I Sense a Theme Here

I Sense a Theme Here

I Sense a Theme Here
The Sensor Array Map of Mezzacello. This is not to scale, and not all security systems are represented.

At Mezzacello our primary mission is grow, maintain, sustain, and explain, and a big part of that mission is accomplished through a variety of advanced electronic systems and sensors. I Sense a Theme Here refers to the approximately 81 sensors and antenna deployed around Mezzacello to make the last three components of our mission statement possible. This is the sensor map of Mezzacello.

I Sense Your Disbelief

I was a bit taken aback when I first created this map over the weekend. I know where the sensors are and I use them on the daily. But I had never undertaken a full survey of the overlapping sensor arrays and mesh 4G and 5G networks until I was required to for insurance and summer camp reasons.

There are a lot. Many of them are bundled into one discrete device and mounted in weatherproof cases around the farm or in the outbuildings. They give me important data, like the current and projected weather, light levels, temperature, humidity, motion, and voltage levels. They give me a story of the farm so I can create a meta data map of the health and vitality of the farm.

I am actively using this data almost on the daily. For example, light, temp, humidity, motion, pressure, and voltage sensors are telling me that right now, putting seedlings in the greenhouse would be unsustainable, but in the attached greenhouse, I am getting a different story.

Data Does Not Lie, But It Can Confuse

Data does not lie, but it can confuse. That is why this summer my goal is to launch the next generation of research and summer camps and create an army of drones that will be controllable from a single source and together we shall overwhelm the outer systems of the galaxy and defeat the Jedis once and for all — oops wrong narrative…

This is an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo

Seriously, an army of 10 Raspberry Pi Pico units powered by mobile solar power arrays and deployed at key locations and with systems integration and custom code to take raw data from 12 unique sensor platforms and arrays and send them to a central computer station. This data will then be used by campers in my #ProjectBioTech, #BioEngineer, #ProjectRenewables, and #projectBioChem summer camps to tell the story of Urban Ag in a way it’s never been told before.

One Map To Rule Them All

I have created an entirely new class of maps and web-resources to this end. Visit mezzacello.org and click on the Mezzacello Systems link in the navigation of the website. Every single system is represented there, with the exception of proprietary or security sensitive data.

Later this spring I will be creating design challenges and video assets that will help me with my goal of extending my mission here at Mezzacello to include train, and expand my vision for the farm of tomorrow. I will do this while still honoring my three main slogans here at Mezzacello;

  1. Poor Boys Have Poor Ways
  2. Living in the Past for the Future
  3. A Twenty-First Century Urban Farm

Join me, support me, donate if you’s like. But this is happening no matter what. Because as Victor hugo once wrote, “This is an idea whose time has come.” My 501c3 status launches officially this month – join me!


Pretty versus Plentiful with Ducks and Chickens

Pretty versus Plentiful with Ducks and Chickens

Chickens and ducks making short work out of my cold frame at Mezzacello.

The poultry need to be isolated with new plant growth. Full stop. Formal gardens are off limits while my potager gardens and fruit trees look like the surface of the moon. It’s time to sequester the chickens and ducks.

Chicken Scratch

Chickens scratch, but ducks devour. I’ve talked about the enclosed ecosystems of Mezzacello frequently. As I type this, I am sitting in front of the aquatic ecosystem listening to the biofilter pumps wreck havoc on the balance of algae, water, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and fish.

Garden Felons

The ducks are peeking their bills through the picket fence in the poultry yard like the garden felons they are.  In the pretty gardens (AKA formal gardens at Mezzacello) the tender shoots are just coming up. This is irresistible to ducks.

Just a few weeks, felons, I mean fellas, and I’ll let you forage in the yards for bugs again.

It might seem hypocritical of me to be enjoying a quiche made from duck eggs, pancetta, gruyere, Parmesan, and pan seared hosta shoots. Yes, we eat the hosta shoots – but in my defense, we eat them discriminately.

The ducks eat ALL of them. And to add insult to injury, they eat all the water lettuce and water hyacinth in the pond as well – and their oils pollute the pond. The nerve! LOL!

Enclosed Ecosystems

No, the animals need sequestered while the humans manage the patient dance from winter to spring with the more delicate plants in the pretty ecosystems. Meanwhile the ducks and chickens get extra servings of mealworms, peas and crickets, the rabbits get fresh clover and kale, and the fish get frozen peas and rabbit droppings.

I am not a monster; I give when I take. That is the cycle of life on an urban farm.