What a week!

What a week! was Originally Posted on November 4, 2006 by lavarock

This week passed fast and furious! Yesterday marked the first day of the 2006 Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.

One of the first events of the Festival is the Lantern Parade and the Kona Coffee Farmers Association was one of the parade participants. We had some people carrying the KCFA banner, a few people waving and I pulled a “Kona Nightingale” which was a stuffed donkey, reminiscent of the donkeys, who used to carry coffee. It also had a tape recorder playing a donkey bray however I think most could not hear the donkey.

We had built a coffee shack, but could not pull it in the lantern parade but will enter it in the grand parade at the end of the week.

We set up display tables inside the hale and sold coffee and signature logo items such as coffee bean jewelry and candles. Later in the evening we heard that we had tied for second place with a corresponding cash prize!

Closer to home, for the past 3 days I have had a “dozer” (bulldozer) clear out trees from my lot. Now the operator is up in Kona for 2 weeks while I decide how much more clearing I want done. So far more than 5 or 6 acres are mostly clear of trees and I have giant piles of what is left of the macadamia nut trees.

I had hoped to find someone to buy or take the wood from the 300+ macadamia nut trees, but I had no takers and no real time to do much prior research. The guy was working on a lot near me and because of the proximity to my property, he was able to just come over and start. I had tried to get someone else to come give me an estimate, but after 6 months when this new guy said he could start right away, he got the job.

A neighbor has a tree business and was willing to come make mulch from the trees, but he never told me that he needed to cut the trees and shred them. Instead, once he heard that the dozer guy pushed the trees into a grub pile, he did not want to shred my trees. It seems that when the trees are pushed over, the roots contain rocks, which tear up the shredder. It certainly makes sense, but it is too bad he never mentioned anything in advance!

I am still having a bit of trouble getting trees to grow from parchment and will need to start with hand-pulped cherry instead. Although I am clearing 5 acres, I think I will only plant a couple of acres this year. I am afraid of having too many trees growing until I have the catchments water tanks in. Catchment is where you “catch” the rainwater off of roofs and store it in a giant tank. The present proposal calls for 80,000 gallons of water to tide me over in event of a draught.

Speaking of coffee, I just had some beans roasted in Medium and also in a darker (Full City Plus) roast. If you wanted a bit of the dark stuff, now would be the time. I prefer medium, but I know some people like it a bit darker. Go to ItsKona.Com and order away! If you also want 1997 Calendars, I’m scanning the covers and will have them up sometime tonight I hope! In late November I hope to offer some 2oz bags of coffee from some of my neighbors in a sampler pack!