Alec Murray's Cornell Farms

As I conclude my work at Cornell Farm, it's clear I've benefited from my time spent there. I've learned a lot about gardening, particularly edible plants which was where I spent most of my time. I also became an expert on soil, giving guests recommendations for their various projects. In addition to the raw information I accumulated working at Cornell, it was also a valuable opportunity to understand the workload of a 9-5 full-time job, and appreciate the impossibility of surviving on the current minimum wage. Cornell also served as an environment for me to meet new people. I've kept in contact with several coworkers which valuable.  My progress towards my initial goals has been steady. I've maintained my effort to learn plant names and keep improving in that regard. I've improved my customer service skills, making myself helpful and available to guests while they're around. This has been a particularly large area of growth, as I'm given assignments that...

Recently I've been enjoying the work and routine of Cornell more. Mostly I think I've gotten used to the daily procedure I've developed. It now feels comparable to attending school every day! Additionally, the weather has been much kinder recently, making work much more bearable.  A highlight from this week was getting cart trained. Ever since I started work at Cornell I've been lifting and moving heavy pots, soil bags, trees, plants, etc. without the assistance of the electronic carts the majority of the staff has access to. On Monday there was finally time for my boss to train me. Having access to the carts removes some of the manual labor from the job which I was very excited about. It was also an interesting opportunity to see how the owners deal with safety and training. We dedicated about 3 hours to learn about how each individual cart works and ended with a written test covering what we'd talked about. It was a relatively simple and streamlined process but ve...