Vince Mira

Vince Mira (17 years old!) is a young singer/songwriter from Seattle who specializes in country and rock and roll music. His deep bass-baritone voice has drawn comparisons to Johnny cash. His repertoire consists of several Johnny Cash and Hank Williams songs, as well as his own originals. Hi career began playing Spanish songs at Pike Place Market where he was discovered by producer Chris Snell. His similarity to Johnny Cash caught the ear of Cash's son John Carter

Cash and led to John producing Mira's first album!

Eine Klein Nachtmuzik (A little night music)

Seattle Public Library

Mountain Road Cycles

Tami, Hilke, me, and Fabie!

My girl friends

I'm revamping this blog entry. I just arrived in Seattle tonight at 11:15pm. Hawaiian airlines has proven to be an incredible airline. They offer a complimentary dinner (I had spinich and cheese manicotti!) and a movie. Dinner and a movie! Tonghts feature was "Julie and Julia" which I haven't seen. It portrays a blogger dedicating to learning how to cook by working her way through Julia Childs cookbook and then blogging about her adventures. A great film! But she made a good point. Blogs can be self centered. Me me me. Well, my blog has been goats, goats, goats lately and before that Moki, Moki Moki the wonderdog. But this particular entry the other night WASN'T about me and a group of girl friends. It was about a huge accomplishment for some very dear friends and their wonderful new bike shop. A great addition to our little ranch town full of bikers, runners, and athletes. I bought a Santa Cruz Juliana bicycle from Matt's shop this month. The bike deserves a lot more than I can offer her. I'm taking baby steps with the whole bike thing. The saying "It's like riding a bike" means nothing to me. Friends pat my back and say "Just think of the saying as "It's like playing the piano" and you'll understand. For now, while I'm learning, I don't ride fast enough to fall and hurt myself. I think that's smart, right?

This was taken tonight at Fabie and Matt's grand opening at their bike shop Mountain Road Cycles! As you can see, it's winter time in Hawaii. I bet it was in the 50's tonight. That's chilly for us! Winter time is officially here. Yesterday morning we awoke to a light dusting of snow on Mauna Kea!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Portable Electric Fast Fence

Alex and I put this fence up in 10 minutes! It's awesome! The goats have SO much more room to graze now in a pen FULL of yummy weeds. No need to weed eat or mow this week!
We moved their kennel and climbing palettes to the new pen. It rained HARD last night and I could just imagine them huddled together.
They have formed a super close bond. They graze side by side all day together.
Just look at all this vegetation for them to eat in their new pen!
The unit that makes the fence electric. Normally a goat could just chew right through this kind of fence. Or slip right underneath it. But because it is electric they don't get anywhere NEAR it. There is an easy off switch on the black solar battery so I can open the pen and play with them. They are so happy. I think they were crying out in hunger before. They would scream and squeal when they saw me walking down the street like "FOOD LADY!" Now they just contently and quietly watch me walk to and from them without an issue!

Does this make you smile?

Moki can herd a wheelbarrow like no other. Moki can herd us on our bikes like a pro. Moki will even herd my truck like a champ when I'm slowly backing it into parking spot. And he herds his people like a well trained herding animal.

But Moki has NO herding instincts when it comes to livestock. He is a useless goat herder!

Yesterday Alex had to do a building inspection so I took the solo opportunity to up pot some new baby trees. I thought it would be nice to let my goats out to free graze around me while I worked in the dirt. But today the goats were SPOOKED. And BOY can they run fast. ZOOM like the wind they went down the street. I go screaming and flailing after them with a stick. This only spooks them more. So ZOOM they fly into other people's yards spooked out of their minds. I'm screaming back and forth, down and back, up and down the street. I must have looked crazy chasing after my spooked goats. I'm screaming at Moki to help me! Herd them! Don't let them slip past you! So then I realized that I'm only freaking them out more by screaming and chasing them. So I stop. I kneel to the ground and hold out a yummy leaf. I speak softly and sweetly to them. They trot over to me to inspect the leaf. And SNATCH! I grab Buckley by his horn and wrangle him into my arms. Thank God I have dwarf goats. They are so easy to pick up and carry back to the pen. Mabel follows me as I carry Buckley in my arms just like I planned. Moki is just SITTING there the whole time like "Wow mom. Those goats aren't good boys like ME. Look at how well I'm just sitting here!"

Once I got them into their pen they were calm and fine. Mabel LOVES being petted. She gets this glazed look in her blue eyes when you sit there and scratch her back. Today we are going to put up an electrical netting portable fence so they have some new terrain to graze on.

Should I take this personally?

As a teacher, it is not uncommon for my darling students to bring me treats. Fresh eggs from their chickens. A bag of lychee from the farmers market when it is Lychee season. Over the years students have brought me tea, fresh baked cookies, tomatos from their garden, an apple for the teacher, and other wonderful goodies.

But this past week I had a student bring me a bag of mystery peppers. To be fair, I didn't ask what they were. I just assumed they were sweet peppers from the farmers market. They did have a funny deformed shape to them. But that can happen with organic gardening.

Fast forward to last night. I wanted to make pasta and add these fine peppers from my student. So I chop them on a cutting board. I have bad allergies and I wiped my nose. Again, to be fair, I should know better than touch my nose while I am cooking. That is just not sanitary. Moments after touching my nose is when the most incredible burn sets in. I grab an ice cube and stuff it up my nose. I wash my hands. A few minutes later I must have rubbed my eye. BURNING EYE! I grab another ice cube and shove it in my eye socket. It is around this point when Alex walks into the kitchen and sees me cooking with ice cubes up my nose and in my eye. I cry "WHAT kind of pepper is THAT?!!?" He says "I think that is a Scotch Bonnet". We do a google search. It is THE HOTTEST PEPPER IN THE WORLD. Nice. What kind of student brings their innocent music teacher THE HOTTEST PEPPER IN THE WORLD? Especially Jessie. I think TOOTHPASTE is spicy. Everyone knows I have no tolerance for hot and spicy food.

Direct quote from encyclopedia:

Most scotch bonnets have a heat rating of 350,000 Scoville Units. For comparison, the jalapeno peppers have a heat rating of 2,500 on the Scoville scale.

I cried to Alex "I think my student must hate me! Why else would someone do this?" as my flaming nose drips in burning pain. I made Alex pick out all the peppers from my pasta. I will hang a note on my music door entrance "Please do not feed the Music Teacher" from now on!

All Saints Day

OK that Halloween picture is very scary! Sorry about that!

Alex and I actually went to bed at 9pm on Halloween. No parties for us! We are the oldest young people you'll meet.

Today was a difficult day. On All Saints day I attended Swan's funeral. There are just no words. There were lots of tears. She was such a beautiful girl. I think the entire town was there today. That is how many lives she has touched.

And finally, to end this day with a smile, my dad is the king of e-mail jokes, but he only sends me the good stuff!! Click HERE to watch yet another great clip he sent me.