Win Some, Lose Some

Win Some, Lose Some was Originally Posted on August 10, 2005 by lavarock

Our coffee tasting event was a big success, even if I didn’t win this year. Looks like I will have to rest some on my laurels from last year!

We got a nice write-up in the West Hawaii Today newspaper: http://westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2005/08/10/features/features01.txt. I also took photos of the event; however, they are not edited. I have no idea of the total attendees, but suffice it to say there were many hundred people there. I went through 2 pump pots of coffee and many people were only taking small samples of coffee (sips really) and many of us still ran out early.

The other day I sprayed a bit of Roundup in the water causeway at the end of my property. As I did that I noticed 2 papaya trees there with ripening papaya. I had never seen them before and the papayas were almost ready to pick. I left them there. Hours later it rained, Well, “rain” may not be the best description. It was torrents of water cascading down the countryside. The reports from neighbors and the National Weather Center was 3 inches of water per hour was falling. The rain seemed to last many hours.

I really wish bought a weather center and installed it when I first got here. Some of the data would be truly amazing. Oh and we had an earthquake here, but it was only a 2.5 about 30 miles away, so no big deal.

Yesterday I finished and submitted the ad copy for this Sunday’s thank you ad for our coffee tasting. Today I attended the Farm Bureaus meeting where we calibrated moisture meters. These meters are used for measuring moisture content of green or parchment coffee. Too much moisture and the coffee can mildew in storage while waiting to be roasted.

On the way back from the meeting a neighbor and I went to another farm to discuss having her coffee pulped and dried and then sent back to her farm. Some farms do all the work themselves, others “farm” out some of the work.

At the meeting, someone brought fresh bananas from their farm and of course, we had coffee served. However when I finally made it home I stopped at the papaya tree. I discovered that the almost ripe fruit had been washed down the ravine. I grabbed 4 fruit from the ground and will see if I can get some seeds from the pods as they are not ripe enough to eat and I would not trust any fruit that had been under all that water in the ravine anyway. However, the second tree seems to still have its fruit on it and I’ll watch it as see how it does. Papaya grows pretty fast here so I think I’ll plant these seeds and see just how fast it takes to get fruit.

I think I’ll make a concerted effort to sell what coffee I have left so I can close up shop and take a vacation on the mainland. Delta is starting direct Atlanta to Kona service with a stop in Salt Lake City. Well, that is if Delta does better in the industry. I see today where their stock took a major plunge.

I guess everybody wins some and they lose some.