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.