ʻĀina Iki Ranch

10/05/2026

Apparently, she’s been preparing for her grand finale. 🌱

For the past week or so, we’ve been watching our thornless agave make these beautiful little spirals and wondering what she was up to.

Turns out, she’s a foxtail agave (Agave attenuata), and this is the beginning of her bloom. That little spiral will eventually grow into a long, arching flower stalk — the “foxtail” that gives her the name.

And here’s the bittersweet part: she’ll only bloom once in her lifetime. Afterward, this rosette will eventually die back while her pups carry on the next generation. 💚

Pretty amazing to catch the very beginning of it. We’ll be watching — and documenting — as she unfurls.

09/26/2026

Hurricane prep at ʻĀina Iki…again. 🌀🐐🐓

With another hurricane expected to come through today, we spent the last couple of days getting the ranch as ready as we could. I didn’t capture most of it on camera, but Joshua took down the carport’s tarp roof, and we added some extra weight and tie-downs to the animal shelters that taught us a few lessons during the last hurricane.

The bigger chicken coop got some extra securing, and Joshua and Val tackled the mini goat barn, replacing the old pallet walls that were starting to fall apart with sturdy steel fencing lined with tarps to help keep out the wind and rain.

And after all that prep…the radar is showing the hurricane staying safely south of us. 😆

Which is exactly how we like our hurricane prep to end: a whole lot of work for absolutely nothing. ❤️

Better prepared than sorry, and each storm seems to teach us a little more about making ʻĀina Iki stronger and safer for everyone who calls it home.

09/20/2026

Ruby was extra curious during goat grazing this morning. 😂 Every time I pulled out my phone, she had to come over and inspect the camera for herself.

Apparently documenting morning chores now requires a full snoot inspection. 🐴📱

09/17/2026

Grazing with goats isn’t always as simple as opening a gate. 🌿🐐

We’re lucky to have two neighboring pastures where we can take our Biggie herd to graze, but both have toxic plants mixed in with all that good forage.

So while the goats browse, I work. On one property, that means lopping down pigw**d. On the other, it’s pulling crotalaria pods and flowers—and eventually the whole plant.

The past few mornings have been all about crotalaria, and there’s something ridiculously satisfying about watching that bag fill up while the goats happily graze around me. One toxic w**d at a time. 💪🌱

09/14/2026

🐉 Our very first dragon fruit has finally arrived. Read the sweet (and slightly ridiculous) story behind ʻĀina Iki’s truly slow food. 🌱💗

A twenty-year journey from a tiny cutting to ʻĀina Iki’s very first dragon fruit.

09/13/2026

🐉 Truly slow food, ʻĀina Iki style.

We just harvested our very first dragon fruit — roughly 20 years after it arrived here as an 8-inch cutting.

Around 2005 or 2006, Val picked up a broken piece while walking through her friend Greg’s dragon fruit farm here in Puna. She brought it home, planted it, dug it back up, stuck it in a pot, moved it around and generally, in her words, made it suffer. 😂

Somehow that little cutting survived and grew into the giant, “snaky and octopussy” cactus winding through the vegetation today.

This year it finally produced its first flower, followed by its first fruit — and we got to sit around the table with Val, hear the story and taste the result nearly two decades later.

As Val perfectly put it: “We’re gonna call this truly slow food.” 💗🌱

Stay tuned — the full story of this little cutting’s very long journey to becoming ʻĀina Iki’s first dragon fruit is coming soon to the blog. 🐉

09/02/2026

🍌 Busted, Ruby.

We let Ruby and Frisky into the backyard yesterday to help us “mow.” Unfortunately, Uncle Joshua wasn’t quite quick enough to relocate a hanging bunch of bananas that was just barely within reach of one awnry Miss Ruby. 😂

By the time I heard the commotion, the crime was already in progress. Ruby heard me coming and casually trotted away from the scene as if she had absolutely no idea what had happened.

I managed to save the unripe half of the bunch… but the evidence on her face was pretty damning. 😂🍌🐴

Caught red-hooved.