I'm beginning to reluctantly embrace technology because I know it's a good tool, and already the wheels of humanity are, and have been wobbling for a long time. They say "keep your friends close and your enemies closer", and the progression of the machines is happening with or without me. My question is how much should we depend on this progression? When do we hold back, how can we keep unique skills secret? Or should we just be absorbed into the system. Given ultimate free time and no worries, what would you do with your time, because in the future, that's going to be how we sell out . As an example start by looking at BYD(building your dreams) and it's rapid expansion from nothing , and where 98% of the production is done by robotics.

Last time we asked what things need to be recorded. The next question is more practical, how do we keep the record from becoming outdated? A record can start out perfectly organized and still become useless if keeping it current requires a separate chore that nobody remembers to do. Suppose we decide that keeping track of something in the freezer would help. We could make a detailed spreadsheet on the computer, but if the computer is upstairs and the freezer is in the basement, every item going in or coming out creates another step we have to remember later. A simpler record kept near the freezer may work better. The same principle can apply elsewhere in the household. A filter record might stay near the equipment or with the replacement filters. A maintenance note might stay with the manual. A supply list might be kept inside the cabinet where the supplies are used. The exact method is less important than the relationship between the record and the action. For one household category, keep only the information that helps you make the decision you identified last time. That might be what is it, where is it, how many are left, when was it replaced or serviced, and what condition is it in? You probably do not need all of these, so use only what solves the problem. Then ask one more question, where should this record live so updating it is part of using the system rather than another job to remember? Paper may work. A note on a phone, a spreadsheet or possibly a label may be enough. The best system is not the most sophisticated one, it is the one your household can realistically keep current. This week, take one category you identified last time and make the smallest useful record for it. Put that record where updating it is easy, then watch what happens. Does the record stay current naturally or does it already feel like another chore? That answer will help us decide what kind of record actually belongs in the household. What usually causes a household record to become outdated?

Before we decide that something is “hot,” “dry,” “tense,” or “stagnant,” it helps to begin with something simpler. what are we actually observing? Someone might say, “I have congestion.” But that name does not tell us very much yet. Is the mucus thin or thick? Clear or colored? Does the person feel warm or chilled? Are the tissues dry and irritated, or moist and heavy? Does movement help? Does warmth help? Is there tightness or a feeling that things are not moving well? Those observations begin to show us a pattern. This is different from diagnosing a disease. We are learning to describe what is happening well enough to notice useful relationships. That matters because two people can use the same word for what they are experiencing while the underlying pattern looks quite different. Over the next several weeks, we will begin working with patterns such as heat and cold, dryness and dampness, tension, weakness, and stagnation. But the first step is not memorizing those names. Describe what you observe before you decide what to call it. What Comes First? Someone tells you, “I’m congested.” Before deciding what pattern is present or what herb might fit, what is the best first step?

As the weather is turning cool and moist, now is the time to think about a winter cover crop on the veg plot. Today I'm sowing all the patches that have finished producing with a mix of; wheat, triticale, rye, oats, Mais, vetch, field pea, fodder fava beans, lettuce, fox tail amaranth, calendula, marigold, and kale. The more variety of seed the better and this is all collected from a local organic farmer or my own garden. Two beds and two completely different ways of sowing, the first had the crop residue removed and was hoed, then broadcast by hand, worked in by rake and watered. The second bed was hand down into the crop residue, mowed and then scatter mulched with hay.

Recently we looked at the story food carries before it reaches our plate. Where did it come from? What happened between harvest and the kitchen? How much did it change along the way? There is another part of learning about food that seems simple but can be surprisingly difficult. We can learn to notice what is actually in front of us before deciding whether it is good or bad. Take something ordinary from the kitchen, such as a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter (does it contain arsenic), a container of yogurt, or a can of beans. Most of us already have opinions about these foods. We may think of one as healthy, another as processed, another as convenient, and another as something we should eat less often. Those judgments can matter, but they can also cause us to skip the observation step. Instead of starting there, we can begin with questions we can actually answer. What ingredients are present? What form is the food in? What appears to have been removed, added, cooked, fermented, ground, dried, preserved, or otherwise changed? What information does the label give us? What can we recognize, and what do we still not understand? This does not mean that every food is nutritionally equal or that processing never matters. It means that we are separating two different steps. First we observe, then we evaluate what those observations mean. This distinction becomes useful because the word "processed" by itself does not tell us enough. Washing vegetables is processing. Grinding grain is processing. Cooking beans changes them. Fermenting milk into yogurt changes it. Freezing berries changes how they are stored without necessarily making them something we should avoid. Other forms of processing can change a food considerably, including its ingredients, structure, nutrient composition, concentration, or how easily we consume it. The useful question is not simply, "Is this processed?" A better starting point is, "What happened to this food, and what difference did those changes make?"