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Rain, Rain and more Rain and then New York

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Rain, Rain and more Rain and then New York was Originally Posted on June 2, 2013 by

I am trying to keep upbeat about the whether; trying not to complain. I have been back a couple weeks now from my mainland trip and it has been raining about every day. Sometimes I get a few hours of sun in the morning, but them overcast and often, very heavy rain.

Rain is very useful for the coffee trees because as soon as we get rain, the trees start to bloom. Those blooms bring coffee beans and coffee beans bring income. However, it is also a two-sided sword.

When it rains, I cannot spray the weeds to kill them, so they grow very tall, very fast. I also cannot spray the coffee trees. That means I can get diseases and bugs.

So when it does stop raining for a day or so, I find I have blossoms on the trees and can’t spray because the honeybees can be effected if they are pollinating a flower that has been sprayed.

Then there is the problem with the guy I have hired to help weed for me. He came from the mainland and was visiting with a friend out here while he worked on his life. He was a good worker and I paid him well. when I texted him a few days ago and offered him more work, he replied that he was back on the mainland, and I assume for good.

Yes, there are other people that can work for me, but they are not as dependable. This guy would arrive early, sometimes getting a ride, other times having bicycled 10 miles on precarious roads to get here. Then he would work 8 to 10 hours and ride home. Sometimes I could drive him there, but biking 10 miles even one way is a long ride on this island.

Now I see that I need to start hiring people to pick the coffee beans, that is, if they can find the things in between the weeds.

I guess it could be a lot worse. I could be trying to do this in a 3rd world country, dodging juntas and worrying if I can call it “fair trade” coffee. here because a good picker can make $100 or $200 a day, no one accuses Hawaii of paying substandard wages. The pickers drive better vehicles than I do. And before I get off the subject, I had been paying the weed waking guy $15 an hour! Imagine him thinking he can get a better wage in New York (they don’t do much weed wacking there :-)