Quelab trip report
Yesterday I spent the day working at Quelab, a recently opened hackerspace in Albuquerque. I first visited Quelab for an afternoon several weeks ago, pitching my need for a soil moisture sensor I could use at my farm, Sunflower River.
Yesterday I had an early morning errand to run in downtown, and since my first visit Gabe Ortiz and Adric had built a breadboard prototype, and were ready to receive soil samples from my garden, rather than testing with the potting soil pilfered out of a planter. As Quelab is a co-working space, there wasn't any reason not to spend the day.
When I arrived midmorning, Gabe Ortiz and Walter Duran were there. Gabe has been the primary organizing force behind Quelab, and Walter works there most days.
On my previous visit, I also sat and talked with Kemper Barkhurst, who is on the Board of Directors for Rio Grande Community Farm. One of the WWOOFers volunteering at Sunflower River is also working up at Rio Grande Community Farm, making this a surprising and pleasant connection to make. RGCF is working with some neat technology for maintaining a large scale drip irrigation system. Since Sunflower River already spends a lot of time fiddling with drip line, I'm curious to see how this project progresses.
Yesterday I didn't get a chance to visit with Adric, who wasn't planning on being there until the late evening. I've known Adric through his involvement organizing regular 2600 meetings. Adric has been working with Gabe on the soil moisture sensor.
After playing with the moisture sensor, I settled into the front room to work for the day. Quelab is a large space, with a workshop in the back, a meeting room, kitchen, and several areas for offices.
This meant I had a room to myself. It rained in Albuquerque yesterday, and I certainly missed the expansive view through the windows we have at Qforma. All the same, my work environment was quiet, and the internet connectivity was extremely good.
The office remained quiet throughout the day, with all three of us focused on the work we needed to get done. I had eaten a late breakfast after my errand and was saddened to skip the opportunity to go out to lunch with Gabe and Walter.
I'm quite happy working from home, though often my reason for doing so is an errand I need to run in town. Having a place to drop by in this event is very nice, and I like having people around while I work.
I had a great day working at Quelab, and the environment permitted me to focus and enjoy myself!