Tootfinder

Towards a Real LZC Low/Zero-Carbon UK Home (2007) - Can we really go zero-carbon or negative-carbon in an existing home near London? #lowCarbon #home #microgen -

Towards a Real LZC Low/Zero-Carbon UK Home (2007)
Can we really go zero-carbon or negative-carbon in an existing home near London? #lowCarbon #home #microgen

Bad: Managed to lock myself out of root access on my home server.
Good: The command that did it was "usermod -G docker" (the -a is indeed load-bearing for this use case), so I could privilege-escalate my way straight back to root.
Normal #homelab things.

good morning from the #pandemicpond waterfall
#home #water

Towards a Real LZC Low/Zero-Carbon UK Home (2007) - Can we really go zero-carbon or negative-carbon in an existing home near London? #lowCarbon #home #microgen -

Towards a Real LZC Low/Zero-Carbon UK Home (2007)
Can we really go zero-carbon or negative-carbon in an existing home near London? #lowCarbon #home #microgen

Remotely access #HomeAssistant via #Tailscale for free
https://tailscale.com/blog/remotely-ac

So now Home Assistant requires you to open its web UI via http in order to... change the web UI http settings. What the fuck could go wrong right? This has to be the dumbest change I've ever seen done in a software.
If the default settings don't work for you how are you supposed to do the first configuration of your instance?
#HomeAssistant #SelfHosting #Linux

I found a great deal on a thermostat ($6 vs $100). The crucial factor was that it integrates with Home Assistant. My only gripe is that it has to be activated through a phone app first (even though I've used a fake email), and I wish it could be added to a guest network.
#homeassistant

One of the kidnappers
Season 6 Episode 9 "Home Is Where The Heat Is"
#RandomBaywatch #lvdlpx #Baywatch

Does someone else do "pretend" walks or similar to simulate a commute when working from home?
#homeoffice #workingfromhome #remotework

homemade ice cream and Hunt for Red October.
yup. that kinda night
#movies #home #life #justbecause

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SonicReducer
Home Front:
🎵 Light Sleeper
#HomeFront
https://longdissonance.bandcamp.com/track/home-front-light-sleeper
https://open.spotify.com/track/4jNr85FSVPDczQIZiPGh8v

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #HuwStephens
Home Counties:
🎵 You Break It, You Bought It
#HomeCounties
https://open.spotify.com/track/6K9SsKx2WaEsybzyBlJ9vS

Is there no way to get TTS to play on my HomePod from Home Assistant if I don't use https with HA?
I have some mobile notifications set up, but it'd be really useful if I could get audibly screamed at if like I'm still awake at 11pm and stuff.
#HomeAssistant

Excited to have ordered my first length of fibre ever! When I started learning networking there was still Coax around and Fibre was a mythical beast!
Now I am going to start replacing the Cat5 in my house for the #homelab
woot!!
Ironically the first run of fibre is the one that has never had physical network cable before, outside. But you gotta start somewhere.
My only question is if Telus has an ONT/gateway box that has both SPF and Ethernet ports? 🤔 questions for another day. This is not a high priority project but nice to get started in earnest.
#homelab #networking #fibre #home #diy

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SonicReducer
Home Front:
🎵 Quiet World
#HomeFront
https://arewenothomefront.bandcamp.com/track/quiet-world
https://open.spotify.com/track/0KBTjtG6HBznYi4GHrPtt4

I was hoping to get a new macmini to replace #newOldiMac before the summer but there are no refurbished ones in the Canadian Apple Store right now and the wait time on a new one is 12 weeks!
So no point doing that… plus the prices on RAM and SSD upgrades are crazy rn. Maybe the bubble will pop by then and we’ll have a flood of ex-AI gear on the market…
So instead I will focus my homelap on improving our home network situation, getting a couple 10gBT switches and capable router, and running a couple important cables around the house.
Then maybe I will see if I can make some space in our basement wiring closet for another shelf to hold a few old MacBook laptops that I have gathered over the years and see if I can turn them into a ProxMox cluster.
#networking #homelab #macmini #inflation

Periodic reminder for people interested in #HomeAssistant
There is a @… bot that replaces the old gup.pe home assistant bot.
Mention it in your homeassisitant posts and it will boost them. Follow it to see all the #homeasistant posts it boosts that may not normally get federated to your instance.
There’s also @… - follow that and it will automatically boost everything you post with #homeassistant without you having to remember to mention the bot.
For those who don’t know, these bots exist because when you look for a a hashtag, your server only checks the posts that have been federated to it.
In order for a message to be federated to your server, the author (or one of the people boosting it) have to be followed by someone on your server. If no one touching the message is being followed, it’ll never get federated to your server and you won’t see it.
Hashtags are great for finding messages, but only messages that were federated to your server. They don’t help message propagation, but these bots will.

Okay, looks like something found the Nabu Casa Cloud URL. All calls coming in via the Cloud get shown as 127.0.0.1 on my Home Assistant (just tested with curl). I have it aliased to a different domain, likely it was that one that was found. So, probably fine, in the sense that I don't have to worry about an intruder on my VM host.
Thanks to @… @… @… @… @… and @… for weighing in and giving suggestions what it might be.
#homeassistant

There is nothing quite so “adulting” as having to randomly order a new kitchen faucet because while you were out doing errands the kid called because all of a sudden there was a large puddle on the kitchen floor because the hose for the sprayer had warn through and sprung a leak.
🚿
#home #diy

My water bill came in recently, which is kind of appropriate considering all the pond talk.
Since building it, the front yard #pandemicPond very very rarely is topped up on its own from tap water. Generally we keep it full from rain water, the rain barrel, or as part of the general low-flow spray/water system for the yard in the summer. So our water consumption really is dependant on how much garden watering we are doing. I'm not surprised we were high last year as we watered the new green-driveway and young trees.
The #PoolPond might, or might not, be different given the sheer volume *and* surface area (ie. evaporation). We have a 1000L rainwater barrel in the back yard, but that would only be useful for replacing evaporation losses at best in the poolpond.
I'll have to fill it once or twice in the coming weeks and possibly once a year if I do an annual cleaning at the end of the summer. We'll see. This year will also feature a return of vegetation to the back yard, so we'll likely be watering it more than when it is established in a year or two.
The city splits our bill into 3 periods per year, which is a little weird but ok...
Our household consumption has varied quite a bit since the pandemic due to changes in household composition (kids moving to uni etc) or us being more or less active in the garden.
I am happy that we used very little water this winter/spring, the least since 2022. I expect it to spike in the current April-August period as both kids have returned and I'll be doing all this pond stuff. But if I can keep it under 150,000L ($150) on the August bill, I'll be happy.
In the coming years, if I can use less in the Fall, Winter and Spring to "save up" for Summer, that would be nice but minimizing all seasons will always be the goal. That's why more trees are going to happen in the backyard at some point. Shade=Less watering!
In all, I'm happy with the only modest rise in our water consumption over the past few years.
#Home #PortAlberni #Water #Bills

4/4 Spent the day today with @… turning the water on and off, and the pump on and off.. watching how the water comes out of the bog filter and down into the poolpond. Pump is only at 25%, which is more like 15% as there will be a second pump as well in time.
Shifted some of the flat stones around and got them in a nice place. I had to do some hand digging under the lining near the tree. I am pretty sure the berm is too low there for when the pumps are at full force, but I am ok with where things are now. There is lots of opportunity to build the edges up if need be.
For now, I am going to work on sealing the rocks along the edge in to help direct the water.
I also need to splice in an extension cord into the pump wiring so that I can run a long enough distance to have the power supply and controller in the small shed and not hiding under the liner at the top of the pond. 🤣
#pandemicpond #PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

PS.
Here are the two outlets. This is probably not how it will look in the end, but just a starting point. Once I have the water flowing how I want it to, I will use pond foam sealant to lock the rocks into place and force the water into its final channels and patterns but as you can imagine there is some trial and error to be done before that big step.
For noe you can see there is a fold of liner sitting vertically betwewn the rocks to split the channel. I really have no idea where the water will get to once at full force so this might be too high, or too low but it should not be too far off.
The main thing is that the water is contained within the greater system around the tree. That's the trickiest part right now.
It is a wonderful tree. We don't want to drown it.
Speaking of which, if you are wondering about water. Yes. This is thousands of litres of water. But at this point I am not worried if I need to fill up and drain the bog filter a few times. All extracted water will go into the rest of the garden anyway, so aside from a little evaporation, nothing will be wasted.
Still waiting on it to fill. Looks like it won't be full before quitting time. oh well! Back tomorrow water experiments!
#pandemicpond #PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

2/2 Then I moved on to working on finalizing the stream and edges of the poolpond.
After a trial run last fall I realized I needed to do a little more sculpting of the clay at the front of the pond where the bog filter and poolpond meet.
I would like to encourage a long waterfall along the front edge.
So after some peeling back of the liners to reinforce the berm in a few spots near the tree especially, I made a proper ledge at the front and am laying down some of the slate that we also used on the #pandemicpond in the front yard. It'll tie the two in conceptually.
Now I am filling the bog filter with city water (the likelihood of filling from the skies is long gone now) but I will only fill it enough to get a read on where the water is wanting to flow.
Ideally I would like two channels from the bog filter.
The main one will go toward the poolpond, along the front and spill over from there.
A secondary one will go close to the tree to be used if I need to divert the water from the poolpond but still want to keep the filter and system active.
Now I wait... I'm running out of time for today but will be back tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get a pump back in and start up the system!
the apple waych strap is hiding a tan line... but it is not just a tan unfortunately lol
#PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

back into the trenches, literally. I'm continuing to get the trenching done for electrical, internet, and plumbing out to the shed.
If anyone sees this who has experience with home fiber networks I would be interested in their advice. Our home is mostly wired with CAT5 but there are increasingly heavy bandwidth loads over the past few years.
We have 10Gb fibre to the house from Telus. I would like to gradually add a few ports of fibre to key points but it is out of my day to day networking experience.
First question would be, can I bury fibre with the electrical?
suggestions welcome.
here are some pics. I have dug this trench before, almost 20 years ago.. when we first put solar and power to the old shed. 110 and 220V circuits.
different route this time arohnd the ponds, and also more connection points for both 220 solar and 110 home. Only want to do this once every 20 years at most, so now is the time to do it all. 😝
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #networking #fibre #cat5 #gardening #home

Thinned the 🍏 apples from the blushing delight today. It is doing really well. The tree is healthy and growing.
The northern spy has had a much rougher spring. It was infested with caterpillars until we safer-soaped it three times and so it just never got a good start. It is also in a more challenging location more exposed to the wind and rain. Only had a few blossoms and now no fruit. But it is still alive. I will try to nurse it through the summer and get it to winter. Hopefully next year it has a better go!
But the Blushing Delight is looking great. We should get over a dozen apples again!
#fruit #apple #home #gardening

rolkuchen and watermelon night! 🍉
#home #ukrainian #mennonite #food

back around to the backyard and the #poolpond project. got one pad levelled and cloth down for the greenhouse (8ftx8ft). Now levelling the pad for the patio/sitting area and paellero / bbq spot (10ftx10ft)
#backyardProject #diy #gardening #home

It's Solstice *and* Father's Day *and* the sun is shining *and* Spain is playing at 9AM here on the West Coast of Canada.
This actually all means I need to get out there and mow the lawn before the game starts so I can have a shower, watch the game, and drink the sangria!
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!
#España #Home #Gardening #solstice

success!
checked on the pandemic pond this morning and even though it was hot yesterday it is still nearly full!
Very little evaporation loss! Looks like that woody debris on the edge of the water was the culprit.
Woot! IT troubleshooting skills for the win. 😝
#poolpond #pandemicpond #pandemicpond #pondlife #gardening #home #diy #IT #TroubleShooting

i think the reason I have enjoyed building and maintaining the ponds so much is because they are kind of like a computer system.
Most of the time they work fine, and when they have issues, which generally manifests as "I'm losing water", it is for a clear reason.
But like computers, getting to and identifying that reason, and fixing it, is the challenge.
Over the past few days, the #pandemicpond has been losing water at an accelerated rate. In the summer, it should be able to go at least 2 or 3 days before needing a top up due to evaporation.
But these past few days it has been very low after just a day.
There has to be a leak/escape of water somewhere.
I also recently (about 2 weeks ago) changed the inlet at the top of the bog barrel to shorten the pipe and make it not stick up as tall and ugly.
Like computers... "have you changed anything recently" is a top contender for the root of the issue.
Shortening and dropping the height of the pipe increased the flow without having to increase the pump power. But that could have also caused a minor overflow on the waterfall, or raised the level of the top pond to where it might be overtopping somewhere non-obvious.
I suspect this increased flow is the main issue.
However, like all IT issues, you should cover the easy stuff first. I checked all the piping from the barrels to the waterfall to make sure there were no joints leaking or drips down the pipes.
All seems fine there. I also did a check around the perimeter of the pond to look for overtopping. Nothing there at low levels, but I have to check again when the system is full.
I wanted to cut the hose down further anyway, so I have done that. Was able to remove over 4 feet of pipe. The height hasn't changed though so the impact on flow should not be large.
Then I checked the pump itself, cleaned out its filter bag, strained the skimmer box and put it all back. Nothing untoward there either. Basically just regular maintenance.
A thought occured to me though, the main overflow for the pond is behind the skimmer. If it rains a lot or I overfill the system, it overflows there into some rocks and drains out under the garden to the sidewalk.
I wonder if when the new posts and gate were installed, the level of the overflow dropped slightly. This would give less leeway (freeboard) for the pond before it gets too low. 🤔
Re-raising the overflow would be tricky. And best done after the rains return in fall. But it is something Ill have to consider if today's investigations don't fix the issue.
I just finished refilling the pond (overfull oops... typing too much)
Time to check for overflows and seeps around the edges.
#pandemicpond #pondlife #gardening #home #diy #IT #TroubleShooting

you can cone if you want Rain! i have beaten you!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

ooo. I have a new top candidate for cause of accelerated water loss. Cedar chips.
I checked the whole perimeter of the top pond after the system filled and all was good there. But then I did a check of the bottom pond, which is steeper on the edges and harder to do, so I do it less lol.
Right away I found a problem. The flat stones had slipped slightly into the water (likely due to animal visitors over the winter). Edit: just saw a black (invasive) squirrel on the sidewalk near our house! First time. I wonder if he is the messer of flat stones and stealer of fish from the bottom pond!!
Once I reposistioned them, I realized there were a lot of cedar wood chips that had also slipped down, particularly near the skimmer box and were --- HALF IN AND HALF OUT --- of the water.
They were waterlogged.
This is bad.
Dry wood chips outside the water is obviously fine.
Wood chips floating on or sunk under the water is fine.
Any mass of woody material chips, sticks, logs, or even small gravel on the edge of the water, will act as a siphon. They suck up the water and then give lots of surface area for it to quickly evaporate. It has been a rainy July so the woody debris may have already been wet and not evaporating much, but it has been dry for a few days now, and hot the past two. Any siphoning/evaporatoon action would be supercharged.
In the case of gravel, the surface tension between the rocks can cause the edge of the water to creep uphill and also reach the top of the gravel, enhancing evaporation.
Today I found a whole mass of cedar and dirt along the edge of the pond under the flat stones on top of the liner. It was near the skimmer, likely from the gate work.
Bad news.
So I scooped it all out and up onto dry land, and to make sure woody debris can't get to the waters edge under the flat stones, I added some drainage rock along the edge. This should keep the dry and wet zones better separated!
That was just the near side edge of the bottom pond. I haven't checked the far side by the fence.
I might do that tomorrow, but there has been a lot less disturbance there over the past year, so I doubt it will need much help.
I am pretty confident I found the biggest culprit. If my hunch is right, Ill know later today and tomorrow if the water remains relatively stable. It will be hot today so there will be evaporation, but it should not need an emergency fill tomorrow.
Fingers crossed!
Bonus #poolpond content lol. The milfoil is looking very hapoy. It has settled in and the leafy fingers are vertical poking out of the water which is a good sign that they are continuing on happily in their new location. yay!
#pandemicpond #pandemicpond #pondlife #gardening #home #diy #IT #TroubleShooting

when a picture is truly worth a thousand words..... or in this case.... screw caps. 😭
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

aaaaaaaaaaaand done!!!
It only took about 10 hours of solid work. 😝
And thats with prior knowledge from assembling one 2 years ago!
@… is happy.
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

frame down. first wall next! pray for calm air! 😝 🙏 #poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

back at it this morning after sleeping in a little. got a bit of a sunburn on the neck and back yesterday! But all good today.
weather is perfect. Just a little wind and nice partly cloudy cool day.
the roof is happening! this is the easy part... the most annoying is yet to come, the sliding doors 😂
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

four corners!
getting that first corner myself was....... time-consuming lol.
going pretty quick now, though!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

they changed the forecast. no wind and we have a wonderful layer of fog keeping the sun at bay! If this can just last for the next four hours I should be able to get the second shed built!!
wish me luck!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

the walls are up! it is (mostly) wind proof now so that's comforting. unfortunately the sun has emerged and it's hot.
taking a break.
Not sure if Ill get the roof on today but we'll give a good college try!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

alright, reached my 2:30 time limit.
might have had the roof on but realised the back too support was inverted so had to flip that. Everything is a million screws 😂
Not sure what super humans can put this together in 3 hours. But I will have to come back to it tomorrow morning hopefully befoee the rain!!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

The water was perfectly clear… until I planted the first plants into the bog pond and intake bay! First plantings are always a little iffy because the nutrients in the pond won’t stabilize for a few months. Who knows how much nitrogen made it in with the gravel and little bit of clay or maybe it’ll be too much and the algae will come before the filter gets its compliment of “good bacteria” to start actually filtering and purifying.
I made a plant roster on our back door wall so I could keep track. 😂 🌱 🌱 🌱
A few I have never tried before. This is just the start. We will need more but hoping we can split/propagate a few from the front yard #pandemicpond to save time and money. They are all about $15-$20 a pop.
Here’s the run down:
In the Intake Bay (far corner nearest the shed where water and debris is pulled in and recirculated):
1) A big Red Abyssinian Banana. We’ll see how hardy it is, and if it likes being in the pond. It was marked as a pond plant, but says “moist soil full sun” so I made a little spot inside the liner but built up so its base is dry. It’s a very impressive plant already.
2) Standard pond lily - peach flower. They like deeper water so the bay is the place, the little bit of circulation shouldn’t bother it and it’ll have maximum sun. In time it will provide nice shade for underwater beneficial critters, and a landing pad for airborne critters too.
In the bog filter:
3) nearest in the photo is a marsh marigold, these guys are fantastic, very hardy, and very pretty when they bloom. Would like them to colonize most of the edge of the bog filter to provide a nice soft vibrant edge.
4) flat leafed tall plant is a purple iris.
5) broad leafed low plant is a water Cala lily. They should broaden out and provide nice area coverage.
6) the little guy near the edge is a pitcher plant. It eats bugs! So I put it near the edge. Muaahahaha.
7) tall plant in the back is a type of variegated ginger? It’s called Vanilla Ice…. ice. Ice. Baby.
#poolpond #portalberni #diy #gardening #bloomscrolling #home #water #pond #pondlife