Aloha From The Big Island:

For those of you that have asked "How far apart are the Hawaiian Islands? Can you see other islands?" here is your answer. On the flight from Honolulu to Kona-Kailua on the Kona (west) side of the big island (Hawai'i), which on a Boeing 717 takes about 30 minutes, you pass over Moloka'i, Lana'i, Maui and Kahoolawe. This image shows Moloka'i at the upper left, Lana'i in the center, and the northwestern section of Maui at the upper right. In about the center of the portion of Maui that you can see is where Lahina (Lah - hee - nah) is located, the one-time capital of Hawai'i and the one-time center of the whaling industry in the Pacific.

You can see from this altitude that there are basically 'named' channels of water passing between the islands. It is possible to see the 13,000+ feet tall mountains on the southern-most island (Hawai'i) when you are flying into Oahu, which only has two inhabited islands to its north: Kauai and Niihau (Nee - ee - hah - oo), which has a very private ranch and is visited only by residents and their relatives and very special guests. This image does a nice job of showing how weather patterns form over land. Each island has it's own series of clouds, arranged around the highest elevations of each island. The right side (eastern end) of Moloka'i is 3,000 feet elevation and the other end tapers right down into the sea. Lana'i actually has a mountain that reaches over 3,400 feet. That section of Maui that we can see in this image has a 5,800 foot peak in the center of that area.

The Island of Lana'i (Lah - nah - ee) was known as the "Pineapple Island" because that was just about all that was there until fairly recently. The Dole family actually owned it and it was basically not a tourist destination. In the last decade or two, most of the pineapple and sugar cane industry has left the Hawaiian Islands and got to places such as the Philippians. A large real estate firm (Cooke & Castle) bought it, and now the main source of income on this island comes from two very large and quite spendy resorts. This is one of the three islands (out of eight) that Rosalee and I have not yet visited.

We arrived at Kona-Kailua (Koh - nah Kah - ee - loo - ah) airport Friday afternoon, and were met by our hostess, Donna, with two leis. The Browns (and mother Clyde) were not leaving until Sunday evening, and with them busy getting ready to leave and Donna's mother Clyde staying with them until her leg was better, they offered Clyde's condo in Waikoloa (Wah - ee - koh - loh - ah) to us, about half-way between the Brown's house and the airport. They also had another condo in the King Shops - Queen's Marketplace a few miles away. We selected that one.

Our choice was partly decided for us because the all-day Ford Ironman Triathlon (winning time more than eight hours) ties up the main highway from the airport almost to the Brown's house up at the northern end of the island. We literally could not leave the King - Queen area as the road is totally turned over to the biking leg of the athletic event (112 miles we think), but there are plenty of restaurants, shops, a very nice food store... everything we would need... where this condo is located.

The weather was in the seventies, and a mild breeze was blowing. When we got there, a cleaning person had left the A/C on and set in the fifties, and it took us a couple of hours on the internet to figure out the thermostat to turn the unit off. Then we had to warm the place up. There is no heater in the condo. The Brown's house has no A/C and no heat... they never need it. The condo owners are a bit more plush so they insist on an A/C I suppose. So, the only way to warm up the condo was to open windows and doors which was not that effective with it being a condo. We went to bed with the house at 71°.

One of the bathrooms had a water leak and the throw rug was all wet. I determined that the seal between the toilet bowl and the toilet tank was leaking. The bolts were at least hand tight and I had no tools, so I drained the tank and turned off the water to the toilet. Donna "manages" this unit for California friends, so we told her about it and she said that a plumber/contractor that is working on replacing a shower in Clyde's condo would take a look the following week. I talked with him on the phone and he thought the toilet needed a wax seal under the toilet. I told him it was the seal between the bowl and tank that was leaking so he said he would pick up an inexpensive toilet at Home Depot and put it in. That was not satisfactory, let alone too expensive, considering the seal was less than $2.00, and it is a very nice Kohler toilet. I convinced him to take it apart and locate a seal for it. That means we will be driving down to meet him a couple of times, but that is no problem.

Saturday was nice... in the low eighties (we did not need the A/C for sure)... and the wind was up to speed. Before they stopped last night (Tuesday) we saw some 30+ mph winds. We basically spent Saturday hanging around the house, only going out to get food. It was within walking distance to the shops. The condo is right on the golf course, with one green and two teeing-off places... whatever those are called... all within close view. A nice view from our private Lanai.

Sunday before noon we drove up to the Brown's house to see if we could help out, and to find out what jobs Dennis has come up with for me to do to occupy my time. Turns out it was only a small task of replacing a timer that lets his water heater only use electricity for two hours in the morning and two at night. Since we have been here (72 hours), the water heater has been turned off, and the small solar heater on the roof has kept the 80 gal tank between 110° and 140°. I located a new timer but of course it will require some slight circuit adjustments. Speaking of... the inside electrical panel for this home has 42 circuit breakers in it. Took a lot of reading to find the one that went to the water heather. Thankfully, someone did a very nice job of labeling the circuits.

The 'boys' have not produced any critters for us to come and slaughter. We are wondering if the lack of crawlers might be the reason they don't always finish their dinners. We have only seen one centipede this trip... so far... and he was out on the front step. He was only about 50% alive, so he was no problem to dispatch. He is now zero% alive.

It is very pleasant today. We are heading down the hill to the gate to pick up the last three newspapers (they hold them) and the mail (mail boxes are down by the gate). It is currently 84° and the winds are running about five mph, so it is quite pleasant.

We finally got a sunset tonight. The 'vog' that is hanging off the west coast keeps the evening sky a bit muted and murky looking. Kilauea is a good hundred miles from us. Pele is not kicking too much crap into the air lately, but it is enough to hang out over the coast line, even with the heavy winds we had over the last few days. We are not smelling the fumes or feeling it in our eyes or anything, but it messes up the skyline like the LA fires did to the skies in the Bay Area. This was a bit of a strange sunset.

 

Ken & Rosalee

Aloha from Kohala Ranch Estates, Hawai'i

Weather today: 84° and very calm.

Critter count: 1/2 centipede - 1/2 scorpion - both found half-dead on the front entry porch. Maybe we had so many last winter because it was winter... and this is fall?

Our "work assignments" are going well. Rosalee and I drove back down to the resort where we stayed the first two nights, where the toilet was leaking. I took tools and found that the bolts holding the tank to the bowl were way loose and took two full turns before offering real resistance to turning. The tank was filled with water and after half an hour there was still no water leak. Yeah! Much better than the plumber replacing the toilet as he suggested.

The task on the water heater here at the Kohala place is done. For the first week we left all power to the water heater off while I found a new timer that only allows the tank to have power in the AM and the PM, two hours each, to hold back on the electricity consumption. I found an identical timer in Waimea and switched it out. During that whole week, the solar panel on the roof kept the water tank between 110° and 150°.

I read in the local paper that the Hawai'i legislature has told the local power company that they will have to start purchasing power from individual users that have their own alternative power generation system, such as wind or solar power. That is how it is in California with PG&E companies. The amount of power purchased back is limited to 2.5 KW for residents, and the company will pay back at about 85% of the current power cost. The average cost per kilowatt here is $0.28, which is about a dime more than we pay in the SF Bay Area, if I recall.

I need to talk with Dennis about seriously considering placing a solar array behind his yard (he has two acres of bare land out there) to help defray his power bills. With the new legislation, there should be a lot of companies coming into the state to set up solar companies.

I had a nice phone conversation with the contractor that is working on Clyde's condo. He is replacing a tub/shower with a walk-in shower, and putting in an electric chair lift that runs up the stairs. He confirmed that it is very difficult here on this island to find parts for anything. He often finds it faster, easier, and sometimes cheaper to just Remove&Replace anything that goes haywire. He agreed that it was very important to buy wisely and to not just go with the latest fad of appliances with names that are exotic and manufacturing plants in parts unknown.

The gas range top at this house is ten years old, and the company does not exist. When it did, it was in Australia. Australia? It has little electronic ceramic igniters to light the burners, but one is cracked and the high voltage current sparks to the stove instead of the burner, so that burner does not light. A $1,000 cook-top unit (when it was available), and a brand new in-the-box unit sold on the internet for $40. I would have bought it just to take out the part that we need here, but it was already sold.

Even if you choose good equipment, you still have to find a qualified repairman. The contractor said he has a big Maytag refrigerator, which is like the one we have back home. They were sold with a ten-year, 100% money-back guarantee for the entire unit... 100% refund if you were "not happy". They have an electric strip between the two doors that prevents sweating of the cabinet. His went out and four different people came out to fix it. Each one brought a new electric strip but not one of them actually bothered to see if there was electricity going to the strip. After the fourth try, Maytag sent him a check for his entire purchase price, and told him he could do as he wished with the refrigerator/freezer. A buddy was going to come over from Maui and fix it for him. Fix his free refrigerator. The contractor said he was going to buy his buddy the tickets to fly over.

Inter-island transportation is essentially the airplane. The large public super-ferry that they have been trying to put in is being kept out by political hassle and money... money that the shippers that move freight will lose with a ferry coming in. There are many things that are not smooth in Paradise.

Rosalee and I stopped in at "Anna Ranch", an historic showplace that was the home of a woman who passed away in the last decade. Her family owned and ran that ranch for five generations, from the late 1800's. She was well known and loved in the islands and was an expert horsewoman. She was very active in getting good breeding stock into the islands in both cattle and horses, and was extremely instrumental in involving women in the mostly male ranch life.

We met the docent that runs tours and took the tour of the main ranch house on the outskirts of Waimea. I noticed that a lovely grandfather clock was standing motionless, and after the tour, when we were chatting, I asked if I might look at the clock for her. She jumped at that offer, and Rosalee and I spent an hour on it, trying to get the pendulum actually connected to the movement. It was supposed to be an easy task, but the case was homemade from the fifties, and the builder failed to consider that a workman might actually have to open it and access the movement sometime during the life of the clock. He did make the case out of beautiful Koa wood, however, a wood that is extremely scarce now, but being planted for later use I hear. The clock was running when we left, but seriously needs cleaned and oiled. We will stop in tomorrow to see if it is still running.

She has several other more interesting clocks there, and none of them run. She has a gorgeous music box that plays a huge 15" diameter steel disk after you wind it up. It plays but it won't stop... she was told to wind it a little and let it run down. That is murder on the disk and the player. Perhaps I might be able to talk her into letting me take a peek inside and rectify the problem for her.

A week ago the skies opened up and for two hours we had little downpours on and off, with a total of 0.55" of rain falling. That brings the total rainfall in this immediate area to 9.67" since January first. Everything shows that it got rain, within two days. The open areas that the cows are ranging on (open range) have greened up. The cows look like they are nibbling on a man's crew-cut haircut, but you can actually see real grass out there to eat. We feel better because the cows that are around the house have a lot of calves with them, most under the ages of two months and some being less than a week old.

We took a drive over to Honoka'a (Hoh - noh - kah - ah) this morning for our breakfast... Tex's Cafe for a Malasada (just like it looks... it's Portuguese). Think of the old-fashioned raised donut... Spudnuts we called them in the old days... as light and fluffy as Her Ladyship's Down Pillow... covered with sugar... a pillow that is three inches both ways and 1 1/2 inch tall. It is to die for. If you eat too many you surely will die. Anyway, we were in heavy rain on the way over and again on the way back. Twenty miles on the odometer from this house to where the wipers are running on their middle speed to be able to see the road. That area just that short distance away has over 120 inches of rainfall a year. Twelve times more than at this location. Welcome to Hawai'i, the big island, where they have all but one of the eleven? classifications of climate, just on this one 4,000 square miles.

Whoa!!! We just experienced something that we have never experienced in Hawai'i or California either for that matter. You know how a thunder clap can be like a 'rolling' thunderclap. Well this one felt like a Sherman Tank rolled over us. We could hear it 'coming' and at it's loudest, this house was dancing. The dogs were going ape crazy. I'm not sure what Rosalee's eyes were telling me either. The dogs were both trying to find her lap at one time and set off a barking spree that took a bit to calm. After that, we SHOULD get a whole season of rain, but even though we can see for thirty miles and more in 180°, we don't even see any dark storm clouds in the sky. As I said... welcome to Hawai'i.

A lot of the masonry work that you see all over the island is a natural-looking rock. I had to bore Rosalee a couple of times and stop to take this image of a new home site being readied for a new home. It is inside this gated community (which I found out yesterday is 3500 acres), at about 2600 feet elevation.

Building a new home in this area requires you to basically start at 'ground level'... you walk the piece of ground you bought and try to find a level spot for the house.

In this case, they had local craftsmen come in and build these terraced walls from natural rock. You can readily see that there is plenty of local rock supply. This rock probably is not "engineered" to support weight such as the foundation of a building, but they work really well as retaining walls and fences. The new home will be built on the level area that is now supporting the pickup and the excavator.

This type of masonry work fits into the terrain so naturally, Frank Lloyd Wright would have heartily approved. His belief was that the structure should appear to be part of the earth. To evolve from the earth and "be one with the earth".

In this area are some old fences that are constructed of loosely stacked rocks picked up in the area. No mortar was used. The modern versions do use mortar, however. I do not know when the 'old' fences were constructed, but I suspect that they are not more than 200 years old, as the Hawaiians of old did not "own" their land or anything on it for that matter. If you were traveling through, whatever they had was yours. Everyone took care of everyone. That changed a little when the "haoles" or "non-Hawaiians" came to the islands.

Only a mile or so up the hill from this location we stopped and I took a picture of more of this type of rock work. These are not old but relatively new work done for this landowner. As you can see it is the entry gate to a ten-acre piece of property.

You have to admit that this wall looks a lot nicer than if it were made out of white concrete blocks. Of course, the irregular shape of the rocks allows this kind of wall to wander up and down over the hills and around the corners with ease.

Notice the plaque that has the street address on it: 59-1481. The way all of the islands address their properties is with two numbers. The first number (59) will tell you approximately on what part of the island you will find the address, starting at one location and going around the islande. The second number is consecutive as you follow the street, as we are used to.

As long as you are looking at this fence, notice that it is the entry of the little house on the top of the hill. Actually, that little home is for sale, along with the ten acres that it is sitting on.

We already know that it would be well out of reach financially if it were sitting in the Bay Area or on a fertile vineyard in the Livermore Valley.

It is 3,800 sq. ft. of living area. Four bedrooms and four baths, and all the usual stuff... even a swimming pool and steam shower. It even comes with all of its furniture. No moving costs for your household goods.

If you are interested, you can go to this site and it has some closer images of the inside and the grounds.

        http://www.hawaiis.com/property/224627/

Why would anyone want to live here? When I took the picture of the gate, I turned around 180° and took this next picture.

This is the view out the front of their home. Just at the top of that telephone pole is the point where just around that is the Kailua-Kona Airport, and a few miles below that is Kailua-Kona itself. The town of Waimea is to the left up that draw about ten miles. This is looking south, with Mount Hualalai (Hoo - alah - lah - ee) dead ahead, shrouded by the cloud cover.

And it is only $2,100,000, Shall I make an appointment for you to see it? :-)

Talk with you next week.

Ken & Rosalee

 

Aloha... from the WINDY state.

STATUS REPORT

Weather Today: 82°

Wind: Yes. "All Day, All Night, Mary Ann... Down By The Seaside Siftin' Sand" The expensive weather machine here at the house is extremely accurate, but the wind measuring device is placed in the shadow of the roof of the garage, so the wind measurements have to be only 50% to maybe 70% by my estimation, but the highest wind measured last night was 34 MPH... in the wind shadow. We just had a gust a few minutes ago that hit the 24 MPH mark. The highest wind measured by this instrument since January first of 2010 has been 39 MPH

Rainfall: About 5/8 inch since we arrived. Since January first: 9.80 inches. Just about enough to classify this area as a desert, I guess. We did get a bit of a rain the other night, and the meter was not registering the fact that water was running off the roof edges (no gutters in Hawai'i ...I guess either too much rain to do any good or not enoug to worry about it). The next morning it said .004 inches, and as I sat at the computer next to the instrument, I saw it go up .oo1, then another a few moments later. It was sunshining and still outside. So I got a tall ladder and went up to the meter sensor.

The rain collector looks like a top-hat that Abe Lincoln would wear, and about that size. The whole top is a funnel that collects rain that drops through a hole the size of a toothpick. We have one that is the same and it often gets little bird poopies that cover the hole. Maybe that was why it took a while to register the falling rain... but why the extra measurements in the morning? I opened the 'top-hat' and there is a little double-ended 'tippy-cup' that is filled by the water dripping through the tiny funnel. When full the cup tips to one side and that movement is measured as .001 inches of rain. The second side fills and it tips back, again registering an additional .001 inches.

No bird poopies... no leaves or trash... no dirt in the tippy-cups... nothing. Why was it acting goofy?..... then one more look underneath the top-hat and I had my answer. Gertrude the Gecko had found a nice home, heated by the sun, safe from the wind, and a built-in water supply. She must have drank ...drunk ... slurpped up the water out of the tippy-cup and it did not tip over until she satisfied her thirst. The extra measurement in the morning? Maybe she was tipping the cup to get the last drop? Who knows.

There was only one way for her to get into the 'top-hat', and that was through a 3/8" hole for wire to enter the area. She was four inches long. Maybe she grew enough that she could not exit her home. She's evicted now, and some epoxy closed her door.

Critter Count: Still only 1/2 centipede, 1/2 scorpion, and add one honkin' Moth. At least I THINK it is a moth. If I remember my high school science class, the antennae tell the story, but this guy was up high on the wall outside under the entry area, trying to avoid the winds no doubt. With this wind and those big wings he could be in Japan by dinner time. He is gone this morning. I cannot quite make out the antennae in this image.

He's got a wingspan of five inches. No little guy this one. Maybe someone recognizes it. I thought it might be the result of the tomato hornworm that comes from that huge beast that eats our tomatoes, but there is nothing like a tomato growing in the area.

TASK REPORT

Condo Toilet: Checked it this week and still no water leaking so we can mark that off as completed, I guess.

Clyde's Shower: A contractor has removed the shower in the condo that is owned by our hostess's mother, who is on the cruise with the Brown's. We were asked to sort of 'honcho' the work hoping it would be complete when they return. They removed the full-sized tub and tile surround and are installing a shower pan that is not as wide as the tub but sticks out into the room an extra six inches. The pan is there and the old tub is gone. Door trim had to come off to remove old tub from the room. Looks like a long way to go.

Clyde's Stair Climber: Clyde is 89 years old and has a knee that recently has required a brace to walk. Her stairs are incredibly steep by anyone's standard. They are talking about placing one of those chairs that climbs up a rail on the stairs. The climber is on site (always a problem shipping anything from the Eastern Coast of the mainland... expensive and slow), so it should go fairly quickly.

Water Heater Timer: That is on this house, and it required the purchase and installation of a new timer unit. That is completed and working.

Kitchen Cook-Top: The gas range has four burners and each burner is lighted by a small "spark plug" igniter next to the burner. One does not work so I'm still playing with it... have to find a glue that glues ceramic, is a good electrical insulator, and can withstand being in constant and direct contact with the heat from the flame. It sits in the flame.

Anna's Ranch: The museum... I mentioned that we worked on a grandfather clock for them. It was still running and chiming this week when we went by to check on it. The curator was very happy. I talked her into letting me look at the other tall clock. It actually was an antique. It required a simple adjustment. It was "out of beat". That is what happens when you don't have a pendulum clock placed on level ground. A reach inside with a quick adjustment and it was running and chiming. No one working there had ever heard any of the clocks chime.

She asked if I worked on old record players. I looked at one that would not work for them. The head that holds the needle and makes the sound that comes through the hollow arm and out the front hole... it was the wrong one and it was cobbled onto the arm. I straightened it and showed them that you have to wind and wind and wind the player up to get the speed you need to play it.

There was one more record player. Wind and wind and wind and wind and... they were told it has "slipping belts" by the "expert"... they don't have any belts. Wind and wind and ...... It work fine now.

What I really wanted to look at was the gorgeous old disk music box I told you about last time. Fifteen inch steel disk that plays a music box movement and sounds wonderful. Guess what it needed? :-) Wind and wind and... Also, it would not stop where it was supposed to. I showed them that it should stop when you turn the lever to "stop", but it should continue to play until you get to the end of the disk. Someone had changed the disk in the middle of a song and so the end of the song no longer was in sync with the place in the 'works' that stopped playing. It would stop somewhere in the middle of the song. Plus it was not wound enough.

We will probably stop by once more to see how she is doing before we leave.

New Problem: Drove the owner's car to the little town of Hawi yesterday and the "Check Engine" warning light came on. Drat. Oil is full, water is full, fuel cap is tight... that's all the book says can be wrong. I filled the tank last week with the expensive fuel... don't mind paying the big bucks if I'm driving their car. It may have given it a little shock... I don't think they burn the expensive gas. Could be water in the fuel... will fill the tank again with cheap gas from another station and see what happens. Maybe I should wind and wind and wind and...

THE 'BOYS'... OUR CHARGES:

They are very good. They sleep all day on the couch next to us and won't leave us when we go anywhere. They will not follow us into the shower... they do not enjoy the shower. When Rosalee gives them their vitamins at night, she goes to bed and they go crazy. They bark at any shadow, run outside and bark at anything they can imagine and I usually give up and confine them to the house and their smaller outside run.

We were asked what the dogs looked like now. The one on the right is Rufus. He is saying: "You woke me... Why? It had better be dinner time!" They can be sound asleep next to us and we can say anything without disturbing them. But if we say anything that includes the word "eat" or "food" or "dinner" they are wide awake, those little butterfly ears are high, and they are on their feet.

                                                                                              Rufus is the "licker". >>>

They both have very definite personalities, likes and dislikes. They have memories that are very good. They seem to do things for us that they do differently with their owners, at least from what the owners tell us. The dogs remember that we are "...the ones that tell us that we cannot sleep on the bed with them!" and they happily sleep in their beds on the floor.

 

 

 

 

When we walk them, they quickly pick up our little techniques and respond very well. There are cows and calves that are all around, basically open-range cattle that are on or off the roads and on all of the lots that are not built on yet. They do raise a ruckus if any are near us but the last thing we need is a wild cow with a baby calf nearby feeling the threat of two dogs barking, so we have gotten the boys to be at a very short leash and walk past without responding to the cows. We have not been attacked by panicky mother cows yet.

<<<<  This one is Rajah. "Did someone say dinner?" He is the "instigator". If anything alerts him, he goes bonkers barking and running out the doggy door. Rufus immediately starts barking and running too, even though he has no idea what he is barking about.

I just realized that so far I have three pictures of butterflies in this letter. I guess this image of Rajah pretty much illustrates the reason these were called Papillon dogs, which is French for "butterflies".

They are both very loving dogs, and it is very rare that we find any "accidents" in the house. If one could find something to complain about, they are always with you and at your feet. No matter where you go. If you want to be 'alone' in the bathroom, you have to close the door, but then you may be serenaded until you open it again.

We have been doing a lot of reading this time over. The Brown's have some interesting and old books in their library that are attractive. Rosalee is reading some novels that are here, and the one she is presently reading is what she referred to as a "Three-tissue" book, and she is not quite through with it. I have been reading stories about people that have grown up in the islands, and wrote their life stories years ago. The latest was a girl that was born on Maui at about the turn of the century. Her father was the caretaker of a large ranch on the west side of Mount Haleakala (Hah - lay - ah - kah - lah), which stands for "House of the Sun", and is the volcano that formed the larger part of Maui. That is the mountain that is on our horizon to the north of us here.

The story describes in her own words how it was to grow up as one of only a few white families in Hawai'i, and how loving and caring the Hawaiian people were that she lived with/around. It is interesting to hear her describe the landscape and learn about the history of the places that we have visited. She does mention a connection with the people that made up the Parker Ranch, here near us on Hawai'i, which was nearly a million acres at one time. She describes riding into the mountains as a teenager, roping wild bulls with fully-spread horns that easily would kill a horse to prevent its capture.

I'm currently reading a book that talks about this specific area. The Kohala mountains and the northernmost coast of the big island. It describes how 200 years ago and before that, land was "allocated" to families (never 'owned') in a unique way. Your area was a narrow pie-shaped section that went from the sea to the top of the mountain, so that you had access to fishing, crop growing, trees, fresh water, wildlife... literally everything that was available on the island. That piece of land was given a name and was used as a 'destination', the same as the name of a town. Often named after the people in the area, you could say "I traveled from Smith, across Brown, and deep into Jones where I camped." Reading old books about people traveling to "Aka'una", you look on a map and cannot find a town by that name. It may actually only have been a section of land where the Aka'una family lived. Very difficult to trace geographical events.

Rufus is acting a bit poorly this afternoon, and with this wind, we are all feeling a bit poorly. A bit depressing. Hey. Smile! This is Hawai'i. :-)

Hope that all are doing well where you are. We will talk with you again, soon.

Aloha

 

Aloha To All:

Critter Count: No change. I have not mentioned the new-comer that we have noticed this trip. Black beetles. About an inch and a half long, long antennae, not too active. We see them walking outside and sometimes inside but usually pretty sedate guys. They are easy to pluck and flush. We don't see too may of them. Picked up one in the dish cupboard. One in the refrigerator, hiding behind an egg... but he was dead. Now they are getting too close to be comfortable. No more scorpions or centipedes since the first two. No lions or tigers or bears.

Our walks with the dogs are interesting, with the half-wild cows grazing on the roads and their baby calves in the area. The dogs are doing very well and holding their barking around the cows. They walk very closely to us (the leash has something to do with that, of course). The cows do not let us out of their sight but the seem to "respect" us by standing firm or stepping away.

Weather Report: The Winds Have Backed Off... YEA! After more than a week of almost steady heavy winds we have had about four days of very nice weather. Very still. Gentle cooling breezes are always around but they are very nice. The temp got up to 90° today, the warmest it has been this month. What we have seen for the month that we have been here is that the top temps for the days have basically been in the mid to high 80's.

I have had some success with the kitchen range. I found some "shrink wrap" from RadioShack that would slip down over the 1/4" diameter ceramic igniter. Now the electricity does not arc over to the metal parts of the stove until it reaches the top where it arcs over to the burner, igniting the gas burner. We are using the burner now to see how long that shrink wrap will last with a constant fire burning against it.

Partial success with the Ford. At half-tank we filled it with low-test from a Union Oil station (previous fill-up was Standard Oil), to average out the Octane Number of the fuel in the tank, and after 'giving it a chance' to cancel the 'fault' in the computer, it did not do that. I did some research on the "Check Engine" light and learned how it does do some good in some cases but causes major problem in of itself. It can be triggered by a thousand different little glitches which may be almost impossible to detect in some cases. I hesitate to take it in for service as I do not "trust" any service center, and there are very few people that actually do quality repair work on this island. Also some of the components of the smog/emission system can be on warrantee or extended warrantee, so I am hesitant to go that way. We don't think that we really had much to do with whatever caused this fault, but it happened on "our watch" and since our hosts are gracious enough to allow us to use their car, we feel we have to return it to them in the same condition it was in when they left. I chose to disconnect the battery and cancel the computer error code. If there really is a problem, the light will be back. I hooked it up this morning and the "check engine" light is out... YEA! We have not driven it yet, so... time will tell.

Clyde's contractor called to check in with me. The job is causing a lot more problems than he anticipated, of course. I think that he is really trying though. Hopefully he will finish before Clyde gets home. He suggested that he replace the whole bathroom floor which is ceramic tile, due to questionable grout that may fail over time. I suggested he go with what he has and plan the floor later. No way he could be finished with the job if he does that floor too. It will not save anything to do it now, other than possibly getting some cracked grout later on.

Rufus, the brown dog, was feeling puny when I last wrote but he pulled out of it by bedtime. They have been good otherwise. He must have eaten something that did not agree with. Any noise outside causes the two of them to hit the deck and race each other to the 'doggie door' in the sliding glass door. If a bird hits the glass and goes down, he has to really hustle or he will be doggie dinner. When we walk them, we have to constantly watch or they both will pickup tidbits on the road left by the cows. It is a wonder they are not sick all the time.

While writing this tonight, a couple of small finches were fluttering against the window. I suppose it was due to our lights inside being on. The dogs were out on the Lanai immediately and so we went out to try to prevent the carnage and those little pups can really move... and jump... and go over and under furniture... bird, dogs and me... all met at the door and I could see they had the bird so I tried to shake the bird free and feathers were flying. Then... no bird... gone... man, they must have swallowed it whole. Then Rosalee said "No, the bird's in the house." Fluttering against windows and furniture and dogs right on its tail... chaos.

First, we grab dogs, and that is not easy. They see bird and do not listen to anyone. Then we isolate them and start shutting down all of the lights. This house has a lot of cove lighting overhead, and they make great bird perches. We turned on the outside lights and turned off all inside lights. Using the monopod for the camera we could flush the bird from the perch and it went out the door. Lights outside back off and inside back on. Another bird. Another one or the same one? Whole process over again... outside lights on... doors open... inside lights off. Success. The dogs were released back into this part of the house eventually but their doggy door is shut for the night. They were immediately scouring the room for their bird, of course.

I thought that I might include some images of what we see here around the house. You have seen "the view" looking out over the ocean, which is why people live on the edge of an island, I suppose, but the more we are around the area, we do appreciate other views. Looking to the north from this house, this is a view that we refer to as "Mount Bushy". It is a little cinder cone that is half-way to the town of Hawi (Hah - wee, or as many of the locals say Hah - vee). It is literally bald and stripped of any vegetation other than grasses up to that little crown of trees on the top. I assume this is due to the grazing of the cattle/sheep/horses that are free to climb up the sides. This image was taken from the Brown's property.

Normally, there is a larger hill that is behind it and you never see this one 'hiding' in front of it. The day after I took this image, I literally could not see it, and was asking myself if parts of this island were going up and down, slipping down behind the hill. The next day I could make it out in front of the other hill. On this day, it was cloudy, and some hills were clouded over and dark and others were in the bright sun. In this view, ol' Bushy Top stands out clearly (except for the low clouds) while the hill behind it is obscured by the shadow of a cloud. Sort of a spooky little hill. The green is the result of our little rainfall. Grass pops up on these hills literally within 36 hours.

 

 

 

This second image (on right) is looking southeast from the road just south of the Brown's home. These cows are free-range to roam the unfenced properties and the roads. You are looking at a very low resolution version of the picture so you may not be able to make out the fact that there is a woven-wire fence just past the trees. Sharp eyes may note that there are a few sheep on the other side of that fence. The white post next to the two calves in the center is a post that marks the property lines in the Kohala Ranch Property. That tiny white speck above the calves is actually a white sign on a post. That is where a road is headed up to the top of the community.

Those little white bumps on the top of the mountain are telescope installations from various nations. There are nearly a dozen of those up there. The elevation is eleven thousand feet higher than where I was standing to take the picture. That mountain is Mauna Kea, and the peak is 13,796 feet above the sea level, but since the mountain is actually standing on the ocean floor, it is 33,000 feet tall, significantly taller than Mount Everest. It is the highest peak in the State of Hawai'i. It sure does not look that tall, does it? We frequently see snow on the top when we are here.

 

 

 

 

<<< For a closer look at those white bumps, I put this image in. I did not take this image. Duh... really? :-) You can see that those little white bumps are pretty good sized bumps. Two trips back we had the pleasure of visiting Eddie and Trisha Macomber, friends that live down on the southern side if the island. She was a student in the school where I taught, and her brother and sister-in-law in Washington state were two of my great students. Eddie worked for many years as a trucker that is responsible for hauling many of the pieces up this mountain to build these huge structures. Many parts were far too large for transportation on regular roads, let alone for climbing a rugged road up the side of this huge cinder mountain. At thirteen thousand plus feet in the air, the oxygen is a bit rarified to say the least.

In the distance is Mauna Loa, almost the same elevation, but it has erupted within the early twentieth century, and on its southern face, half way up its slope, is Kilauea, the volcano that is presently active. There are no observatories on Mauna Loa. This view is to the southwest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The image to the right is taken from the same location as the second image above, but looking more to the left. It is looking East/northeast. Basically, this is what is referred to here as "up-country", and is the composite that makes up Kohala mountain. The highest peak on this Kohala area is about 5,500 feet. What appears to be a planted row of trees just below the higher part of the mountain is exactly that. It is a row of "Ironwood" trees that were brought to the islands many years ago. Planted on both sides of Kohala Mountain Road, they can be seen from many miles away... sort of like seeing the Great Wall in China from the space shuttle. That road goes from Hawi to Waimea, a distance of about 19 miles, and peaks out at 3,600 feet elevation.

 

 

 

 

 

This rather ominous looking sunset suggests that either we are expecting a heavy rainstorm or the house next door is on fire. Neither is true. Just one more of our amazing and distinct sunsets.

 

Our hosts tell us that they are having a good cruise. Clyde is doing well with her bum knee, and seems to be keeping up with the pace of the others. It is good that she is able to still get out and see the world. I think that the ladies are competing on how many things they can buy to bring home. Donna said something about buying some Venetian masks - I think they were for a Halloween Ball onboard the ship. We did notice that Donna has started collecting masks however. There are a few on the walls here at their home.

 

We hope that you all are doing well.

Aloha

 

God's Promise

Aloha

We just wanted to send you a post card from the islands. Except it is not a post card... This was our greeting as we were headed out to our morning walk with the dogs. This is looking to the north from the Brown's home. Were that cloud more transparent, this rainbow would be arching over Mount Haleakala (Hah - lay - ah - kah - lah), the large mountain/volcano that made Maui (Eastern Maui anyway). Haleakala translates to "House of the Sun".

A careful look on the horizon just to the left and above the house with a red roof reveals a dark area that is actually land, about fifty miles distant. It is the small island Kaho'olawe (Kah - hoh - oh - lah - way), which is just off the western coast of Maui, where the 24/7 party goes on. That is the Kehei (Kay - hay - ee... English slang = Keehay) and Makena (Mah - kay - nah) side of Maui. A little taller into the clouds, just above the right side of the trees surrounding the white home with a gray roof you can see the tips of a couple of the mountains that make up "Western" Maui, the distinct land mass where Lahaina (Lah - hah - ee - nah... English slang = Lah - high - nah). Those hills are about 70 miles away. Lahaina is famous for being a central location for whaling ships during the 19th and early 20th century. Many of the world's whales feed in Alaska waters and breed and bear their young in Hawaiian waters. Lahaina was also the Capital city of The Kingdom of Hawai'i from 1820 to 1855. It is a very rare day that we can see any landforms to the north, with the exception of Haleakala, which is hidden in this image.

Critter Count: We did find a 4" long centipede in the kitchen this week, and a scorpion in the hall to the main bedroom. They both got the Royal Flush. Seeing as they both can swim, they died before their swim.

The kitchen range is still holding in there. The Ford's "Check Engine" light has not returned. So far, so good on both of those.

We will stop in one more time at Anna's Ranch to see if their clocks and disk player and Victrola are still functioning. I have a possible solution to a problem their second Victrola has.

We attended service in the Moku'aikaua Church (Moh - koo - ah - ee - kah - oo - ah) in Kailua-Kona back in 2008. I 'stole' this image from Wikipedia. It shows the side of the church that faces the Kailua Bay. It is only 100 yards from the water and is on the same land parcel as the Hulihe'e Palace (Hoo - lee - hay - ay). The congregation that started this church was made up from the first American Christian Missionaries that came to Hawai'i. They were aboard the brig Thaddeus, and were given permission to teach Christianity by King Kamehameha II (Kah - may - hah - may - hah). The church was built between 1835 and 1837. It is not only the first stone church built in Hawai'i, it is the first Christian Church to be built in Hawai'i.

The walls are several feet thick and the stones are lava stones gathered in the area. Many of these stones came from an ancient Heiau (Hey - ee - ah - oo), a temple where human sacrifices were performed.

Across the bay from this location, about 1000 yards away was where Ancient Hawai'i's old Kapu (Kah - poo) or Taboo system was stopped, ending much of the human sacrificial ceremonies. It also allowed men and women to eat dinner from the same table... and eat food that was prepared in the same cook pot.

 

 

 

The Hulihe'e Palace (right) was built exactly the same way as this church was built. In later years one of the Kings had the outer walls stuccoed and the inside walls plastered, covering the rock construction. The Palace was mostly used as a Summer Retreat after the central government moved from Kailua-Kona to Honolulu about the time this church was built. The palace is about 3600 square feet on two floors, and has a large basement below.

We toured the Palace this last week. It was closed when we were in the church in 2008, due to some damage from the 2006 earthquake that did some damage to this part of Hawai'i. The church also had some damage in one section of the top of the wall, just below the peak of the roof, but not enough damage to close the building to public. The Palace was closed until just recently. It is owned and operated by a volunteer group with no State or Federal funding.

The group is called "The Daughters of Hawai'i", and they have done a wonderful job of restoring it. They found a detailed list of the names and addresses of those that purchased the items a century ago when everything was sold off to enable them to keep the palace. They have found 95% of the items and returned them.

 

 <<< On our tour, our docent showed us a cylinder music box that was very special to them. It is the box that Robert Luis Stevenson gave to the Crown Princess Ka'iulani (Kah - ee - oo - lah - nee). She lived from 1875 to 1899, so that tells approximately what the age of the music box was.

Of course I spotted it when we walked into the room :-) and was quite excited when the docent stopped beside it and opened it. I love to hear them play. She said that she could not play it because it was broken. :-( You can guess what I was thinking about for the rest of THAT tour. Is there a music box in Hawai'i that works?

When we were finished with the tour I approached the docent with an offer to look at the box. After speaking with the boss lady who was at lunch, they seemed gleeful for me to look. I found the problem (a broken 'click-spring' that holds the mainspring as you wind it up). Also another part was held on with a screw that was almost ready to fall out. I told them that I would try to locate a part and stop by the next time we come over to Hawai'i. That seemed to make them quite happy. Not one of the docents there have ever heard this box play. I manually wound the spring somewhat and played several of the songs and all of the people that work at the palace were right there... ohhing and ahhing. It actually plays five songs, by shifting the cylinder to the left about 1/32" after each song, letting a new set of pins on the cylinder play the notes on the 'comb'... the thing that looks like a hair comb and you pluck it and it goes 'twang'.

 

On the right... this is a close-up the pretty screws holding the comb down and all of the grooves sawn into it. Each of those 'fingers' makes a different note.

The fat round gear on the left is the barrel that contains the main spring. The lever at the left winds it. The part that is broken is on that winding lever.

The whole box needs restoration, badly. It needs cleaned and lubricated or it will wear itself out more rapidly as it gets dirtier and is played. Some of those tiny pins on the cylinder are bent and need to be straightened... one at a time... and there are tens of thousands of pins on that 18 inch long barrel.

We met a gentleman that is the first neighbor to the south of us... about a quarter mile from us. He and his wife have lived here for about five years. He built is home to his own design and it is beautiful. His mother is in her late 80's and was not interested in living here. She is not doing well, so they are selling their home and moving to Idaho to take care of her. They also have two new grand-babies under six months old in Idaho, so I suspect that might be part of their reason for moving. He told us all of the reasons that he made the home the way it is, why he chose the location and this particular lot, the weather, and everything else, and he just about talked himself out of accepting the offer they have on the house. It would be very hard to give it up, for sure. It is a little past noon, the wind is perfectly still, it is the middle of November and it is 80°. And they are moving to ....Idaho?

This is our fifth and last week here. We will pick up the travelers Friday evening at the airport. Clyde is planning on sleeping in her own condo that night, so the contractor is hustling to finish up her jobs so the lady can come and clean it up. We checked it out Sunday and it is looking nice. He does good work.

We do enjoy it here, but we miss our family and friends and home. It will be nice to come back home. If we return for another engagement next year, we will likely have spent a total of one full year in the islands. Some ask if we want to see 'other places'. Yeah. Sure. But... this is nice. :-)

And each island is literally a world to itself. Students in my automotive classes in high school used to ask me "Mr. Smith, what's the best car to buy?" My answer was always "What do you want to do with it?" The same is true of the islands. People ask us "Which is your favorite island?" We have to say that it depends upon what we are looking for. Each island is so different from the others, even though only a few miles of ocean water separate them from each other.

Hawai'i, the Big Island is a world of its own. It has all but one type of climate found on the globe. It has the most active volcano in the world. It has the world's largest mountain if you start at the bottom, which is below the sea. It has rain forests on the Windward side (East side). It has serenity and privacy and is un-crowded. Maui has a 'party flavor' on the western side, and a rain forest on the eastern side. Oahu has everything that San Francisco has... including a lot of people. It also has beautiful and fertile open land for growing many types of crops. Kaua'i is the 'oldest' island of the state with the ultra-rich soil and lots of rain. It has the rainiest spot in the world, at the top of Mount Wai'ali'ali (Wah - ee - ah -lee - ah - lee) where it averages 460 to 510 inches of rain per year since 1912 ( with 682 in 1982). It also has the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and the Pali region (Pah - lee) which is shear vertical folded mountains that have no roads among them. Legends tell about people that have "lost" themselves from society in there and live on their own, completely. Some of these are returnees from military service, some are those known by the term of "hippies", some adventurers, etc. No one knows how many may be in there. Even today there are parts of all of the islands where someone cannot drive a vehicle completely around the island at the coastal edges.

So the State of Hawai'i is like a huge cornucopia ...or perhaps the term 'smorgasbord' might be more descriptive... in which regardless of what you are seeking, you can find it on one of the islands. Of course, financially and politically they are pretty much the same as California so if those are the reasons that would cause you to seek refuge, you will likely not find it here.

Of course, one thing that they do have here... on each island is a place called "City of Refuge" (English translation of course), a place to which you could make your way (usually by running as fast as you could) after you committed some horrendous offense such as that of walking too closely to the Ali'i... the walking 'Gods'... Royalty. That which would be a Capital Offense and the sentence was instant death. Once you got over the walls of that 'city of refuge', you spent several days there and then you were totally exonerated of your crime. Too bad... those no longer existed after they abandoned the Kapu or Taboo system. Of course the immediate executions being eliminated also is sorta nice.

OK. Signing off from North Kohala, Hawai'i for this year. See you all soon.

Aloha