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Hi Pam. I just love your antics! The muddy slip-slidin'-away day was very funny (although it probably took just a short while for you to see the humor!)...You have such a great presence!
Is Laura K with you? Just wanted to send a hellooo and hope all is well...if she's with you I'm sure all is well with the world...you're a good caretaker of animals and people alike from what i can gather!
Mahalo!
Carrie Rojo
http://www.cafepress.com/dreamhawaii
Posts: 2,189
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Joined: Sep 2004
Antics? Antics is when I had to scoop the pig pen for the first time this week. Ever so careful in feeding and cleaning the pen, I managed to get all that piggie poop into a 5 gallon bucket (I don't remember feeding them that much today!!) and then haul it off to the piggie poop pile which will become coffee tree fertilizer. In so doing, I apparently managed to find the ONLY hole along the path between the pigpen and the manure curing pile and of course fell right in. Happy to say my face stayed far away fromthat 5 gallon bucket!
We have now managed to get a total of 124 coffee trees planted and another 80 flags measured out and placed for drillig holes this week. It is all very neat and organized thanks to the planning assistance of my friend Theo, plus hard labor by Theol, Alex and our new buddy Charles "Chili". The guys are doing a great job of keeping me safe and on track. Gotta love those "cabanaboys".
I have had great luck on freecycle recently and have "scored" items not only for myself but quite a number of friends. Thanks to freecycleers generosity, my friends are wearing cleanly washed and dried clothes, putting clutter away on shelving, etc etc. I encourage you all to join the yahoo group freecycle.
On another string, we have decided to plan the next Punatics Party.... Saturday, may 27th at 10 AM for a potluck brunch here at my place. Contact me for directions and information. Last party had about 40 guests; let's outdo it this time!!
Aloha and Mahalo to you all... Pam
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
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Joined: Sep 2004
It's been a while since I posted; been busy busy busy!
WE are up to 175 coffee trees in the ground now. Today the crew is coming up and we will work some more. It being Mother's day, however, we will be taking a break to head up to the Volcano Golf Course for a breakfast feast.
No rolicking humor today; that just means I haven't slipped and fallen into anything the last couple weeks. Things are really good here. We are enjoying fires in the evenings as it has been chilly. I have been cooking up a storm and friends have been enjoying one of my few talents there. Martha Stewart I am not but the guys seem to get a kick out of the fact that I can work in the fields till 3 or 4 and have a huge buffet set up by 6. Ahhh, the talents of a woman  One of my best friends has a 3 year old that comes here a lot with his dad. He has been introduced to helping in the kithchen and has truely excelled in the fine arts of licking the spoon and bowl after baking. He is my dessert making partner these days.
New friends have visited and shared in the fun of seeing the progress here. You all seem to ooh and aah as you come into the finally livable home. Does my heart good to find that others are as happy with the results of this, my first home design adventure, as I am. I thank each of you for the gifts of plants you seem to always bringl; I absolutely love them all.
We continue to be communal in the sharing of our resources. Friends have come and gotten soil, some leftover ti and other plants I have around, a few coffee trees. Times have been hard for a few friends and it has been my pleasure to share the stocks from my pantry and especially pork from the pigs we slaughtered last month. The puna attitude of ohana is strong and I love it. These same friends have often been around to help out with projects here so it really is an Ohana!
Hubby will be joining me June 6th. He is anxious and looking forward to meeting you all eventually. Preceeding his arrival, nowever, do not forget our Saturday Brunch the 27th. I have gotten a few emails but please let me know if you are coming so we can have plenty of what we need. I will be trying to clean up my residual messes around here before you all arrive to see the progress since the last one. Oh, yeah, you actually get to come IN the house to eat this time.. wooo hoooo! Still, bring chairs; I am spartain in my furnighings and don't even have a dining room table yet. However, we all sit around the lanai, or the fireplace and it works just fine.
So, the creew will be here in less than half an hour and it is time for me to get my lazy behind out of bed, into the shower and ready to work work work.
Aloha all... thank you much for your visits, your notes and your general encouragement. It makes the adventure all the more fun.
Pam
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
Okay, so I love telling you all how this city girl from the suburbs is learning to be a country girl. However, it has been pointed out to me that I have not given up ALL my city ways. I was down having my nails done (head hung in shame)... full acrylics with french tips and a design on one nail every two weeks. But only in Hawaii could the guy doing my nails ask me more about the adventures of my ranch, then propose to trade me some of his hens for some of my roosters.
Having spent the day at the beach BBQing with friends and just hanging, and the guys having had a few beers, the challenges were tossed out and my great buddy and gardner, Alex, is out in the dark this evening trying to catch three roosters for the big trade tomorrow. Everyone else wimped out for the night and we all know that putting clumsy me in the woods in the dark to chase roosters is a bad idea.
He is out there right now, having cought one young rooster already, he is chasing the "big old mean one, because if we get rid of him all the rest will be happier". Leave it to one of my guys to think that one up.
Wish us luck and I will keep you filled in on the result of this adventure.... Pam
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
Addendum to above:
This is just too muchl Alex not only got the three roosters out of the trees in the forest by 7;45...he also caught the two biggest, oldest, meanest ones. Alex is the BOMB. If I weren't already married... oh, well, I propose to him once or twice a month but he reminds me I am already married... Heheheheheheh
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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Joined: Feb 2006
Pam, again, your writing paints a hilarious picture. (But now my mind is painting a picture of your poor nail stylist with these bruiser roosters!...Plus the ride to the nail salon & his ride home Woooheee!)
ALoha, Carey
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Well, at least one of you is getting a kick out of this, so I figured I would follow up once again.....
This just gets funnier and funnier. Alex and I put the three roosters in a largeish dog airline carrier... and no problem all night long. This is a good thing. I awaken about 5:30 AM to squawking, screeching and crowing.. the three roosters are having at one another in the box. This is NOT a good thing. I have visions of the guy showing up to trade and having two dead roosters and one bloody one. Ewwww... so outside I go in my pajamas with the legs rolled up to my knees lest they get in the mud, and in the pouring rain put some food in to distract them after thumping the side of the box. All is quiet so I return to bed Ten minutes later the box starts banging around and they are at it wore than ever. I .haul the box over to anothyer area off the ground and under better cover, toss in some chicken food again, thump them around a bit and hope for the best. I don't know that they were any quieter but they were further from my bedroom. By 8:30they were quiet when I went out to check and feed the other chickens and roosters.
By 9 I get a call from the chicken trade guy. "We are on our way up from Hilo in about half an hour". I confirm his directions. Ten comes and goes.... 11 comes and goes... so I call him. It turns out I am not the only having a very odd chicken morning. Turns out he doesn't have his chickens at home as he has a 10,000 sq ft lot in town. He keeps them at a friends acreage up toward Hamakua. He had spent the day there day before, but half way up the mountain toward my place he realizes he had left the chickens in their cage up at the Hamakua place... so he turns around and drive up there. Then he finds that one chicken has escaped.. he knows not how.. and he has to go chicken chasing to find another... then they drive back to my place... by now it is after 12. He seemed somewhat astounded that I do not put my chickens in a henhouse but rather freerange them. Then I pointed out I am not after eggs at this time; I am after diversifying the genepool and breeding the chickens. Ahhh, so he gets it. He is a little reluctant to tell me that he has discovered that he got quite a deal with me because apparently roosters are worth more than hens. Who cares? I traded one for one. Doesn't hurt to have a friend at the nail salon does it? He was so happy he told me he runs into free hens every once in a while and he will get me more when they come up! Ahhh, you gotta love the spirit around here. Just another crazy day in paradise.
(PS... talked to Alex today andhe is none the worse for wear, and still happy he managed to catch the mean roosters so the rest can live happily. I didn't bother to explain that another will simply Alpha up and start it all over again.......Wednesday we are cleaning up around the Pigpen and the garden if anyone is bored... come on over! LOL...
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 2,189
Threads: 295
Joined: Sep 2004
No new building activities this week. I had a total ball at the Punatic Party here. Everyoe was fun and they all brought such great food!!!
We have had our first hatching of baby chicks since I got rid of the egg-robbing dog. Seven chicks chasing momma around; it's so fun to watch. Oh, and the new hens have settled right in with one of the roosters; I imagine I will see babies from them in a month or so!
On to the humerous stuff.... we mamanged to get the tractor stuck behind the cabin in the rainy mud last week. I have ignored it to prep for the party but imagine I better get out today or tomorrow to try to get it out. If anyone has a come-along and a couple hours, contact me and come on over...
A friend's son came by to pick up some Hapu'u I had for his mom. He apparently doesn't understand plants; he took two buckets of coffee trees instead. I sure hope he returns them; they are the trees for the next field to be planted and are worth $3 each... proably 75 to 100 trees...
Another friend's son was hanging at the local corner one day last week. I busted him because he was supposed to be in school. Dad happened by a few minutes after I found him. Dad decided that for "punishment" he should come over and chop wood for me. How cool is that? I now have two weeks worth of firewood at least..l and good old Donald seems to think going to school is better than not..... such a deal.
We have so many chores that have been neglected around here for the last month in favor of just getting by and getting the coffee in. Hubby will be arriving a week from today and I imagine he will be exhausted in the first week. Weed whacking, tool cleaning, putting away a zillion things that have just been stashed under the house.... can't wait for him to arrive.
There is, however, no real building news to share. We will be waiting to build the stairs and deck railing for about a year. The current status isn't to my liking but budgets are budgets. It is all safe and livable and it's more important to develop the land at this point. I figure two more crops this year, the vegetable garden and maybe some fun landscaping, plus mowing mowing mowing and feeding trees. Hubby will be so glad to start a job and get some rest. LOL
Aloha for now and as always, thank you all for your support.
Pam
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
Posts: 1,516
Threads: 81
Joined: Dec 2005
Aloha Pam! I love checking-in for the latest on the homestead! Tony and I will be coming later this month to look for a house probably shores or beaches...I want some chickens...I know you don't need a rooster unless you want chicks, but can you tell me the easiest set-up for a few hens...I mean should we build little houses? Sorry to sound so ignorant (although it IS sometimes blissful, hehehehe). I was told they really won't wander too far from their home base...and that they eat a lot of things like old fruit and even YOGURT (whodda thunk it?). You seem to have it down, but I know you have a large operation goin' on there...we just want maybe 4 hens or so...any advice is welcome!
Mahalo Nui Loa!
Carrie Rojo 
http://www.cafepress.com/dreamhawaii
http://www.hellophoenix.com/art
Edited by - Carolann R on 05/31/2006 05:41:50
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Carolann, If yoiu are going to the shores or beaches, it may be zoned residential. Find out if you CAN have chickens! Presuming yiou can, and presuming you want eggs, set up a small buuilding for them,maybe three or four feet tall and four feet wide. Put in two boxes and provide fresh straw for nests. You will need a perch also, where they can sit... a dowel like a closet dowel or even thinner works great. If you feed them as I do, morning and night, right in front of wherever you want them to house they will return there daily. You may lose a hen now and then but in general they will hang out. I believe most people pen up hens only; a rooster will keep them together but he makes noise. Take a plastic egg and place it in the nest; (like an easter egg) and that usually signals them to lay there. I love to let mine free-range becuse they do eat bugs and stuff. Penning them up costs ore in food but guarantees you an egg supply. It's a trade off.
AND for the record, I am anything but an expert. City kid here learning by hints from others and experience. Anyone else, feel free to hop in here with better advice!
Pam
PS... come visit us here when you are on island!
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!
I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says
"Oh Crap, She's up!"
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