Preparing

I have been mostly packed for our Kaua'i trip for days, not hard since what I've been reminded that I will wear for the tropics is not what I am wearing for autumn at home. My friend has posted and sent me photos so I am prepared for things to not look postcard-perfect; they are still cleaning up the damage left behind by Hurricane Lowell. We're not sure yet if the botanical gardens we'd like to visit will be open because of that, but we have scheduled a chocolate farm tour, and plan to take a boat and snorkel tour up the Napali Coast if the seas are calm (I'll still have to take anti-nausea meds). Rick and I want to hike and drive to as many scenic spots as we can, and my friend and I plan to ride together as many afternoons (on the beach!) as we can squeeze in. Of course there will be beach/ocean/pool time (my friend has a pool), too, but laying around is not what I'm looking forward to. I want to experience as much of the island as I can on this, the only Hawaiian trip I anticipate I'll ever take.

I picked up some waterproof bandages to wear in the water, because I got a dandy steam burn while canning applesauce Sunday. I need to do at least one more batch of applesauce; I will try to be more careful!

Out of curiosity I contacted my oldest cousin (eldest son of my eldest aunt, who was 18 years older than my mom) to get more information on family history. I knew my aunt, uncle and cousins were missionaries in Hawaii, but that's about it other than these photos of old photos:

My cousin (on far right in first two photos) obliged me with the following:

"Good to hear from you!

1946-1949: Kapa'a, Kaua'i

1949-1952: Hilo, Big Island

1952-1957: Honolulu Central, O'ahu

1957-1959: Traveling evangelist on every island except for Ni'ihau (the Forbidden Isle); home base was Kailua, O'ahu.

"When you are on Kaua'i you can see the church my father pastored. He started a successful poi manufacturing business that helped finance the church school. You will also see a mountain range called Sleeping Giant. High up in it is where we lived when we returned from my family's evangelistic meetings. This is where we had our first horse, Blackfoot."

We were already planning to hike Sleeping Giant, so that will be another fun connection to family history.

I have lots of 'local news' (photos) to share but will pick just some for this post and try to do one more called "Where the wild things are" before we leave. I am not going to take my laptop with me for once, so no posting from Kaua'i! But there will be spinning and hopefully knitting to pass the time on the long flights to and back. Here's a summary of my spinning since the last time I shared my progress:

I used up my blue silk plying (I thought; I found another turtle of it later!)

so plied the rest of this colored merino on itself.

Then I started flick-carding and spinning this darker colored merino.

I might use that found blue silk single to ply some of this!

After some welcomed late summer rain I have been watering the garden again. Harvested some lovely beets to make my favorite raw beet/apple/carrot salad for potluck last Sabbath,

and put the handful of green beans I picked into a delicious yellow curry. Brian won't do anything with/for the garden while we're gone, but more rain is in the forecast, thankfully.

Wool is growing; the sheep are going to need bigger coats soon.

The ground squirrels are moving back in and Poppy is in full hunting mode; she caught and killed two in one week. It's been harder to keep her attention in agility class because of that; we'll see how this Sunday's trial goes!

I don't think Chuckie hunts for anything but attention anymore. He was positively fawning over the farrier this morning!

That's it for now from . . .