PHAMILIAR PHACE?

Many of you might remember Kekoa, the ring neck pheasant we took under our wing in 2008. It's been a little over a year now since we had to send Kekoa upcountry, but we have another pheasant that is almost as good. This is his dad or as we call him, BIG DADDY or Limpy because he has a bum right leg. He has always had a bad leg, but this April we noticed it had gotten worse. He still manages to come all the way across the yard with no problem when I call him for dinner though. Here are a few pics from yesterdays feeding. He has been living in the pine trees next door for at least the last 5 years... maybe longer. As of few months ago he was not so into us. Lately all I have to do is call for him and here he comes... within about 12 feet I'd say. I toss the seed down, take a few steps back and sit in the grass while he eats. Little by little we are getting closer, but we won't be petting or hand feeding him anytime soon. And no Mac Nuts either.  It's just nice to be this close to nature and have them know you mean them no harm.

You can see his right foot is twice the size of his left. This is a new injury.  The 2x4's are braces we made to hold up the banana plants heavy with fruit.

Sharing breakfast with the male Grey Francolin also known as Franky and a slew of Zebra Doves. More on them soon.

CUCKOO REVUE 2009

As 2009 left and 2010 came rushing in, we thought we would take a look back at the past year here at CFC... albeit a bit late. Mahalo to everyone who stopped by and found what we had to say from Haiku, Maui entertaining, informative, funny or just plain stupid over the last 3 years. We look forward to sharing more of our adventures soon and hearing what you have to say... so stay tuned.
We still have a few projects up our short sleeves that involve the completion of the office and the building of a new garden/tractor shed. Oh yeah... and we can't wait to get our garden up and growing again.
Aloha + Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!
Conn + John

JANUARY

It was a slow month in terms of activities... but we had a good amount of work to keep us busy in January. We did take time to take a hike down to the ocean cliffs, enjoyed daily visits from Kekoa and made a few treats with the winter guava.

FEBRUARY
February was another one of those slow months in terms of activities and heavy on work.
John made his way to Oahu for a meeting with Leonard's Bakery, a bit of whale watching, more visits from Kekoa and gardening.

MARCH
All work and no play... ok... some play, but not much. This month we finally tried the banana fruit pies at McDonald's, had Kekoa eating out of our hands, planted a few new hedges and John found himself back on Oahu photographing ALL the baked goods Leonard's Bakery has to offer for their website. That giant shopping bag full of sweet treats he brought home didn't last long.

APRIL
Ok, Here we go... April was a month from hell. It started off easy enough with a trip to the planning department to pick up our building permit, lunch at
Sam Sato's, Lahaina, the beach and home for dessert on John's birthday. A few days later Kekoa showed up with his broken leg. The 2 weeks of nursing back to health, with no eating and loud crowing at 5:00 AM was taking it's toll on all of us. After a few days of weaning in the coop, we finally let him go, only to find out he was harassing a neighbor, who admitted to kicking him, so we felt it best to take him somewhere a bit safer. That's when we met Laurlee at Leilani Farm Sanctuary. With heavy hearts, we dropped Kekoa off at her farm in hopes he might have a better chance at not being hurt. We are not really sure what became of him, but Laurelee said she hears him crowing now and then. We started the demo on the shed in preparation for the new office. New gas lines were dug and we stopped by Leilani Farm Sanctuary to help plant fruit tree's for the animals to feast on with the help of Orchards for Animals. We did not see Kekoa, bu we did hear him.

MAY
May was another jam packed month. Without Kekoa around, it was feeling a bit dreary. His dad, Big Daddy as we call him, began making regular visits to the banana patch... where I put out grains for him and the other birds. We also discovered the Northern Cardinal nest and kept an eye on that daily. The lanai became the temporary home for our water pump, pressure tanks and batteries. Solar panels were relocated to the lawn and new underground power lines were laid to the battery box. Another trip to McDonald's, this time for the Taro pie... the best one in my opinion. More demolition of the shed on top of all our design work. We manged to get our photo's in Maui Weekly from the tree planting at the sanctuary and saw the 3 baby cardinals hatch. More demolition and selections of exterior paint colors and desk tops were tackled. We finally made it to the MFOL - Maui Friend's of the Library and are now addicted. We participated in an interview over at the groovy paige + modern on what influences us.
The month ended with a Memorial Day hike along the sea cliffs.

JUNE
Summer is here and we didn't even notice spring. We thank our lucky stars we had so much design work this year. Here's hoping it keeps up now that we have a proper office. Exterior paint colors were finalized, the baby cardinals flew the coop. We finally got to meet Deb, Scott and Malia from Deb and her Camera fame. That was a treat... why don't you still live here Deb? WHY? Tiles for the lanai were finalized... stay tuned for the installation of those in the next month. Excavation was done and concrete was poured for the new office. Building materials arrived as did a new propane tank. The work tent was erected, wood was cut and walls were raised. A teenage cardinal needed special handling after it flew into the house and was knocked out cold. Nursing an injured bird was not on my to do list. He sure was cute and I still can't believe I held a baby cardinal... John immediately looked at me and said ... NO. After long hot days of building and computer work... a rest in the hammocks was in order.

JULY
Keep it coming. Summer seemed to be flying by. The second story was put on, the roof was attached and inspections were coming at us left and right. Windows FINALLY arrived and we could get back to building. Siding was attached and painted. The metal roof was secured, more painting was done as well as more and more design work. Big Daddy was still hanging out and finally realizing that I was the source of the grain. He is used to me know and does not run off to quickly. He hides just on the other side of the drive and as soon as I walk away from the pile of grain... here he comes.
It was time to do a bit of shopping and find things for the interior like this perfect 3-drawer orange chest of drawers.

AUGUST
AH.. a moment to breath... the desks tops and bathroom counters arrived, the stair rails were installed and we got to we try the coconut pie at McD's. Drain pipes and water lines buried as well as the construction of the new battery box. Oh... did I mention we had lot's of design work this month? That explains the lack of imagery this month. I'M NOT COMPLAINING!... just sayin'.

SEPTEMBER
Back at it and full throttle. Insulation in place, sheet rock hung and walls plastered. Solar panels placed on the roof and batteries on their new home. The water pump and pressure tank were also relocated to the new utility room which also received it's new concrete landing. Interior paint colors were chosen, then we later tossed out the Vintage Map Blue color. The copper rails were cut, polished and installed on the stairs. And we ended the month with a visit from John's high school chum Denise and her husband. Boy did we need a mini vacation?

OCTOBER
Banisters and copper rails were finished and a pathway of stepping stones was put in place. Walls were painted and lighting installed. I worked on staining the concrete floor... a 3 day project, while John installed the Crushed Mulberry upstairs. We had a wayward Homing Pigeon we named Homie, call our lanai home for about 2 weeks and we FINALLY got the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park poster by artist Charley Harper framed as a birthday present to myself. It's still waiting to be hung.

NOVEMBER
November saw us getting our FINAL INSPECTION and we found ourselves taking a few days off to regroup. It was then that we really noticed just how much we had ignored the yard and garden. So what did we do? We went the the Arbor Day Celebration at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens and picked up a few more plants and planted a small succulent garden with some of our finds. John and I were invited by Anne over at one of our favorite "getaways" - Prêt à Voyager - to participate in an interview segment called Boarding Pass. Read Conn's interview here.
Read John's interview here.
More shopping and a few great vintage finds like these little coffee cups from Japan. Thanks giving came and went and I finally just pulled the car over at the side of the road on the way to town one day, parked it, got out and walked along a rocky shore and cliffs that I had never stopped at before. Sometimes you just gotta slow down and enjoy the things around you. I can't wait to go back with John's folks and my family in the next few months.

DECEMBER
December brought us HUGE 40-50 foot waves at JAWS and there was no way I was missing them. We had a front row seat on the cliffs at JAWS here on Maui's North Shore to some of the best names in surfing. How can you say no to that? John began building the cabinets for under the desk and we got the top set in place. So far so good. Next up we ripped out the old lanai and installed the new composite decking... more on that in a future post. We no sooner got the last screw in and our friend William from NYC arrived for 2 weeks... which meant we were on another mini vacation. The tree was decorated with much thanks to Denise and Peter for the new LED lights on white cords and parties were attended. Swimming, hiking and resting were on the agenda as well as a drive to Hana and Kaupo in a convertible. It was great to have the top down... but the back seat is REALLY where you want to be for the best views.
The year ended with a night of fondu and a chocolate version for dessert and a little bubbly. Just the 3 of us and we were all lights out by 11:30 PM. It was already midnight somewhere... right?


... And somehow we still managed to stop and watch the sunset most nights...

...As well as break for rainbows as they magically appeared...

... We took time to stop and smell and admire the flowers...
And if we could grow it, we ate it.Tomatoes, mac nuts, pineapple, more tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, fennel, bananas, more tomatoes, avocado, green and lima beans and radishes. And did I mention tomatoes?

Of course there is always time for dessert...
starfruit upside down cake, lemon cookies, lilikoi and banana doughnuts, citrus pound cake, lilikoi coconut jello, orange chocolate pound cake, guava cheesecake, lemon pepper pound cake, banana upside down cake, lilikoi cream cheese cake, banana honey cupcakes, orange chocolate cheesecake, peanut butter and jelly cookies and guava caramel cake... just to name a few.

With a schedule that was truly evil... we did not cook as much as we would have liked to... but we got by. Turkey tetrazzini, stuffed breadfruit, lumpia and southwestern hamburgers were just a few home cooked meals on the menu.

...Some of our design work this last year.

Biggest Loser Club - re-design of website

Maui Oceanfront Weddings and Events - identity and web design

Leonard's Bakery - re-design of website and identity re-design

Melissa Foster - RDH - identity and web design

Locate This - identity and web design

Flowers First - identity and web design

Dark was the Night - cd booklet design

Parnell Corder - promotional flyers

Maui Weddings and Events - identity and web design

Brilliant Life Design - identity and web design

Tiger Athletics - identity and web design

Ignite Athletics - re-design identity

Girls Scouts Awards - website design

...with more in the works, so stay tuned for new designs and launches this spring.

Please visit us often in 2010 for the more Adventures of Conn + John in Haiku, Maui. We will have some updates and final postings on the new office as well as some new posts on the garden shed and another all new project I hope to get off the ground this year. And who knows what critter we will be showing off next. To those of you who visited... we loved hearing from you and hope you enjoyed your visits. We hope to hear from you again soon.

Aloha Nui Loa

c+ j

DEB AND HER FAMILY

Last month we had the pleasure of finally meeting Deb, of deb and her camera fame.

We "met" Deb here on CFC after she found us by searching for Hawai'i blogs. She grew up here in Maui and was back for summer vacation so we decided to meet up after so many great conversations in the blog and facebook world. We are fascinated by her growing-up in the now dusty, somewhat deserted town of Puunene. We were so happy to see them that we forgot to take pictures of their visit. Luckily, Deb is a wonderful photographer and snapped most of these shots.

She came along with her husband Scott and daughter Malia...aka Bean and brought a delicious lunch courtesy of Cupie's in Kahului which is now our must-stop lunch spot when we are in town. Conn made a delicious liliko'i coconut pound cake for dessert. We set up a table and chairs under the royal ponciana in the backyard and for 3 or so hours enjoyed each other's company and were thoroughly entertained by Bean's intermittant demands. At one point she decided to commandeer her mom's camera and become a frantic photographer with commands like, "Could someone please move those bottles?" and "Big eyes, big eyes!!"


She was also obsessed with Kekoa after seeing him on the blog. We were extremely thrilled to receive 2 portraits she had created of our beloved bird. Really amazing. Right down to the fairy twinkle stickers. Never has a pheasant been so well regarded. The first thing she said when she emerged from the car "Mommy where are the Kekoa drawings?" Too cute. Oh then the other question, "Is it John and Conn or Conn and John?"


I like how in this one the butterfly is kissing him.


We had to break the news that Kekoa lived somewhere else now but his dad sometimes comes around when we put out some bird seed. So after lunch Conn let Malia throw out some seeds under the banana plants hoping Big Daddy would show.


With great relief he did.


She then disappeared into the house for a bit and returned with a drawing of a bug and a carrot. Conn asked her if the pointy spikes at the top were mountains. She said "No, it's grass! Bugs are tiny!"


It was a great day getting to know people who we already felt like we knew. Looking forward to the next time.

ALL IN THE PHAMILY

We know it's been awhile since we mentioned Kekoa, but we have no news to tell. He's been heard at Leilani Farm Sanctuary, but not seen. So I guess that's good news.

We have seen his mom and dad almost every day since Kekoa went to live elsewhere and it's been great fun. Big Mama is almost never out from her nest under some Norfolk Pines, so it's pretty exciting to see her out and about. Big Daddy is out carousing daily making all sorts of noise. Big Mama , being very skiddish always makes a run for it when she spots us. Big Daddy on the other, who used to runoff is now getting comfortable with our prescence. We only watch them from afar and do not have any plans on inviting into the house.

I camped out for about 20 minutes to get these shots. They are the first and only shots I have ever gotten of the female.

Big Mama is very much the Plain Jane so as to not draw attention to herself and her young.
She's quite large... almost as big as the male, without the long tail. She is always walking in front of Big Daddy. He protects her fom a distance.

A few minutes after Big mama walked past, Big Daddy made his way across the back yard after hanging out in the garden. Notice a broken tail feather.

FIND A PENNY...

We stopped in to see Laurelee and Kekoa at Leilani Farm Sanctuary on a rainy tuesday this week but he wasn't hanging out near the house. Laurelee said she hasn't seen him for a couple of days but she's heard him crowing so it sounds like he's sticking around. She's keeping us posted. Since we were there, we took some time to say hi to the other animals. One in particular, Penny, is a lovable baby goat with a somewhat sad story. She wandered into a friendly farmer's yard by herself at a very young age, her mother apparently shot by a hunter. The farmer took extremely good care of her, he took her everywhere with him, even in the front seat of his truck! Now she lives with the other goats at the sanctuary. The photo shows Laurelee holding Penny, who loves to be picked up. Does that mean, all day long she'll have good luck? Kidding aside, Penny's a cutie! Soft fur and cute little mouth and cheeks that are always chewing on something. I guess that's cud. Save a thought for Penny. And Kekoa too!

RELOCATION UPDATE

Just thought we would do a small update on Kekoa. This email just came in from his new guardian angel, Laurelee. We might try to head over tomorrow to say HI.

Hi Conn and John,

Kekoa is doing great! He is out of his cage and exploring the property, but staying close to home. There have been no problems with Kekoa getting along with the other animals. They do fine together…

Feel free to come over and visit. I’m sure he would be happy to see you!!

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Aloha,
Laurelee

A FRIEND IN NEED

John "cuddling" with Kekoa this morning.

Most of you are most likely quite surprised by the news that we have relocated Kekoa as of today. When we got him this morning, we wavered about actually taking him to his new home at LEILANI FARM SANCTUARY. We contemplated building him a big enclosure... but that would not be fair to him.

So we called Lauralee and made arrangements to drop him off. We gathered all his grain and a bag of mac nuts, wrapped him in his favorite purple towel, which would be staying with him and we headed on over. The sanctuary is only about 10 minutes away by car which makes it convenient for visits.

On the drive over, he was very, very calm, but panting a lot.

We pulled up and saw the most adorable red barn for the goats and donkey's, but the chickens running around under it. Laurelee was waiting for us on the lanai of her cottage, which she just completed. The setting is a spectacular 7.5 acres of fenced in property with lots of shade and places for the animals to graze and play. We met several of the animals... let's see, we met Akachan a sweet little black chicken and several other who's names escape us, Gordon and Nathalie 2 of the cats, Johnny, Larry, and a few other goats and then there was Blondie.

Blondie is a brand new baby chick she had just gotten from someone right before we arrived. All the animals were in heaven and you could tell they all loved Laurelee very much. Here is John asking Blondie to please be friends with Kekoa. Lauralee actually moved into the new cottage today, hence the debris. So there they are... 3 new roomies.

At one point Gordon, the gray cat walked up to Kekoa in his temporary cage and looked in, like hey... who's the new bird? Kekoa was a bit unsure and handled the whole situation quite well. We all decided to have Kekoa spend a few days or nights in the cage on the lanai, until he gets used to the sounds, sights and smells of his new digs. He walked right in and climbed up on the bar. By the way... he has a sweet ocean view.

We spent a good hour or so there, talking and explaining his quirks. At one point Laurelee picked him up and he was so relaxed. He could tell she is one of the good ones and we also think it helps that she is ... well... a she. As we drove off we let out a sigh of relief. We knew we had left him in good hands. Question is, will he stay there? Although the property is fenced in, he is after all a bird and could fly out. She assured us that all her neighbors are well aware of the sanctuary and have no problem with the animals.

When we returned home we found this on the floor. Guess he got the last word so to speak. As the day went on, we both got a bit sad as we heard all the other pheasants crowing here at the house around dusk. When we came in from outside, we had the sweetest email form Laurelee.

Hi Conn and John,

Kekoa is a wonderful pheasant. I love him.

This afternoon, I brought him and the new little chick inside the house. The two birds became instant friends! Blondie the chick, jumped onto Kekoa’s back and rode around the house on top of him. Then, when I put Kekoa back on the lanai, Blondie stayed right next to Kekoa.

Kekoa has been very mellow and willing to let me to cuddle him. I’m looking forward to taking pictures for the Leilani Farm Sanctuary website.

More later…

Aloha,
Laurelee


SERIOUSLY... is that the CUTEST THING EVER? Yeah, we teared up a little. He finally has furred and feathered friends!

RE-COOP-ERATION / RELOCATION

Longing to go outside.

Today marks the one year anniversary of us finding Kekoa, so we thought it fitting to send him back out into the wild today which sort of brings it all full circle. We sent him on his way and told him to be nice and stay out of trouble.

REALLY? AM I REALLY FREE TO GO?

We took the cast off two days ago and he was using the leg quite well. As of today he was doing really well, but he still pretty much stands around on the right leg. There is a bit of a knot on the left leg at the site of the break, but the swelling had gone down in both his leg and foot. He has even regained the ability to move his toes which enables him to scratch his head.

Taking a nap while removing the cast. We wrap him in a towel to keep him from flapping around and it protects his feathers.

You can see the knot just above the left talon.

Another nap time. He does like to nap on the floor next to us.

Over the course of the last few days as he became more able to use the leg, he began attacking our feet. He just could not stand it. It kind of makes us think maybe he tried to peck someone or got to close to them and they might have kicked him away. It is pretty freaky when he puffs himself up and comes at you. And he has drawn blood a few times. It's hard to say what happened exactly.

UPDATE:

As I was typing this... a neighbor... 2 house over came by. We started talking and we found out he has had many issues with Kekoa attacking him and his girlfriend over the last few months... which we had heard of a few times. He showed up there today apparently on the attack. They say they are pretty accepting of his behavior, but they have their limits and have "had" to kick him away. Could explain the broken leg. Some others may not be as forgiving.

I made a call to LEILANI FARM SANCTUARY not expecting them to take him, but just looking for some advice. Laurelee, the founder said she would be happy to take Kekoa in and that he would be her first pheasant. We are grateful and hope that it works out. We are going to make a trip and see if it is the right fit. They have lots of chickens, cats, a few donkey's and goats. If not we can always go pick him up and figure something else out.

Even though he is not our "pet", we kind of feel responsible for his and the neighbors well being. If it were the other way around and someone's pet was causing us trouble, we would expect it to be taken care of as well.

We hate to do it, but we had talked of the possibility a few days ago. It's for his own good. It's hard making the decision to help a needy animal... a wild needy animal at that. You think you are doing a good deed, but in the end it really endangers the animal. He has too much human contact for being a wild and at times aggressive bird. And we cannot keep him in a coop for the rest of his life. We are ok with it as it's what's best for Kekoa... not us. And besides, Laurelee said we can visit anytime and continue his chronicles.

The neighbor will either bring Kekoa by when he see's him or we will get him next time he shows up.

Stay tuned. This story is not pau (done).

ALL COOPED UP...AGAIN

After a VERY LONG week of Kekoa mending in the house...we finally made it to the hardware store to get some plastic poultry mesh for the coop. We had chicken wire on it, but found he always cut the top of his beak between his nostrils, which was always one more injury to nurse. After swapping the metal for plastic, we put Kekoa in his new healing center.... which he does not seem to enjoy AT ALL. We simply could not keep him inside another minute. He began getting VERY CRANKY by Thursday and was on the attack all day. How's that for gratitude? Well we try to overlook it and laugh it off... he is a wild creature. I think he's just feeling trapped. He puffs up and get those feathers all fanned out... and even chases us. And yeah... It's a bit freaky.

His father has been hanging outside the coop early mornings as well taunting him to no end... which prompts further puffing and fanning. This is what he does when we walk up. Notice how he flattens out the tail and tilts it toward the camera.

So he's been in the coop 4 days and decides to let us know when he is awake at 6:00 AM not with one crow, but 6-8 VERY LOUD ones over the course of an hour.

He is using the leg more to hobble along, but not to stand on. Looks like another week or so of recovery. We can't wait to let him go back to being a free bird. It's really quite sad to see him all cooped up.