Additions to the family

These two completely jet black kittens were found hiding under some pallet during the first week of September. Their eyes were encrusted with mucus. One kitten's eyes were completely closed shut and the other kitten's eyes were nearly completely closed. The mother was no where to be found. She may have been trapped or may have been killed.

The kittens were seen by kind hearted Dale. She could not bare to see the poor souls starving and suffering. She calls Sherri, the animal rescuer, to inform her of the plight of these two starving kittens. Sherri quickly goes to investigate the situation. She gets down to her hands and knees, crawls through some obstacles and peers under the pile of pallets. She retrieves one of the dirty, skinny starving kitten. The other, however, was way towards the center of the pallets and unreachable. Sherri, whose motto is, "Nothing Is Impossible", is on her hands and knees on the dirt, the hot afternoon sun shinning unmercifully upon her. Perspiration is dripping downing her face, was not willing to give up. Her persistence finally pays off. She was able to, by some miracle, retrieve the second kitten.

I volunteered to bathe and care for the kittens until their eyes got better. Needlessly to say, we fell in love with these two rascals and they are now part of our family.

09/11/2009

09/16/2009

09/16/2009 Hi!

My name is Shadow. This is my story. I am about three weeks old. Somehow my mom got lost from my brother, Kuro and me. We were so hungry and thirsty. When our mom didn't come home, we went looking for her. She was no where to be found. We searched and searched until we were so tired we could not walk any more. We were so scared. What are we going to do.

Look Kuro, there's a pile of pallets over there lets crawl under them to rest.

I laid down and fell asleep. I awoke when something grabbed me. Help me Kuro something got me. I tried opening my eyes, but my eyes would not open. I tried fighting but I had no more strength to fight.

Hey! What's going on! They threw me in the river. I'm drowning. Oh my! I'm getting my fur rubbed off. Help me! I'm getting my eye balls rubbed out. I finally was able to open my eyes to see what was going on. I can see! I can see again! Oh thank you, thank you. I then realized that we were being given a bath and having our faces and eyes cleaned.

We were gently placed in a box on some soft towels. Oh, we are in heaven. Kuro, isn't it so good to be out of the hot sun and the dirty dirt. Sniff, sniff, what is that white stuff in that bowl. Lick, mmmm, that tasted good. Hey Kuro come on over here. There is something ono to eat in this bowl. Nom, nom, nom. Wow! That tasted so good!

9/11/2009

My brother Kuro and me lying in our bed

9/12/2009

This is Nana our new friend. She shares her bed with us.

Kuro and me just stretching out and relaxing

09/16/2009

We stick together. We are like bread and butter.

09/25/2009

This is Lani. She gets big cat's food. They put her food on top of that chair so we can't get at it.

All we get is kitten food. That is not fair. We want our share.

09/25/2009

09/25/2009

Kuro, I'm almost there. I can just taste that ocean white fish.

09/25/2009

That is the way Kuro. Don't give up.

10/03/2009

We love our adopted mama. She lets us snuggle close to her.

10/03/09

So nice and cozy

10/10/2009

Kuro and Mama having a quiet time together.

10/10/2009
Me and my Mama

10/15/2009
She is so good to us

October 15, 2009

We are so lucky!

October 25, 2009

Kuro and me in our happy new home.

October 25, 2009

Time to go to bed. Thank God we found a home

Start Up

AQUAPONICS

Documenting the creation of a home aquaponic system.

On October 10, 2009, after three weeks of preparations, the grow beds were completed and the fish tank was ready to accept the fishes.

The system is comprised of three 50 gallon grow beds and a 150 gallon fish tank.



We have incorporated two different types of grow bed. The one on the right is a float system grow bed and the one on the left is a cinder grow bed.

This is a close up view of the floating grow bed. The plant pots are kept afloat with a styrofoam board drilled with holes to accomodate the grow pots. The PVC piping in the foreground fills the grow bed with water that is pumped from the fish tank. There is an overflow pipe on the other end of the grow bed (which is not visible) which returns the grow bed water to the fish tank.

This is a cinder grow bed. This system is designed to have grow bed water drain every 15 to 20 minutes.

The cinder bed from another angle. These are bush beans and mustard cabbage.

On October 17, 2009 we purchased 5 adult red hydbid talapia. We wanted to purchase some fingerlings, but none were available. We were thankful for the five Waimanalo Feed was willing to sell us.

On the advice of a friend to look on Craig's List for the fishes, we stuck gold. We found a listing for red hybrid talapias fingerlings for sale. Our 150 red hybrid talapias arrived on October 22, 2009.

We lost3 fingerlings when they jumped out of the tank. We purchased some netting from Waimanalo Feed to cover our tank. The net is installed in the picture above. The net is almost invisible.I

This plant's seed was planted on the evening of October 23, 2009. The picture above was taken two days later on October 25, 2009.

This picture was taken on October 27, 2009. Just four days after the seed was planted.

This picture was taken on October 29, 6 days after the seed was planted. The each red dot measures an inch. In six days it grow a little over an inch. I'm amazed on how fast this grew.

Bush Beans

Strawberries

THAT'S ALL FOLKS