Back to Work

After the lovely four day weekend, I am back to work.  Actually, I went back yesterday, but today actually felt like work.  It was the usual 12 hours away from home, but as the uncertainty about Dodie's due date, and my absolute lack of experience with sheep makes it worrisome.  I wish the previous owner had been more certain about when she was bred!

Today, I wrote down my goals for the farm: more cross fencing with water troughs and small shelters (partially for water catchment purposes so I don't have to haul as much water out to the back of the property), a small green house, a huge garden (with me somehow figuring out how to grow things that are not just cabbage or cabbage-like) - able to produce some dairy, vegetables, and some fruit.  They are nice dreams.

Right now, I would be happy if I can get at least one more bigger pasture for the sheep, and if my garden would grow SOMETHING this year.  Actually, that is not fair to the garden; I did get some beans and a mustard cabbage and a few tomatoes this year.  Getting the sheep, and the learning curve of it all, has taken what time I did have for the garden away, but I actually have enjoyed having them very much, so it was a good trade.  Now, though, I feel a renewed sense of determination and urgency about growing a garden!

I do have to say, I would much rather care for animals than fight against the kikuyu runner grass.  Pulling that out is like pulling out steel wire. It is actually amazing stuff, brought from Africa to feed cattle in the 19th century.  It isn't so good for the horses, but the sheep love it, and so do old Henry's cows across the street.  My horses can't live off it, but I know the only grain those cows get is when he is trying to catch them, and they look quite fat and happy over there.  Maybe the steel wire characteristic needs ruminant stomach to handle it!

Sunday Drive

Sunday started off productively. I stripped the sheep stall down to the bare floor, sprinkled some diatomaceous earth and rebedded the whole thing.  However, when I headed inside to accomplish the other things on my To Do List, my husband decided he wanted to take a Sunday drive down to Punalu'u Beach.  It is quite a distance, so I pulled out the camera.  I thought we were going to the public beach park where there are usually honu (giant sea turtles) but we went over by the heiau, an ancient Hawaiian worship place.  I still took pictures....

I found this bit of coral and thought it would make a good picture. 

 Beautiful sky.

 A friend and his little girl.  The kids are running over the beach bare foot...tough feet!

 My husband is fishing - we didn't catch anything.

 The kids are swimming - there is a little protected part right in front of this rock - otherwise, these seas are too rough.  Actually, the tide was coming up, and the kids had a scary moment when they were dragged through the surf. We got them, of course. This was a good lesson - don't turn your back on the ocean.

 Even in the rocks, the naupaka grows.

This is why the Big Island, at least the east side is not highly popular with beach going tourists - they stick to Maui or Oahu.

A better picture of the kids.

A close up of Naupaka.  There is a Romeo and Juliet type legend surrounding this flower - two unhappy lovers were separated.  One is banished to the seaside and one to the mountains.  The flowers are in half to show they are missing the other lover.

I couldn't find any Honu, but here's a sign about them!  They love the black sand beaches and will come to sun themselves.  Black sand beaches are very hot in the summer. 

This a picture of one of the heiau at Punalu'u.  The Hawaiian people would worship at these sites.  Punalu'u is on the path of a series of heiau and sacred sites.

A dried up old coconut.

A hiker must have brought the coconut from the grove in the middle distance behind this smaller Heiau.

The waves were fairly large.  You can see how rocky the coast line is.  Our island is still young, and there aren't many sand beaches.

A clearer view of the coconut grove and the ranch behind.

I just thought the sweep of the mountains behind the beach was beautiful!

That wave in the middle of the picture is much larger than it looks: the cliffs there are about 20 feet high.  The lava in the fore ground is a'a lava, rough lava which when it was flowing was full of gases, which left it rough and sharp.

A view of the beach from the heiau.

Part of this beach is rocks.  I love the smooth textures.  Once while camping here, I found a poi pounder.

I hope you enjoyed our Sunday drive!  The whole drive there, all I could think of was how much I wasn't doing at home - but once I got there, the beach worked its magic!  

Beautiful morning, happy animals...

Decided to take the camera around on my rounds today.  The sun is mostly shining - hopefully, it will dry up the puddles from two nights of pounding rain.

 

Temporary inside housing for adolescent hens.  This and the recycled feed scoops go a long way to explain the "Hapless", but hey, we're all happy.

 Well, you can barely see it, but we put up a five strand electric fence to enclose about 2000 square feet for the sheep to mow down.

Muddy small sheep yard next to barn.  Elvis is sticking his nose over the gate checking out what I am doing.

 Another make-do-with-what-we-have animal shelter option: we turned an old satellite dish over to keep Puueo and I'o away from the chickens, and used an old tarp to block the wind.

 Fruit trees: citrus of various kinds and an avocado.

 Catchment tanks.  We collect the rain off our roof and run it through filters to supply the animals and the house.

 Clouds rolling in over the back pasture.  You can see how muddy it is right at the entrance to the run in for the horses.

 

We used to live in this cabin, and added the barn extension later.  The plywood is blocking off the old car port, which did a turn as a horse run in shelter, also.  The cedar portion is where the original cabin was. This became the kitchen and bathroom when we added to the cabin.  When we took down the addition, we used the roofing and the walls to extend out to the barn.  

I need to weed, obviously, but here is an anthurium that is growing in my bed near the house.  

Pouring Rain outside...

Everything is soup with grass outside; well beyond our usual jello with grass consistency.

Discovered I need new rubber boots....the hard way.

The ram is feeling "rammy" today - showing off his male-ness.  I think Aubrey the ewe is possibly in heat. He doesn't like getting locked in at night, even though he doesn't necessarily want to go out in the rain, either.  Life must be somewhat confusing.

Dodie still hasn't lambed, even though when we bought her we were told it would be just a few weeks. I was trying to look at her udder today - looks a little bit bagged up, but couldn't get a good long long.  My sheep are Blackbelly Barbados, and, well, their bellies are black - hard to distinguish.  I need to trap her in a corner and get a good look.  She's had several births with no problems; I am praying for the same here.  I am not relishing trying to help her with one hand and the other trying to hold the flashlight and the book that tells me how!

This is a good day for soup-making, baking, and watching Poppy play games with the kids - what a patient man!  I want to be Poppy when I grow up (only, you know, Grammy, instead).

(Beloved) Townies visiting the Country....

My parents arrived last night, after catching an evening flight, stopping at the store (madness), and driving the long, dark way out.  Poor mom was riding shotgun and therefore had gate duty when they at long last reached our driveway.  It was, of course, raining.

My stepdad was looking watching through the rear view mirror to make sure mom would be okay out there, when he noticed that something was wrong with the mirror - it appeared that the gate was in front of Mom!  That's when he realized that my mother had shut herself outside the gate....

The next precious picture I am anticipating is my mom donning my daughter's rubber boots (at least they are as stylish as rubber boots can be - pink with running horses) and slogging out to visit my sheep.  It really is precious, because the mud and barn muck is not my mom's natural element, but she is gung ho. One visit she and the kids had the horse stall so clean it gleamed.

I think I am winging it a bit today -usually, I have this tight schedule of all the dishes starting at 5 am, but the turkey is a bit smaller than usual and everyone wants to eat later, so I guess I will figure it out as I go along - especially since I am not sure how many people are showing up (love that about having teens: friends showing up unexpectedly).  Since last year, I have become accustomed to making 48 bagels, two loaves of bread, 36 English muffins and some kind of treat on a single day on the weekend these days, so the multi-dish martial exercise that is Thanksgiving in an American household is not so daunting.

I love Thanksgiving, am more thankful than I can say that my parents are here, but I found myself a little wistful thinking of the outside things I could be doing on this vacation day..... all involving manure in some state of decomposition.  Perhaps this farmer thing is embedding itself deeper than I suspected.  

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Thanksgiving snuck up on me...

I have been extra-specially scatterbrained these days.

I am lucky that I have food in the fridge for tomorrow, and that I loaded up on animal feed.  I am very happy that I remembered on Monday that I had forgotten to take out the turkey, and lucky that my husband hadn't left for work yet so he could pull it out of the freezer to defrost in the fridge.

I am absolutely grateful that somehow I remembered my kids had early release and I needed to find someone to cover my classroom after lunch so I could pick them up!  (Believe me, there have been times they've called, "Ummm, Mom?  Where are you?" and times they have been the absolute last kids on the school curb, waiting for a ride).

What's not so great is that I keep thinking I have one more day to get ready.  Well, today is the day - my parents arrive in three hours.  There are so many chores still need to be done; I haven't fed the animals....

Somehow, blogging is even MORE fun, when you have too much to do...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Early!

I cam home from school and found my husband putting up gates!  Now I don't have to go through the horse stall to get to the sheep or the chickens.  What a treat....I feel loved :).  Forget diamonds.  Give me fences and gates!  

Teacher sent a nice email, thanking me for kind and gentle instruction (I included some nice lesson plans guaranteed to work on kids like my kid - she was gracious enough to listen.  

I hear my horse freaking out over my husband.  Better go for now, but what a nice day.