In Hawai'i 3/12 to
4/7
(26 days - 456 total)
Mar 14th, 2015 -
First three days
This will be our
ninth trip to the big island of Hawai'i to take care our
little friends Rajah and Rufus, the Papillion puppies that
belong to Dennis and Donna Brown. They all live at 2,100
feet elevation on the west side of Kohala Mountain. We look
after the pups and the house while the Brown's take a cruise
to points unknown. Actually, today we got word that they are
in Singapore, waiting for embarkation day.
We awoke on the first
day and caught a driver service to San Jose Airport for a
9:30 a.m. flight on Alaska Airlines to Kailua-Kona. The flight
was a bit rough, with some ups and downs, mixed in with some
side to side action. We were fighting a headwind, and that
made the flight 5.75 hours, a little longer than 'normal'.
7
There's our
destination. The island of Hawai'i. The right side of the
picture is toward the north, and the sun sets at the top of
the picture. By the way, those white streaks are clouds and
not waves. I snapped this from the window as we were
approaching the... OK... I'm lyin'. Donna found this image
on an Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park website, and it was
actually taken by an astronaut on the International Space
Station as it flew over Hawai'i earlier this year.
Imagine the center
of the island is the center of a clock face, with 12 at the
top of the picture, three to the right side, six at the
bottom, and nine pointing to the left, or south. At twelve
you are between the location where Captain Cook landed (and
died in a skirmish over the locals stealing a landing craft
to get the iron) and Kailua-Kona and the airport where we
landed. Kona means "west" in Hawaiian. At three o'clock is a
protrusion to the north that has a bank of clouds on the
west side. That is Mount Kohala, the oldest mountain
(volcano) on the island. It last flowed 120,000 years ago
and is considered to be extinct. The Brown's home is
on the west side of that mountain, under where the cloud
cover is in the picture.
This There are six
mountains/volcanoes on this island. This is the newest
island in the Hawaiian Archipelago, and the volcanoes on
this island go from the oldest at the north end to the
youngest at the south side. The large volcano
near the center of the image is Mauna Kea, which is
considered dormant, with the last eruption over 4,500 years
ago. It is just a few hundred feet higher than Mauna Loa,
and is just short of 14,000 feet above the sea level. If you
measure the height from the ocean floor, this is the tallest
mountain in the world, from base to peak. It contains at
least eleven celestial observatories from all over the
world, and a newer, larger one is about to get started, as
soon as the weather permits traffic up to the top.
Next to the town of Kailua-Kona
is Mount Hualalai, considered active, with its last eruption
only 215 years ago. Just to the left of it is Mauna Loa, with a
bit of white snow (similar to Mauna Kea). Mauna Loa is
considered to be active, and the last eruption from its peak
was 35 years ago.
At the 8 o'clock
position you can
see two columns of smoke. The one closer to Mauna Loa is
Kilauea, which is currently erupting and has been since
1983. The other column is Pu'u O'o, which is considered a
vent from Kilauea. This is where lava is currently flowing
and threatening the town of Pahoa, located on the point that
protrudes in the 7 o'clock direction.
In the 9 o'clock
position is South Point (Ka Lae), the land that is the
furthest south land in the US.
Donna met us at the
airport and 'leid' us, and took us 'home'. It was raining on
us on the drive to the Brown's home, and cold. We are lower
than 70° outside, which is cooler than we expect when we
come here, by fifteen degrees. We enjoyed the evening with a nice turkey
dinner Donna cooked for us, and we were up early Friday for
the drive back to Kailua-Kona Airport to take D&D to their
plane.

In this image,
Rosalee and I are returning to the house, climbing up the
side of Kohala, when the two white mountain tops came into
clear view. With the clouds behind them it is hard to see
them, but Mauna Kea is the blue mountain above the left end
of the guard rail, with the snow peak just above the blue at
the bottom of the white clouds. Mauna Loa is the blue
mountain above the right end of the guard rail, with it's
own snow cap.

Here they are again, viewed from the
Master Bedroom in the Brown's home.
Dennis and I ordered
one of the new 4-foot long LED lamps that replace florescent
lamps from Lowe's in Kona. We were able to pick it up after
dropping our hosts at the airport. We also did our initial
grocery shopping and found the Oceanic Time-Warner office to
turn in the Brown's internet modem that was acting up and
got a new one. Friday evening I connected the new modem and
believe it or not... it worked. LOL. It carries their
internet and their phone. Their TV comes through a cable and
also through a satellite dish system, and they were working
fine. We keep our own cell phones turned on as well.
Saturday morning we
woke up to strong 20+ mph winds and 65° weather. There is no
heating unit in this home. They don't 'need' them here. I
would have lit one this morning if it were here. We did
notice a small plug-in heater in the Master Bedroom that we
have never seen before.
This is a 'crash'
day... sorta. I did end up installing the LED lamp in the
pantry as it was dark in there. It went in nicely, replacing
a four-foot florescent lamp fixture. It is bright... works
well! With the
extra rain they have been having the yard is not being
watered. They were pleased to get their water bill this
month, and found it to not be the usual $400 to $500 dollars
but only $49. I think Hawai'i is getting California's usual
water. But they have earned it... they are breaking a
seven-year drought we are told. |
March
21st, 2015 First Week
Our first Tuesday was the day for
the house cleaner, so we try to get
out of her way. We went into Waimea
to check into the Anna's Ranch
Museum that we were not able to
visit last trip over. I was too busy
with the music box at the time.
Before we got out of the drive way,
the Buick was exhibiting the battery
light and the message center on the
dash was telling us that we needed
to have the charging system checked
out. So we parked it and took the
Ford pickup instead.
The gal at
Anna's was glad to see me. She said
that she had knocked the pendulums
off both grandfather's clocks and
they were not running. The one built
by a local craftsman is the one on
which Rosalee and I replaced the
suspension spring several years ago.
We will go in next Tuesday to
replace the suspension spring...
again. :-) And I will instruct her
how to hang the pendulum. She says
that she knocks the pendulum off
when she winds up the weights. !?!?!
The other GF
clock had the pendulum hanging
properly but it was hesitant to run,
and the chime was hesitant to
strike. I added a little clock oil
to some of the journals and it was
working ok when we left. I will
check it again next Tuesday.
I spent the
rest of the day reading up on the
electrical systems of the 2006 Buick
Lucern, and discovered that I don't
want to buy a Buick. LOL. I found
that the battery is under the rear
seat. I'm trying to decide where I
can take it to get it checked out,
so it will be running to pick up the
Brown's when they return. We COULD
use the truck, but the rear 'bonus
cab' seat is rather restricted. I
went out the next day to dig into it
and see if I could see anything
obvious. Without special tools and
instruments, I did not feel this was
a job that I could tackle,
considering all of the computer
involvement in the systems. Nothing
looked obviously out of place, and
everything looked rather nice. So I
fired it up, and... the light went
out. The message board was 'clean'.
The Great Kahuna must have fixed it
overnight.
We do drive
down to the front gate to get the
mail and the paper every few days
(6.5 miles one way and 2,100
elevation) so we took the Buick to
'try' it, and it worked fine. We
will try it when we drive into
Waimea Tuesday and see if it is all
right.
The rains
and the cold weather have pretty
much pulled out and the sun has come
out. It is nice... not too hot, and
the wind is only now and again. Last
night we got a bit of rain. Not
much. But as the sun set, it looked
like a 'big one' was blowin' in, but
alas, it tended to miss us almost
entirely.

|
March 30th, 2015
The
life here is pretty calm and
quiet. Without having anyone
else here, we become quite lazy.
It is not like there are things
to see that we have not seen
several times, or things to do
with others, so we just go into
town to pick up groceries, do
some banking for Donna, maybe
pick up a tool or some supplies
to do a little job.
The
Master Bathroom shower uses a
mirror, some shelves, and a soap
dish that all are plastic and
use a 2" suction cup or two to
attach to the ceramic tile
walls. The suction cup on the
soap dish was getting old, and
with the dish close to the
opening to the shower, it got
knocked off and the suction cup
broke. Being soft, pliable
plastic, I did not anticipate
finding a glue to repair it, but
when we were in town, we found
that the whole line of devices
were available from the Ace
Hardware Store. Score!
About
our second week here, when we
vacated the house so the house
cleaner could do her work, we
planned on stopping at Anna
Ranch again, which we try to do
each year, but missed last year.
We usually check out the clocks
and music boxes to make sure
they are functioning properly.
They display them in their tours
of the old ranch house. Both
long-case clocks (grandfather
clocks) had been messed up by
the caretaker (she told me she
did it). We planned to come the
following week when she would be
there and fix the clocks.
Fortunately I brought some
clock-making tools with me from
home. I also brought an
assortment of suspension springs
which support the pendulum,
which was broken on the smaller
clock. Rosalee and I replaced
that one several years ago.
Susan in
Waimea has a lovely wall clock
that we repaired last year, but
I made it over to Hawai'i
without my clock oil, so I
arranged to stop by to lubricate
her clock. Meanwhile, Susan had
given my name and e-address to
another lady in town, Marcia,
and she asked if I could stop
and look at her clock... a
Grandmother Clock actually,
which is a little smaller than a
Grandfather clock. She is
widowed and it was a Christmas
gift to her from her late
husband, and this is the first
that it had ever quit.
We did
the two clocks at Anna Ranch,
then joined Susan and lubed her
clock. She treated us to lunch
at a restaurant that we were not
familiar with in town, and will
likely go there again if we have
company with us. After lunch we
found Marcia's home and worked
on her clock.
It was
rather straight-forward. One of
her three weights that hang on
chains came off its chain. The
weight consists of a 5 to 7
pound lead weight inside a brass
tube with a cap at each end of
the tube. A long bold goes the
length of the weight through the
center with a nut and washer and
cap at each end. The nut at the
top is in the shape or a hook so
that it can hang on the end of
the chain. Marcia's clock has
been moved and handled enough
that the top nut on the weight
became loose and turned enough
to slip off the threaded bolt,
allowing the heavy weight to
drop down into the base of the
clock. We were able to retrieve
it, and amazingly we found all
the nuts and washers to put the
weight back together.
Marcia
had the clock near her front
door, against the wall, covering
the electrical breaker panel for
her apartment. She was trying to
hide it from view, but that
meant someone had to move the
clock every time they had to
service a breaker. So we set the
clock up in a different
position. l
She had
another triple-chime mantle
clock in her bedroom which was a
retirement gift from Bank of
America, but she was afraid of
'over-winding' the springs, a
common fear of many. I
instructed her on how to wind it
to it's natural strongest
tension poiint and got it
running for her. She was
overjoyed to hear her old
'friends' talking to her again.
We try
to drive down to the front gate
every two or three days, usually
planning it around another trip.
We don't like to drive the
vehicles any more than
necessary. They are not our
vehicles. We are very
appreciative of the vehicles
being available to us when we
are here.
We got a
call from Marilyn, the neighbor
to the north of us, saying that
she had one of Donna Brown's
letters in her mail so I walked
over her direction and met her
and "Captain Morgan", her dog,
who greeted me with licks and
kisses. Marilyn is doing well...
last year she was laid up with
surgery on her foot.
Dennis
has a composter/shredder that is
an 8.5 HP Chraftsman engine that
does not run. It has not run to
my knowledge since we first came
here eight years ago. I have
encouraged Dennis to use it and
to set up composting here to use
up the massive amount of
cuttings, and to help control
the water consumption on the
property. He asked me to see if
I could get it to run.
I went
out to the garage to check it
out, and learn what the controls
were and how they worked, and
looked to see if there was
anything obvious keeping it from
going. The fuel tank looked and
smelled like it was empty, so I
put a little fresh gas in it and
gave it a pull... and it would
not even turn over. I worked a
little with it and I got it to
spin over, but it is like
starting a car. It takes a
really hard pull to spin it.
I
checked out the fuel and it was
getting into the carburetor
float bowl, and I pulled the
spark plug and spun the engine
over and I was getting spark, so
I dripped a bit of fuel into the
cylinder, replaced the plug, set
the choke and throttle, pulled
the cord and it fired. I ran it
about ten minutes. It sounded
great.
I shut
it down but it was not going to
re-start. I even dropped more
fuel into the cylinder and it
would not start. Probably
because the cylinder was too
warm and the fuel almost
immediately evaporated. I waited
until the next day, and it would
not start on its own. A little
fuel in the cylinder and it
fired right up. Not sure what
the problem is. One thing
sure... I can't spin the engine
very fast to start or to draw
fuel up from the carburetor,
because I am spinning the heavy
chipper wheel with it.
I found
the factory manual for it and
read through it, but there is no
place that allows me to
disconnect the chopper while you
start it. Bummer.
Both
mountains still have snow on
them. It is much lighter cover,
as the weather has been nice. We
are getting more wind, but we
are having some nice days.
Today I
went down to the lower gate to
meet the lady that is a Notary
Public that was sent out to see
us by Bank of America. Rosalee
did not feel confident when
talking to her on the phone to
tell her how to get here from
there. Plus the gate keeper
needs someone to vouch for her
to come into the communiry. We
are renewing our open loan that
BofA has carried for years. We
wanted to get it taken care of
because we have some expenses
coming up right quick here.
Fifteen K for a new Heat Pump
when we get back, and we have
finally gotten our solar man
active on our solar system.
The
solar folks are promising to
have us 'online' within two
weeks of our return home. The
system we have selected will be
a 10.35 Kwh system using 31
panels. It should cover
everything that we will need for
electrical use in the home and
the shop. It will cost us $3,000
per Kwh to install. With
absolutely no Gas & Electric
bill ever again, it should pay
off in about 8 years, and then
those utilities will be
absolutely free, unless the sun
dies.
Lee next
door had them install his system
some three years ago. Ed had
them do his last year, and Kent
had them do their a couple of
months ago. They are all
reporting a minimum fee from the
utility company that pays them
to keep the account open. It
amounts to about five dollars a
month.
Our
location here does not offer us
pretty sunsets very often. Mauna
Loa is a good 80 miles to our
left and Maui is to our right,
and that is the usual path of
the vog coming from the volcano.
That messes up the late sunset
sky for us. We have had enough
wind lately however that the air
has been somewhat cleared up. I
was able to catch this nice
sunset yesterday.
 |
April 5th, 2015 Easter
Sunday
We are
wrapping up our stay for this
session. We have had beautiful
weather, but last night we had
some terrific winds, clocking up
over thirty mph. A quarter after
midnight we felt a tiny
earthquake that turned out to be
a 3.8 or so, centered on Kohala
Mountain... that is where we
are. The dogs felt it and
Rosalee was out of bed. She
always feels even the tiniest of
shakers. Another hit around 0315
but we felt it much less. They
were not much more than a plane
breaking a sound barrier,
although they don't do much of
that around here.
The winds
are really strong today. Pretty
much kills the idea of doing
anything outside. The UPS man
came here for a delivery several
years ago and he told us that
these winds and weather we feel
here are not felt a thousand
feet elevation above or below
us. Seems we are in the "wind
belt" for this area.
We took our
final trip into Waimea (Kamuela)
yesterday and we walked past
this fellow with this bike. The
tires on it are humongous. It is
built like a "mountain bike" but
the tires are much wider than
they use. Makes me think of
those "swamp buggys" that have
extra wide tires for running in
bogs and mud. But we don't have
swamps here. Perhaps it is built
this way for running on the
sand?

I doubt
that I could propel that thing
across the level parking lot.
The 'boys'
have a new brother. Or sister...
not sure. I looked underneath
and could not tell. It is an
iRobot Roomba, a maching that
turns itself on and runs around
the floor sweeping up dog hair
and dust bunnies. Watch out
Easter Bunny!
The dogs
literally pay no mind to it,
unless it bumps the leg of the
chair they are sleeping on, and
they they get concerned. When it
is running on the floor they
don't even give it a wide berth,
They just step over it or around
it paying it little attention.

The gadget
goes just about anywhere it
wants. It adjusts to clean
hardwood, tile, carpet, anything
it runs on. It has a little bag
and HEPA filter to hold its
goodies it picks up. When it is
done you tell it (or the
programmed schedule tells it) to
go home and it finds its charger
base and parks itself, charging
up while it sits. It has a voice
that hollers at you to tell you
when it needs help, suggesting
what needs to be done. It tries
to extract itself from most
situations, but if it can't, it
beeps and yells for you to come
to its rescue.
We always
enjoy coming here to Hawai'i, no
matter what the weather or what
needs to be done. This was an
especially quiet time due to our
not having guests over. We pick
up D&D tomorrow in Kaiulua-Kona,
and then we fly out the next
afternoon. We have a new heat
pump coming the first week back
and the following two weeks
should see the solar system
coming in for the roof of the
Carriage House. After those are
done, we make doors for the
Carriage House, and then maybe I
can clean it out and organize
things. Right now it is a
respite out of the rain for that
which needs to be p;rotected,
but without the doors, water
still gets in throug the front.
Rosalee's
nephew Ed helped us place a
camera in the Carriage House so
that we could keep an eye on it
from Hawai'i. Shortly after we
were over here we were noticing
a fairy or a ghost in front of
the camera now and again, but
were unable to identify it.

That almost
looks like an angel hovering
over Big Red. The visitation
time is around 1700 hours. Is it
a bird? What is it?
There are
several cameras hanging in the
Carriage House as we were
experimenting with what worked
best, so I remotely turned one
cam up to view this cam that
this diaphanous dream seems to
like. This is what we found.
It is some
kind of a winged insect, similar
to perhaps a Damsel Fly. The
camera is about six inches long,
so that gives you an idea of how
large this little guy is. It
appears he or she enjoys the
heat from the Infra-Red LEDs
that light up the Carriage
House.
Home
Tuesday. Back to work. No more
playing with the dogs. :-)
Ken & Rosalee
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