Tropical Storm!

Hey there friends and family!

As you may know a little hurricane named Flossie made her way over to the Hawaiian islands and gave us a bit of a tropical storm! She is still passing through right now but I think the big island has pretty much had the last of her now. It was a stormy rainy and windy day, and a fog moved in that was so thick, you couldn't see 100ft ahead of you! Surprisingly, my tent held up quite well. Stayed dry and protected from the wind even though it was shaking around quite a bit. From a friend who lives in town I heard that there were some MAJOR choppy waves and that not a single boat was out on the water, which is good. I stepped down into my kitchen earlier and found a 9ft tall fig tree in the doorway that just snapped off completely! There have also been a couple plastic chairs blowing around. But in the long run, we had it pretty easy over here (knock on wood). I feel bad for Maui and Oahu because they are supposed to get it pretty bad! But I guess Hawaii has several of these kinds of storms a year and everyone who has lived here for a while doesn't make a huge deal out of it.

Anyway, today was also my first day all alone at the farm! My dear friend Kristen left last night to go back to Illinois for her sophomore year of college. We will definitely keep in touch though, and I may be calling her daily if I get lost driving or I forget which plant is the basil.

It really isn't too bad being all alone here. I rode out the storm by playing guitar and singing Jack Johnson in my tent very loudly. I will also be able to exercise more (Kristen somehow always convinced me not to go running)...

I'll probably have a week or two alone before a new intern comes. It will be cool to be the "veteran" here and show them all the ropes etc. I'm excited to pick them up at the airport in the old farm truck and welcome them to the island with a little country music ;)

Well, I better get back to my movie now! I'm watching Finding Nemo on my laptop. Such a good movie. I just had to watch it after I went snorkeling the other day and saw all the different kinds of fish!

Aloha!

A Good Days Work!

Hey y'all! I've been on the island for 22 days now... can't believe I'm coming up on a month! Time is really starting to fly and it just keeps getting better over here in Kona :)

I just wanted to post a little bit about what I did today! In the morning, I helped serve/cook breakfast to the Bed and Breakfast guests. After that, we loaded about 7 bags of fertilizer (AKA: ground up bird parts made into pellets) into the gator and went through half the coffee farm throwing fertilizer onto the base of each tree. Farmer Hans drove while Kristen and I sat in the back and threw the fertilizer out each side. It was a pretty smelly job. I still smell quite a bit which is why I'm getting the hot water ready for the shower!

After fertilizing and lunch, Hans showed us how to roast coffee and package it correctly. This was actually very interesting and I think I'm going to be doing a little of this by myself in the near future. One fun fact I learned was that "dark roast" is the least caffeinated coffee you can get. Also you taste more of the flavor from the roast and less of the actual coffee's original flavor. That is because the longer you roast the coffee, the more caffeine and flavor is roasted out of it!

This probably sounds a little boring but I thought it was interesting that when coffee is roasted, it loses 20% of its weight (which is mostly moisture) but the beans double in size!

Well that's about it for today! Here are a few pictures :)

The Sunset!

I know its hard to believe but this is pretty much what I see every evening... It really is paradise over here! So glad I had the camera ready.

Favorite Pics So Far

Week 1

Tomorrow will be the official 1 week mark of my stay here in Hawaii. Truthfully I feel like I've already been here a month just because of all the things I've done and seen! I had a good full 3 work days on the farm picking coffee cherry and doing work in the bed and breakfast, I went downtown a few times, had an AMAZING 4th of July, visited a few great beaches, went to a local Church this morning, and had a couple car problems...

For the 4th, me and some buddies went into downtown Kona and watched the little parade they put on every year. It was pretty small and had a very local feel to it, I had a great time! Later that night we watched the Kona fireworks show which was pretty amazing especially since it was right over the water and we were super close. It may be the best 4th I've ever had!

Today we hiked down to the beach and also to a lava tube which was so incredibly extraordinary in every way... we crawled way down deep into the tube until we reached the water which was practically invisible. I couldn't see the water at all until I saw something floating on the surface. It was about 15 to 20 feet deep and I stood on a flat rock where the water came up to my ankles and I could peer over the edge into the deep pool. It was completely pitch dark in the cave, we turned off our flashlights for a moment and there was literally no difference between opening or closing my eyes. It was also probably the most silent place I've ever been. The whole thing was straight from a movie, I'd never seen anything like it!

As for car troubles... on Friday I had to change the tire on an old farm truck before taking it to the beach and as for tonight... well, lets just say we took the car over some pretty rough terrain and got a flat tire. Luckily we made it to our neighbors house and they had an air compressor to pump up the tire... Sadly as we were filling it with air, the tire blew up right in our faces and my baseball cap flew off and went back about 10 feet. Oh, don't worry, I am fine. I couldn't hear a thing for a couple seconds and my face got a tiny bit blackened, but now I can say I had a tire blow up in my face. That's pretty cool, right? Anyway, we put on the spare tire and got the car home fine. That's my second tire change in 3 days... I guess that's life on the farm!

Overall, my first week was a complete success. Though I feel a littleee bit homesick at times, the joy and independence I get here overcomes it! Hawaii is a beautiful place and there is no where else I'd rather be right now.

PS: I've already had a few people think I was a local here! Goal completed!

Settling In

Currently at 2,100ft elevation up in the lush green hills of Kona, on an 8 acre coffee farm! On top of the coffee mill there is a large flat deck used for raking and drying the beans, it is outdoors of course but has a clear plastic roof covering and fully covered in netting to keep the critters out (most of em). There are two large tents on the deck, one for me, and one for the other "wwoofer" who is a 19 year old girl that just happens to love country music like me!

There's room to stand all the way up in my tent and a little twin sized mattress with sheets, blankets and a pillow. I have two folding chairs inside that serve as electronic/book/toiletry tables. My travel guitar and duffle bag are in the other corner. It's actually pretty organized! When I step out of the tent and look out from the deck, all I see are tons of exotic plants, bushes and of course coffee trees. Past all the green is the ocean and the sky, which are kind of hard to tell apart because they are both so BIG and blue!

As for the temperature, it's absolutely perfect. Nice and cooled off for sleeping. And I'm going to fall asleep so pleasantly to the sounds of  birds, crickets, and trickling rain water.

Tomorrow I will have a full tour of the farm and learn all my duties etc. My hours are from 7:30am to 3:30pm with an hour lunch break. I only work Monday through Thursday and I'm looking forward to going into town this weekend!

Island styleeeeeee!!!