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!