Moving along

My July is almost gone and this is only my 3rd post. Well summer can be a busy time here. I am slowly learning what season brings which fruits. Papayas are pretty much year around but they have even slowed down. Mangoes are very prevalent right now. And we love them. They are great cut up, frozen, and then used in smoothies. I think the season only lasts a couple of months. Next batch I get, I will be dehydrating. Bananas seem to come whenever. We have had mucho pineapples right now. I've been told they take 18 mos. to 2 years to go from planting to harvesting. So I have saved some starts and will be planting them today. Come in early summer 2010 and you will have the best pineapple you have ever tasted. Macadamia nuts have started to fall. That is how they are harvested. Like most nuts you wait until they fall and then pick them up. But then they have to be husked and the shell is almost impossible to crack. We do have a special cracker, so we get to eat them too. I also dehydrate them as they last longer then. Avocados are slowly ripening. The variety that Ron likes best doesn't come in until about Oct.-Feb. but we should have some that they call butter avocados by Sept. I like them too. We can't keep the Hawaiian pumpkin vines back. They also seem to produce year round. We love them and they sell well at the market. Lilikoi (passions fruit) are proliferate now. I love the fragrance of the juice. All I need to do is ask around and find a good recipe to save them or freeze them. Not sure how long the vines produce but you have not seen anything so beautiful as the flower of the vine. We sorta have dragon fruit. Our fruit just doesn't seem to get very big. It tastes kinda like kiwi but it's red inside. We heard they are very hard to grow and they are also very hard to get pollinated. A reason ours are so small, I think. It's probably all true because I've seen one dragonfruit sell for $5 and it's only as big as a large apple. Oh, and yes we do have coffee!!!!.....................COFFEE is moving along too. The trees are loaded with cherry. In fact many are toppling over, they are so heavy. Most of the coffee cherry is still green though. Ron has picked some in the last couple of weeks, but not the large crop we need. Our coffee flowered at least 6 times this year and the cherry ripens about 7 months after each flowering. The really big blossom was in Feb. so the big crop will come in late Aug. to Sept. Yes, we have dried and roasted what Ron has picked but it's still not enough to open the online store. Just a few bags to have around here and to take to the market. He ended up picking well over 100 pounds but after processing I think I ended up with about 36 pounds of roasted coffee. So, yes it takes a lot of fruit to make one pound of coffee, and a lot of waiting and work to take it thru all the processes to get it to our coffee cup. But, of course, I wouldn't drink any other kind of coffee and the hands on picking and care is what makes Kona coffee one of the best coffees in the world. ............................We keep waiting for the big fruit crop to ripen, some of the cherry is turning yellow and will follow with red. We also had a large blossom later in Feb. or March so we will get two big picks and four or so small picks. We have had rain at some time in the day, every day in July so far. This is the most rain I've seen since we've been here. But I do believe we are supposed to get lot's of rain in July and Aug. When we returned from TN & MI is was still not as hot as I thought summer would be here. Well add humidity to the equation and I think I would say that summer starts in mid July in Hawaii. It's been a bit sticky here with all the rain and we started using the fans in most the the rooms. So I would say that summertime here is fantime. ............Ron is out riding his bike now and the sun is shining bright. I do my ocean jogging now at TwoStep bay and got Ron to go with me last week. He took a body board and floated around while I exercised. Mark Daniel, a running buddy of his from Flint is here visiting and we took him outrigger paddling with us last Thurs. He said he really enjoyed it but didn't feel he got the 'sinc' of it yet but could see how great an upper body workout it can be. He is off doing the Volcano run this weekend but will be back to do a few intown runs with Ron next week...............And last Wed. they had a Kamiaina (you get local prices)sail on the Red Sail with a sunset cruise including drinks and pupus (snacks) so we took off with Al & Linda for that. It was great to be out on the ocean. We saw the sun, but not actually setting. It came down and set into either the clouds or the vog, not the ocean horizon but it was still beautiful, big bright and red!! Well time for me to take off and get my clippers out. The plants near the driveway need cutting back and I think I hear the dog barking, meaning Ron's back. No, we do not have a dog. We are dogsitting a friends MinPin for two months while they travel back on the mainland. His name is Rascal, he's only about 8 mos. old and he and the cat are finally making nice. He's lots of fun and cute but reminds us that we are not yet ready to take on the whole responsibility. Baby/DogSittng is the best idea. A little fun and then he goes home..........

We did it!!

Well two different things.....but Ron and I are both proud and excited about them both! Ever heard of the little devils 'coqui frogs'? They are about as big as your thumb nail and chirp a (co like 'go'--key)sound in the evening especially after a rain. If you have ever been in Hilo you have probably heard them and they are an unwanted pest. One sounds cute but I can't imagine thousands chirping at bedtime. A few have found their way over to this side so Ron & a buddy went coqui hunting. You need to go after dark to hear them, decide which tree he is in and spray a mixture of citric acid and water on the tree and ground. Well Ron has been successful on all his hunts and our neighbors, Tom & Rosemary, who live in a round house are forever grateful. Unlike snipe hunting, you can believe Ron if he wants to take you on a coqui hunt.

This morning I went by myself down to Two-Step in Honaunua Bay and did my ocean jogging. Except for not seeing Jane, Marie, Nanette, Claire, Krysta, Cindy & Connie and missing out on all the towny gossip, I had a blast! Not being a swimmer, let me tell you, it was a bit daunting to decide to go alone. But, of course, alone I wasn't. If you can imagine, here I was, jogging around talking to all the snorkelers. One came up and said "spectacular"!! I think I have found a new jogging route, it's 5 times closer to my house. And I think next time I will take my snorkel mask. Everytime I go down there I forget how I believe it to be the best snorkel area I have ever seen. My experience is pretty much limited to Kauai, Hanauma Bay in Honolulu, Mazatlan, Mex.,Paradise Is, Nassau and St. John Is, in the Virgin Isles. But the water here is the clearest and the deepest with tons of fish and not all small. Marci can expect a call to join me next time so maybe we can start our own group........

Memories

Aloha, aloha, aloha! Wow we are back here in Hawaii and pretty much getting back into our routines. Tonight there is a 'coffee talk' at the UH Extention building. Ron & I are going and meeting up with some friends to do dinner after. There is always much good info and workshops for us coffee farmers and quite a helpful community. I am back to my Tue morn yoga classes, will paddle tomorrow and maybe even try a new spot to do my ocean jogging in this week. With gas prices so high,$4.50/gal here, I don't like to drive all the way to the Kailua pier unless I have other errands or a Costo trip to add. So this a.m. I just did a nice walk down Painted Church Rd. and Ron did a bike ride with a neighbor, Michelle. I'm anxious to see how my new spot will work. It's down at 2-Step in the bay and lots of locals and tourists go there to swim and to snorkel. I will have company eventhough I may look wierd doing my water jogging there. There are usually dolphins there so maybe I can have them accompany me. And it's only 2 miles from home. We had loads of trimming to do. Bushes, landscaping and all plus weeding in the coffee fields. Ron even picked a little coffee and some is already processed. We should have new crop coffee ready to send out in about a month or so. Yeah!
But first back to June, which is when we were able to catch a few memories. There are so many things we love about living here in Hawaii but it sure wouldn't be for everyone. Seeing so many of our friends and relatives brought memories back of why we liked MI & TN so well. Flat, flat, flat running in MI sure does help one along. And of course the cool, cool mornings just seem to push you along. Getting out with old running buddies and using the Clinton River Trail near my daughters reminded us how good running can be in MI in June. We even took our grandchildren on the west end of the CRT which is then called the West Bloomfield Trail and they loved it. In fact Casey did quite a bit of running with us while we were there. She seems to like to run as a cross training for her soccer. Then in TN, eventhough it was hot, hot, hot we realized how many wonderful friends we had made in such a short time. Grandkids there are both teenagers but we still can have great conversations with them. All on all it was great fun to see everyone and evethough we are back at work here on the farm we are already talking about our next trip to the mainland.