And I recently received my Time Domain Reflectometry (aka TDR) Probe. I have been dipping my toe into the Urban Ag / Open Ag scene over the past couple of years, but this year I'm diving in to the deep end. The is partly out of engineering curiosity and partly out of necessity. 
 
The curiosity part is applying my multidisciplinary engineering background to develop a small scale / robust / wireless sensing network for a large-ish urban farm (see https://www.facebook.com/3acresandabarn/). Ultimately I want to sense what's going on in the earth. Anything and everything that I can sense. 
 
The necessity part is longer term. Kelly and I plan to be here (where we live) for a long time. As we see it, two thing are definitely going to happen. 1 - Energy prices are going to increase (hence the Solar Projects going on at the urban farm - I'll explain fully later). And 2 - Food pricing is only going higher, and supply is only getting tighter. I suppose a third reason is related to the 2nd ... knowing where and how some of my food was grown. 
 
For those that see this in time, there is an OpenAg open house at TechShop in St. Louis on 2/2/17. I'll be there.