I’m going to my first #repaircafe today, it’s in a nearby village and I emailed to ask if I could visit and they said yes! I’d like to do something similar in our village as there seems to be the need and the resource just needs the organisation…
Just as an update, had a lovely visit to a nearby village, their #RepairCafe is part of a Good Neighbours scheme (they organise a bus to a local town, help clear gardens, provide a befriending service - they have invited me to their AGM to learn more).
The session had clothes repairs, small wood work repairs, bike repairs, an IT helper and knife sharpener, it’s their 4th session and sounds like advertising was key. There was a little bustle and a queue for the wood repairs person but then /1
Bg : I’m in the process of upgrading my internet, switching to full fibre rather then old broadband.
I’ve now got a spare old router which should run #openwrt (plusnet 270N), I’ll likely upgrade the ram chip as a side project and perhaps the rom as it’s technically fairly easy.
But the question is what to actually do with it, I’ve already got most of the projects you find on the internet, any off the wall ideas? I’ll have serial, 1/2
#hydroponics update: I’ve now got 11 pak choi 🥬 in my #Kratky method setup but it’s been super slow, my suspicion has been that my garage is too cold so I’m now running an experiment, one box is not insulated or heated, the other has a cheap 10W aquarium heater set to 18C and also badly done insulation - let’s see how this goes (also knew all those cheap hygrometers would come in handy!)
It’s nice to see some sunshine today. The challenge I’ve got is when it’s cloudy I really need the 4 #solarPanels I have, but when it’s sunny I don’t.
It’s time to start thinking about how I can utilise this extra power.
I probably should invest in a better battery but also perhaps an inverter so I could run an occasional household appliance off the solar.
@smallsolar I was struggling with the same. I don't have the entire house hooked up to my smaller solar system, but I ended up being able to run a air to water heatpump for shower water from my battery (supplementing an older solar thermal heater).
My #climate conscious 4yr old continues - she learnt about #polarbears and that they use their claws to break ice to get fish but there aren’t many left as they are ‘endangered’ because the earth is getting warmer. Her solution is less cars and aeroplanes.
When asked how we do this she announced with confidence that she’ll become an evil queen and use her magic…
Unexpected dark turn. #climatechange
I’m upgrading my garage ethernet network so maybe some down time on the solarcene.community #solarinstance. Pleased with myself as instead of jumping to am&zon I went on #eBay and got a 8 port network switch #secondhand . It was missing the power adapter which is fine as I’ll be rigging it anyway to run off 5V (it’s a TP SG108 and I’ve already got the 5 port version which works fine off 5V with a little modification).
Means I can finally put in place my plans to automate the #mastodon instance
Eek, plan is not going as well as I hoped, turns out it’s an older version of the SG108 so it doesn’t run off 5V, it seems to half boot but isn’t enough. Looks like the modern versions of the device have some low power elements.
It’s not all bad, it’s meant to run off 9V and my solar system is 12V so I can step it down. The question is how efficient is it?
Progress! (Apologies for solarcene popping offline a few times)
I found a step down power supply which I’m now using to power the 8 port switch, it’s mounted to a frame of hexagons. The #orangepi on the right runs solarcene.community. The laptop isn’t on #solar right now and does other projects
Managed to finish my second #solar array! It’s pretty much identical to the first one. Means I have 480W in total in panels, while winter has been pretty tough in regards to solar I anticipate summer will be good - might even not need to have both arrays deployed. The design allows them to be folded down for storage (though quite heavy to move) #SolarPV#solarpanels
We have a grass lawn (Im sorry 😢, my family like it) - my plan is to slowly seed it with more and more clover over the next few years - any tips apart from just scattering seeds etc. #clover #nolawn
Just scattering the seeds probably won't be enough, as the grass will probably outcompete the clover.
Instead try and establish little clover islands within the lawn - this would be easiest on eg existing mole hills, but you could remove a tiny patch of the grass instead.
Other than that it's essential to not fertilise the lawn, not mow too frequently and to scarify the lawn in spring.
One main advantage is that they are pollinator-friendly compared to just a grass monoculture.
Also, like many legumes, clover can fix nitrogen from the air by forming a symbiosis with rhizobia bacteria in its root nodules. Most of the nitrogen is stored in its top growth, which can eg be composted or simply left in place when cut to fertilise surrounding plants (eg the grass).
That's my understanding anyway, maybe someone else can elaborate or correct me!
I’ve just been informed by my 4yr old that we really need to use less cars and aeroplanes as the world is poorly. She also informs me that eating more vegetables will help.
Family day out today and went to The Mechanical Art and Design Museum in Stratford upon Avon. It was amazing, we all loved the various mechanical art pieces from simple automata to crazy marble runs. I can’t recommend it more! (We were enjoying it so much I didn’t take any pictures)
@solarpunkpresents really enjoyed season 3 episode 1. I think it’s key that #solarpunks debate and discuss everything and it’s good to hear alternative opinions. I was particularly interested about the concept of mineral footprint, where are we going to source the nails and screws of the future? #solarpunk
@smallsolar On the individual level, I know that people for years have just burned the wood containing nails/screws and reused them, but idk if that will work on an industrial level.
Perhaps using Japanese-style traditional joinery techniques that don't require nails/screws might be one way to cut down on the need for new nails/screws.
That, and we could hold the companies supplying these items accountable, to reevaluate their supply chain, where they get their ore, how they pay/treat their workers, how material gets from one place to the next!
Also, I think the world (esp the Global North) needs to become so much better at recycling our minerals and scrap materials into useable goods.
It's certainly a wicked problem. Like I say in the episode, I don't know it'll be solved by any one thing alone, but I have hope in many different groups of solarpunk-minded people to make a difference in their communities.
@solarpunkpresents thanks Ariel for the reply! Perhaps I should setup a village nail/screw repository a bit like community tool kits. (Actually isn’t a terrible idea!)
I am currently listening to the audiobook of Less is More (Jason Hickel) and to help keep up the optimism I’m reading Solarpunk Winters (@sarenaulibarri et al). It seems to be a fairly good balance, I’m certainly less anxious then when I was reading The Climate Book earlier this year!