Isle Arlans' to start selling El Lago coffee

Headway: Nearly two years ago today, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued Joe and Terry Butcher, along with Joe’s brother, Douglas Butcher, after their sailboat, Red Cloud, was struck by 25-foot seas 200 miles offshore.

Joe and Terry Butcher own El Lago Coffee Co. The trio had planned to deliver 10,000 pounds of coffee from Belize to Texas.

Although Red Cloud was lost, the Butchers’ are sailing ahead with the business, this month announcing they’ll begin selling El Lago coffee at Arlan’s Market, 514 Market St., in Galveston. The coffee sells well at Arlan’s Seabrook store, the Butchers said.

Coffee sales will help to pay for the company’s next sailing vessel. The Butchers said their next boat is in the early design stages, possibly a 79-foot steel hull schooner that would carry one, 20-foot standard shipping container, about 49,500 pounds of coffee, each trip. They said they want the boat and their products to be eco-friendly.

Look for El Lago to pass out free samples of brewed coffee — including its top seller, the “Boat Roast” — at the island Arlan’s from 7 a.m. to about noon Wednesday.

Rooftop report: Crystal Beach home and commercial property owner Vickie Vilce was so impressed with the work that F&S Environmental LLC did in providing temporary homes after Hurricane Ike, she decided to buy the Alabama company’s land and home holdings.

Vilce is president of the now-named Coastal Home Solutions. Under the terms of the deal, Vilce will buy the land and all the material and contract with the company to build houses and commercial properties.

Coastal Home Solutions already has built 10 homes on Bolivar Peninsula, where the September 2008 storm wiped thousands of homes off their slabs. She expects to have built 49 by the end of the summer, Vilce said.

“I was one of those people whose family lost a home at Crystal Beach,” Vilce said.

“Everything was gone following Hurricane Ike. It was difficult to imagine rebuilding unless I know the engineering and construction would last, be the best it could be, be as strong as possible.”

The company builds a wide variety of houses, from traditional to steel-frame insulated with foam panels. Vilce also is the owner/broker of RE/MAX Connections and of V&V Consulting, a company set up to bid and accept government contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Help a reader out: Here’s a business idea that should have some of us slapping our foreheads and asking: “Why didn’t I think of that?”

A Friendswood reader is seeking ornaments made from oak wood salvaged from storm-killed trees. Although Christmas has passed, she’d like one for next year.

“I just want a sliver with a hole in it for hanging,” the reader e-mailed. “I could even drill the hole.”

Anyone who knows how to help the reader, please give Buzz a buzz.