Guest Blogger, Grace.....

Grace is visiting this evening, with her brother and Dad.

Grandpa is making teriyaki chicken and rice (can't forget the starch)

Grace and I are making sauteed Baby Bok Choy, but first she wants to share a few word about her day.

I went to the Hyatt todayMe, my friend and my sisters went on the slides and went to the kids pools. We almost went scuba diving but the people were gone when we got there. So I played with my sisters, Mira and Jazzy they are very nice to me @ 4 we went to the beach and got back @ 5:10 it was fun to spend time with my family!!!! Love,

Grace.

O'o Farm

We visited O'o farm on Thursday last week. They only do tours/lunch Monday through Thursday so when my boss told me he was taking everyone to lunch on Thursday and that I should take myself out somewhere special. I jumped on the chance. And the funny part was that because of the time difference it worked out perfectly. They all left for lunch at noon, pacific time, and Bill and I left for the tour 15 minutes later, which would have been 9:15 our time.

The tour started at 10:30, followed by lunch. Here's the link http://www.oofarm.com.

The tour consisted of walking around their 6 garden beds. They weren't all neat and trim like I expected, because evidently that isn't really necessary. One bed was an asparagus bed. Very cool. We picked some and ate them right there. The one Bill picked for me was about 3 inches long.

They use no pesticides or herbicides and are trying to get away from mechanics. I think that is going as bit too far...but whatever. The farm grows alot (not all like I previously thought) of the vegetables for their two restaurants in Lahaina. Typically these end up as specials.

But the best part of the tour had to be lunch. I even ate tofu. It was over a bed of sauteed root vegetables. Then there was a fish dish over different sauteed greens. I was to grow purslane. It was good. And supposedly very good for you. We ate outside and these big table made from crazy big slabs of wood. Very cool.

Now back to convincing Bill to finish my raised beds...

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I had a great Birthday. Thanks so much for the well wishes, card, text messages, voice mails, gifts, flowers....you'd think I was getting old or something.

Friday Night we had all the grandchildren over, Richard and Maggie and her parents, Jaime and Sandy. It was a fun night. Maggie and Richard, and the grandchildren gave me a Grandmother's necklace. Yikes, I guess I am old. There are five little tags on it for each of the 4 children and the one on the way. No...not Alex's little guy who is due in 50 days, but Maggie and Richards 5th child who is due in the March/April time frame. You do the math.

Here's a pic of me blowing out my "39" candles. Bill thought it was funny. The best part was that Grace came outside and told me the numbers were "3" and "9" and that I was to act surprised. I like being 49...at least so far.

Do I look surprised? Well heck yeah, why are these munchkins spitting on my cake!

If you look hard you can see the Grandmother necklace around my neck. I love it.

So, here's to turning 49, I just might do it again next year! But not 39, come on, I couldn't pull that off if I tried!

The Mangoes are done

One of the most rewarding things in the world is growing your own food. I truly believe that. (and playing Angry Birds, but it's not the same....)

Well our Mangoes are done for the season. When we got in the house, early May, they were everywhere on the tree. The tree is huge, probably 60 feet tall. I did try to climb it to reach more mangoes, but I got about 15 feet off the ground and chickened out. I wasn't afraid of falling, I was afraid of hitting the ground.

Anywho, we have eaten at least one mango a day since then. Noa likes to sit on the counter and have Grandpa cut them for him. He prefers the "Huge One" but will pretty much take whatever you hand him...from the edge of the knife...cause that's how we roll.

Unfortunately about half of the mangoes fall from the tree before you can pick them or because they are too high for us to pick. Then we have to pick them off the ground. Once they hit the ground they are too bruised to eat. I don't know if they just bruise easily, are so heavy they bruise when they hit or it's all about the distance they fall...remember I said the tree was very tall.

Well Bill has taken it upon himself to pick up the mangoes. He does this in the morning, but the wind likes to pick up at around 4 or 5 pm around here and more fall. So it is sometimes my entertainment to go out back with my evening cocktail and wait for him to come outside and see the newest crop of ground mangoes. "What...there's one, two, three....seven more mangoes" It's pretty entertaining. I think he takes it personally that they fall instead of letting us pick them.

Needless to say I am looking forward to next May. BTW..I have about 6 lbs frozen waiting to make Mango somethings when Lindsey and Jake arrive next month.