#solarpunk

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day 23: If you garden, do you give away anything that you grow? If so, what do you give away the most of?

I don't usually grow enough of any vegetables to give away, but I could easily give away bouquets of Dahlias.

Hi all - just wanted to introduce https://squeak.solarcene.community

I've been working on a new project recently to build a web server inspired by https://compost.party

If you would like some free hosting for a static website perhaps to document your projects or host your digital then you are very welcome. The server has vibes as each user gets a public_html folder. You'll get ssh access and the server has installed to help make nice static websites. The goal will be to have 100% uptime, due to its very low power consumption it does not require the power saving I use for the solarcene.community mastodon server.

Probably the key thing is that a project should have a mascot and in this case the server is called Squeak and it's an awesome bat! Squeak was designed …

Squeak the bat - cartoon bat with sunglasses and a cool visor, has a small old school walkman and headphones. Flying on a sunset background.
Squeak the bat sleeping upside down in the solarpunk style server room. There are a few devices on a shelf, Squeak's sunglasses and visor as well. A string of lights hand down with a few plans. In the background of the window is a solar panel and further in the distance is a wind turbine.

The discourse around the taking money reminds me of @adapalmer 's https://beforewegoblog.com/purity-and-futures-of-hard-work-by-ada-palmer/ and the discourse around .

I'm not interested in the aesthetics of , but how to make most with the limited tools we have.

If the Wikipedia is getting scraped by the bots - losing money, potentially limiting access to its resources - or allows the AI companies in and GAINS money to share more free, human-created knowledge, I'll take the latter.

I don't need to be pure.

Just finished a little story I've been working on for two months... only 1500 words long but it packs in a lot.

I find these stories are just *more* — more research, more wrestling with, more getting it just right. But when they're done... they bring me joy.

On New Year's, my friend and I met up with the Colorado Native Plant Society and pulled mullein (a noxious weed here in North America) and planted native wildflowers in their place along Clear Creek.

I love doing this kind of work. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but healing the land heals ourselves. 😊

A group of volunteers pose in front of the many many bags of mullein we pulled along Clear Creek.

3. How do you come up with the titles for your works?

Some musician friends in Umeå were looking for band name suggestions, and after listening to their tracks, I thought “The Field Guide for Next Time” could be a good album title. They went with something else (Dreaming Wild, check them out!) but the phrase was so evocative that it inspired the short story that kicked off a weird connected universe of stories

https://raemariz.com/the-field-guide-for-next-time/

  • 🇨🇦 Carney's Canada: let's build pipelines that will take five+ years to become operational, cost billions up front, and worsen climate change!
  • 🇿🇦 South Africa: five years? In the last five years we installed 7 GIGAWATTS and the rate of installation is increasing 50% year over year! And it costs a fraction compared to oil and gas! Suckers!

In the past five years alone, South Africans installed solar panels representing more than seven gigawatts

and

In roughly five years [...] electricity for the estate will essentially be free. “The pros definitely outweigh the cons,” he said.

and other happy details: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/climate/solar-south-africa-china.html

We had a "good emergency" tonight at our original free fridge!

Someone dropped off *too much* food and it didn't fit into the pantry and refrigerator. There was also a lot of boxes left over!

So a call went out to discord and five people showed up to sort and put away what could fit, clean up the boxes, AND take the extra food to the new free fridge as well as a local "little free pantry" that a local girl scout troop set up!

Oh, fun thing! While we were putting away the original food drop off, two other folks came and dropped off their own supplies. We pointed them to the other fridges/pantries for the future and took what they dropped off as well to spread around.

Also, while we were there multiple families and folks came by and utilized a lot of the …

A little free pantry filled with canned goods and dried beans
Many boxes filled with food sitting on top of the free fridge and pantry
Another local neighbor standing in front of the second free fridge and pantry after taking on the extra food.
A local neighbor standing in front of one free fridge after the food had been put away and after local folks were able to take some food

I've been trying to get a newsletter out for months. I finally finished it! Yeah, me!

It goes out tomorrow.

"Maybe dystopia isn't so bad." << pun?

Some musing on this, plus a bit about potent magic and updates to my recommended list.

Want to sign up? https://brightflame.com/newsletter-signup/