February 2nd, 2020
Happy Palindrome & Happy Ground Hog Day!
oh, and there was a football game, too
strange "Gloriosa" climbing lily
I didn't plant it, it just showed up
Not quite sure where this lily came from, it's some sort of oddball climbing lily. It was here when we got the house and it still keeps showing up even though it gets zero care. It blooms then disappears, then reappears later. Kinda a fun flower. I think it's called a "gloriosa" lily. I should take a close up picture of the ends of the leaves, they kinds twine around things so the plant can climb.
Happy February 2nd, 2020. Which is also 02-02-2020 or if you take the punctuation out of it, 02022020 which is the same forwards or backwards. Which is what the 'palindrome' thing is all about. Apparently, there hasn't been a palindrome day for over nine hundred years. Also, apparently, there are people who actually keep track of this sort of thing!
It was also Ground Hog Day and they have the special groundhog, Phil, who does something involving his shadow to indicate how long winter will be. Hawaii, however, has no ground hogs, so perhaps that's why we have no real winters? We will have to ask Phil next time he shows up.
There was also a football game today, I've still not found out who won, but there were at least a couple of touchtowns since someone in our neighborhood found a use for the big booming fireworks that didn't get used up at New Years. We will have Chinese New Year's pretty soon, so there will be more fireworks, then, too. I don't think the bunnies are that keen on football, they weren't very keen on the loud booming noises, either. Oh well, they had ti leaves to console themselves with so they didn't mind.
Little Red Hen, er, Rooster
In other backyard news, Red, our little red hen has turned into a rooster. He had looked like a hen for almost six months, I guess he's a late bloomer? He was hatched out by our little white hen, although she didn't lay his egg. She's half white leghorn and half feral rooster, unfortunately the feral half is from her sire. Hens get their laying habits from their sire, so since her's was a feral rooster, she lays a few eggs then promptly sets on them to hatch them. Which is NOT a White Leghorn sort of trait at all.
So, anyway, back to Red, perhaps if he manages to survive for at least a few more months, he can sire the next batch of eggs that little white hen wants to sit on. Then, if she hatches them, we should end up with hens that will lay like a domestic chicken. Which means, the hens kinda keep laying and not stop to set on them to hatch them. Since Red is an araucana rooster, perhaps, if little white hen lays some eggs that Red is the sire of, and hatches them and they're hens and they lay eggs, the eggs may have blue or green tinted shells.
Since we're kinda doing pets, guess we may as well toss in a couple of Kink pictures.
Gecko Kink
is he eating the banana or ants?
Having a countertop pet is a good thing! Kink is either eating the banana or eating ants that were on the banana, hard for tell. Generally, he seems to prefer bugs, but geckos also like to eat fruit and sweet things. I think he likes the yellow countertops, too. He always tries to blend in with them, he's not normally as yellow colored.
We don't lack fruit around here at the moment, either. Not sure why it seems like harvest season, but between the avocadoes, oranges, limes, lemons and tangerines, there's loads of stuff to attract bugs for Kink to eat.
Avocado Season
there's still avos everywhere
It's the dead of winter and the middle of avocado season. We need to buy stock in a tortilla chip company.
The tree is huge, not sure how old it is or specificially what kind it is, but it's very prolific. The avocadoes are particularly tasty, too. Rich and creamy, not watery at all. I've decided they're better than the Lehua ones which we used to have in the other backyard. Oh, and this tree has a much better ocean view than the other one. Not that you can see it in the picture since it wasn't a good picture, but that bright white area behind the tree is the ocean.
This pile of avocadoes was after a bit of wind, but there were also two buckets of avocadoes that were already taken down hill. These are the leftovers. I think this was the largest collection we got this season, though, so the multiple buckets and multiple wheelbarrow type harvests are more than usual. Most times it's just one or two five gallon bucket fulls of avocados.
This ain't no teeny Hass avocado
There's a couple hundred different varieties of avocados on this island. At least, ones with names. There's tons more that just show up. This may be a named variety since they are really good avocados and the tree looks like it was planted in that location. It's been there for decades, though. The tree is huge and there's been an absolute abundance of avocadoes this year. Most of them weigh in at around one or two pounds, some of them are much bigger than that. I picked up one of the larger ones and stuck it on a scale and it was over two and a half pounds. It wasn't a particularly ginormous one, just one of the larger ones in the pile.
It does look like the tree will be slowing down to merely a half dozen avocadoes a day and then probably by the end of the month it will be done for the season. I forget when the avocado season started, maybe last August? I should have the under tree area cleared out by then and we will be able to find the avocadoes easier.
I'm not sure why, but there's the carcasses of over thirty (?) small refrigerators up under the avocado tree. Once we get a driveway up to the workshop (and avocado tree) then we will be able to take the trailer up there and get some serious yard cleaning done. We've dragged off a few of the fridges, but there's still a lot of tall grass and who knows what's under that. After we're done with the restoration of the little house, then we can work on the workshop and clearing up and around that area. There's another smaller avocado tree with round avocados off behind the workshop, but we haven't been able to reach it in the tall grasses back there.
Most of what we've been doing since the last installment on the webpage has been fixing up the little house. Not that things have been going all that quickly, but things have at least been going a wee bit.
Concrete footings are heavy!
and it's all uphill
Halfway up the stairs is a footing that was being horsed up to the little house. I suppose footings are supposed to be heavy. They're more solid that way, one supposes. I'd guess they weigh over a hundred pounds? And - of course - uphill is where it needs to go. Sigh!
Fortunately, there's heavy metal tangs on it, so a handy chunk of 2x4 was wired onto the tangs for a huge lever and the whole thing was kinda persuaded to roll uphill. It still took about an hour to get it relocated up the hill to where it needed to go.
Behind the railing is the rubbish pile of the things that used to be a lanai. I'm not sure if any of it will be useful while building the new lanai. I've gotten a few boards from the pile, but more than likely most of it will be thrown away.
Be nice once we finally get a driveway, but it's gonna be awhile. We have decided to put the driveway on the other side of the house from where we originally thought it would go. Mostly since then we'd be able to continue on up the hill and get to the big workshop up there. We will have to sacrifice the little carport down by the road, but this house has the little falling down carport by the road, a bigger one behind the house and the big workshop/carport. None of them have driveways, though. At least, driveways on the property, the upper two used to be accessed by the neighbor's driveway next door.
Installed Footing
it's the one at the end
There's two types of footings for the lanai. There's the non-hurricane proof type, which is what was horsed up hill. Part of the lanai won't have a roof so the footings that don't continue up to the roof aren't very ferocious, they're just general purpose footings. They weigh a lot, but they aren't stuck to the ground.
The second type of footing is to prevent hurricanes and other big wind events from pulling UP on things and blowing them away. More metal fittings and more dug into the ground and everything is attached to each other all the way up to the roof for the hurricane prevention type of footings.
Hurricane Protection Devices
The lanai has a great ocean view, but it's also got great exposure to trade winds and hurricane type winds as well. So, when the wind blows, we want things to stay put. The metal fittings are made by Simpson Strong Tie company and if they weren't a privately held company, I'd invest in them since they are a required construction item anymore.
For the hurricane preventive footings, there's three long pieces of rebar about four feet long and a matching length of galvanized pipe pounded into the ground after going through the stirrup of the metal fitting. More soil was dug out after the tiles were put around it to keep the dirt from falling in. Most folks use wooden forms, but we had the tiles laying around so we used those. Concrete was poured around the rebars, pipes and fittings to weld it all into one mass. The footings under the two posts that hold up the roof are done this way, the other footings won't have as much uplift on them during heavy winds so they have just general purpose footings.
The footings for the two posts that will hold up the roof start out with the pipes and rebar into the ground. Then the metal fitting, then the concrete. That has the wooden 4" x 4" post thru-bolted and nailed to the fitting. There's a metal strap that goes over the beam at the top of the post and is then nailed on both sides of the post. Then a post fitting is through bolted to the end of the beam that is strapped to the lower post. The top of that post will also be through bolted to the roof beam with another heavy duty fitting. The roof rafters and purlins will have metal straps to the roof beam and the metal roofing will be screwed to the rafters.
That will pretty much mean it is all securely connected from the ground up to the top of the lanai roof. Of course, all this is just for high winds, won't do much good for 100 mph flying coconuts, should we actually get a real hurricane around here. Usually the mountain, Mauna Kea, pushes the winds away from us. Makes sense, a whole lot of flat ocean, a huge mountain sticking up out of the flat ocean, why would a hurricane want to climb the mountain? But, we're making it as windproof as possible anyway.
Replaced post at lanai rooflet
Not sure what the official name for that little eyebrow rooflet may be, but it now has it's post again. At some point in the past, folks decided it wasn't in a good spot, so it was removed. Since then, that little rooflet had drooped several inches. But, now it's pushed back up into place and it has a post under it to keep it that way.
It will get painted and probably some sort of decorative router work on it once the lanai floor deck is installed. Right now, it would be ladder work, so the paint and finish work on the post can wait until it will be easier to do.
Starting to replace the lanai
The footings have been done and the floor joists are starting to be installed. They're getting painted, too, even though they won't really be all that visible when the job is done. But, we want the job to stay done so the extra protection of the paint is hopefully going to help.
We finally got enough joists installed that we were able to temporarily put some floor decking up there to see where the final floor will be. It's about level with the living room floor inside. The lanai decking will be boards with narrow gaps between them, so any rain that falls on the lanai will fall through the cracks. The previous lanai had a tile floor, but the rain got under the tile and rotted the framing. So hopefully this one will be a bit more durable in rain.
Having the floor almost level with the living room floor inside will make this lanai feel like an extension of the living room. Previously, there was a nine inch drop between the two, which is a huge step and made them feel like completely different areas.
Tomorrow the floor decking boards are supposed to be delivered. Maybe there will be enough energy to install some of them after they get hauled uphill? Hmm, maybe not. But, hopefully by the end of next week, at least some of the floor decking on the lanai will be installed.
the beginnings of the steps
Since the floor decking boards haven't been delivered yet, today's project was to start on at least one set of stairs up to the lanai. Be nice to be able to come in the front door instead of having to walk around to the kitchen door all the time.
It actually took longer to draw this and plan it than to cut the stair stringers. These will be more of the 'floating' steps like what were made for the lanai at the other house. The stringers (those slanted boards holding the steps) may be more visible on this stairway than the other, though, since they may be closer to the edges. We will see how it looks before nailing everything together. Some edging around each step that matches the 'racing stripe' on the house may help it look good even if the stringers are a bit visible. Well, we will see what happens after getting enough parts together to see what it looks like.
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