The earthquake occured on our island, the Big Island of Hawaii. The reported epicenter was about 40 minutes away from my door by car, on the dry side of Big Island. Here’s a map to give you an idea where the earthquake happened [yellow arrow ‘airport’] and were I live in Ahualoa [‘red arrow bride & grooms home’]

After I have been through the harrowing days after 9/11/2001, NYC blackout of August 2003 and Earthquake of October 2006 I’m doing okay.

Ben and I were in bed sleeping very contently and at 7.08AM HST it felt and sounded like several NYC subway trains ran over the roof of the bedroom (except without the brakes and all.) Ben was excited about the earthquake “Whoo hooo!, An earthquake!” My first reaction was, “Oh no! I hope my chickens are okay!”  I was a little shaken (but not stirred) up. One carry-on suitcase leapt from a tall shelf and several BOS origami magazines slid off the bookcase in my bedroom. Nothing else was damaged in the bedroom. It was a rare sunny & hot day in Ahualoa. Usually by 11AM the mountain clouds roll in and overcast our area. Thank goodness it was a fair day across the island for the cleanup to happen.

Ben & I surveyed the damage in the rest of the house […and…] went around on foot to survey the damage at our neighbors’ house. Our household was very lucky — some of our neighbors’ house was completely trashed, valuable collectibles broken and house foundations shifted.

I calmed down after a large cup of hot ginger tea with plenty of demerrara sugar. I went to visit my hens. I picked up one buff Orpington hen, Big Buff. She decided to mellow out on my lap for about 10 minutes. This chicken was so chill that she lay sideways an my lap. I felt alright after that, like she was calming _me_ down. [She’s the hen pictured on the blog banner on top of this page.] Our 45 hens were a wee bit mellow after the quake but resumed their frenetic squawking and cackling that precedes and post-cedes all morning egg laying activities. (We ate the roosters several months ago). I felt utterly exhausted from cleaning up. Ben & I took a long nap mid-day. I did not want to drive around out on the roads; we did not need to stock up on rice or T.P. I awoke because Ben told me my friend, Deanna Zandt, in NYC called to check up on me.

All throughout the day, I felt little earthquake aftershocks. We had people call here and check in and we call folks to reassure them that we were okay. Late afternoon I decided to take advantage of the daylight and fold Yoshio TSUDA’s ‘Scops Owl‘ published in Tanteidan Magazine #98 from 10″ kami and 22″ European gold Kraft paper. I promised to fold one for the Origami USA‘s Holiday Tree at the American Museum of Natural History. Ben suffered a severe headache late afternoon to take a couple of aspirin. Ben’s the kind of person who will not take medications in most circumstances. He was experiencing caffeine withdrawal symptoms. No power, no way to grind the coffee beans, hence, big headache.

We decided to prepare pesto pasta & garlic bread for dinner. The power was still down around late day so we had to figure out stovetop cooking. Boiling water for pasta? Check! Garlic press and butter for garlic bread? check! Broiler for toasting the bread? Ooops… no way we can “turn on” the broiler because it’s controlled by an electronic unit instead of a manual knob! No problem! Ben manned two big skillet to “pan-toast” the garlic bread. It’s dinnertime and still no power, so we light the tall pillars of candle for our dinner. How sweet: me, Ben and Jim eating pasta by flickering candlelight. Jim puts out a request to the universe “HELCO [Hawaii ELectric COmpany] give us some lights!” ..And wouldn’t you know it, around 6.30PM I saw a dim light on the living room wall— the TV displayed “Acquiring Signal” which meant that Direct TV was re-booting. Wha-hoo! We have light! Jim’s prayer got answered. I turned on the dining room light and blew out the candles.

The first thing that Ben did after power was on was grind his beans for a cuppa joe! He was ecstatic.

I call our hens “Valentine Day Chicks” because our box / bundle of joy (all 52 o’chicks) arrived the week of Valentine’s Day, 2006 from McMurray’s Hatchery. That week, Ben was away on Oahu for a business trip. I was rearing 52 hungry baby chicks based solely on Gail Damerow’s “A GUIDE TO RAISING CHICKENS”. I sure was anxious. What if a rabid mongoose ate my little plump darlings? What if a stray ferocious feline ripped off their downy peeping heads? What if some freak Kona wind blew down their coop? Fortunately, nothing dramatic happened. So, the hens are now at 31 weeks old. Ben and I have successfully managed to raised a variety of 45 plump, happy hens. I am proud to say we are the only people on the Big Island of Hawaii to provide organic feed to our flock.

Over the last three months, one particular Plymouth Barred Rock hen who I named Ophelia bonded with me. She knows she can usually find some scratch [cracked corn] from me if she leaped up onto my outstretched arm. She’s on my left arm snacking on some scratch. Ophelia’s earned her keep as a tame, egg-laying hen. Ophelia is the one hen tame enough to leap three feet from the ground onto me. I can pick her out of the whole flock because she has two distinctive markings: one completely black feather on her chest and one on her back. I’ve examined this anamoly and found the two feathers have no barring [black and white] stripes at all.

I’ve spent a lot of time in “Hen Zen” with my 45 hens because I wanted tame birds. Monst of ’em will eat right out of the palm of my hand. Heck, if my palm were made of fresh corn, I’m certain they will devour it. I happy I’m not allergic to chickens.

In the nest box behind me which my step-father-in-law [a.k.a. yoga guru], Jimmy constructed, you’ll see two chickens. On the left of the nest box is a silver-laced Wyandotte conferring with a buff Oprington, plotting their next move. “How we gonna get summat dat scratch from that two-legged human?” Will they become tame enough to attempt to jump on my outstretched arm? Perhaps, one fine day.