Gosh, just after I commented about how much support I have I go into the intern room the next evening and I have two letters and two packages!! Not to mention the card and pictures/letter grandma and grandpa schneck sent me a few days before.  You guys really spoil me : )  It makes being away from home so much easier.  Thank you so much Aaron, Danilyn, Chelsea, Jenny, aunt miss and family, and grandma and grandpa schneck!!  And of course Alexis for frequent love letters haha.  Old school mail is so much fun.  I only wish I had received aunt miss's card before thanksgiving because I would have loved to skype with her!!  But it was funny to hear the black friday madness in the background while on the phone with dad since he went with grandma and aunt miss.  

Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely delicious...Thomas is a great cook so it was not only super filling but tasty.  Eva asked me to say grace, something I haven't done since I was little and even then it was the same prayer every dinner haha, so that was a little nerve wracking but I pulled it off I think.  We also went around the table and answered the classic "what are you thankful for?" question.  It was full of the usual being thankful for being here, meeting new people, and for the opportunities.  I especially liked Teo's being thankful for being allowed to travel...a lot of people take that for granted.  So even though I was in Hawaii away from family for thanksgiving I did have my farmily and turkey dinner : )  We even went back to Thomas and Eva's for leftovers and to play wii the next night.

Yesterday Alicia and I took the bus to Lahaina and Kaanapali for a beach day.  It made me think of school and riding the 26 from Chandler Crossings to class haha.  It's only $4 for a day pass and the bus system will take you all around the island.  I always take the best naps on the beach : )  Can't wait for dad to get here in February!!  We even saw Ekolu performing at the mall on the way back...the christmas decorations are so beautiful.  It's weird to be in a warm place and try and get the holiday spirit but the mall still has the santa (the one here is so tiny! haha) and poinsettas everywhere.  

Today was Saturday so I had my grand dairy tour.  I'm really starting to get used to these.  It was a smaller group which was enjoyable and only one kid so she got to be my special helper.  One older couple in particular had a BUNCH of questions which I loved because it challenges me and tests my animal/agriculture knowledge.  And this guy definitely knew a lot about farming!  His brother has a dairy farm in Wisconsin.  I think I'd like to try working at a dairy farm sometime...though goats are pretty fun to work with.  There wasn't much to do outside today between me, Teo, and Daniel so Teo went to the shop (her and Alicia will be working a bit in there when they need help) and I went into the dairy to sanitize syringes/needles and make feta jars.  Even though I love to be outside and work with the goats, being my main focus here, I do enjoy getting to do a little bit of everything.  I'd really like to learn the shop and have Christi teach me truffles as well.  I keep having to remind myself I'm gonna be here for quite a while and have plenty of time.  Even though time seems like fly by here and I can only imagine how fast it'll go by once babies start being born.  

A new apprentice has arrived!  Daniel from Arkansas has joined the team.  We've also had a couple start working here at the dairy.  Natalie in the shop and Kent landscaping.  They are so inspiring...they've been backpacking since last May and have been woofing and traveling all over.  I love the idea of traveling and going job to job venturing while gaining so much from life experiences.

We've been doing a lot of preparation/training for the babies coming.  Eva has gone over before birth, during/right after, and colostrum.  She's also talked about castration.  I'm really excited but gosh I'm nervous.  And the most nerve wracking thing is that either way these babies are coming...whether your ready or not.  I guess I kind of have a little idea of how mamas feel.  I think the thing that'll take the most getting used to is the feeding plan and keeping track of who eats what and what day they're on.  O well, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it : ) It helps to have a boss that's very involved as well.

Not a whole lot going on at the farm besides preparing for the kiddos.  I finally got my chance to hand milk the herd Sunday evening.  Daniel is quite the trooper and hand milked with me on his second day of work.  And we were pretty quick!  It makes me laugh thinking of when I first got here and hand milking into the strip cup was a challenge.  I really enjoy hand milking...I think it's relaxing.  Yes, you get your jumpy goats who just don't want to be touched and that can be difficult but there's something satisfying about milking the goats yourself.  Imagine farms with bigger herds pre-milk machine!!  Yikes.

I've decided on St. Joseph as my church away from home and it's nice to have a church buddy, Nalani, to go with.  I absolutely love her.  When I leave Maui it'll be so hard to say goodbye to the dogs, goats, and people.  I can imagine it would be difficult as an employee getting attached to interns/apprentices since they come and go.  This last sunday Daniel came with us to church and Nalani wanted us to stand up when they asked if there were any visitors.  Us and one other woman (from Alaska!) were there and they put a beautiful sea shell lei around our necks to welcome us with some aloha spirit.  Afterwards Nalani treated us to some La Provence, a french restaurant/bakery, for breakfast.  SO yummy.  I only wish we had more time so we could've sat down and ate...the views of the island upcountry are so amazing.

Wednesday was another great morning of volunteering.  We went to the Maui adult day care and spent a bit of time walking around and visiting with the dogs.  I had Wilbur this week who's like the Ghiradelli of the Haku Baldwin Center.  He was very anxious the whole time because he wanted to be with the other dogs but the people loved him.  I just love spending time with a couple people and listening to them talk and recall memories from their past.  I especially loved visiting with a couple there who told me all about their family and the dog they used to have.  Shannon also trained me on how to care for Thumper, one of our bunnies that has vertigo or "rye neck" that can be caused by a bacteria or parasite.  Poor thing only feels oriented and comfortable laying upside down/on his side.  Shannon had me wrap him up in a towel and give him water with a syringe and then feed him with a little bottle.  Hopefully he recovers! 

As usual time has flown, which I think makes it easier for me to easily miss a week of blogging!!  I've been going to the beach a lot which never gets old.  Nothings more relaxing on your day off than hearing the waves and taking a nap in the sun and sand.  Teo took me to a nice little beach near Paia called Ho'okipa.  It's a good place to go when it's super windy from the trade winds.  It's also a surfer beach.  I think my favorite part of the beach besides the view looking down at the top of the hill was the surfer's little kids hanging out and trying to throw popsicle sticks down on us tourists.  Little did they know Teo was watching them and just looked asleep because she had sunglasses on.  Little brats..they were so cute though haha.  I gave them the "I'm watching you" signal and they just giggled.  Rachel said they call them groms here.  Surfer lingo I guess.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!  As I sit here and blog while the sun sets watching the goats graze in their pasture I get overwhelming feelings of being thankful I've been given the opportunity to be here and learn.  I'm also thankful for the center and alaska and all the amazing people I've met along the way of my adventure.  And of course I'm thankful for my friends and family back at home who give me more strength and encouragement than they know.  I woke up this morning really sad and homesick.  I would have given anything to snap my fingers and be with Andrew, Jill, Aaron, Danilyn, Meghan, the kiddos, and Kevin with Dad at Grandma Huff's.  I always enjoy the drive to/from Charlotte and feeling the holiday spirit, especially afterwards when I know I have the "after thanksgiving" excuse to start listening to christmas music haha.  I even miss that all familiar feeling of only having a few weeks before finals and knowing the semester is about to wrap up at school.  And I especially miss the cold weather.  But then I thought to myself I have years and years of the holidays with family ahead of me and this year I have a new farmily on Maui to spend it with.  We were closed to the public however Alicia, Teo, and Cody still had to work.  After all we still have to pasteurize cheese and milk/feed the goats.  This morning I sat down with Eva, Alicia, and Teo and we drew pictures and ideas for how to paint our new white wall behind kennel.  I thought it'd be cool to paint out surfing goat dairy with each letter made up of something that represents the farm and maui.  I'll keep you all posted on what we decide.  I also got to help cut Amelia's cast off with Alicia and her leg looks great!!  Still healing well and she's using it.  It was priceless to see her lift her new free leg up and try and walk on it like "woah! what's this?!"  she's totally not used to having her cast off and walking funny.  It was adorable.

Well I'm off to eat a turkey dinner at Thomas and Eva's!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL BEST FRIEND EMILY FORTIN!!  You are truly an inspiration and wonderful young woman.  I'm so freakin proud of you for getting into medical school and all that you do.  And I would just love to be home to celebrate your birthday and accomplishments : ) LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!  You have and always will be such a big part of my life and I'm so blessed to have you as my best friend <3

Today was a bit of a rocky start...both literally and figuratively.  I started at 6:30 am and it was nice and relaxing hooking up the milk machine, feeding charley, and herding with trottle.  On my way back with the golden girls I slipped on the mud from the irrigation and my shin landed right on a rock!! It was one of the falls where you feel sick to your stomach right after.  All is well and I'm just left with a very sore shin that has swollen up to give me a fat leg and a large bruise haha.  Milking went well...we're still using the machine in the morning.  We're down to 26 goats to be milked in the pm though so hand milking has started. I've somehow managed to get out of this thus far what with my schedule and special duties such as delivering.  Autumn and Lisha Jo have some sore/scabby teats as of lately so I have had to hand milk them in the morning.  Lisha Jo was being such a pain in the butt jumping around and kicking.  She even knocked the whole milking pitcher onto the stand and me.  I was getting so frustrated.  Note to self: always do the hand milk ladies first so they have food to distract them.  By time I was hand milking they had gobbled up their breakfast already.  After feeding, herding, and cleaning up a bit it was off to the dump for a dump run.  I have to say...I'm getting much better at backing the big truck up.  Dad would be so proud ; ) It looks as though my race car days are over, though I'm pretty sure Andrew is laughing at this right now and saying yah right.  For those of you that don't get this reference I may or may not have gotten a nice big white scratch on the van when I first got my license.  I got into a fight with a parking structure pole and the pole won.  Needless to say parking has never been a strong point in my driving career but I'm mastering our big truck pretty good.  After the dump I picked up grain at Del's.  Wow I've never driven so slow on the curvy road back up to Kula.  I also got the fun job with Teo of rewriting some number tags and getting them organized for the babies!!  Every time my co-workers walked by they'd get excited knowing once the numbers are out babies are coming.  

The trade winds have really picked up this week.  It's never been so windy.  I feel like my shed is going to blow right over!  With the winds we've had some beautiful rainbows as well.  It's just so beautiful.  Speaking of beautiful I went to church Sunday morning with Nalani.  After trying out a different church I've decided to regularly go to St. Joseph in Makawao.  It's SO beautiful.  The atmosphere of the church and the service is really great as well.  Even though I'm giving up my only day to sleep in what with volunteering and yoga on my days off it's worth it to come out of the church in the early morning refreshed and renewed ready for the day.  Not to mention the sun is up and shining.  The early morning tends to be super sunny....sometimes I feel like I need sunglasses to milk.  

Not much has been happening on the farm besides the typical day to day stuff.  I found out one of the fedex boxes Christi and I packed last Tuesday didn't make it in one piece : (  Thursday I got to go with Eva to Alan the vet in Kula to check out Amelia's leg.  It looked great!  He took the cast off and you could see the window where to wound was and there wasn't any infection.  We've been worried because she's been dragging her cast and not using her leg.  He even let me help wrap her leg back up and redo the cast.  We're gonna take her off penicillin and take off the cast ourselves in a couple weeks.  Hopefully she uses the leg like normal but it'll take some getting used to since she's had some muscle atrophy from dragging it along.  I was thrilled enough to get to go along and help with the cast but then Alan asked me if I wanted to help him feed a Pueo.  Ummm what?? What in the heck is a Pueo??  Turns out it's the Hawaiian owl and he had one at this house he's rehabilitating since he had to amputate one of it's wings (like Adonis!) from an injury.  I actually got to hold him in a towel while Dr. Alan put food in his beak and gave him water from a syringe.  I feel so thankful I've had all the opportunities I've had to experience and work with all the animals I have since May.  I'm not even really a fan of birds (the birds anyone??)  and this owl was gorgeous.  Eva said we have some in our orchard.  I'm definitely going to read a book in the orchard and look for them.  

Saturday's tour went well.  I actually felt comfortable and not nervous.  I think it's that I feel like I have a lack of knowledge of the goats and the farm but come to find out I don't!  I can answer pretty much any question the tourists throw at me.  Ghira was the entertainment this week.  Scout was taking her sweet time with the tourists.  Even after the whole herd went into Gold she didn't want to go in (pampered much?).  So I calmly asked Ghira to "bring her here" (clearly not calmly enough haha) and he freaked out getting super excited and nipped at her ears.  They started running away back towards the barn but he turned her around and brought her back.  He listened pretty good so people were impressed by his herding.  Probably won't use him for that on a tour again haha.  But they thought it was entertaining.  I also had a woman who visited the AWCC this last June and was so excited to hear I was there too.  I might not enjoy giving the actual tour but talking to people and meeting them is always fun.  

Wednesday's volunteering we went to a different facility in Kula and met with two patients.  One of which was perfectly content to sleep cuddled up with her favorite bunny Gigi.  We also brought one of our guinea pigs R2D2 for the other patient and he was very fun to interact with.  He can't communicate by speaking but he has a computer that he can use to type out words by the computer picking up on his eye movement.  It was too sunny out so we used the old school method of this board with a window where you look into at him and watch his eye movement to spell out words with colored squares and letters.  It was kind of difficult but he was so patient with us.  This was by far my favorite volunteer day thus far.  

Off to a farmily dinner!  Wish me luck on those packages tomorrow haha

Holy schnikies!!  The last couple days have been interesting yet fun haha no wonder people get into agriculture.  Literally no day is ever the same.  Well in usual kate fashion my saturday morning just couldn't go uneventful.  It all started with milking.  The couple days while I was off doing deliveries and taking the day off things have been a little mixed up around here as far as our herds.  We've moved all the "black tape girls" or dry ladies into their own herd to hang with Teddy while Poi is back with the milking herd now down to 38 goats from 55.  So I'm milking the first stand and all I have to say is thank god I'm one of those paranoid double check anal people because had I not walked into the dairy to see that everything went into the pasteurizer fine I would've milked the entire herd onto our dairy room floor!  I walked into the dairy and much to my horror I see white all over the floor.  I think that's the first time I've actually gasped out loud.  Now I don't know if it was because I was tired from waking up at 6 or if it's my blonde hair but I managed to hook the hose to a different spot than normal so the milk was literally coming out of the tube from the machine and straight onto the floor.  Silver lining??  We're going into the dry period so we're not even close to producing as much milk as we are at our peak.  Guess that's the perk of starting your apprenticeship or internship program during the slow season.  All I could do was hose the milk off the floor, re-hook, and be thankful I caught it right away.  Milking went as usual and I had all 38 goats.  As I was grabbing the golden girls I met up with Eva who was herding the dry girls to Little Italy (one of our day pastures).  While herding she spotted Tinkerbell with a superfull udder!  Either she escaped or got missed in the shuffle....we had a few herd mix ups the couple days before.  Herding lesson #1: don't EVER herd groups of goats at the same time or in places where they can mingle together...unless you want to spend a good amount of time sorting goats.  So Eva has me grab Tinkerbell while she finishes herding the rest of the girls to Little Italy.  Take Tinkerbell and Golden Girls up to the milkstand...simple right??  O wait...Tinkerbell sees all her friends making the trek to their nice day pasture while she's being held by this new blonde chick she doesn't really know?? Yah right she says.  I made the rookie mistake of letting her go in hopes that she'll follow her herd instinct and follow me and the golden girls...well that instinct kicked in...for her own herd she saw in the distance.  Before I know it there goes Tinkerbell running off towards Eva.  Lucky me again Eva caught her just as she was closing the pasture gate.  Not so lucky me?  Having to walk back in shame with Tinkerbell and the Golden Girls who had followed feeling incapable and stupid haha.  Cherry on top I got to tell Eva how I lost the first milkstand milk on the floor that morning.  Good thing I have an understanding boss.  I don't know how she keeps herself from laughing at me when I make the dumbest mistakes haha.  So because Tinkerbell was missed that means I had a dry goat who lost her black tape on the stand.  AH!  How I wish I was completely confident in my decisions here.  Yes, there were some goaties that looked as though they were getting close...but I trusted my correct number and figured they just hadn't quite made the black tape cut.  Using ALL your senses here and being in tuned to everything is something you must do all the time...a skill that'll get stronger for me with time I'm sure.  We did find her (the dry goat).  Alicia checked the ladies the next morning while she was milking and Rocco was pretty dry...darn her for escaping.  If your wondering how my grand dairy tour went it matched the theme for my morning...eventful.  I had a nice group of 8 with a very interested crowd full of good questions.  It went really well and they seemed to be enjoying it but of course once we got to Golf the sprinklers started!!  It's irritating because the goats hate water so they won't just go in but it's nice in a way because then people really get the experience herding since they help pull them in...it'd take forever if I did it alone.  It's always cause for a good chuckle too.  But Eva said she'll change that which I'm pretty happy for.  I'll have to supplement sprinklers going off with some corny jokes or something for a laugh instead.  Anyone have any good goat jokes?? ; )  

Sunday I got to sleep in since I didn't work till 9:30...boy do I miss sleeping in!  I miss those mornings sleeping in after going out with friends the night before and having a lazy day with Chelsea watching movies in our awesome room.  But I certainly don't miss the stress of knowing all the homework and studying you have to do for that week.  I miss school a lot but like I told dad before I left and after I graduated....I'm ready for a new kind of busy.  Sunday was a dairy day and I made and packed a few cheeses.  It was really enjoyable too because I got to listen to music while doing it and chat with Monique and Rachel.  Rachel is one of the women that work in the shop and she's such a joy to work with.  One of those people that's always happy and optimistic.  They have a really great shop crew here.  Unfortunately one of the shop girls is leaving next month to move back to the mainland which I'm pretty bummed about.  It seems like being here long term you have to get used to people coming and going...especially with them constantly having interns and apprentices.  I milked in the pm...no milk on the floor this time... and gave Amelia her shot...we're getting close to her vet visit on thursday!  I'm so anxious to see whether her leg is healing or not.  I had the lovely experience of having Teddy drag me on the ground as well.  He was so upset I was putting him in his night pasture as he watched all his ladies run off to their pasture that he tried to escape from me while I had him on a leash and broke me right to the ground and dragged me a little!  I couldn't help but laugh at myself but now I have a pretty big scab on my leg and with this dirt and such here on the farm it'll probably get infected pretty easily.  O how I hate to scrub it with betadine!!  Ouch 

Today I did the morning milking, fed, and herded then changed to go inside the dairy.  I got to work with the love birds haha and there wasn't a whole lot today besides roll a bunch of ping pong balls but I did get to learn how to make swedish hearts.  I did get to try our cheese perigord which is a more expensive cheese made with truffles and it was so yummy.  Lucky me I was in the dairy and got to try it!  Eva also showed Teo, Alicia, and I how to vaccinate the dogs.  The best part of my day was getting to skype with Chels and after that I had a card on the table from her and Erin.  LOVE YOU GUYS!!! 

Off to bed, tomorrow's my fridayyyyyyy. TGIF.  ELECTION DAY!!!  Everyone make sure to vote : )

It's November!!! I've now been here for 2 months.  It seems like so much longer but at the same time time has flown by.  It'll be weird to spend the upcoming holidays away from friends and family but good thing for modern technology I can at least see their face when I chat with them.  

Sunday morning we all got to go to Evonuk herb farm up the street, where we get our herbs for our cheese, and go on a tour.  It was so beautiful.  8 am was the perfect time to tour because it wasn't too hot and then sun was coming out and all the plants are fresh looking.  The farm was great.  They walked us around and told us about their products and we got to pick some and eat them right off the plant.  I would love to volunteer there a bit and learn how they grow and operate.  Being a local farm they sell a lot to wholesalers.  They've sold up to 900 lbs of cilantro in one week!!  They also have the BIGGEST pigs I've ever seen.  It's hard to tell in the pictures but good lord I didn't know pigs could get that big, it was amazing.  We were joking around with Thomas and saying he should get one so Charley has a friend.  The farm was beautiful and it was great to see where we get our herbs from.  

loofah plant!!

fresh beets

starfruit

kale!  try making kale chips if you haven't before....really tasty snack

coffee plant

sage

see the rainbow?

Alicia with some lilikoi (passion fruit)

Tuesday was a little bit of a stressful morning as I went in the dairy to pack and then to help Christi with FedEx and Eva says "do it on your own, Christi...no helping!" haha poor Christi had the hardest time being there watching but not being able to help.  She's super efficient and fast so it was hard to just stand by.  I somehow SLOWLY got through and packed a whole 10 boxes of orders...and let me reiterate the SLOWLY haha.  I told Eva even though I hated having to just do it on my own and figure it out it was rewarding and good because I actually learned.  Later I literally laughed out loud to myself thinking about how funny it was that something as dumb and simple as FedEx stressed me out.  O well, such is life.  That morning I got a letter and c.d. from Holly which was perfect because then I could listen to it on deliveries.  Getting a letter from Holly is possibly the most encouraging thing I can get in the mail : )   Thanks Holly!!  After deliveries I got to dive into our pink binder of important goat information as we're preparing for kidding season.  To get to sit and read the binder and talk to Eva about different goat care topics and questions brought back all the excitement of learning and working with animals.  I was reading about things I had learned in classes in college and it felt good to feel like I was studying animal science material again.  I definitely chose the right major....only took me countless meetings and 4 major changes to figure it out haha Lynds knows ; ) 

Happy late halloween everyone!!! And birthday dad!  Wednesday I dressed up as a farmer, yah yah I didn't want to spend money on a costume, and headed out to the Haku Baldwin Center for volunteering.  Allison was dressed in sort of a gypsy costume, Kim a cat, and Shannon a she-devil.  This week we brought the therapy dogs all dressed up (Mana an angel, Bella a cheerleader, and Wilbur a cowboy) and went to the Hale Makua center in Kahului.  I took Bella around to visit and had some great conversation with the residents there.  One I spent a lot of time with told me I should be tinkerbell for halloween haha.  I just love being an animal therapy volunteer, animals can truly heal and enrich people's lives.  I'm also glad I've had the opportunity to work with and meet Shannon, Kim, and Allison.  Allison practices reiki and said she'd love to tell me more and teach me a bit about it if I'd like which would be awesome.  Next week we're going to a facility with kids so I'm really excited about that...definitely miss working with the little critters at Ele's Place.  For halloween all us interns and Monique went to Front St. in Lahaina.  It was so crowded!  They shut down front street so people dressed up in all sorts of costumes could walk up and down the street and go to all the bars and restaurants.  We got dinner and watched a little bit of a karaoke contest and then went to Fleetwood's for the night.  I think the best costumes I saw were some older tourists dressed as the cast of Gilligan's Island and then two old couples dressed up as 50 shades of grey haha.  

                                                 

Thursday was definitely a rough morning waking up early after going out the night before for halloween but I got to open the dairy up by myself for the first time.  I was terrified to turn on the pasteurizer because I was afraid I'd mess up the cheese but being hesitant and getting nervous easily about stuff then doubting myself is something I need to work on so I just did it.  And sure enough Cody informed me you can't really mess it up because program 1 and 2 on the pasteurizer do the same thing!  Deliveries went well without a hitch and it was fun hearing about everyone's night the night before.  Turns out a few people were at Fleetwood's too and I didn't even notice.  When I came home I got a package from Emily...she sent me a yoga mat for the yoga classes I'll be taking!!  Really excited to try it out.   Last night after work Alicia, Erin, and I met Danny, a sociable local here, at Stopwatch in Makawao for dinner.  Below is a pic of me being a huge nerd because we drew pictures like kids do on their placemat and the bar tender thought it'd be funny to hang my drawing up on the wall.  Hope everyone had a great halloween!!!