I just came across a newspaper article which is quite appropriate for this time of year. Perhaps you have heard that the University of Hawaii football taem, the Warriors, are headed to the Sugar Bowl this year? They will be playing my old local team, Georgia. While I don't follow football normally, you can bet the I'll be rooting for my new LOCAL team, Hawaii this year!

Well, many cannot believe that Hawaii would make it, yet they did. They did it with a good team and a driving force. That force comes down t oone word, "Believe".

Here to warm you up a bit during the cold weather is an article about how they believe they accomplished their feat... http://honoluluadvertiser .com...

Around Thanksgiving I was caring for my friends dogs while she was in Australia. We received 7" of rain down by my farm in 1 day! The road between my farm and the next one down was unpassable and Painted Church Road was closed due to runoff above us. Up at my friends, we made it through pretty easily; the electricity, cable and phones only being out for a day or so. However, down at my farm I hear the power was off for 4 days. What a difference 10 miles can make. Then we also had a 2.9 earthquake just to liven things up a bit. That quake was centered about 3 miles from where I was staying.

As ypu know, I work part time at a condo place in Kona, checking people into rooms and booking them for luaus and snorkle adventures and so on. Many of the excursions want me to come experience them so that I can tell your guests just how great they are. Naturally I get to do these things for free. I am being asked to attend another luau and take a helicopter ride around the island. As a Christmas present I received many boxes of cookies and chocolates and even a gift card with some spending cash.

And people wonder why we call it paradise?

First, I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but they took my oldies station and changed over to Christmas music along about Halloween! I was not happy. It is unfortunate that I have no other stations in range wirth listening to. I hate to admit it but I am awaiting December 26th with more excitement than the 25th.

I had the property cleared of trees in December, then let things go while I was on the mainland a couple of times. Before I knew it, there were 3 to 4 foot bushes and trees where my coffee needs to be. I have been trying to clear that area up since.

I found someone to put in the base for my water catchment tanks and he is about to begin. He will also clear the above described brush from two acres and punch holes in the rock for coffee trees. I'll be planting up to 1500 or so trees this year.

In the brush I also found many papaya trees had grown. I've tried to save them for now, their fruit selling for .99 a pound in stores here. Some of these papayas are gigantic (the size of grapefruit)! I don't know which variety they are (as they are wild), but they can't be too bad. In the worst case, my guard dog Koa will eat them :-)

Koa is now 50 pounds or more and still growing. He was officially registered with the AKC as “Aloha Kokoleka Kope” (Aloha Chocolate Coffee). As he has matured, we have determined that he may be from different father than first suspected (dogs can have multiple fathers in the same litter); so I'll submit his DNA swab to AKC to verify his parents.

There is some happy and sad news to report. Koa's Mother had a litter and so did another female at the kennel. Both litters were premature and 3 puppies did not make it. One was so small that he had to be hand-fed as he could not nurse. I snuggled a bit with him over the few days he was with us. He hung on as long as he could, but was just not strong enough to make it. It is a reminder to me that it can be a very cruel and unforgiving world out here. However, the rest of the two litters are doing great and we are thankful they made it.

I have been selling quite a bit of coffee and am currently out, so I closed the website for a short while. I have been very busy with so many projects that many others have not gotten the attention they need. The coffee plants are the most important at the moment and I am still trying to get them in the ground before my self-appointed deadline of December 31st. At least it is not my holdup at the moment.

I also am waiting for my quote to be delivered fro installation of the catchment tanks. I hope it comes in under budget.

Recently I replaced my trucks brake disc pads. I must not have cranked a couple of bolts down tightly because they fell off and I lost ½ my front braking power. It was an easy fix on my part with one exception. This is a VERY COMMON truck on this island and I understand that the bolts are very common parts that often are not tightened properly and thus, weekend mechanics like me often lose them. Still, there were not any bolts to be had on the island and I ended up waiting almost a week for them to be airlifted in.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I changed from a regular hardwired telephone at the farm to a voice over IP phone which costs me about 1/3 of the price of the one from the phone company.

I also signed up to a stock purchase plan that uses dollar-cost-averaging to help you save. That company was just purchased by ING.

Speaking of ING and their website INGDIRECT.COM, they now offer a checking account which pays almost 4% interest! Compare that to regular banks that barely give you a tenth of that in a savings account. If you are into saving money, please consider putting your hard-earned money to work for you.

I'm not sure if I'm working this Christmas, but in the hospitality industry, it is not unusual to work holidays.

It's not a New Years resolution or anything like that I'm passing along, just a helpful hint... back Up That Computer!

If you are a taxpayer, it is about time to buy and sell those stocks, print off your account transactions and yes, even check to see how many miles are on the odometer.

If using the end of the year as a guide, it may also be time to change out those smoke detector batteries.

If I remember correctly, I think January starts the flood of discount certificates to get you to scrap your perfectly good TV and switch to HDTV.

And the countdown begins....