I don't think we spent as much time and thank goodness money at Lowes this month. However, February is a short month. Todd finished the sheets of tile in the shower and is moving ahead on the mosaic that will line the walls and floor. I think it looks great. I know he hates tiling, but he is doing a great job. Now if I could only get him to clean up while he is working so I don't have to step on broken tiles every time I walk into the bathroom ... We did buy a few things for the rentals. We bought a new toaster for the main house as well as a new CD player. We bought a new TV for the apartment. For both the rentals we purchased alarm clocks (for those early morning swims with the dolphins) and folding drying racks. Verizon came out and ran a new phone line to the main house. The trees that had grown up around the line had rubbed the line too much and it no longer worked. Naturally, the Verizon guy ran the line in the same place. Todd had to tie a rope around the tree that I pulled on while he cut in order for it to not fall on the new wire. I even got to run the chainsaw for the first time. Power tools are cool.

     The farm is progressing slowly. Todd is so excited about his new 17 horsepower DR Trimmer. He is able to clear parts of the farm that we haven't ever seen. It is a nice piece of equipment. So nice in fact, that my Jeep has been kicked out of the car port so the trimmer has a place. This will not last. He will have to do some rearranging. The trimmer has also allowed Todd to get to some coffee trees that were inaccessible. That means he has more pruning and fertilizing to do. He did have a great find in the wooded area of the farm. There are about 100 baby coffee trees. This is great news since the coffee beans that we planted in pots haven't sprouted yet. The coffee pruning seminar we attended this month was informative. They had really good cookies too.

     I have been working on cleaning up the lava out croppings that are between our house and the main house. They were covered in vines, old huge fig leaves and weeds. I am no where near done, but they are looking better. I also started clearing the lava out cropping at the end of the driveway. We had to start a new compost pile since we have cleared out so much. I imagine the next tool we will need is a chipper. I also cleared out the lime tree that was getting strangled by tons of vines and grasses. I think lime season might be over or I stressed out the tree. We haven't seen one lime since.

     We are going on our third week without significant rainfall. We had a brief shower on Friday, but not enough to make an impact.

     This month we did quite a bit. We got to meet our travel agent, Marla who does a great job taking care of booking our guests. Thanks to two of our guests, Bernard and Shirley we got to meet Steve and Susan of Bwana Bob's. They are a great couple and have a beautifully landscaped vacation rental just a bit farther south. Unfortunately tax season is approaching. We met with an accountant to have our taxes prepared. There is no way I would have been able to do taxes for 2 states and our personal and business taxes using Turbo Tax. Ginger did a great job and even gave me a lesson with the QuickBooks software I bought to track our business. Gosh $400 for software. It nearly killed me to pay that much. Speaking of money we finally paid off our Jeep. We are now the proud owners of a 1999 Jeep Cherokee. I hope she lasts a long time here. Todd replaced the front brakes on Suzy (our Suzuki) and had quite a difficult time. Thanks to our digital camera, email and Todd's brother Scott's advice, Todd was able to get her back together again. She runs well and even stops. I planted some vegetable seeds to start our garden. I can't believe how fast the seeds sprouted. Todd bought dirt yesterday to put into our garden as well as to plant some of the baby coffee trees.

     We have been biking down at the beach every week. Well, I bike and Todd sits at the picnic table or snorkels while waiting for me. We need to buy another bike. The one I bought is actually too big for me. He is hoping I don't get a new one or he'll have to go with me. I have also started going to another yoga studio called Kona Yoga. I like the class. It is more like the yoga I took in Pennsylvania.

     Happy Birthday to Todd's sister, Lisa!