This Week

This Week was Originally Posted on August 28, 2013 by lavarock

I continue to dry the coffee that was recently picked. I may need to build another drying deck because if I get any more coffee cherry picked soon, I have no where to put it after pulping.

I went into town yesterday to buy some clear plastic which I can use in place of the woven roof on the canopy over the drying area. This would allow more sunlight to hit the beans and still keep rain off. We are getting rain often enough that I have to stay nearby to cover the beans in the event of moisture. Sometime after January I expect to have a wooden deck with a clear plastic roof over it as a permanent structure. With some forethought I might be able to figure a way to have the wooden floor deck open up like a drawbridge (side to side) and use it as a garage in the off season.

I also looked for some steel poles that I could use in place of the 6 legs holding the 10 by 20 foot garage canopy up. By bringing it closer to the ground would make it harder to have wind push rain in at an angle, hitting the beans. You want to beans to dry quickly and thoroughly.

I am reworking a couple of websites and building a new one for a customer who wants a second entrance (new marketing scheme) for his existing shopping cart system.

I have an Amazon shipment due today which includes some SodaStream syrup ( I make my own soda) and a bluetooth adapter for my Obi device. This allows me to make and receive phone calls on my cellphone using my Voip account when at home.

While in town last night I saw a friend who has both an Obi and a Roku. The Roku is what she talked about last night, about how they are really enjoying it compared to the expensive cable they had.

I have been watching my Roku and since I am caught up on Downton Abbey and the such, switched to the classics. Some early Dragnet, the first Lone Ranger episode and lots of early shows like Groucho. There was an old series episode “Time Traveler”, written by Rod Serling and echoed both a Time Tunnel episode and yes, even a similar Star Trek episode. You may remember that months ago I was into old Star Trek, Hawaii 50 and The Prisoner episodes. The Roku cost me $80 I think and I have an Amazon Prime membership at $80 a year. The rest of the watching is on free channels the Roku gets.

I am moving my retirement finances to another “provider” and moving my Sisters Toll-Free number to another provider. Both of these changes should save money.

I just checked in and I’m still making some money with my Prosper account. My current rate of return is 8.92% and should go up as I added a couple more loans at 11% and 14%. I only invest in reasonable loans. If a couple is wanting a loan to finance their wedding or honeymoon, What is going to change just after that to increase their ability to pay back a loan? I just see more expenses coming, so no, I pass on that type or vacation loans or loans to buy a boat. A good loan I like is someone who has large but not unmanageable debt on high interest credit cards, who wants to reduce their monthly interest rate, thus freeing up more money. Since payment history on these loans is reported to the credit bureaus, most people are going to pay on time or earlier to help their credit score. Also, by spreading out a little money to many people, I limit any kind of loss I might have by putting all my eggs in one basket (so to speak).

Tonight a couple arrives on island and tomorrow we will meet (probably over lunch). They asked that since I had moved here, could I give them some hints and tips on how they can do it.

After the meeting I have an evening event where we calibrate our coffee moisture measuring units. What a timely event since I have hundreds of pounds of coffee drying at the moment

I have a few more large starfruit on the vine, the grapefruit are starting to ripen, I have lots of tangerines on the trees and more coffee to have picked. Fresh roasted Kona coffee is just a couple weeks away and you will hear about it here first.

So as I jokingly say, another quiet week.