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At this point in the development of the farm it's all investment and no return. I rely on income from software development to get the farm off the ground. Long-

At this point in the development of the farm it's all investment and no return. I rely on income from software development to get the farm off the ground. Long-term it's hard to predict. But, I think it makes sense to account for the stuff you get out of the farm that's not money. A lot of the stuff I do, is stuff I like doing. If I didn't have a farm, but had time, what would I do with that time? A friend of mine that lived in rural upstate NY would have "farm days" where people from the city would come up and do farm things, unpaid. Everyone would learn different work depending on what needed doing that time of year. But, a lot of it was pretty basic farm maintenance like splitting wood. The people that came really enjoyed it, myself included. That said, I'm looking to develop a deeper relationship with the work than a recreational activity apart from the software development. As in, the farm is all problems to be solved, software is all about solving problems -- how do the two areas develop together?

s1artibartfast 4y ago
I had a similar experience to your farm days. Many of my fathers engineer friends would take a week of "vacation" to come work a 60 hour week in the hot sun on the farm. They enjoyed the hustle, seeing a tangible product from their work, operating heavy machinery, and the comradery. I think doing something different like this offers an opportunity to build community in many ways, and it is important to consider this as relationships have a lot of value independent of the "things" on the farm. Regarding codevelopment, I don't think I have too much to offer that isn't obvious. If you like solving problems, I agree that farms certainly provide a ton of problems. Having an analytical mindset is applicable to both. Maybe you will find problems on your farm that need a programming solution, maybe not. Im not sure that you can force it.
- User23 4y ago
  > Maybe you will find problems on your farm that need a programming solution, maybe not. Im not sure that you can force it. Rigging up some kind of drip tape based automatic garden watering system that uses moisture sensors in addition to timers might be interesting and could involve a little programming.
  - joe8756438 4y ago
    Totally. I could see something like this being useful for seed starting. I've focused my software development more on things that require bookkeeping. There's a ridiculous amount of things to keep track of: budgeting, expense tracking, reminders, event tracking, general notes, all kind of quantifying of quality, yield etc.

s1artibartfast 4y ago

I had a similar experience to your farm days. Many of my fathers engineer friends would take a week of "vacation" to come work a 60 hour week in the hot sun on the farm. They enjoyed the hustle, seeing a tangible product from their work, operating heavy machinery, and the comradery. I think doing something different like this offers an opportunity to build community in many ways, and it is important to consider this as relationships have a lot of value independent of the "things" on the farm. Regarding codevelopment, I don't think I have too much to offer that isn't obvious. If you like solving problems, I agree that farms certainly provide a ton of problems. Having an analytical mindset is applicable to both. Maybe you will find problems on your farm that need a programming solution, maybe not. Im not sure that you can force it.

User23 4y ago
> Maybe you will find problems on your farm that need a programming solution, maybe not. Im not sure that you can force it. Rigging up some kind of drip tape based automatic garden watering system that uses moisture sensors in addition to timers might be interesting and could involve a little programming.
- joe8756438 4y ago
  Totally. I could see something like this being useful for seed starting. I've focused my software development more on things that require bookkeeping. There's a ridiculous amount of things to keep track of: budgeting, expense tracking, reminders, event tracking, general notes, all kind of quantifying of quality, yield etc.