Hello & Welcome!

START TIME: 2:15PM
Hello and welcome to my UFarmIIT Idea Book-Blog! If you think you're in the wrong place, which you probably aren't, you should still sit back, relax, and read the musings of my thoughts and ideas on and about UFarmIIT.

Rather than having to explain with another paragraph (or another few minutes of your time) what in the world UFarmIIT is, I'm going to link you to their blog, which has a lot of exciting posts about the future of UFarm IIT. Here's the link: CLICK ME TO GO SOMEWHERE COOL AND EXCITING!

Since you've stumbled upon my Idea Book-Blog, you're either:

1. My instructor--and are now coming to read and inspect my Idea Book-Blog
2. Someone from my IPRO--and were somewhat curious about my Idea Book-Blog
3. A Facebook Friend--and curiosity got the best of you so you clicked on my post

If you're none of the aforementioned groups, I'm not sure how you found my blog but I am excited that you found it. Hopefully, my ranting doesn't scare you away (any of you!) and you become a regular reader.

Before I actually get down to the juicy stuff (ugh, I know here I go on another tangent), I just wanted to say that this book-blog is and will fulfill the requirement of my IPRO course but I'm going to have a little fun with it as well. This post is also a little late, in getting out, so it will comprise of both Day 1 and Day 2 (that means it's going to be long, sorry!). I intend to update it daily, if not every other day. 

Anyways, onto THE BREAK DOWN:

Week 1 was a busy one for IPRO 314. It was exciting to say the least. On Day 1, we were introduced to our three instructors who would be helping us in the maintenance and development of UFarmIIT.  For the first half of the class, we were thrown right into it by weeding the garden and re-mulching around the garden. Anyone who knows me will know that I'm pretty high strung about my school work, so having to weed as part of a class was unexpectedly therapeutic for me. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty, so to speak. We even got to harvest some radishes! I was really excited for this. I was blown away by exactly how many radishes there were! There were three types of radishes. I harvested the regular round radishes and the French breakfast radishes. I plan to have a salad soon, as soon as I get myself to get up and buy some lettuce from the grocery market around the corner. Erika, one of the IPRO's instructors, told us a way to eat the French breakfast radishes. Some simple melted butter and salt and they were good to go. I tried it the next morning. It tasted fine, but I was still hungry. Anyways, I digress. 

Half way through the class period, we moved to the Idea Shop to do some team building exercises. First, Rima, one of the IPRO program coordinators, gave us a basic run down for this summer's IPRO timeline then she set us on our way to do our team activity. Our IPRO group was asked to pair up and interview our partner (5 minutes each; 10 minutes total), and find some traits and characteristics (those are the same thing, aren't they?) that our partner had which would aid in the success of our IPRO. Here are the notes I took on my partner!

My handwriting is like a two-year-old's.

Afterwards, our IPRO group rejoined together again to talk about our partners. Rima told us to have one person facilitate this part of the activity. I volunteered to facilitate despite suffering from the worst cold I have ever had the displeasure of having. Seriously, my voice was disappearing earlier in the day at work (I'm a phone operator). What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Anyways, we went around talking about our partner's traits and I wrote them down on the white board. Then as a group we  discussed which of the traits would make our top 10. Here's the list we came up with:

A group member was nice enough to write down our list on paper so I could bring it up with me to present.

When all the IPRO groups were finished, one representative went up to the microphone and presented their traits. At least I had a microphone this time so I didn't have to talk that loud. My poor voice. At the end of the session, we took a group photo. I have yet to get a copy of it but I will soon! And so, that concludes day 1.

So by now, I'm sure you're tired of hearing me rant, but I'm not done. I have one more day to discuss. But here, I'll start off with a picture:

This is in the middle of the day as our group is discussing plants. Yeah guys, I watermarked it. Stealing is bad.

Day 2 started a lot like Day 1. We were thrown into some serious weed-age. I just made up that word. But it means we weeded a lot. Some of the group worked on mulching again. A lot was done to the interior of the green house structure. Erika had brought some plants today for us to plant. She showed us how to properly plant some peppers inside the hot house. Care of plants inside the hot house was discussed thoroughly since we began to plant.  Some of the previous UFarm members came to talk to us today as well about the hot house. Also, some of the guys started to fixed up some fencing towards the back of the farm as well. I learned how to proper plant collard greens (Also, all my life I've thought collard greens was spelled and pronounced colored greens. Thank goodness for Google). At one point, I was asked to start the watering of the fences. I just want to say now, and you are all free to judge me on this--I don't care, a tiny Asian girl vs. a very long and hard to maneuver hose does not bode well. I was covered in wet grass and had wet spots all over myself. But if you don't expect to get dirty in this sort of project, then you are terribly misguided. It didn't bother me at all to be dirty that day. However, I probably should have cut my nails the night before. Day 2 was a very hands on day. At the end of it, we discussed setting up a chore system as well as sharing our contact information. We also discussed more of the requirements for the course as well as the grading Overall, it was productive day.

Here are some more pictures I took on Day 2:

END TIME: 4:20PM