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.