An ECHO intern reminisces about his experience during an overnight shift of freeze protection.

By Brian Dant

Time: 2:35 AM Date: January 8, 2010

‘Where are the coffee grounds…oh there they are, forgot to put ‘em up yesterday. Man, do I need some sleep!!!
‘1 Scoop, 2 scoop, 3 scoop… oh what the heck, it’s almost 3 am and I have to go do Freeze Protection... lets go with four scoops!’
‘Ok, now where's my clothes...'
 ‘Layer #1, long johns...check’
‘Layer #2, jeans...check’
‘Layer #3, rain pants...Rain pants, rain pants, where are my rainpants?’
‘Oh yeah, I loaned them to Kim last night…looks like no rainpants’ ‘Maybe I’ll wake her…oh what’s the use, I’ll be frozen to the bone in 3 hours anyway’
‘T-Shirt, check; Long-Sleeve T-Shirt, check; Hooded Sweatshirt, check;…’
‘I can’t believe that Florida is getting this kind of weather!! Having to work in this weather must be payback for all my Facebook posts to my northern friends last month about how warm it is in Florida!!!’
‘Headlamp...check; stocking cap...check;’
‘Shoes, shoes, shoes…oh yeah, wet from two nights ago... I got it!!! I’ll use those plastic bags that I got from Target the  other day!!!' (Much better than the Wal-Mart ones!!)
‘Ok it’s 2:55, I better head out the door’
‘Whoops, forgot my coffee’ ‘I’ll go back to get it’ ‘AAAHHHHH, I forgot to turn on the coffee pot!!!’ ‘I really need some SLEEP!!!!!’

  ‘I’m on with Joseph tonight, this should be fun.  He’s always got something good to say…I wonder if he has any rainpants with him???’
 ‘Ok, headlamp on, hop on the bike, off to the nursery trailer’

‘Hi Andy, Hi Tim, how you guys doin?’
‘Well, were doing fine but we are a little concerned with the farm.  Temps are currently at 29 degrees in Agroforestry and the Global Farm is at 31’
‘Ok what would you like Joseph and I to do first?’
 ‘We just turned on the sprinklers in grow-out and  Agroforestry, so after you make a run to check the temps, you will have to make a round to make sure none of the sprinklers are clogged’

‘Ok, great and Joseph just walked in so we should be good to go!’
‘Joseph, what is with those pants?  Where did you get those things?’
  

 ‘Brian, did you really think that as the AT  intern, I would buy  rainpants?  A bsolutely not, I constructed these out of innertube that we had leftover from that bio-gas demostration I have been working on.’  ‘I needed something man, do you think I am going to drive through sprinklers all night in 28 degrees with no protection from the water?’  
 
‘Brian, grab me a pair of scuba gloves and lets go!! We have 14 thermomoters to check before we can monitor the sprinkers’
  

‘Ok, ok I’m on it!’

Stop 1: Arboretum – Temp: 30.5 – decreased by 1.5 degrees…  
 Stop 2: Pre-Sale – Temp: 29 – decreased by 1.5 degre es…
 Stop 6: Grow Out – Temp: 27 – decreased by 2 degrees…
Stop 9: Bamboo Plot – Temp: 28 – decreased by 1 degree…

‘ Brian, I think that if the temps get any lower out here, Andy is going to have to turn on the sprinklers for the whole farm!’
‘Joseph, this whole thing seems kind of crazy, but being out here isn’t as bad as I thought it would be’ ‘Kind of adventurous, don't you think?’
‘Yeah, this is definitely something you have to experience to really understand what it’s all about’ ‘I never thought in a million years I would be doing something like this at 3 in the morning’ ‘I am going to tell my grandkids about this!!!’ 
 
‘I hear that! Let’s go back to the trailer and see what Andy says about these temps’

‘Hi guys, thanks for getting the temps for us, I’ll take a look at them while you guys go on your run to check the sprinkler heads.’

‘Hey Joseph, last time I worked the Freeze Protection shift, they only had a few sprinklers on, so what’s this going to be like?’
 ‘Brian, get ready for an experience that you will never forget! Grab a towel.’

‘So it’s pretty simple… we drive around the farm, monitor each sprinkler head and make sure that they are actually spraying water where they are supposed to’

‘Wait, wait, wait, the ‘heads’ are on in the Global Farm,  which mea ns that we have to monitor those… which means we have to drive through the Global Farm… which means you're telling me that we are going to drive right through the streams of water?  It's like 29 degrees!!!’

‘Yeah, if nobody checks the heads, and one of them gets clogged, that area of the farm doesn’t get water, which means certain death for those plants… so whether you like it or not, we gotta protect these plants!’

To see more pictures taken during 'Freeze Protection' click here