Been Busy

Yes, I really have wanted to blog. Then there is ocean jogging, coffee packaging, Red Hat lunches, yoga, paddling and answering emails. Yes, I'm trying to get to all your emails and answer them personally. It will happen, I promise. Meanwhile, I am getting crabby emails from my children asking why I don't call them back. I do, it just takes a little longer these days.
Today was a gorgeous day, Halemaumau has lightened up and vog had decreased and so has the rain. Now we are in the dryer season, whales are here; we see them from our lanai, picking is done. And next year we will take our little Christmas trip after Christmas instead of before. I think that is what put me behind. We went for 5 days to Honolulu before Christmas, what was I thinking??
We have been having some different and interesting flowers blooming lately. Will try to take a few pics and post this weekend. Our kitten, Little Lisa, is growing and is quite a pal to Toonces. Will do pics of them too.
Just so you know I do miss Knoxville. Can't explain why, but I do. Jackie visited with Sheila over the holidays and loved it there. Made me kind of nostalgic! Well, I gotta go and answer those emails. So you guessed it, if you want any more info on what's going on here do send an email. I love hearing from you and you will get an answer,,,,,,,eventually.

Happy New Year almost

New Years Eve means we have been on the farm for 1 year. We officially moved in on the 1st of 2008. What a great year! I think I've learned, played, worked, met new and interesting people more this year than in any other year in my life. The experiences an exotic island can sustain are unlimited to someone like me from the Midwest. Just one example is the number of fruits I knew compared to now. If I could name 50 fruits before, I have heard of at least 500 now. And no I cannot name them all and I am still on my way to trying them all. Haven't found too many I don't like and some are fantastic. Like sapote, and there are several kinds of sapote. Just like there are about 50 varieties of bananas and 50 varieties of avocados. I didn't know that, did you?
Okay now it is 10:30 and most of the world has already had New Years. We just got back from a New Year Eve party enjoying the company of several couples. One from So. Africa & Amsterdamn. and another from Poland & Germany. The hosts hail from Maryland & Florida. But all or us are farmers. Whoops now the fireworks have started and I have the hiccups. Fireworks are a tradition here. Locals love it and I think we are infor a night full of noise. See you tomorrow.

Clear here

The last few days have been very clear. Ocean views from our lanai are exquisite. Ron hurried and called our neighbor to see if she had heard that the volcano shut off. That wasn't happening, I guess the winds have just shifted. Good thing the whales should be coming down this way soon.
I also saw a pretty inclusive article on the history of Kilauea's eruption history here: http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2008/12/07/volcano//volcano.txt

Sorry for the need to cut and paste. I haven't been able to make this blogs link button work. This is a pretty easy blog site to navigate so I know it's just me. Maybe I'll figure it out later.

Chocolate

There are many things good about Hawaii and chocolate is just one of them. I'll just talk about a few here and start with chocolate. Our coffee organization took a visit to the 'Original Chocolate Factory'. Chocolate grows between 15-20 degrees latitude either side of the equator and our 'Factory' is at 18degreesN. They are at the same elevation as our farm, 800'. So I guess we could grow cacao trees. The trip to the factory/farm is a worthwhile sidetrip while you are here so I won't go into too much detail except to say that the chocolate is yummy. And priced just right at $40 per pound!!! In a way chocolate is harvested and processed a bit like coffee in that you have to take the slimy beans out of the pod and ferment them, dry them and then roast them. You get genuine US grown and made chocolate and coffee only from Hawaii both very unique industries.
I read today that Hawaii ranks as the #2 healthiest state. The rankings were done by the United Health Foundation and the American Public Health Assoc. I had read earlier this year that Hawaii ranks #1 on the mental health/happiness scale. Easily explained. We get all the chocolate and coffee we want here!!

Last week or so my visiting friend & I had the chance to take a snorkel tour on one of the nicer boats leaving from Kailua pier, called the BodyGlove. A nice two level catamaran with ample room to wander around and enjoy the short sail out to Turtle Point. Really there weren't near as many fish there as other spots, but we did see a turtle. And I saw my first Crown-of-thorns starfish. Quite a large starfish with about 16-18 tenticles. And venomous so I have heard. No worry we were snorkeling near the top of the ocean and he was down on the coral feeding. After the snorkel we had our second meal. We had a continental type breakfast on our way out to the point and lunch was waiting for us after snorkeling. BodyGlove also has lots of water toys and, for additional fees, will take groups on snuba and diving. We stayed on board then and let the kid in us emerge by using the water slide. Nothing like a long plunge into the clear aqua blue ocean to wake up the kid in you. In fact it is not a one plunge slide. So much fun it called for another run.
While I'm thinking of it a good thing to happen here right now would be rain. Thru the summer we are used to almost daily rains, usually in the afternoon. Winter has arrived the the sky has shut off. With all the lushness and foilage and of course 'needy coffee trees' just a week or so without rain and we feel, dry, dry, dry.
Enough of the good things, but in truth I can't find anything bad about anywhere I have lived. Michigans snow is beautiful. I just don't care for it anymore. Tennessees everything still reverbs in my senses. But now I totally like living without air-conditioning.

Link

Seems like I did not put that last link in correctly. Trying it again. If this doesn't work, well I copied and pasted it and it worked fine. Is it just me??

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/scenes_from_antarctica.html

What happened to the coffee farmers??

Now, I just bet all of you are wondering that aren't you?? But it has been awhile since my last blog. I keep telling myself to come here and write and then it finally occured to me that I can save what I write and come back to it later to finish. So this may be a very unconnected bit of ramblings. And where do I start. Guess I'll just go back to the end of last month when Natalie was here. Natalie is a friend of a friend who seemed to become one of my daughters while she was here. We enjoyed her short stay so much and hope she comes back someday. We did a whirlwind trip of the island in 3 days, visiting 2-step snorkel area, walking on the lava coast and writing her name with coral on the black lava cliffs. (This is a local custom.) Then we took a trip across the saddle road to Hilo, 2 sets of waterfalls and of course the mighty volcano. See what you can do in a weekend and still do the market. A couple days later friends from Michigan arrived. In fact they are still here. We've shared island trips with them and they have picked coffee for us and it has worked out great. (Just so you know, coffee picking season is from Aug-Nov.) We'll be sharing Thanksgiving with our outrigger paddle club on the bay and then they are off to the cold mainland. They actually have taken trips out and saw most of the island. Luckily one of the day trips we took with them was to the green sand beach. It is definitely on our list to recommend everyone go to. It's just so unusual and the sand is totally green. Olivine is the mineral, I believe, that makes it happen. It's down at South Point, a pretty desolate, windy but dramatically striking area. One of the most facinating things we did was to swim with the dolphins. Locals tell me that we are more likely to have dolphins in Kealakekua Bay during time of full moon. The morning we were down there was the day after and the dolphins where jumping and spinning in the bay so we decided to go in, swim out to where they were and watch. They were quite comfortable with us there, bringing there babies right up near us. Let me tell you, if you can't tell already, that it is a mighty awesome experience. One sight I have to tell is watching three dolphins circle around, dive down, and come up perpendicular and parallel to each other. Then they start rolling. Suddenly I realized that I was witnessing them prepare for their spin. I got to see the whole technique from beginning to end as when they reached the top I quickly looked up and watched as they spun out of the water, something most people only see from shore.

Okay, where am I now? Yes, it's whale whatching time and tomorrow Dorothy & I are taking the 'Body Glove' snorkel trip. I've never snorkeled on the island north of Kailua-Kona and this boat takes us north. Well, north is where our wintering humpback whales have already been spotted this season. We have our fingers crossed that the captain knows where they are and after snorkeling he'll take us on a mission to spot them before returning back to the pier.

Time to post this, getting a bit long but before I go I have a wonderful friend here who is a professional photographer. And of course he knows many other photographers and I just have to share this site of pics he sent me. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/scenes_from_antarctica.html Another awsesome place.


Then May you always have Love to Share, Health to Spare, And Friends Who Care.

Recap of pictures below

Random photos. I posted some random thoughts in pictures. They are of a sunset(viewed from our driveway); Rascal, the puppy we took care of for two months; Ethan, our grandson, wearing his new Aloha shirt; our updated coffee label; Toonces, our cat, ready to ride on the neighbors scooter; new crop of coffee drying on our drying deck; passionfruit flower (it smells lovely too); an orchid blooming in our garden; and last but not least, Charlotte, our resident spider.

I finally got a good picture of Charlotte. She has been hanging around on her web for the last couple of months. She built her web connected to the plumbago bush and the rail heading into my office. So I get to check on her everyday. I'm not sure what she does all day but she must like it there as she hasn't moved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where's the Beef?

Fantastic event here on the island last night. We drove up to the Waikaloa Hilton with Cheryl & Rog and ate our hearts out. We feasted on the annual 'Taste of the Range', a food fest with Hawaii Island Grass-Fed Beef. There were at least 50 area resturants featuring mostly their best beef recipes also with some lamb, pork and even a goat dish. Parker Ranch is the largest privately owned cattle ranch in the US and all their beef is grass-fed, raised without added hormones and without antibiotics. Yes, we do eat more fish than beef but when we do have beef it is the best. While speaking of Parker Ranch I have to mention Paniolo. They are the cowboys we still have here and we just had a celebration and of course a parade. Doesn't take much to cause a parade to happen here. But 100 years ago a Hawaiian cowboy/paniolo by the name of Ikua Purdy stunned the American West by winning the 1908 World Roping Championship in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The paniolo history is interesting and adds to the mystic while visiting Parker Ranch. Since I love history, here is the short history of cowboys in Hawaii. Captain George Vancouver brought cattle as gifts to King Kamehameha in 1792. The first horses arrived in Hawai'i about 1804. Vaqueros were invited to the islands in 1832 by Hawai'i's king to teach Hawaiians how to ride and rope wild cattle. Since these islands are in the middle of the ocean people either came or were brought here from all over the world. I suppose those vaqueros were from either Spain or Mexico. Portuguese were brought here to foreman the sugarcane plantations. In 1900 after a devastating hurricane hit Puerto Rico thousands came here to work in those plantations.

Wild Ride

Heading out with the outrigger canoes last week our steersman asked if we wanted to go south with the group or head north and surf the waves. The stroker yelled 'let's surf' so off we went up to the surf spot. I had heard and seen others teams talking about and trying to ride the waves and I was looking forward to the excitement. After paddling about a mile we found our surf spot and tried catching a good wave. As we caught our first wave we paddled as hard as we could and rode it a bit, then paddled back to look for more. Next wave didn't take us far. Then....steersman, Robert, yelled 'hit it' and off we went paddling hard until we were going so fast that I couldn't even paddle anymore! Steersman was yelling at #4 to lay down on the ama and since I was #2(in case names are forgotten the steersman calls out the number seat we are in)and couldn't paddle because of the speed I also leaned down on the 'ioku as we sped along. What a fun wild ride! People onshore were watching us and taking pictures. I guess thats because we were yelling and laughing so much. That was my first wild ride out there and the rest of the paddlers said that was the best wave they had ever caught. 3 of the crew were seasoned paddlers so I guess I was just lucky. Tomorrow I go again and can only wish for another great wild ride.

Cherry pickin' time

Been wanting to blog lots lately. I get thinking about it and then I can't decide how to say it all in less words. So this could be long. It's supposed to be 210 days from a blossom till the coffee cherries are ready to pick. But which blossom? Sometimes you get 10 blossoms a season. Usually though only a couple are really big, but we haven't figured out if all the cherry from that blossom ripen all at once or what. You pick a tree many times going over and over it for several weeks and even a month or two. So needless to say we are still picking. Well I have to admit, not me. We have pickers and Ron picks a bunch himself. I kinda just take care of the roasting, packaging. I help some with the pulping and raking, though. And today I did two things. I made a lilikoi reduction to go with the fish we had for dinner and this morning I stood on my head at yoga class. I was so excited with that. I don't think I have ever done that before in my life. While the teacher was explaining I was on my hands and knees saying,'ya right'. Then decided what have I got to loose? I only held it for a few seconds but it was just the thing my back and hips needed. Everything seemed to realign in my body. Hope I can do that again soon!
We don't always work on the farm, although there really is a lot to do this time of the year. But, last week and then the week before was went with friends and did evening sunset cruises with pupus(Hawaiian for finger foods/snacks/appetizers)and cash bar. Slow tourist season, I guess, and good kamaiana(locals)rates. It's beautiful to be out on the ocean anytime of day and especially when you can get a lovely sunset. Even if you can't the views are spectacular. This morning there had been a full moon and from our lanai it just looked so peaceful glistening on the ocean with small little clouds sprinkled around it. A picture you can't really take, you just have to remember it!! Well this could be longer but I am freezing setting here in my tank top. I really cools off some evenings with a breeze coming down from the mountain and makes it nice for sleeping. It's always nice for sleeping but we just have to pull the covers up tonight.