Information

AGENDA:

10:00 Coffee

10:10 Introduction of Farm Hack – Carolyn Gahn, Community Farm Alliance

10:20 Group introductions

10:30 Tour of grain fields and seed cleaner – Micah Wiles, Cedar Creek Farm

11:15 Reviewing components of harvesting equipment and economies of scale - John Wilhoit, University of Kentucky

12:15 Lunch

12:45 Challenges in harvesting/storing grain for the small scale farmer– Micah Wiles

1:45 Challenges in harvesting/storing beans for the small scale farmer- Lily Brislen

The highlights:

• built using $78.50 worth of widely available parts
• no soldering required for assembly, it's "plug and play" thanks to USB
• designed to connect to WiFi but can also connect to cellular networks
• plans for automation and more plug and play sensors in the future

Checkout a video of me using the new Raspberry Pi based Fido

I've built a couple tables like this and they work great. Mine sit on sawhorses so they can be taken down for storage off-season. I put the styrofoam on top and pinned the heating cable to it with little staples, and used a couple buckets of pea gravel instead of sand. And I guess I'm old-school but I used a thermostatic controller from Grainger to control the temp. Does it really take a microprocessor?

Hi all,

This summer I'm committed full-time to volunteering for Farm Hack and I need some of your help to get started. I want to take some time to interview our community on their experiences with the site as well as present to them ideas on where we are thinking of going. Initially, there are three groups of people I'm interested in interviewing.

Just received the equipment for the SARE part of this project, and discovered that the BeagleBone Black is nice and fast, but its serial port interface is completely different from the older version (the BeagleBone "white").

So now I have to spend extra time researching how to access the ports and rewriting the device interface for the XBee's. Sigh.

Then I can make the changes to the serial device driver that will capture the times the data transfers took place.

See everyone there! We're looking forward to sharing what we've been working on. For those that can't make it, we're aiming to have a video demo of the new Fido model by the end of the weekend.

• RJ

Hi all, I'm helping set up Wi-Fi networks at Dorn's farm on Friday to make sure we have good connectivity in the places we'll be working. Mainly that means in his barn and in some green houses (that have power) next to his barn at the moment. Are there any other requests from folks that I might be able to help out with?

• RJ

I want to put out the call for anyone to let me know about practical (tried and proved-out) home-built equipment or set-ups & devices, DIY projects, etc that can be of value to homesteaders, market gardeners, and small farms. I have a Pinterest board at: https://www.pinterest.com/joelbc/homestead-methods-tools-equipment/

This is something I'm experimenting with, using it to inform people in need of technical info. What I have on there now are either things and approaches I myself am using, or that make solid sense to me - after 20+ years on my own homestead.

Join National Geographic in Washington, D.C., on the weekend of May 3‑4, 2014, as we explore unique data sets about food production and distribution. We are looking for data storytellers and civic hackers to develop apps and create visualizations to address the important challenges of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. We'll supply the food, the food data, and the WiFi. You bring the ideas, and energy. Follow along on Twitter at #FutureOfFood.

http://hackathon.nationalgeographic.com/

Farmers are working with limited resources: limited time, limited labor, and limited land. It’s important that they make a plan to maximize those resources. It’s also important to have an expectation of when a their farm will start to generate revenue. To do this farmers need a crop plan, and this Google Spreadsheet allows them to quickly and easily map out a timeline for the growing season.

Seed to harvest timeline: http://goo.gl/PN6jYz