Ah, the good life.

Funny you should ask if Oillie thinks they're chicken nuggets, Phil...
We've had quite a rocky couple of weeks here at the chicken house. First, on Saturday my friend Debbie came over and we took the chicks out and played with them and got them used to being handled. I totally bonded to them and starting giving them names, and was so excited. Then, I got home last Saturday night and found that my little Barred Rock chick was looking terrible. She was laying on her side, looking damp and breathing heavily. I picked her up and she looked like she was not going to make it. Now, before I go on I need to back up and tell you that there is a forum called Backyard Chickens. People post ALL KINDS of things about their chickens and can answer any question a backyard chicken owner may have. I had been reading it and there is a whole section on chicken emergencies. As I stood by the cage holding the chick and deciding where I ould put her while I went to look up what to do, she died in my hand. It was so much sadder than I was expecting... I took her outside and it was late so I didn't do a great job urying her, but I thought it would do until I could get out there and dig a better hole.
The next morning I went to the feed shop and got a replacement. I was feeling kind of rattled, but I was ok. That evening, I let Ollie out and when he ccame back in he had something he was playing with. It didn't take me too long to realize that he had dug up the baby chick. I fucking lost it. I screamed, freaked out and finally convinced him to "leave it". I put him on the leash and went to get my crazy neigbor lady to see if she could help me, and she wasn't home. So, I pulled myself together, tied Ollie up outside and went back in. I took the sweet baby chick and reburied her. The worst part was, I was so mad at Ollie and could't quite figure out why. I mean, she was already dead, and he's a dog, and I eat chicken too, etc. But I was still pissed. It took me until the next day to really get over it.

Anyway: after a few days it appeared that the new Barred Rock chick was not thriving. She was smaller than the others, wasn't really trying to fly, and just general seemed kind of runty. because of that I went and got ANOTHER chick on Thursday, this time a Black Australorp. Of course, because of the way things go, they both seem to be thriving now.

The chickens have all been named and have very distinct personalities. Pictures, names, and descriptions to follow, hopefully tomorrow.

Peep PEEP!

I got the baby chickens! They're even more cute than I ever could have imagined.
Yesterday, I went to the feed store and picked them up. There is a whole wide world of chicken breeds out there that I knew NOTHING about, but those of you who know me well know that I have now totally obsessed and know a whole lot more about chickens than I ever thought possible. I definitely wanted to get an Ameracauna chick because they lay blue or green eggs. I also wanted a Rhode Island Red, usually prolific layers, and a Buff Orpington, who are supposed to be quite docile and friendly. All the chickens but the Buff Orpingtons were arriving this week and after conferring with friends-with-chickens, I decided it was better to get all four at the same time than try to introduce a baby chick to a few older chicks. Apparently, Buff Orpingtons can get picked on quite a bit and introducing a younger baby would just make that situation worse. So, I got: two Ameraucanas, one Rhode Island Red, and one Barred Rock.

I've had them for a little over 24 hours now and thre personalities are already starting to emerge. The Barred Rock seems to be the bossy one in the group. She shoves the others out of her way when necessary and will sometimes stand on the feed bowl and block the others from eating. The Rhode Island Red is super sweet and I can't quite tell the other two apart yet.

Here's a group photo:

The Rhode Island Red is in front, the bossy Barred Rock is the black one in back, and the two in the middle are the Ameraucanas.

Here's a close up of the RIR:


They already look different than yesterday, and I'll get some more close-ups of the others tomorrow. There little wing feathers seem to be changing quickly. They make lots of noise and just peep away, and when I walk over to them (they're in the dining room) they all stop peeping and look up at me. I'm trying to handle them a bunch, though they don't want too much to do with me at this point. It feels a little awkward to refer to them by their breed names, but I'm not ready to name them quite yet. Two of these babies will technically belong to my friend Kim, so I want her help in naming them. I also want to make sure that a: they're not roosters and b: they make it, before I get too attached.

The coop is almost completed, but they won't be able to go out there for at least a couple of months.

Here is the framing:


The roof is up and the floors are going in:


A view of the inside:


Little chicken staircase:


More pictures and info this weekend. Wish me luck, especially in regards to the small furry poodle who has suddenly found his mission in life is to get as close to the chicks as possible. And cry about it the rest of the time.

Revived!

I'm reviving this blog!
A lot of things have happened in my life since the last time I posted, and I thought it might be fun to get this going again.
The main excitement in my life right now is that I've done a total overhaul of the backyard, which now includes a chicken coop. Portland allows you to have up to three hens in your backyard, and I'll be getting the first chicks this week. I can't wait!
I've also been going to lots of births (21 out of the 50 I need to graduate) and knitting up a storm. More stories and pictures to follow.

News, news, and more news.

Well, it seems like everything is coming together. I have a place to live in Portland! As of March 1st, my official address is:

7924 SE 17th Ave
Portland, OR 97202

I'll still be in LA at the beginning of the month, and then in NYC after March 5th, but still! I have a place to live! With a dishwasher! Life is amazing!

I also have two great new housemates: one is starting school with me and the other is applying to naturopathic school. Here's a picture of the house:



The technology of doing this all online astounds me (and even thinking that makes me feel like a grandma).

But anyway: I've got my classes picked out and a place to live and cool people to live with. I still need to find a car and a job.

Oh! And for those of you who followed the shortbutsweet puppy saga a few months ago, now we're getting a puppy for real. He's only two weeks old now, and will be ready to go to his new home in April. Here he is:



Please suggest names. Please.

-------

In Hawaii news, still workin', still beachin'. I put tanning oil on my skin the other day and fell asleep at the beach. I woke up to my first burn here, which is localized on my lower abdomen and upper thighs. Which basically means that everytime I take my pants on or off, it kills me.

Also: Raquel and Soren are in town! I took them on a wild goose chase yesterday, and we tried to go to the beach but the wind was so insane that they were shutting the beaches down. So instead we went to a few different places to poach some fruit, which is one of my favorite things to do here. We got: coconuts, papayas, and star fruit. There were lots more papayas and bananas that we couldn't get to, and the guavas weren't ripe.

I love it here. Leaving two weeks from today.

Time's-a-tickin'...

two step

Three and a half weeks left here! I've been trying to get all kinds of shit done before I leave. All the stuff I thought I'd have plenty of time to buy. The places I thought I had time to see...

Anyway. After work yestersay, a group of us headed down to Captain Cook. It's supposed to be the best snorkeling on the island, and once you get there (about a two hour drive from here) you have to kayak to where the Captain Cook monument is and then snorkel around there. It's quite a situation, and since we had to work and weren't very organized, we didn't get down there until 4. At which point we couldn't really rent a kayak because the places close at 5, plus they said it was a four hour trip, minimum. So instead they directed us to go snorkeling at this place known as "Two-Step" (photo above). It's this cool beach with a pretty rocky entrance, and as usual, we had to figure out how to get in with minimal cuts and scrapes. The snorkeling was incredible, with clear blue water, tons of friendly fish, and sea turtles. On the way out we found the spot where you're supposed to go in, a rocky place that looks like two steps right into the ocean. Because it was late, we got pretty cold and only stayed in the water for about an hour. It was so beautiful though, and the sun was getting low on the ocean. I wish it wasn't so far so we could do it again.

So: back to work today. I've been working outside, mulching, and using these big loppers to cut up hibiscus trees. I think I'll also be staining the new office today, which should be fun.

Time flies when you're getting dirty...

There's so much going on, and I've totally fallen behind on the reporting of it. I don't really know where to start, so here are a few random things:

I learned how to drive a stick shift! Or I'm trying to learn, anyway. I practiced this weekend on acar that this guy was going to give me for free, but it turned out to be a little bit too much of a situation for me. First of all, the car hadn't been driven in a couple months. So every time I stalled, the car died. Also, this was in the JUNGLE, basically, so when the car died, the guy whose car it was had to go hike back to where his other car was so that we could jump it. The back seat couldn't stay up, so I had to either sit up really straight or Jessie had to hold up the chair with her knees from behind. All this while trying to figure out the shifting. Which brings me to a question: how many of you know how to drive manual? Just curious...

What else. Beach, snorkeling, blah blah blah. The water's so rough this time of year that I'm still getting pretty banged up on the way in and out of the water. When I got home from swimming on Sunday I had a couple bad cuts and a cartoon-ish bump on my knee. It's weird because when you get past the shorebreak, as the water gets deeper, its great: warm, calm, and clear. Anyway.

I saw an acupuncturist who performed Chinese Bone-setting on me. I was not pleased. They basically massage you and relax you as much as possible and then procede to crack every joint in your body. It hurt, and I screamed. I even had to bite down on a towel for some of it because there's a danger of biting down on your tongue. Hopefully, I won't have to do it again. It was interesting because it turned out that my sacrum is twisted, probably from the time I was hit by a car in high school, and I've had some sciatica-type pain on and off since then. About a week after the bone-setting, you can see that I seem to be re-aligned. We'll see what it does about the back pain.

Still reading a lot, but I got a new cell phone so playing with that has entertained me for the past few days. If any of you remember my "bitch-ass-rat-fink-phone" held together with tape, you'll know why I'm pleased.

I named the calf Mahe'alani, which means beautiful full moon, because she was born around the full moon and has a crescent shaped white mark on her forehead. She's very sweet, and Berneice is being a great mom. I'll post a new picture soon.

Liu Zhi is teaching me how to make Chinese dumplings. They're SO good and we're having them for dinner tonight.

-------

So, I've been here almost two months now, and am about a week away from when I would have come back to NYC if I hadn't changed my ticket. Time has really flown, and I'm so glad I'm here. I know I can be impulsive and make wild decisions, but this was a good one. I still have those moments every now and then where I'm like, "how is this my life?" but it's not always bad. Sometimes when I'm working hard and sweaty and sore I think about how I could be cruisin' at the JCC, checking my email all day and talking on the phone and I wish I was. But then other times, when I'm under water looking a fish in the eye or when I'm laying on the beach drinking pina coladas I think about all the times I would fantasize about doing just that (remember Iesha??) in the dead of a NYC winter. And those are the times I'm glad I'm a little crazy.

So much for delivering calves!

Yesterday, Lew and I went to the coffee shop in the morning and were trying to figure out what to do about the cow. I had done all kinds of internet research on what to do if she needed help (very common in first-time-cow-moms) and we heard that she seemed to be leaking fluid yesterday, so the baby was coming soon.

Anyway, we woke up this morning and found that she had given birth in the middle of the night, effortlessly, and had a healthy baby girl! Here's the picture that Michael (who lives next door and co-own the cows) took at three am:


I just went over and saw her, and she's very sweet and is mostly brown, with markings similar to Berniece's on her face. I'm babysitting mom and baby this weekend, and will get some more pictures. Also, Michael and Lava have asked me to name her, and I couldn't be happier! I'm going o pick out just the right name for her...

And I thought shoveling shit was bad.

I had to do the grossest work ever yesterday. So much more disgusting than shoveling cow shit.

There's this tub full of pineapple plants in the shed (the kind where you just hack off the top and put them in water). They've been sitting in this tub for months waiting to be planted, and this was my job yesterday. I have to pull each plant out, pull off any rotten lower leaves and plant them in the ground by the pond. This seemed like it was going to be fun and easy. Little did I know. When I went over to the tub, I found a rotting festering mess that smelled horrific. It was very clearly the smell of excrement, and I felt like I had my face in horse shit. It also splashed around and got all over me as I pulled the leaves off, which made this awful squelching noise and were covered with brown sludge. The water in the tub was also FULL of worms and fish and frogs and tadpoles and they got ALL OVER ME. After dealing with the plants, I went over to Liu Zhi and asked if he would help me, miming the international signal for vomit so that he would know what was going on. With his help, of course, we planted them really quickly. I then headed right into the shower and scrubbed it all off. The rest of the day, though, I could smell that disgusting smell and kept asking to see if anyone else could smell it. They couldn't.

In other news: the cows. There are three cows here, Nellie, Norman and Berniece:


While Norman is a steer, he is castrated and therefore unable to perform. It seems, however, that Berneice is pregnant anyhow. This happened before when a bull jumped the fence, but the cow and calf died in childbirth. Cows are pregnant for about the same length of time as humans**, so we're not sure how close Berniece is to delivering, but it seems like it'll be soon. Her udder has dropped and filled with milk, and I took some pictures:

and

I'll keep you posted on this developing story.


That's all for now. Oh, I also wanted to let you guys know that I've decided to stay in Hawaii a little longer... so I'll be back in NYC around the second week of March.


** I got into midwifery school, yay!

Rain Rain Rain...

is all that's going on here today. It's tricky rain, too, because it'll stop for a while so I go out and start working, then it starts again. And rains so hard and so suddenly that I have to run for cover!

So, I worked as much as possible today while continually running for cover. I'm working on my little vegetable garden again, weeding it and just loving it up. Some of the little babies will be ready to eat soon.

Not much else to report... so I'll post a photo of me on the lanai taken on New Year's Day, as per the request of SW:

Pendulums and Psychic Healing, etc. etc.

Wednesday is hump day! But anyway.
I got to try something pretty cool yesterday, the results of which I won't know for a while. Karin works in the research department of the local hospital, and the project they're working on now is about prayer and healing. They're using functional MRIs of the brain to see if the brain reacts to prayer, healing, and intention being directed towards it. In the first part of the study they used people who classified themselves as healers and had them send messages to people getting the functional MRIs. This part of the study uses "bonded non-healer teams", which means that I got to act as a "healer" on Pat, who was in the MRI machine. "Bonded" means that the pairs are not strangers and have some sort of relationship before the study. Anyway, they put her in the machine and put me in a room behind a one-way mirror facing her. At two-minute intervals they had me do whatever kind of prayer or intentional healing I wanted. Later they'll analyze the data to see if her brain activity was different at the times when I was supposed to be sending intent verses the times I wasn't. It was cool, and I'm pretty curious about the results...

The smelly guy finally left. He was having lots of problems here and not doing well, so it's good he's gone. I cleaned his room today, scrubbed it down and aired it out and we're going to smudge it later.

More fun last night asking the pendulum questions and getting alarming answers. Pat had also brought these "life cards" that we all tried: they're fifty-two cards that say things like "moving physically" or "building relationships", and you go through them and eventually get down to the five that are most important to you. Then you rank them and try to figure out if you're doing what you want to be doing. Very interesting. Plus we had some wine.


** Emil: remember a couple years ago when you were looking for those chocolates? Were they the endangered species chocolate bars?

Out with the old, in with the new.

Happy New Year! I hope you all have a fabulous year. I certainly intend to.

I made dinner Friday night, and then went to a park and sat in the ball field and ate ice cream. Then I went to a friend's house and we painted our fingernails. With the limited color choices we had and the fact that I haven't worn nail polish in years, my hands came out looking like those of a drag queen. Oh well.

Saturday I worked some more on the path to the bathhouse and then went to a New Years' party in Kona Saturday night. The guy throwing the party was the bartender whose house we'd slept at last week, so we thought it would be pretty cool. Somehow, Jessie had forgotten to get his actual street address and just got directions to the street he lives on. He said that we would recognize the house by all the cars parked out in front, and the tiki torches. Needless to say, we COULD NOT find the house. We searched for about an hour (and it takes an hour and a half to drive there) and kept stopping people in the street and asking if they knew where the house was. A lot of people in the neighborhood were out in front of their houses doing fireworks, and it got sort of complicated to get around. Finally we decided to call the bar where he works and ask for help. Being Hawaii, of course, the guy who picked up the phone had me hold on and used his cellphone to call a friend who was already at the party. The friend came out onto the street and flagged us down, so we found the house. So we finally get there and there are only FOUR other people at the party. And it went downhill from there. There were these loser guys who were hovering around us and we couldn't shake ALL NIGHT. And we tried, god knows we tried. Then the band came, and they was so bad that I don't even have words to describe them to you. Just a total nightmare, playing random ACDC songs. Ugh, so lame.
[Our other New Year's Eve party option had been the party in town, in a barn. Later, we heard that party was totally hoppin'. Isn't that sad?]

Anyway. We got home late and I had to walk up the driveway, using my cellphone as a flashlight so I wouldn't wake anyone up. The next day was a New Year's Day potluck here at the farm, which was fun. My friends were here, and I also met some interesting people, and there was live Hawaiian music and hula dancing (not the cheesy tourist shit), it was great.

Yesterday we had the day off and went to the beach at the Mauna Lani, which was clear and calm but a little too cool out for me to want to go in the water. We just hung out there and people-watched. Lew and Karin have a friend here for a couple weeks who's a famous acupuncturist, and is also very cool and fun to talk to. She and I made dinner last night and then we all hung out and did fun fortune-tell-y type things with a pendulum. I asked it all kinds of questions and got some pretty interesting answers.


So...things are going well. This is the week where I find out if I got into midwifery school, and also whether the people renting my apartment want to stay for the month of February...


P.S.: If any of you happen to pass by a Lush store and find it in your hearts to buy me a bar of "Honey I Washed the Kids" soap and send it in the mail I'll love you forever or be your slave for life, whichever works for you.

Complaint post!

I just need to complain for one second about the men I live with. I know this will all sound like petty shit (and it is) but things get to you when you live with people. Hell. I don't think there's a person reading this who wouldn't agree with that. Also: Karin is away and it's just me here with three guys, and I'm not used to that. I grew up surrounded by women and have so many female friends, I really am used to the girlies.
But anyway. After Ben brought me all those lemons, I've been making tons of stuff with them: lemon bars, lemonade, lemon pound cake. When I made the lemon pound cake, I poured the batter into the loaf pan and set the bowl aside. As I was cleaning up, one of the guys came in and looked in at the bowl with the batter in it. [I also need to interject here that one of the best parts of cooking here is the peace in the kitchen, so it already irritates me when someone comes and bothers me when I'm doing it.] So he comes in, looks in the bowl, and says, "is this safe?" Not knowing what he means, I answer, "well, it has raw eggs in it if that's what you mean." And he says, "oh that doesn't bother me" and proceeds to LICK THE BOWL. Anyone who knows me knows that that is my absolute favorite part! I mean, I had set aside to save it for the end! And if you're wondering why I didn't wrench it from his grasp, there are several reasons for that, the primary one being an odor situation. But I digress.
Then later, after I take the cake out of the oven I put it onto the counter to cool. When I come back, fully ONE QUARTER of the cake has been eaten by the other guy. I mean, what kind of people are these?? Who licks someone else's bowl without asking and who cuts a cake that's clearly for dessert while it's cooling??

Getting lax with the posting...

but nothing much new going on.

I've been working on a path to the bathhouse, which involved digging out the grass and then digging a trench in which to put the plastic path edging. Then we cover the path with weedcloth and pour gravel over it. It looks pretty cool and should make the walk to the batthouse even less exciting. (Did I tell you? I walk there in the dark now! No flashlight!)
Anyway. That's what we've been working on this week. We also had some people camping out in the pasture, and one of them was named Quasar. So there's that.
We went to the beach the day before yesterdy, and there was a surf advisory due to 15-20 foot waves. The beach we went to, Mahukona, is not a conventional beach at all but an old port for the sugar plantations. As you can see from the first photo, there's no sand, just a concrete platform and you jump from it right into the water. Well, we hung out there for a while, watching the waves to see if it was really bad. Every time (except once) that I've been to the beach here there has been a surf advisory, and I've always gone in and been fine. This time was different. As we were standing on the dock, a huge wave hit and really did shoot up twenty feet into the air. I, of course, ran for my life. After that we left.

Yesterday we went to the Mauna Lani again (the one where the water is as clear as in a glass) and we swam a little while. It was rough though, and because the surf is still bad it was very murky. There is so much coral there and I tried to swim, but with the zero visibility I banged my knee on it and cut it up. Did I tell you guys that I had cut my butt, thighs, and hands on some rocks swimming on Saturday with that boy I like? That was embarassing.

So. We're supposed to be working on the path some more, but the tractor has a flat and so we're stuck. Maybe another beach day...?

Just so you guys know: I'm never leaving this place.


P.S. Anyone notice this article in the New York Times? I'm not going to comment on co-sleeping here. I just want you to look deeply into the eyes of the dads.

Mele Kalikimaka and Ha'oule Makahiki Hou*

Hi Guys!

Man, I was thinking about you during the transit strike! I can't wait to hear all your stories about it.

Anyway, a quiet Christmas weekend here on the big island of Hawaii. Jessie and I went out to Kona on Friday night and had to crash there (did I mention that if I'm not back here by 10pm I have to stay out until breakfast?). It was fun, and we met some guys (8-1 ratio, anyone?) and then hung out with them at the beach on Saturday. They brought a barbecue, and stuff to eat, and music, and drinks. It was a fun Christmas eve. We went to a beach I hadn't been to before, which required a short walk through an area full of keawe thorns before reaching it. (I couldn't find a link, but they are long thin branches full of thorns and when you step on them they go right through your flip-flop and into your foot. So a walk through them requires constantly stopping and saying "shit!" and then pulling the thorns out.) Anyway, the beach is full of these little private cove areas and we sat in one and ate and drank and swam and smoked and it was great.



*Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I don't know how to say Happy Hanukah in Hawaiian.

You would not believe the shit I was doing today.

No, really. Shit. And the better you know me, the harder it's going to be for you to believe it.

First, yesterday: finally finished the varnishing project and it looks great. I'll post some pictures of the trim installed so you can see the final result. At some point yesterday, this pretty cool Hawaiian named Ben came over and introduced himself. He's in his seventies, has lived here all his life, and used to work on the sugar plantation. This whole area was a cluster of seven sugar plantations, each with it's own workers' camp. The plantations were all shut down by 1975, people bought up the land slowly, and the workers' camps became the little main street areas. Here's a picture of our town Hawi (pronounced Ha-vee), population 750 or so:



Ben was telling me all about it and you know how I love talking to the old-timers. Anyway, he also said he had tons of lemons at home and would be happy to bring some by.


Today we moved directly into more farm-y duties: making compost. I had sort of been looking forward to this, since I'm always into the stuff that I feel like I'll need to know how to do later. This, however, was crazy. First, Liu Zhi and I had to dig a trench 12 feet by 4 feet and a foot deep. Then we had to collect weeds from all over the property. Then we had to go to the pasture and collect cow shit. That's right. You read it here. We dragged a wheelbarrow around the pasture, looking for cow shit. When we spotted it, we took the pitchfork and scooped it into the wheelbarrow. Then we looked for more.

At some point during the cow shit-scooping, I lost it. I started mumbling to myself, and wondering aloud what had happened to my life that I now found myself LOOKING FOR COW SHIT AND SCOOPING IT INTO A WHEELBARROW?? It was good that Liu Zhi couldn't understand me, because I was not ok. He did understand my gags of disgust and tried to explain to me that because the cows were grass-fed it was not gross. His English has gotten a lot better. In the standard way things happen here, as I was wheeling the shit down the pasture I saw that Ben had come, with the promised bag of lemons. That brightened me right up. I'm going to make lemon meringue(sp?) pie for cratchmach.

Back to the compost: one layer weeds, one layer cow shit, two different kinds of sand, then dirt. In between the layers we spray compost starter. We were supposed to make this pile four feet high, but we quit at about two feet, because we'd already been working on it for about four hours.

After that, Karen and I went to the church rummage sale, which is once a week and has tons of clothes for NOTHING. To illustrate, I bought: two long-sleeved t-shirts, one short-sleeved t-shirt, one pair of shorts, and a paper back book for $1.35. Jessie met me there and we picked up Kate and went to the beach. The were some surf warnings and the waves were pretty crazy, but we got far enough out to swim and had a great time. Which almost made up for the shit-shoveling. Almost.

Birthday. Now, with Photos!

I'm twenty-seven years old, woohoo! Here's what a twenty-seven year old looks like:



Anyway, thank you guys so much for the birthday wishes. It really warmed my heart to know you were thinking about me, and I was thinking about you too.

I had the loveliest birthday weekend. I think a lot of what made it so nice was that I had no expectations, and so everything that I did just seemed like a bonus, you know?

First: back to Friday. After working hard all week, Lew took us to the beach! But before that discussion, are the promised wood photos! It's a bitch to load them, so only two for now.

before:


and after one coat of varnish:


Isn't it beautiful??

Anyway, I don't think I've told you too much about the beaches we go to. The first one I went to was at the Mauna Lani resort, one of the oldest on the island. On Friday, we went to the Mauna Kea which was a totally different experience. There were high waves close to shore and rip-tides to watch out for. I was a little bit nervouse hearing about it, but once we got in the water I realized that it was very much like the beach in LA: very choppy at the shore, but calm once you swim out past the waves. The snorkeling was tough because the water was pretty murky, but it was still fun. I really appreciate having the goggles and mask on out there, too, because I can stay under longer and swim way further out.

So that was Friday. On Saturday, Jessie and I went to the local coffee shop (closes at four, just so you know) and hung out there, and then the farmer's market. There were a couple of hippies there selling brownies made with awa and we had some. Then she, Liu Zhi and drove to the Mauna Lani to swim in that sweet bay again. Unfortunately (probably due at least in part to the awa) we went to the wrong beach. Even though we parked by the Mauna Lani, we walked right instead of left and ended up trekking a mile and a half along the coast until we could find someplace that wasn't too rocky to swim. By the time we did, we found out that we were at a neighboring resort (the Fairmont Orchid) and swam and snorkeled there. There were alot of big sea turtles in the water, and they came right up to us. I screamed, of course, and knocked my mask off. We also saw one on the way:



Sunday, we had breakfast and then I went to my room and fell asleep. It was a great nap, and when I woke up we went to the coffee shop and hung out there. My friend Maria was singing outside where the tables are, and as I was ordering my coffee she called out: "Hey Stephanie! This is for you!" and sang an awesome, jazzy rendition of Happy Birthday. It was so sweet, and totally unexpected.

We ran into "our" neigbor at the coffee shop, and her daughter is visiting from Montreal. So the three of us decided to go swimming and went to another beach called Mauumae. To get there, you park and then follw a trail until you get to this little sandy beach. The waves were still pretty crazy, but again once we got past them it was calm and fun. On the way back to the sand we did get slammed down a bunch by the waves, and I skinned my knees.

We stopped at this ice cream stand on the way home, and then I had dinner and macadamia birthday pie (!), delicious. Jessie and I went for a drive afterwards to Pololu and lay on the hood of her car, smoking and trying to identify the constellations. The sky was full of stars and the moon was low and orange. It's so peaceful here...

So that was my weekend: swimming, star-gazing, and chillaxin'. My heart is full.

Hot damn!

**Blah blah blah and then stay tuned for two important questions, marked by asterisks.

Actually, what I meant to say was "hot day". But I guess I won't get much sympathy for being hot from you guys.
Anyway. I guess I'm slipping into a routine here, which is nice. Mostly.
I varnished and sanded a bunch more today. Doesn't it sound like I've been doing that forever?? But we have three rooms to put trim in and all the wood needs to be:

1. measured
2. cut
3. sanded coarse
4. sanded fine
5. sanded very fine
6. varnished
7. sanded very fine
8. varnished
9. sanded very fine
10. varnished

And after every sanding, it needs to be wiped down with tack cloth a couple times. We have a whole system now where at any given point there are strips of wood at various stages of finishing, and I really do enjoy it. My job starts at step 6, and I'm getting to love watching the beauty of the wood come out more and more with each coat of varnish. I know that sounds totally lame, but it's true.

Every morning I wake up, get dressed, read for a while and go to breakfast. We wash the dishes and then I go straight outside to water my little seedlings that I had weeded and planted (in the bed that you can see the corner of in yesterday's photo). After that, I change into my workclothes: a beater, dickie's shorts, and red crocs. Oh, did I tell you I had to buy crocs, because that's all people wear here? They're bright red. I'm not fucking around.

Anyway. I typed up the beginning of this post earlier today and then had to leave because I was being stalked by a wasp. They're starting to creep me out, and today I lost my cool. No one here even knew that bugs bothered me. That is, until this afternoon when I turned around to see a huge bee (the big fat black kind) right in my face and shrieked and ran. Totally blew my own cover. But you can't tell me the wasps are not creepy, with their little legs dangling:



Anyway, I went to the Thursday night women's meditation group, and I had had so much to say about last week's that Jessie had to come this week. She stayed for dinner (which Liu Zhi made) and then we went out for a little drive and some gossip. I had so much fun with her, I guess I really missed my girly gossip fests and we both had drama to discuss. *Now, here comes my problem. I'm getting to the point where I want to talk shit to you guys about some stuff, like the meditation group and the little bit of boy drama I'm having. But I'm concerned about who may be reading this, (or who could find it) so what I guess I want to know is: is there a way to make some posts password protected? I know people can do that on live journal... If not, do you think I should go back and take names and identifying stuff out and just talk shit? Not sure what to do here...

*The second question is: I'm loving the wood so much and the whole process is so satisfying, that I was going to take some step by step pictures and post them. But if that is totally uninteresting to you guys, I won't go through the trouble. So let me know. It won't hurt my feelings if you're not down.

Let me know.
Love you guys.

No Rain, No Rainbows.

So, I finally got my pictures loaded into the computer and can post some!

There are many, many different ways lava can look, and I took photos of a couple:



This one looks liquid but is rock hard:



Me with Kaimana and Carny, weeding:



And a rainbow photo, just for you.

The story of the varnish.

No, there isn't really any big story about the varnish. I just spent all day sanding and varnishing strips of wood, and enjoyed it. Lew has a set of ipod speakers, so I got to plug my ipod in and listen to my own music. We've been listening to the radio while working outside and it's fun Hawaiian music mixed with Christmas songs-- nice, but I was in the mood to sing along, you know?

I also istalled the switchplates and outlet covers that I had varnished a few days ago. One of the outlets seemed to be recessed too deep and so I reached into the outlet to pull it out a little, and was promptly electrocuted. It was just a little shock that went up my forearm, but not fun. Coincidentally, I strained something in my arm yesterday or the day before and it's been bothering me, maybe the shock will help...

Tonight I made mejadra and Brian made garlic nan and we had dinner on the lanai (which is Hawaiian for porch, but I guess some people on the mainland use that word too?) as usual and tried to figure out if it was going to rain tomorrow. It's so windy and the wind is pretty loud in the cane grass, and we just sort of hung out and enjoyed it.

The story of the cookies.

In Hawaii storytelling is known as "talk story" and people are pretty into it. So I have to talk story to you guys about the cookies.

On Friday when Karin and I went to Costco, she mentioned that around Christmas time they have these chocolate mint cookies that sounded remarkably like girl scout cookies. We all know how much I love those (and cookies in general [and chocolate in general]) so of course, I had to have these cookies.

I bought the cookies, and was then confronted with two issues wich I hadn't thought out:

1. Where would I put them? We can't keep food in our rooms because of all the ants and other bugs, and keeping them in the farm kitchen didn't seem like a good idea.
2. What would I do with them? Even I can't eat a costco-sized box of cookies, nor do I want to. Supposed to be healthy here, people!

Now bearing in mind that I hadn't seen chocolate (or any sugar) in days, I bring the cookies home. And I begin to smell them. Man, I don't know if it was like the tell-tale heart, or what, but I swear to god I could smell those cookies in my room. This concerned me because I thought, "if I can smell them, so can the ants". So I decide to open the box and see how well they're packaged. Terribly, is how they're packaged. Just a bag with a twist tie. Well, that'll never make it past the bugs. So I get a couple huge ziploc bags and put their bag, in a ziploc, in another ziploc, and seal it all up.

Of course, while I'm doing this, I taste them, and by god they taste exactly like girl scout cookies. Only they're bigger. And better.

Thereby began a weekend of me fighting valiantly not to eat the cookies while they called to me from their plastic prison. I was failing. The cookies were winning. And they won over and over again.

Suffice it to say that the cookies emerged victorious. The fight ended when Maria came over for breakfast this morning. On her way to leave I ran to her and thrust the bag(s) of cookies into her arms and said "Please take these and don't tell me what you do with them."

Back to jackfruit. Damn it.