 the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Denise Lawrence of Lawrence Love Stock. Welcome Denise. Thank you, Aloha. Thank you for being on the show. So tell us about- Thank you for having me. Yeah, no, I'm so happy you're here. Tell us about Lawrence Love Stock. Okay, so Lawrence Love Stock is a petting rescue farm located on the Windward side of Oahu. And we're just a small little family operation and we basically have taken in many animals that were rescued them from slaughter. They were surrendered to us, abandoned. Some from some great families that just could not no longer take care of the animals. The majority of them have been with us since the very beginning. So we're going on five years with most of them and they've all come to us as young animals like six months to one year and have grown with that. Yeah, that's what it's all about versus a petting rescue farm, a lot of work. But then when we have visitors that come it's so rewarding seeing the children and the parents. I'm laughing and giggling, having a good time. So tell us, how did you get involved with rescuing animals? Well, it's so funny that really wasn't anything that was on my radar that I was going to be doing but it happened one animal at a time to tell you the truth. And we started with a mindset of teaching our grandchildren responsibility and then it just continued to grow from there. And then my children's friends would come over and barbecue and then they would have kids and then they would bring their friends and it just kind of grew from there. And we just took them in one animal at a time until we don't have vacancies. So tell us about the first animal. Who was your first animal that you rescued? Our very first animal was, gosh, three of them kind of came around the same month. So let me think. Peppa Pig. Yeah, Peppa was one week old. She could fit, I could carry her like this. Now she's 650 pounds. Oh wow. Yeah, she was one of the first. There was three of them that kind of came in the same month. Then we had Yahweh, the sheep. My son wanted to surprise me because I always said, wouldn't it be cool to have a baby lamb and so he was a St. Croix Ram still, we bottle fed him. And then the other one was MJ, the goat. So he's a miniature pygmy goat and he's really tiny and small but he walks around like he's the boss. Of course. Michael, can you go to the website? There's some pictures of the animals I think like Peppa and everything. Thank you. Well, so and then did people just start bringing you other animals because they knew you had? Yeah, throughout the years, we would just get a lot of phone calls, emails, text messages, people just showing up and the stories were just very similar, very sad. But when we could take in, we took it. And we probably, this year, 2023, we did still take in a couple more. We're pretty much at capacity right now because we really want to give them a quality life and keep them healthy. So we've had to manage that. But we get calls every week still to this day. People are always looking for a home for their animals. Yes. And have you always loved animals? Is that what inspired you to do this? I've always loved dogs. Like I've always had a dog in my life and it's funny because I was very, very afraid of anything with wings, like a bird, anything like that. And I was raised in Iowa and somebody told me, watch out, a bat's gonna fly in your hair. And I'm like, what? And that scared me. And that carried that out all the way through until I started this farm. And then we got hands. And my grandson said, here grandma, hold this hand. And I'm like, no, I was so frightened. This was just before we started the farm. I'm like, no, I'm so, I'm scared. He's like, no, grandma, it's okay. Well, that hand is still with me today. So that was six years ago and she's a big, beautiful buff orpington. So I have lots of feathered friends now and I'm not afraid of them at all. So you see started the farm, but hasn't the land been with your family for generations? Yes, it actually has. So my great grandparents purchased this property 22 and a half acres in 1917. And so my mother was raised as a farmer girl and this entire land was actually farmland. So her family was known for their cattle, their pigs and their loy. They raised taro. And so exactly where my farm is right now is where all their milking cows were at and their water buffalo. And I never knew any of that until I started my farm. I think maybe my mom didn't think that was something we really cared about learning or knowing about. So so much history has come out about the way my mother was raised, the rate her parents and her grandparents killed the land. That all came out and I learned about all of that since starting my farm. So what, I mean, so your mother was raised here and then how did she, how did you get to Iowa, I guess? So I'm actually a military brat. My dad is retired command sergeant major in the Marine Corps. So I was raised all across the U.S. And then upon becoming an adult, I came to Hawaii and then we learned about Kauhalau when we came here and we were just like, oh, my mom never told us about her upbringing. I'm not, I think it was just trying to protect herself from missing home so much. But now we've got five generations. Mommy, we have four generations living on this property now. Wow, that's wonderful. So what happened with the farm while your mother was away? Who was taking care of the farm? So I kind of, when my mother's generation, so her and her brother, she was the only girl and then her cousins, they all had to work the land. Like they didn't go to prom, they couldn't play football. They couldn't do any of that. They had to work the land. They had to melt cows in the morning and they had to melt cows at night and they did the whole thing. So their farm was a little different. I'm a rescue farm. We're not gonna eat any of our animals. They're here as pets and they're gonna live out their lives here. But they actually raised livestock. I gotta remember livestock. They raised animals for their food and they lived off the land. So when they all became 18, they all joined the military and left Hawaii, I guess to leave the whole farming life. And eventually they all slowly came back home and have all been around here, yeah. Nice, nice. And then how did you, so you said you went to Kahalu and you decided that did you just fall in love and decide that you wanted to stay and have a farm? So when I first came to Hawaii, I didn't have my family at that time. And I really didn't actually see an interest originally. And then when I got married and had my children, my brothers got married, had their children. And because we were never raised around cousins, it was only just me and my brothers to have our children all raised together was something really special to us. So all of our children were raised together here on the property like brothers and sisters and they all kind of went their own ways and are living all across the world actually right now. And slowly they're all coming back too. So I raised my children here. My children were born and raised here in Hawaii and were raised here in Kahalu. And I've never left, they all have left, gone to school, gone and did their careers. And then now they're coming back, their children are now around here. And so their children are really the purpose of how we started the farm. And everybody's hand is in the plow with this farm. So when you say hand in the plow, I mean, it's mostly a rescue heading farm. So are people mostly taking care of the animals or do you have any crops you're growing? What kind of things are you doing on the farm besides the animals and things? So Lauren's left side is strictly animals and the day-to-day routine I handle that, but any type of projects, any type of repairs, any big things then my kids kick in. My grandkids when they're out of school or they're not doing any sports things, then they contribute as well. Now here on our property, I told you know we have a lot of acres. My great grandparents, my grandparents and my parents have all planted trees and fruits all over the property. So we all get the benefit of that. And plus still a lot of our visitors do too. So when we have an abundance of fruits, because we've got about 50 different fruits that's growing here, we share them. We'll put them out and we share with everybody. And we've got bananas, we've got mango, coconut, lychee, oranges, lemons, limes, avocados. I'm trying lily koi. Probably just about every fruit that I'm not even thinking about right now. But yeah, so we've always got an abundant of fruits here. Yes. And you said so your family, your ancestors, they were growing cows to obviously slaughter whatever. So how did that, I mean now that you're, these animals are your pets. Like I mean, did that change your view about how did it affect you I guess? It doesn't, we're not vegetarians, but we just like these particular animals, we know their purpose. Their purpose is to bring joy and happiness to children and families and to teach them to be brave and kind. And that was just something that really kind of sparked in my spirit about our farm and what we're gonna be about. And I made a commitment to everybody that brought their animals here. And I made a commitment to the animals that kind of just got dropped off to us that they're gonna live out the rest of their life here and we're gonna do everything we could to keep them happy and healthy. But we don't, it's funny because like when my mom's up on the farm, she gets to share her story and her mana'o and what she did when she was a little girl and how she handled animals and how it's so much different from us. But people love to hear the story, who's never had somebody come and think, what you ate, you'd have cows here and pigs here and you ate them. Everybody loves to hear that old stories from back before. So how about, I know I was reading on your website actually that you also have some special needs children going to your farm as well as that particular thing or how does that work? So actually we've had some really wonderful experiences with that when they come to the farm, many times they'll email us first to give us the heads up and we do everything we can to accommodate. When we do events on the outside, we've done a lot of like Easter events mall presentation events. And when we see a special needs child, we reach out to them and we make a way for them. We'll bring them in closer, we'll move fences, we'll do whatever we've got to do to allow that child to touch the animal or to allow the animal to smell the child. We love doing that. Like that's something really special to us and really big in our heart. Yeah, that's great. So how did you decide to be open to that? I mean, was that just something that you always wanted to do or? I think that we've all, my children, my husband and I, I think that we've all kind of had a gifting of being able to not be afraid of children like that or adults or elderly people. And it's just something that naturally comes up and out of us to recognize that and make them feel comfortable and make them feel like they don't have to stay back because they're in a wheelchair. No, we're gonna move the fence and we're gonna get you at just as close as we can. Yes, yes. So Michael, why don't we run through some of the photos that she has right now? How about this photo? So this is two of our horses. This is my son on the Bay horse, that's the brown horse. And that's myself on St. So they both were surrendered to our farm different times and St. is the white horse. So that's like my baby. And so yeah, we went into, I never thought I'd get animals this big and it happened and we're learning. We've got a couple of great instructors and the question people that are walking us through everything. And so we ride in parades now, our horse. So the brown horse, his name is Sergeant Major, he's gonna be in his first parade for Prince Cahill. That's gonna be coming up in a couple of months or one month. And then St. has just been in many, many parades already since being with us. So, you know, like you were saying, you never thought you would get into animals this big. How did you even learn about the animals? Because I mean, there's a lot of things to learn about the care of different animals, especially if you are not used to taking care of them. Did you pick up a book? It was just word of mouth. Do you have a vet that you use? Yeah, so we do have a vet that comes to the farm. Her name is Dr. Jenna Wallace. And she comes and assists us with anything that we need vet attention to. And as far as like the care of the different animals, you know, when I would initially go into the feed store to buy their feed and I would see someone else that's buying the same type of feed, I'd say, oh, hey, you have rabbits? Oh, and then we'd just talk and then I would ask questions. And then it just kind of just became instinctive. The big one was the turkeys. We met a young guy in the feed store when he was buying turkey food. And we're like, hey, so you have a turkey? Well, today he's like one of my greatest volunteers. And he sticks around with us, yeah. Yeah, so we... Volunteer is that nice. Yes, we have a great, we have a volunteer team of about 75 people. Wow, and what kind of stuff do they do? Is it mostly feeding the animals? So I'm super flexible. I don't do like the volunteer day thing because I'm retired. I let them come whenever it's convenient for them unless there's something going on, like a private party or whatnot, but we've never really had any conflict. And I really gear it towards what, how old they are. Like let's say it's a mom and she's got two little two-year-olds or three-year-olds, they can't really do big stuff. So I'll have them do things like fill up the duck water, fill up the goats' water, shoot down the pig pens. Things that will be a lot of fun and interactive for that age. And then I might have like a, I've had where it's a group of cousins. I think there's six cousins and two moms. And there's some things that need to get done, like folding up feed bags that I just don't have time to get to. But then the kids love to sit there and do that. Like that's super fun for them. Another big thing is cleaning bunny cages. That's probably the biggest job on the farm, believe it or not. Why is that? Is that messy or? I'm just, I'm a meticulous person. And I don't like, I clean buddy cages every week. So yeah, that's a big one. And I, it's a lot of fun for families to do because they're, you know, usually parents are looking for opportunities that they can do hands-on things with their children. And so we've got a lot of that around here. Oh, that's cool. So let's continue with the photos, Michael. Okay. The next one. So this is the picture of Saint. And at the, that's what you were talking about. Yeah, that's Saint, beautiful Saint. He is just, I don't know. He just turns magical when he gets into the parade mode. And right here, he's actually carrying the Queen of Aloha Week 2023. So that was a huge honor for us for him to have been selected to do that. How old is Saint? Saint is 11 years old. What was the story behind how Saint got here? So Saint was a horse in a stable. He wasn't mistreated or abused at all, but he was just kind of like just there and really didn't serve a purpose, wasn't being ridden much, things like that. And then through the person that was, that got me connected to horses, that's how Saint came to the farm. And Saint was gonna have a purpose that he was going to meet children and get fed carrots and take pictures. And that would be it. So that's where we thought it was gonna end for him. But then, he became so healthy. And I think that the confidence from being around all the visitors, just he started to glow. He's just started to glow. He became so beautiful. And then he got asked to be in his first parade. And when he did his first parade, when the parade was over and we were ready to trailer and backup, we got bombarded with people wanting to use him for the next parades coming up. So he's been in four parades and he's confirmed for three more that's coming up. So Prince Cujillo, King Kamehameha Day and Aloha Week 2024. So I'm gonna actually be riding him in Aloha Week 2024. Oh, nice, nice. Yeah. How about the other horse, Sergeant Major? So Sergeant Major is a very big horse. So what happened was I got, I was just on my phone one night and I get this pop-up message if I wanted a horse. Now by this time, I know a lot more about horses. I know what kind of questions to ask. And I reached out to my children and they said, yeah, mom, let's do it. And he was underway, he was having some hoof problems, things like that. We had to invest a lot of money in getting him healthy again, but he's healthy, he looks good. And my son wanted to name him after my dad. My dad's a retired Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps. So that's how he got his name, Sergeant Major. That's awesome. Okay, let's do the next photo, Mike. Okay, so this is one of our visitors and that's our sheep. She's feeding, I think that's Kale. If I remember correctly, she told me, I have, I have Kale and they wanna know how to feed it. But our animals are so good, they can eat vegetables or fruit out of children's hands without hurting the children. They know how to do it. They know how to be hand-fed. So that's what she's doing. She's feeding, that looks like Rudy. She's feeding Rudy some kale from her hand. Yeah. How do you get all your vegetables? That's really cute. What was that? How do you get all your vegetables? Is that donated or is it stuff that you grow? So the way, so they do get a lot of what we grow. Whether it's mountain apple, mango, papaya, they, whatever we grow here, they get. But when you sign up to come and visit, then feeding is optional. But we tell them that it's the best part of the kids' experience. And if they do wanna feed them, they just need to bring fresh produce. Oh, cool. That's great. Next slide, Michael. How about this picture? So this is our goats. That is ledger right there on top of that fence. This is how they greet our visitors. They're like, here I am. I'm right here. You can feed me, you can feed me. But they could very easily jump over that fence, but they don't do it, because that's their safety net. They love being in there and they'll just climb right on top to greet all the visitors. That's great. You can go to the next one, Michael. So this is Beacon. And Beacon has a very sweet story. He's one of our, actually, Easter this year will make one year since we've had him. So he's actually a very small pig. I'm puzzled about that, because he didn't grow very big. And he's gonna be too producing. Well, what happened was a lady reached out to me and I said, I get calls all the time for pigs. And I said, I'm so sorry. We don't have vacancies. In my head, I've been telling myself, telling my heart, if you take more, you're gonna devalue the quality of life for the ones you have. And I just said, no. And then somehow that person got in touch with somebody that knew somebody in my family. And that person called me and I said, I said, I don't have vacancies. This is my cousin, Rhonda. I said, I don't have vacancies, Rhonda. She's like, so say no. I don't have vacancies. And then I don't know. I just said, well, is he neutered? Will she neuter him? And then that's how that all came about. And we brought him in. And then one day she came to one of our events in Millani, the owner, and she brought us goodies and stuff. And she said, one day I wanna sit down with you and I wanna tell you how Beacon saved my life. And I said, I would love to hear that. Yeah. So he came to us. He came to us, his name was Bacon. And I said, oh no, the inquisitive children are gonna ask me if I'm gonna eat him. So we changed his name to Beacon. I figured, okay, Beacon is a great name for him because we gave him hope. We gave him a chance at life, so he's Beacon. So how did he save her life? You know, I didn't get into the story with her, but I think she was going through from what I understood, depression. And so he was like a comfort animal for her. So he's like our ambassador. So when you come to the farm, he's walking around and he walks freely while I'm out, he's out. And when he sees cars come, he goes right up into the parking lot and greets you right at your door. Oh, that's cool. And he follows the kids all over. And then if I sense that a visitor is scared of him, then I will put him in his pen. But for the most part, he's always out. Yeah, no, that's cool. Let's go to the next slide, Michael. How about this? So that is actually St. and Sergeant Major's stables, but they're at a ranch right now. So we put the cows in there in one side and probably the sheep are on the other side. And that's basically, they're feeding those people there, that's all of our guests and they're feeding all the animals. Yeah. So let's go to the website, Michael. Show, like, just scroll down because she has some pictures of the other animals, like the pepper, the pig. So that was pepper when pepper was a kid, I guess, or I'm not a kid. A baby, a piglet. A big baby piglet. And then I see there's others. Can you scroll down a little bit? There's a parrot too? Yes, we actually have five parrots. Wow. I think that's so beautiful. They're very talkative. So the one that you see there, there's two of them and they are almost in their 40s. So those two parrots were actually my parents' parrots. My dad passed away, they came up here to live with me. So they were here before the farm started and they only speak and sing Hawaiian. Oh, how cute is that? That's cute. What's beautiful is that they weren't very sociable before, but now with the farm, because they see so many people and they hear so many sounds, they're very talkative now. Okay, so let's go down a little bit. I wanna see, like, she has some pictures of the turkey. I'm interested in the turkeys. Yes, we have two, they're called royal palm turkeys. And we're very blessed because the two males live together in the same yard, the same enclosure and they get along just fine. Yeah. If you gobble at them, they'll gobble back. We always tell the kids- You always gobble, gobble? Yeah, yeah, we'll tell the kids, what sound does a turkey make? And then they'll do it and then the turkeys will go, gobble, gobble, gobble, back at them. That's funny. So how did the turkeys come to you? Somebody had pet turkeys or were they going for slaughter? So one of our turkeys, we got that turkey from the feed store and then we actually had a male and a female raise them together. And then one day the turkey got scared off and he took off walking, took off running and we couldn't find him. But I said, you know, I don't think he got hurt because there's no feathers anywhere. He didn't get hurt. So maybe he's just hiding. So remember I told you about the gentleman that we met in the feed store and we said, oh, hey, you got a turkey? Okay, so I called him and I said, hey, my chongi is missing. What do you think I should do? Do you have any suggestions? He said, hey, you know what? I'll bring my turkey there. And cause usually what it'll do is it'll draw him back because you know, they're territorial. So my turkey was gone for like two weeks. We are so sad because we've had him for like almost five years. And then he brought the turkey over. Within 24 hours, our turkey came back. It's so cool. Yeah, and we couldn't believe it. My brother calls and he goes, he calls me on the phone because he was down on the other end of the property. And he said, chongi's here. And my two grandsons said, what? They got up and they just ran and ran and got him and carried him and brought him back up to the farm. I mean, a lot of his feathers were missing and he looks skinny, but we brought him back up to health again. And then the other turkey, he just, the gentleman just left him with us. And we're like, okay, well, we've got to figure out a way to make these guys get along. And so we had him separated because we didn't want anybody to hurt, you know, we want them hurting each other. And then one night we heard some noise down at the farm, at the back end of the farm. So my husband went to go look and the turkey, the new turkey was inside the yard with the old turkey and they were fine in getting along. And so we're like, okay, and we're like, and actually that was such a blessing because it was so hard keeping them separated. Yeah, right? With turkeys, you can put two turkeys on opposite sides of the fence and they will follow and mirror each other. 10 hours, eight hours, however long you allow them to, they will not stop. They will just keep pacing back and forth, back and forth, gobbling at each other. And what they're basically doing is trying to establish dominance. Yeah. You don't actually fight though. They would if you put them together and they weren't ready for that. They would, yes. But that's good years get along at least. Yeah, yeah. And again, that wasn't something that I learned in a textbook or I read online. It was just, you know, as the years have gone on, instinct just has kicked in and I've seen instinct just work favorably along the way. That's wonderful. So if people want to visit the farm, how can they go about doing that? Do you have set hours? Do they email you? We do have set hours and you would book that on our website. Now, if you want to visit on the same day that you're inquiring, then you would just call the number or email the farm's email address. So we do do same day visits. We don't allow visits to be booked on the website on the same day because there's just so much involved in, you know, preparing you for your visit and getting that kind of information out to you. It's better to speak to us in person on the same day. Okay, okay, great. Well, thank you so much. It's been so informative and fun and, you know, we're so happy to have you on the show but we have to... Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me. No, it was wonderful. So it sounds like so much fun. And remember, they're not livestock, they're love stock because they feed your soul, not your body. That's right. Yeah. Love that. So I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. This is Healthy Planet on ThinkTech Hawaii. We've been talking with Denise Lawrence of Lawrence Love Stock. Thanks for being here. If you enjoyed the coverage and the conversation, please hit the like button and subscribe to our channel on ThinkTech. Do sign up for our email advisories and get a complete listing of our shares or make a donation and keep us going. Visit our website, thinktechhawaii.com. We'll be back in two weeks, so please tune in and tell your friends to tune in. Then check out the website at graceandhawaii.com or Instagram at GracefulLiving365 for more information on my show guests. Thanks so much for watching. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha everyone.