Homestead

We've been in this house about a year.  It was a foreclosure and had been vacant for 2 years so the jungle had grown a lot.  Having our own house and land that needs a lot of work has turned us into homesteaders.

Washing a dog on 2.5 acres of land is homesteading.  Clearing brush on that land is homesteading.  Doing these things in your postage stamp of a yard is not.  I don't know why.

Homesteading means pickling, making our own yogurt, cutting down trees and digging up stumps. Digging up invasive species by the roots and composting on a larger scale.

I have sharpening stones and I sharpened my two machetes, garden clippers, wood chisels.

We get views like this. While this isn't amazing and picturesque Hawaii, it is quiet.  There're no people or cars or buildings.  This is the view from the corner of our property of our neighbor's cow fields.

The jungle is so dense that I still haven't walked from one side to the other through the middle.




Friday is new goat day.  Two new little white ladies will join the herd.  I hope this will make Lani feel a little less lonely with her sister is gone.   It means a lot more grass to eat, which means I need to be on my game for working in the yard, taking advantage of what they clear.  I don't have a budget to build anything on that space but maybe I can put down cardboard and rocks to keep it clear. 

Everyone's an expert

Around 11:30 last night I let the dog out to pee before bed.  HB bolted out the door and off the porch, I heard snarling and I yelled for him to come back and he did. The damage was already done. He took a skunk shot in the mouth. He lay on the floor, spitting up a frothy mix of saliva and skunk, there was a bit of fur in there too.

The poor guy just didn't understand.  We ended up in the yard until 1am, alternating rubbing his face with spaghetti sauce and shampoo.  It was an enhanced interrogation as we held him down and sprayed a hose in his face to rinse off the skunk oil. We waterboarded our sweet, naive, stinky dog as he sat shivering, wet and cold in the yard in the middle of the night.

Today my hand smells a enough like a skunk that everyone asks about it. I tell them and everyone has a story.

Happy couple

We found these two running through traffic outside of KTA. They'd been running around for over an hour and no one had done anything.  It took a while, but we eventually got them into the car and drove them to the Humane Society. The boy in the back with me and the girl up front.
Both were completely friendly, fed and well loved. Neither had collars or micro chips. They both shed and drooled everywhere.  Fortunately they were picked up the same day.

The boy would get very nervous being away from the girl and clearly let her call the shots. I am the same.

Worms eat my garbage

Vermiculture allows active and aggressive composting and most importantly in a small space.
I think about 50% of my waste is organic and goes to the worms. We generate so much organic waste that I can't generate enough shred to compensate. Last fall I subsidized with leaves and pine needles. I just enlisted a friend's help and am now receiving his shredded paper. It makes all the difference. I have two bins now and I think I could handle a third.

There is a 3:1 ratio of paper shred to organic waste this helps keep the moisture level down as that makes it stinky. Bins need ventilation holes to breathe; we drilled a connect-the-dots picture of a giraffe wearing a sombrero. This spring I will harvest the castings and give my aunt the richest soil around for her garden. She grows garlic which she gifts to us, we eat it and the shells will go back into the bin.

There is a nice lady in my office. We were talking about trash and said she generates very little, only 2 bags / week. Wife and I empty one bag about every 3 weeks and that's generally more because of smell than filling to capacity. A good recycling program and vermiculture allows us to generate 1/6 of the waste that a single person does. I think that's pretty great.

Worms are pretty great. They don't complain, they dance, they eat my trash.

Writing a letter

I wrote a letter to my aunt and uncle.
I had a root canal today, so today's TaD has to be simple. This is my cat, Merlot:

Merlot

She desperately wants to eat but her dinner isn't until for another 1.5 hrs.  She also woke me up early this morning and I'm upset with her about that so I don't feel bad putting this unflattering picture of her on Internet.

good news

I got a phone call and an email yesterday:

Well, folks... she's back. As I lay down at midnight last night I heard
her outside my window. Lyle stepped out and called her and she came right in and
headed for the food. She is much thinner, actually she looks good. She is very
needing of attention...and kept me awake banging her head into my face. We'll
keep an eye on her and take her to the vet, if she shows any signs of illness or
damage.. SO, send me a list of the things we need to do to send her to Hawaii. I
think she'll probably stay around now... I hope.

Love to send good
news.. Sue