Happy Birthday Kyle!

Kyle's 9th Birthday!!!!!!!!!

Kyle wrote a poem about himself just recently, using the letters of his name:
Knowledgable
Youthful
Logical
Exercising

He had his first Track Team Practice yesterday. In the picture above Kyle is a blue blur on the right edge of the group, Stella is running around in my slippahs, and Reeve is doing his homework while eating his favorite snack of almonds and raisins.

Stella found some tress to wind through. Practice runs every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:30 to 3:30pm.

I brought a book and my camera, Reeve had his homework, and Stella did her own thing while we watched Kyle stretch, stretch, stretch, and run, run, run.

He's excited to go again today...on his birthday. It's a busy week for him. Tomorrow he has drama practice for a Halloween Spooktacular Play that he will act in. I think they cast him as a Menehune. Should be a lot of fun. He's really coming into his own world as he turns 9. We're loving watching him grow into his own person! Happy Birthday Kyle!!!!!!!!!

Rain & Ducks

Friday night it started to rain about midnight and proceeded to pour all night long and most of the day Saturday. There would be times of drizzle to buckets and buckets of rain coming down. I can honestly say I've never seen it rain so much in my life, and I don't even think this was anything unusual for around here in the rainy season. I read in the paper that we are in a drought period...at about 56% of the average rainfall for our area.

I decided to take some pictures of our newly formed ponds. The picture above is looking at the drive at the back of the property. Below you can see Stella in the duck enclosure and some newly formed puddles in the yard.

Kyle (almost 9!!) taking care of the ducks...making sure they hacv clean water and food. They have "free choice" food 24hrs/day until they are 4 weeks old (which will be next Tuesday). Then we will feed them 3 times a day for 15 minutes each feeding session. They do wonderfully at foraging. Already we've noticed a decrease in the mosquito population and they love to forage on the ground. In the picture below notice they have their very own duck puddle. It was so much fun to see them waddle through it yesterday. Today most of the puddles are gone. The ground being mostly lava is very porous so the water doesn't stick around very long.

The boys and Tom did a great job building the duck enclosure. We've been keeping them in here at night until they get bigger and can defend themselves against the rats. I haven't seen any rats, but I'm not fooled I know they are everywhere and we try to be as vigilant as we can against them and their many diseases. Ask me another time about all those frustrating rat diseases...darn that Capt. Cook for introducing them to Hawaii.

When they are older and larger we will build nest boxes so that the hens can lay us some eggs. They should be ready to lay around my birthday in January...so excited!

 They are even cuter in person, trust me. Above: (starting at just after 6'oclock and going clockwise) Mr. Drake, Jemima, Alice, Roosevelt, Meg, and Calvin.

 Can you see the toad (or really large frog?) in the picture above? He's huge and not scared of us at all.

 Anyone know what kind of frog/toad he is?

 The ducks in their puddle. They're so fast it was hard to catch them waddling around in it.

 Jemima in the lead. She caught a worm and then raced around while the others chased her. It was really cute and funny. I love these ducks!

Well this week was quite a week. Tom had some car troubles and had a tow down the mountain. He amazingly and brilliantly fixed the Orange Crush (chevy astro) and now he says she's purring like a kitten. We've had so much rain that we couldn't connect to the internet (note the limited posts this week). Other than that everyone is happy and healthy. I'm appreciating life with limited electricity. It's fun knowing that every night I get a candlelit dinner!

Hilo Bay & Pinkies Beach

It was a gorgeous day in Hilo on our way out to a beach just north of Hilo. I'm not sure of the name of the beach, but it's by Pinkies Convieneince Store. It was so clear we could see the Observatories (there are 13 of them) up on Mauna Kea (usually covered in clouds). Unfortunately Reeve was a tad late in pulling out the camera and we drove past the point where we could see the top of the mountain.

These pics are of Hilo Bay.

and downtown Hilo from Reeve's vantage point of the passenger side of the car.

After we found a parking spot we hiked down to the beach. Really quite serene with the river flowing right into the ocean. There was tons of sea glass by the river's edge, so while Reeve and Kyle went body surfing the girls and I were looking for sea glass.

After the beach we drove up the Hamakua coast for a bit to visit our friend's house and enjoyed this beautiful view.

Rainforest Zoo & Evening Candlelight

First some duck pictures. They are getting so big! These were taken last week and since then we have built them a larger enclosure and a secure housing shelter for nighttime. We have been bringing them into the house (in their purple bin) every night, but they're getting too big for that.

Below...from left to right clockwise...Mr. Drake, Meg, Jemima, Calvin, Roosevelt, & Alice.

Stella and I went to the zoo with a friend the other day...they ran ahead and were holding hands.

Petting some goats.

I didn't take many pictures...Stella is the one with the red skirt & yellow shirt :)

Living with limited electricity means that we use oil lamps and candles for light at night. Tom took some pictures of me reading to Stella (Stregga Nona by Tomie dePaola). I love the candlelight at night and wouldn't change it for electric lights...no way!

Ahalanui Warm Pond

The boys have Fall Break this week, so we have been busy! First off this week we went to the Ahalanui Warm Pond...Tom, Stella, and I have been there before, and the boys were anxious to go.

This geothermally heated warm pond (with fresh ocean water during high tides) is about 25 miles from our house.

There were a lot of tourists there...we heard from New Jersey, California, and Chicago to name a few.

Above and below Kyle is snorkeling. There are little fish that get washed in with the tide...and some eels, but we didn't see the eels.

Reeve below in a "hot spot."

Kyle (below) snorkeling.

It was a great day, and a fun way to start their Fall Break. Confused about Fall Break? Keep in mind their school started August 1st!