The fauna of Mauna Kea Tea Garden

Hi again everyone,

Last time we posted the Big Island was on tsunami alert. It turned out to be pretty anticlimactic. We went to the beach the very next day and had a great time. The tourists mostly stayed away, and the humpbacks were breaching really close to shore, giving us few sunbathers a great show. That night began eight straight days of rain that flooded the farm and made it impossible to do field work. We spent most of last week trying to dig drainage ditches (which didn't work) and sorting and bagging the tea we harvested recently.

But now we've had three days of beautiful weather, and with the sunshine came some new farm residents. We now have two goats living with us, and their arrival made me realize that while I've introduced you to our tea plants and some other local flora, I haven't mentioned the animal side of our work. Here is the cast of characters:



Here are our two chickens. They're an important part of our daily routine on the farm and provide a valuable service by converting our leftover kitchen scraps into delicious eggs! When we supplement their diet with worms (for protein) they are very appreciative.



Being a modern and productive farm, we have three working lawnmowers. They are state-of-the-art, self-powering, biofueled models, and they never break down. They don't work as fast as some other mowers, but they are very thorough.



Meet the newest members of the MKTG family, Noah and Blossom. Noah is 3 months old and Blossom is almost 1 year old. When she gets a little older she'll provide fresh milk for the farm. We spent most of this week building a new pasture for them to frolic and eat to their heart's content. They were raised on a sort of goat version of "attachment parenting" so they cried and cried when we first got them, but they seem happy and are adjusting well.



Here you can see the rare and elusive Koji bear, once thought to be extinct in this part of the world, but we have one in captivity! Due to deforestation and the introduction of invasive species to the island, his natural diet of orange juice popsicles was severely depleted. We're happy to say he's making a full recovery and we hope to release him into the wild as soon as his mom says it's OK.