You see, the Big Island is still growing and thus, we get quakes and shutters all the time. It turns out that this friend was talking about the 4.5 quake on Thursday. It seems I missed that one! I had been in the car and never noticed… hmmm, never noticed a 4.5 quake? I certainly noticed the 6.7 we had in October! Although this Thursday quake was listed here as a 4.5 there is evidence to suggest it was a 5.0 and that .5 makes more difference than you can imagine.

On another subject, many of us coffee farmers are taking a bit of a breather before the December rush sets in. The Kona Coffee Farmers Association is testing a new sales idea for our members. We are taking out classified ads in 4 western mainland cities and directing readers to a website which has multiple farms listed there. We hope to generate some interest and sales and will track results from both the classified newspaper ads and Craig’s List entries. If this works, we will consider other cities.

A trial that I am working on will be interesting too. I think some people might like to buy a “basket” of a few different samples of Kona Coffee from different farms. I am considering going to neighbors and getting some of their coffee and offering it all together at ItsKona.Com. I hope that it will be a useful offering. If you are reading this and think it is a neat idea, let me know.

Other than that, the weather is great, I’ve had the USDA look at my freshly cleared farmland and am waiting for the engineering diagrams and specs for the water tanks. As soon as the bulldozer smoothes the earth, I will get a ground crop planted to keep the dirt from blowing or washing away. I won’t have to dig holes for the coffee plants, as the ground is already pretty porous already. I really expect to have at least 2 acres of coffee planted by March. I would like to have more, but have to do a delicate balance between how much coffee I plant and how easy it is to water it if I don’t have catchment tanks for irrigation.

I’ll keep you up to date and will be publishing timeline photos as I go.

When the Big Island had our quake it was pretty much a no-brainer. The quake here was so close to us AND there was little room between the quake and the shore to compress water to cause a big wave. In the case of the Japan quake, officials here watched bouys along the way and determined that there was no significant rise in water level and gritted their teeth and did not issue a warning.

That is not to say that we did not get a tsunami, but it was minor. One woman swimming on Oahu was pulled from shore a bit and then as the surge came, was pushed into a sea wall. We are talking inches to feet worth of surge and two cruise ships were kept out of Kauai and Maui harbors when a surge caused water to overflow onto the piers.

In othernews, I am awaiting the 'dozer operator to head back down here to finish grading the 5 acres I just had cleared. It 2-3 days he cleared 300 macadamia nut trees and now I have to have the land smoothed and leveled for the coffee. The kaikis which sprouted are doing well, but many did not. I am in the process of replanting and hope to have enough trees to plant by March. To ensure a good crop, I need to really have the plants in the field by then.

I have been cutting down some trees along the driveway and within a week or so, should have a driveable driveway. I have had few visitors since moving here because the driveway was 4-wheel drive only. That will now change.

The new layout of the farm will change. It used to be 7 acres of mostly macadamia nut trees streatching from the access road to the house. Now there will be 1 landscaped acre at the road, 5 acres of coffee and then an acre of processing area where I will pulp and dry the coffee. That area will be built over the next 2 years or so. I also am awaiting final plans for the water catchment tanks used for irrigation of the coffee.

Speaking of coffee, I recently had 2 large orders and had some freshly roasted Medium and Dark roast. If you are want to enjoy some great coffee, now is the time! Go to http://ItsKona.Com and it can be in the mail direct to you. To help you out, use the discount code FREESHIPPING at checkout time and I'll ship your whole order for free! Current shipping times are about 3-5 business days to the East Coast. Shipping is currently limited to the U.S.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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