July Newsletter

Hawaii is beautiful in July.  Sunny mornings and light rain in the afternoon have caused the entire farm to explode in the type of growth only found in the tropics.  Summer camp went great.  The kids had a blast, got muddy, grew vegetables and burned off a ton of energy.  We had a bit of a scare with Hurricane Douglas, but it didn’t damage anything and the coffee is coming in nicely.

Summer Camp

This month we ran the only outdoor summer camp on the west side of the island.  We had 30+ children on the farm every day engaged in team sports, outdoor play and even some lightweight farming.  We were very happy to host the camp and our own kids really enjoyed the program.

Having so many kids on the farm was a privilege and we’re lucky to have Ohana Martial Arts here in Kona to run programs like this.

Flash Flooding

Our farm has an intermittent stream on it that sometimes runs when it rains up on Hualalai.  This month we had two nights of flash flooding that filled up, then over flowed the streambank.  Fortunately the flood controls we’ve built stood up to the rush and nothing was damaged.

As part of our mitigation effort we added another small bridge to the property which looks beautiful next to the bright green summer foliage.

New Addition to the Family

Audrey has been dog sitting all year and saving up the money to buy one of her own.  This month she bought a miniature poodle puppy who has become the newest addition to our family.

The puppy is named “Cujo” and has the attitude of a St. Bernard in a frame that weighs less than a pound.  So far he’s getting along nicely with the cat.

Though the cat is also a fairly recent addition to the family and is named “Crookshanks” after the Hogwarts cat from Harry Potter.  She has taken to murdering anything smaller than her - gekkos, birds, frogs and months and the kids are considering renaming her Princess Heidi Von Murderhousen the IV. 

The Coffee Crop

The rain has really boosted coffee production here on the mountain.  The trees are heavy with green coffee and we’ve been working hard to mitigate both Coffee Rust and CBB.  We are also still getting quite a few flowers which will increase the size of the crop in late fall.

We’ve also found resources to both sort and roast smaller quantities of coffee at a reasonable price.  That means we’ve started offering both whole bean coffee and different roasting profiles to our subscribers. 

With Aloha,