Orchids

Jacaranda

 
I just had to mention jacaranda because it's in blue-violet bloom right now. A beautiful tree and I just love to say 'jacaranda'. Also is one of Ron's favorite trees. But I'm really here to talk story of the pics of the orchids above. I had the chance to attend the Kona Mothers Day Orchid show. Orchids grow exceptionally well here. I have some out in the yard that came with the place and I buy and replace more when I see unusual ones. The bloom last months, so they sure are fun to have around as they seem to bloom year around whenever they feel like it. Good for me they take little care, little water and low lumens of light. I leave them alone and they surprise me with beautiful blooms. I only brought one home but had to photograph some of the rest. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Then go to www.ronskonacoffee.blogspot.com to see the pics of our gorgeous ripening coffee trees.

Correction

http://www.ronskonacoffee.blogspot.com/

New blog

We did get out website updated and were able to add a blog to it. The new blog name is http://ronskonacoffee.blogspot.com. The blog can be reached by going to our website www.konalisacoffee.com. It is listed below the picture header on every page. You can also just type it in and go directly to it. Some current postings are already there with more to come. It's also listed below our signatures in our emails.

Catching Up

Just got reminded that I haven't blogged in 6 weeks. I knew that and here's whats been going on. Besides working on our website and introducing myself to Facebook, then adding Kona Lisa Coffee.com to Facebook, getting my computer updated, fixed and deletd of all it's rubbish and finally getting a new flat screen 20in monitor, updating tax info, Faxing tax info; well that's where I am as far as the office goes. Seems like we have been eating out way more that usual. There is a wine tasting Sunday every week at Jackie Reys resturant which we take in occasionally with 4 other friends and then do dinner. Went with Ro, Tom, Marci & Chuck to Holualoa Cafe, and did a Red Hat event at Akoni's on the beach. Drove in with my neighbor Cheryl to that RH event in her gleaming orangish Corvette convertible. She broke the speed limit all the way there and back. Hard not to do that in a Vette. She added a bit a trivia on our ride home. While her brother was here and driving the Vette he happened to count all the curves riding the pali back to our neighborhood. He told her there are 61 and I have meant to count them myself eversince, but there is so much to see and look out for on the way I haven't remembered yet. I live at least a mile plus past her place and there are at lease 14 more curves to my driveway. So just remember when you come to visit us that the last four miles consist of 75 curves and they are all fun and scenic.
Last week I hulied while out in Keauhou Bay with a 6 man outrigger crew. I knew it was a bit choppy, but was with a great steersman and crew. Our stroker mentioned the ama was bouncing and before we knew it over we went and I was swimming collecting paddles. Bruce our steersman had the rest of the crew take their spots and flipped the canoe back the first time and then the bailing started. Another canoe came over to check on us and gave us an extra bailer. We got 'er bailed out and all back in ready to paddle. I found out later that if this happens in a race, you have only 7 minutes to do all this, and be back in the race paddling or you are disqualified.
Been working with Mark on having some T-shirts screen printed. They are done and shipped but not here yet. I plan on posting some pic's either here or on Facebook and probably on our website when they come. Today I worked on Kona Lisa Coffee.com as a Facebook profile and it is up. I posted pics there already. Become a fan and comment on the coffee when you can.
Ron had been pruning the coffee trees since the picking season ended and I believe he is finished. He was worried about the trees getting stressed as we hadn't had any rain in awhile. I don't dare tell the rest of the island as ever since he complained we have had three strait days of rain. Those coffee trees sure look good though. And we will probably get another blossom as they always blossom in the winter after a good rain.
At our KCFA.org yearly meeting I was asked/drafted to be on the board and voted in. Then I was asked/drafted to be this years Secretary. I declined so they could get a real secretary on board. Well no one stepped up and quess what!! This months meeting I have to submit my first set of notes. I am the first one to admit that I am a terrible secretary but after this post I will be putting notes together to submit to the board online before our next meeting. I've already procrastinated too long.
One of the things we may do with our website is add a blog there. So I may be ending this blog soon and blogging on our website in the future. Will let you know and send a link to access the new blog when that happens.
I sure can't keep up with 2 blogs as may secretarial duties may diminish if I tried. All that won't happen until we take a rest. On April 4 we are taking a week off to visit San Francisco, Santa Rosa, California and the Sonoma/Napa wine country. We decided to spend our 32nd wedding anniversary doing something else besides coffee.

This week in pictures

I promised pics and they follow this blog. Winter flowers shine now as the vog has cleared and we are getting some awesome sunsets too. Take a look below.

I got the opportunity to go swimming with some neighbors this week and was taken to some new sights. We first headed to Kealakakua Bay to see if the dolphins were in. Not then so we mosied over to Mehnini Beach and they showed me how to follow the opening in the sand in high tide and float past the coral out into the bay. We swam past big schools of fish and I even saw a new fish. Green and black with a yellow eye and a long narrow body. Then we swam out to a pair of underwater arches. John showed his expertise and dove under them. Pretty good job as they are a good 25 feet down. Clear as a bell to watch though. When we headed in Ron met us at the beach and said he had rode his bike over to Honounou and said the dolphins were in there. The dolphins had decided to put on a show for the tourists that day and left us locasl to play alone.

If you are hearing the news, yes Oahu is getting pounded with wind. We luckily have not had any of it. The surf has been high and the surfers are lovin' it but no wind. And we are getting beautiful winter sunny days. Comparing Honolulu on Oahu with our weather here would be like comparing Knoxville to Memphis or Pontiac to Mackinaw. It's hardly ever the same is it??

Soon I will be working on a complete overhaul of our website. Will blog about it when i get time. I find that our current website is way to slow, but I did get an order from Norway the other day. But I get more calls about how slow it is, so time to change things.

So far we have send our coffee to 6 foriegn countries, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy & Norway and to 24 states. With any luck a new website may attract hits from all 50 states.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.