Subsistence Farming - Hawaii

lauren (age 13) got her first kick by a horse.

a horse she visited to to see if she should come to our farm to be boarded. interestingly enough lauren had no anger at the horse or herself for getting kicked. she said she knew a moment before it happened that it was about to happen. she realized that the horse was so sad to be so dominant (it is a horse that is not with other horses) that the horse was really wanting lauren to take charge. lauren also realized that she was unclear whether she had the authority from the owner to do what was necessary to be the alpha horse. now that she is doing the pat parelli horse(wo)manship program she is very much aware of pecking order amongst horses. with a horse you are either a predator or a horse. your goal is to not be a predator. but, if you are a horse you need to make sure you qualify as lead horse. horses establish pecking order each day and you do not want to be at the bottom of the order with a thousand pound animal!
the hind hoof hit her hip.

lauren told me “you know, mama, i used to think i knew just about everything about horses, but now i know enough to know how little i really know.”

rain, rain rain.

we forgot to turn the dvd player off the same night that one intern left her cell phone charger plugged in all night and another intern didn’t unplug the boom box. all those loads ran our batteries down to the point that the inverter kicked off and we had no power in the evening.

the pumps are dc so we had water pressure.

our new “policy”:we allowed only one light in each cabin that night and the following 2 nights since. we still have not gotten a day of any substantial sun to charge the batteries.

i am noticing that sometimes we have a full house here with interns, work trade, rental and guests and it feels invigorating. and then there is a blessed lull. a time of emptiness. they both feel just right and i’m glad for the variety.

what a lot of work to get a new computer up and running with access to old files from a dead computer. i think i may have qualified for a ba in computer science just to get this working.

for my birthday i did something unusual. i designed a party for myself. what a great idea. i invited only people i felt i had an intimate connection with (or people who were savy with cooking since it was a pot luck—just kidding). it was one of my favorite birthdays. i took charge and didn’t get into that place of waiting for someone else to prove their love for me by showering me with a party….