September thru December 2007, The Mill is Finished, We Sell Out of Our Prior Business for Good, Huller Get Installed at the farm

September 2007_We sell our building in St. Louis, after having owned it for 18 years. I mention it because having a Kona
Coffee farm like ours (almost 12 acres) is pretty much a full time hobby. So other distractions you have that take your
energy and time cannot “help” you with focusing on your farm. This transition is a welcome turn.

At the farm, we had a family that had moved in and they were supposedly to help, primarily with weeds. After slacking for almost a year they take a 3 week vacation in the middle of our heavy weed season -- after being asked to leave a few weeks prior. Amazing.

So we have been picking, weed whacking (although that chore was supposed to be “gone” surprise it is not gone), and winding up some old distractions.

October 2007_About to get all the pieces together. We have bags supposedly on the way. We got a sealer and a nice
weight scale at yard sales (did you know we are yard sale fanatics?). The huller got here from India last month and it should
get installed after the Kona Coffee Festival activities in early November.

November 29, 2007_Yes the huller did finally get to the mill and here is a picture of all the fanfare...later a guard is added but the machine is operational at this point...

July and August 2007, Wet Mill is finished and another coffee picking season starts

Outside, we seem to be graced by some of the neighborhood peacocks!



July 2007_Wet Mill is done

Besides having a climate controlled room put into operation quite some time ago, we also now have a wet mill to take the pulper portion of the equipment (taking it off the sundeck).


August 2007_Picking season

We don’t get started as late as last year!

June 15, 2007, New Kitchen Cabinets get started at the farmhouse in Honauna HI

June 2007_Kitchen Makeover Time and “Happy” the dog appears!

060407, Happy appears after he insists on sitting in the middle of the coffee land road as Ric tries to go down one day...not the best place cause sometimes people speed down and might not be able to stop -- he did not seem to want to move! Since he had a dog tag, we turned him into the Humane Society so they could try to locate his owner. They never responded, so about 10 days later we picked him up and brought him back home.


We take some time to get in kitchen cabinets and have them “mostly” installed. The installer turned out not to be so
talented at finish cabinetry. But it is still 1000 times better than before!

061507, the cabinet top has not been put on yet here!

February 20, 2007, We get Spencer the White Bear Dog from a lady doing a yard sale in South Kona

February 2007_“Spencer” the dog appears!

022007, Spencer comes to our home. We had seen him at a yard sale and the lady said she was looking for a good home for him. We took her number and later called her back, three days later we went and got him!

Spencer has turned out to be a very happy and fun dog. He likes to play “catch me if you can” and he is very fast to get away, then he’ll run upstairs and hide under the bed or under my desk. Later he comes out and gets on the bed to take his afternoon nap. He has extremely good hearing: we can be downstairs and pop open a flip top can and he’ll run down to see if there is anything he can beg or get into.

January 2007, A Coffee Seminar on Tree Pruning and work continues on our mill at the South side coffee farm

January 2007_Seminars and work on the mill continues...


We go to a coffee tree trimming seminar January 6 2007, with featured speaker Bob Smith.
Bob Smith actually came up to our farm just before we got possession and advised us of the REAL condition of the trees (we had thought big and tall trees were just extra healthy -- but really it indicated many had simply not been trimmed for years -- but with some hard work you can correct that at least)...


January 12th 2007, the parchment storage room is in progress (it is at the very back)...The forward area is the dry mill section where the roaster, huller, etc. will go.