Once again, it’s been awhile since i’ve made a post.  It’s too easy to lose track of time living in Hawaii!  I’m starting to get more of a grip on the seasons after living here for 10 years, but still….just the other day i thought we were in the month of March!

So as usual, a lot has been happening since January.  A big one is we have 4 new baby goats!  They are adorable and fun.  We love cuddling them and laughing at their hilarious antics.  Sadly we will not be keeping any of them, but they will be will be going to a farm nearby in about a month.  What we are excited about is the milk we will soon have!  We love making buttermilk, keifer, and cheese!  Oh how we miss our cheese.  It is so delicious and simple.  We just add some garlic chives and basil with a little sea salt, and it tastes divine!  I’m also excited to make goat milk soap for the first time.  I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time, and I’m finally going to make it happen!

Our 3 boys have been loving the baby goats.  We spend so much time with them, and Grandma was here visiting from Maine and got to enjoy them as well!  Since we homeschool/unschool, the kids are free to play for hours in the goat area.  Our oldest, who is 9, doesn’t just play with them, but cares for them so well!  He wakes up most mornings at 6am to help his dad feed and milk the goats, and clean out their barn.  He knows exactly how to care for them.  He gives them all the supplements they need, trims their hooves, checks their eyes for anemia, etc.  It’s not just a chore for him, but something he loves to do!  This is our method when it comes to schooling.  We don’t want to force any lessons, just encourage their passions.  The simple idea is that when you’re excited about something, you learn and retain the information so much better than learning it by rote.  We spend time learning through games, conversation, hands-on projects, etc.  It’s amazing to watch how much they learn naturally, without sitting down to a structured lesson!  So each moment we are available to teach our kids.  Both Mom and Dad are nearby almost always to interact with and support our children.  Just by treating them like our equals we have found that they thrive and learn and enjoy life!

And continuing on with the farming update, Zeoc has been focusing on building rock walls all over the place!  Our friend is a very talented rock wall builder, so once a week he comes by to help add these beautiful additions to our farm.  Zeoc has spent hours digging out rocks from all over the farm and lugging them to the various building sites.  It’s an exciting project, and really is making the farm a truly unique place!  

I’ve been working on the central garden again.  Spring time is calling me to plant, plant, plant!  I have a nice spot behind the house to make starts which i can baby, then when they are big enough i can transplant to the garden.  So far we have enjoyed a great green bean harvest (contender beans are the best!), yummy lettuce, swiss chard, kale, and arugula, cucumbers, and lots of herbs!  Now we are waiting on the edemame, more green beans, corn, and more.  I’ll be starting carrots soon, and have lots more things starting behind the house. ( tomatoes, tomatillos, watermelon, more cucs, edemame, corn, basil, parsley, etc)  I just love being in the garden, planting seeds, turning compost, and just tending the earth!  It’s the most enjoyable thing to harvest your own veggies after caring for those tender plants for so long.  I learn more each time i plant and am excited to see more success in the garden.  There are so many parallels to life lessons when working the land.  It’s a rewarding experience no matter how successful the harvest!  

We’ve had some great work traders visiting for periods of time this winter/spring.  We appreciate the help and some become life long friends!  At present we have 3 other people living on the farm, but at times we have had many more!  Inviting people to live and share on the farm with us is such a learning experience.  It creates such an atmosphere for growth when living so closely with others in your day to day life!  We love having friends return to see all the changes that are constantly being made around here.  We put so much time and effort into creating a beautiful, natural place to call our home.  We love when people appreciate it as much as we do!

So between teaching and raising the kids, caring for the animals, tending the gardens, teaching the new work traders, doing regular maintenance of the place, clearing and weeding the jungle, and just taking breaks to enjoy our life, we don’t really find much time to be bored!  There’s always something to be done around here, and we (usually!) appreciate the work!