planting seeds.: day forty three

I just held a duck! My favorite time of the day is feeding the birds. For one, it means the day is finally over and second I just love those darn birds. So today, I went over to my favorite duck and just picked her up. I think it was pretty good for both of us. In addition to my tender moment with the duck, it's been a big week. We met with one of the top cuppers in the coffee industry, the Iron Man Triathlon was in town, BARBIE IS FIXED (thank you for all of your concern), I didn't break any more farm equipment, and Eric's been nominated for his lead role in the "video tour of WWOOF camp"!

Although Eric and I were warned by locals to avoid town over the weekend as thousands of people from all over the world took over the quiet town of Kona, we did just the opposite. We woke up at 5am and headed straight into the heart of the Iron Man Triathlon madness. We were there as the cannon went off and watched as athletes jumped into the clear, choppy water to begin their 2.4 mile swim. We were there a couple hours later when they got out of the water and climbed on their bikes to ride 112 miles through the windy, hilly desert. And yes, we were even there cheering and high-fiving the athletes as they came in from running 26.2 miles with the 95 degree heat bearing down on them. In total, we committed 16 hours to the event, surviving on the same stuff they did; free power-bars and energy drinks. We left inspired and to be honest pretty exhausted.

Wednesday we took a VTO day (volunteer time off) and met with coffee expert Shawn Steinman, who has literally written a book on coffee. Sitting in white rocking chairs on a long wooden porch at a coffee farm down the road, we talked nothing but coffee for several hours. With tourists flooding in to the bright, open storefront, overlooking the farm, Shawn gave us an introduction to coffee cupping. Coffee cupping is basically like wine tasting. It involves comparing, identifying and analyzing the different characteristics and attributes of individual coffees. Together we cupped several different Kona coffees and found they had drastic differences. In these particular coffees, we picked up on hints of grapefruit and lemon, intense earthy aroma's, and lingering aftertastes. It will take a lot more practice to get on Shawn's level (like eight years) but for our first time we did pretty well. It was a great experience and got Eric and I really excited to learn more...and although we spit out most of the coffee that day, we still got a pretty good buzz.

All in all we may never be Iron Men but we are one step closer to our goal.