Market Farming

["Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>]

It is my bee mentor's observation that having a cell phone on when close to the hives makes them irritable.  He is a pretty good observer. I don't think he has a cell phone, so he would have gotten the observation from another beekeeper, but when I started out and would go watch/ "help" him to learn, he demanded no cell phones.

 

Which reminds me: I got quite the start last week when I thought I'd quickly lift off the lid, slap an empty box on and lay a jar of crystallized honey in by the hole in the inner cover.  I had checked the hives two days previously and this one was getting up near the top. I lifted the lid and they came boiling out at me.  Even in summer my girls are usually calm, but not that day.  No animal tracks in the snow.  The only thing I can think that ticked them off was that when I had been down the other time, to make sure they weren't snowed in, as I cleared their entrance I also took a twig and pulled out dead bees to be sure the entrance wasn't clogged.  They may have remembered that and correlated it with the noisy snow shoes.

 

I went ahead and gave the other hive a jar of honey and they were totally docile, but also not up to the top yet.

 

Beth Spaugh

Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY

Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com 

Become a Fan on Facebook

 

Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and geese

 

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." - Wendell Berry

 

"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe

 

---

From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Deb Taft
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 7:44 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Square up

I pay $70 a month ($840/year) for my AT&T iPhone plan, which includes 200 MB of data.  I have exceeded that twice and got charged an additional $15 for an additional 200 MB.  If I decide to go with Square Up, I'll need to bump it up to their 2 GB data plan for $25/month ($80/month total)... 

...UNLESS the market I'm planning to sell at is within a free wifi network.  If so, all the data transfer I use will not count against my plan.

This is not a horrifying amount to me.  I was paying about $125/month when I was on Verizon using a Blackberry.  The iPhone is so superior to the Blackberry model I had that putting them in the same sentence seems ridiculous.  The lower price is, in part, because my partner and I have a Family plan.  

I use data all the time.  I check my email when I'm waiting in a line, I text my beau about what he wants for dinner, when someone wonders the name of the actor who played Gidget's Dad I google it so we have the answer right away, I stream radio stations from around the world.  I'm one of those people...though I don't use it when I could be having a conversation with a live person in front of me, while I'm driving or when I'm walking down a crowded sidewalk in the city.  

So it is not a leap price-wise for me to accommodate something like Square Up.  I can understand how it might be a shock to see what the rest of us are spending if you haven't been using a smart phone!  I would just say that if you get a data plan and an iPhone ( have also heard great things about the Androids...but I've drunk the Apple juice! ) you WILL use it for more than taking credit cards at market and doing AgSquared updates!

I am a beekeeper too.  I don't think there is clear evidence that cell phone signals interfere with them.  If they do, it's likely to be the soup of signals we're all moving through everywhere we go (especially here in the densely populated northeast) rather than the particular single signal coming into and going out of a phone.  I am willing to be proven wrong about this and would absolutely appreciate some links to info that would convince me to turn my phone off in the field.  I love the little ladies and would not have a problem turning it off if it would make their lives better.

Best,

Deb

Sleepy Hollow NY, where we got another 5+ inches of snow last night

-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Spaugh <lists AT rhomestead.com>
To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, Feb 21, 2011 1:47 pm
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Square up

You've hit the same wall I have.  I have a TracFone for calling from market
and communicating with young employees. $99/year is more than I use.  Folks
here suggested some and I did a good bit of looking.

The least expensive I found, and would go for it, but we aren't within
Sprint data coverage area, is Virgin Mobile. $25/month "unlimited", which
folks on this list said is about 5.5 GB. I have been warned that they are
changing their plans, and they don't grandfather in non-contract plans.

The next best was also suggested on this list is Pagepluscellular.com using
the Verizon network
TalknText 1200	$29.95/mo 1200 min voice, 1200 texts, 50 MB data
				If go over 50 MB, costs 60 cents/MB
Standard Plan,  4 cents to 10 cents/minute voice usage, added data is
$1.20/MB  (25 MB would cost $29.95)  
One list member said they think it costs about 8 cents to do a credit card
transaction on the Standard plan.

My predicament is that I would really like to try to use the upcoming
AgSquared via cell phone while in the field.  I might actually get info
entered that way. Don't know how much "usage" that will entail.

Either way, there is also the cost of the Android or Iphone, and I
discourage my employee from having their cell phones even turned on in the
field because bees apparently don't like cell phones, so then I'd be having
a cell phone on.

Oh, and a Radio Shack guy said AT&T has the fastest data network, even up in
our rural area (no 4G here). 

Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com 
Become a Fan on Facebook
 
Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and
geese
 
"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." -
Wendell Berry
 
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances
Moore Lappe

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Willie
McKemie
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 6:05 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Square up

This "taking credit cards at market with Square Up" got me semi-excited.
Then, I got to looking into cell phone service.  About the cheapest internet
access cell phone service I've seen is about $45 per month.  That would be
about $40 more than I'm currently paying for voice cell phone service.  I'd
have to do far more in credit card sales than I expect to justify that.

What is everyone paying for internet access cell phone service?

I was flabbergasted to learn some of my inlaws are paying $2K per year for
iphone service!  A friend is paying ATT $300/m for 
cell+telephone+TV+internet.  I'm pretty sure they are all not paying
enough for their food.

-- 
Willie, ONWARD!  Through the fog!
http://counter.li.org Linux registered user #228836 since 1995
Debian3.1/GNU/Linux system uptime  162 days 13 hours 59 minutes
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