Ranch Hands May 2014

April saw wild spring growth here... our fruit trees amazed us with their progress...  our chickens luv the new "chick chalet" & even our geese hatched eggs this month!!

We planted fruit trees as soon as we moved in & the growth rate in the tropics amazes us!  After 18 months one guava tree grew up from a small sapling to a height that we actually saw song birds nesting in one of them this week...  As well as giving us fruit this past winter!!!

Our chickens must luv their new chalet & the ability to now free range across more than an acre....  our daily egg count doubled in 6 weeks!!  Leslie is negotiating with new vendors for the additional egg volume!

Our geese have been laying eggs this spring & the first batch hatched 2 new goslings that roam the ranch with their protective mom....  alot of other eggs still being sat on so we'll wait.  But thinking about adding an incubator to the Bunkhouse as an option too.

Ranch Hands April 2014

March saw a wide variety of new items... we attended the Kona Beer Brewers Festival, our chicken operation got new "digs" & the banana's ripened by the hundreds!!!

We started the month at the Kona Beer Brewer's Festival taste-testing almost 40 island & west coast breweries products.....  well, someone had to do it!!  By the way, "people watching" takes on a whole new meaning in Hawaii.  It must be the warm weather. 

Our chicken flock expanded last winter & they now have improved sheds, covers & fences...  Les calls it the "Chick Chalet" and they've adopted it as home.

Our banana tress have been fruiting & ripening for 4 months....  of course they became ready to harvest about the same time....  and "bunches" of bananas you see in a store are really just parts of the very large "racks" of bananas that grow on each tree....  so luckily all the critters here also eat bananas when dozens ripen each day hanging off of the Hacienda!!!

Boars: IX

Mongeese: CLXIX

Ranch Hands March 2014

February was clearing more land & eliminating the boars who are claiming it.. added another "rescue" lamb via a friend..  built a new hen house for our chickens too!!!

A huge project this year is clearing land in the back for more sheep pasture... which currently has a herd of 15 wild boars claiming it....  so we have been trapping them and then smoking their hams & making sausage!!!  15 pounds of delicious beer Bratwurst was the latest!!

A local vet assistant rescued an orphan lamb & bottle fed it, then asked us if we could adopt him into our flock...  our new ram (all white in the center) is up to eating grass & is now 27 pounds...  we get to watch 11 lambs race, jump & play every morning & evening...  good laughs.

Our initial livestock shelters were hastily set up while we built the Hacienda...  this year the critters are getting better, permanent homes...  the "Villa" is mostly finished for the hens to lay eggs - "high & dry" year round.

Ranch Hands February 2014

January finished the "lambing season" where we added 15 lambs - 10 rams & 5 ewes!!!  Big lessons for the ranch crew...  The Vet even came to Us!!

The huge harvests of some items challenge us to find a way to use it all.... Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) made a great wine.  Now we're trying to make 5 gallons of tangerine wine!!

The traditional Hawaiian  "wet season" is when Hawaii's 2 giant volcanoes can get lots of snow....  the NOAA satellite shot on the 29th shows the large snow coverage of Mauna Loa & Mauna Kea....   we could see both from spots on the ranch when the clouds parted on the 31st!!!

January 2014 Ranch Hands

December saw us busy with 6 new lambs, the "wet season" beginning & every plant growing on steroids!!

Our sheep flock has been lambing with 6 new ones last month!  We lost one mom so we started bottle feeding her premature ewe lamb (Mike "volunteered" for the night shift) and the little one has gone from 3 to 17 pounds so far....  the flock is at 20 today with four more pregnant sheep out there!!!

The traditional Hawaiian calendar has two seasons & December we started the "wet season"....  we learned last year that the weather service at the airport gets soooo much less rain than the CGR so we stopped looking at the newspaper...  the latest storm front dumped 3 inches overnight and a foot total for that week...  the plants luv it!!

In December we went and checked all the trees & plants to gauge how they grew in a year...  papaya & tangerines are fruiting, coffee is flowering & all our bamboos are amazing us with their steady progress...  yup, these are all going into the new areas!!

December 2013 Ranch Hands

The month of November gave us some unique experiences....  we "mid-wifed" a problem birth of a new lamb, Angel got a visit from the Parrot Sanctuary & Leslie's enjoying her new lawn tractor!!

One of first sheep born on the ranch last year had problems delivering her first  lamb...  a quick procedure by Leslie & we got both our mid-wife merit badges and a healthy new ram!!  In that picture "Chesty" is 30 seconds old.  We have 7 other pregnant sheep so hoping no others need help!!

Angel joined us in April from a Parrot Sanctuary on the other side of the island.  Dorothy, who cared for him, visited and the whole flock had a very loud reunion!!!!

While Mike keeps clearing trees & rocks on the side and back of the Hacienda, Leslie is making the front areas more civilized.  She added a riding lawn tractor to her arsenal to manage it all!

This month has a new list of projects as the long side fence goes in, oh & the holidays too!!  

November 2013 Ranch Hands

Leslie's sister Pat spent almost two weeks of October at the ranch, we added a new dog, and our plants and trees continue to grow!!

We started the month at a local Oktoberfest party. It wasn't Germany, but they had lots of great beer and food. 

Leslie went to the Humane Society down the street and found a beautiful 3-year old black German Shepard. He loves to play fetch (all day) and chase the neighbor's pigs!!

Pat gave us one of her fantastic paintings - this one of Hilo Bay. She found a dealer here that will sell her paintings for her. She better start painting more, because they take months to dry. 

The poinsettias that we planted in the ground after Christmas last year are already starting to turn red. They look like they will be in full "bloom" by Thanksgiving. They obviously love it here and require no strange rituals to get them started as we tried to in Virginia. 

October 2013 Ranch Hands

September saw Leslie touch the mainland to visit friends & family.... and her sister Pat came to visit again at the end of the month. 

The front half of the ranch finally looks like we've hit the tipping point from clearing/ building to maintaining....  that means Mike's hard work is shifting further back on our acreage.

Leslie got to see her fiends & family on the mainland for almost two weeks....  so Mike had to go to 5-H camp with 142 critters....  that put a dent in the Big Island's beer supply!!!

Les's sister Pat came to visit again & had to see the black bamboo tree they bought last year...  it was a 5 foot starter when they got it...  we think the latest shoot is 18 or 19 feet tall with more shoots growing 2-3 inches a day!!!

Our fruit trees are growing & some even flowering...  starting to think the low number of bees in our area hurt pollination....  so yup, just put together several hives & plan to bring in a bee colony soon....  stay tuned!!!

September 2013 Ranch Hands

Aloha all!!  August was a steady blur of adding new fence & always more tree cutting for fences!!  The critters meanwhile decided to reproduce like....  well, rabbits....  but also ducks, chickens & sheep!!!

Having the house complete just means the ranching tasks consume Mike's time.....  and for quite a while it's back to clearing land....  first for fences & then converting that acreage to pastures.

The top left pic is the "work face" as we reduce an overgrown strip, 410' long and 20' wide for the next fence project.....  that allows new chicken pens & garden expansion!!

Our ducks have been hatchings so there are always new batches of ducklings around us.

An island acquaintance called us before she moved "off island" so we brought another small flock to join our sheep.....  interestingly in 3 hours, they stormed &  normed.... we now have a  well behaved flock of 15 sheep out in our paddocks!

Boars: VI

Mongeese: CXIV

August 2013 Ranch Hands

Boars: V

Mongeese: CII

Aloha!! July focused us on the " back side" of da' ranch......  oh so many trees to drop & chip for each new fence line!!!  Steady progress out here!!

The first picture gives an idea of the overgrown saw grass behind the house.... we started the process of cutting it down to clear the next pasture for the growing sheep flock.

The sides of the pastures are densely packed guava & trumpet trees...  they are all coming down to put in the fences.  The many wood chip piles are going into many more beds for Leslie's vegetable gardening.

Our chicken flock is making more eggs as they mature...  the record day was 22 fresh eggs (plus 1 from the ducks!).  Les sells them at our local Farmer's Market!!

The critters continue filling up more of the ranch....  28 new rabbits & 10 new ducklings last month...  with more on the way for August!!

July 2013 Ranch Hands

 Aloha!!  With the Hacienda finished we spent June focused on the acres of tasks & projects around da' ranch......  yup, many more months of work to go!!!!!

While we like to think we can plan our days, the batches of critters can keep us reacting....  rabbits popping out little ones, sheep getting sick so "Vet Les" swings into action.....   never a dull morning doing chores around here!

We mowed pastures, built sheds & worked to expand the gardens....  planting fruit trees & shade trees in the pastures kept us busy.

A major task was clearing trees behind the Hacienda to put in the next fence line.....  we luv our new wood chipper....  the trees become new beds for bananas!!!!

While fruit trees usually need 2-3 years to bear fruit, the intense sun down in the tropics amazes us as they grow at amazing rates.....  our first papaya is already fruiting after 7 months!!!!

It's the "hot season" in the tropics, but it's clearing & fencing all the next month!!

June 2013 Ranch Hands

May saw the worksite become "home"...  all the finish tasks are "pau!"......  so we had a housewarming BBQ!!!

Our Housewarming BBQ was the perfect "forcing function" for Les & I to get the Hacienda finished!!!

The Hacienda is no longer the work site, so we actually can rest there now!!!

 The animals keep us occupied in many ways.   We got 4 more Toulouse geese and they've already made nests & laying eggs!

All of our ewes delivered lambs within 32 hours....  3 new ram lambs and a ewe lamb....  they are now the streaks we see racing thru the pastures!!!

Our first experiments with pineapples are even starting to bear fruit.....  the sun down in the tropics allows tremendous plant growth...  we're still learning to harness it!!!

We declared June as "Ranch month" to tackle all those projects we talked about while building the Hacienda....  chainsaw & tools ready to go!!!