There was a TV show recently, which asked, "Would you consider engineering your child". If you knew that the wife was carrying a child that had a specific problem, what would you do? If you could choose your Childs attributes, would you? If you could choose your child to look like a specific movie star, would you? Engineering people is very controversial.

Most Asians and Native Americans are lactose intolerant, and up to 80% of African Americans and Hispanic Americans also have some symptoms. Their ancestors did not eat dairy foods, so their bodies were not prepared to digest dairy, and they passed these genes on from generation to generation. As they intermarry, this problem may be reduced.

Engineering animals, not so much so. In the case of a purebred Labrador, you want to ensure that you do not pass along hip problems and you do that by testing. If a dog has problems you do not breed them because the problem is passed on to a percentage of the litter. If the two parents are very tall, the children will tend to be tall. Then by breeding them to tall dogs can compound the problem. It is a very common breeding event to breed for color. We can easily determine the probability, or even force the color of a chocolate or yellow or black Labrador.

Because Labradors are such common dogs (they are the most registered dog in America) it is inappropriate to beed a dog who has issues because there are so many other Labs who would not carry a problem further. However, if there were a very limited number of dogs in a gene pool, you might allow a problem such as hip displaysia to be ignored for the present and breed it out later when there are more dogs to carry the line forward.

In dogs, you may be breeding a problem away, or trying to ensure a good field or show dog. Many of the breeds were bred for specific qualities of working with livestock or being small enough to crawl into small spaces.

With all that said, Sandra, a friend and I drove to Hilo Wednesday with 6 Labradors (Koa was included) to have their hips checked. The Vet puts them to sleep and X-rays their hips and elbows, then the results are sent in for certification. We took the newly remodeled Saddle Road and I could have been blindfolded and plopped down on it and when the blindfold was removed, never have guessed where I was! There are parts of that road that are now 4 lanes! There are reflectors along the road and we were able to drive in fog/clouds with little problem. It is no wonder that the rental car companies are removing Saddle Road from the restricted driving areas.

We dropped the dogs at the Vet and then had the day to sightsee. After stopping at Kens for brunch, I talked the group into the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo (HiloZoo.Com). When I was a concierge I often recommended the zoo but had never been. This is the only natural tropical rainforest zoo in the U.S and covers 12 acres, so it is not so large that you will walk all day, but easy to spend an afternoon there. You can even take a picnic lunch. Since I had this chance, I really wanted to go. What a great place! The animals seemed well cared for, the landscaping is nice, and it is a lot larger than I thought it would be.

They have reptiles, mammals, primates, birds, amphibians and invertebrates. Of course, the neatest part is Namaste, the white Bengal Tiger, who they feed at 3:30pm. I would be neglectful if I did not mention that, of course they feed him raw, meaty bones :-)

The zoo is on the east side of Hilo out towards the volcano and across from the Mac Nut factory. This is a lot better stop too. Did I mention that admission t othe zoo is free? That makes it a really great stop for individuals or the family.

After the zoo we went to the middle of Hilo and sat by the water. The park has a multi-humped bridge and we watched 2 people using stand-up paddleboards. Nearby a man was crabbing.

There is a monument there which is difficult to identify what it is until you get to it. From a distance it looks like a large black pile of lava, perhaps a mound or cupcake. When you get to it and turn the corner you find it is a monument to those who lost their lives in the tsunami. The lava on two sides actually forms two waves and you enter at a trough between them.

We stopped into the nearby cultural center where there were displays of festivals around the world, all doe in miniature. Most had to do with this time of year. I the 20 minutes we were there, we three were the only visitors. Meanwhile the 2 volunteers chatted away while we explored. Driving through Hilo I never would have stopped at these places had we not had the day to spend and one of us being a Hilo expert.

I developed a terrific headache and went to Longs Drugstore for a headache powder. In old movies it was always humorous to hear someone taking a powder for their headache. When I was working at Hewlett Packard's Atlanta office, I got a headache and a co-worker handed me a Goodys power to take. I wanted real aspirin, but he assured me this was better. he was right (thanks Jim) and I have never looked back. Some people prefer Goodys and some prefer BC but can tell you that they really work fast! Anyway, Longs didn't carry them, so I looked for regular aspirin and found they only had Bayer. Regular readers know that I refrain from name brands and try to save the most money by buying generics. I found a generic headache capsule, which turns out to be the equivalent of Goodys, just not in a powder form, so it will take a bit longer to work. Wha'ts in a Goodys? They are the equivalent of aspirin, acetaminophen along with caffeine.

We soon picked up the dogs and walked them around to shake off the sedation. We piled them into the cars and headed back over the saddle. As we left Hilo, we began to drive into the clouds/fog. Call it what you will, but it descended on the roadway and would have made it very difficult to see the road, were it not for the newly installed reflectors along the way. By the time we passed Mauna Kea road we were in the clear, but one of the dogs really whimpered to stop. It sounded like Koa. Anyway, we stopped at the campground and let the dogs stretch and pee. They also got a snack we had brought, because they had not eaten in 24 hours because they would be x-rayed.

It was very, very cold at the campground, as it is at the 6,000 foot elevation and the sun was down. I was just wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. This is a common stop for me, because it is the only restroom along that whole route. Once you leave Hilo, there is a good 2-hour stretch of nothing and no bathrooms except this one mid way across.

We had left for Hilo at 6:45am or so and returned about 8pm. The dogs were all give a full meal and I took Koa and headed home.

Since it is time sensitive, this is how I found my deal. I went to Bing.Com and typed in ROOMBA which is the little automatic carpet sweeper. Then I found the link at the top of the search page showing an EBAY link with CASHBACK $. Clicking on that takes you to Ebay and I noted the 20% off on the top of the page. I then searched for other BUY IT NOW items and found what I wanted at a great price, then Microsoft pays 20% of the price :-)

I paid by Paypal and used my COSTCO Amex so I get a bit more money back. I also have signed up for Ebay Bucks. The odd thing is that Bing moved $50 directly to my Paypal account instantly instead of making me wait for 30 days or more. Dunno if it is a bug, but I got my cash in my Paypal account ready t ospend seconds after buying an item.

Tonight I opted for a "Time Tunnel" episode which turned out to be episode #1 (how they got started traveling through time). Afterwards, I decided upon a documentary about the TV series "Amos and Andy". I used to watch this for years and really enjoyed it; however, the series was abruptly removed from the air. The documentary includes how the series evolved from a caucasion radio series to the ethnic group on TV. It presents both sides of the controversy and shows many people who supported having the series continue.

I remember many of the episodes shown in the documentary and have seen a few from the DVD's available for purchase at places like Ebay.

I had to laugh because I caught the name of a city in the documentary and remembered a bit of trivia. One of the creators of the radio and TV show lived in Atlanta and decided that the Kingfish should come from that area. Thus Kingfish graduated from Marietta High School, right near where I used to live.

I was up on the Clark Howard website (ClarkHoward.Com) and he had a list of many websites which allow you to watch free TV shows. Another site is Arcive.Org and their archive of commercials and even radio shows. Here is a link to one of the old time radio shows. Here is a Groucho Marx TV show http://www.archive.org/detail... however maybe the radio version of Our Miss Brooks is more your taste!

Then again, if you don't have problems sleeping, try the original Duck and Cover at http://www.archive.org/detail...

Until next time, Aloha!

–adjective 1. likely to occur at any moment; impending: Her death is imminent.

I am not psychic but with a massive swell arriving tomorrow we expect 15 to 25 foot wave faces and in a few days, 30 to 50 foot wave faces! I hate to say it, but I expect some people will be washed out to sea and we will have a lot of damage on the north shores; especially on oahu's north shore!

People will gravitate to get a better view and roads will become bumper to bumper. Visitors to the islands have enough trouble being near small waves and I hate to think what will happen with sudden wave surges.

These are massive waves and I can assure you that you will see photos on your local weather reports on the mainland and around the world.

Although I have not spent summers there (like I did further up the shore), I still know people who live in Seaside and used to visit often enough. I used to live a few minutes south of Seaside; south of Tom's River and Bayville. To coin a phrase, that was long ago and far away.

Most of my summer beach time was spent in Point Pleasant (before the TV show of the same name). My Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle and cousins all lived there, and I would stay part of the summer upstairs at my Grandmothers place. Often she would rent out upstairs, but once or twice I remember she would move from downstairs and stay up, while a large family stayed in her home.

Many of these houses had outside beach showers. These were small shower stalls where you could wash off sand before entering the house. I often think I should build one here to keep farm dirt outside. We don't have the freezing issues here in Hawaii that they do in Jersey. Having been born in New Jersey allows me legally to use expressions such as "Jersey" and "Down the Shore".

The worst sunburn I ever got was in Point Pleasant. I fell asleep face down and ended up sitting up all night with cans of spray Solorcaine. I tried the lotion but the pain for touch to put it on was more than I could stand. There also are images from places on the beach and the boardwalk that are etched in my mind.

My Grandmother gave me a daily allowance of a couple dollars and I would go up on the boardwalk to spend it. I would pay a small fee to get in those cages that swing back and forth and to completely around like a Ferris Wheel. I soon learned that if I went and counted each time I went completely around, that I would soon attract a crowd. Those people would then get in an adjoining cage. I also realized that I was bringing in business for the operator and he appeared to let me swing for a long time as long as I was counting and attracting attention. It worked for both of us!

Then I would go to the big wheel where they would spin it and if you "bet" correctly, you won candy. I often won big boxes of candy and gum, My Grandmother and Great Grandmother loved root beer candy, so I would often bring that back to them.

Back to Seaside. My friend Don's father had a bar on the boardwalk. The bar would feature music and one there I met the Driftwers ("Under the Boardwalk", "On Broadway", etc). They were singing "Don't Go" when we were there. Years later in Atlanta I go into a new pizza parlor. There are two guys in black shirts and white ties, and I heard them mention the "Shore" to the owner. When they left I asked him, "Which shore" and he said "New Jersey". I told him I figured that, but where in "Jersey" to which he said Seaside and I asked the Heights or the Park? When I mentioned the bar there, he know exactly which one because he said he used to own the pizza place almost next door. He knew Don's father too. A small world.

Later they would open casinos in Atlantic City and although I moved away, I still went back often. I knew many of the casinos inside and out. resorts was the first one; owned by Merv Griffin. It attracted an "older" crowd as other casinos opened. It was not unusual to see people come into town to the casinos, who really couldn't afford to be there. You would see people wheeling tanks of oxygen and sporting tubes so they could breathe. Casinos allowed smoking but I never heard anyone complain back then. It is amazing that the casinos never came up with the idea of puting am oxygen tube at each slot machine (with a corresponding coin slot for another 10 minutes of fresh O2)!

When I would be waiting for friends to arrive in town and meet me, I would have to find a convenient place to find them. The glass walkway betwee nthe parking deck and the TropWorld casino was the easiest place to gather as there was very little chance people would miss you there. many of my friends had ham radio walkie-talkies and they made it easy to find people once they were in town. We just could not take them into the casinos.

Those beaches along the Jersey Shore bring back great memories of summer, but let me tell you, during the winter you really want to stay off the boardwalk!

I have many other tories, but that is all for tonight!

Wait! This just in! I just saw the promo for the next Real World, held in DC. Now you DO KNOW that I used to live all around the outskirts of D.C. don't you? More stories on their way :-)

On this day I was in uniform and you can imagine how hot it was to be in wool pants and jacket under hot TV lights. Anyway, as they announced "the following show is brought to you in living color on NBC" a view of me shows up and then the shot widens out to show the audience.

This was not my first brush with TV. My Dad helped with a parade in Highland Park/New Brunswick New Jersey and Clarabelle the clown from Howdy Doody changed clothes at out house before the parade.

Speaking of clowns, as I was growing up in DC, I took my younger sister and sat next to her in the ring of the BOZO show. BOZO was played by a guy who would become quite famous as a radio man, TV weatherman and for playing another clown, Ronald McDonald. That man is of course, Willard Scott. Years later I would work briefly with him at WNVC and WNVT during a televised auction for Public TV.

While walking backstage in DC I saw another star or two. There on a table was the setup for a TV commercial for Wilkens Coffee. Along with the setup were a couple puppets used in the commercials. I think Kermit the Frog was also there (or an early version of him) because the puppets were the precursor of the Muppets, their creator, Jim Henson also did the commercials for the coffee.

So tonight on TV I am watching "The Muppets Take Manhattan". One reason is that I have never seen it, but also because I wanted to see Mary Kay Adams (who is sitting in an office in the movie). I met Mary Kay at a few Star Trek conventions and we chatted for a while. I even have a video of her interviewing me about the food at dinner! She was interested in the fact that I wanted to move to Hawaii and she had never been. I spoke with her Mom also as she lived in a community near wghere I used to, in New Jersey, so we had a bit in common.

Years later I sent a photo of Mary Kay and I, and a bag of my coffee to the only address I had for her, her agent. I never got a response and don't know if she ever got it. I would have sent a followup letter, but I imagined that it would look too much like I was a stalker or something, sending gifts and photos and messages like "Remember me from the conventions...". It just seemed a bit earie, so I did not persue it. After speaking with her for a while I got the idea that she would have sent a thanks if she had gotten the gift. As you can see in the photo, we were having a good time that day! I think she is checking if my heart is still beating :-)

As you know, the Star Trek series was created by Gene Roddenberry. I never met him, but I was at the U of Maryland show where he came and showed the Star Trek pilot and blooper reel.

So as you can see, over the years, TV, radio and movies have always been a part of my life. I have met stars, interviewed musicians and been on TV. I've never been in a movie (but not for the lack of wanting it), however, I think my lack of talent may be the reason. I still would love to have my name on the IMDB movie database, and still have time to perhaps be an extra in a movie, but I'd better hurry.

So, being in a movie or on a TV show is definately a dream of mine and based upon my desire to move to Hawaii, we DO know that dreams can and do come true!

So NOW you know what I'm going to do, right? Yup, sit back and wait for some of these freshly baked cookies to come my way! With all those people baking, I don't need to add to the drain of the electric grid.

Although we commonly call them two by fours, they are NOT 2 inches by 4 inches. The 2 by 4 name comes from the size of the wood BEFORE milling. The actual purchased size? 1and 1⁄2 inches by 3 and 1⁄2 inches.

When asked how much people are paid, they usually reply with the gross amount, which differs considerably fom their take home amount, which is more accurate.

Some people will list items on Ebay as being, for example, $3, but then there is shipping and handling of $10. Why? Well, people pay Ebay based upon selling price, not on selling price plus shipping. many stores do the same thing online, just showing a low price and then upping it considerably with shipping and handling. What is handling anyway? Shouldn't that be a part of the companies overhead to do business? No, it's a way to make a few extra dollars. By the way, I never charge customers a handling charge on coffee orders, and often I have free shipping.

Ever notice that the McDonalds Quarter Pounder is a quarter pound of beef (4 ounces) BEFORE COOKING, then it shrinks to 3 ounces after cooking?

Coke lists its sweetness component as sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup. Well, its high fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper. There is only one time a year when Coke contains sugar and that is around Passover when the old formula is sold in the Passover aisle of stores. You can actually feel your teeth rot again!

Some pet food companies are "using the system" as well as human food companies may. Look at the labels and you may notice that they have separated certain ingredients so they do not all appear in one place. The labels are supposed to show ingredients by weight in diminishing order. However they could take wheat for example and grind some and prepare it so they could have wheat, wheat flour and wheat gluten. So you would see 3 different items but when added together the wheat component would be tremendous.

Remember the old Monty Python SPAM comedy routine? "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam and eggs". "But I don't like Spam!", "Well, it doesn't have THAT MUCH Spam in it". Well, I bought a Hungry Man dinner called "Grilled Bourbon Steak Strips". You would think it odd tha there was chicken in a steak product, but pulling items out of the ingredient panels shows: dehydrated chicken broth, chicken fat, dehydrayed cooked chicken, chicken fat and chicken powder!

French toast is neither from France nor toast (it's fried bread).

Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as a cheaper imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head, or a calf's foot to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat. I think I'll pass of the original AND the runner up!

If you are not careful, you may buy an orange drink which tastes like juice yet contains less than 2% juice. You may also find that man yjuices contain apple juice as a filler. Go ahead and look at the container of 100% Juice and see if there isn't apple juice in there. Apple juice is cheap and has little taste of itsself compared with other juices present.

We have the same problem with Kona Coffee where companies sell a 10% blend with 90% of the coffee coming from foreign countries.

Candy bars, coffee, detergents, cereals and so on have all been changing their sizes, even if the boxes or containers stay the same. I have seen Kona blends go from 8 oz to 7 oz to sometimes 6 oz, which makes it difficult for consumers to compare prices. candy bars in machines often seasaw between price and size.

The TV blares "Free Credit Report" but now must add the disclaimer that it is free IF you sign up for Triple Advantage, a product that if you don't cancel will cost you $14.95 a month! The really free credit report is at annualcreditreport.com. Why doesn't the really free site have ads? Well, that $14.95 a month is what pays for the guy to sing the ads and ride the rollercoaster and so on. The credit report companies also have quasi-free reports, but if you go to the real free site, it is all free (just don't fall for any recurring fees).

In your December bills, you may have notices of increased fees and charges. Most people don't look at bills in December and January, which is why the companies add the charges in those months. I recently was charged $40 a quarter because I was not trading stocks in my account. The company (E-Trade) showed that they did not want me as a customers, and I agreed. I cancelled my account immediately.

So as you go about your day, please kep some of this in mind. Things are not what you may think or expect.

For those of you who are searching for deals, I will have a Black Friday (secret) sale. Shhhhh! :-)

I noticed that the trees need lots more water (I'm working on that), because the cherries did not have a lot of muscilge in them. The sugar content will make a difference in how the beans roast.

I can attest that next years crop from these trees will be fantastic! I am quite pleased with my initial tasting and will be proud to offer this new crop next year!

Unlike corn or many other crops, these trees will last perhaps 50 or 100 years. Well, unless the pigs get them first. Coming home from the tasting, I turned into the farm only to see about 6 giant pigs scurry into my new trees! It is time to have the locals start looking for pork dinners :-) You may think I'm kidding, but these pigs make a nice luau dinner!

The beans are quite small as you might expect; these trees being planted just in April of this year. I did not expect any crop at all the first year. There are still many cherry waiting to be picked and in fact, some cherry has already dried on the trees.

Today I cracked open the parchment to reveal the green beans with their silverskin covering. Silverskin is a fine covering that is usully removed in milling. Since I "milled" these myself, there is still some silverskin left on the green beans, but it should burn off very quickly in the roasting process.

Speaking of roasting, I decided to do that today and currently have 4.8 ounces of green in the roaster as I type this. Based upon my calculations, I should have just under 4 ounces of roasted when I am done.

I'll roast past 1st crack, which will take this to a bit past medium, but I have to be very careful as this coffee has not been graded and I have larger and smaller beans all mixed together. There are even peaberries in there!

Minutes later... I just dumped the coffee having let it go 20 seconds after the last pops of first crack. Because there is not much mass in the roaster, I'm afraid I can't calculate how soon 2nd crack would have started, and then the beans get dark and a bit oily. I wanted to avoid that on this first roast of a small sample.

I should know at some point tonight what a first picking of immature coffee beans will taste like. No farmers have told me what their experience has been, because many have waited a full couple years and performed a full picking.

I am sure if the coffee doesn't taste good, next year will be a lot better, as the trees mature and the beans become regular size. However, if the first pick tastes great, next year will be even better!

I'll let you know soon.

Although the clock changes, our internal circadian rythms don't and we can become restless and inattentive. This makes sense and more research will be conducted.

Arizona and Hawaii don't change their clocks.

Can you imagine how many millions of hours have been wasted over the years, changing the clocks forward and backward? How many people have wasted gas driving to church or a store, only to discover they are now an hour early or late?

My suggestion (which makes common sense) is that IF we HAVE to have a difference in our clocks because of the time of daylight, then just move the clocks a half hour ONCE and never touch them again! This seems so easy!

Recently when congress decided to change the date of the beginning of the time change, Microsoft had to issue a time patch for their computers and every computer owner in America had to install the patch just so their clock would be correct. (I use an external website to keep my computer clock correct).

Here in Hawaii, to cut costs, many government agencies and schools decided to take a furlough Friday, where they would close on Fridays. Rather than close on Friday and throw the state into disarray, why could they have not just ended their day an hour or so earlier during the week?

Imagine being in high school again. You have multiple classes during the day and perhaps a 10 minute break every hour to change classrooms. My high school used a one-subject-plan where you took one subject all day (the day was only about 4 to 5 hours) then took the equivalent of gym, etc. Each week you had a test, at the end of 4 weeks you took your midterm and at the 8 week point, you took your final. Then you were off to start your next course. You only had one subject to study and only one homework assignment. The teacher knew exactly how much homework would take you (in our case, 2 hours). You had no excuse that you had 3 courses to work on, etc.

If more high schools had this type of class schedule, you would actually be able to change schools in mid year and not be worried about where the new class was in their schedule. It made so much sense and most students improved their grades considerably.

Calculate how many hours a day are wasted by students changing classes every hour?

Think of income taxes. Many people suggest flat taxes and/or sales taxes be used instead. Certainly any other process has to be easier and more cost effective than the procedure we have now. How many hours do millions of people waste each year collecting, filing and accounting of just their receipts? How many tax lawyers are there? How many years of debates on law changes, deductions, tax rebates and enforcement of tax laws that have grown so complex that even the IRS says that even though they tell you an answer to your tax question, they will not stand by that answer. There has to be a better way.

Sometimes the simple path makes the most sense.

The video shows that one can take old boots, motor oil, sawdust and a handfull of pills and actually have the cooked resultt pass the nutritional criteria of pet food.

It shows that the reason so many pet foods were pulled from the shelves in the melamine poisoning is tha tthey are all made in the same plant. How different can hundreds or thousands of brands be, if one plant makes them?

It shows how even though the label lists meat as the number one ingredient in a pet food, it is probably not.

The video seems quite informative without stretching facts to fool you. I encourage you to watch and do your own research, for the sake of your pet.

Afterall, dogs and cats lived for years on real food before we started feeding them grain.

http://www.viddler.com/explor...

So it should not be a surprise that they can eat chicken (with bones) as long as the chicken is raw. Cooking makes the bones brittle.

To prove it, here is a movie of Koa having chicken for lunch today. youtube.com/watch?v=haJt6rXAOt8

I know what you are thinking, but when I visited my friends kennel today, her big lab had a dead bird in its mouth (well, for a few seconds at least)....

So even if you don't feed your dog bones, he is going to find them elsewhere!

If you want to read more, you might enjoy reading the December 2009 edition of The Labrador Connection. Go to www.nationallabradorretriever club.com and click on "Labrador Connection" link. Then choose the December 2009 newsletter.

Sometimes Word gets special charactgers enabled and my apostrophies and quotes are changed for me, and display online wrong in my browser. Sometimes I'm encouraged to go change my posts to correct this, othertimes I'm not. So I turned off the autocorrect and the next time I use Word, I hope the punctuation will be correct.

I know he can't help, but he needs to understand none-the-less.

The photo is currently on KHON TV-2's website under Weather Watchers. To save you the link, here is the photo, taken tonight at the farm, looking west.

This just in: Two secret diesel-electric Japanese submarines have been uncovered, just off the coast of Oahu, where they were sunk during the war. National Geographic will have a TV special on these around Nov 17th.

As I was saying, close by me, we had a light dusting of snow. It was hard to see on the web cams, but Mauna Kea definitely had snow today early in the morning, then it melted and reformed at dusk. There may or may not be lots of snow there in the morning.

Yesterday we had absolutely fantastic (or should I say FUNtastic) weather. The storm took the vog away and the air was very clear. The nighttime sky was also very clear with lots of stars.

Over at Oahu’s Ala Wai canal, they brought out a boom to contain a small oil slick. It appears some guy did laundry in the water and an oil slick headed towards the harbor.

Lately all you have heard is that the economy is horrible. That is until you realize that this is the highest unemployment since (drum roll… the mid 1980’s). So we just passed 1980’s unemployment rate. Interesting. Still, never trust statistics. Over the years the government has tweaked what being unemployed means. It is not just that these people are out of work; they have to be looking fro work. So, I can go from being unemployed and drop off the radar, if I stop looking for a job. It makes sense, but then it makes it harder to compare numbers now with numbers then, if the rules have changed.

I stopped by the U.S.D.A. office today to go over my farm contract. My administrator will stop by tomorrow to take some photos, and probably Monday I will submit some of my last receipts to close out the contract.

A few days from now, the leaseholder will come by too. I think they will be pleasantly surprised because last time there were no crops in the ground and that was like, April. How time flies!

Now that I have a working mower again, I have already cut the grass in the coffee rows and am now attacking the tall grass, some of which is growing between the coffee trees. This stuff easily grows 10 feet and taller and resembles stalks of bamboo. There is bamboo nearby but I think this is quite different. In any event, I hope to get it under control soon.

As for the trees, we could use lots more rain because the flood watch may have been useful across the state; we got very little rain here. Also, my tanks are not yet hooked up to the roof and may not be until after the beginning of the year. Still, I have picked the first round from the new trees and am ready to go through the rows again. As I mentioned earlier in blogs, the first pot of coffee from the new trees will be interesting, and in hindsight, very, very expensive! Next year I’ll have a really nice crop and the year after will be in full production.

For those of you who use Windows systems, have you been using Firefox, an alternative browser from Mozilla. Since it is open-source, people worldwide have added many options. I like the one that shows me what is up for sale at Woot.Com by adding text to the bottom right of the browser. The Beta version of the software is really fast. That beta version will be a release candidate soon. Also, I have used their Thunderbird email program for years and love it. There is a “gotcha” during install. I access multiple mailboxes as separate identities rather than merge all the mail in one big intray. This allows me to switch between email accounts all in one program. However, when installing a new POP email account, the default is to put all the mail in the global mailbox. The other default is to download all email from the server to the local computer and delete the messages on the server. Since I sometimes want to read the message from another computer or online, I opt to keep the original messages on the server. It is easy to set that option, but generally new users choose the default and then you can’t put the messages back up. You just have to not download the messages into the new account until you have modified the server setting. If people really want to try Thunderbird and not be caught by this, I’d be happy to step-by-step describe how to install and skip this option. The program is really good and stable!

Enough for now, I have paperwork to do.

Dog's son Leland lives here and his bail bond office is in Kainaliu, right next to a small drive in restaurant, laundromat and just above a bookstore and video store. Also in the same little center is a pet store where I met Mary to get a computer she wanted me to work on.

So tonight Dog and crew are helping Leland nab a guy who was down in Naalehu in the Kau district. That is one of the most southern towns in the country. When I decided to move here, that was one town I look at as a residence. I found a farm that was reasonably priced, but had a driveway that looked like a ski ramp. I passed, however, it looks like a nice place to live if it wasn’t so far to COSTCO!

Anyway, they finally captured the guy and took him to the Kau police station. I recognized the station having passed it a few times on my way to the volcano. Also, the next day, Dad and son and the rest went to the beach. From the quick view of the cliffs in the distance, I knew they were about 3 miles from here, down near but south of the Captain Cook monument and probably over near Keei Beach or even a bit farther south.

So it appears that whether you are famous or infamous, you end up here J

On TV Channel 2 out here, KHON does a "Happy First Birthday" where they show photos of children celebrating their 1st year of life. As I understand it, this used to be a major accomplishment here and their is often a baby luau celebration. Because many of the children have Hawaiian heritage, their official names are often quite long. Along with their birthday announcement, will be listed their like and accomplishments, such as "He enjoys strained peas and carrots and keeping his parents up all night".

The other day I was trying to get the mower onto the back of my truck. I turned the tractor around, raised the mower up and tried to back the tractor to the back of the truck. This would allow me to slowly lower the 800-pound mower onto the bed of the truck. Afterwards, I would disconnect the thing and drive the truck away. Well, to do that requires the truck to be on a slight incline so the bed is as low (compared to the tractor). There just is no easy way to lay the thing there unless that happens. When I could not get it in, I decided to lay the mower on the ground and lift it with the front-end loader. This turned out NOT to be the best way. In a perfect world I would take the loader off the front of the tractor and replace it with a fork list attachment; that is, IF I HAD ONE! I don't, so I wrapped a chain around the loader and attached it to the mower deck. I lifted the load but there was too much slack and I had to lift the deck very high; something you don't want to do as it makes the tractor very unstable.

As I swung around, I found I was on loose gravel and a slight incline. The tractor started sliding and tipping and at one point I was poised on what felt like 1 wheel! I know I hollered "No" 5 times in a row and my heart was beating very quickly as I realized I was seconds away from tipping the tractor over onto the rocks. Altough there is a bar over my head to protect me in a rollover, it does not give you much protection.

I was stretched out, held by the seatbelt and pushed the lever to lower the load, thus taking much of the unsteadiness out of the situation. Talk about shaking! I came inside fro a while to calm down. I was able to drop the mower off late Friday before they closed, but not in enough time that they could fix it then. They are closed all weekend so Monday night is the earliest I can get it back.

Well when my friend told me she was borrowing a small trailer to take her ATV in for repair, I got on the "bandwagon" so to speak. With the mower repaired, I rolled up Monday afternoon, strapped the mower down and headed home. In just half an hour and with no incidents, I was able to get the mower off the trailer and onto the tractor. In the next hour I was able to get a good start on the growth.

One of the problems I have is there is very tall grass (like bamboo) on the southeast side of many of the rows, right next to the trench. If you remember, the trench was open, willed with pipes and I was unable to drive the tractor over it. Thus I would back the tractor down each row and try to cut this tall grass and backtrack on each row. That did not work well. So when Rusty came last week, he filled most of the trench in and now I am able to drive down each row, cross over the pipes in safety and drive down another row.

The single thread theme for this was is to get paid for the last part of my conservaton program. I have to have the property inspected. That means I have to have the trench filled in, which required me to get the mower fixed. Some projects can be simultaneously running, but with only me doing most projects, and considering that I can only do one task at any given moment, I tend to switch tasks, work on a new one for a while and switch again. In early windows versions, that is exactly the way the computer worked, you were not multi-tasking, you were task switching. Only one thing happened at a time, then all the work was suspended, new work brought out and some time was spent on that task, then it was put away, etc.

So today I will cut more of the tall grass, then gather my paperwork and receipts and sit down with the agent about my progress and payments. Then I take the trailer up into town and get the ATV and take it up to be repaired. Then, if the thing will be days to repair, I'll take the trailer back to its owner and head back to the farm

I am trying to work quickly today because of the other part of the blog total; the weather. We are expecting heavy rains and possible flooding. Because of cooler air, we may also get thunder and lightning. THAT always indicates very cool air at the summits, so, here is out weather forecast for the Big Island today. It almost makes you think you live i n the northeast mainland :-)

The National Weather Service this morning updated its statewide flash-flood watch to include Hawaii County starting this afternoon, which could begin to see heavy shower activity this afternoon, creating the potential for flash flooding.

Craig said today is likely to be a mostly trade-wind day, but the rest of the state will encounter increasing rain as the evening progresses. The heaviest showers probably will come after midnight, he said.

The weather service says the upper level low will also bring much colder air to higher elevations and has issued a winter storm watch for the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

The weather service says there is the chance for heavy snowfall, lightning and strong winds with drifting snow.

A flash-flood watch means conditions may develop that lead to flash flooding.

Residents in low-lying areas, or areas near streams, should be prepared to evacuate in the event of flooding.

Flash floods AND heavy snowfall; gotta love these Hawaii forecasts! If we do get snow, you will be able to see it here: www.jach.hawaii.edu/weather/

So there you have it, whether or not I get the grass all cut today, the weather will definitely be a factor.

On another ongoing note, I saw "Mac" yesterday as I drove the tractor back. Mac is the name I gave the guy who walks along the road and looks like the guy from the MacDonald’s "What can I get for a dollar" ads.

My common score in 10 pin was 130 to 150 and every once in a while I bowled 190. However, there is a story I should tell.

Decades ago I was in the Washington DC area helping at the Great TV Auction, a televised fund raiser for Public Television. I bought a bowling coupon that allowed 20 of my closest friends to come and have snacks and bowl a few games. It was also my birthday as I remember.

As people gathered to play, some had bowled before and some had not. One person had knocked down 5 pins (but it took him 3 or 4 frames to do that). I gave him a couple of pointers on how to stand and what to do and he instantly began bowling 7's and higher per frame.

I was tearing up the alley. By the 8th frame I was bowling a perfect game! I was exstatic but knew it would not last. I was never that consistent with my games. I kept looking to see if there was a piece of fishing line hidden at the pins that someone was pulling to knock them all down for me. There was none. It was me and my skill.

In the 10th, I started raising my arm back with the ball and was almost to the point where the ball was at its apogee, when the guy behind me, the one I had helped inprove his game, hollered very loudly "LOOK OUT!". My thought was I was about to hit someone in the face with the ball. I twisted quickly and almost dislocated my shoulder because of the heavy ball and the height I had it. I felt pain in the shoulder and throbbing.

As I turned, the guy was laughing. It seems he thought it was funny to have me stop in mid motion. He didn't realize the position I was in and what it meant for me to have a perfect game, on my birthday, in front of friends, all of those witnesses...

My final score was something like 276, certainly not the 300 I had hoped for. I didn't keep the scoresheet and I can't even remember who specifically interrupted my game. It turns out the game was just not as memorable as it could have been.

At the time I was living in Maryland but had always had a fascination with space. I was quite happy to have been allowed to atend the launches as a member of the press.

Even though the launches were dacades ago, many of the events stuck with me. I have press packages lso to help me remember.

Having been there at the beginning and being within 1/2 mile or so of the actual shuttles (while they were fueled), yo can imagine how I felt, years later, when the Challenger accident happened. Like many others, I stared at the screen for hours while the commentary went on and the networks continued to show the accident film. I could not stop watching, yet secretly wished they would stop showing the video.

As you may know, one astronaut was Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American in space. He also grew up a few miles from here in Kealakekua on the Big island.

Because we are a rural location with few if ny lights on at night, it is very easy to look up and see stars all over the horizon. It appears I am not the only one who did this.

Note in this article, that Ellison also would sit in a coffee field and look up. http://archives.starbulletin....

I like to think that I was at a shuttle launch before him, but he was in a coffee field before me.

If you even come t oHawaii's Big iland, there are three places you miight want t ovisit. The first is the Onizuka Center at the Kona Airport. Thesecond location is a bit generic, but stop by the chool in Kealakekua and be near where he sat in the fields and went to school.

Finally, at about the 10,000 foot mark up on Mauna Kea is the welcome center, named after Ellison. Here you are very close to the heavens and the stargazing up there is spectacular!

This is obviously part fiction but based upon a true story where the U.S. military tried to use mind power to control the enemy.

My first thought was that the people who though this up must have lived in California. I’m sorry, but many people I consider “nuts” live in California. However, the story can now be told that Jeff Bridges is playing a character based upon Jim Channon who lives (drum roll) about 75 miles north of me, up in Hawi on the Big Island. The website for the movie is at http://neweartharmy.com. Jims wikipedia page is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

So that goes to show you, if the story is just too crazy to be true, part of the answer may lie in Paradise J

I sent the tractor and mower up to get fixed. The tractor was fixed under warrantee, but they didn't touch the mower. They had said they would remove 4 bolts, replace them with heavy-duty bolts, add lock washers and locktite and it was a pretty easy fix.

They do not normally carry this mower, but ordered it and delivered it with my tractor. I'm sure they mad a profit on it. Then they have already fixed it once (under warrantee). That time I had to maneuver the tractor back to the edge of the pickup and carefully lower it into the truck. When they fixed it and put it back in the truck for me, it was not in the same position and it took me ½ a day to get it out at home and hooked back up.

I may have to go through that same process tomorrow to take it up where it was today. This mower attachment is like 800 pounds or more and you don’t just lift it and shove it in the truck. When I removed it last time, I used the loader bucket and a chain to lift it out.

I just can’t get a brake. I was hoping to get these weeds cut beginning today. This is another setback and it may be another week for them to get to this thing.

I left them a voicemail message. Perhaps they will feel badly enough that they will stop by and fix it. I don’t think so, but wouldn’t it be a nice gesture?

I have been collecting unemployment for the past month, since my previous company let me go. They say I am eligible for rehire, but time will tell. In the meantime, I'm applying for jobs online and via resumes in person. I see a job in my line every once in a while, but it is perhaps 40 miles away or more. The cost of gas alone would negate the amount I would get.

I sent my tractor and mower up into town to be repaired; the tractor is under warrantee and the mower too, but the company fixing the mower is not the manufacturer. My trench-filling guy, Rusty, took them into town for me on his trailer. He is picking them up in town today and bringing them back here tonight and then will pick up my riding mower and take it with him. The mower is partial payment for filling in my trench. The trench is a bittersweet issue with me.

The way the new coffee area was laid out, the rows run horizontally across the property. Each row has a water drip line (the size of a finger, running across to the south side on the property. It looks like a comb with the ridge on the right and the tines pointing to the left. I need to drive the tractor down each row to cut the grass and weeds. When I get to the right side, I would have to cross the big heavy water pipes going vertically on that right side. To keep from running over the two 2" pipes, I decided to have a trench dug, put them in and cover it up. Just digging the trench (through the rock) and then filling it with sand, has cost upwards to $10,000. It probably would have been cheaper to bury the last 20 feet of drip lines on the right and make my turns before the heavy pipes, driving over the drip lines instead. I would not have had to bury the drip lines as deeply and would have only had to dig 80 small trenches a few inches deep, instead of one big trench 1,000 feet long, 2 feet deep and 2 feet wide. The sand is expensive too to bring to the site. At least it looks nice.

So with the trench now mostly filled in (the final 2 zones will have to wait until next year due to cash-flow, I can fill it myself with my own tractor. Now that I’ll have the tractor and mower back tonight I can start cutting the rows again. Some of what I have to cut is very tall stuff, which looks like bamboo (also a grass). This stuff grows quickly and reaches 8 feet or more in height in just a few weeks. Anyway, this stuff is growing near the trench and I have been unable to cut it easily without the tractor and mower. In desperation, I had purchased another weed wacker and bought and jerry rigged a regular saw blade on it instead of those wimpy string things. That helped but still took forever. In a day or two I should now be able to cut every row and then hire some guys to weed between the trees for me. I seem to be getting a lot of morning glory type growth that twists around each tree and tries to smother what is below. As I cut the rows, this should diminish quickly and be more manageable.

The leaseholder wants to make an inspection to see how the trees are coming and is expected after the 15th. They came in April just the week before I had the trees planted. The property was free of all this growth because I had no water lines down. All you could see was rows of holes and two big areas with trees waiting to be planted. In the weeks after the last inspection, I had guys clean out each of the 1600 holes, fill them with dirt and a handful of fertilizer, the rolls of weed mat were laid out over the holes, an "X" was cut over each hole and the trees dropped in. Then the drip lines were laid out along each row and hooked up to the main water lines and tested under pressure.

In the months since then, many of the trees blossomed and I was able to do my first picking from these trees a couple days ago. I did not get a lot of coffee but still, a picking the first year is very amazing.

Since the trench is about done, I can now gather the last of my receipts and submit them for final payment on the contract. Briefly, in order to conserve out fresh water out here, some farmers agreed to not use county water and use rainwater instead for irrigation. The NRCS/USDA helped by engineering a system for me, and upon my successful completion of each section, repaid part of what I spent. The drawbacks are that under the contract I had, I needed to spend considerable amounts over a variable timeframe before getting my reimbursement. At the time, I had money enough to do that somewhat easily, but as the economy got worse and my bank accounts dwindled, it was very difficult to mnage the shuffling of tasks and money and still be able to eat. I picked a number from memory, but as I recall, this last payment is at least $10,000 to $14,000, so you can see that I really need to get this darn thing finished and submitted. Of course, part of the holdup on my part is that every foot of drip line and every connector and valve is listed on the forms or I don't get paid for them. When I say every connector, realize that there are not 100 line items listing 1 connector each, still I have to account for a bag of 100 connectors.

This week is the Coffee Festival and I have had to pass on most if not all of the activities. In the past I have attended some of the events, the parades and the Kona Coffee Farmers Association annual dinner and auctions. I have even been auctioneer a couple of times. However, this farm must take front seat until I get this final section finished, the inspection done and receipt for the last leg of the project. I have mounting credit card debt that I want to pay down.

To get the farm to where it is today, I have (almost) maxed out the credit cards, taken a loan from my 401K and taken money from my IRA under a special IRS ruling that allows me to withdraw money early with no penalty (I just pay taxes on the income). However, with the farm and rolling depreciation and startup costs, even with the part time job I had, I should not have to pay anything.

In January, I get my next infusion of cash from the IRA and that will help me finish up other projects here at the farm. By then I hope to have a part time job again at least for the next year. After that I believe that the farm will help carry me for the most part. I worked my last job fro 18 years, was asked to retire and then used my retirement money to fund the farm. I took a part time job top carry me while I worked to make the farm viable and soon hope to retire again (as much as being a farmer lets you retire).

It has been a difficult time trying to work the farm and work in town 4 days a week. I would lose 4 days of farm work because by the time I got home each workday, it was already dark. At one point they changed my hours on Saturday from 8am to 5pm over to 2pm to 9pm. That gave me another morning to work on the far each week. Saturdays became a lot longer but I got lots more work done.

I do not yet have the roof directed into the water tanks and that will take a bit of time, engineering ideas and some money. I expect that can be done just after the beginning of the year.

All in all, I think I have passed the hardest part of this. Now that the trench is filled in, my mowing time will be cut in half and be much easier. I can spend time getting the second part of the farm ready to plant, but should not be pressured so much to get it down. All of my irrigation for the whole farm is in (it's just disabled for the unplanted area). Once I get the rainwater diverted into the bottom tank, I can begin considering giving tours of the farm.

Since I took possession of the farm, it has changed dramatically. There were 500 macadamia nut trees in a forest of weeds. An old junked track sat down the driveway past the trees I labeled McDonalds. You could not see the property lines nor the ocean from anywhere on the land except for a peek-a-boo view from the house. Now as you enter the property you see the expanse of the Pacific with the house down below. As you approach the house and look up mauka, you can see many miles along the ridge of Hualalai volcano. I have to admit that the weather changed a lot here also. In early Google satellite views, the trees gave off lots of moisture and you would see the whole area cloud-covered. Now it is not, although Google seems to have reverted back to an earlier view of the farm after I cleared it but before planting it. They seem to automatically review the images and choose whichever one has the least cloud cover.

I need to start growing my own trees to replace those, which have died. I have had some die off during planting and while I was getting the irrigation going fully. Those problems should also be manageable now.

So there you have it, a review of where I am and why things have not quite gone as quickly as I had hoped. To do it all again would take very little time as I now know all of the stumbling blocks. Except for punching holes initially at the lower level of the farm and digging that expensive ditch, I have not made any really poor decisions and none that have cost me in missteps. Ohm I could have easily made major erros that would have cost me dearly, but I didn't. To start fresh I could probably do it in a year instead of what, four?

Perhaps now I'll have to time to sit back and reflect!

Sometimes they are stunned and recover, but I am not hopeful.

This one is grey and does not appear to be a spotted dove which are common at this altitude.