Born in Bloomington Texas in 1922, she soon became a very popular American actress and singer. She recently wrote an autobiography explaining her fight with alcoholism. After a search for TV stars, I found her book and, being a fan, bought it. I kept wanting to send it to her for an autograph, but I waited too long.

I know you are thinking, who was she? Perhaps you remember her by her stage name, Gale Storm?

Her TV shows were ledgendary; My Little Margie and the Gale Storm Show. In MY Little Margie (I have some shows on DVD) she played a young girl growing up in a single parent apartment. Her father was played by silent film star Charles Farrell. The show was a staple of morning TV in the 50's and involved Margie getting in to lots of trouble and involving neighbors in her antics.

Her second series was aptly called the Gale Storm Show (Oh! Susanna) with another silent film star, Zasu Pitts. This show could be described as the predicessor of The Love Boat. Gale played a shipboard Activities Director who constantly gets into trouble.

She was also known for her singing career.

I have been a fan since first seeing he ron TV and can say thaqt I am truely sad to hear of her passing. She gave us years of smiles and we will never forget that way she rolled that sound she made (like a rolled R). It is hard to explain, but those who watched her TV shows will smile at the rememberance.

May she live forever in our hearts. Gale Storm, dead at age 87.

Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Her Official Site (photos and info): http://www.galestorm.tv

Still, most of the trees are doing fine and some of the almost dead trees will recover; so I'm not worried.

The mature trees were all on 1/2 gallon bags with dirt and they fared quite well. A few have some yellow leaves and I expect that is transplant shock. Still, they are thriving. I counted 4 rows today and out of 160 trees, about 40 already have good sized cherry on them. That means that I will in fact have to pick coffee from this new section of trees this year! Now just how much I get will remain to be seen, but this is the culimnation of many years of preparation and I certainly will celebrate at first harvest!

These trees are all immature compared to regular trees and a full crop will take a couple years. The trunks will strengthen and trees will develop very good root structures as they wind their way through the rocks below.

Soon I'll have to buy crop insurance. In the meantime, I'm growing replacement plants in the event some die off.

We have had a few days of good soaking rain, which is good because my tanks are dry at the moment. As soon as I can afford it, I'll divert the rainwater from the roof to the bottom tank.

I'm sure that some of you are interested in the whole process of coffee farming. A neighbor wrote most if not all of Wikipedia page entitled "Kona Coffee". Give it a read if you like at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Although the article says that the trees flower in April, our recent rains caused another flowering. My neighbors' trees all had blossoms and the aroma of the blossoms fills the air. It is a very light, sweet smell which fills the air.

As for the farm status, the first round of new trees are planted and the irrigation is all in. I have received payment for much od the work I have done; with one exception. The drip line and irrigation portion of the contract had the most money in it. In order to maximize my return, I need to fill in the 1000' trench alongside the driveway (and I use the word "driveway" sparingly). It will cost many thousands of dollars for dirt or sand, but when filled, I can submit all my reecipts for the microirrigation section. That payment will return, perhaps, $12,000 to me for money spent.

In the meantime, I am shuffling money from one account to another, trying to ease cash-flow for the rest of the year. If I had been a year or two earlier with this planting, as I had hoped, everything would have been smooth sailing. Still, I have hopes of a small business loan to carry me for a year until I am able to tap into some funds I have waiting. It is a very strange feeling to have, to all of a sudden not be able to pay all credit card bills in full each month. I know that may be the norm for many nd lately a common experience even for people of means. I have prided myself on being able to control costs and spending and something has always worked out.

So even though there will be some lean times, our lives are a lot like farming. (Oh gosh, is he gonna get philosophic on us?).

We have our good times when thing are growing strog, then we have lean times when we slow down and take stock and wait. Soon the climate changes and we begin to grow again. You know, as I write this, I am reminded of (or perhaps guided by) the movie "Being There" with peter Sellers. A very interesting movie where Peter is not a comedic figure. he plays "Chance" the gardener, who is not as smart as others thing, yet still has a simple understanding of the world. The following discussion explains better what I was trying to say. The President is asking Chance about the economy and the country. Chance talks about the only think he knows, gardening; but the similarities are quite close.

President "Bobby": Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause]
Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President "Bobby": In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President "Bobby": Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President "Bobby": Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we're upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President "Bobby": Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time.
(Benjamin Rand applauds)

So, let us all go out and prune and trim some, a bit of dieback may happen, but in the Spring, things should look a lot better.

Oh, and I'll keep th fertilizer going via the blog :-)

So I carry them around in the back, waiting on some free time to install them. Meanwhile, I find that a brake cylindar is leaking. The cylindar has a small piston in it and whe nyou step on the pedal, fluid flows to he piston and expands it. This causes the pads to stretch out and contact the inside of the brake drum and the friction slows you down. With brake fluid leaking in there, the shoes get damp and won't work well. Also, if you lose lots of fluid, your brakes won't work at all.

So off I go again to the auto parts store. I walk in and the guy starts his tapping on the keyboard again. "What size shoes do you have?" he asks. I tell him I have not yet installed them, why? It seems that there are 3 sizes of cylinders...

Just having someone locally swap out the shoes costs at least $250, although I can do that part myself for about $40. The cylinders and shoes would probably cost me $30 to have replaced, yet the parts would cost me less than $100 total. See why I'd prefer t odo it myself? Total time would be a couple hours, lifting the car, swapping the parts out and cleaning up.

I know what you are thinking. "Sure you can do it yourself, but it is taking you forever and each day you take your life in your hands. Why not just pay someone to do it."

That is pretty much what happened with the coffee trees and the planting. I just ran out of time to do it myself. I have lots of projects and this is just one of them. Still, I don't have lots of extra money to keep the local economy running. Every time I pass a certain place on the way to work, I see some guys working on cars outside their house. It appears that they are fixing them for sale. I began noticing them when they started working on a Camaro, because I'm a Camaro fanatic. I'm tempted to stop and ask them if they would like t odo the work. perhaps it would only cost me 1/2 as much.

On another topic, Halemaumau Crater appears to be active! This is the crater where an explosion a while back tossed a large boulder up into the air and is causing volcanic smog to cover the state. This is the same crater where you USED to be able to drive up next to and walk to the edge to look in. Not anymore!

I think the last time there was activity in this crater, Mark Twain was here on island (around the turn of the century).

During the day, the webcam shows smoke and steam; however, now at night (Hawaii time is 6 hours earlier than Eastern) you can actually see the glowing. At least at this very moment I see glow. I may have to travel over there to see it live. It has been years since I was close to live lava.

To see the current smoke and/or glow, go to: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam3/

Around noon Monday they will come and inspect my irigation system. I will be very happy t oget this part of the project signed off.

The other day I walked down each row and noted the contion of all plants that are not doing well. Some trees were drying out before planting and some have transplant shock. Still the tall trees are doing well, but some of the small ones have issues. I'm also looking at the chart to see if I have any issues with the drip lines being kinked. That would show up as a bunch of trees in a line being dry or dying.

For those geeks reading this, I am using Excel with 41 rows or so of 41 trees each row. I still need to number the rows outside and perhaps make some mark down each row. If I lose track of my count, I have to walk back down the row and count again. I'll probably start out with the little orange flags I have and use a magic marker on it to place the numbers.

I have been contacted to help set up 2 websites. Both people are dragging their feet and I could have had both websites running already just in the past two days. Perhaps both of the people have gotten cold feet. It can't be due to price because I was not charging them much at all. Oh well!

I have a friend who used to work atthe same Kentucky radio station as I did. Randy called me the other day and told me some people he knows are coming to the Big Island and can I find them a cheap room? I did some research, but then he never called back!

And so it goes...

Normally the unit records many critical events and signals from an airplane while in flight. In the event of an accident, the box is retreived and examined to determine what went wrong.

It is too bad that we can't find a way to transmit that information to one or more satellites or ground stations. I know there is lots of data and the black box is the current best way to house all that data; however the space shuttle doesn't use one. It relies upon a downlink for the data.

There may be 5,000 or perhaps upwards to 10,000 planes in the air at any time and that would be tremendous amounts of data.

We may not be able to capture this data in realtime, but it would make it easier to analyze if we did not have to search for the black box.

The program is part of the Farm Bill and reimburses me for certain funds spent installing an irrigation system that avoids using valuable ground water (county water) which is in sort supply here.

The program reviewed my finances to ensure that I had the where-for-all to pay for substancial costs before I would be paid back. Once I passed that hurdle, an engineer met with me to discuss my farm. I was irrigating the farm for macadamia nuts and wanted to plant coffee. He reviewed my plans and then performed a GPS survey of the property. He made up a plan to use rainwater from the roof of my house and garage to fill a water holding tank. Excess water would be stored in 3 other tanks at the top of the property (altitude-wise).

Water from the tanks would be used to water the crops during times when we do not get enough rain. The plan also calls for cover crops, managing watering amounts and fertilizer to ensure that there is no runoff or waste.

As I finish certain milestones, I get paid back a percentage of my costs, up to the limit of my contract. Of course, should I not fulfil the contract, I must repay any monies paid by the government.

The nice thing about this system is that it has been professionally engineered and installed and I have been careful to ensure that even my part was done properly :-) The system will enhance the farm and should I ever dcide to sell, it will be a great addition and has already increased the cost-basis of the property.

For those who want more details, here is a link: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/PROG...

I have to admit, they will pay in about 5 to 7 business days :-)

The next step is to use some of that money to get the water from my roof into the bottom tank.

Some of the small trees are being challenged in the growing department, but most are doing well.

I hope for a good drenching rain, and wait, and wait.... The driplines can only do so much with little rainfall.

The older dogs are being watched by someone else, because I am at work some of these days and the puppies need 3 meals a day.

For some reason, known only to the dogs, the older ones seem to want to wake me up every 15 to 30 minutes for hours at a time. Koa especially misses me so I can understand a whine from him.

I have laid all the dripline on the property and am assembling the attachments. I expect to have the whole property irrigated by perhaps Thursday. This means I can submit my receipts and get paid for the majority of my contract! Oh Joy!

A little know fact is that under certain circumstances, you can borrow your own money for a small fee each year. Then you make periodic payments back into your 401K with interest. So you borrow your own money and pay yourself back with interest. The plan administrator takes a small fee for filing and paperwork. These truely are 401-K plans where you can manage the investments. In my case, I am the employer and the only employee.

You are limited to borrowing 1/2 the money or $50,000. If you are a sole-propriator with or without spouse and have no employees, the loan may be the way to go. I caution you to check with your tax person, but this may be for you.

You should know that the loan is limited in years and its length is based upon whether you are buying your 1st home or are using the funds for something else.

You also need to make sure tha tyou can repay on schedule, or the loan is considered an early withdrawal of funds. Again, check with a tax professional.

Anyway, I took a loan and am paying it back to myself. The compay I went with, PAI, thought my farm story was interesting enough to put in their internal newsletter so that their employees could read a personal story of one of their customers! They also sent along to me a nice framed thank you with signatures of some of the employees!

I would post a photo of that but since it contains signatures, I will not. However, I really appreciate the thank you and will hang it in the office here for all to see.

For information on the plan I signed up for, visit http://www.pai.com/FSP_plan4o...

After hooking it up, I will be able to submit my receipts so that I can get paid towards my expenses on my contract. We are talking over $10,000! I still have a day or so worth of work and then have t owait for the inspection and then about 5 business days for the money. THEN I go celebrate a small bit.

You can uimagine having lots of money spent and have to wait for it to come back. I'll be happy to catch up on my credit card payments and not worry about the mortgage for a while longer. Last time I was out $30,000, so this is not so much, but comes at a time more critical than before :-)

Anyway, so far, the 1600 trees are doing pretty good.

Flat rate boxes (and the cheaper alternative, envelopes) are a cost-effective alternative to other shipping methods. I can ship a couple pounds of coffee to anywhere in the US for just about $5. I can ship perhaps 4 pounds of coffee, some honey and a few calendars for under $10. The post office says "If it fits, it ships!" This is true, although we farmers push the envelope a bit, so to speak.

There is an upper limit on weight, but unless you are literally shipping bricks, I don't think it will be a limit for you.

The envelope is best for papers or a book; the boxes come in a few different sizes and are best fro odd sized or heavy items. I won't try to teach you all about this shipping option, but encourage you to stop by the post office and look at the sizes. There is a small box, one the size of a shoe box and one the size of a sweater box (the latter having a bit more space in it than the shoe box one).

You can buy stamps the right amount to paste on the boxes, but there is a secret I wanted to pass along. Go to USPS.COM and create an account and use a credit card to buy postage. You save few cents and lots of time. Here is how:

You access the site and log in. Either choose an address from your saved lists or enter the shipping information. Choose your shipping method, like the flat rate shoe box and then you print the shipping label on your printer. The cost is less than buying stamps at the post office. Although they make adhesive labels specifically for these types of labels, you can print on a regular white piece of paper. I do that and then use clear packing tape to tape the label on the box. It could not be easier!

You also save time, especially during holidays and you don't have to be a big shipper to do this. perhaps you are mailing Christmas ornaments to Mom, or a "C.A.R.E." box to the kids with all sorts of candy and stuff. Just pack the box, attach the label and head to the post office. Don't dispair that the line winds its way out the door and half way down the street. You don't have to stand in line to ship now! Just walk in past these poor un-technical people and go to the designated counter. In my post office it is the one that is at the end and unused. Ask your post office in advance if you like, exactly how they would like you to drop off your packages or envelopes.

You may notice that almost everyone in line is getting stamps or buying boxes. You already have stamps and a box (you Do know that the box was free, right?). Anyway, you place the box on the counter and point at the preprinted postage label. A clerk will look and nod that they saw you drop the box off and "whoosh", you are out the door. Average time in the post office to drop off a box or envelope, 1 minute! This is in contrast to the 20 minutes that others may be waiting. Oh, they may think you are cheating by bypassing the line, but in reality, you are being efficient and using the system to your advantage and the post office rewards you with a pleasant experience, a free box or envelope and a few cents off your shipment. I liken this to you going on a flight where you paid less than the person next to you. You did a bit of work up front and saved money. It s not your fault that others don't know the secret.

I suggest this process even for people who only send a couple packages a year. If your items fit in the box, the price is fixed. I have a tendency of buying gifts that will fit the boxes. However, I find that I send more gifts because the process is so simple now and I don't have to stand in long lines at the post office. The best part is saving that 19 minutes a week or so before Christmas.

I have not mentioned shipping times. Shipping a package to or from Hawaii can take a long time, if it goes by boat. Luckily, flat rate boxes ar priority mail and go by plane. Average time from anywhere in the US to anywhere else in the US is 3 to 5 business days! Although it can take a bit longer during holidays, still, that is fast!

You can get boxes and envelopes at the post office. If you ship a lot, you can go to USPS and order them (free shipping to your home or office). You can buy stamps at regular price to attach, but bty printing the label and postage at the USPS site, you save a few cents each and get free delivery confirmation. You can also add insurance if you wish, although out of hundreds of shipments I have only lost 2 shipments and they were too inexpensive to have worried about the cost of insurance.

As you can tell, I'm on the bandwagon for this and have been since they developed this flat rate priority shipping system. It is similar to FedEx and UPS but at a lower cost and certainly appropriate for businesses and home use.

Give it a try!

Although it means a stone marking a mile in length, it also is a defined as a significant stage of life or a point of progress. In Hawaii a persons first milestorne is their 1st birthday. It marks a point where a child has passed enough childhood that they have an excellent chance at life. The first 8 weeks of a puppy is similar. The first few miles of a cars life is spent in slow, deliberate driving to preserve the vehicles new parts.

A couples milestone are measured in hours, then weeks, months, years and decades of being together.

My milestores are smaller and less important in the scheme of things, yet are milestones none-the-less.

The number of visitors to my blog is aproaching 50,000, my truck is about to roll over at 100,000 miles and as of 2pm today, all 1600 coffee trees I have to plant will be in the ground! Yay!

After removing the plastic bags and trash the workers should head down to road to their next job; one I will not have to pay for :-)

Although only half of what I would like to have planted at this time, it is still a major milestone! After years of planning, many thousands of dollars and countless man-hours, the farm is half planted. I see a few trees which will need to be replaced, but so far, very few have failed.

The water system is working and I have already drained the bottom tank of water. Alot of that went to water trees above ground, which dry out quicker then those in the ground. I hope to reduce the water useage now and rely on drip irrigation. I still need to connect the tanks to the house to catch rainwater, but in the meantime, I have rainwater which partially filled the tanks, just from rain hitting the top of the tanks and dripping through the shade cloth.

I still need to find a source of money to pay off the bills from construction, but soon I will have all the coffee I can keep up with. After the second half of planting, I will need to hie people to help me here. So far I already have pickers asking if I can schedule them!

As you can see, I'm certainly not done and in hindsight the whole project should have taken months instead of years, however expect the second half of the farm to be completed soon after I start. I know who to call, what to expect and how much it should cost. Many of the parts needed have already been purchased and paid for.

I plan to celebrate this current milestone and start working on part-2, but first, a short intermission :-)

The removal of the macadamia nut trees and subsequent planting of new coffee trees makes this project almost pau (finished).

Beginning about 8am or so, workers will finally begin planting 1600 trees. I already test planted 7 trees and tested the whole system including weedmat, water distribution and logistics.

I have staged trees and driplines, weedmat and even staged the smaller trees to the top of the property. I still have some things to do early in the morning, but they are fairly simple. I'll leave instructions for the guys to start and will return about noon to help out.

You know, in hindsight, knowing then what I know now, this should have been a few weeks work :-)

I thank all of you for letting me share the trials and tribulations getting to this point. I should be able to get back to regular scheduled blogging where I chat about living in Hawaii.

The condos are quite different and not up to the same standards as many of the other places these same people may stay in. In other words, the units are nice but not THAT nice.

Yesterday a couple came, checked in and went to their room. They soon came back and talked with my co-worker. Later I heard that the wife was almost in tears. They had no car, and were expecting an all-inclusive resort where there would be restaurants, massage rooms I guess, etc. Without the car they would not be able to easily shop, etc. The wife kept saying that the condos were just not what they expected. I'm sure because Sunday is Mother's Day that she was hoping to be pampered, etc.

The husband has some medical issues and we quickly got them some snacks and directed them to local restaurants. I also found them a convertable deal at $200 a week compared to the cheapest economy at $400 a week. I also drove the gentleman to the airport after my shift was over. The airport is 6 miles the other direction from my way home.

I think the earliest they can contact their timeshare reservation company is Monday and by then it may not make sense to pack up and move somewhere else.

Our boss is away and I don't know if he could make any other arrangements for them, but at least Cali and I are doing our best to make the guests feel comfortable and welcome.

I watered all 1600 plants that are still above ground awaiting planting.

Then I moved all of the weed mat material and staged it across the new planting area. I decided upon weed mat rather than constantly using Roundup near the new trees. It will help keep weeds at a minimum and I won't have to mow as much.

On the water lines for each area I have saddles with a PVC sticking up. Those have caps on them right now so I could test the water pressure. You could call them "risers" or "stubs" if you wish, or not call them at all. I have assembled a right angle connector and nipple with a short piece of non-drip line to them and also attached a valve. I threw each one in the trench where the risers are now. When the drip lines are rolled out, I will cut the riser, attach this adapter and hook the hose to them. Then I just turn on the valve and water flows to each row of trees. A photo would help, but I'm sure you don't care that much. Suffice it to say, It's lots of work.

I also positioned the drip line around the property. That is when I realized that I only took delivery of 4,000 feet of dripline and for Monday I need 8,000 feet. I called the supply company and reviewed invoices. When I first spoke with them I was planting 5 acres instead of about 2.5. We specified out all the dripline I needed and to get the best price, it looks like I paid for it all. No wonder my costs were high. They have thousands of dollars of dripline of mine stored out there. I would rather have the money at the moment, but that explains a lot.

I have drawn up a diagram of the planting area, complete with rows and columns (using Excel). I colored each of the rows where the short trees are going. The total trees on property to plant (if some trees did not die) are 1642. There are holes already for each one.

Also I am writing up instructions for the workers.

"Instructions he said?"

I have not yet mentioned it I don't think. On Monday, while I am working 1/2 a day in town, workers will descend upon the farm and begin planting the above mentioned 1642 trees! Yes!!!!!! Finally!!!!! All the delays and all the work will soon come to a head. I have dirt and the rest of the drip line scheduled to be delivered Monday early. The workers will be here and will start rolling out the weed mat, cutting an X where the holes are, putting dirt and fertilizer in the holes, followed by coffee trees. Then I can roll out the drip lines, attach them to the risers, charge the water pipes with pressure and slowly, very slowly, drip water at the base of each tree. Many of these trees have already blosomed and that means that they should produce SOME cherry this year. Just how much remains to be seen because there is a period where the trees will die back from transplant shock, perhaps. Time will tell.

I still have an issue with a vlve that isn't working, I still need to decide how to fill the trench (hint: the problem would be solved if I had money to throw at it). I still need to hook the controller up to the lines rather than do things manually.

The remaining issues will not be difficult nor time-consuming; the bulk of the planning and work having been done.

Could this project been done a lot sooner? Yes, ABSOLUTELY! I could start over and have it done in weeks instead of years not that I have been through it. I can tell you though, that there is a pride that I was able to juggle things and work though problems and make lots of decisions. I just wish I was a year earlier. I am running out of money and the income from the new trees would have saved the day. Still, the hope of cherry this year means new coffee to sell and next year should be a bumper crop!

The workers will start Monday and work Tuesday too I'm sure. I don't know how fas the work will go, but somewhere about Wednesday I hope to have a nice celebration; perhaps at the brew pub. You may not realize it, but the world does NOT revolve around coffee. Just my little part of it here on the Big island!

I had suggested that hosting company to many of my neighbors and we were all in the same boat, having problems and getting no help.

This is not good when you are trying to run an internet business.

I looked around and finally found a reliable hosting company and became a reseller. I could control prices (keeping them low) while tailoring plans so that my neighbors did not have to pay for services they would not use.

In this economic climate, many people want to start a personal business or perhaps start chat forums or host a photo site. The hosting plans are very low cost and the helpdesk very responsive!

You are welcome to visit http://Planet-Aloha.Info for more info.

I stopped by Sandra's on the way home because she had a dog (Emily) ready to deliver this weekend. However, Emily did not get the info and was going into labor already. The Xrays a few days earlier showed 8 or maybe 9 puppies. The first puppy was delivered after 10pm. A few more followed, but not on any patrticular schedule.

I stopped back there today and there were 9 puppies, none in many hours, but Emily was still panting. Sandra had Emily scheduled for another Xray, to make sure there were no other puppies. This is because Emily should not have been panting. As we got her out of the whelping box, she had a couple contractions and out came a puppy! Amazed because it had been a long time coming, Emily start nursing that one. The other puppies were still in a box awaiting a ride with Mom to the vet.

15 minutes later she was still panting, got up and popped out yet another puppy! That was number 11. I hated to leave incase there was an encore, but leave I did.

Photos of the new puppies will be uploaded on on her AlohaLabradors.Com site soon and I'll post a link here soon. In the meantime she had already taken deposits on 4 or 5 puppies before they were even born. These puppies have a champion father too! I expect all to be sold soon. By the way, they are yellow and black Labradors.

I was supposed to be at my high school for a reunion this weeked but had to cancel that trip.

I continue to work on the farm and hope to have big news soon. Of course, I have been saying that for years...

Still the plants sit on the ground, unplanted. Soon, soon they will be in.

The pump uses a relay to pull in the 220 volts. I moved that relay to the house side of the wire so that when the pump is not running, the wire inbetween is not powered. This would be the same as using a faucet at the house to turn off a hose, rather than leaving water in a hose and using the sprayer at the end to only control the water.

Some areas of the islands got lots of rain, we here in captain Cook did not.

I was hoping to make it to my 40th High School reunion at the end of the month, but have to stay here to get the plants in. When they finally get planted, I will celebrate big time! I think it will be pizza and beer at the Kona Brewing Company. I have to tell you that they have the best pizza I have ever had in my life!

We have more snow on Mauna Kea and even had some thunder and lightning down at sea level.

I have to get my laundry done and will be heading into town early in the morning. I work part time up there and Saturday is a big day for check-ins and check-outs. Perhaps I can hawk a bit of coffee to the outbound visitors. They HAVE to take some kind of gifts back home :-)

As I was typing the last comments, I was so tempted... so very tempted.... we do check-ins and check-outs, and even check-on out guests. Howvere we don't check-off anything because as you know, check-off was on Star Trek (OUCH!)

Aloha for now! :-)

With one exception, this completes the water collection and storage part of my project!

It is in test mode, but I can:

1) Pump water from the bottom tank to fill the top tanks.
2) Pump water from the bottom tanks to irrigate the top 2 acres of the farm.
3) Drain the top three tanks to irrigate the bottom 3 acres.
4) Drain the top tree tanks to fill the bottom tank (if necessary).

The final step to be able to complete the above was the stretching of the 2 inch main line across the driveway I am using to get to the house. Without a trench and lots of sand to buffer the pipe, I won't be driving down that way now.

I have a second driveway cut through on the far side of the trench, but cannot use that one yet for 2 reasons. The first is I have to trench the main part of the pipe so I can cross it down by the house, and secondly, there are giant rocks that came out of the trench and driving over them is not recommended!

I still cannot capture rainwater which falls on the house and can only use what water has fallen on the top of the 4 tanks and dripped through the shade cloth. I also have to finish attaching all the valves to the control wires (about an hours work).

Since I have water in the top tanks, I can now drain that into the bottom tank and use that bottom one to irrigate the top 2 acres under pressure. The top acres are punched and ready for coffee trees. I have coffee trees on property just waiting to be planted.

Today I also picked up some fertilizer and lime.

I guess that means that I can start planting trees... and irrigate them.. and watch them grow...

Finally!

First, an update from LavaRock Farm. I am days away from planting 1500 trees, which will make LavaRock Farm larger than the average Kona Coffee farm! It has been a long time coming.

Today at 15 minutes before 1pm we had a 5.0 earthquake. It created no sunami or reported damage, but a 5.0 is a biggie!

Finally, it is April 15th and in celebration of Tax day, we are offering 15% off everything* in the store!

Buy you have to hurry, when Tax day is done, so is this deal! Go to http://ItsKona.Com and make your choice. When you check out, enter TAXTIME in the REDEMPTION CODE discount box on the payment information page.

The coffee was roasted Monday and I have some whole bean and some already ground, just ready to ship, so act fast!

Aloha,

Mark

*Offer not valid when signing up for our Coffee Club.

Then I found I was unable to access the Tblog site (the problem was fixed quickly, but still, it caused me to back up all my blogs offsite). I have years of blogs!

I used a program called Website Downloader (which is free). You can search fro it, on sites like Cnet.com in their downloads area.

Dogs can eat many of the same things we do. They should have a well-balanced meal without the added junk. I feed Koa raw meat, some vegetables and cooked oatmeal and brown rice. Tonight he had London Broil, because it was on sale and cheaper than hamburger. Sometimes he gets some green beans, or carrots and yes, even some soybeans! He also eats papaya and has been known to search out avocados, although I try to keep him from eating too many (he'll get fat). he also gets a suppliment of fish oil tablets from me.

There has been a growing trend of pet owners going against Vetenarian suggestions to feed dry kibble. My last Vet had hundreds of bags of dry dog food in his waiting room. He won't make any profit telling you to feed raw food.

I had two vets at the condos recently. They agreed that in thier schooling, representatives of the pet food companies were the people who taught pet nutrition. Is that a conflict of interest?

Go take a look at the main ingredients of dry dog food. Corn and wheat may tp the list. Then you'll see some other stuff and lots of chemicals. Some of the chemicals offset those ruined by cooking and processing. Some are preservatives; some, who knows?

Our Labradors eat meat, fish, vegetables, cottage cheese, cheese, maybe a bit of sour cream, oatmeal, brown rice, and stuff you would eat on your own. Granted you would cook your portion, but as you know, that too kills vitamins, etc.

While I am not totally against dry dog food in small portions, a constant diet everyday is not good for your dog. It also seems that many dogs may be alergic to the wheat and products in dry food.

If you have a dog, at least think about what you are feeding it and perhaps investigate raw food and do your own research. Don't just rely upon someone who has a vested interest in what your animal eats.

I saw an item from Australia where a pet owner said that if someone had excess deer meat, they might call and offer some to the owner. That discussion degraded into feeding "road kill". I am not suggesting that, just the same food you buy for your family for your pet. If you don't want the hassles of preparing food, then at least investigate the products from a company called Wysong (http://wysong.net). That is the next best thing to raw food.

I needed to water the trees before they are planted. I powered the pump up and headed up the property. Neighbors later came en-mass to the my place to tell me that I had a geyser. Turns out the pressure relief valve tested itself. Now I need to see if it is broken or not installed correctly. If only it would rain....

The woman at the sprinkler company said she doesn't think my system was designed to run more than one zone at a time. OOPS! I was hoping I could to save lots of wires and complexity on the control system. Now I may need all 7 wires in the bundle I am running. Speaking of running wires, I am about 150 feet too short and have to get more wire tomorrow.

This morning I created a TODO list of about 14 things to be done before I can plant. They include application of fertilizer and lime, putting down weed mat, filling in the trenbch, finishing the feeder PVC and addition of drip lines, finding someone to bless the land and so on.

It is possible to start planting in a week, but each day it looks a week off.

In an unrelated iteam, twice in two weeks I was able to shout and stop someone from backing up into a guy on a mopen and one car just missed the other by 1 inch.

My good deads did nothing to add points to my account. As I exited Safeway the other day I found someone scraped the ide on my truck and drove off. It is not a big gouge, but it is very obvious, none the less, at least to me.

After suggestions from others and thought on my part, I opted to not spray and cut the grass where the plants will go. I will use landscape mat (weed mat) along the rows where the trees will go. I looked all over and even tried the Hilo side of the island. Without having it shipped in (and waiting months), I went with Lowes and lucky for me, they had it in stock. I wish I could have gotten the mat at wholesale prices, still, I did pretty good. I now own 8400 feet of mat!

It will be unrolled over the existing holes, and any rocks will be moved out of the way. Then where the holes are, an X will be cut in the mat and the mat puilled back. Then trees will be pushed in with a bit of fertilizer.

I unloaded the mat and moved all the small trees to where I can water them while unplanted.

I also hooked up a hose to the 2" pipe and watered all thew big trees. We have not had much if any rain since I took custody of the trees. That involved kicking on the pump and using rain water from the bottom tank.

I still have to get the fertilizer and may have to rent a truck. There is so much fertilizer and lime, I may have to make 3 or 4 trips.

I still have the PVC to finsh installing so I can complete the installation of the control wires.

Until I buy more sand and have the trenchg filled in and the connectors added, I can't plant....

Will I have plants in the ground this weeK, doen't look like it; however it still looks possible it could be by the end of the month.

It is a lot of work for one person and I wish I could multi-task more.

I set the alarm for 5:30 am so I could do a few tasks before Stu got here. Stu was bringing the 1060 mature trees. As I went outside I notic a big problem. My 10' by 10' canopy had bee ndestroyed by the wind. This is a popup canopy I bought to use at the farmers Market and cost about $80 a couple years ago. I had set it up to cover the valves and parts that were being put in the trench. It was tristed and the fabric ripped, and totally unusable anymore.

Then Stu and his wife brought the 1060 mature trees and my friend and I helped unload and stage them. This is a photo of the 1060 trees delivered today.

Most of the PVC is connected and now has the control wires in it. This will allow me to control the water valves on each zone. A side effect was that I got way too much sun and kept waiting on an afternoon sprinkle which never materialized.

In celebration of the tree delivery, it was lunch at manago Hotel. Those who have visited the island may know of the place. I had a wonderful terri beef plate with the world-famous potato salad on the side, rice and beans.

I'm off to Kona tomorrow for my part-time job. I hope I am not as sore tomorrow as tonight!

Then tonight at about 9pm the wind picked up considerable wind. The wind knocked most of them over, but they appear none the worse for wear. I ran out and loaded them back into the truck, in the dark. As I finished, the wind stopped. I am poised to drive somewhere else on the farm if the wind comes back.

Tomorrow I will take delivery of 1060 more mature trees.

Stay tuned...