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Balmy tropical winter

Happy New Year! I must say, I kinda like walking the dogs in the morning wearing shorts and a t-shirt during the holidays! I especially appreciate it after seeing the snow storms that have been hammering Denver in recent weeks.
I shot these pictures the other day on my visit to Volcanoes National Park. The flag, with Mauna Loa in the background, flies on the beautifully manicured grounds of Kilauea Military Camp. It flies at half staff in honor of Gerald Ford.
The little fenced square with smoke coming out of it is a steam vent. I can only assume the fencing is a form of INS for the Park Service. INS, as I understand it, stands for Interfering with Natural Selection. In this case, it's to protect humans too stupid not to know that jumping into a steam vent near active volcanoes is a bad idea.
Today, I discovered that our coffee trees have a condition called Cercospora. It's a fungus, common in areas with lots of rain. Looks like we'll have to spring for some copper fungicide to kill it. I have no idea how much that costs, but I'm sure it's plenty. There are several companies that make organic copper fungicides, so we'll try to buy one of those. Too bad we have no clue what the H-E-double toothpicks we're doing here in the jungle! Other than the brown spots on a few of our leaves, the coffee trees are growing like gangbusters.
I may have a job interview next week with a local publication called Hawaii Island Journal. The editor responded to my email by saying he'd like to meet and chat. That can't be bad, right?
Hou'oli (happy) Makahiki (year) Hou (new)! A hui hou. Aloha!

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