The last few days have been quite the up and down roller coaster haha.  It's definitely been challenging learning the ropes around here and being in Hawaii but the beauty and farm are worth it.  This will be a year of personal growth if there ever was one.  Thursday was my delivery day.  I had to stop at Long's Pharmacy in Wailuku for coolers and boy was the area I was in pretty.  I can't imagine being able to live in the neighborhoods I passed.  Wailuku (or parts of it) are higher up so you can see so much of Maui and with the mountains in the distance it's truly amazing.  There were also tons of surfers out on the way to Lahaina which might be kind of hard to see in the pic below.  The drive was going well and  I thought everything was checked and ready to go until I reached the Hyatt in Lahaina and much to my dismay I didn't have enough cheese!!  My packer had shorted me on accident and not only was I shorted 2 lb of garden fantasia at the Hyatt but 6 lbs of Chevre at Maui Brewing Co.  Luckily they were good sports and said no problem.  But you can imagine that doesn't look good for us.  When I got back Dan told me we had a goat (Jackie) who got bit by Ghira because he got overexcited about herding and he's young yet.  She was bit pretty bad and had a large wound on her leg : (

Friday I had another day off and it was great!  Much needed after the day before.  Alicia and I spent the morning relaxing and watched Eat Pray Love and then headed off to Bamboo Forest with Monique once she got off work.  To get there we passed through Makawao and Haiku and took the road to Hana where the forest was on the way.  The "road to Hana" is known as being one of the more dangerous roads (don't worry Dad, it's really not that bad) because its super curvy and there are parts of it where it turns to a one way.  They even have shirts here that say "I survived the road to Hana".  Once we got to the forest it was BEAUTIFUL.  So much bamboo and water.  It was an interesting hike...challenging only in that it was slippery and there were lots of obstacles.  There were a few parts where there was rope you used to climb or repel and a ladder.  Once we got to the swimming area you jump in and there's a waterfall and then you climb up the waterfall which was super slippery and there's a huge waterfall and swimming area.  It was so amazing.  I could spend hours there.  I wish I could've taken pics of the water but the only way to get to the end waterfall is by swimming.  Swimming in muddy/cloudy water like that did freak me out because you couldn't see what was below you.  It reminded me of like the Amazon or something and I kept thinking of anaconda!  There was a ton of fresh guava all around and some would drop into the water when we were swimming and freak me out even more.  The guava tasted so good and fresh.  That night us girls went out dancing in Kihei with Jasmine from the shop and a couple of her friends.  We went to the Tiki bar.  It was fun to have a night out like at home.  

The next day I worked the morning shift and after being out so late it was really hard to wake up and milk but someone's gotta do it.  The day wasn't so bad except I learned hoof care and it took me pretty much the whole day after morning chores to do 5 goats with Ichelle and Dan!  Eva likes us to do one goat in 10 minutes but since it was my first time obviously we're gonna take a bit.  It was hard.  I was having such a hard time confidently cutting the hoof!!  I was so nervous I'd go to deep.  First you clip the nail around the edges then you use an exacto knife to slice off the bottom and get all the dirt to prevent foot rot until you see pink.  Not only did I have trouble doing that but I sliced down the hoof and the knife went right to my leg and cut it.  I won't be wearing my thin pants anymore...luckily I didn't get cut very deep...probably because I cut so timidly!  Poor Dan...good thing he's patient.  I had to take lots of breaks.  Not only was it physically tiring because it took me so long but I was having a mental breakdown and moments of "can I do this".  I've had a lot of moments like that here haha.  I did have a funny moment at the end of my day where I was walking Teddy down from his zip line on a leash and I heard Thomas yell my name across the parking lot by the shop.  He was with a bunch of tourists and he yells "KATE!! Teddy loves you!! He doesn't do that with anyone".  He thought it was so comical seeing me in the distance walking our big billy goat on a leash.  After work Erin took me to a movie in the Maui Mall to unwind and since I covered her milking shift the other day so that helped cheer me up.  And I got to talk to Claire for a bit on the phone and she's coming home on the big island in Dec. so I know I'll get to see her soon : ) 

Today was a good work day.  I worked inside the dairy and cleaned, packed a lot of cheese, did dishes, and peeled wax off biscuits.  It's always nice to work with Monique and it's a nice change up from the day to day stuff outside.  Even though on a farm it seems like different things always pop up and the days always different in a way.  At 2:30 I did the herding with Dan and started the PM milking.  Then out of nowhere it down poured.  We had to grab all the goats and move them to dry places but it poured so much the little herd which I still had to milk were soaked.  Poor things.  It's good we're getting rain though.  I still can't get over how weird it is when it rains here...it doesn't get very dark with clouds.  Below is a pic of Dan feeding the goats Lilikoi or passion fruit.  We grow a lot of it around the farm and they love it.  Since it rained we have a nice breeze going through the farm tonight.  It's been a relaxing evening.  We went to dinner at Thomas's and he had some great wine, german goulash, and greek yogurt with strawberries for dessert.  Man their kids must've eaten so good growing up.  Eating dinner at Thomas and Eva's is nice because he always plays music and the food and drinks are delicious.  

Well it's off to bed.  I milk in the morning and I'm tackling some more hooves tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  

Fell a little behind again but no worries...not much has happened here at the farm.  A lot of the goats are starting to dry up...below is a pic of Kisses (brown goat with hairy legs!) with yellow tape on her leg...that means we only milk her in the AM and black tape means they're dry and we no longer milk them.  Today Thomas said we'll be switching to hand milking the left over goats in a week or so instead of using the machine.  I've definitely learned a lot in the last 3 weeks.  I feel like I've been here for so much longer.  It's never a day where you do the same thing though I will give it that...there's always some new project or something happening.  Rachel (one of the shop girls) told me more about Eva today and how once she gets home from Germany it'll be a whole new farm.  I'm so curious to meet her!  

Monday and Tuesday were my early shifts.  I milked in the AM and Tuesday did deliveries again...I knew this route much better since it's in Wailea where little and big beach are.  Pepe (our little buck who'll be used for breeding eventually) was moved into the kennel with one other male and all the other babies were moved into Pond.  Pepe's getting so big and starting to act like the typical billy goat.  He even peed on a human baby the other day!!  They can pee quite the distance haha.  It's typical for the males to urinate on females and themselves to get their scent on you.  The other day Bobby came over, rubbed his head on my leg, and nipped me...Thomas said it was a love bite.  Sure didnt' feel like it!  We also power washed the area by the milk stand...boy what a difference it made.  I had a little bit too much fun with it.  The power washer hadn't been used in 2 years!  So it was covered in dust and we found out the area where it was stored is the cat's bird graveyard...I couldn't use the shop vac to suck it all up.  Below is a pic of Ichelle with her new "Poi-proof" fence...he's been able to get to the ladies so we have to move him into his own enclosure during the day now.  Ichelle did a great job with the fence : )   Her and I had quite the time getting the wire stretcher to work haha but we did it!!  Definitely doing a variety of things here.  Monday I just had a terrible off day.  It was one of those days where you wake up and you know its gonna be one of those days.  I grabbed the wrong herd to milk first and spilled a bunch of oil (one of Eva's pet peeves) on the concrete when I was mixing grain...apparently laundry detergent helps to soak it up...good to know.  Oops!  Below is Harlequin, one of the goats Dan says looks from a romance novel....I don't see it haha. 

I also worked inside the dairy for the first time for a full shift.  I learned how to pack broken hearted cheese,  and pack flat bread's cheese, and mango cheese.  Jasmine made some tzaziki too and it was SO good.  The best part of working in the dairy is getting to taste test all the cheese haha.  That night us girls went to Paia to Charley's for some dinner and drinks.  We even met Jasmine and her friend and boyfriend there...the girls that work in the shop are so nice and are always wanting to hang out.  It's great to be able to hang out with local co-workers.  It's much more lonely only having two other people here!  

Today was my day off...well, kind of.  I got the pleasant surprise of a t-shirt arriving for me from Kevin.  He's been spoiling me.  Has anyone seen Grandma's Boy?  That's where I saw this shirt and thought it was super funny.   I spent a lot of the day cleaning our living area and the fridge and relaxing.  It was my productive day I guess you could say.  I heard back from the Haku Baldwin Center to volunteer in the pet therapy and animal education program.  Angel (our office manager) told me about it so hopefully I'll be starting soon.  Other than that I wrote some letters and then it was 2:30 and time to herd and milk.  I ended up covering Erin so she could go to the doctor...when her and I went to get Teddy from his zip line the other day she stepped on a spiky short bush weird and got a twig lodged in her leg!  I told her I'd cut it out and fix it but she wanted to go to the doctor to numb it...it was really stuck in there.  Today was also our first day of RAIN!!!  We actually got rain.  I think all my past Alaskan co-workers brought it on since they've been having such bad rain and cold and I've been bragging about the sunny hot weather here.  Even when it rains here its warm and not too dark and cloudy.  It rained HARD though.  We had to bring the babies in from pond because they were too dumb to figure out they had shelter haha and the golden girls to the barn stalls.  Goats hate rain so we have to move them to pastures with better shelters.  

Tomorrow is another Thursday delivery day...hope I don't get lost!!  

Pretty uneventful last few days.  Thursday was entertaining though to say the least...Erin went with me for my first day of deliveries on my own...yep, deliveries to all the places I didn't take notes on.  I did A LOT of circles and driving around aimlessly but ended up making good time (somehow) with extra feta.  Tuesday should go much smoother since I actually took notes : )  I think Erin found it quite entertaining haha.

Yesterday was another day off and I just hung out at the farm and relaxed.  The only productive thing I really did was go with Erin and Thomas to pick up the Audi since we sold the Honda.  I'm gonna miss that car even though it was an element (which I think are some pretty ugly cars).  Monique, Alicia, and I are hoping to go to bamboo forest next Friday for our day off.  I can't wait!

Today was back to the grind.  It was also a "hay day".  I did the morning milking and teamed up with Dan for the weekly Saturday grand tour.  Then I filled the babies kennel and the stall in the barn with hay which took quite a few loads and fed the hay to all the "goaties" as I call them as well.  I was having "one of those days" and it just so happened I received a surprise package from Em's mom Holly Fortin.  What a pick me up!  She sent me a little milk maid with a goat and it made me laugh so much.  That paired with an encouraging letter was just what I needed.  Thank you so much Holly!!  It's so great having all the love and support from home while I'm so far and doing these adventures.  I sure do miss Michigan and everyone there.  Today was also my cooking day and I made spaghetti, salad, bread, and Grammy's apple dumplings.  It almost all went smoothly except for forgetting the bread and burning it.  Haha my boss walked in saying he wanted to make sure I wasn't burning the dairy down since he could smell burning bread from the office in the barn.  How embarrassing!  I'm definitely gonna have to work on the lack of cooking skills I have.  That or make a HUGE pot of ramen ; )   Grammy's apple dumplings turned out delicious though.  Thomas said "these don't have any sugar right?" (sarcastically of course because they're SO sugary and delicious).  Overall I survived my first official cooking night.  Whew!  

Ooo yeah and I had more pictures BUT I accidently restored my phone and lost them all : ( Thank god all my other photos are already saved on iphoto.  But I did lose my contacts 

Well it's been an interesting last couple of days.  Work at the farm has been going very well.  I'm becoming more and more comfortable each day and Maui is beginning to feel like home.  We had another "farmily" dinner at Thomas's the other night and it was entertaining to say the least.  Him and Eva have a really nice home.  He made a great stew dinner his grandmother always used to make and some appetizers as well as fruit for dessert.  Then came the rum...we did some rum tasting (Thomas' recent drink of choice) and below you can see a picture of him and the "Menehunes" or elves of Hawaii haha.  He said if I'm really good they may milk the goats for me in the morning when I'm not looking....I guess I wasn't good because the goats sure weren't milked.  

The next day I worked alongside Dan and he taught me hoof care.  He worked on Daisy (our only pet goat) and showed me how it's done but I didn't get to try or finish because Angela our farm manager wanted to take pictures for the website. I guess I'm gonna give it a go on Saturday.  One of the goats Rosalee in Bobby's herd also needed some treatment.  She had a swollen joint, probably from a sprain, and so we separated her out for the day to monitor and give her DMSO (a steroid).  The goofball kept jumping up and climbing on the black shelf in the stall.  It's amazing what the goats can get into and climb on.  I also got a picture of one of the goats "surfing".  

Tuesday I did the AM milking with Erin...I'm up to 8 goats now!  Almost there.... Everything went well and Erin didn't even need to supervise me much.  I almost stepped on a nasty gecko you can see below.  I'm always taking pictures of the bugs and things I see here...I found a huge cockroach that day but it turned out blurry.  Those buggers sure are good at hiding in our kitchen. GROSS!  I also did deliveries with Annette again since this time they were in Wailea. Thursday I'll be doing them on my own...I'm sure it'll take me forever since I'm for sure going to get lost.  Thank god for my iphone and google maps.  I also got to talk to Christina and others in AK.  Way overdue.  Christina get a new phone already! haha. It sounds like things in AK are going well.  Hopefully someone sends me a picture of the babies soon.  I also went to a BBQ with Annette from work and her friends. She's been here in Maui since 8th grade.  It was nice to meet locals and hang out with some new faces.  They were so welcoming and friendly.  I can definitely see the difference between people here and people on the mainland.  They tried to teach me some pigeon talk (Claire your still the one that taught me "pau") they only thing I remember is "that's cherry" for when somethings cool.  If your wondering what me and Rich are doing with our hands below its the "shaka" or the "aloha spirit".  It still throws me off when people greet me by saying aloha.   

Today was my day off so I was able to sleep in and take the car.  I ended up getting grain with Erin just to see how and where.  Then I headed out to big beach for the day.  I was only there for 2 hours though because it was so windy I got absolutely sand blasted.  I ended up leaving and checking out the shops in Wailea and eating at an outdoor restaurant Cheeseburger Island Style.  I had a BLT that had avocado on it...I've never eaten so much avocado in my life.  I've never eaten at a restaurant by myself but I gotta say it was kind of nice and relaxing.  Very independent.  I'm hoping Dad will be able to make it out in Feb though : ) I also stopped at the grocery store and bought some Pog and a Maui Gold Pineapple....best pineapple ever.  They are so sweet and not too acidic.  I was pretty happy because I didn't have to use the maps app on my iphone...I'm learning my way around the island.  

I also got some interesting news today...I got into a volunteer program to work at the Thailand Wildlife Sanctuary for next Nov.  It'll cost me a bit but they provide housing and food and it's 12 weeks long.  I'll be doing work similar to the conservation center and will be able to spend three days volunteering at the elephant sanctuary.  Still deciding on whether I want to do it since it'll be expensive to get there and I'd have to get a passport and shots and all but I think it would be an amazing experience.

Well off to bed...big day of delivering tomorrow : ) fingers crossed I don't get lost!