Ive Looked At Clouds From One Side Now

With credit to Jonie Mitchell.

It has been very cloudy for weeks now. Clouds but little rain, however I hear we may be in for lots of rain tomorrow with possible flood watches and warnings. I am not sure how much the volcano is contributing to this, but I am sure quite a bit.

So with the clouds and my not aligned solar panles, I am not gathering much sun at all. I still have not mounted the third battery and will need help to do that. It is 100 pounds and I have tol lift it about 5 feet. I might be able t odo it myself, but if I drop it it would NOT be good. The battery will allow me to go longer without the utility but it also needs more sun to charge all 3 batteries. Still, adjustingt he panels for the current position of the sun should help.

I have about a week left before I get my second transfer switch. That involved making 3 prior purchases which either did not arrive or had to be canceled because the extra shipping was tremendous or they didn’t want to ship to me in any reasonable time. I paid extra because te one company said they normally ship FedEx so I gave them my home address. They shipped it by USPS which means that it will be on the postal truck, they will get to my mailbox, find it cannot fit, will leave a pickup notice and take it to the Post Office where I can retreive it the next day. The next day is usually a Monday so extra days of no item.

I also have found that prickly weeds are growing under the solar panels and I zapped them this morning with weed killer. They will still need to be pulled up however those thorns on them make it a very difficult and painful exercise.

Because of the pending rain. I did my research and then headed to town to get fertilizer for my citrus trees. I wanted a soluble type which I can mix with water and use my new power sprayer to douse each tree. After 3 stops in town I finally had to get a somewhat slow release fertilizer. The problem is that heavy rain may move those pellets where watering fertilizer in gets to the roots. Granted, heavy rain could then wash the liquid down past the roots, but I have the sprayer and it is easier to carry the fertilizer in a liquid form on my back than to keep running t othe tractor to get more scoops from the 20 pound bags. That is just what I did and was happy to get all the new trees fertilized before it got dark.

I next have to hire guys to do the weeding while I take the tractor and mower to my friends farm to cut that one. Over there the guys need to finish planting as both farms must be fully planted this year to receive the new 30 year lease. Then it is just caring for the crops, mowing and keeping things neat. Those items can be contracted out and even paid for with the crops on the farms.

My farm crops will end up being about 25% coffee and 75% fruit which is mostly citrus. It includes Navel Oranges, Valencia (juice) Oranges, Meter Lemons, Limes, Calamodin Limes, Finger Limes, Tangerines, Tangelos, Tangers, Ice Cream Bean, Rollinia, Sapote, Sapadilla, Fig, Late Mango, Mango, Mountain Apple and even Allspice. I could have just planted juicing oranges but didn’t want to aturate the market 🙂

It seems as though I have up to town and then up island many times this month. Town is 15 to 20 miles away and when I go I generally stop at a number of places. They include Lowes, WalMart, Home Depot and Costco. Sometimes I have to visit one them again ont he way home to get something the other stores didn’t have. I hit all those and the Farm and Garden store looking for the fertilizer. The one I wanted was out of stock at two stoere and not available in Hawaii at another.

I need to get the remaining weeds away from the tree trunks and in the meantime that fertilizer will help them grow. It is a never-ending cycle.

Every time I go up he long driveway I am reminded of my two Labradors I had for about 14 years each. They were good companions and each suffered from hip issues, hearing and Koa had bad eyesight at the end. Althogh I have had dogs most of my life, I am not sure if I will have another. They say you should never say ‘NEVER’ so we will have t osee. It does get lonely and I miss that look the dogs have when you talk to them and they look at you like “I don’t know what he said, but I hope it involves food”. If you have had Labradors then you know it is true!

One neighbor has video cameras on the property and every once in a while I have t ogo to see why some have stopped working. It appears that using the vacuum pops the breaker on occasion. I just reset the breaker, the camers come on and I try to explain to them what to check if it happens again. It is similar to the times I get calls that a printer is not connectinga nd I remin that neighbor to see which of the network names he is connected to.

In the past 4 or 5 months we have had numerous lava fountains at the volcano and believe it or not, I have not been to see it yet. It has not been continuous but goes in irregular cycles of quieta nd exciting hundreds of foot sprays. I have seem flowing and oozing lava so it is not as if I have completely ignored how land is created, I just have not taken the refresher course.

Until next time!