01: Cute Animals!

Hi! Today was my first day at Kualoa Ranch,

Me, Ellie and Amanda fluffing up the mulch!!

we worked on the Ka'a'awa side which focuses on the pigs, sheep, rabbits, chicken, and turkeys. We had a great first day, very productive and fun! I learned a lot about papaya trees and they taught us about the soil in pig pens. I had goals to work my hardest and learn about livestock and I did! We got a lot accomplished today. We first worked with the Pigs and we mulched the pig pens to help keep them as natural as possible. We fluffed (basically just using pitchforks to move around the mulch so that it would be so compacted) them up and then put more mulch on top to help keep the pens natural. The baby pigs were so adorable! Although they nibbled us they were really friendly! We then went to the chicken coop and put the mulch from there and used it to help fertilize the ulu trees in the farm. This was hard work, especially getting those barrels out of the coops, and those chickens were so loud!! But after that we got to have lunch so that was a nice break. We also pruned cacao trees, chopping off dead or unneeded tree branches. Then one of the workers told us about papaya trees, I learned that they can grow male, female, and a unisex tree. The male tree doesn't grow any papaya, but the female tree grows papaya in a round shape, not the kind you'd usually see in the market. but the unisex papaya fruit has the shape we see normally, they wany them to grow the most because they sell best. The worker, AJ also taught us about fungal trees, we saw them at the bottoms of many of the trees. it was like something was eating through the tree. its called root rot, its a disease that starts at the root and it's caused by too much water, it effects the roots, fruit and makes its way up the trees. Then we left! I think it was a great way to start our three week journey.

Overall, all of the workers are super nice and friendly, the work is fun, and if you have a good mindset you'll have a lot of fun! I'm so excited the rest of our volunteer work here! I learned a lot and can't wait to learn more tomorrow! I hope we can work with more animals tomorrow, I am also going to ask if we can hold the bunnies! their adorable. Although I think well be doing more work outside tomorrow, like weeding and stuff like that. So Excited!!!

Here are some pictures from our first day!!

The cacao trees we pruned!

Austin teaching us how to fluff up the mulch!

The noisiest chicken there!!

Female Papaya

Us digging the mulch out of the chicken coup!

Unisex Papaya

The friendliest and cutest pig there! 🥺