FarmBot...not

 Lately I have been seeing this FarmBot a lot on Facebook.  The "gentleman farmer" taken to a whole new level.  I admit that for a very brief moment this really caught my attention - until I started to think about it. This start-up has already raised close to a million dollars playing on people's fears with the notions of pesticides, GMO's, and factory farms - offering their cute little gizmo as a magic solution to wholesome food.  They claim in the video they are here to change that..."a new paradigm in food production!  With Farmbot, your garden will flourish - your plants with thrive - and you will gain access to fresh food grown right in your backyard with the practices that you believe in!"  (Boy, that certainly sounds compelling!)  You can pre-order one from their website for only $3,100 (and control it from your smart phone - sounds like a win win to me!).  What you will get is a "robot" that will seemingly farm a 4' x 8' plot for you - seeding, watering, and weeding (no mention of pest control).  A harvesting attachment with a salad spinner would be a nice touch.  Correct me if I am wrong, but farming a garden that size is not exactly rocket science and wouldn't even take that much of your precious time or talents.  I can't help but wonder how many people who own Roomba vacuum cleaners have placed an order.  They claim the whole system is "open sourced" so you can build and program one yourself without paying their rather steep markup.  The question is...if you are smart enough to build one of these then aren't you smart enough to care for a 32 sq ft garden without the help of a robot?  Perhaps in the distant future when we evolve past the point of having arms and legs this will come in handy.  We will probably need a robotic juicer too at that point since we won't have teeth anymore either.  For me?...I will wait for the system that has a robotic laser that individually blasts spider mites and white flies and will send a daily death count to my tablet computer.  91,101,73,0,B    

Day 1

o1.01.10 started off as the coldest morning since I arrived on the scene... 17.6 degrees. Due to my utter disdain for parties and artificial holiday gatherings, I hit the sack last night at 9:30PM. Got 10 hours of sleep to start off the new year. Had to wait for the sun to come up and defrost my windshield (I left my ice scraper back in NY) before heading to the GrubShack for my first breakfast of 2010.

Next on the list for the greenhouse roof are some additional welded brackets for the trusses. Was able to install the sets for container 1 then took a break for 2 brief Field Lab tours. Back to the GrubShack for their new years day special...pork chops, black eyed peas (with Eva's special home made salsa) and cornbread.

Reluctantly looked back at my to do list from the day 1 post of 2009. It appears that I am way behind schedule - due to a shift in priorities over the course of the year and the monster that the greenhouse project has become. Good news is that the desert rover robot project is off the back burner and on the drawing board. (photo above is one of the NASA Mars rovers) Another fun project to distract me is a simple design for entrance tower flame throwers. http://www.ballisticom.com/ Why?.....because I can.

Got a full plate for 2010 and I wouldn't have it any other way. 42,66,17.6,0