Tuesday, November 28, 2023

 Tuesday, November 28, 2023

     Haole Koa is an ugly, invasive tree brought to Hawaii to feed farm animals. Cattle didn't go for it. The tree is out to take over Hawaii with a vengeance. 

    I had a twenty-foot tree growing in the yard off my bedroom. I cut it down with my four-inch chain saw. Yeah, their trunks are one to two inches in diameter. As I said, ugly, scrawny trees. When shoots came up at the base of the tree trunk, I poured boiling water. Someone told me the plant will die if you keep killing the leaves. This rule did not apply to this haoli koa. I planned a more radical step: drilling a hole and pouring in Round-Up to kill the tree. I was spared that option when the friendly Ace Hardware man suggested I try hammering copper nails into the trunk.

   I tried hammering a nail into a narrow green trunk to no avail. I drilled a hole into the trunk and hammered the nail into it. That worked; the nail went in. It took several weeks before I saw any signs of new growth. When it did come, it looked weak. The copper nail may be doing its job. I check regularly now. I boiled the last outcropping on October twenty-seven. That's not that long ago. We'll see.

   Meanwhile, I discovered that haoli koa is a source of food. It produces ten-inch pods filled with seeds. When the seeds are fresh from the pods, they're toxic. If they sit for two days, they're a great source of protein. Dean prepares the seeds for his chickens. He either let them sit for two days or soaked them and let them sprout. He says they love them. I told B about it. He said his chickens have already discovered haoli koa seeds. They peck open the pods and eat them straight.

  I bought an ulu tree (breadfruit). I had the gardeners remove two plants from the center of the grassy area in the yard below in front of Yvette and Josh's ohana and plant it there. Darby told me the two large pointy plants in the area were bad feng shui.    I had the gardener remove them and dig a hole for the ulu tree. Digging that hole took several hours. I prepared soil amendments for the gardener to use. A two-to-one ratio of gypsum and dolomite and two cups of chicken pellets for the bottom of the hole, covered with a layer of dirt. The roots could not have direct contact with the pellets. Margo, the horticulturist who sold me the tree, said the trick is to make sure the tree is watered daily for at least three months. After that, it should be all right on its own.

    So far, we have had days filled with rain- unusual weather. They called it a Kona low. The weather came in from the west. It was dank and cold-well cold for here.

   I had a lunch date with Zola and Mindy. Every restaurant is open-air. I wore what I would typically wear but packed additional clothing in case. 

It was fine. While it was humid by the shore, it was warmer than at the altitude of my house, one thousand feet. The higher you go, the colder it gets. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are snowcapped in the winter. We had a weather advisory for snow with the Kona low. People are surprised Hawaii can have snow. It is below freezing on top of those mountains in the winter.

    When I got home from a trip to town, I noticed I only had two white bars left of electric energy. The car won't run at all once the white bars are gone. I remembered the mechanic saying they could get the car to start to charge, and then it switched off. I figured if I could get just one additional white bar, it would be better than nothing. Lo and behold, the charger worked perfectly, charging the battery fully. I didn't call Kia to tell them. I wanted to hear the diagnosis from them first. I believed in the beginning, and even more so now, the problem is a loose wire.

  Upon reading my definitions of introvert and extrovert, a friend wrote that she didn't conform to any of those definitions. I revisited the idea that they were driven by fear. Suppose you see the extremes as part of a continuum. In that case, the folks in the middle are mood-driven rather than fear-driven, the way one develops a need for a dietary supplement.

  I mentioned in a previous entry that Twin E miraculously expanded her visual working memory field from three letters to five with no guidance from me. I told her what I did with other students with perceptual problems, but those problems were different from hers. Today, I asked her what she had done to expand it. She said, "I thought about it." I didn't try to get more from her. I assumed she didn't know more. She is not a thoughtful child with an analytical bent. Presumptuous of me, I know. When I see her next, I will ask if she can give me more details.

   Today, on NPR, they were talking about the impact of their socialism on family life in Sweden. Because of universal protection, family members don't rely on each other. The elderly are not dependent on their children, and the young move out on their own as soon as possible because they are not reliant on their parents. It creates a community of social isolates. As an unintended consequence, it undermines family connections.