Return to Paradise

Ron & I wondered how we would feel coming back to the mainland. Would it be weird, would we miss Hawaii, would we want to stay here?? The flight seemed to go very fast and we were in Nicki's car and off to Walled Lake last Friday. The weather was perfect for a warm Michigan fall day and everything was green and full with a few trees turning and the smell of autumn in the air. We shared dinner with the grandkids and 'talked story'(that's a Hawaiian phrase) with them and learned about Haley's new school, listened to her practice her bit for a play tryout and listened to Casey's campaign speech as she is running for student counsel. Sat. & Sun. we attended soccer games for all of them and saw Chloe score the first goal for her team. Back home we met some of Ethan's friends, all girls. Yes, he is a ladies man already at only 4. Spent time with some friends, my mom & sis, and gave them samples of our soon to be coffee. It was really lovely and I think I was homesick for MI for the first time in a long while. That time was all too short and we were off to Knoxville. It would have been easier if all the 'stuff' in our storage unit had just 'poof' magically dissapeared. We have been without it for 6 months now and knew it would be difficult in all sorts of ways to decide what goes to Hawaii and what cannot. We know we probably don't even need 50% of what we decided to take and are already laughing about a few things we mistakedly threw out. Emotionally it can be hard to do that, but we are now through it and ready to move on. We've decided that Sept. must be a good time to visit both TN & MI because we are truly enjoying most everything we grew to love here (except the traffic). Ron is off right now bike riding with a team of his friends and I took off for a 45 min. workout walk here in Sheila's neighborhood. I wasn't out 1/2 a block when a car passed me and the driver waved, and then soon another car, driver waved and of course I waved back. I didn't know them nor they me but that is just TN and is part of what we miss about it. Sydney is studying about places and cultures and mentioned Machu Piccu in Peru. She said she would like to go there sometime and it reminded me that everyone has goals and I encouraged her to keep that goal although many others may supercede it at times. Now back to paradise. Ron & I never really had Hawaii as a dream to move to, we just kinda developed it as we moved on with our life. Certainly producing coffee there sounds adventurous to me but not what would have kept me there. But I know just the ocean, beaches, and always warm weather was not enough to keep Ron there so the 'coffee shack' will become our next new home because paradise is different for all and can be different for each one of us at various times. One thing that still holds true is, we go back to our curent utopia, you'all get to spend the cold winter here. And that's why we feel we will be living in paradise!!!!

Today was my last 'paddle' for awhile so 'Sarge' took me out on the single hull outrigger for a great ride. We surfed a few waves and paddled over to thread the needle. We even stopped once to see the sun rising over the mountain. I guess they wanted to make sure I remembered all I have grown to love here on the island. Also I wanted a better workout as I'll have no ocean to do them on for a few weeks. I seem to get a much better workout on a single hull canoe than a double hull. Tonight we leave at 11pm from Kona to arrive in Detroit tomorrow afternoon with only one stop in Phoenix. We don't have a Honolulu stop either way this trip and that saves us a lot of time. It seems like I should be packing more but everything is really still back in Knoxville and I have not been out of tank tops, shorts & sandels since we arrived. (So what is it I need??) Oh, furniture............ We are trying to bring back an empty suitcase to load it up when we return. Do you think that might work? As you see there is a lounge chair in some pictures I sent. Maybe that's all we need. And right now it's hard to remember what we stashed in the storage unit. I think we are in for a surprise when we open it. Most of all we are looking forward to seeing everyone possible. If we don't see you this trip there will always be another and just maybe some of you will see us here before then. Wouldn't that be nice???

Coffee samples coming to the mainland

Yesterday we filled and sealed about 25 four oz. bags of Kona Lisa (our new label) coffee beans. We will be bringing them back with us, so if any of you want to sample some 'to die for' coffee put your order in now. Let me know so I can save you a sample.

Trolley, the Farm & flights reserved

Hey, big week here. This week was my last week up at the pier as I told them I just couldn't be there anymore. I will miss all the lovely people up there but said I would come and visit. On my last day Ron had to go south to a coffee class so he couldn't pick me up. They have an open air trolley from the pier up to Keauhou and back, so I finally got a chance to ride it. Not bad, 20 mins. and I was nearly home. It was a 3 block walk downhill so I enjoyed that. Thurs. we met the owners again for more info on the coffee farm. So far we have picked, pulped, dried, milled, roasted, bagged and sealed the coffee beans. Ron went out on the grounds and learned a bit about trimming, planting, and weeding. We don't know if we will ever remember the names of all the fruit trees planted there. The ones I currently remember are lillikoi(passion fruit), banana, lime, dragonfruit, papaya, avacado, mango. If you like fruit you will never go hungry here. On the other hand we hear it can be hard to grow veggies. No wonder they are so costly at the supermarket. We usually buy them from the local farmers market. Then best of all we got flights to Detroit, will visit with the kids, grandkids and drive down to Knoxville to sort out things and plan to be back here by Oct. 9. We are really excited to be able to see everyone as it seems so unreal to us. Hope we get to catch up with as many of you as possible when we get there. See ya soon.

 
See my new paddle....!!! It worked very well today on its virgin paddle.

 
There it is!! Orchids!!

Orchids and Paddling this week

 

Well I didn't manage to get all the pictures on. But the one showing is our crew today coming back in from a 2 mile tour. Click on the picture to get it full screen. I am third back on the left side. Friends & I went to a commercial orchid farm on Tue. and I will try to follow with at least one pic of my orchid bouquet.

Coffee farming is moving along. Right now we are in the middle of picking and pulping season. This week we visited with the sellers of the farm and Ron got a lessong on pruning. They invited us for dinner and later a neighbor came up with 600 pounds of cherry and we watched as they ran the pulper. The beans then soak in the water for 18-24 hours and then they are shuttled on the converyor to the drying deck. You should always have dried parchment ready for milling and roasting if you want to offer fresh coffee. So the dried coffee is rotated and the coffee pulped this week will probably not be milled and roasted until next year. The next day I met the seller at Greenwell's where they mill & roast for her. I went through the process as her coffee went from her bag and right back to her bag ready to be packaged. All coffee farmers are guarenteed that they get their own coffee back. No beans are mixed. Kona Lisa is an Estate coffee. Many of the big coffee growers do mix beans from all sorts of orchards or else how would they get enough coffee to supply their wholesalers. And we made a plan. We will be moving into the house on Jan. 1st.

Hawaii loves Holidays

Holidays are big events in Hawaii for several reasons. Mostly it's for family time and getting together to 'tell story' and relax. We have been here for Memorial Day, 4th of July, Statehood Day Aug.18th, and Labor Day and there is always something going on to enjoy. This weekend was the largest outrigger canoe long distance races in the world. Teams from all over the world, like New Zeeland, Haiti, Samoa,and the list goes on come to Kona for an 18 mile endurance race/paddle from O Honaunau to the Kailua Kona pier. Sunday were short distance races which Ron & I watched. The colors were spectacular with canoes of red, yellow, turquoise, blues and greens lining up for a short siren and they were off. Summer is such a great time for these races as the ocean cooperates by being fairly calm. My big event was to paddle with our Keauhou club and bring one of the boats back to our bay. Boats from everywhere are brought in for the races to use and we get to paddle them back the 6 miles. That was my longest distance so far and our steerer was 'Sarge'(will have to tell you about Sarge later). I knew this would be a challenge for me but the awesome dolphin show was well worth it. Dolphins were swimming with us at 1 o'clock and jumping and spinning for a show I'd never seem before. These islands are the only place they have spinner dolphins. Several boats had seen them and we saw them spinning from aways. They seemed to wait for us and when we were near they started putting on their show. They spun and splashed for us and we clapped. Scientists say they spin to shake a parasite off them but today they were spinning just for us as they waited for each canoe to come by and spun for each of us. Stopping to watch them was a good rest for me. I had wondered how I was going to endure the six mile paddle. Also Sarge gives us a rest occasionally. About half way back she barked "No.1 paddles up" you can take a break for 2 sets." A set is 15 strokes on one side and 15 on the other. I was in seat no. 5 so I sure was ready when my rest came. The canoe is now put onshore and I await tomorrow when I can go for a more relaxing paddle but always and interesting one.

Starting our 4th month here and so much has happened it's hard to get it all down. Ron wrote this little verse in one of his emails and I thought it was worth sharing.
What you won't see there:(I think he means where you are......
Grown men riding a skateboard to work.
Mopeds with surfboard racks and beagles on the handlebars.
Guys with blue hair riding mopeds and singing with their I-pods.
Surffers doing situps and then having a smoke before getting on their boards.
Old Japanes guy power-walking with two tennis balls and a flower in his mouth.
Paddling a surfboard while standing - down the beach.
One bedroom condos for over half a million dollars.
$3.39 for gas - nowhere to drive though.

In wrapping up my time at the coffee shop in town I worked 2 days this week and waited on my first non-English speaking couples (they spoke only Japanese). Amazing how when someone wants to buy and you are selling it's a world wide language of pointing and shaking heads and using our hands for numbers, etc. Both couples did manage to get their point accross and ask for a discount which I immediately replied with an up and down head shake. We laughed alot and one couple pointed and laughed at the package of one product as it had instructions in Japanese on it.(They in turn bought 5 packages). Upon leaving they did say one English phrase 'thank you'.

Things seem to be moving well on our coffee farm purchase. So well that they are projecting closing sooned that we expected. This requires a fast trip back to Knoxville to either dispose of more furniture and things or shipping them. We are still in a dilema as to what we will be doing. It will break the bank to ship too much but then you know how much it can take to set up a household with everything new. Does $10,000 weight itself either way? I wish I could figure it out as then I would know whether to ship or buy. Either way I am still holding firm that that's a small price to pay for paradise.