Blogging Again

Now that we have internet at our home (very slowwww connection) it is easier to "blog" again. I liked the shutterfly site, but I think I missed the blog. Kyle had a project for school where he needed to bring pictures of his family. Where did we look? Our Family Blogspot! I was grateful to have so many pictures in one spot spanning from 2006 to near-present. So I'm blogging again :)

So what did our Tommy do for his Birthday? He would not be deterred (I wanted to go to the warm pond with the family) and he went up on the roof of the Ohana House to work on the solar system.

Tom's been having to make racking and panel adjustments to account for the magnetic declination and position/angle of the roof. He's got 3 panels up there, and is working on building the rack. 

(See Stella down below...under the internet satelite dish)

Tommy has kindly put the solar system on hold for me, because I have duck fever (he does too!). Below is what the pony that lived here had for shelter. We plan to modify this and build a nesting box for some lucky Muscovy ducks. We've done some reading, and feel that we can handle this new "pet." That will eat mosquitoes, slugs, snails, cocqui frogs, and even grass! The Muscovy is a terrestrial duck from South America. One book states that they aren't really a true duck and don't need a pond or water body. We will provide lots of fresh water, but they're not really a swimming duck. or at least it's not a necessity for them to be happy.

We pick up 6 little ducklings that were born on Tommy's birthday today. I'm SO EXCITED.

Above was just some pretty flowers in our yard. Below is the cover we built for the catchment tank. The catchment still needs loads of work, but this is a start and has already help reduce the mosquito population.

You've met Fred (on Shutterfly...our Gold Dust Day Gecko) and this I believe is an Anole Lizard, Jack. Kyle named him Jack because he said he reminds him of Captin Jack Sparrow. Jack is super friendly and I do believe he likes to watch us.

The other night I went outside and I saw a glowing red sky off our back porch. The flash was on in the first picture, so you can't see it, but I thought it was a good pic of the trees at night.

You'll probably have to click on the pictures to see the glow better. It is from a recent eruption at the Pu'u O'o crater. It's about 15 miles from our place.

When Stella came outside to see what the commotion was about she spontaneously started chanting, "Go Volcano, VOLCANO, go Volcano...OH!" We have no idea where she got that from, but it was eerily hilarious.

Speaking of eerily hilarious...this morning at 5am Reeve and Kyle sat bolt upright in bed and started telling each other to wake up. They both got dressed and went downstairs to start making oatmeal. At about 5:30 am they were getting restless and wanted to know when Papa was getting up to drive them to Pahoa to watch the Packer Game! They all left just before 7am, but they found out that the game wasn't going to be shown until 10am. Oh well...they got an early start at the Maku'u Farmer's Market.