Kia ora! I’m just another solarpunk in Aotearoa looking for other like-minded friends, inspiration, and advice on other ways I can green up my life.

I live in an off-grid tiny home I built with my partner in 2016 out of wood and second-hand windows/doors/appliances. We run off solar power, rain water, a composting toilet, and try to repair, mend, make, borrow, and buy 2nd hand or local. Our meat is all hunted, which here in Aotearoa is a huge help for our environment as our only native mammals are seals and bats. Everything else is a pest. We also grow a lot of our own fruit and veggies, but the garden is still a work in progress.

I’m looking at irrigating the garden and automating the process. I saw something about https://www.home-assistant.io/ online but would love any advice you might have. I’d like to automate and chart my watering as well as integrate moisture monitors and a weather monitoring system.

I have an electric bike and an old 1996 honda crv. I’d like to switch to an electric vehicle, something like a Pickman 4x4 or another small farm vehicle, as I only need to get to the village bus stop, neighbouring farms, and the occasional trip into town via back roads.

Clothes are me-made with 2nd hand materials, mostly from the dump shop. I’ve helped start a collection point for alternative recycling like bottle lids and tetrapaks, a library of things, and a community workshop. We are working towards a bike repair hub and time bank but it might be a couple years before they are operational.

Please share all your inspiration, book recommendations, and thoughts around other ways I can make an impact in my community 😊

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    14·
    3 days ago

    On the internet nobody knows you’re a duck.

    I’m looking at irrigating the garden and automating the process. I saw something about https://www.home-assistant.io/ online but would love any advice you might have. I’d like to automate and chart my watering as well as integrate moisture monitors and a weather monitoring system.

    Seriously though, if you’re looking into stuff like this, you should go asking questions around the Marijuana cultivation community. There’s actually been a massive upsurge in the last 5-7 years of projects using off the shelf components like Raspberry Pi’s to essentially automate their cannabis grows. Some of them are related to home assistant, some are standalone.

    Each time I read about it I keep hoping that others will take that work and start extending it to other types of plants. Cannabis is great and all, but you can’t really eat it for sustenance, you know?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/a375ib/raspberry_pi_powered_cannabis_microgrowery/

    https://github.com/yieldbuddy

    Just some quick examples.

    Also, you might try the /c/selfhosted community for information on things like home assistant and getting it up and running.

    Though, be warned, home automation of this type can quickly end up increasing your electricity usage by a lot.

    I have an electric bike and an old 1996 honda crv. I’d like to switch to an electric vehicle, something like a Pickman 4x4 or another small farm vehicle, as I only need to get to the village bus stop, neighbouring farms, and the occasional trip into town via back roads.

    As for the old Honda CRV, if you know anyone that speaks Spanish/Portuguese or have an ability to translate either easily, South America has a whole history in the last ten years of converting old cars into EVs. I’d start looking for forums for those countries and poking around for conversion kits for your model.

    https://restofworld.org/2024/electric-vehicle-conversions-uruguay/

    • Donk@slrpnk.net
      3·
      3 days ago

      doesn’t seem like it needs to increase the electric usage by that much, you only need a RasberryPi or equivalent to run the server, and you control everything with your phone… the outlets and solenoids shouldn’t need much power to do their thing. I saw earlier today how many options for EVs are available in South America (anywhere outside the US imperial core, actually) and it was a bit shocking. The conversion to EV business seems like a great idea - especially if they can standardize replacement parts that would be amazing.

    • Wigglet@beehaw.orgOP
      2·
      3 days ago

      Thanks!! That’s a great idea! I was nervous to go looking under those rocks as it’s still not legal here, and I don’t need the police in my garden. Those links look like exactly what I’m after. Is there a cannabis growing community here on lemmy I can chat with? Yeah, I’m all for people using cannabis if it helps them, but I think with us on the brink of climate collapse with failing soils… maybe it’s time we utilise some of that tech for local food systems.

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        I unfortunately couldn’t tell you which communities to search in, because it always seemed to pop up on my radar in random feeds on places like reddit, hackernews, and slashdot. hackernews and slashdot both have slightly better search functions than reddit. I just know on reddit they were usually marijuana-related communities.

        https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-zero-waters-your-plants-and-records-growth-timelapse/

        Here’s another example from some googling around that’s not cannabis-related but still a vegetation project. I’m sure there’s are variety of projects that exist that are just waiting to be discovered by someone with the time and patience to pursue it.

        • Wigglet@beehaw.orgOP
          2·
          3 days ago

          Thank you so much! Also thanks for car conversion write up! I’d love to do something live this with an old Suzuki Jimny.