Photos Around our Place

Just because this is a completely new habitat for us and so many of you have not been here, I'll do my best to show you around.

Above Kyle is in a pretty cool climbing tree by the duck enclosure. Below is a beautiful flower I spotted in the yard.

Below is a Papaya tree. There is just one, so I need to plant more so it will fruit. They actually fruit within 2 years time!

Below: View of the Ohana House (back cabin) from the driveway.

See the solar panel on the roof? Tom is working hard to get our solar system up and running. It's been challenging figuring out the best direction to face the array and build the rack.

Happy Little Stella running around.

Reeve usually rides his bike from the Aloha house (front cabin that we are living in now) to the Ohana house.

Stella playing "hide and go seek" while running. She figures if she can't see anything, then we can't see her. Kyle in the background.

Below is a view of the Aloha house on the walk from the back of the property.

Aloha House...because that's where we arrived first.

Our Six Little Muscovy Babies

Yesterday was the day we brought our little ducklings home.

We went to the farm where the Mama Duck was taking care of 15 little ducklings born Sept. 20th. The owner wanted to make sure Mama had shown the little ducklings how to forage. We made a little home for them out of straw and a purple bucket.

I was amazed at how easy it is to tell them apart. At 5 days old they already have distinctive personalities and very different colorings. The kids have named them all. In the above picture, I'll name them going clockwise starting with Alice in the lower left corner. Alice is Kyle's duck and Kyle named his duck Alice because (as Kyle says) Alice can be a boys name or a girl's name. Alice is the one who likes to sit in the drinking water.
Above Alice is Mr. Drake (or Mrs. Drake...we haven't sexed them yet...I'll put their alternate names in parenthesis). Mr. Drake is very vocal and finds the food first. Next, with his head in the food trough is one of the "twins". The twins look very similar, but Reeve's "Roosevelt" (or Velvet Rosey) has a rose colored spot on the end of his bill. I forgot to mention that Mr. Drake's bill is spotted white with black spots. Reeve loves Roosevelt because Roosevelt is the smartest. I would have to agree. We put some fresh avocado and papaya in their pen, and Roosevelt was the first one to heartily eat it. Also when we were outside this morning Roosevelt actually ate a mosquito that was on my foot! I also saw him hunting an ant down.

The other twin is Calvin (Callie Sue). Reeve named Calvin as well. Calvin is for "Calvin & Hobbes", or Calvin Coolidge...I forgot to mention Reeve named Roosevelt after FDR...or Calvin from A Wrinkle in Time. I had picked out "Sandy" & "Dennys" for the "twins" names, because those are the twins' names in A Wrinkle in Time.

The all (mostly) yellow duck is Jemima (or Mr. Jeremy)...both from Beatrix Potter, however Mr. Jeremy was a toad. Jemima is sweet and is calmest when Stella holds her.

The very last one is Meg (or Charles Wallace)...again from A Wrinkle in Time. Meg has an all dark brown head and seems very headstrong...just like Meg from the story.

Above Kyle is holding Alice. Below I believe Stella has Roosevelt.

Today we will put the fencing up around their outdoor enclosure and we will continue to build their nesting box/coop, so we can keep them safe at night until they are a little older and able to fend for themselves.

Reeve with his Roosevelt.

Also...notice Stella's new haircut. She actually asked me to cut her hair when I was trying to comb out some tangles.

Above: Starting at 9 o'clock...Roosevelt, Meg, Jemima, Mr. Drake, and Calvin...Kyle must be holding Alice.

Above and below...from this morning.

Above from Left to Right: Meg, Calvin (top on the stick), Jemima (bottom on the stick), Alice, Mr. Drake, and Roosevelt.

We are in love! Sorry about the foggy pictures. The camera was cold from being inside the house and then going out to the humidity of the warm morning fogged up my lens.

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.

New Photo Sharing Site

We have no internet at home, so it's been very difficult to blog. I started a Shutterfly account where I can just upload pics and write a description if I have time. Feel free to check it out at www.offgridinpuna.shutterfly.com. I'll have to add your email to the list, so just send in a request if you can't see the pics. Love, Laura

Go Canucks!!

We made it safely over Snoqumie Pass Tuesday morning. there was a slight drizzle in Seattle as we were unloading the trailer and vehicles onto the Matson ship. We were too loaded down to consider walking 2 or 3 miles to catch a bus to get to downtown Seattle to ride the Quick Shuttle from Seattle to Vancouver, so we said "YES!" when the kind woman at Matson offered to call us a taxi.
When the Taxi arrived it JUST happened to be a bright orange Chevy Astronomer, just like our beloved Orange Crush! The driver was extremely nice (from Ethiopia), and he and Tom exchanged awesome Astronomer stories. The driver was clearly a fan. He dropped us off at the Quick Shuttle stop and it was only 10:50a.m. Our bus didn't depart until 4:05p.m.! I called Quick Shuttle and asked if we could take an earlier bus, and we got on the one that left at 11:05a.m. Not too shabby for timing,eh?
We had a lovely, relaxing ride up to Vancouver. Our driver was funny. It has been my experience that all Canadians are funny. I think it is because the beer here is stronger.
Well we arrived about 4 hours ahead of schedule, so I called my favorite cousin to come pick us up. We ended up all cramming into an efficient Toyota Prius (it seems all the taxis in Vancouver are Priuses) and traveled West to Horseshoe Bay.
BTW My Pa is letting me borrow his iPod to type this,and I'm getting tired of pecking the letters out.
Good tomes in Vancouver! Good place to be when the Canucks DEFEATED the Bruins! My folks arrived safely last night and my Auntie and Unc are coming this evening. Then Sunday more fun with lots more cousins! Can't believe we'll be in our new home next week! Does not seem real. If it doesn't work out in HI then my cuz said we could live with him for a sweet deal :). I love Vancouver! I could handle it! Now I can't see what I'm typing... Dangerous! Thanks Dad for letting me borrow this!

Traveler's Adventure, Part Deux

The other day I asked what time it was, and then I had to qualify is that Mountain or Pacific Time? The guy looked at me like I was from outerspace and said PACIFIC real slowly. He smiled and then said, with eyebrows raised and head tilted down, *you must be travelers.* Made me feel like the Muray family from *A Wrinkle in Time* (THANKS VERDE FAMILY!!)...like we had time traveled to a parallel universe. Fun.
We're moving on from our transition from driving, driving, driving to resting and downsizing in Ellensburg. Yesterday we were able to think about the second leg of our trip and how we'd like it to look like.
Here's the plan...we wake up real early tomorrow and breakdown the campsite, load everything but our backpacks and a few bags into the trailer or donate it to a thrift shop in town. Then we carefully travel west up and slowly over the Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle.
We need to get the Orange Crush, Silver Saint, and Super Subaru loaded at the shipper...hopefully early to mid-morning. Then we need to walk about 2.1 miles to a Seattle Metro bus stop that departs at 1:51pm going to downtown Seattle. How long do you think it will take us to walk 2.1 miles? I'm thinking about an hour. We'll ride one bus that gets us pretty close to where we need to go, and then walk about 0.3 miles to the Shuttle bus stop. We'll take the Quick Shuttle from downtown Seattle to downtown Vancouver where my rocking cool cousin will pick us up and take us for our second adventure in his awesome West Vancouver Tree house over looking Horseshoe Bay.
I'll write more on June 1st...if we make it! Wish us luck!

Enjoying Ellensburg, WA

Yesterday was a day of rest. We had long naps...(we = me and Tom) while Stella hopped around the inside of the tent like it was a bounce house. Reeve and Kyle played at the playground...ALL DAY LONG. While we weren't napping we ventured into downtown Ellensburg and strolled the Kittitas County Farmer's Market. It was delightful! There were organic vendors there and lots of fresh food.

In Wisconsin we've been buying un-local Washington apples, now we could buy the local real deal. The Gala apples we bought were from an organic farm from Royal City, WA (about 40 miles away). We bought asparagus, spinach, salad mix (that was divine), some freshly baked tortilla chips and green salsa, about 2lbs of heirloom tomatoes grown in a local greenhouse, and a couple of loaves of locally baked bread. We went back to our campsite and chowed down the good fresh eats. Reeve hung around the electric cars they had on display. Drooling over one that he said was $110,000! He said it could go from 0 to 60 in under 5 minutes...not my cup of tea, but Reeve was really impressed. He said he'd like to buy the Leaf because that was more economically priced at around $20K. I was really impressed by 3 vendors there who were selling stinging nettles! Very progressive folks :)

When we got back to the campsite Stella really wanted to go in the pool. Tom braved the chilly Washington spring winds and took her and the boys to the pool while I organized the tent. We have too much stuff and we need to downsize to just backpacks by Tuesday morning! One thing I did not anticipate when I was planning for this trip was the chilly temperatures, especially at night. We started out thinking we would camp along the way, but when it got to dusk we just both wanted to keep driving. It was too cold to camp those first 3 nights. At about 11pm each night we pulled over to a rest area and everyone went to the bathroom, brushed their teeth. We took out the center seat in the van and laid out the air mattresses and sleeping bags. Reeve slept on the back couch seat, Kyle slept in the passenger seat, and Tom, me and Stella slept on the air mattresses. It was cramped, but cozy and definitely warmer than a tent. It also saved us a lot of time! Neither of us enjoys staying in hotels, so we were really quite happy with the way things worked out.

By the 4th night we were looking for a good place to camp...no matter the chilly night temps. We had contemplated going over the Cascades and staying in Seattle, but we know how WET Seattle can be. So we were thrilled to see the KOA sign in Ellensburg. KOA is not rustic camping by any means, and the kids really needed a safe place to roam and relax after our hard, long, push over the rockies. They've been wonderful to us here and let us park the Orange Crush (so perfectly coined by my favorite cousin!) and Silver Saint by their compost piles.

Tuesday is the day we wake early and head over the Cascades to Seattle and Harbor Island where we drop off our vehicles and trailer to Matson. Matson is the same shipping company that my Mom sailed when she was 19. She had just graduated nursing college and 2 of her friends packed up all their worldly possessions and got on a bus from Winnipeg, Manitoba to San Francisco, CA. In San Fran they bordered the "Lauralee" (is that the right spelling Mom?) and sailed from San Fran to Honolulu. I need to hear more about her adventure. Like how long did she live in Honolulu before she met my Dad there? My Dad was in the Navy and they met and fell in love in Honolulu. Mom and Dad, we need to write this down :).

So my time away from the family is nearing an indulgent end. I did find an outlet in the laundry room of the KOA, so that is what I'm using to recharge the laptop while I do a load of laundry. Suprisingly, this whole trip Stella has only had one wet diaper! She's been such a good sport and is quite good at going when we stopped for gas (about every 150 miles for the Orange Crush). Right now she is loading the laundry for me into the dryer...keeping her occupied while I type away.

Camping in Washington

We're having quite the trip! Listening to some great audio cds and trucking right along.
We got moving Tuesday evening and made it to the other side of the Twin Cities in MN. Wednesday I think we made it to around Miles City, MT.
Then Thursday Tom noticed the brakes for the trailer weren't working right, so we found a Wal-Mart in Billings, MT.
Tom fixed the fuse on the brake controller for the trailer. The wires under the trailer had snipped when we went over a bump, so Tom fixed that. Meanwhile, in the parking lot, I made us guacamole and coffee. I actually had some warm water from a thermos and I used our handy dandy french press pot coffee maker. We ate and then got on the road. Pretty sure this was Thursday...

Then we traveled through the Rockies on I94 to Missoula, MT. We made it to Missoula last night about 8pm~ish. Tom had us all stopped at a truck stop, but it was my bright idea to go about 45 miles further to a *Rest Stop* we found on the Tom Tom. Well...it got dark, steep hills, started to rain, I was having trouble seeing. We had gone about 30 miles and I requested to stop, so we pulled off at an exit...no services there and no where to park! Tried again with the next exit...same deal. Finally we came to the Parking Area Rest Stop. Took the middle seat out of the van, set up the air mattresses and blankets and went to sleep.

We didn't wake up until about 9am! :) We got rolling about 9:30am. Made it out of the rockies unscathed. I requested to stop before we went over the Cascades. I'm not sure how many nights we'll stay here. We're about 120 miles from Seattle. Not much we can do before Tuesday, so we might stay until Tuesday morning. Not sure how long our laptop battery will last. I'll look for a phone tomorrow.

I'm getting great gas mileage (traveling 40 to 55 mph!)... about 34 to 40 miles per gallon. Tom's getting about 10 to 14 miles per gallon with the trailer. Wish us luck going over the Cascades...no wind would be helpful.

Right now the boys are riding rented bikes around the KOA and Tom and Stella are having a shower.

Packing It Up...Burning It Down

The start to the strategic packing of the trailer has begun!

There are 4 quadrants in the trailer and we are weighing everything and totaling how much weight is in each quadrant to make sure the load is properly balanced. Next week we'll have a scale for the tongue of the trailer...we got to keep the tongue weight at or below 700 pounds. I'd like to keep the overall weight below 4000 pounds. I don't think that will be a problem. 

Maintenance on the pulling machine has been accomplished!! The van's oil and transmission fluid have both been changed. The van also has a brand new oil cooler and a brand new transmission cooler and the boys have been awed by Tom's car maintenance abilities...good homeschooling going on at the Raye's!

We've also equipped the Orange Beast with strap on towing mirrors, so Tom can see beyond the *Silver Saint* (Saint...because it's doing the heavenly job of moving all of our stuff!).

We have a beautiful pair of Orioles that have been pecking away at the tulips in the front yard. We have a nesting Robin, with 3 eggs, under our deck. The rose breasted gross-beaks are back...my favorite, I call them the Valentine bird because it looks like they have a huge heart painted on their white breast. One Valentine has been following us on our daily walk. He hangs out in the corn field and Stella screams with delight when she spots him.

We had a huge pile of scrap wood from an old house and barn that were on the property before we got here. A couple of years ago we had them pushed into a pile. We called our neighbor (he's on the Town Board) and got a fire permit and then we notified the Sheriff's dept. It all went smoothly.

Now on to a day filled with more sorting/packing/cleaning/purging...in addition to all the other *normal* chores :)

More from Stella's 2nd

About the middle of April I had a dental cleaning in La Crosse and we stopped by the free zoo, but they were undergoing some major renovations. There was just this small exhibit inside. Stella had fun looking at the fresh water turtles.

Here are some more pictures of her on her 2nd Birthday.

On our walk...she does really well on this mile walk...half of which is nearly all uphill! Our friend Tony (who will be leasing the house at the end of the month) is in the background helping his Dad to chop firewood.

Determined little walker...

Fun Kyle...Reeve with his camera...and Stella and Papa.

Here come the cows.

They got right up to the fence.

One little goat which Stella calls a "kitty cow". We're thinking her reasoning is that a kitty cat (kitten) is a small cat, so this goat must be a small cow or "kitty cow." She won't say goat.

I was getting nervous that the cows might stampede us. Just a little too close for my comfort :)

Reeve taking a video with his camera.

Countdown is on! 10 days until we leave. I need to pack the computer up soon, but I am avoiding that!!
 We found a *gentler* grade route across the rockies, so wish us luck!