Oh my, that last picture looks like the moon doesn't it. But it is a lime. No one has even given me a hint as to what kind it is. Hey, this is an interactive blog and sometimes I need some help.
This week has been big for us. Ginny wanted to turn over the business so she could be on with packing and moving. So this Sat. I will be taking over the Keauhou Market shop. Little did I know what that involves. First I had to sign up for the State farmers organization to be allowed to sell there and then join the local Kona Farmers Market organization, then get a license for the GIT tax, and get a VISA/MC machine. Meanwhile I had to have coffee inventory and have it roasted to package and label. Whew, I'm tired just writing all that and all this week. And did I tell you that each of those orgs & tax entities charge a fee.....Just what I came to Hawaii for; to offer my retirement for the betterment of the State of Hawaii. Many times ago I warned my kids that I was going to have a good time on their inheritance. And they still were supportive of our coffee farming fantasy. Crazy kids!!!
I think hawking the coffee may be easier on my body than ocean jogging and lava walking. I did that this week and am totally sore. Monday Ron dropped me off a few minutes late at the pier and the gals were two bouys out already. It took me till the turnaround point to catch up with them and they had an Ironwoman with them! I also beat her back because I had an appointment with the tax man (see above). Not completely healed, but yesterday I went to check out a new trail while waiting for Ron to finish a tile job he was doing. No, no, no, I had sandals on and shouldn't have done that. Tomorrow is a paddle day so I'm really looking forward to the upper body workout this time, ha ha.
Then I have to deal with Ron debating on running the Hilo marathon. Today was the last day to sign up at 1/2 price. I remembered to remind him and he is still in oblivion to an event to be held in March. He has visions of coffee trees, coffee beans, pruning & fertilization, walkways, harvesting fruit. Can't blame him. Who knows what life will be bringing us in March anyway.

 

 

Today, is Friday. Last nite was a gorgeous full moon. This a.m. I went to the pier for my morning ocean jog and Ron ran his usual 10 mile route. He says he is going to miss that route when we move, which should be soon. Ginny & Dick are wanting us to take over all aspects of the farm & business soon, soon soon. So I began connections with shipping to continue the process of getting our belongings here asap. I got an email today from a tourist that I met downtown asking about coffee already. I still am not set up to sell over the internet yet. Hope that comes together fast. Today I ordered a new FAX,copier,printer so I can get some more learning time on the computer, ugh!! We both will be glad when we are moved in down in Capt.Cook as Ron travels the 13 mi or so there quite often to work and learn on property. He's met some neighbors, one named 'Turtle' who picks excess fruits and veggies. Ron has been bringing home bananas, avocados and papayas daily. Like all plants, when harvesting time comes you always have way more than enough.Turtle told Ron he'll bring fish in exchange. The other day a friend from the Outdoor Circle gave me some limes. Actually the best limes I've ever tasted. But I have never seen this kind before (pictures posted here). The ones on our farm are greener, smaller and very tangy. These are just right but I don't know what kind they are. All for now, Sat. is already here.

Maui sharks, paddling w/dolphins, Akaka Bill, DL's & coffee

Just all kinds of stuff going on right now, so had to form a title so I'd know what I was talking about this am. Yes, shark sightings in So. Maui. Had to close a few beaches this week. One was one of our favorites, Wailea's Ulua Beach. But locals think the hammerhead may be sick as it just cruises close to shore. People are even taking pictures of themselves by shore pointing at the shark as it's not being aggressive. Others are mentioning seeing it as they take there evening walks, very unusual. (Like the little squirrel that kept coming to visit Ethan and his friends under the swingset,very strange). Then today Ron finally went paddling with me and the rest of the Keauhou group. I had to go at least a month before we sighted dolphins but Ron saw them on his very first trip. What's up with that!! We have a breakfast after paddling on the last Thurs of every month so Ron got to meet some new friends. One was a longtime coffee farmer so he (Ron) liked soaking up all the info. We also met Lisa who is bringing her dog over from the mainland, although they only plan on living here about 7-8 months of the year. Since I miss Zeke so much we may work out a plan for us to dogsit 'Sparky'. Sparky is part Australian Speepdog and Blue Herder.
And we are now officially Hawaiians. That's because we passed the test. We have our DL's with our pictures and all. Only took us 4 hours yesterday. Then something I haven't formed an opinion on yet but I think is worth pondering. The US House passed the Akaka Bill yesterday which is a Hawaiian sovereigns law. Census says there are about 400,000 true Hawaiians in all the US and this law would give them approximately what the native Indians and Alaska indigenous people have. There is much controversy over the law here and in Washington, I guess. Because Geo. Bush says he will veto it if the Senate passes it. Bush says it would be racist and divide the very stable and ethnic society that we have here in Hawaii. I understand that, as ethnically things go very well here. But I can't see how we can say it is all right to give sovereignty to other peoples on their homelands and not the Hawaiians. Got opinions???

Fire Girl

Oh we went down/or I really think it is up to Michaels place this eve for pupus and drinks.(Their place is only a couple of miles from where we will be living soon.) He & Greg had guests and company plus a new arrival to the island who works with him. She spins fire. Like the Samoans and Hawaiians do. So she showed us her talents out in the yard. What a show! I told her I didn't know how much Mike paid for the show but King Kamehameha productions had a job waiting for her. Amazing, a haole doing a fire show. We asked her where she learned the art. She answered, in Amsterdam! Who would have thunk!! As always we met many interesting people tonight and talked about all the fantastic sights on this island. They were interested in our coffee knowledge. You know, how it's grown, how we process it and one of the guys was in marketing and wanted to know how we were going to market it. Well I dunno!??! I did run a few ideas by him and he seemed to think I was headed in the right direction. Who knows..............
Most if the ironman tourists have headed home and we are back to almost normal. So funny, I saw so many ironmen participants. They get their number painted on their arm and when they wash it off it is distinguishable in plain white with tanned skin surrounding it. So they are so easy to pick out.
The farmers market really seemed to be picking up this weekend. While up there with Ginny, the seller from our new farm, I noticed many new faces and they said they were just arriving and will be spending the next 3,4 or 6 months here and they came up to purchase Hawaii grown crops and coffee.
Tommorrow I will be sending our Kona Lisa Coffee label in to the Hawaii Food and Drug Adm. to make sure it passes label inspection. For those of you who got a sample, the lable basically will stay the same but I may need to make the name font larger and change the border a bit. Then I can get on with ordering stationary and business cards to match.
Meanwhile Ron keeps reading and researching all the proper techniques to coffee growing. Soon he'll be up there pruning. And so it goes, he does the hands on part and I do the marketing part. And neither one of us knows whether it will ever work but so far we are having fun trying.

Ups & Downs

Let's give the down side first and then get to all the ups. Went to the DL bureau today. Both of us left without Hawaii DL's. First you must have a SS card. We showed them our passports, our TN voters reg card (which has our SSN on it) and our birth certs. No dice. I have those cards, I just saw them within the last month and I know they will show up or...we will stand in line to get new cards next week (on the 24th that is or else we go to Hilo or hopefully I will find them.) Then we will get to take the written test. Everyone say,"hope you pass". Cuz if you don't it's come back next week and try again, no kidding!!
Meanwhile all the up stuff as I went paddling with an Ironwoman. She was a 27 yr old German girl who finished 99th woman in 10:52. It was good to see her laughing and enjoying Hawaii after hearing about some who are still having trouble walking. We also had some Kiwi's with us (from NZ)plus lot's of dolphins. We actually had to stop paddling once as we seemed to be running into them. I think it's just that they like to be around us because as they came along side and we started paddling again they swam with us. They were so close that I could see them swimming with us underwater. Spectacular!! We've been able to go down on the farm and Ron's been soaking up info on maintaining, processing and even taking some time picking the beans. So far he loves it!! Good thing, huh!

More IronMan news

Good grief, I had 13 pics uploaded and only 4 posted onto the blog. If you want the rest here's the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/laker2m/IronMan2007. Good picture of the winner is included. He wasn't ahead at that time but wasn't far behind. Maybe 10 mins at the 10k mark. What a day! I could never imagine seeing over 1700 athletes do a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mi. bike ride and the run a marathon all in one day. I found it almost sci-fi except I did see it with my own eyes. 34 yr. old Australian, Chris McCormack, won in 8:15:34. Chrissie Wellington of Britain won the women's race in 9:10:00. It was a windy day for the bikers up in Waikaloa and then a skorcher down here in Kona for the runners. Ron's friend finished in 11+.

IronMan Pics

 
 
 
 

Ironman highlights

You will probably be sick of my Ironman blogs before this is over. But you can just feel the excitement in town even as we arrived back yesterday. Here is a video site that is awesome. Click on the arrow and play the video. More to come as we move towards the big day, Sat. the 13th. http://www.youtube.com/IronmanTriathlon. This is just one of the inspirational stories.

WNBA in Hawaii????

Small world it seems. On our connection from Phoenix to Hawaii, next to me sat Ashley Robinson of the Seattle Storm. Many of you will remember her from the 2000-2004 Lady Vols. No I did not ask that tall drink of water (6'4") if she played basketball, but it came up as soon as she heard we were from Knoxville. That broke the ice though and we reminiced about Pat Summit & Knoxville while I learned about WNBA and Texas, where she is from. She was on a little vacation and was joining some players who had gone to UConn and then next week will be off to Madrid to play in the European league. So as you can tell we are home and it's 5:30am. I never get up that early!!! Guess I'm just not back on Hawaii time yet. Flights went better than average as we arrived in Phoenix to an overbooked flight to Kona due to the Ironman passengers. USAir asked for two seats to bump and we grabbed 2 full round trip tickets back to the mainland to use within a year. Meanwhile they put us up at the Sheraton in Tempe. Since it was early afternoon our driver took us in to downtown Tempe, home to ASU, and we had a leisurely time shopping around, seeing the sights ending with dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery for dinner. They served garlic fries there, yummy, and everything else too!! We'd always thought it wise to be able to stop over in a west coast town when traveling to/from the continental east to Hawaii. It's a definite 'do it if you can' now. After a relaxing day in Tempe and a good rest it made for an easy flight home. So gotta go as it's 6 am. and paddle time!!!