Better late than never

Better late than never was Originally Posted on October 21, 2003 by lavarock

Regular readers here may have noted a lack of blogs for a few weeks. It was by design.

Because of circumstances outside my control, I still have no close date on my farm, but I had already booked my one-way first class ticket on Delta. I had 3 choices of what to do and decided to move to Hawaii and then book a one month “vacation” back to Atlanta 2 weeks later.

I won’t bore you with the details of the flight, but it was great. I arrived in Kona rested and ready to start a new life and career! I had a large todo list and was able to complete most of the items.

I bought the drivers handbook, studied and passed the written test. Even though my Georgia drivers license was valid for 1 more year, I wanted to be a resident. I also registered to vote. A quick trip to the post office allowed me to work out a slight problem with the box they gave me, and without them looking, told me I had mail already! Granted it is a small post office, but still…

I went by the farm and did a lot closer inspection. I also took some photos and they are at https://itskona.com/farm/house.htm. Sorry you can’t easily go from one to the next. I’ll work on that when I get time.

The farm has acres of macadamia nut trees on it, but they have not been cared for, watered or fertilized lately and are not in great shape. After looking over the land, I decided where I’ll plant the coffee. It is a shame to rip out most of the trees, but it has to be done. I’ll try to save some as I like the feel and smell of the “forest” there.

I also noticed that the area is very very quiet. In the middle of the day all I could hear was the wind swaying some of the trees, a few birds and the distant tinkling of a wind chime. Having met a neighbor, I found that the area is quiet like this most of the time. I have few close neighbors and there are farms on either side of me.

To my surprise, I have a better view of the Pacific than I had remembered. By cutting down or thinning a few trees at the makai (ocean) side of the property, I will have an excellent view, as you can see in the 1st photo.

I visited my real estate agents farm and watched them pick his coffee and pulp it. Pulping is removing the outer covering of the cherry so the bean is removed. I was initially worried that by myself, I would have quite a difficult time pulping 2 acres of coffee. Now I have seen how easy it is. My agent was able to pulp 2200 pounds of coffee cherry in about two and a half hours! I have decided to plant a full 5 acres of coffee on the farm and feel confident I can do it myself.

I went to a couple of coffee roasters and discussed how I need to prepare for my roasting. Although some farmers roast their own beans, I will leave that up to the experts. It is like being a great programmer but not knowing how the hardware works. Although I know both computer hardware AND software, it doesn’t help me with my roasting

I tested my internet phone from the hotel room and it worked quite well from there. That is, as long as I am not using WinMX in the background to download files.

I helped fix a number of computer problems out there and removed one virus for a system. You know someone needs help when they offer you dinner and the conversation starts out with “I have this computer problem…” Hey, at least it makes me feel wanted and I am glad to help.

I looked in many stores at the prices and found that with only a couple exceptions on items, that COSTCO, Home Depot and Wal-Mart all charge mainland prices for things! The old adage that it is expensive to live in Hawaii is wrong. Yes, there ARE places there that are expensive and certainly visiting there can cost you if you eat in the hotel restaurants every night, but still, it doesn’t have to be expensive.

One expensive thing I found were gasoline ($2.30 a gallon in Kona but $2.03 at COSTCO). Still, where are we going to drive to? To some people that $2.03 a gallon is not very expensive, but here in georgis it is about a dollar cheaper!

Another thing that is expensive are frozen foods it appears. I assume that because they have to ship them frozen they jack the price up. A $2.50 dinner in georgia costs $4.25 there. Perhaps I can find cheaper, but didn’t look.

Milk is not very expensive and neither was beer; however, bread was $1.75 to $3.00 a loaf in the one grocery I went to. Perhaps other places like COSTCO would be better. I hear that the day-old bread store has great prices.

I checked water prices and found that water was $4.00 a thousand gallon for residental or $2.00 a thousand for agricultural. That “AG” rate is the same as my Georgia residential rate, so on the farm I will pay the same water rate as I did in Georgia for my home. In Georgia we paid $3.50 a thousand for sewage but in Hawaii I have no sewer fee so all in all for the same water useage I will pay one third the rate in Hawaii as I did in Georgia.

I forget the electric rate on the island, but without needing to use it for heat or cooling, I save even more! I also believe that they do not test autos for emissions on the islands; at least I don’t see it on the webpage anywhere. If so, perhaps because the car emissions pale in comparison to the output of gasses from the volcano! Luckily the wind blows them away

I think I convinced myself to have someone else create my business webpage for me. I have so much to do that I have no time to devote to it. I have to learn to offload some of the work to others. I’m supposed to be retired in paradise!

Anyway, as you can see, it was a full two weeks out there and I amazed myself with how much I accomplished. I even found time to browse the internet, chat on the phone with friends and generally goof off. I also had a couple hours by the pool, but am careful to limit solar reception at the beginning.

Although I don’t recommend it, I was able to check out of the hotel, get gas, take the rental car back, take the shuttle bus the the terminal, stand in two lines and have my bags inspected for agricultural items, go through the TSA screening, the xray machine and get onto the plane, all in less than 60 minutes!!!!! Too bad I left town a week before the Ironman race. I might just have been able to win that too!

Until NEXT time…!