Aloha To All:

Probably the biggest question that I had before we came over here, and the biggest question some of you have expressed, is “How bad is the ‘vog’ where you are? It really has not been bad at all. It is not affecting us as far as our eyes and our breathing, but we can see it when you look across a distance of ten miles; it is hazy at times. We do not really know if that is FOG or VOG… or DIRTY GLASSES. On some days, we suspect that the breeze carries away the vapors. Also, it is nearly an hour and a half drive south to where the volcano is venting, so there are good opportunities for the vapors to escape to the Great Pacific before it makes it up to where we are.

Things are going well here at the “ranch” as Clyde and the Brown’s call this home. It is so quiet and peaceful and relaxing here. If a vehicle comes up Ka Nani Drive, we will definitely hear it. It is similar to where my family and I grew up at the end of a half-mile long gravel road. I heard a cow that was bellowing and sounded to me like it was in trouble, but other nearby cows were not concerned, so I figured they could translate “mooooo-mawwww-moooo” better than I could and they did not stop eating, so I let that one go.

We always enjoy walking through the produce section of the grocery store. We can always find something that we have never seen before. This image is of a standard sized banana, at least 7 inches long. That is an avocado behind it. It is almost the size of the banana. We ripened it in a “plain, brown paper bag” with an apple to provide the “endorphins” that stimulate the avocado to ripen. Now, when one does that sort of thing, one needs to pay some close attention to business, and not go off and forget one’s duties. We let it be too long and it got over-ripe. Inside it was beautiful, but… well… over-ripe avocadoes do not stimulate one’s appetite. We will try again.

Now… that red thing… anybody know what that is? How you fix it? What it tastes like? Do you cook it or throw it at the enemy?

Take a look at the next image. It looks like a five-inch long watermelon with micro seeds. Or maybe it is an embarrassed kiwi? Strawberry with a glandular problem? It is officially named a “Dragon Fruit”. It weighs twice the weight of a large apple, and is slightly soft to the touch, just like a RIPE avocado should feel. We bought one… sorry… I bought one… Rosalee wanted me to make that perfectly clear… J. We opened it for a snack. Oh My Gosh… look at that color inside. It is gorgeous. Can you imagine making a fruit salad with some slices of that in there? Actually, a few slices of that and some slices of a nice kiwi added to any fruit salad would be spectacular… and drive all of your guests crazy trying to figure out what the heck it is.

Well, the entire thing is just what you see. No core… no fibrous area… sort of like a kiwi. Maybe it is the appearance that gave me a mind-set but I thought that it tasted like a kiwi, with a little more mild taste than a kiwi. So mild that it did not really have a taste, but as we ate it, we could start to appreciate the special mild flavor that it had. We… I mean I… will definitely have to pick up another one of those.

I will probably have to ask Donna when they return from their cruise, about the three tomatoes that she had left on her counter. We thought it good to finish them up before starting on fresher fruit, since these tomatoes were starting to have a slight tenderness to them. We have no idea how long ago Donna had bought them, but they certainly would not last until she returns, so we sliced them up for sandwiches and salads.

Now, when we were kids on the ranch, we raised chickens, and that means we had eggs… more eggs than we could consume. Mom would take them into town and exchange them at the grocery store for groceries. I remember watching the people at the store “candling” the eggs. Now, there are not too many of you reading this that can tell anyone what it means to “candle” an egg.

Fer y’all youngun’s, an egg was passed in the front of a black panel that had a small hole in it and a bright light behind the hole. That allowed light to pass through the egg and if there was anything inside the egg, it would show up as a shadow on the inside of the shell. A shadow would usually mean that the eggs were “fertile” (more correctly, the egg itself had been fertilized and a new chicken was being developed inside the egg).

As I started to slice the first tomato for our sandwiches, I noticed small black bumps on the side of the skin of the tomato, and in opening the skin around the black spot, I uncovered the spot was actually a “sprout” trying to grow out from the center of the tomato. As if the seeds inside the tomato had sprouted to start afresh. This image allows you to see clearly what I am describing. I am starting to feel like I am in the land of Dr. Morrow. These seeds are actually sprouting inside the tomato. I have never seen that before. Can you 'candle' a tomato?

Last Sunday we drove down along the leeward coast (Kona coast – west coast) to South Point, the most southern spot of the USA. Along the way we visited Kealakekua Bay (Kay – Alah – Kay – Koo – Ah). Our friends Janet and Walt from Seattle were visiting, so we did some sightseeing. Next to the beach, to the right in this image, is the Hiki-au Heiau (Hee – Kee – Ah – Oo Hay – Ee – Ah – Oo) , which is to you and me a very nicely stacked pile of rocks that were placed with extreme care and they used no mortar, but to the ancient Hawaiians it is a most sacred location. This one is a Luakini (Lew – Ah – Kee – Nee) where human sacrifices were made.

Captain Cook, the man credited with the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands, met with local chieftains here. They considered the Captain as one of their “Gods” that had promised to return. One of the sailors had died and Cook insisted on a “Christian service” for him and insisted he be buried next to the Heiau, which is not the way the “locals” did things. This also allowed the Hawaiians to see that the good Captain was not really a “God” because he “could” have prevented the sailor’s demise had Cook really been a god.

You may not be able to see it, but if you could zoom in on the image of the bay, a mile or two away, on the other side of the bay, is a white obelisk erected to honor the death of Captain Hook, slain in 1779 by Hawaiians, in a misunderstanding over a missing launch from the Captains’ boat.

We started the day out by going down to Kailua-Kona to attend church services at the oldest Christian church in the “Sandwich” Islands. Named Mokuaikaua (Mo – koo – ah – ee – kah – oo – ah), it was constructed around 1837 by the local people, for the services conducted by the first Christian missionaries to come to the islands. They included the Reverend and Mrs. Hiram and Sibyl Bingham, and the Reverend and Mrs. Asa and Lucy Thurston. Any reading of the “modern” history of the Hawaiian Islands will see these names as leaders in the development of the political and economic developments, for several generations to come.

These people came from Boston on the brig “Thaddeus”, an 85 foot long ship that was 24 feet wide and 13 feet deep. It weighed only 241 tons and it left Boston on 10/13/1819, arriving in Kailua Bay 164 days later.

Many of the “seafaring men” sailing into and out of the Hawai’i of that day were enjoying the loose and wanton ways of the people near the ports and they feared the new “missionaries” might put a stop to that, so they tried to convince the Queen at that time that the new people meant nothing but harm to the Hawaiian people. When the king’s step-mother saw the terrible condition of the travelers, and saw that they had brought their own wives and children, she determined that they could never mean any harm to them, so she was probably the most significant factor in the missionaries being accepted here. It was also a big help in that the king Kamehameha and his step-mother (Ka’ahumanu) had already overthrown the old religious beliefs a few months before they arrived.

The church is built from lava rock and sea shells, with the internal structure made from Ohi’a (Oh - hee - ah) and Koa (Ko - ah) trees… all hardwoods. The church survived the earthquake of several years ago relatively unscathed.

The interior is very comfortable and quiet. Notice that the timbers that are posts that are on both sides of the sanctuary are over twenty feel long and are single-piece timbers. It was mentioned that those that designed the church were used to building barns, and you can sure see some influence of a good barn design in the structure. 

The paneling in the church is made from Koa, which almost does not exist any more. The pews are all Koa also, and yes, they are extremely hard to sit on, but they offer everyone coming into the church a nice pillow to sit on. Rosalee and I “roughed it” and did not take one. I was very surprised that my back did not kill me. Our pews in Pleasanton are padded on the seat portion, and my back just about walks out before the end of the service.

Speaking of walking out… no, we did not walk out of the service… but the pastor for the day was bare-footed for the service. And after all of those Sundays that mom told me that I HAD to polish my shoes for church. I just could have come here, and… Hmmmm. He was an interim pastor because the “real” one was on vacation, and apparently, this pastor is keeping their small children. He mentioned something about all four were arguing at breakfast about which one had the largest spoon. LOL.

Those are balconies on either side, and there was one across the rear. The organ and the piano were to the left of this image, and the choir sat on pews to the left, under the balcony. They sang traditional protestant selections, with some of them in English and some in Hawaiian.

Several members got up and talked about their “outreach” programs and their missionary work that the church sponsors. There was a large, two-story building behind the church that is where the classrooms and offices, etc. are located.

They were offering a small historical lecture after church, and about a dozen of us stayed over for it. We were glad that we did. The woman that spoke was very informative, and had an excellent delivery. She told about the first Christian missionaries to come to the islands, and how this church is the first one that was used.

Basically the “main” street running the length of the town of Kailua-Kona is Ali’i Street (Ah – Lee – ee), which stands for “God” in Hawaiian (appropriate name of a street for a church, don’t you agree?). Across the street is the two-story Hulihe’e Palace (Who – Lee – Hey – Eh), which the king built shortly after this church was built. It was his favorite home. It is currently being restored because of the earthquake damage suffered several years ago. This church, we are told, suffered very little damage. The walls are nearly four feet thick. Obviously there is no steel reinforcing inside the walls. Maybe California architects and engineers need to study this church!

This image on the left is a close-up look at the construction details of the connection between the tall posts and the bottom side of the balcony. Notice the pins of Ohi’a wood that pin the joint together. That ‘joint’ (the connection, not the church itself) has been holding together over 70 years.

Further down the coast a few miles was a landmark that we had always heard about over here, but had never actually sought out. It is called the “Painted Church”. There are more than one church in Hawai’i that is called that, but I guess this one was THE painted church.

Incidentally, it is not called the “Painted Church” because they actually bothered to splash some paint on the outside… it is elaborately painted on the inside with beautiful murals depicting events in the Bible and events in Hawaiian history.

It is actually the St. Benedict’s Catholic Church from about 1899.

Father John Velge dedicated his life to painting murals on the walls and the ceiling and they depicted scenes from Hell to the Temptation of Christ.

It is a tiny church, and it is extremely “busy” inside. I doubt that I would hear a single word said by any pastor speaking to me in that church. I would be too busy “reading” the walls I think. Standing at the front door, you overlook the huge Kealakekua Bay. Time and termites are taking their toll, and we did notice that the entire steeple is replaced (the old one is in the back where there are many gravesites).

There were many beautiful flowers and flowering trees on the site, which seemed to be more than twenty acres, flowing up the hill behind the church. There were quite a few headstones that had pretty early dates on them. Many had a huge amount of blossoms on them. I did notice that they were as often as not, made from plastic, but they were spectacular.

We saw many plants there… most were outstanding. We saw Bougainvillea plants that were many different colors, but I am not sure that I have ever seen one that had perfectly white blooms. Other plants seemed to be unusual enough that I am going to spend some time going through each of the five tree and flower books that I picked up the other day. I have often wanted to know the names of these plants, flowers, birds or something, and every book that I have checked did not have a single one that I recognized. Everything that I have looked up in the five books that I bought the other day was in there.

There are several life-sized statuary in the garden… or cemetery. They were a beautiful white and looked very clean. White marble is always so very difficult to keep looking clean. Not only does the weather and wind-blown dirt take it’s toll on statuary, but people can not withstand the temptation to touch white marble statuary. The oils from their hands cause so much damage, and though it can often be cleaned up, it is very difficult, expensive, and usually has to result is the loss of some of the surface of the statue. Rosalee and I traveled to Europe some fifteen years ago (thanks to our daughter Kim sharing her Business-Class ticket when her work sent her to Switzerland), and we were blessed with a quick tour through the Louvre Museum. I was astonished at how grimey and dirty many of the statues were, and it was because people have walked next to the statues and handled them for literally centuries.

After visiting the “Painted Church”, we drove on down toward South Point, which is the most southern portion of the USA. Now, I did not see the man (woman?) that was “manning” (“womaning”?) this fishing pole, but if he (she) normally works in Main or somewhere up there, he (she) has taken the term “Gone Fishin’ “) to about as much an extreme as he (she) could. Five thousand miles and still never left the USA? I did ask “Gabby” (our Garmin Portable Navigator) to plot a course from this point to Pleasanton, CA (“off road” obviously) and “she” told me that it was 2,014 miles… “That’a Way”.

Rosalee and I recall being there in 1991 when we visited the big island for the first time, and remembered four or five wind generators standing near the road to the point. They were all running, proudly adding power to the electrical grid on the island, and with our being used to seeing these machines living near the Altamont Pass and the huge wind farm there, we took these in our stride. This time we visited however, we were amazed to find some forty towers, but only a dozen were running. The others were standing still, and most were missing a portion of a propeller blade, a whole blade, a complete 3-bladed propeller, the housing of the “motor”, or the “motor” itself… millions of dollars of equipment standing in plenty of strong, nearly constant wind, and 70% of them were not turning a single turn.

Also, when we were over here in ’91, I looked at their Geothermal plant (where the heat from the molten lava is used to heat water to make steam which turns steam turbines that drive generators to make electricity), and it was shut down. Not operating. One cannot help to ask why either of these facilities is not functioning at full capacity when gasoline is selling here at $3.60 a gallon for their cheapest grade.

OK… I am remiss in getting these out. Too much playing and not enough attention to the computer. Also, this report has been “in the works” for over a week and I have managed to mess it up enough that it has failed to go out. Here’s hoping this one makes it out. I am getting behind J

 

 

Take Care, All Of You.

 

Ken & Rosalee (and assorted critters)

 

 

 

Aloha, From the Fastest Growing State in the Union:

As for the “SCIENTIFICALLY AND OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED CRITTER COUNT”, we are proud to report that the “Critter Count” has been holding at three of those long and creepy guys, fewer of the large black beetle-type guys, and the number of the green guys on the windows and walls seem to be the same as before. The bird count is basically static, and we have decided that the number of birds in the back yard are directly proportional to the amount of cracked corn tossed into the lawn for Turkey Lurkey, and since she has been “incognito” since before we arrived, the smaller birds are the losers in the deal.

As for the “SCIENTIFICALLY AND OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED WEATHER REPORT", the wind has been very mild and “controlled”, the temperature outside at 9:00 pm tonight is 73°, and there has been nary a drop of rain since we have arrived.

As for the “SCIENTIFICALLY AND OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED CLYDE REPORT”, she is the same sweet lady that we know and love. She fixed lunch for us… her “trademark” Portuguese Bean Soup, with green salad and scrumptious corn bread. We are going out to lunch with her tomorrow (Wednesday). She has spotted a restaurant over in Kamuela-Waimea (Kam – oo – eh – lah Wah – ee – may – ah) that she wants us to try out.

As for the “SCIENTIFICALLY AND OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED VOLCANO REPORT”, it is still there and it is still belching and oozing and dribbling.

The mountain is Mauna Loa, the fourth volcanic mountain to contribute to the forming of the “newest” and largest island (Hawai’i). It is at the southern end of the island, the full length of the island away from us (about two hours of travel by car). What you see in this image is a caldera (the pot from which a volcano spits steam and lava rocks) that formed on the side of Mauna Loa, thereby causing the “officials” to refer to this as a newer and fifth volcano. They have since learned that Kilauea actually IS a separate mountain. This caldera is named “Kilauea Crater” (Kee - lah - oo - ay - ah) (they like to name everything around here… even the same things get several different names. That really plays heck and causes conflicts between the maps and our electronic navigator, as well as spouses). There is another caldera at the top of Mauna Loa. It has been quite some time since it was of interest of those that love to see “action” around volcanoes, but it was active within the last century.

This large crater that you can see in this image is more than 2 ½ miles across, and was at one time, of course, all molten lava across the 'floor'. You can see out there past the middle, another crater (inside the Kilauea caldera) and it is called Halema’uma’u Crater (Hah – lay – mah – oo – mah – oo), and it is currently venting steam (which you can see in the image). It has some molten lava down inside that is visible from the air. This little crater was totally quiet last year at this time, except for some minor venting of sulfur-rich steam. Right now (visible only if you can blow up this image), there are maybe a hundred of those small vents that size, but on the surface of the bigger caldera.

Our son and daughter-in-law stood in this very spot last year and I took their picture, and then we went down into the larger caldera (the road drives down onto the surface of the large caldera) to a large parking lot. We then walked over to Halema’uma’u, standing behind a wooden fence, looking down at the surface of Halema’uma’u. This time we saw pictures of what was left of that fence, and saw pieces of it. Fairly recently (months ago) this crater re-opened. It is basically a “reservoir” of molten lava that rises and falls as it “flushes” out through vents about ten miles to the East, lower on the side of the mountain. They tell us that the surface of the pit (smaller crater) is rather far up above the level of the molten lava lake under it, and if the surface falls into the pit, and the adjoining land surrounding this smaller crater caves in, it will then be called a “Caldera”. Most people are not aware of the fact that when they go up to the Mammoth area in California for skiing, the town of Mammoth actually sits on the surface of a caldera that is ten miles wide. It blew 600,000 years ago and blew debris all the way to Virginia. Most people do not concern themselves with the fact that the streets of Mammoth have raised more than five feet in the last ten years.

This is a result of a long lens… I’m not that anxious to get any closer than I was at this point. This was actually taken from the lookout area of the Jaggar Museum and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, on the western rim of the Kilauea Caldera. That cloud, where it is first seen coming up out of the crater, is wide enough for two football stadiums to be placed between us and the cloud, with plenty of room for end zones and refreshment stands. Carbon Dioxide, hydrochloric acid, particles… and they want me to shut down my pellet stove in the winter. I wonder how many Chevy Suburbans it would take to make a cloud like that? And this thing is running 24/7/365.

It was a 40-mile drive from the caldera to this spot. It was almost completely back to Hilo and then down toward what used to be the town of Kalapana (Kah - lah - pah - nah), which is the town that was destroyed by the molten lava flowing toward the sea back in about 1990. We were there the last day that Kaimo Beach Kah - ee - mo), a beautiful black-sand beach, was completely covered over by lava. They had just cut a 300-foot wide swath through the trees and were moving an ancient church on wheels to a new location. They did save the church, but few if any homes were saved before they were simply set afire by the molten lava. This lava flows over the surface of the ground at the rate of 100 feet per hour. Several owners have returned and rebuilt their homes, but since this new flow started, they are all burned out except for one man that is running a Bed-&-Breakfast, with molten lava flowing on both sides of the house. Access is via a small helicopter. He is booked far into the future. I don’t want to see THAT motel bill.

That is Rosalee standing in blue, talking to the woman in red who was returning from the “viewing spot”. The couple to the left of Rosalee are our friends that we met on our Ft. Lauderdale – Panama Canal – Seattle cruise last year. They are Walt and Janet Jamison from Seattle, who joined us over here to visit Kilauea. The steam rising in the background is steam being thrust upward from the molten lava flowing into the sea. We were warned that the steam contains sulfur and HCL, and the fumes might be rather over-bearing. We were not affected by it, but we could not get closer than 200 yards to where the lava was flowing into the sea. We were able to walk down well past the lights at the end of this “parking lot” (closed county road), then more than a half-mile walk over paho’eho’e lava (Pah – ho – aye – ho – aye) (looks like chocolate brownies but is very uneven and has many crevasses that may be several feet deep and a foot wide. It was dark when we walked in… and walked back out. But it was free. :-)

If the photographer were to turn and look up to the right, the direction Rosalee is looking in the photo above, you could see where the lava was coming out of the side of the mountain. The hole, or vent, is called Pu’u O’o (Poo – oo oh – oh), and can be seen in this next image.

The lava is exiting up there on the side of the mountain and flowing all the way down, past us, and into the water. That is why this road we are standing on is closed. That vent is about ten miles away from where I was standing when I took this picture. We were pushing the limit on digital cameras at this point. There was just not enough light to take these images, so they are blurred from hand-holding the camera. You can see a current image of Pu'u O'o in its present condition by going to this URL 24 hours a day. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cams/panorama.php?cam=POcam   The image below was taken by Walt. He is using a tripod and his digital Nikon, and this is the result from a 30-second long exposure. It is surprising that it is as clear as it is.

What we are looking at is where the lava that was coming out of the Pu’u O’o vent ten miles away and pouring over the edge of the island into the water. We are actually seeing the reflection of the molten rock against the clouds. There is no fire involved here. This is where it is happening. This is where the island is actually growing.
As the lava fills in the ocean here, the land is getting bigger. It will take a lot of lava to fill up all the way down to the bottom of the ocean, but it is happening. They calculate that as much as 1,000,000 cubic YARDS of lava comes out of the volcano every DAY. That is enough to fill a high-school gymnasium to the roof every 3 ½ hours.

Walt took this image of us walking across that lava to see the event in the picture above. You can probably get some idea of how rough and uneven the surface was. We walked for a half mile like this. The yellow marks on the ground were tape the county placed on the ground to help you to see where you should be walking to get the smoothest path. We are walking on lava that flowed and cooled decades ago.

Dennis and Donna Brown have a multitude of books here at the house, and last year I read several, but had to order my own copies when we got home. If I read a book that has factual data in it, I feel driven to own the book so that down the road, on some mysterious deep, dark night, someone might ask me to recall a detail that I had read about and I will be able to go to a shelf and … well, the book will be there but I’m not going to guarantee that I will be able to FIND it. But that is another task planned for in the future. I hope I live that long.

Last year I read a book about “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands” by a lady named Isabella Bird I believe. I loved it. She traveled around the big island during the late 19^th century. What she described, we could see here on this island today. I read several others also, and this year I just had to pick up a book that Donna recommended by the name of “The Island Way” by Bob Krauss. Bob wrote it shortly after he (and several other “descendents of the earliest missionaries” ) traveled completely around the island (in 1973), on foot or by canoe, following the trail that their ancestors followed in 1823. It is not only intriguing to me to learn about the details of the island as they were 185 years ago when the first missionaries traveled through, but to learn how things were just 35 years ago when Krauss traveled through. Land that held many small towns and tens of thousands of people in 1823 did not exist in 1973. The later troupe went through Kalapana on the southern coast ten years before Kilauea came back to life, and some 17 years before Kilauea wiped Kalapana off the map.

In the last report I talked about our driving down to South Point, and we ventured off the main highway to cover some areas that were of great significance to the Hawaiian history. That is where we saw the “Painted Church” and Kealakekua Bay (Kay – ah - lah – kay – koo – ah) where Captain Cook met his demise, and tiny roads that probably are not allowed by the car rental company (hey… the roads were paved… whadda they want?). It seems so strange that in this day and age there could actually be parts of a US state that are literally “unexplored”. Most of the main islands are still not able to support traffic driving completely around near the water’s edge.

Rosalee and I have done a lot more driving and traveling this year, mostly because we do not feel “tied” to Monkey and his special needs now that he is gone. We certainly do miss him, however. I just saw a four-legged visitor at the back door when I got up to check on what sounded like rain. The critter ran to the side into the dark, so I have no idea what it was. It was on four legs and about the size of a cat. It turned out that it was not raining… so… don’t dump out the bath water Mabel… may be a dry year yet.

Daily events around here on the ol’ hacienda are always interesting. Before he left on his cruise, I helped Dennis trim some hedges with his power hedge trimmer. His second machine would start but would not continue running… seems to be running short of fuel. Walt and I spent some time on it last week, but I don’t have the tools required to dig into the fuel system. We found a manual tree trimmer/saw/shear that is missing a rope, so I picked up one in a cute little hardware store in Kapa’au (Kah – pah – ah – oo), and I  restrung the tool.

I noticed that the water was not draining fast enough in the left sink in the Master Bath. I found a 12 Ga. electrical wire and made a “fishing” tool to clear the drain. Yuck! That is when I noticed that the o’ring gasket on the drain plug was missing. It would not hold any water in the basin. Three other sinks were missing them also, so the next time we were in Kamuela-Waimea we found the Ace Hardware and I found the o’rings that were needed. They work pretty well.

Dennis mentioned to me that the door that enters into Donna’s office (it is actually an exterior entry to the third bedroom) is seriously decayed at the bottom. We suspect that the constant hosing off of the lana’i has most likely helped this deterioration to come about. Most of the exterior doors on this house are actually fully framed windows, and I suspect they might be quite costly to replace. I told Dennis about the excellent materials (WoodEpox from Abatron, Inc.) that I am using at home, and he ordered some right off. It hopefully will be here Tuesday. That should be long enough. [As I was looking up the name of the product to make sure I did not type it incorrectly, I heard a little “meep – meep” that sounded like the Road Runner cartoon character, and out in the drive was the delivery man. It is Monday just before noon and I have the product. Great! (I’m not too sure why I’m so excited… I have to go to work now. LOL) ]

The weather machine here at the house is on the fritz… it displays “ - - “ for the wind speed and outdoor temp areas over night. It works better if it is on the desk rather than on the book shelves. We deduced that the solar panel cannot run the transmitter at night, so the battery has to do it, but either the battery is bad or it is the wrong battery. This one is a replacement and it does not recharge… I think that it should. I have an inquiry into the company. They are in Hayward, CA believe it or not. They are really good about helping if you have a problem. It would help to have instruction manuals for these items, and some can be had online, but it is not true in this case.

The lower gate for this “gated community” is always “manned” 24/7, but the upper gate is not always “manned”. Both gates have a bar-code reader that reads a bar-bode on the side of your car window and opens the gate for you. The Browns have codes on their vehicles, but with a rental car, we received a “temporary” code card. Only problem is that even some of the “regulars” that live here cannot get the upper code reader to open the gate. They are having an equipment failure. Ours works on the lower gate fine, but will not work at the top gate. They have a button to press to call down to the lower gate. They can open the upper gate remotely. So much for the automatic part of life. LOL.

(We just monitored a call from the president of the Kohala Ranch Association telling us that they will be working on the gates, both the lower and the upper. She said that they were going to be replacing both gates. Not sure why they have to replace the entire gate if the computer is the problem… but then she may be misinformed too. Either way, I wonder of they will still be using the same bar codes to get in.)

We went to a different church this week. Rosalee located an Evangelical Free church in Kailua-Kona, but they had an incorrect address on their website. We finally got it straightened out and found the church. Located on the side of a hill at about 2,000 feet elevation, it is a brand new steel building that is open on two sides. I love Hawai’i… LOL

Actually,  Hawai’i uses a unique system to assign addresses. The church is 74-4889. This home is 59-392. The ‘59’ tells me that this home is further around the island (clockwise) than the church at the ‘74’ address. You can see how an address of “77-4889” can be so misleading to the electronic navigator. Each island is a “county” of the “State” of Hawai’i. During the last election, they campaigned pretty heavily for the “Mayor” of the island of Hawai’i. Each town has a mayor too, I think… plus there is the Governor of the state too, of course. The address thing definitely does help you out in locating a place on the island. If the address were to start with a “22-“, you can bet that you will be driving to the other side of the island from here to find it.

My brother, Cody, is at our home with mom, so we are able to make this trip. He tells us that things are ok there. He had some difficulty with the new pellet stove that we installed, but it was chosen so that we don’t have to lug heavy firewood into the house to keep the wood stove lit. When we bought the house new, back in the late seventies, we were hearing a lot of crying and complaining about how the world was coming to an end and we were running out of “fossil fuels”. I tried to head off that problem by installing two electrical “heat pumps” and set up the house as an “all-electric” home. At that time the more power you used, the lower your rate per kilowatt-hour. That was fine until someone decided that it was not cool and decided to charge “penalty fees” if you go over a certain amount of power. To offset that we installed a wood stove, all the way from Vermont. That worked fine until I started hearing people complain about wood stoves contaminating and polluting the air. So, we invest a small fortune into a pellet stove that burns so cleanly that you can vent the exhaust straight out the wall, at waist height. Wow. Well, it is installed and what are we hearing… “You Can’t Run Wood OR Pellet Stoves… try burning gas”. If you see a screaming idiot running by, don’t stop me. I’m headed to the looney bin.

Ken & Rosalee