TL;DR

Watered the greenhouse, painted bee boxes and distributed them around the property, and spread lanscaping fabric across a few fields.

While Watering the Greenhouse, Volunteer Plucking

Just about every day I’m on the farm, one of my tasks is to water the greenhouse at least once. While doing so, I note where ‘volunteer’ seedlings are. Then I go back and carefully pluck them out and deposit them into a broken 98 cell tray to bring home. Gardeners call these little plants ‘volunteers’ but most farmers don’t really have the time to call them anything and don’t really mind if they show up for dropping out in the field.

Volunteers in a greenhouse arise usually because seeds are occasionally dropped onto the potting mix table while planting trays of one thing, then the next run of seeding happens and they’re unintentionally propagated along with the intented seed. It’s a lovely thing that the greenhouse situation is so accomodating that everything grows, even things that don’t belong where they show up.

Volunteering Planting

Last year when I volunteered starting in the summer season, I was hoping to grow a relationship and as an individual in a fertile and at-scale agricultural space. It worked…this year I have a job…something the high tech sector sorely missed out on.

Spoiler: the tech sector has its head up somewhere for so long that their last resort is AI…while actually hard work industries are economically hurting now more than ever. Tariffs don’t benefit consumers or producers, just profiteers.

The sign of a really healthy system is how well it creates value for its surrounding ecosystem, not just for itself. None of the software companies I ever worked for can say this. In my garden, the overflow value of the farm’s volunteer plants thrive because the opportunity to do so is made available. No matter what your CEO says about the latest rewrite of corporate values (usually comparable to that written by an LLM), they don’t believe in them such that their environment produces greater value than it comsumes (the Reverse O’Reilly law).

Switching Context from Pig Transportation to Bee Husbandry

Before loading the truck up with bee box parts, we dropped off the big wooden box used to transport piglets yesterday up on the hill towards the pig pens. The view from this vantage point out onto the Ipswich salt marsh fields is stunning, even covered in the smell of pigshit.

Now that the piglets are happy and settled for the summer, our focus shifts to the important role that the bees play, not only for non-self-polinating veg but because this year many farms are late to refresh their pollinator populations. For many years, a mallady of factors have caused bee populations to decline.

I think if I were a bee, I might also think twice about propagating in the United States too. The current climate, ecological and political, is so toxic that there’s very little room for hope.

Add Bee Box Painting to My Resume

After a wash-off, I got to priming and painting bee box lids (the outside kind). Between priming and painting with a glossy white paint, we depositied the existing bee stacks around the property. The bees will travel up to a mile away from their stack so the locations chosen were a combination of:

• closeness to plants that they woulld enjoy polinating
• awayness from unintentional human interactions (such as haying and mowing)
• accessability by husbandry folks for maintenance throughout the season

A bee stack usually consists of a base (screened), then one or more boxes, then an inner lid, then a top external lid. In this case, our exterior lids are topped with a stainless steel plating so that rain doesn’t sit on top and rot them throughout the season.

Additionally, the direction/orientation of the hives seemed to play an important enough part for Jamie to keep checking it with his phone’s compass. Google says that:

“Beehives should ideally face southeast. This orientation maximizes early morning sun exposure, helping bees warm up and become active earlier in the day. Additionally, southeast facing protects the hive from prevailing northwest winds during the winter.”

More Row Preparation

We spread landscaping fabric over an additional 6 rows in the middle high main fields. This fabric was left over from the prior season and what a month ago we had taken the time to excavate and remove most of the garden staples from. Then we used more staples to make sure it stayed where it was placed until next week we cover the rest of the rows with fresh fabric.

Despite landscaping fabric being made of plastic, it mostly stays together and doesn’t disintegrate contiguously throughout a field unless overused for too long. After about 3 seasons, you can gather it up and dispose of it properly without spreading (the modern infatuation around) microplastics throughout your growing spaces.

In this farm’s case, black fabric is a reasonable compensating approach to their policy of using NO herbicides or pesticides. While working close to Jamie, I asked whose perrogative this was, the land owners or the farmer’s. He said it was a shared alignment and intention for the land. Such respect for this answer.

End of Day and Week Watering

I finished the day by watering the greenhouse. It was a bit late in the day, but despite the ill-informed guidance by gardners against watering any other time but the early morning, the morning cloud cover and late sun didn’t really affect the plant stress today. Before watering, I looked for volunteers and any very out-of-place trays or species/series to group them together in a more logical way. The rest was quietly cathartic.

Would AI Care about the Mass Decline of Bees?

Notwithstanding the lack of context or need for pollinated fruiting herbatious plants, I think AI would say it cares about the decline of bee populations around the world and especially in the United States. On a good day, it would properly associate rampant use of pesticides and defunding of agricultural research as contributing factors to this late-stage, human-driven planetary illness symptom. On a bad day, it would laud the current authoritarian governing trends for their foresight to ‘get ahead of the bee problem’ by eradicating them completely, just like shared facts and proper reasoning and human decency and scientific proof.

For now, my personal AI (custom LLM with additional glue and process), is oblivious to the oncoming bee uprising and how they deserve to destroy us all:

Main Themes:

• Farm work and daily routine (including tasks such as watering greenhouse plants, potting up seedlings, and performing cleanup tasks)
• Greenhouse management and seedling care
• Landscaping and weed control using landscaping fabric
• Beekeeping and beehive setup
• Animal husbandry (specifically piglets)

Activities:

• Performing farm-related tasks such as watering greenhouse plants, potting up seedlings, and performing cleanup tasks
• Conducting research or collecting data on crop health, animal behavior, and environmental impact
• Managing beehives and collecting equipment
• Spreading landscaping fabric over fields to control weeds
• Tractor operation with discs to create rows, ditches, and install drip line irrigation

New Things Encountered:

• Using landscaping fabric as a weed control method (although this was not entirely new, some aspects of the process were)
• Beekeeping and setting up beehives at various locations around the property
• Alternative methods for controlling weeds aside from using landscaping fabric (such as mulch or natural barriers)
• Drip line irrigation system

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

• How to determine optimal drying times for painting beehive components
• The impact of bee quality on performance
• Alternative methods for controlling weeds, such as integrated pest management
• How staples affect drip line irrigation
• Best practices for watering plants during different weather conditions
• Effects of late watering on plant growth

Suggested Actions:

• Additional training or guidance on painting and drying times for beehive setup
• Further research on bee health and management to improve best practices
• Exploration of alternative weed control methods, such as mulch or natural barriers
• Add note about handling staples in relation to drip line irrigation
• Review and update greenhouse watering schedule to ensure efficiency, especially during hot afternoons
• Plan for additional training or guidance on beehive maintenance and bee box setup

Part 1

Main Themes:

1. Farm work and daily routine
2. Irrigation and irrigation systems
3. Greenhouse maintenance and care
4. Preparation for upcoming events (bees arriving)

Activities:

1. Tractor operation with discs to create rows, ditches, and install drip line irrigation
2. Watering the greenhouse (late in the day due to prior tasks)
3. Preparing for bees arrival (setting up beehives and bee boxes)

New Things Not Yet Encountered:

• Drip line irrigation system

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

• How do staples affect drip line irrigation? (previously mentioned, but not explicitly addressed in the transcript)
• Best practices for watering plants during different weather conditions
• Effects of late watering on plant growth

Suggestions and Actions:

1. Consider adding a note to the field notes about how to handle staples in relation to drip line irrigation.
2. Review and update the greenhouse watering schedule to ensure it is being met efficiently, especially during hot afternoons.
3. Plan for additional training or guidance on beehive maintenance and bee box setup.
4. Research best practices for preparing plants for bees arrival (e.g., pruning, pest management).

Part 2

Main Themes:

1. Farm work and daily routine
2. Greenhouse management and seedling care
3. Landscaping and weed control (using landscaping fabric)
4. Beekeeping and beehive setup
5. Animal husbandry (piglets)

Activities:

1. Watering the greenhouse
2. Potting up lettuce seedlings
3. Spreading landscaping fabric over middle fields in the main field
4. Stapling landscaping fabric
5. Collecting and gathering beekeeping equipment
6. Preparing beehive components for setup
7. Setting up beehives at various locations around the property
8. Applying glossy outer paint to beehives
9. Performing cleanup tasks around the barn

New Things Not Yet Encountered:

1. Using landscaping fabric as a weed control method
2. Beekeeping and setting up beehives (although some aspects, like collecting equipment, were familiar)

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

1. “I’m not sure how long it takes for the paint to dry.” (Future research on optimal drying times for painting)
2. “How does the quality of the bees affect their performance?” (Future research on bee health and management)
3. “What are some alternative methods for controlling weeds, aside from using landscaping fabric?” (Future research on integrated pest management)

Suggested Actions:

1. The intern could benefit from additional training or guidance on painting and drying times to ensure proper completion of the beehive setup.
2. Further research on bee health and management could provide valuable insights into best practices for maintaining healthy beehives.
3. The farm could consider exploring alternative methods for controlling weeds, such as using mulch or other natural barriers.

Please note that these suggestions are based on the provided field notes and may not necessarily reflect the intern’s current needs or goals.

Part 3

Based on the provided information, here is an analysis of the main themes, activities, new things encountered, and questions/future areas of research:

Main Themes:

1. Farm work: The intern’s primary focus was on farm-related tasks, which suggests a theme of agricultural or rural work.
2. Observation and documentation: The intern’s field notes suggest a theme of observation, documentation, and record-keeping.

Activities:

Based on the transcript, some activities that the intern did include:

• Performing farm tasks (not specified)
• Observing and documenting natural phenomena (not specified)
• Conducting research or collecting data (not specified)

Without more context or information from the transcript, it is difficult to provide a more detailed list of specific activities. However, based on common farm work and observational studies, some possible activities could include:

• Monitoring crop health and growth
• Observing animal behavior
• Collecting soil samples or water quality data
• Conducting pest management or irrigation tasks

New Things Encountered:

Unfortunately, without more information from the transcript, it is difficult to identify specific new things encountered by the intern. However, some possible areas of discovery could include:

• New plant species or pests
• Changes in weather patterns or climate
• Unusual animal behavior or health issues
• New farming techniques or technologies

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

The transcript does not explicitly state any questions or future areas of research. However, some possible questions that might be explored based on the intern’s observations could include:

• How do changes in weather patterns affect crop growth or animal health?
• What are the most effective methods for managing pests or diseases in this specific farm setting?
• How can farming practices be adapted to reduce environmental impact?

Suggested Actions:

Based on the transcript, some suggested actions that might be taken by the intern or their supervisor could include:

• Reviewing and refining existing field notes and documentation
• Developing a more detailed plan for collecting data and conducting research
• Identifying areas for improvement in farm practices or operations
• Exploring new technologies or methods for increasing efficiency or reducing environmental impact.