I just wanted to take a moment and update everyone on the status of the project. Everything came together quite nicely. I used @Bear 's suggestion and went with a web page for control and was able to eliminate the LCD. I used @VideoLiam 's suggestion and wrote a webhook to get sunrise/sunset times from the TSA website and added an offset that is adjustable from the web page controls. I also did another webhook that I’m pretty sure will allow the program to automatically adjust for daylight savings time. I’ll find out if it works in March. I also used IFTTT to send me notifications on the door and water status twice a day shortly after the door opens or closes. Still having a problem with the photon rarely locking up. Once breathing green and once breathing another color but I don’t remember which one. So, even though it’s only twice since October, it could be a big problem if I’m out of town for a couple of weeks and can’t get someone to stop by and hit the reset button. To combat this, I’m using an Aurduino Beetle to read one of the photon pins that I’ve set to toggle HIGH/LOW constantly. If the toggling stops for 5 minutes, the Beetle activates a relay that will trigger a reset on the photon. I suspect this is happens because my project is on the extreme edge of the WiFi but I don’t really have a place to add another extender that would get it closer.
All in all this has been an incredible learning experience for my first ever project. I appreciate all the help from everyone who has helped me. In addition to those already listed, @ScruffR, @Moors7, and @Rftop for the feedback in the comments. I also used the tutorials of @bko Tutorial: Spark Variable and Function on One Web Page and @LukeUSMC Tutorial: Webhooks and Responses with Parsing (JSON, Mustache, Tokens) I’m working on putting everything on hackster but that will be a little while. I’ll post a link when I do. Thanks again for all the assists.