TL;DR

We moved the chicken coops, harvested cucumbers and tomatoes, gathered field trash, and weeded a lot.

Moving Chicken Coops to Extend Next Year’s Lower Field

In the past month, I’ve helped Jamie move the chicken coops about 3 or four times around the same non-production area to extend next year’s lower field from six 250-foot to 300-foot rows. This is really very smart because 300 extra feet is like a whole other row in the lower field…for [almost] free (minus the coop moving effort which we have to do anyway).

As best as I can find, by law an area used with fresh chicken manure at least 3 months before harvesting crops, but in this case it’s likely we wouldn’t extend this area to where the chickens are until next season. Even if it were to be available this year, it wouldn’t really be useful because August plus three months would put harvesting into November which wouldn’t work for most crops in New England anyway.

As I’ve blogged about before, the process of moving these coops goes as follows:

• get as many of the chickens up into the coops as possible
• undo the outer layer of fencing
• undo the overhead layer of netting
• undo the inner layer(s) of fencing
• chase down and catch remaining chickens
• move the coops to the new location by towing them with a tractor
• as part of the move, align them close together (about 2 feet apart)
• re-assemble the inner fencing
• re-assemble the overhang yard netting
• re-assemble the outer fencing
• use ground stakes to secure fencing in ground gap areas
• triple check that there are no gaps in the fencing
• set up water and ladders again

Last week, this took Jamie and I a little more than two hours. Today it took about the same, despite the 3-point hitch tow pin missing for an unexpected 15min delay. I used the time to hang out with Jenkins the dog, who I’ve also blogged about while we avoided the epic mosquitoes which are out in full force under the lower field shade.

At the end of the day, I still had to go water the chickens (and pigs) again, even on a not-so-hot day, they all needed it.

The Cucumbers and Tomatoes Are Almost Busting Out

Of the few rows of cucumbers we have this year, they are slower to produce than most other summer ground-vining crops. Unfortunately, ChatGPT misses on most of it’s points:

• Late start due to cool soils → plants take longer to reach flowering size.
• Extended male-flower phase under stress → no early fruit set.
• Disease and nutrient stress → energy diverted from reproductive growth.
• Poor pollination in cool/windy weather → flowers drop before setting fruit.

I don’t see any of these conditions on our cucumbers, other than possibly ‘Predominantly Male Flowers Early On’, but I see a ‘tiny, immature cucumber (ovary) directly behind the petals’ which is a sign of female flowers being well pollinated by the bees situated only about 100 yards away.

Conversely, the many rows of various tomatoes are producing like crazy, mostly green at this point but requiring daily harvesting vigilance to get them off the vines before early ones ripen. This is an indication that they are very well pollinated too. Similarly, the greenhouse tomatoes about 100 yards further away from those indeterminate tomato rows interspersed with peppers (also doing well) are all consistently producing. Good things take time, especially those where a little patience is required.

In fact, while you might think that ‘vine ripened’ tomatoes are better, it’s better for us to harvest a few clicks before perfectly ripe so that as a producer we can time various pickings and their maturity to perfection up at the barn just before bringing them to market.

Observability in the Field and Homelab

In my “other”/tech career, I’ve been working in observability and DevOps for a decade. In short, ‘observability’ is the ability to understand what is happening in a system. You’d think this is an obvious core competence of high tech, but ignorance is sometimes bliss…until it’s not.

Since the age of 13 I’ve been a coder. Then I was a developer, then an engineer, and now a farmer and entrepreneur. All throughout, I’ve made diagnostics and performance better in the systems I work with because shit flows downhill (or in software terms, downstream). In the field on a farm, observing while you work everywhere is common practice. Why is it not the same more in software engineering?

In the early days of mainframes and PPUs, there were many flashing lights and bleeping signals. In modern software, despite the massive tsunami of digital signals and ‘intelligence’, the practice of software engineering still doesn’t have observability as a mindset priority. Why don’t we see embedding things like OpenTelemetry resource signals part of the User Story in your software development process?

A group of us are working on addressing that though. In everything I do on the farm and in my homelab, I try to embed observability as a core competency. As a single-person team, an entrepreneur, a coder, and a farmer, I am constantly observing and looking for opportunities and observations to improve the systems I work with.

AI Summary from Field Notes

The actual automatic notes summary process hasn’t changed this month, just much of the testing and componentization of each stage. Today, having audio notes and photos/videos uploaded to my homelab Immich server, my new process took less than 15 minutes to turn them into a blog post draft-ready PR which I am writing the human portion of right now. The non-human portion is below:

Consolidated Summary

Main Themes

1. Farm Operations: Daily tasks such as moving structures, harvesting crops, irrigation, and animal care.
2. Efficiency & Challenges: Time management, equipment issues (e.g., missing tractor pin), and resource limitations (e.g., water jugs).
3. Waste Management: Use of a compost bag for trash collection and monitoring of waste disposal.
4. CSA & Deliveries: Preparation and distribution of goods for the Ipswich market.
5. Vigilance & Maintenance: Monitoring water levels, equipment reliability, and task optimization.

Key Activities

• Moved farm structures (e.g., coops).
• Harvested cucumbers and tomatoes, with weeding as a labor-intensive task.
• Watered chickens and pigs, noting rapid depletion of water jugs.
• Assembled delivery bags for the Ipswich market.
• Collected and disposed of trash using a compost bag system.

New Observations/Initiatives

1. Compost Bag System: A new method for trash disposal.
2. Water Jug Management: Rapid depletion of water jugs for animals.
3. Deliveries for Ipswich: A new task for the intern involving coordination with delivery schedules.

Key Questions

1. Water Usage: Why are water jugs for chickens and pigs being depleted so quickly?
2. Task Efficiency: How can we optimize weeding and harvesting to reduce time?
3. Equipment Reliability: Why was the tractor pin missing? How to prevent future delays?
4. Waste Management: Is the compost bag system effective, or are alternatives needed?
5. Crop Growth: Why are cucumbers growing slower than expected? Could soil, pests, or weather be factors?

Recommended Actions

1. Track Water Levels: Monitor water jug usage and adjust refill schedules.
2. Inspect Equipment Regularly: Check for missing parts (e.g., tractor pins) to prevent delays.
3. Optimize Weeding: Use tools or techniques to speed up the process.
4. Evaluate Waste System: Assess the compost bag system’s effectiveness and consider alternatives.
5. Document Harvest Efficiency: Record time spent on tasks to identify bottlenecks.
6. Coordinate Deliveries: Ensure clear communication about delivery schedules and roles.

This summary consolidates the original content into clear, actionable sections for clarity and efficiency.

Part 1

Main Themes

1. Farm Operations: Daily tasks suchity moving structures, harvesting crops, irrigation, and animal care.
2. Efficiency & Challenges: Time management, equipment issues (e.g., missing tractor pin), and resource limitations (e.g., water jugs).
3. Waste Management: Trash collection and compost system use.
4. CSA & Deliveries: Preparing and distributing goods for the Ipswich market.
5. Vigilance & Maintenance: Monitoring water levels for animals and maintaining equipment.

Activities Performed by the Intern

1. Moving Chicken Coops: Adjusted and relocated chicken coops, encountering delays due to missing parts.
2. Harvesting Cucumbers: Helped weed and harvest two rows of cucumbers, noting slow progress due to weeds.
3. Harvesting Cherry Tomatoes: Assisted in picking and weeding cherry tomatoes.
4. Irrigation & Watering: Watered chickens and pigs, noting that water jugs were half-empty by noon.
5. Assembly & Deliveries: Packaged delivery bags for the Ipswich market and loaded the white van.
6. Trash Collection: Collected plastic waste (e.g., fertilizer and feed wrappers) into a compost bag for dump runs.
7. Barn Maintenance: Closed the barn at the end of the day.

New Things Not Yet Encountered

1. Compost Bag for Trash: A large white bag used for collecting plastic waste, likely a new system for waste management.
2. Water Jug Management: The intern observed that water jugs for chickens were consumed quickly, requiring frequent refills.
3. Deliveries for Ipswich Market: The intern was involved in preparing and loading goods for a specific market.

Questions & Future Research Areas

1. Water Usage: Why are the water jugs for chickens and pigs being depleted so quickly? Is the water usage rate consistent?
2. Efficiency of Tasks: Why do tasks like weeding cucumbers take so long? Are there ways to optimize this process?
3. Equipment Reliability: Why was the tractor pin missing? How can this be addressed to prevent delays?
4. Waste Management: How effective is the compost bag system for trash? Are there alternative methods for waste disposal?
5. Harvest Timing: Why are cucumbers growing slower than expected? Could this be due to soil conditions, pests, or weather?

Suggestions for Action

1. Track Water Levels: Monitor water jug usage and adjust refill schedules to prevent shortages.
2. Inspect Equipment Regularly: Check for missing parts (e.g., tractor pins) to minimize delays in tasks.
3. Optimize Weeding: Explore tools or techniques to speed up weeding processes, such as using a hoe or hand tools more efficiently.
4. Improve Waste Management: Evaluate the compost bag system for trash and consider expanding or modifying it if needed.
5. Document Harvest Efficiency: Record time spent on tasks like weeding and harvesting to identify bottlenecks.
6. Coordinate Deliveries: Ensure clear communication about delivery schedules and roles to avoid conflicts when workers leave early.