On Monday, Constantine and I mainly worked on some new coffee makers he had gotten.  We took the two of them apart, carefully, and I better saw how they heat the water and how the separate hot water spout works. We saw the different timers for the hot water because they are two different models. The one has a physical analog timer for the water heater and the other one has a digital timer. The cool thing is that the makers of the machine used the same maker and simply switched the analog for the digital one. They wired it to existing switches so they managed to effectively upgrade the coffee maker design without really changing it, besides the one timer. I think that’s the way to do it, if at all possible, to utilize the existing design of something instead of designing something completely new. While we were doing that, Katie and Alyse were doing coffee. After that, Katie and Constantine went to stock Seaman’s and Alyse and I jarred some more honey, which is always sweet.

Tuesday, we went to Broadwell again. We couldn’t do as much stuff outside because of the rain but there were other things to be done. I sewed a total of 30 beef bologna bags which was also my first time sewing at all. It was also more fun to do because they have and use an old pedal machine from the early 1900’s and so that was some work getting used to. I went out and helped Kathy a little with her compost stuff between the rain downpours. Right before we had to leave, we helped Constantine with the massive roll of cloth (for the meat bags) and helped him downsize it to be cut. I hadn’t really yet seen the cloth before it was on the meat and now I have and I can say I’ve even sewn some of the bags.

Today, the three of us went to Broadwell for a work day there. This was my first time back there in maybe 1 1/2 years making it quite fun for me. After saying hi to Kathy and Constantine, the three of us each took a note from a basket Kathy had prepared for us and on the notes were chores that needed to be done at some point. Alyse drew “plant skunk cabbage”. I’d never heard of something called a skunk cabbage before today so that was fun. Katie drew “mowing” and I drew “clean the dome”. She and I switched because she seemed to want to work on the dome and  I mow a lot so that worked out well. The mowing was a bit more in-depth than I had done before because there were more plants to carefully mow around than what I had done before. I had to really learn to look out for more flowers and such than I usually do but it was good experience because the other people I mow for in my time also have plants that they wouldn’t want mowed over. Besides that, it helped me learn that I need to keep more attention at the task at hand and look out for either flowers or something else in whatever task I’m engaged in and therefore not do something I’m not supposed to do. We also did a few other things like Alyse made some orders that needed done, Katie and I both (but mainly Katie) worked a little with the vermicompost and I moved some dirt that is for an area that Kathy is working on. Also at some point in the day, Kathy went over a thing she has for task evaluation called S.M.A.R.T.. The S being Specific: “is the task a specific mission, over maybe more of a broader request?”. M is Measurable. I don’t exactly remember what this one is for but I think it was something like: “does the task have a measurable outcome, i.e., is it worth doing?”. A is Attainable: “is the given task an attainable one, can it be done?”. R is Relate-able or Relevant: “is the task relate-able to the worker? Can the worker relate to the task and therefore fully understand it?”. And lastly, T for Time Sensitive: “is this task time sensitive? Can it be done in a timely manner?”. I think that that is a good way to look at not just those sorts of task, but lots of other things as well. As a result, I am looking forward to the next time I can go back to Broadwell and do some stuff again.

On Monday, we first bagged even more coffee, and I am therefore more seeing how much of this coffee is distributed into this community.  Not just at the farmers market, but also Seaman’s, and other places. Multiple places also get the coffee in bulk form to serve like Jackie O’s. I knew AO did all that, but I didn’t really see how how many places and people partake of and enjoy this coffee and by that I somewhat mean I didn’t really see how much coffee AO “moved”. I would not be surprised at all if we needed to package more before the market on Saturday in order to have enough. Once we packaged the coffee, we talked more about the worker readiness certification. Once done with that, we split up, Alyse and Katie going to Jackie O’s and Constantine and I went to inventory and stock Seaman’s, and while doing that, I worked on my handwriting. At some point in that day, we opened up the coffee maker at ACEnet and switched the hot water spout seal because it had been leaking some, something else I hadn’t done before.

Tuesday, we talked about doing the Wednesday farmers market, which we haven’t done in a long while, so it should be fun. We also ordered some things: we got some good stainless steal hinges to fix the coolers and got the 25 pin serial cord to usb adapter cord so we can use a laptop with the printer Constantine has. While we got the cord, we also at the same time found and got a nice Jawbone bluetooth for his phone. I did all those orders so those were my 2nd, 3rd and 4th online orders that I have done and I think I’m getting the hang of it. Also, over the phone, I (with his guidance obviously) ordered both a custom fridge gasket for Souvlakis and then ordered some more Frog ranch pickles. After that, I went with Constantine to Jackie O’s and Alyse stayed behind and bagged for cashews. At Jackie O’s, we took apart their coffee grinder because it was not working at all. Once we took it apart, we could see that why it wasn’t working was because it was so jammed full of ground coffee and some beans that it couldn’t work. We cleaned it and I saw how it all works and everything. We put it back together and it now works fine. This also shows again how I think that AO and Constantine are better than the average business: he’ll come and completely take apart and fix something that he provided rather than just let them do it themselves because he cares, even if it takes half the day.

Today we (Alyse, Katie and myself) bagged a little coffee, bagged some cashews and packaged some honey. Once done with those things, we  went to the conference room and talked about the worker readiness certification. The main  reason for this program is because Constantine believes (and rightly so) that both high school and college don’t prepare students enough to just go out and start working. They’ll probably be able to get a job, but their education won’t have prepared them enough to be the best workers and employees that they can be. Constantine’s program then works with the student(s) to do just that: make them the best they can be. We then talked about clarifying some of the requirements and changed the wording on a few. But the main topic was to present this worker readiness certification program to the community, which includes Constantine’s family, the businesses involved with Athens’ Own and the Athens’ Own team, both current and past team members. Since none of us have this certification yet, we are looking at it as if it is an entirely new thing. We are trying to determine how the three of us will best go about getting the certification together, as a group/team. We are going to try to do it as if we were the IDEAL candidates for this program and to sort of set a good timeline in which to do it all. I hope then that we will be able to work together and to get the best out of each other for this certification.

We went to the OU mini market for the first time ever on Friday and it was pretty nice. It was certainly smaller than the regular Athens Farmers Market but it still was rather productive. There were less food sellers and more sellers of actual items like jewelry, of which there are none at the Athens Farmers Market. We also made the first ever AO credit card sales via Alyse’s smartphone and therefore got a little better view of how that process works. I feel though that to make that market better, they should move it somewhere with a little more space, maybe even just across the road to the main green allowing then many more people to attend as vendors, increasing overall size and thereby increasing the whole appeal of that market . Other than that, it seems like they’ve got a good thing going. I think the lady running the market said that this one was their 6th one and it was pretty nice and well attended for being that young.

Also, as I have stated before, I think this internship is a great experience. I have been learning so many things about so many things. To begin with, I have learned how to better greet customers at places like the Athens Farmers Market and how to make change for them. I have also learned how to correctly weigh and package various products. I have seen/learned how to inventory, stock and deliver to stores and restaurants. I have also gotten a better view of the community, the business and my life as a whole and so forth through holistic management, of which I hadn’t really any experience before this internship. It’s very much education that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It’s also real world and pre “real job” experience, which is of course invaluable.