Recording everything you do

[Raychel A Watkins]

I didn't know where to put this so I decided it was basic and usefull.  I hope you think it is.  When I first started my systems in Dec of 09 I was to busy to record anything.  That was my excuse when I did research at the University.  :Oh I will remember and get down.  No you will not and you will lose a lot of iimportant data points.  Things that could help you or others if you had put it down or if you could just remember.

I took my WWOOFers to a seminar given by UH one day.  It was about organic gardening and how to switch over and food safety. If I learned nothing else I learned this "WRITE IT DOWN , RECORD IT" 
This person from UH was talking about farm inspections coming to your neighborhood.  He said the best thing you could do was write everything you did on the farm was to write it down even if you only wrote it on the calender.  Then when the inspector asked you about something you had nothing to say and you couldn't remember because it happened 3 months ago.  From that day on We kept records of what we did that day.  I got a black marbled note book and we begin writing.  Everyone wrote whaat they did.  Now there were busy days when I forgot to write and I couldn't bring it back to my memory.  Too much stuff happens.  One month short of a year and my book was full. In there I have ever fish that died and what I did to stop that.  The seeds I planted and how they grew. Ny chemical tests I did.  Now I can put them on a spread sheet if I ever get time or a WWOOFer with that experience.  Nothing is too little to write down.  I started a new book a few days before I came to Florida and I told all the WWOOFers that they needed to write down every day what they did.  nIt will be a judge of wether they are valuable or not.  I will have a total picture of what went on the 2 weeks I was gone.

It sounds like a big job and a pain in you know where but as the saying goes TRY IT YOU WILL LIKE

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Raychel,

Couldn't agree with you more. The perfectionist in me caused me to record everything but you can't forget and leave this record exposed to the elements as i learnt the hard way. Water paper and ink are not a good combination at all! So, back it up! Double entries for filing or regular transposition to your HD is the way to go for me. Losing valuable information this way taught me a lesson I won't soon forget.

[TCLynx]

I keep a notebook next to my water testing station where I record all the water tests by system and date and sometimes time.  If something happens that makes a big impact on water tests they usually get entered in that notebook too.  I now have a few of those notebooks since I've been doing this a few years.

 

Next to each fish tank I keep a pen or pencil and a tally of fish in a tank.  I'll write the date and number of fish when I add new fish and then whenever fish die or I harvest, I make note.  It will either be on the fish feeder cover, or a post next to the fish tank.  This way I can see how well I am doing at tracking the number of fish and I can know how many I'm loosing to consumption (fish eating each other) or predators. 

 

Now I wish I was better at tracking my plant progress.  I often write down what I plant but by the time I want to make notes about how the plants are doing I can never find where I wrote down the notes originally.

[Raychel A Watkins]

That last statement made me really laugh and even though laughing makes you live longer at the moment it might kill me.  Ever since I got on the airplane in Honolulu I began to get ill.  I prayed I would not loose my voice before the presentation.  I did not but have definitely gotten worse as the days pass.  I am now in Missouri until the 28th My daughter lives here.

I laughed because that is how I have always kept notes.  When I first started aquaponics in 2007   I wrote everything on scrap paper and note pads.  I didn't date anything all with good intentions that never panned out. That is why I now have one note book. When I did research at UNO for 10 years.  I did not take proper notes in the correct notebooks.  I lost a lot of important data that I can never publish because of it.  Those UH people really convinced me.  I especially think all newbies need to do this then the could look back and see what they did and be able to tell us better just what happened

[TCLynx]

Now since I'm starting to grow some stuff "commercially" I have a notebook for tracking plants but I'm still having trouble figuring out how to note everything in a clear and useful manner.

 

Hope you start feeling better, traveling takes a lot out of ya.

[Rob Torcellini]

I keep track of just about everything that comes out of my greenhouse.  I just have a sheet that I put hash marks on and the weights.  When the page is full, I add them all up and put them in a spreadsheet.   I haven't tracked the dates, but have debated doing it.  This is my tally sheet before my presentation.  47# of cukes from 2 plants, not too shabby!   It's not pretty, but it works fairly well.  ;-)