, I decided to just keep it simple. Just four sections. So, I set up forms to be able to pour two of the four sections.

When I had the gravel/sand mix delivered to Holowai, I had him dump it into two piles – one on each side of the driveway, The last time I had a load delivered, they dumped it in one pile that extended halfway out into the area of the road where people drove. I hoped that by dumping it into two piles, it would not block the roadway as much.

I have been working on moving the smaller of the two piles – separating the smaller stuff from the larger rocks. I dumped the smaller stuff in a pile about 30 feet inside the gates. The larger rocks, I have used as backfill material around the block walls. Today, I moved the last of the smaller pile.

I dumped the larger rocks here to fill this area and backfill next to the block walls.

It has spilled out around the corner.

I set up forms to pour a third section of the floor for the gazebo extension.

the tops of the columns are also ready to create a concrete cap on them.

TTFN

One Small Step . . .

September 7, 2024

The birds were all waiting for me at the lanai when I got up this morning. So, I crushed up a couple of crackers and put the crumbs into the feeder.

If you look closely at the picture above, you will see a Northern Red Cardinal, and a couple of honeycreepers waiting their turn at the feeder.

After breakfast, I set up forms for another step at the bottom of the garden stairs. I think that this one will be the bottom step. I plan on creating at least two more steps at the upper end of the staircase.

Forms are also set up at the top of the gazebo columns to pour a concrete cap.

I need to find some bolts to set into the concrete when I pour it to use to bolt the 4 x 4 metal bases I had my grandson in Arizona weld for me before I came. I have the bolts somewhere in the back of the Ford Escape – I think!

I set up the mixer in the driveway and mixed concrete to pour another section of the floor for the gazebo extension. I struggled with the scraps from my lava pattern stamp. I created it with lines of silicone caulking on window screen. The screen has deteriorated and fallen apart, leaving it in multiple smaller pieces. But I was successful in stamping a lava pattern in this part of the gazebo floor.

I also poured the bottom step on my garden steps. I used a sponge to create a “sand” finish on this, like I have on the other steps.

Over by the driveway, there is a guava tree that gives me guavas periodically. I am too late for the guava on the left – the birds have gotten to it and cleaned out everything inside, leaving it an empty shell.

I have set up these pieces of containers as a tiered fountain using two solar powered water pumps. I like it and so do the birds. I have seen the red headed cardinals using it as a bird bath, They get in and splash water all over themselves. I am not quick enough to catch a photo of them doing this . . . maybe in the future.

TTFN

Meeting a Menehune

September 6, 2024

I was greeted by two of my feathered friends this morning as they came by to get something to eat from the bird feeder. The Hawaiian Honeycreeper paitently waited its turn as the Red Headed Cardinal pecked away at the cracker crumbs in the feeder.

After breakfast, I removed the forms from the concrete in the bathroom area.

Then I used the weed whacker to chop down the weeds in the area and around the septic tank.

I also cut down the weeds in and around the house walls.

I took a drive down to the ocean at Honuapo. The ocean is pretty calm today, not much wave action crashing against the lava and shooting into the air.

The swimming poolis clear, calm and inviting.

Almost dead center of the picture above is his little boat

As I was at the swimming pool, a guy ccame walking around the point from the Whittington Beach area, carrying what appeared to be a homemade boat – made from branches tied together with odd rope scraps, string, and fishing line and a sail made of a plastic garbage bag and a palm frond. The whole thing would have barely fit into a wheelbarrow!

I wish I had taken better pictures of his boat – and of him! He was barely five feet tall, with a muscular build, scruffy beard and wild unkept hair, and a complexion of someone who spent many hours outdoors. He was wearing a pair of torn cargo shorts, an old dirty tee shirt that was so old and/or dirty that the printing on it was illegible. On his feet, he had a pair of rubber boots like the ones a scuba diver would wear, with the seams coming apart. They were unzipped and I doubted that the zippers even worked any more. He reminded me of a lost, forgotten and forelorn Menehune!

He stood on the lava at the upper left side of the picture above watching the waves. Finally, he released/tossed the homemade boat/raft into the water, tied to a line that was many small pieces of scrap ropes tied together – about 50 feet of line! It looked like a rough imitation of a mini “Kon-Tiki raft!

I expected the waves to throw it against the lava, but it slowly moved away from shore and began going around the point. He said that there was a current moving around the point and if he released it, it would flow around to Whittington Beach area. Apparently, there are baited hooks below the boat/raft, and he was fishing. I asked him what he was hoping to catch, and he told me. But I didn’t understand what he said. I did understand that he was using the crabs that scurry around on the lava as bait.

A little to the right of center is his boat with the sails collapsed.

He chucked and said “They don’t like using the plastic bag for a sail . . . they get caught on boats propellers!” I watched him for over a half an hour as he watched his little boat/raft. The clouds were slowly moving in from over the volcano behind us, growing heavier and darker, as if it were going to rain, so I headed back to the truck.

On the way back to the property, I stopped at the water fill station just outside the transfer station to fill the bottles I had brought with me. As I filled the bottles, it slowly and lightly sprinkled on me.

When I got back to the property, the rain had quit and everything was dry!

TTFN