Gotta run!

Gotta run! was Originally Posted on October 10, 2008 by

Today was my day off from the condo. You would think it would be a lazy day, Not!

First, I got up and took Koa outside. We played a bit (primarily catch and fetch with a stick). He really loves fetching and I think he could do it all day (that is, when he is not sleeping or eating).

I left him inside while I went and sprayed some Roundup-type weed killer over part of the area yet to be planted. These chemicals are fairly safe in that they sit on top of green leaves and interfere with the plants ability to convert sunlight to useable energy. After a coupe tankfuls, it was time to eat something. Although not the best breakfast, I opted for macaroni and cheese! Then back out to spray some more.

Along about 10am I was ready for my next project, mowing the grass on the upper section of the farm. I drove around in circles until 2 things happened. First I was about out of gas and second, another part came off the mower! *&^#^$%%*&^%*( I am just so irritated. The last part to come off was a spring that holds an idler wheel against the belt that turns the blades on the deck. When the spring came off earlier I found yet again that nobody stocks parts for these mowers here in Hawaii. I tried to buy it online and the shippintg would have been $30 for a $15 part! Until I can find a way to get the part cheaper, I decided to use a spring I had here from my last brake job on the truck. I knew it would not last long, but at least I got lots of grass cut.

Then I came in and worked on my friends new website. She is selling pet food here on the island and is about ready to open the site and shopping cart to customers.

Along about 1pm I started some laundry so I have clothes for work. I used to hang the clothes on a clothesline but finally decided to hook up one of the dryers I have. because of logistics I located the dryer in the downstairs bathroom by building a heavy-duty extension cord. I made sure that it was safe and able to handle the current. I would not suggest others do what I did, but I used to do electrical work, wiring houses. Besides, this is not a permanent solutions. Soon I’ll get the utility room cleared out and paneled, etc. Actually, it would make a perfect coffee storage area. maybe I’ll move the washer and dryer under the house and reconfigure the room. Stay tuned. At the rate I’m getting projects done, it should be a couple more years before I can report my preogress :-)

As I was doing the wash I noticed a pinhole leak in the PVC that runs to the utility sink outside. That line comes off a tee from the main line and services outside. The libe from the water meter comes up the property, splits to a faucet under the house, also to a line tha truns to the utility sink and the line that waters the nursery plants. That is the line that was leaking. Finally it also goes to a reducer and into the house. Thus to fix the pipe I had to shut off water to the house and drain that part of the line. Luckily, there is a convenient cutoff I put in a few years ago. I may also add another cutoff or two so I can fix things like this without cutting off the whole house. Turns out that the washer does not go into psin if there is no water pressure so I had to wait until the pipe cement dried before finishing the laundry.

I ordered and received a small batch coffee roaster and have already performed a few test batches. Today I ran a number of batches of green cooffee through it and took copious notes. The unit will not roast coffee to a dark level with oil, and it is piossible that if you do things incorrectly, you could start a fire in the beans if they got oily in the unit. Thus they have carefully set the limits so it is difficult to get beans too dark. This unit will help me do small batches for customers without having to roast a large batch and they store the roasted hoping for orders quickly. Of course, for large orders or dark coffee, I will still send the coffee out to get roasted.

Based upon the cost of the roaster and the price of electric, I won’t pay off this roaster any time soon!

It is now 6:00pm and I’m checking mail again and blogging. Then it will be dinner and time to dump the laundry into the dryer. I’ve got some tax items to address and then off to bed so I can get to the office by 8am tomorrow. In fact, I need to get there earlier because the Ironman race starts at like 5am or some such hour and many of outr guests will be checking out early t oavoid road closures and there will be lots of questions on how to avoid traffic.

There should be live video from Kona on the internet and I assume the race will be covered by some sports channel. It should also be rebroadcast weeks from now. The coverage has won awards in the past and is well done. It is also an opportunity for people to see and learn a bit about where I live.

Speaking of telecasts, Wheel of Fortune was filmed here recently and that should start being shown in another month or two, so watch for that too.

For now, I must run (and not in the Ironman race).

Aloha!