Last year, we planted a couple of small raspberry and blueberry plants. We didn't do much to maintain either patch and none of the plants did very well. This year, we were determined to do better. We started off re-clearing around the existing plants that survived, laid down
My Dad recently had a couple of M-Series Mitsubishi H2i Hyperheat minisplits installed. He had an existing one compressor, two indoor head system he's been heating with for years (one in living room on main floor and one in basement in family room). With the current tax incentives
We recently took in a friend's farm rabbit. He'd been living in a barn alongside donkeys and was chewing on the donkey's legs, so he had to go. He may eventually live in our barn/garage, but that's still just a frost
We have a small closet off the kitchen/living room where we keep all of our dog food and pet supplies (the dogs all rush to the door when it's so much as looked at). As found, there was no lighting/power (or shelves, but I remedied that
Within the next couple of years, I plan to put a 20-25kW solar array out behind the house, enough to offset all of my electric consumption. Electricity here is ~0.25c/kWh and with heat pumps/oven/well, the ROI will be short. In the mean time, one of my
I'm upcycling an old 1st gen iPad Pro 9.7" into a wall tablet for home assistant. I'll be mounting a low voltage old work box behind it and using a Makes by Mike frameless wall mount. Power was a big concern from the start.
Last year, I installed a K-type thermocouple in my wood burner's stove pipe, right above the fire box. Combined with an ESP8266 and ESPHome, this setup lets me keep tabs on the efficiency of my burn. I use it religiously to determine when to cut my primary air
It's hard to believe it's been 2 years without a remote way to control our garage door. I have long threatened to build an esp-based opener, but I finally broke down and bought one instead. In our first home in Virginia, we originally had manual garage
When we purchased it, our home had a ~400sqft area in the attic with sturdy subfloor, a couple of skylights, and windows. I immediately made mental plans to finish it and finally got around to it. I'd never framed anything beyond a couple of chicken coops and also
I've written previously about our two coops and the automatic doors we use on them - on our large chicken coop, we use an Omlet door and on the goose coop we use a larger Ador turkey door. I have both of these integrated with home assistant, the
Living in a rural area with lots short days in the winter, bright headlights are a necessity for comfortable driving. My 2011 BMW 335d headlights came with factory adaptive bi-xenons, but they'd become fairly dim over the past few years. 2 years ago I refinished the hazy outer
In my ever expanding home automation quest, I've amassed a small suite of 433mhz sensors - I opt for hardwired esphome/other wifi type iot sensors and controllers whenever I can (easy to troubleshoot, no batteries) but there are lower criticality areas I'd like to monitor
home assistant
Wood burning season is in full swing and I have been on a quest to burn as efficiently as possible, both to conserve wood and prevent creosote buildup in the chimney flue. Our home has a 2008 era Hearthstone Heritage pre-catalyst EPA stove. The common approach to measuring wood stove
home assistant
This year I've been expanding the electrical footprint in our home. I plan to begin a large solar install next year, so replacing our oil heat and propane appliances with electric has been high on my to do list. I added a circuit for our basement laundry, two
home assistant
After mostly finishing construction on our 8x8 chicken coop and 4x8 goose coop over the past year, the last thing left to do was make it smart. I had previously installed an Ador Turkey door on the goose coop and an Omlet Chicken door on the chicken coop. These have
home assistant
I was always really intrigued by the Phillips Ambilight TV lineup - this product included embedded LEDs on the back of the TV that mirrored the colors of the TV on the screen onto the wall behind it, creating a more immersive viewing experience. Phillips has discontinued the original ambilight