January 2008, We get a sorter/grader for the dry mill

eJanuary 25, 2008_We get a sorter/grader ... this means we can separate out the PEABERRY!

This was built by a local coffee farmer. It is an interesting device, green beans are shaken and they bounce over several sets of screens in a progressive manner (small screens going toward larger screens).
As the beans shake across the screens the are sorted in the buckets below.

Depending upon what you want to grade or sort out and the nature of your beans you could use any combination of these screens. The unit comes with a full set!

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.

December 15th 2006, For Christmas Santa gave this Kona Coffee Farmer a nice Kona Coffee Label Logo

12/15/06 Our logo is finished...

Joachim did a fine job!

Give Joachim Oster a call today at 808-328-1401, or [click here] to email Joachim and get the ball rolling — what you waiting for?

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In December 2006, One highlight is attending a Kona Coffee Farmer's Seminar at a local organic kona coffee farm

December 2006_Our Climate Controlled Coffee Storage Room Project starts; Get our coffee logo completed!

12/11/06 Getting it into the final planning and design stages. It will involve some moving of soil, building the frame, determining
what type of dehumidifier or air conditioner or a combo unit will be used. How to monitor the humidity in the room, etc.


12/13/06, We attend a coffee workshop about drying methods. This is a coffee dryer!



12/13/06, Bob Nelson shows his custom made coffee rake! This is his farm we are at where the seminar is being held.
Bob has got the rake in his hand. Recognize the guy far back left? That’s Rick Funk again who a couple of months prior was pulping our coffee before our mill was ready to work. Rick has a similar dryer that he built so he had some input at the seminar.

October 15 2006, Big Earthquake hits the Big Island but we have little harmful effects

101506, EARTHQUAKE, for us just a few things thrown, some glass items that fell shattered and a few wall board seams broken. We had power back in about 40 minutes while Kailua town was out for 4 or 5 hours. We sat at home and watched the national news coverage (and put it on the DVR machine)...

It was amazing how powerful and a scary thought to think what something like this would do if it continued past the 20 or 30 seconds that it was! This reached Oahu where many of their power generators were kicked offline and each had to be carefully re-started. Some people had rock walls collapse, big bolders rolled into some highways, walls of some homes tumbled. But all in all it could have been much much worse.

October 2006, We get to roast our own coffee for the first time!

October 2006_We have roasted and it is VERY GOOD!

We have roasted a sample batch of our coffee and boy it is good!

On October 5th our pulper was put into place temporarily on the drying deck...
This is an Estrada pulper from Columbia.