“It’s not everyday you get charged by a cow….in Hawaii.”

After months of dreamin’ and schemin’, after a week of losing important “Shade vs Sun” planting information, (which a frustrated Chelsea had to re-research…) and after an hour or so of bickering on how exactly to carry out the task at hand (I’ve learned never to work with my future spouse…) our fruit trees FINALLY made it into the ground! 

It’s been in the talks for awhile now, but we ordered about 30 fruit trees from the Big Island and on Friday they arrived, so today they were permanently relocated to their new homes on our upper ridge. Ian had previously dug holes with his nifty John Deere; he dug them too big however, so the project took pretty much the entire day to carry out between covering back up areas, mixing soils and peat moss, removing the never ending rocks and watering. At Krista’s request, we crossed two green ti leaves at the bottom of each hole before placing the “Keiki” trees in, a Hawaiian tradition to insure healthy growth. 

A slightly more exciting day fell into our laps yesterday however, as Chelsea and I hiked a trail through the Hana Ranch pastures. This scenic trail that takes you through out the cow pastures overlooking the coast, is an unspoken “At your own Risk” type of deal as we found out through experience….We completed it fine our way there, a little cautious as we passed the grassing beauties, but got through and spent the afternoon as the lovely Hamoa Beach. Deciding we liked the gassy trail over the road, we went back the way we came, but this time encountered a very pregnant lady parked right in the middle of the pathway. Not sure what to do, we waited it out for a bit, thinking she, like the others, would scatter up the hill when we approached closer. This chick however, wasn’t moving out of the way. Like humans, I’m guessing that the hormones of pregnant cows are slightly out of whack, leaving her upset by our presence. She got up, did a little shuffling of her feet (the beginning of the intimidation…) and pretty much started ferociously making her way tours us (Chelsea’s direction more than mine….) Hearts pounding, but not wanting to scare her by bolting it ourselves, we calmly backed off even more than we already had been, and managed to retrace our steps in the opposite direction towards the road. A lovely trail, but I think it’s safe to say we’re never taking it again….

I don’t know what’s up with our animal connectivity in Hawaii, but the chickens here at Hana Tropicals continue to drive us up the wall, as they’re as free-range as you can be. Porsha helped herself right into the Diggs the other day, they jump up on tables, and our jokes about BBQ-in’ them are truly no longer jokes. The other morning as I laid in bed not wanting to move, but slowing going insane from their hungry chuckling outside, I yelled up to Chelsea to get up and feed them, her response “Yea, let me just grab my shotgun.”

Aloha! And if you are enchanted by “charming” chickens and ever want some, keep them in a coop from day one!!!! They’re eggs are great and all, but when it comes down to it sadly, they’re just not the sharpest tools in the shed.