TL;DR

We processed 83 dozen eggs, I helped prepare a pig pen, and then planted onions in the rain today. Few pictures but many happy moments with the crew at breakfast and lunch.

Team Birthday Breakfast

It was a short day today because the six of us started out together, breakfast at the Agawam diner to celebrate May birthdays, then headed back to the farm. It felt more natural than any ‘team meeting’ I’ve ever had, partially because we already knew each other from many days working in the field together, but mostly because of the goodness of each member of the team.

Preparing for Week 1 of the CSA

Though it was a short day, there were more of us than usual so we made the best of it and everyone was busy once we got back from breakfast. Some planted, some seeded in the greenhouse, some did things I have no idea about…meanwhile I and another processed 83 dozen eggs. The process is documented here, but sufficed to say the loss ratio is getting better in the past few weeks.

The CSA starts soon and we need to start ramping the egg production. Chickens were ordered many weeks ago in preparation. I have a feeling I’ll be getting faster at hand polishing eggs twice a week but you never know what tasks you’ll be distributed to based on need.

The First Pop-up Market

Though I had to leave early for family transit reasons, Jamie and another collected various goodies for the pop-up market later in the day. This was honey, pepper jelly, green garlic stalks, the last chops of frozen pork from the winter meat share (still fantastic BTW), bouquets of lilacs, and of course farm fresh eggs. We’ll see what’s left coming back tomorrow, but my guess is very little.

Preparing a Pig Pen

Despite the epic amount of eggs, I got pulled to help clear out the pig pen way up into the forest hill. This involved deconstructing the prior structures made of pallets, reinfocring wire mesh, rebar, and chicken wire.

This was in prep for three other members of the crew to tackle reconstruction using these components properly after lunch.

Lunch

We had sammies with my homemade bread and then some carrot cake loaf left over from my birthday cake last night. I love carrot cake, but love that my wife loves it more so that’s what I always ask for when she insists on making one for me. Everyone benefits.

Planting in the Rain

We finished the afternoon planting the Alise onions in two rows of the top plot on the main field. It was already wet and raining earlier in the day, but someone in the sky must have turned up the volume becase it was on-and-off pouring and clear for the hour or so we were out there.

Planting in the rain is…not fun. Still, things have to be done and if I were a seedling, I couldn’t hope for better than to be planted with a natural watering in that other seedings out in a field often don’t get.

Fortunately, I avoided loosing a boot to the muck and two others on the team were very fast planters. We finished up and headed back to the greenhouse to hose our bottom halves off properly before packing into our automobiles and heading our separate ways.

What Happens When AI Gets Wet?

I can imagine a future where robots efficiently and tirelessly do what I did today, even in the rain. When they go back to their charging stations, after they hose each other off, I wonder what they’ll dream about. After all the data is uploaded, replicated globally, and monetized unscrupulously, I wonder what tune they’ll whistle the next day in the fields.

For now, I keep my AI working for me, or at least that’s what I think. Note that it wonders what they meaning is of a birthday on May 20th and while I’m sure a birthday isn’t a foreign concept in its training, I wonder if robots will celebrate each other’s manufacturing date some day. Until then, here’s what it thinks I did based on my audio notes, transcribed and run through a local LLM for summary:

Main Themes:

1. Farm work and daily tasks
2. Celebrations and social interactions (birthday celebrations with colleagues)
3. Learning and adapting to new situations (pig pen renovation, beekeeping activities)

Activities:

1. Egg collection (83 dozen eggs)
2. Pig pen renovation (disassembling pallets, moving shelters, liberating chicken wire)
3. Cleaning the barn (bee nests, stackable wooden boxes for bees)
4. Planting Elsa onions in one of the top fields
5. Preparing for the pop-up market (preparing equipment and supplies)
6. Lunch break (making sandwiches with carrot cake and fresh bread)

New Things Not Yet Encountered:

1. Gator tractor usage (someone “flew up to work on pig pen renovation”)
2. Pig pen layout and management (original setup, string tied pallets, wire mesh trellising)
3. Beekeeping activities (stackable wooden boxes for bees, bee nests)

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

1. What is the meaning behind someone’s birthday being on May 20th?
2. How long will the Spring CSA last?
3. Are there any specific requirements or expectations for the pop-up market setup?

Suggested Actions:

1. Review and discuss the pig pen renovation process with Jamie to understand the original setup and management practices.
2. Investigate the specifics of the beekeeping activities, such as the purpose of stackable wooden boxes and how to handle bee nests.
3. Clarify the expectations for the pop-up market setup and what is required from the farm for participation.