.KEYWORD farm
.FLYINGHEAD PALM LIVING
.TITLE Palm on the farm
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY There are some jobs where a desktop computer just isn’t practical. As a farmer, Dave Bennett has discovered that his Palm handheld is more than a mere organizer. It has become the primary source of all his computing needs. Using his own experiences as an example, he encourages everyone to abandon the security of the desk and cubicle. Only then will you get the most out of your Palm device, as well as your life.
.AUTHOR Dave Bennett
The expression "farm hand" has been a part of the American vocabulary for almost two centuries. However, on the farm my wife Liz and I operate near Louisburg, KS, we have "farm palms." Palm computing devices, that is. We run the day-to-day operations of our farm with a couple of Palm III’s, a Palm V, and a Palm Vx.
.CALLOUT I typically carry my Palm V in the breast pocket of my bib overalls.
I believe Palm, Inc. has it wrong when it categorizes the Palm unit as an "organizer." It’s a fully functional computing device that can be used to perform all the tasks one commonly associates with a desktop machine. The biggest benefit is the mobility. It fits easily into your purse or pocket to be taken anywhere.
I typically carry my Palm V in the breast pocket of my bib overalls. It seems that the creators of bib overalls were years ahead of their time as these pockets are a perfect fit for the shape of a Palm V. Since there are two of these pockets, I tell people it’s easy to take my modem along, too.
You have to realize and understand that in this day, computing can happen anywhere at any time, not just when you are ready for it at your desktop machine. At our farm, we have some PCs, but data flows from our Palm devices onto the desktop models. The PCs are viewed as an extension of our Palm devices, not as the main computers. In our computing world, the Palm device is the computer.
.H1 A whole herd of uses
I literally use my Palm Vx for everything. I use it for word-processing and programming (SmartDoc), spreadsheets (QuickSheet), and graphics (QuickChart). I use it to keep my schedule (Date Book), as an address book (Address List), as a sketchpad for roughing out garden plots or woodworking projects (Diddle), or as a shopping list (HandyShopper). Liz uses HandyShopper extensively on her Palm III to manage our purchasing. My Palm device also does quick text editing for memos (Pedit), functions as a watch (Analog Clock), prints envelopes and labels (SnailMail), keeps a mileage log (Trip), and tunes my 12-string guitar (Tuning Fork). Not to mention the fact that I use it for about 90% of all of my Internet access for mail (HandMail), browsing (HandWeb), and newsgroups (Yanoff).
I typically check my email three times a day: morning, noon, and late afternoon. I then take my Palm Vx with me to read, answer, and write emails when I’m offline. MultiMailPro is a great program that allows me the same flexibility in email management that one gets on a desktop machine using Netscape, for example.
.H1 Field report
My Palm device is also a relational database management machine thanks to the application ThinkDB. It’s able to track all of the field and crop information we’re required to report to the FSA (Farm Service Administration). It also keeps tabs on everything we do in the fields.
I have created three databases called Field, FieldPrep, and Crop. The Field database contains information about a particular piece of land or a top-level item I want to track. This can be a field, an orchard, a windbreak planting, a sheep, or even a beehive. The FieldPrep database is where I record the information about what was done to prepare the Field item for its use in the current season. I also use this to track information about any soil amendments I’ve made, or treatments I’ve given to my livestock or my bees.
The Crop database is where we get specific. In here I record the row, bed, field, or hill location within a defined field of the crop I’m planting. I record the crop, the specific seed information, the plant data, the emergence date, the field in which it’s located, the cost of the seed, harvest begin and end dates, harvest yield, and sales information at the specific crop level. This database also has a memo attached to each item for free-form notes about pests and other items of interest.
ThinkDB makes producing reports a snap, allowing me to generate customized reports in any way I can imagine, and I can beam them directly from my Palm device to my Canon BJC-50 printer. This makes filing my planting and harvesting information with the FSA extremely easy, since all of the information is literally in my pocket at all times!
.H1 Cultivating new applications
Using Quartus Forth, I have written a few applications specific to my farming needs. WindChillFactor helps me know what environment my crops and livestock are enduring while I’m warm and toasty in the tool shed.
Another application I wrote using Quartus Forth allows me to calculate area in many different ways. All FSA reporting requires input on the number of acres being farmed. However, most small operators such as myself are typically working within a few hundred or a few thousand square feet per crop. This application is great help in calculating these area conversions.
A third application I wrote using Quartus Forth helps in determining how much soil amendments (in other words, chemicals) to add. Typically, soil reports come back from the County Extension Office with chemical listings of "pounds per acre." This can be confusing for farmers like me who work on a smaller scale. Herschel George, our Miami County Extension Agent, told me recently that he often gets questions from people along the lines of, "How much of this chemical should I put on a 14 foot row of corn?" My application allows you to enter two formulas. One is for your area, and the other is for the application rate recommended on the package of chemicals you are applying. My hope is that this program can help reduce over-application of chemicals on small plots.
Next year we’re going to add some livestock to our operation, and I’m already designing an application for my Palm device that follows our County Extension Office’s livestock record keeping guidelines. I hope to get a Symbol SPT-1500 so I can incorporate barcode reading into these applications as well. For a PalmPower article on programming with Quartus Forth, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200004/quartus001.html.
.H1 Document creation
Liz and I both use Red Hat Linux on our Personal Computers and the Pilot-XFer program to backup our Palm devices daily. We also use Pilot-XFer to install applications. Using txt2pdbdoc, we can import documents from the PCs directly into the memo or DOC format and transmit them onto our Palm devices for later reading, or we can export documents we’ve created on the Palm unit itself.
This article, for example, was written on a Palm computer. Parts were written while waiting in the barbershop, others while waiting at a railroad crossing for a long, slow train to pass, and some in the garden while watching a new section of PVC irrigation pipe pressurize. Some parts were written on a bench outside a restaurant where I was meeting a friend for lunch and others at the County Extension Office while waiting for a meeting on Small Acreage Management to begin. I also managed to get a few words down while sitting out on our deck watching our dog Leni attempt to figure out how that baby rabbit moved so quickly.
I prefer the doc format as each file is its own database on the Palm device and can be extracted or added individually.
.H1 A durable farm tool
I don’t have a cover of any kind for the Palm Vx, and I have removed both styli so that the sides provide better grip support. I have had the Palm V and Palm Vx outdoors in temperatures as low as 20
