Month: July 2015

Tierpark Preding






Moloa’a, today.





















Summer at Home






Prewash cycle without…

…and with extra help (our dishwasher has a sanitization cycle)

We have curbside recycling again!

Housework weeks. In Austria kids learn a lot about the household and garden, so while school’s out we did that too, we made syrups, jams, jellies, preserves and breads. We also froze close to 80 pounds of fruit (yay solar electricity, free freezing)
3 of our friends have lychee trees and were nice enough to let us pick! Thank you Randy, Bart and Will and Susan!

Mangos too!

Mango Syrup, cooking down. We started with 6 liters.

Making bread. Leilani fed the sourdough starter twice a day for almost 5 days until it bubbled over twice and made a mess on the counter. We decided on a 70% rye and 30% sprouted kamut bread with pecans. Leilani’s friend Jazzi helped her weigh the ingredients and knead the dough, while I supervised, cleaned and helped when needed (rarely I’m happy to say). After about 3 hours the bread had risen sufficiently and we baked it.






Techno-legos



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Deja Vue and other fun news

Leilani, do you know what Deja Vu is? “Of course, a it’s surf shop.”

At a different time, after spreading butter on her sandwich I asked Leilani whether she wanted butter and cheese. She replied no, no cheese too many calories. I handed her the buttered bread, shook my head in dismay and said if there was anyone I knew who didn’t have to worry about calories it was her. Without missing a beat she gave back the bread. “More butter please!”

In other news, Jahi has proven for the second time that she is the smartest of our animals: We were getting ourselves and the dogs ready to leave and it was raining. Both cats were snoozing in the kitchen. Jahi got up, stretched and meowed, as if she was begging for food, but instead of leading me to an empty bowl she lead me to a locked cat door. While I unlocked it, she already turned around and went to lay back down on the same spot as before. That’s pretty advanced planning for a cat.

I don’t even remember if I posted Jahi’s other claim to fame… This is a long story though… And I need to start explaining before the actual story begins:

Whenever most or all our pets sit together peacefully, or have fun together they torture a little animal, most the time geckos or anoles. I happen to like these, and our pets are not allowed to harm them or birds. They absolutely know that and try to keep it secret from us when they do. So when we walk up to the scene they immediately disperse, make it look like they had nothing to do with the torture, and were just watching one of the other pets. At least it usually allows us to save the little critter, but we can’t really punish the culprit.

One time though Bennu had caught ands killed a black Polynesian rat (which are a lot tastier tun the bigger, imported grey rats). The other pets watched from a distance while Bennu was eating it (crunching and growling). When I came to the scene Bennu got up, as if the rat didn’t really concern him and started to walk away. I picked him up and told him he was a good cat and put him back next to the rat, and while I petted him he started to eat again. I even got the camera and took his picture. Jahi and the dogs watched.

The very next morning Jahi came into the bedroom, got my attention and let go of a pretty healthy and barely chewed-on gecko and set him free, something she had not done in months, and never since. She actually watched me. I yelled at her and she ran off (I then caught the gecko and put him outside). The very next morning she brought a dead zebra dove something she had not ever done before or again. Birds are strictly illegal, and even looking at them prompts being sprayed with a hose. She took one look at me, dropped the bird and ran even before I yelled or threw anything. That was the end of her experimenting, she gave up.

Our cats can’t usually catch rats, because the rats are nocturnal, and the cats’ curfew is at 8pm (when I suspect dogs, crazy people with guns and fast cars with drunk drivers are getting out), and they can’t leave the house until 5am, when I open the door. As the avocado season gets closer (the rats really damage our avos by gnawing just a bit on many of them) this may change.

And the nicest thing the dogs ever did for the cats: The little lock that was on the pet-door when we bought it could not withstand our determined dogs, they just put their body mass, speed and muscle to good use and plowed through. Andy soon put an extra bar on the outside of the pet-door, that really blocks it but only inside-out. One time the dogs were munching on bones on the lanai (deck), and the cats were already locked up. When Jet heard them meow at the door he stuck his head in, held the door open and let both of them out, wagging his tail.

And last but not least (and tasty but less funny) we froze close to 60 lb. (30 kg) of lychee and 15 lb. (7 kg) of mango in our new, mostly solar powered chest freezer. They make really good smoothies and lassies, I might even get a champion juicer for sherbets.