Technical Difficulties

When I get home from market on Sunday there is always an autogenerated email reminding me to report my sales, but last week it was missing. The new market management app is still a work in progress and as a former geek I tend to notice even the slightest change in functionality. When the email was AWOL I put it on my weekly list to circle back.But farming has a way of demanding your attention. All-stop and must-do tasks crop up taking priority over administration and paperwork. Monday had my attention firmly held with livestock chores. Since much of farming involves manual labor at the end of the day the prospect of sitting in front of a computer isn’t as enticing as a hot shower and a warm bed. I let my administration slide into Tuesday.By the time I sat down at my desk and logged on to my computer it became obvious that other automated responses had not arrived as usual. I searched through my spam and junk folders finding nothing. Again, the farm called and I vowed to track down the issue when I could devote more time to it.Over the last month many businesses, myself included, had to figure out new ways of communicating with customers and fulfilling orders in the age of COVID-19. Most of it revolves around an online app and an Internet connection. My regulars wanting to pre-order had consisted of a handful of regulars shooting me emails, texts and messenger requests on Saturday night or Sunday morning. By the time I pulled off 270, I knew how many dozen eggs needed to be set back for them as I set up for the day.But with online pre-ordering customers are now able to order online for Sunday earlier in the week. Warning bells went off for me on Tuesday evening when customers began contacting me through assorted social media channels—my email address was bouncing. Once again, exhaustion won out and I promised to deal with it in the morning.A few minutes before five a.m. {I am never up that early on a Monday} I sat bolt upright in bed with the realization my web services for the farm’s website were down. Grabbing my phone I punched in the URL for my website and received a 404 Error—Page Not Found. This got me moving as if my neighbor had just called to tell me all the animals were loose and in his alfalfa field.Trying to log on to Internet Service Provider’s site I received the same error. Calling their 24/7 support hotline I got a message informing the number was no longer in service. My site had been hosted with their service for twenty years. Auto-renew with virtual check ensured the site would never go down and for two decades it operated flawlessly although it was updated far less often thanks to advent of social media and online sales applications. The annual renewal always occurred in June.At that point I didn’t care what happened to the ISP. I had to move my digital property somewhere else and fast. Opting to go with a national brand domain and hosting service I began the process of setting up new web and email hosting services. With over twenty years in the tech industry going back to the mid 80's with monochrome monitors, dial-up modems and BBS, I knew what I had to do...I just didn't want to do it. I wanted to be outside on a calm spring day doing all the farm chores and project that had been piling up. I wanted to work in the garden, put away all the water tank heaters, rehang sagging and broken gates, install new fencing where the old stuff had worn out, replace a few posts. But no...my butt was plunked down in my office setting up new mail accounts, trying to upload the old site to the new server. I had coffee with a nice lady in India who after two hours informed me that their platform would not support my old site and I would have to build a new one."If you type in the word FARM an automated template will populate the site," she told me. What came up were images of a giant tractor spraying chemicals on a monocrop. I shrieked as if I'd been stung by a hornet and started to cry in my coffee. I had hit the wall and it wasn’t even 9 a.m.And so my feeble attempt at rebuilding two decades worth of digital information came to a halt after I managed to replace the images. Consider it my version of wearing pajamas all day, letting my roots grow out, eating cereal for dinner and all the other eccentricities we now accept with quarantines and social distancing.As much as I’d love to build out a new website with updated pictures, links to recipes and such, I also needed to be moving the chicks from the brooder to the outdoor hoop coops. There is only so much room in a brooder which means when chicks reach a certain size they must be moved or they will start dying from overcrowded conditions. Similarly, it’s time to start moving the young males to the upper pastures away from their mothers and sisters. While I understand the importance of a digital presence, there are consequences for ignoring the first inklings of impending doom on the farm. It cannot be ignored or the situation will only become exponentially worse. {Sound familiar?}When the first chick gets trampled to death in the brooder they must go outside immediately or within hours there’s going to be a lot more dead chickens. Yes, it really happens that fast.Turns out I’m not the only one struggling with digital challenges. In many of my farmers’ online forums and listservs questions center on technical questions. Ag organizations are offering online courses and Zoom meetings to help farmers get up and running with online ordering, curbside pick-ups, and delivery services.After tackling the technical side of things, there’s still logistics which can gobble up time. For example, prior to COVID-19 packing for market each week took approximately an hour. A dozen regulars had standing orders or would reserve via text. Now I have three different customer streams—those who shop outright at the stand, pre-paid pre-orders for pickup or curbside and the Farm to Fridge service. Several hours each week are now spent managing, picking, packing and labeling orders for as many as 150 different customers. I’m a small operation compared to many of the other vendors so I can only imagine how much their workloads have increased.These last few weeks I’ve been trying to streamline ordering and communications as are many other market vendors. We’re also trying to farm and produce food. If you encounter an online issue such as a bouncing email, downed website, online ordering system no functioning correctly please let us know and cut us some slack. I’ve heard from frustrated farmers who didn’t know their sales screens had more than one page and missed orders, didn’t know you could send private messages through Instagram, and set up items to be sold per unit instead of per pound. Just like everyone else, we’re figuring it out as we go.The reality is we’re going to be doing business like this for several months if not a couple years. Eventually the kinks will get worked out and one of these rainy days when there are no projects stamped with immediacy I’ll sit down and set up a proper website.