Surfing Goat Dairy

Today we went "upcountry" with friends from Manitoba, to a church we had not attended before, and after the service, we visited a dairy goat farm, one of only two in the state of Hawaii. The farm has about 200 goats in total, milk 80 daily, and use every drop in production of gourmet cheese. All the cheese is either sold locally to restaurants or high end delis, or shipped to buyers on the mainland who know the product. Owned and operated by German expatriates Thomas and Eva Kafsack, Surfing Goat Dairy is located on 42 acres with almost two-thirds dedicated as pasture. Of course there were some newborns today, all of which are bottle fed. We were told "tethered" young sell as pets for $200. Wish I could have arranged that when I was in the sheep business!

I noticed an article in the local paper this week about Hotel Occupancy and Rates for February. Rates in Maui were down 9% to $220 from a year ago, but occupancy was up 7.3% to 81%. This compares to statewide rates of $167, down 8.6% and occupancy of 76.5%, up 4% from a year ago. So the local economy has been hit by the recession, but is showing some signs of recovery.

We head into the second half of our term this week. We are welcoming 30 new participants this weekend from 17 different countries. There is one participant from Russia and I hope to get his views on the recent olympics!! The participant in the last session from Russia said he didn't follow sports at all. I have found most Russians extremely proud of their country, it's size, etc.
occupancy