Today was much better.  You all could probably tell my being overwhelmed and in lower spirits my last blog...adjustments are always hard.  BUT I felt like I had a better handle on things at work today.  First thing I woke up to when I went to brush my teeth this morning was Charley the pig.  He was coming for his breakfast so I fed him and went on my way.  Below is a pic of Charley by his favorite tree.  I guess he's pretty old and grumpy now.  So I got to start out at 6 am and milk goats with Erin (another apprentice that has been here since June).  After Dan leaves she and I will be the head milkers here at the dairy.  That means I have 17 days to become awesome at this haha.  I'm up to 6 goats at a time now...eventually I will be doing 12 at a time. After milking I shadowed Alicia and we did the daily chores.  We cleaned udder rags, swept the goat walk, cleaned around the milk stand, cleaned up the babies kennel, fed grain to everyone, did some goat herding, and finally I got to learn the drive the tractor to give out hay! My favorite part.  Below are some pics of some of the goats we have here...Limpy, a male kid who will be sold, and Malia, one of the lovable brats in the large herd.  The pics of the two dogs below are Trottle (one of our better herd dogs) and Ghiradelli...yes like the chocolate, a hyperactive younger herd dog in training.  

The best part about the morning shift, besides working in the lovely early morning Hawaii weather on a quiet farm, is getting off early.  I ended up sticking around and watching Dan and Alicia milk again to observe and take notes as well as discuss more training to be done.  I also saw my first two geckos today...I was so grossed out by the little things that kept losing their tails (Strikey, one of the dogs, stepped on one!) I forgot to take a pic.  I'm sure I'll see plenty more.  They make the craziest noise for their size...it's like a chirp you can really hear during the night.  Tonight Thomas took us intern/apprentices out to dinner since his house was too hot to cook.  Or maybe it's because Eva (his wife) is still out of town haha.  We went to The Hideaway and had a cocktail and ate at the buffet.  It was a lot of traditional Hawaiian food and it was SO good.  I had a "hot lava" which was a coconut rum drink with ice cream in it.  We even sat by the windows and got the fresh breeze and view of the water.  It made me feel so lucky to be here and definitely helped after a tough couple of training days.  Thomas is so generous and easy to work with...I'm looking forward to meeting Eva when she comes back from Germany.  I'm already off to bed...9:30 pm seems to be a common theme here.  I don't think I've gone to bed that early since I was little!!  I guess my body's still adjusting to the outdoor work and time change.  Goodnight all,  another 6 am day tomorrow <3