A Little Shake

A Little Shake was Originally Posted on November 8, 2007 by lavarock

I was awake at 5 am this morning because Koa (my chocolate labrador) has a tendency of sleeping all day and lightly sleeping all night. I was lying on the bed when the quake hit. Well, “hit” is a bit overkill. The shaker was a 2.9 and centered about 3 miles east of me and some 7 miles down. No big deal and normally, I might have slept through it. The dog makes more commotion when he lies with his back against the sliding glass door and scratches. If you wish to investigate Hawaiian earthquakes, I direct you here http://tux.wr.usgs.gov. We are one of the most watched (if not THE most watched) volcanic areas in the world; primarily because so many people live next to these active volcanos and quake zones.

I think this is the second quake I have felt since the big ones on October 15th of last year. That seems so long ago and so much has happened since then. It is interesting to note how these quakes are centered and the vibrations extend out in circles from the epicenter.

Our Coffee Farmers Association is running fairly smoothly. It is Coffee Festival week and we are participating. We have our coffee label and website (http://konacoffeefarmers.org) entered in the label and website competition. We continue to teach people about why farmers hate blends and what a blend really is.

We just had our annual dinner and auction and did pretty well. I was the auctioneer for the live portion.

I found a deal on having holes punched for more coffee and the same guy can put in the base for my catchment water tnks. If his specs are correct, I might have these items completed in the next week or so. I have to get some more coffee in the ground this year!

Speaking of coffee, my friend Sandra is having holes punched on her new farm for both coffee and shade trees. her land is better suited than mine as she has a nice flat area, but her slope is considerably more than mine. She has grass (actually a lawn) and I don’t.

My neighbor Ginnie sold her farm and she and her husband will be relocating to Alaska! I wonder just how long that will last? We has a guy on the Konaweb site that moved here, then moved back t othe mainland and just 1 year later has moved back. He realized just how much he missed the place here.

Some friends are visiting the island again this year and we will be having dinner tonight with some neighbors too.

A friend and ex co-worker from HP was on Oahu last week organizing an air show. He called to tell me that he will be stationed on Oahu for a year or so soon. Pete is the guy who years ago, get me to fly a T-34 trainer. Although the plane can and does fly upside and sideways, Pete said that when I was at the yoke, he had to keep checking if he had the autopilot on, because we were flying so level and true. In reality, I was scared that if I deviated from level, we surely could have died Although many people fly these things upside down and so on, they usually have more than the 5 minutes of preparation time than I got before my first flight!

Speaking of first flights, oh wait, I just told you that story…

I took the dog out for his morning “exercise” and I got 2 or 3 mosquito bites. I’m still itching. I don’t know how they find me so quickly. Also, whomever told me that after being here a year or so the pesky thhings would steer clear of me, was completely wrong. perhaps I have not sufficiently changed my diet enough.

Well, it is now 6am and time for me to either decide to stay up, or go back to sleep for a few hours. yesterday I got up early, sprayed some Roundup (actually the generic) on weeds and then settled down to work ion the computer. Hours later it rained and then poured for hours at a time. That was a waste of about $30 worth of weed killer. Most other times it looks like it will rain and does niot. I don’t even have to wash the truck here to get it to rain; just spray the stuff and in comes the rain.

I have to clear the brush and tall grass so that I can spray the ground where the holes for the coffee plants will go. They will bring in a machine to poke holes in the rocks. I’ll post a photo or two later on the http://ItsKona.Com website. I have some photos of Sandras farm having the same procedure, but just as I zoomed in for a close up shot of a hole being opened, they guy took a break and I was late for work.

By the way, if you are a reader of my past blogs you will know that I usually thread a few items on the same topic together; whether by similar vein or function.

So speaking of quakes (shakers), the Shakers were a Protestant religious denomination officially called The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, At one time they numbered in the thousands but now number very few. The reason? They were strict believers in celibacy. Shakers maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption of orphans. Turnover was very high.

Part of their religion here in the US had men and women divided (using different staircases and eating apart (not unlike part of the Hawaiian custom of men and women having a kapu about eating together). In reading about their customs, you will learn how they came to make their famous furniture. Their Hancock Shaker barm was featured on a “This Old House” (or similar program). Among inventions were the screw propeller and circular saw.

New laws prevent religeous organizations from adopting children and thus, with their desire of celebracy, it is assumed that unless many people decide to embrace the religon, it may well cease to exist during out lifetime.

So there you have it, a fresh nwe blog. I tied two ideas together and filled yeat another blank space. The obvious link between the two stories might be the word “shaker” as in the religous group and the earthquake. You may be correct but also note that I spoke about a group dying out and planting new crops… kind of a circle of life.

Speaking of circles, epicenters and waves form circles, the coffee holes are circles and then there is that “circle of life” thing.

I would love to draw more analogies, but I am running out of time. Perhaps later I can get back around (a ROUND) to it