# Small Farm Tech
"Appropriate technology" to enable more freedom for small scale farmers by automating and remote monitoring critical functions on the farm. This is a description of three farmtech devices. They have robust waterproofed casing and connect with each other via LoRa (meshtastic?). At least one of them acts as a gateway to the internet via WiFi. They come with internal battery and a way to charge them. The design is optimized for affordability, robust longevity and repair friendly maintainability.
### Watch dog service
A remote monitoring web service follows farmtech devices on nostr (social web of trust protocol). In case a critical farm function has **not** been reported as successful then alarm notifications are being send out. This frees farmers from having to be vigilant all the time and at the same time enables a timely reaction to issues when they come up. The technology is alowed to fail since the watch dog alerts.
### Irrigation System
Trees and plants in a nursery depend on being watered for their survival. This is a simple device that receives instructions via nostr and then opens and closes magnet valves for irrigation as it is instructed. It measures the actual water flow and then posts the result on nostr in order to not trigger any alarms.
### Chicken Door
Opening and closing the chicken coop is critical for the birds safety. This involves a mechanical solution to move a door as well as reed switches to detect that the door is in the correct position and safely locked.
### Animal trackers
Animals can enjoy more freedom if the farmer can relax into the assurance that they still are where they are supposed to be. A gps tracker collar posts location updates on nostr. The watch dog notifies humans in case an animal leaves its designated area. It also helps locating the animal once it gets lost. This device has special requirements regarding robustness, battery life and fashionability.
