Gabrielle Work Plan

Month 1

Abstract: First month involves creating a detailed site survey + general land stewardship plan (Site Plan). It also involves startup of a summer garden and beginning of responsible animal husbandry - starting with dairy cows in a mob grazing scenario. Documentation work involves creating a resource list of local agriculture stock + skill resources. Learning involves basic fabrication up to the skills required to maintain and modify tractor and implements.

Tasks:

• Maintain Factor e Farm Agriculture Resources wiki page
• Take charge of organizing ag tools
  • Gabi Shopping List for manual and powered tools
• Create a Factor e Farm Agriculture Resources wiki page
• Create a Management Plan for Dairy Cow by Saturday standup meeting
  • Include materials, costs, ergonomics of milking and pasture, health, grazing plan, shelter, scale, milking infrastructure, reproductive timeline, food supplements, medicine
  • Budget and sourcing of stock and materials
• Survey - 2 weeks
  • Conversation with Dan Shellenberg - Saturday - sourcing equipment + basics of technique
  • Review the online video, post on, and create Surveying 101 wiki page
  • Source open source GIS and mapping software
  • Pasture, berming, long term planting (hazelnuts + chestnuts) ponds master plan
• Garden Plan
  • Review Monday standup meeting

Learning Plan

• One month
• Fabrication - weld + torch
  • Rationale: all skills required to fix a tractor or modify agricultural equipment
  • 10 hrs welding
  • 10 hours torching
  • Project ideas:
    • mobile cow hut (use old truck bed? or just the axel/wheel assembly? plus scrap for walls and the spare silo roofing)
    • replicating Open Source Tooth Bar so we can use the bucket for digging
• Diagramming, graphics software
  • Project ideas: sketchup site plan, preliminary designs for sorghum press & combine
• Three Months
  • CAD up to Fabrication Drawings
  • Sorghum press and Combine

Month 2

Month 2 involves continuation of agriculture operations, to be determined in detail after results of month 1.

• Propose a replicable, economic sustainability model for Factor e Farm Neosubsistence Agricultural operations
• Produce a Vision Statement for Factor e Farm open source agroecology