This video was taken on May 6th.
It is showing the movement of
lava through the Leilani Estates housing
group. Tonight... May 7th, we
are being told that over a dozen
homes have been consumed in this
area, and that the lava lake in
the summit caldera (Halemaumau)
is draining, so that lava is
probably going out into the
eastern rift. The lake has
dropped 220 meters from the top,
which was overflowing last week.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/multimedia_uploads/multimediaFile-1965.mp4
Here's another video, showing
how the ground opens up over the
rift, even if there is a paved
road in the way. Lava eats
pavement. It has a petroleum
base.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/multimedia_uploads/multimediaFile-1982.mp4
Wouldn't you know it... I get
over here and my mouse decides
to croak, so, rather than run
all over the island, looking for
a mouse and ending up with one I
may not like, I just ordered it
from Amazon. It came today. We
already realized that we left
our meat thermometer home, that
we were going to bring with us,
so... Amazon. We enjoy the meat
so much more to fit into our
diet, when it is cooked to just
the right temperature.
We
drove down to Queen's Court
today, about twenty minutes
south of us, to the Macaroni
Grill restaurant that we have
frequented in the past. Our
closer 'stand-by', Cafe Pesto,
who had wonderful salads and
great pizza, has closed down.
Bummer. There is an ABC store
across the mall from the
restaurant which we have visited
in the past, multiple times.
They have cute gadgets that
Grandma likes to pick up for
Stocking Stuffers next
Christmas. They will often have
displays that are somewhat
interesting photo subjects. In
this display, we see a jillion
different designs of...
bandages. I've never seen so
many Band-Aids in one spot
before.

It
is May 8th, and as the Islanders
would say: "Madam Pele is taking
a break." Pele is the "goddess" to
whom they credit... or blame...
the volcanic action on the
islands. There have been more
than two dozen homes lost to the
new lava action, but nothing
much to report the last 24
hours. The experts have no idea
of what to expect, but none of
them are expecting Mdm. Pele to
go to sleep anytime soon.
May 10th... my brother's
birthday. He would have turned
80 years old today. Not a day
goes by without our thinking
that we could ask Cody
something, 'cause he always
knows that kinda stuff. But, we
will have to wait for that. He
is with mom and dad and our
sister Gloria Gayle, living in
the harmony we all seek to have
some day. Meanwhile, no new news
from Pele' today, other than she
has been relentless. New lava
has flowed over... and that
means she has reclaimed all of
that land... more than 120 acres
of land. This is all in a rather
lush area of the island, where
nice homes are mixed in with
areas of rain forrest. Fifty
openings in the ground are now
registered as lava outbreaks,
and that number seems to
continue to increase. The
openings are pretty much in line
along the old, established east
drift, running eastward from
Pu'u O'o vent toward the
lighthouse. Most of the
outbreaks are in the vicinity of
highway 130 and the Leilani
Estates and another housing
district. Thirty five homes are
reported as lost. The whole area
is pretty much restricted to
visitors and residents alike due
to the noxious and dangerous
fumes.
Hawai'i is made up of nothing
but volcanoes, and this one is
the only one that is "active".
The northern-most "popular"
island, Kauai has the oldest
volcano in the state of Hawai'i,
with each successive island as
you travel south being the NEXT
oldest hole. The Pacific
tectonic plate is shifting in a
north-west direction, and as it
goes, the hot-spot that it
covers burns through the plate
and makes a new island, each
time seemingly moving further
south. The islands are what is
moving... with the plate, and
the hole that forms the
volcanoes... all of them...
stays in the same place. As the
Pacific Plate moves north, new
volcanoes pop through, and if
they come through late enough in
time, the plate has moved enough
that the new volcano does not
seem to merge with the previous
island, essentially forming a
new island. Each island is
formed by more than one volcano,
in most cases. Hawai'i, the
largest and southern-most island
has been... is being... formed
by five volcanoes... same
volcano hot spot but punching
through the plate in five
locations. Kohala, where we are
located, last spewed hot lava
some 120,000 years ago. It is
not called "Kohala Mountain"
because the Hawaiian name
"Kohala" means "Mountain",
literally.
Next, Mauna Kea, or "White
Mountain" due to the annual snow
on the peak, last produced lava
some 4,000 years ago. It is the
world's tallest mountain, when
measured from its base, which is
on the floor of the Pacific
Ocean. Hualalai, last
erupted two hundred years ago,
and is considered "active". They
expect she will again erupt in
the next century. The city of
Kailua-Kona rests at the base
and partway up her western
slope. Next is Mauna Loa, or
"Long Mountain", which is
considered to be the world's
largest volcano, by volume. It
is only 120 feet shorter than
Mauna Kea, and last erupted in
1984. They anticipate it will
erupt for at least half a
million more years before the
Hawai'i Hot Spot is too far away
to feed it.
What always appeared to me as a
vent from the side of the Mauna
Loa, but is actually a new
mountain/volcano in its own
right, is the infamous Kilauea,
which is currently producing
live lava, and this last
eruption began about 1983. Pu'u
O'o is a vent on the side of
Kilauea.
There actually is a new volcano
forming south of the island of
Hawai'i, called Lo'ihi Seamount,
because the peak is still 3,000
feet below the surface of the
ocean, and it is about 22 miles
south of the island of Hawai'i.
They expect it will reach the
surface of the ocean in about
10,000 years to 100,000 years.
It last erupted in 1996.
Hawaiian volcanoes are known as
"Shield" volcanoes, making the
more of a "flowing" type than an
"explosive" type, which means
there is less damage done by the
erupctions, and you don't see
the huge clouds and flying magma
that is seen with some
volcanoes.
On
the home-front, the dogs are
amazingly sharp. The react
totally differently with the
Browns and the Smiths. The
Browns notice the changes when
we arrive, and we notice the
change in the dogs when the
Browns return home. Yes,
children do the same thing. But
that means these dogs are a bit
smarter than most, and possibly
smarter than some kids. LOL.
We
always encourage them to not
bark, but they usually raise a
great ruckus when someone drives
into the drive or knocks on the
door. That is good to know when
someone is in the area, but they
obviously know it is us when we
drive in and they sound like ten
dogs when we get out of the car.
Today... total silence. Well,
almost. We heard one bark and
that was is. I looked to see if
they were even here, and both
were sitting up in the chair in
front of the window, next to the
door. Ears up, fully attentive,
but quite as could be. They got
lots of love and treats for that
one. LOL.
The dogs do have the rule of the
home, and furniture is not
off-limits to them. Other than
the bed we sleep in, we don't
alter that habit, since we are
in THEIR home. The Brown's have
a different couch in the living
room than before, and it has a
wider back with cushions, so you
know where the dogs want to be
most of the time... up on the
back of the couch, laying like
two Sphinx's in the Nile.

May 11th, and through the
marvels of the internet, I am
able to bring up our local
newspaper that we get at home.
This is the front page story,
with this picture taking up half
the page:
WAITING FOR KILAUEA
HAWAII VOLCANO RAISES FEARS

The fears that are being raised
are the editors in the
California papers, fearing that
if they don't keep this story
"active", they may have to find
more fake news to priint.
Oh, they already did. Now, if
you were the average paper
reader, you would likely assume
from this image that the volcano
over here in Hawai'i is going
bonkers. Well, that is not
entirely true. This IS, in fact,
an image taken at Halemaumau, or
generally referred to as
Kilauea. By the way... we
Californians try to turn that
into Spanish and pronounce it as
"Kill - ah - way - ah", but
native Hawaiians refer to it as
"Kee - law - oo - aay - ah".
Just so's you'll know. :-)
This was taken May 9th, after
dark, and were the sun shining,
it would be the normal
grey/white cloud of steam
normally generated by this vent.
This image is taken of the
Halemaumau caldera that is
three-quarters of a mile wide. A
big hole. You can clearly see
the hole in this image. What is
difficult to understand unless
you are standing near here, is
that all of the rest of the land
you see surrounding the big
hole... is the bottom of ANOTHER
huge hole. At one time, it was
all liquid lava. A lake that is
two miles long and two and a
half miles wide... you
cannot see the four hundred feet
high walls of the larger lake in
this image. This lake, as well
as the smaller lake, Halemaumau,
are actually sink holes. They
were not created by blasts of
explosive lava and rocks flying
out of the ground, but the
reservoir of hot magma below
ground melting the ground away
and the ground caving in.
Last week, had this picture been
taken, that smaller hole would
have been totally filled and
running over with hot lava. At
the moment in time this picture
was snapped, the lava lake that
was there has receeded and it is
shining up onto the plume of
white steam, making it appear as
the steam is itself fire and
brimstone. Pretty, scarry, but
nothing but a light show.
The newspaper story states: "If
Hawai'i's Kilauea volcano blows
its top in the coming days or
weeks, as experts fear, it could
hurl ash and boulders the size
of refrigerators miles into the
air, shutting down airline
traffic and endangering lives in
all directions..." Well, no, not
quite. Maybe Washington's Mt.
St. Helens can do that, but not
Kilauea. Hawaiian volcanoes do
not "blow their top" like that.
They "FLOW" over the brim. The
RUN out, they don't blow out.
Yes, they do blow steam and it
will carry rocks and "lava
bombs" that are hot blobs of
lava that fly out, but not huge,
Vesuvius-type eruptions. These
are "shield" volcanoes that are
low and flat. They do not form
high, volcanic peaks and deep
gapping mouths like others do.
Even danger from the 'lava
bombs' would only endanger
people within a mile or two from
the caldera, and that is all
National Park Service land and
people do not live there.
But homes are being burned
today. Yes, but that is because
lava is OOZING OUT of cracks in
the eastern rift zone, where
lava has flowed before, and will
flow again, and people built
homes on top of the rift. Duh!!
And they built in the downhill
path of the previous lava flows.
That is like building a mile
down stream from a thousand foot
high dam. Especially one built
by California Engineers.
The news article also talks
about the tragedy of a
Geothermal power station being
built where it was in harm's
way. Well,, you don't build
geothermal power plants where
there is no geothermal energy
source, unless you want to shut
it down for lack of an energy
source. Those are the risks you
take when you attempt to harvest
energy from nature. Dams use
energy from impounded water but
the energy can also break the
dam. You Makes Yer Choices, and
You Takes Yer Chances.
There is no feeling of despair
or panic here in the Islands.
Those that are directly involved
are dealing with reality and
doing what is necessary. There
is nothing that can be done,
once you made the decision to be
where you want to be. If lava
flows, where does it flow?
Yes... ANYWHERE IT WANTS TO FLOW!
There is no way of stopping or
altering it. They have tried and
either failed miserably or
caused other consequences they
regretted. Save your house...
and it consumes another that
would have been spared. You
can't pick it up and put it in
your pocket.
Tragedy is still tragedy, and
people that are losing their
homes today obviously were
betting on the lava not becoming
active, like the people on the
rest of the island/islands.
EVERYTHING in the entire state
of Hawai'i is obviously sitting
on old lava flows, since nothing
existed before the lava flowed,
but it is a safe bet that most
of the land is quite stable and
inactive as far as lava flows
are concerned. Just make wise
decisions and know your risks.
We know tobacco causes lung
cancer and we still smoke.
Alcohol destroys the liver and
we still drink. Bras destroy
breasts but we still wear them.
OK... back to reading the paper.
I'll try to keep quieter (don't
count on it. LOL).
It
is the fifteenth of May.
Yesterday, Gary, a local fellow,
came the second time, to finish
working on the Brown's hot tub.
The heater needed replaced, and
it had a leak in the large pipe
coming out of the pump. It took
him nearly 8 hours, even with my
helping him, to finish. It was a
real pain to work on. But it
seems to be OK now. He used to
sell them and service them. He
said this would probably be the
last hot tub he works on. LOL.
My
thumb is finally getting better
so I started to work on the lawn
tractor/mower. It has a bunch of
"safety" gadgets that won't let
you do anything unsafe. Or
should we say it won't let you
use it. A real pain. Three items
must be 'in place' before it
will let the starter work. ONE
of them... who knows which
one... is preventing the starter
from working. The factory manual
has no wiring diagram, so I
researched online and found one
that sort of works. What it does
NOT do is tell you where to find
these safety devices. To get
behind the instrument panel, you
have to disassemble the body,
drain and remove the fuel tank,
and remove the mower deck. I am
taking the shortcut. I am
bypassing all three safety
devices. I'm going right to the
heart. I am putting in a push
button that operates the starter
solenoid directly, without any
interference. Oh... where IS the
starter solenoid... near the
starter? Oh, no. Behind the
dash? Your guess is as good as
mine. I did find it... inside
the frame, over the
transmission... oh. Of Course!
That was after removing the
battery and the battery box. And
the bagger attachment. And the
hitch assembly.
We
drove to Kona today to find
parts for my new resolution for
the mower. Radio Shack is out of
business, so it took three
stores before we found the
stuff. On the way, cars were
dodging an animal on the road.
Rosalee said it looked like a
deer, but there are no wild deer
in Hawai'i. We later saw that it
was a wild goat. The largest
wild animal on the islands...
except for some wild boar hogs
that roam the island.
Report is that today the
Halemaumau crater is spewing
heavy ash that is going high
enough into the air and
traveling south enough to upset
some air traffic and causing
some cruise ships to bypass the
big island for a while, until it
settles down. Easy to see why.
I
asked Gary, the hot tub guy if
he had anyone in the south
island. He said he had friends
down there. One has lost his
barn, but the lava stopped short
of his house. He said the heat
has melted the plastic wiondow
frames though.
Gary told me that ten years ago
he looked at a nearly new, 2,300
square foot home, updated
appliances, stone countertops,
etc., and the price was
$250,000. He considered buying
it... until he talked to his
insurance agent. No one would
insure the home. Period. Zero.
It was in volcano zone 2. That
is where the homes are being
burned this week. So, if the
insurance people are not even
willing to insure these homes,
who in their right mind is
buying these homes. They know
this going in. "Oh, but it won't
happen to ME!" You feel badly
for these folks losing their
homes... until you hear this
stuff. What The Heck, Guys?
It
has been about fifteen days
since Kilauea started 'leaking'
to the east, and it has been
pretty uneventful. Very little
new outbreaks in the rift zone,
but the existing 'leaks' are
still bubbling up new lava. Some
new cracks are showing up on the
roads in the Lower Puna area,
which has been the area of
concern all along, but at the
same time, they are getting some
of the roads re-opened to some
local traffic by using large
steel plates to 'bridge' over
the cracks.
Media got excited around the
world when Halemaumau belched a
few days ago. It was "Heap Big
Smoke... No Fire". Basically it
was steam and ash, which looked
ominous but did littlel to no
damage anywhere. The steam
climbed to 30,000 feet, but hot
steam will do that by itself, so
it became a hazard for planes,
if they were foolish enough to
fly around the south siide of
the island. The good news is
that most of that exuberance was
blown off the island, not
causing much concern. Some rocks
were tossed out of the hole with
the steam and ash, but it only
affected anyone standing near
the volcano.
We
have had some rather heavy vog
working its way up the coast
toward Kohala yesterday and
today. The winds came up
yesterday, and they pretty well
cleared out the vog.
On
the homefront, my plan for the
lawn mower/tractor worked out
well. It is a nice machine that
has been here since we first
came to visit, and is a 16
horsepower twin cylinder engine
tractor that never has any
problems cutting this extremely
dense "golf course green" grass.
Smaller mowers just don't make
the grade.
The problem has always been
starting the beast. It is an
electric-start machine, but so
many of the "safety" controls
are installed to "protect the
innocent", you are really
hindered accomplishing what
needs to be done. And in this
example, those safety switches
have constantly caused Dennis
problems and prevented him from
starting this pony up in the
mornings. He does not have
trouble-shooting experience, and
without a bone-fide wiring
schematic to follow, even with
experience in this work, I have
a problem getting things working
again. So... now... that is all
bypassed. Hopefully, there will
be no more starting problems.
Anothere little project Dennis
asked me to look into was
changing out a wall receptacle
for a newer style that also has
two USB outlets for charging
small electronic devices. I got
that done today, and checked on
one that Dennis had done in the
old exercise room.
The lawns are starting to look a
little dry, so if the winds will
die down tonight or tomorrow, I
think I will turn on the
sprinkler system and get a good
watering session in. We have not
had much rain in the last few
weeks to keep the lawns and
plants healthy.
Each time we are here, there has
to be one morning set aside for
us to get our 'fix'... a Tex
Malasada. I've mentioned this
before... it is like the
old-fashioned raised doughnut
that we enjoyed so much as
kids... except. It is square...
and it has no hole in it. All
the more goodie stuff for us.
This is what it looks like, just
before it's life is spent:

It
is about an inch and a quarter
thick, and you can see how large
it is. I could not stop Rosalee
from taking a quick bite before
I could take the picture. Can't
blame her. We are sitting at the
table inside Tex Restaurant...
not Tex's... just Tex. No, I
don't have a clue as to why. It
was raining on us when we were
there. Tex is in the town of
Honokaa... (Ho - no - kaw - aw),
about a half hour from the
house. We drive to Waimea and
then on through town to the
East.
The morsel, itself, is not
Hawaiian at all. It is a
Portuguese delight. It can come
plain, like this one, or they
will fill them with several
different flavors of crème...
Bavarian Crème, Guava,
Strawberry, and several others.
We have never been there when we
did not need to wait a bit to
get to the front of the line.
They are always busy. And they
make these right there, behind
glass so you can watch. And they
are WARM. Yummy!
My
chores are done... the mower is
running and lawn is mowed, the
sticking door on the exercise
room is sanded down and free,
the outlets in the house are
installed, and all is well.
Well, almost all. After a week
and a half, we noticed that the
hot tub is starting to leak
again. After six or seven hours
of the fellow and I working on
it, it is leaking again. And it
has not even run since it was
fixed. I think the pump may need
tightened up... we found it
leaking earlier.
The volcano is pretty much the
same... except the lava
continues to ooze out of the
rift. It has made it to the sea
now, and there is just no way of
knowing if and when it will ever
stop. This volcano started this
current 'eruption' in 1983 and
has not really slowed down.
The world's media continue to
try to sell newspapers and
magazines with wild pictures of
other volcanoes... this one is
not exciting enough to sell the
papers I guess. It is doing a
deadly impact on Hawaiian
tourism, their largest
'industry'. Cruise ships are
ignoring the Big Island, and
they bring big bucks. Hotels are
not getting the booking they
usually get, Even the paper here
is getting criticism from the
public for their ridiculous
coverage of the event, and their
wild headlines, like "Island
Afire"... who wants to vacation
there? Oh, yeah... us. LOL.
At
the end of this video, hit pause
and read the page that describes
when/where/what is portrayed. It
was taken May 22nd.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/multimedia_uploads/multimediaFile-2104.mp4
The media are finding some
interesting videos to publish,
but they are not what they seem.
You cannot tell by a picture if
a plume of smoke and red ash is
10 feet tall or 100 feet tall
from the picture. Two thousand
people have been directly
affected, which certainly is not
good. Over 2,000 acres are
covered over by new flows. The
land that is getting covered
is... of course... old flows...
so it is a natural occurrence.
People just have the idea that
if they build there, the lava
will go somewhere else next
time. It don't work that way,
bro. Hot lava follows only one
law... the Law of Gravity. If
'B' is lower than 'A', and
molten lava is at 'A', you can
pretty much bet the farm on
where the lava will go... and
fairly soon. Speeds are quoted
at around a foot a minute...
some a lot slower, sometimes a
little faster. This video gives
you an idea of the speed it is
moving when crossing over
ground.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/multimedia_uploads/multimediaFile-2115.mp4
There is a large Geothermal
Power station located on this
rift... which was a logical
decision, since it works by
tapping the steam off the vent
to run steam turbins to generate
electricity. Lava reached the
ground around the power plant,
so they have taken measures...
not to stop the lava... they
don't have anything that does
that... but they moved dangerous
gasses that were stored there,
and they capped a bunch of wells
that would release gasses if
lava flowed into them.
About fifty homes have been
lost, over 86 structures in all, all built on the fissure.
We have still not heard anything
from our friends in Puna
district... only a few miles
south of the flow. E-mails and
phone messages have gone
unanswered. We pray that they
are doing OK.
If
you wish to follow the activity,
this is probably the more
accurate source of information
available to you. These are the
people that are taking care of
the situation, and the source of
any real news the media cares to
actually print.
https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/multimedia_chronology.html
I
have mentioned before that
Dennis has hung a bird feeder
next to the house, and we fill
it with two large tumblers of
bird seed every morning. The
local flocks do take advantage
of that, cleaning out the seed
by noontime. Below the feeder is
a cast iron bird bath. More a
watering hole than bath I
suspect.

Even in the bird world, there is
always a gang standing around
the water fountain, discussing
whatever. These guys we have
been seeing in Hawai'i forever.
We refer to them as "Tuxedoes",
since they look so formal. The
other day, I looked out the
bathroom window, before I had
the chance to go out and fill
their feeder, and there were 35
of these furry little critters
sitting in a row, on the fence,
wondering when breakfast would
be served.

Their color does not show up in
this image, and I had to blow
them up so much they are fuzzy
looking, but those two
yellow-headed guys are quite
rare here. Each year we are
here, I see one of them flash
across the yard, maybe once, but
there is no way I have ever been
able to catch them on film. This
is a bad capture, but they are
here. We have never seen a pair
before.
There is another that showed up
today... a red Cardinal. Not
like the East Coast Cardinal,
but these are a little smaller
and not quite as brilliant a
red color. We have only seen one
here once or twice. I saw him at
this feeding, and got the
camera. Twenty minutes leter he
still had not returned. Well,
maybe next year.

We
see a lot of these guys. They
are called Grey Franklin, and
were introduced to Hawai'i in
1958... not sure why. The larger
one is a teen-ager and the
others are babies. The adult is
a little larger than this guy.
They have a call that is usually
heard early morning. They much
think they are roosters.
I
have managed to somehow pick up
my chest congestion and coughing
I had from the last cruise we
did. I will likely take it home
with me.
The Brown's return tomorrow, and
we will fly home the following
day. Another wonderful month in
'The Islands".
As
we fly out from the islands, we
leave the Kona or western side
of the Big Island, and head to
the north-northeast, and that
lets us see off to the port side
of the airplane the island of
Maui. It is snuggled down under
that cloud cover on the bottom
of the image, but you can see
the really dark protrusion on
the left... that would be Maui's
Haleakala (Haw - lay - ah' - kah
- law') (double accent you
notice) which stands proudly
just over 10,000 feet above the
water. Long dormant... actually
pretty much finished with her
fireworks before Hawai'i island
to the south started forming.

You are going to think "Did Ken
get a new camera or something?"
LOL. No, just saw some pretty
sights that I thought I would
share. Hope you enjoy them.
This grabbed my attention as we
were leaving Hawai'i behind
us... it looked like someone had
planted the clouds with a grain
drill... old farmer talk. That's
the thing you drag behind the
tractor that makes the little
rows, plants the seeds, and
covers them over. The clouds
look like they were strung out
across the sky.

And after they "grew up", they
looked like this... like a small
orchard... the treetops from the
air.

And as we headed into the
distance, headed home to
California, I looked back and
saw this. Sunset over Hawai'i,
from 35,000 feet. Many times I
have heard pilots talk about how
being at altitude, they often
think of God, and of their own
lives, and where they are
headed. I could easily see how
that can happen. This was quite
moving an experience. The
perfect end to a beautiful time
in Paradise.

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