Kona Coffee farm maintenance is always ongoing. This year it was time to replace the covering on the coffee drying decks. Due to the UV rays of our beautiful Hawaiian sunshine, the poly covering will last about five years and then it starts breaking down. This was year six and it was time to tackle this project. First the old poly comes off and goes to the recycle center, next comes the challenge of pulling the large, continuous sheet up and over the bows of the cover frame. We accomplished this by tying strings to the sheet on one side of the deck and gently pulling the sheet up over the top. This is quite the job for two people but we did not get in a hurry and finished the job without damaging the covering, or each other. With my great patience and my loving wife’s excellent directions, we managed, somehow.
Our deck is used to dry the pulped and washed coffee during the picking season. The open ends allow for cross ventilation to carry away moisture as the sun heats the coffee parchment. The poly cover protects the drying parchment from rain showers as well as producing the green house effect during sunny times.
