Wonderful Day!

I had my sister for a day!  I haven't seen her much - last summer for a day or two and then probably two years before that for a few days.  She's been living in Europe and recently moved back to the states and was in Hawaii visiting our parents.  It was very nice, although all those words I don't get to say much (being with kids all day and mostly being a quiet person) came pouring out - I hope I didn't bore her.

My son had a lesson down in Hilo for a couple of hours, so I drove around with my sister, looking for a red ti leaf plant.  Apparently, my son needs it for a class.  I saw lots of hybrid ti plants (green and red mixed) but the really nice all red ones were all in people's yards, and I wasn't quite at the point of stopping and asking if I could pick....especially since he needs a WHOLE plant, not just a leaf or two.

I usually have luck looking for vegetation down Railroad Ave., but today, all I found was a very starved and dirty puppy.  I stopped the car, called the puppy, who came running over, popped him in my car and drove him to the Humane Society.  He had ticks and was covered in excrement.  I didn't want to take him home because of my own dogs, and if the vet at the Human Society can cure him, he will be a lovely puppy for someone - he looked to be a pit bull/hunting dog mix.  I really think someone dumped at the end of that road in the forest.

We have been letting our chickens out during the day - and it has been harder and harder to get them back in - it isn't that they don't want to get back in, but a few will get stuck in the horse stall and not be able to figure out how to get where they are supposed to be, and I end up chasing creatures this way and that - forget herding cats: herding chickens amidst sheep is much harder.  One of my girls is getting broody, so I marked all her eggs with a sharpie and then reach in to get the new eggs out every day.  Really hoping she will sit the whole 21 days.  I would love to have some chicks!  In the past, my buffs have sat for like 19 days and then get up - which is so irritating.

I need to catch up with everyone else's blog.  It's been difficult since my internet has been spotty in the evenings, and when I try to load pages, it says the pages aren't responding.  I would love to have very good internet out here.

The kids had a good bonfire last night, and I see that my husband corralled some of the boys to use the chainsaw they brought over to chop up some of our overgrown, low hanging cypress branches - it will be nice fuel for future bonfires.

My eleven year old took it upon herself to make French Silk Pie.  I drove my sister to the airport, and left her to it - it is a fairly big project for a kid who has never made a pie crust.  I told her to wait, but she thought she would just get through it on her own - because sometimes my "wait" turns into "not today" and then "maybe next weekend".... I suppose I had better go check in on her, because it is not only a pie crust, it is a baked pie shell....  As I ran in from the airport run and then ran out to feed and chase chickens - I checked her various steps.  She was doing okay at that point.  At least, I talked her out of the meringue - that would be tricky on your own for your first pie.  We have a lot of eggs, so maybe we'll try that tomorrow.

More May Day

I forgot my camera!  I tried to take pictures with my little phone, but they didn't come out very well.  I wish I could share this tradition with you.  This year, Papa 'Eono (sixth grade) was the only class which required the whole class to participate - the rest of the numbers were performed by the kids in the Hawaiian Ensemble - believe me, these kids, not matter what grade, are incredible.  I thought it was funny that the Kane Papa 'Eono (sixth grade boys) performed a song about shrimp - because so many of them are pretty tiny - the girls are still at that age where they are outstripping the boys in maturity.  


The killer number for me was "Waika" performed by Wahine Papa 'Ewalu - the eighth grade girls.  That song gets to me in any shape or form, but the girls were absolutely lovely.  I admit I cried.  I was trying to find a good version of the song to post, but although I did find versions on YouTube, I didn't feel comfortable sharing them. 


I can't tell you why that song makes me cry - it is a beautiful song, but there are a lot of beautiful songs.  I used to listen to it at a rather tough time in my life - so it reminds me of that time, it also makes me homesick for the Windward side of Oahu, because it mentions places on that island.  I used to know a version of that dance, and seeing one of the women who was at college with me (on the mainland) who also danced in our little "halau" (wasn't really a halau, but we did dance) at the production was pretty fun.  I keep forgetting she moved to the Big Island, too - even though our kids our classmates, we only see each other at May Day and Open House - even though we were very close friends back in the day.  We're both working mothers of four kids apiece, and although we always say we'll have lunch - we never have time.  


Well, anyways, I am glad my 13 year old didn't see me cry - because he would have been heartily embarrassed.  I am also glad my husband snuck out the back door after our baby girl was done dancing, because he would have just laughed at emotional me, too.  


I can hear my daughter's (not so?) ex- boyfriend chainsawing dead trees for the kids' bonfire tonight, and my husband sawing up wood for a new sheep shelter (yay! the horses can have the second stall back!) , and I know there are things I should be doing.  But, it is nice to sit here and reflect.  



Have a lovely weekend, everyone!  

New Ram and Merrie Monarch

I just went to pick out my new ram.  I can't pick him up until he is weaned, but he is a nice big Dorper twin.  Now I need to decide whether I want to buy a ewe, too.  They are offering me a decent looking pregnant yearling.  I think I will go for that, because that would mean another Dorper out of their nice ram, then cross my fingers for a ewe lamb.

I am going to keep Cal (the streaky black and white ram lamb) and sell Sam (my black ram lamb) - then I will have three rams - two kathahdin/barbados, and one Dorper.  Keeping three lines might get confusing, but I will have to figure it out.

Tomorrow is the May Day celebration at my kids' middle school.  The 13 year old feels lucky to have missed the hula/singing round this year, but my 11 year old is dancing tomorrow.  I love May Day celebrations!  This week is Merrie Monarch week - a very big week in Hilo.  There is a week-long celebration of Hula with competitions in auana hula and kahiko hula - for both wahine and kane.  I watch it on tv, because it never occurs to me to get tickets until it is much, much too late - and after waiting for two hours on the free night one year and not even getting in... Halau come from all over the world to compete or even just to do an exhibition - there is a big craft fair and a parade, too.

Even though I will just be watching the hula on tv tomorrow night - tomorrow morning, I am going to sneak out of work for an hour to watch my little girl (and all of the other kids in her grade....) dance hula.  She is busy ironing her muumuu and making her ti leaf lei.

Goat Dairy Visit

I took four students down to Lava Rocks Puna Goat Cheese dairy.  Our bus driver is one of the farmers, although his wife if the full time member of the team.  All the human kids (and me) got to milk one of the goats, to much hilarity.

Here is the milking parlor.  

And here is the shameless advertisement sign....










We will be airing our little one minute segment on PBS Hawaii sometime in June.  Our big camera died, so it was all filmed on our little flips.  I am a bit worried about that - but we can do a bunch of interview shots on Monday with the good camera with our bus driver/farmer.  I would like to see if some of the other farmers around here would want to be in our little segments?

The kids got to taste goat milk and fresh cheese - it was a good morning.  (My poor husband - now I REALLY want a goat or two or a cow.)  

Hurtin'

I have no idea why I am hurting so much.  I didn't do anything out of the ordinary in the last few days - I did carry about 250 lbs of feed from the car, but that is a normal occurrence... It is true that I am not sleeping that well, but even that is not out of the ordinary.  But, today, I just ache.

I am hoping I am not getting the illness my boys had a few weeks ago.  I had to laugh, because my 13 year old never gets sick, and he mentioned that last night, "You know, Mom, I never got sick, so I just didn't even think that the really bad headaches I was having had to do with germs!  I just couldn't understand what was happening. "  He is of the "suck it up" variety when it comes to the school health room - unlike my 11 year old who visits frequently, I presume for the dramatic effect and sympathy?  My 16 year old kept going to school, attending track practice - until his body had had enough and shut down for a week.  

I have so much coming up this weekend; I can't afford to be sidelined.  My sister is coming for the day (I think, haven't heard the final plans?); my son has a driving lesson and his regional track championship (although the illness killed his chances, he lost a lot of speed during that week and a half).  I think my original due date for Minnie may be correct - which will bring her to Sunday-ish - you know how that goes.  I have a great field trip scheduled to the goat dairy tomorrow: we're filming for a PBS student news show.  No way I am going to miss that!

Oh shucks - I just remembered that I forgot the braided cheese bread for my 5th period class, AGAIN.  I promised them I would bake them something yummy because they are going through state testing this week and next.... I need to write it on my hand tonight to remember in the morning.

Now I wish I had talked to the farrier...

before he got here.  My freaky gray horse is quite hyper this evening, and I am wondering how that rodeo went.  Most of the time, he is awesome when you pick up his feet, once he stops trying to back up into the next county to get away from you....but somedays, his nuts days, he forgets that he knows who you are and he's off and running.

I just noticed that he chased the paint out and Ohia knocked out some of the electric fence on the way out.  Gib also spread all his food in a thin layer across the stall floor - a new thing, which probably tells me the trimming and fussing wasn't a fun time.  I questioned my husband, but he said, "I don't know; I was busy."

My farrier is a saint, and possibly one of the best trainers I know.  He is very patient and takes his time, but I do wish I had given him a heads up.

I must say, the horses look lovely with their new trimmed feet.

No lambs, yet.  Minnie is taking her time, but her udder is quite large these days, much bigger today than yesterday, so can't be long.

Off to make dinner!  Stroganoff.  Just had a hankering for it.

Goin' holoholo (driving around)...a wandering post.

We used to do that when gas was cheap: go for a long drive, maybe to Kona, just to look at something different.  Those days are long gone - not just because gas is up at $4.55 and climbing, but also because who's got the time to drive for a few hours, just to drive?

Today, I had an appointment, so my student teacher took over my classroom.  I was pretty hyped up after my appointment, so I talked my poor husband into driving to see those Dorpers before it was time to go get the kids.  It wasn't far - maybe 7 miles from our house, but we took a road I haven't been on in a long time and it was almost like the old days.

We visited with the owner for a bit: they have suffolk/hampshire and dorpers, a couple of horses, and rabbits.  Their suffolk/hampshire ram is HUGE.  I thought Elvis was big, but this guy was a monster - and fast, too - their Dorper ram was muscular but smaller than Elvis at the shoulder.

It was kind of hard to get a good look at their lambs, but I guess in a week or two, they'll bring them down and separate the lambs out so we can get and look at them.  I was kind of hoping to get a ram lamb and two ewe lambs - but like us, they ended up with mainly ram lambs, and I think they want to keep their ewes.  Somehow, in conversation, my ram and two ewes became a ram and one ewe.  They are all half siblings, their lambs, so I would breed the new ewe(s) to one of my current ram lambs, and the ram lamb (when he's old enough) to all my ewes.  That would be a crop of half Dorper lambs who share a grandsire.

The Suffolk/Hampshire's were SO cute, but I am not ready to go the shearing route, yet, and just not sure if I could avoid the parasite problems with that breed and our wet warm climate.

The farmer had a cat who thought she was a dog: she followed us right out to the back pasture and she was panting by the time we got back.  I haven't really talked about our cat, Nani.  Nani means "what" in Japanese and "beautiful" in Hawaiian.  I think she takes after the Japanese - I tell my daughter she is defective, because she is not a cat who sits in your lap.  She may deign to let you pet her, occasionally, but usually as she is walking away. My oldest is the only one who can pick her up at all.

Well, I can't go holoholo in the car anymore, but apparently, I can while blogging - this post has gone hither and yon quite extensively.