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Try being a 64-year-old female widow who lives alone, has worked online for 20 years, loves tech and discovered a fascination with programming and lives in...wa

Try being a 64-year-old female widow who lives alone, has worked online for 20 years, loves tech and discovered a fascination with programming and lives in...wait...a town of 400 that does not have a grocery store, coffee house or gas station. People say to me that most of the time they have no idea what I am talking about. Good news is we have fiber in this rural farm town filled with wealthy farmers. Meet ups I have avoided driving to because .well..I'd be the old person at the table and that makes me uncomfortable. I understand your words oh so well. Too well. So.. I began learning about farming to see if there was an intersection between coding and farming. A Ted talk on that topic inspired me. Now I am trying to bring ag based technology projects here in order to stimulate interest in coding by conservative blue collar ag and worker types Maybe my story will plant an idea within you!

ashitlerferad 10y ago
Hacking around the DRM in tractors is a great example of that intersection.
- sunshiney 10y ago
  Yes! Have you had any experiences with that? Another area is parts. Farmers have time periods limited by weather/season to plant, fertilize, harvest. If a part goes awry, they can lose precious days and loads of green getting a part from across the country. I've heard the horror stories. I got to thinking..hmm.. could 3-D printing create a temp solution so they could use less expensive slower shipping of the permanent part? And what about driveless equipment for the field work? What about programs that are based on recipes to know what the fields really need and when. As wheat prices have plunged here, beef has become an income producer. Small herds -- freely grazed. Good stuff. But they cannot leave the farms when you have cattle. Hard to find people to care for your stock when you are gone. Could tech help? I think so.. but... how.. And what about more remote jobs for rural folks? Heck, we have fiber! Teach...and employ them with urban-based companies who are in need of tech help. Too many ideas... I am likely crazy. I wish I knew! :-)
  - ashitlerferad 10y ago
    No experience with tractor DRM. All those things sound like good ideas to the mind of a non-farmer. Fiber in rural areas but not in the city! Think I need to move.
    - sunshiney 10y ago
      Yeah..The fiber in rural is fascinating. It is part of a national push to spur economic development in rural areas. We now need more nerds in the countryside as I still find myself explaining what fiber is! You can build a custom $300,000 home here that is 3500 sq ft on one-fourth acre.
Motomorgen 10y ago
Could you share which TED talk? My wife and I are about to buy a house with the hopes of turning the land into a permaculture food forest and I've been trying to find a way to leverage my development skills to bolster the farm skills as well!
- mooreds 10y ago
  I have taken a couple of permaculture courses and am also a developer. The biggest synergy between the two is system thinking. In both domains, you are thinking at multiple levels of abstraction, bouncing back and forth between the high level design and low level implementation. Highly recommended: Thinking in Systems: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557 http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/... And the permaculture podcast covers a variety of interesting topics: http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/ http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/
- sunshiney 10y ago
  I chuckled when I read your ask. Here I have people who say "Ted Talks??" and that is followed with me now memorized elevator speech describing Ted Talks. It's refreshing to not have to explain. The talk I watched a couple of times as I thought through bringing its message here is "This computer will grow your Food in the future." https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_the_future?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_gr... Very, very cool stuff. I want to get that into the K-12 school here (170 students) and recently renovated to the tune of $11 million, interestingly enough. I also got a connection going with some start-up folks in Utah who are creating rural hubs to train and employ locals for remote opps in urban settings. They've got a 4-man team going that seems to be gathering steam. At least, they pant a lot when talking with them. :-) And I also have been digging into 3D material advancements beyond plastic (thankfully happening) and robotic combines. One guy converted a John Deere combine using $6k into a driverless combine used in wheat fields. The Ted Talk was particularly cool, though, because it demo'd how people in many aspects of tech had "become" farmers -- integrating their tech prowess with growing plants that feed. I watched on C-span not long ago a panel talk on how Obama brought in private sector, highly skilled tech folks into a temporary program that is aimed at vastly overhauling/improving the tech aspects of the federal government. One of the leads said that after being at it awhile, he concluded that the biggest challenge was changing the culture. That's hitting it on the nail head for me...same thing I have here. My crazy ass vision is that when I see the congestion on highways, lack of neighborliness, poor air quality, lack of connection to nature (so important to me) versus the opposite features here that I believe people would be far happier, less stressed, kinder if they could live more rural -- despite present day shuffle to live urban. Now the vision is that if we could use tech and fiber to connect people with great paying jobs and up their skills at online marketing -- growth hacking, so to speak -- then maybe we could spread the burgeoning population out and over the land, rather than having it so concentrated in cities. I know that not everyone will find this lifestyle cool but there are those who do. I can work all day and head down to a huge river 15 minutes away and fish all evening, think on what has happened during the day.. dream... and imagine. I have been envisioning a tech center here where I would be able to mingle with people who talk my language and who are innovative. I want to have rural kids learning to code and to see how it can impact their rural farm lives...and that everyone need not leave for the city. I live in this great place.. take a look at southviewliving.com to get a glimpse. So...I know..I know.. I'm a crazy older woman. But ah well.. I still have way too much thrust and energy to waste it with things like retirement. :-) Whatcha think?
mooreds 10y ago
I too would love to know the inspiring Ted talk.
- sunshiney 10y ago
  Hi! See what I posted to Motomorgen above -- while inhaling far too much java. Makes me talk/type too much. :-)
mooreds 10y ago
Oh, and I can't imagine how isolating your situation mist be, so good on you for making lemonade out of those lemons. For what it is worth, I really enjoy talking to folks with deep tech experience, and it seems the best way to get that is to have long, varied industry experience.
- sunshiney 10y ago
  Hi you! it can be more frustrating than isolating. What's hard is always having to define everything and to find ways to explain why I love my world in a way that causes them to go "ahh, I get it." That's rough. But one success was a 93 year old woman who told me if she was 10 years younger, she'd be joining me in my efforts here. She's sharp as can be, zero health issues, handles a 2/3 acre lot nearly alone and is up at dawn to be on her feet, working all day at something. Amazing. I feel the same as you re talking to folks with deep t. experience as it provides something different than what I have here. But hey, I landed in this town quite by accident rather than choice some 5 years ago and maybe I was planted here to create some disruption. hee hee..

ashitlerferad 10y ago

Hacking around the DRM in tractors is a great example of that intersection.

sunshiney 10y ago
Yes! Have you had any experiences with that? Another area is parts. Farmers have time periods limited by weather/season to plant, fertilize, harvest. If a part goes awry, they can lose precious days and loads of green getting a part from across the country. I've heard the horror stories. I got to thinking..hmm.. could 3-D printing create a temp solution so they could use less expensive slower shipping of the permanent part? And what about driveless equipment for the field work? What about programs that are based on recipes to know what the fields really need and when. As wheat prices have plunged here, beef has become an income producer. Small herds -- freely grazed. Good stuff. But they cannot leave the farms when you have cattle. Hard to find people to care for your stock when you are gone. Could tech help? I think so.. but... how.. And what about more remote jobs for rural folks? Heck, we have fiber! Teach...and employ them with urban-based companies who are in need of tech help. Too many ideas... I am likely crazy. I wish I knew! :-)
- ashitlerferad 10y ago
  No experience with tractor DRM. All those things sound like good ideas to the mind of a non-farmer. Fiber in rural areas but not in the city! Think I need to move.
  - sunshiney 10y ago
    Yeah..The fiber in rural is fascinating. It is part of a national push to spur economic development in rural areas. We now need more nerds in the countryside as I still find myself explaining what fiber is! You can build a custom $300,000 home here that is 3500 sq ft on one-fourth acre.

Motomorgen 10y ago

Could you share which TED talk? My wife and I are about to buy a house with the hopes of turning the land into a permaculture food forest and I've been trying to find a way to leverage my development skills to bolster the farm skills as well!

mooreds 10y ago
I have taken a couple of permaculture courses and am also a developer. The biggest synergy between the two is system thinking. In both domains, you are thinking at multiple levels of abstraction, bouncing back and forth between the high level design and low level implementation. Highly recommended: Thinking in Systems: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557 http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/... And the permaculture podcast covers a variety of interesting topics: http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/ http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/
sunshiney 10y ago
I chuckled when I read your ask. Here I have people who say "Ted Talks??" and that is followed with me now memorized elevator speech describing Ted Talks. It's refreshing to not have to explain. The talk I watched a couple of times as I thought through bringing its message here is "This computer will grow your Food in the future." https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_the_future?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_gr... Very, very cool stuff. I want to get that into the K-12 school here (170 students) and recently renovated to the tune of $11 million, interestingly enough. I also got a connection going with some start-up folks in Utah who are creating rural hubs to train and employ locals for remote opps in urban settings. They've got a 4-man team going that seems to be gathering steam. At least, they pant a lot when talking with them. :-) And I also have been digging into 3D material advancements beyond plastic (thankfully happening) and robotic combines. One guy converted a John Deere combine using $6k into a driverless combine used in wheat fields. The Ted Talk was particularly cool, though, because it demo'd how people in many aspects of tech had "become" farmers -- integrating their tech prowess with growing plants that feed. I watched on C-span not long ago a panel talk on how Obama brought in private sector, highly skilled tech folks into a temporary program that is aimed at vastly overhauling/improving the tech aspects of the federal government. One of the leads said that after being at it awhile, he concluded that the biggest challenge was changing the culture. That's hitting it on the nail head for me...same thing I have here. My crazy ass vision is that when I see the congestion on highways, lack of neighborliness, poor air quality, lack of connection to nature (so important to me) versus the opposite features here that I believe people would be far happier, less stressed, kinder if they could live more rural -- despite present day shuffle to live urban. Now the vision is that if we could use tech and fiber to connect people with great paying jobs and up their skills at online marketing -- growth hacking, so to speak -- then maybe we could spread the burgeoning population out and over the land, rather than having it so concentrated in cities. I know that not everyone will find this lifestyle cool but there are those who do. I can work all day and head down to a huge river 15 minutes away and fish all evening, think on what has happened during the day.. dream... and imagine. I have been envisioning a tech center here where I would be able to mingle with people who talk my language and who are innovative. I want to have rural kids learning to code and to see how it can impact their rural farm lives...and that everyone need not leave for the city. I live in this great place.. take a look at southviewliving.com to get a glimpse. So...I know..I know.. I'm a crazy older woman. But ah well.. I still have way too much thrust and energy to waste it with things like retirement. :-) Whatcha think?

mooreds 10y ago

I too would love to know the inspiring Ted talk.

sunshiney 10y ago
Hi! See what I posted to Motomorgen above -- while inhaling far too much java. Makes me talk/type too much. :-)

mooreds 10y ago

Oh, and I can't imagine how isolating your situation mist be, so good on you for making lemonade out of those lemons. For what it is worth, I really enjoy talking to folks with deep tech experience, and it seems the best way to get that is to have long, varied industry experience.

sunshiney 10y ago
Hi you! it can be more frustrating than isolating. What's hard is always having to define everything and to find ways to explain why I love my world in a way that causes them to go "ahh, I get it." That's rough. But one success was a 93 year old woman who told me if she was 10 years younger, she'd be joining me in my efforts here. She's sharp as can be, zero health issues, handles a 2/3 acre lot nearly alone and is up at dawn to be on her feet, working all day at something. Amazing. I feel the same as you re talking to folks with deep t. experience as it provides something different than what I have here. But hey, I landed in this town quite by accident rather than choice some 5 years ago and maybe I was planted here to create some disruption. hee hee..