The Clock Is Ticking

The Clock Is Ticking was Originally Posted on December 24, 2007 by

It has been a while since I have posted a blog.

First, I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but they took my oldies station and changed over to Christmas music along about Halloween! I was not happy. It is unfortunate that I have no other stations in range wirth listening to. I hate to admit it but I am awaiting December 26th with more excitement than the 25th.

I had the property cleared of trees in December, then let things go while I was on the mainland a couple of times. Before I knew it, there were 3 to 4 foot bushes and trees where my coffee needs to be. I have been trying to clear that area up since.

I found someone to put in the base for my water catchment tanks and he is about to begin. He will also clear the above described brush from two acres and punch holes in the rock for coffee trees. I’ll be planting up to 1500 or so trees this year.

In the brush I also found many papaya trees had grown. I’ve tried to save them for now, their fruit selling for .99 a pound in stores here. Some of these papayas are gigantic (the size of grapefruit)! I don’t know which variety they are (as they are wild), but they can’t be too bad. In the worst case, my guard dog Koa will eat them :-)

Koa is now 50 pounds or more and still growing. He was officially registered with the AKC as “Aloha Kokoleka Kope” (Aloha Chocolate Coffee). As he has matured, we have determined that he may be from different father than first suspected (dogs can have multiple fathers in the same litter); so I’ll submit his DNA swab to AKC to verify his parents.

There is some happy and sad news to report. Koa’s Mother had a litter and so did another female at the kennel. Both litters were premature and 3 puppies did not make it. One was so small that he had to be hand-fed as he could not nurse. I snuggled a bit with him over the few days he was with us. He hung on as long as he could, but was just not strong enough to make it. It is a reminder to me that it can be a very cruel and unforgiving world out here. However, the rest of the two litters are doing great and we are thankful they made it.

I have been selling quite a bit of coffee and am currently out, so I closed the website for a short while. I have been very busy with so many projects that many others have not gotten the attention they need. The coffee plants are the most important at the moment and I am still trying to get them in the ground before my self-appointed deadline of December 31st. At least it is not my holdup at the moment.

I also am waiting for my quote to be delivered fro installation of the catchment tanks. I hope it comes in under budget.

Recently I replaced my trucks brake disc pads. I must not have cranked a couple of bolts down tightly because they fell off and I lost ½ my front braking power. It was an easy fix on my part with one exception. This is a VERY COMMON truck on this island and I understand that the bolts are very common parts that often are not tightened properly and thus, weekend mechanics like me often lose them. Still, there were not any bolts to be had on the island and I ended up waiting almost a week for them to be airlifted in.

I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I changed from a regular hardwired telephone at the farm to a voice over IP phone which costs me about 1/3 of the price of the one from the phone company.

I also signed up to a stock purchase plan that uses dollar-cost-averaging to help you save. That company was just purchased by ING.

Speaking of ING and their website INGDIRECT.COM, they now offer a checking account which pays almost 4% interest! Compare that to regular banks that barely give you a tenth of that in a savings account. If you are into saving money, please consider putting your hard-earned money to work for you.

I’m not sure if I’m working this Christmas, but in the hospitality industry, it is not unusual to work holidays.

It’s not a New Years resolution or anything like that I’m passing along, just a helpful hint… back Up That Computer!

If you are a taxpayer, it is about time to buy and sell those stocks, print off your account transactions and yes, even check to see how many miles are on the odometer.

If using the end of the year as a guide, it may also be time to change out those smoke detector batteries.

If I remember correctly, I think January starts the flood of discount certificates to get you to scrap your perfectly good TV and switch to HDTV.

And the countdown begins….