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| Jobs |
| 12.17.04 (5:28 pm) [edit] |
This week is filled with items concerning work and jobs.As you may know, I'm cutting down high grass to make an area ready to receive thousands of coffee plants! Although a riding mower would be faster and easier to use, I bought a push-type gas mower. Perhaps in a year I'll get a riding mower or tractor, but for now this has to do. Sesides, we are talking $130 compared to $2000; no wonder I'll make do... :D I donated some coffee to the Royal Kona Resort for their Christmas party give-aways. Then last night I was a guest there and hoped to hear my coffee being given as a prize, but it seems they had already handed out gift envelopes for the smaller prizes like mine. The big prizes are the ones that got big hoopla and no wonder, two nights in Las Veaga, a trip to Anchorage Alaska and so on! You had to be an employee of the resort to win, darn it :cry: I have now received all of the checks for this years macadamia nut crop. Total pick was about 3000 pounds and after my startup expenses I made about $700 profit. Not a lot but certainly a profit none the less. Because of recent storms and flooding here on the Big Island, the purchase price of coffee cherry has gone up almost 40% from last year. I don't know if that will effect future roasted coffee prices, but bet they will creep up. Hersey Chocolate Company just completed the purchase of Mauna Loa Macadamia Company for $130 million. Expect macadamia nuts to hit mainstream stores soon! The Big Island is the second largest grower of mac nuts worldwide. I needed to drive to Hilo recently to buy some things for my business. A friend and I took Saddle Road across the middle of the island. I had all sorts of ideas of what I thought it would be like and I can report now that most of what I heard was wrong. Although the car rental agencies say you cannot drive it in their cars, I have driven worse roads with their blessing. I'll post photos soon of some of the sights, including my first official sighting of somewhat close up snow :D Up in Maryland, a friend has been working on Capitol Hill for a politician. Today he got the dreaded news, that at the beginning of January, his services will no longer be needed. Unlike the higher up politicians with their trailerload of benefits and "I've got it made for life" deals, the lower workers get to forage like the rest of us in the unemployment lines. In my case, my old company offered me two choices. I could take early retirement OR I could stay and have a pretty good chance of being let go with less benefits. I took the retirement and others who stayed get laid off with essentually no benefits, etc. I KNEW that might happen when I saw that us being asked to retire were required to sign a form stating that we would get full benefits if we agreed not to speak disparagingly against the company for 1 year....... This was a red flag warning because years ago, to have been hired by this company was a priviledge and sought after by many. Not any more. Anyway, while I talked with my friend, I bagan looking to see just what kind of jobs were available out here in Hawaii. One thing people soon realize is that many jobs popular on the mainland are not available here and some Hawaiian jobs are really local. Yes, you could work on a dive boat in Florida or Hawaii, but I think working a whale-watching boat might be more aft in Hawaii, Here there is an ad for papaya pickers or coffee pickers, which also seem quite local jobs. Many ads here are hospitality related, helicopter ride sales, luau reservations and yes, even ads sometimes for hula dancers. Many places give preference to those who speak Japanese. All in all, I love it here. Yesterday I saw two groups of kids walking along the street. One group of 3 boys and a girl were walking southward, one boy strumming a guitar and another group of about 10 kids were walking northward, all carrying wrapped Christmas gifts. |
| Cleaning Up and Not! |
| 12.13.04 (1:36 pm) [edit] |
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An ongoing issue on Oahu is the cleanup of the University of Hawaii's Library. Holloween Eve they had a massive mudslide because of heavy rain. The buildings are still being cleaned as I write this! The damages and cleanup will top over $100 million dollars! Links are at: http://the.honoluluadvertiser... and http://the.honoluluadvertiser... Speaking of cleaning up, I bought a mower; a small one, but a mower non-the-less. People who have seen the farm here might wonder why I need a mower. 99% of the property is rocks! There is a small area near the garage which has very tall grass. In that area, I'm going to build my nursery to grow up to 5,000 coffee seedlings. I'm doing my best to clear the area quickly. I am also looking at a catchment system to help conserve water. Being on an island, conservation is more than a good idea, it is a requirement to continue enjoying the land. That catchment tank would fit in this same area. If I can work out the timing, perhaps this area can serve to grow my plants, then be the permanent location of the catchment tank. On Saturday I packed the car and drove up to Kailua-Kona to try a different type of sales. I decided that I would try my hand at "direct to the public" sales. This involved packing up coffee, making a sign and heading to a spot near COSTCO. I set up along the road between a guy selling plants and a woman selling hot boiled peanuts. It was a nice day and time went by quickly, however I really didn't sell much coffee. Many people drove by but few stopped. My "neighbors" told me that they also experienced slow sales that day. It was not a big deal, but I probably will not be sitting there every weekas I did not "clean up" on these sales :) Speaking of coffee sales, I decided to offer a nice discount on many products on the website. I sent out a note to customers letting them know that Tuesday Noon is the cutoff time to place an order to guarantee delivery by Christmas. We expect it will take at least 5 business days to make deliveries to the east coast. In an emergency I guess I could overnight an order, but am hoping not to have to. I expect a lull in the business during the holidays and there will be a delay if I get many orders while the roaster is closed for the holidays. I'm not a roaster and prefer to let experts handle that part of my business :D |
| They Really Ring My Bell! |
| 12.07.04 (12:38 pm) [edit] |
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Those readers who live in the U.S. are no doubt familiar with the "DO NOT CALL LIST" which limits MOST telemarketers from calling you. Some of us think that this list already has too many loopholes. For example, if a person is taking a survey, if the company calling already has a business relationship with you or if they are a politician, they can still call. Loopholes are that some company can take a "survey" to ask you questions which help them qualify you as a potential customer, etc. Your telephone company can call you daily if they wish, to tell you of new products which you MAY like to buy. It just came to my attention that there is now a proposal being reviewed to widen those exceptions. According to ClarkHoward.Com (a noted consumer advocate): [b]The FTC is considering a petition by a telemarketing firm that would allow pre-recorded "spam blitzes" to be left on your voicemail. File an electronic complaint to stop it! https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-tsr/[/b] I suggest that if you live in the U.S. that you read and respond. My response was as follows: I[b] am against any form of automated or human sales calles via telephone. Why is it that a company who already has a business dealing with us would need to place sales calls to us? Every company I do business with has its own website where I am perfectly able to view new offers and sales information. I use a telephone for outgoing calls and inbound calls from those I wish to hear from. This group DOES NOT include any type of sales call. In the 30-odd years I have owned a telephone, I have NEVER responded to a non-solicited sales call from any company. That will not change now. Why is there no groundswell from people who WANT to be bothered by sales calls? The answer is obvious. Sales calls are an obtrusion on our privacy and just because we own a telephone does not mean that we want to be solicited. The "DO NOT CALL LIST" should have excluded businesses AND politicians from calling. When I signed up, I wanted a DO NOT DISTURB, not a "unless somebody has enough clout to press into law a reason why THEY are special and their reasons negate my wish for privacy" list! [/b] Your response may differ. |
| Fragile Items |
| 12.01.04 (5:04 pm) [edit] |
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I just got back from the post office after shipping out a couple of gift baskets. They just barely fit inside the new flat rate boxes the Post Office has created. On the other front: While scanning TV channels I ended up on Fox and was watching Oprah. I used to watch her do the news many years ago on a Baltimore channel just before she moved to Chicago and became famous. This particular show involved heros who saved lives (sometimes of people they didn't know). While not to diminish these humans, there are some lives nearby that are not being saved. While this show was on, I was reading news items online. The headline says that another specias is on its way to extinction. In an older article, people on Maui knew they were down to 3 po'ouli, a small bird with a "Lone Ranger" mask on its face. There was a male and two females left in the world. The birds are quiet things and don't travel out of a small area. The females and the males paths would never cross. Plans were made to catch a female and bring her into the area where the male would find her. It does not sound as though that happed because that male just died. Then today the following was posted: "Conservationists had hoped to start a captive breeding program with the last three po'ouli. A team from the Maui forest Bird Recovery Project is now in the reserve to locate the remaining two birds, which have not been seen for several months." So with the male gone and the two females missing, I'm afraid that the birds may now be extinct. I would have liked to have seen one, once... Some links about the bird are: http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesd ate/1998/may/19980512.poouli.html" title="http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesd ate/1998/may/19980512.poouli.html" target="_blank"http://www.npr.org/programs/r... http://www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/dofaw/pubs/endgr spp" title="http://www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/dofaw/pubs/endgr spp" target="_blank"http://www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/do... http://pacificislands.fws.gov/wesa/poouli.html" title="http://pacificislands.fws.gov/wesa/poouli.html" target="_blank"http://pacificislands.fws.gov... --- If I was crass, I could have titled this blog "Bye Bye Birdie" (a movie and song title), but I really am sorry to hear this bird may possibly be extinct. How sad it is that a mate was around the corner and would never have had their paths crossed. |