Author: Daniel

In days gone by where trains were a primary mode of travel, some trains had a car where food/drinks were sold and that had lounge space. This car had various names, but “club car” was among them. Now, my tiny house is not a train, but now that it will comprise two “cars” and one … Continue reading Club Car

If I said “my 162sf tiny house is too small”, most of you would probably reply, “duh, of course it is”. But actually, the reason I think it’s too small isn’t because it’s too small, exactly, but simply because there is nowhere to lounge in it. No couch. No recliner. There needs to be one … Continue reading Missing A Room

I know I’m posting this mid-summer, but I’ve been preoccupied a bit and have been neglecting this blog for a few months… so let’s start the catch-up with Spring! Spring began with some animal friends, some familiar, some newly seen Okay, that last one probably needs some color balance – the lizard isn’t quite that … Continue reading Spring 2025

Let’s start today’s update with some sunshine. Well, it’s wooden sunshine, but still 🙂 This piece of art is about 24″ across, for scale, and was made from wood harvested from trees that grew here. It was a long journey from tree to log to board to parts to art. One of my current foci … Continue reading Dust x3, More Winter, Some Spring, Newbies & Comb Cuts

Finishing those outdoor flood lights was “fun” in the cold, but I’m sure my late-day delivery drivers appreciate it and, honestly, I like how it lights the way between the house and the workshop, so I’m glad I put them in. Of course there were some challenges besides the cold (which itself is not to … Continue reading Lights, Lots of Repairs, More Death

Don’t worry, most of them aren’t dead! But some of them are. That’s just how it goes – they are born, they live, the die. And the older ones going into the winter will die during the winter. That’s just natural. I have plenty of evidence from my sensors that the hives are alive – … Continue reading Dead Bees, Flue Repair, Snow, Machinery, and a Hole

It’s that time of year again – winter prep! It starts with cleaning the flues for the wood stoves (one each, house and workshop), ahead of the season’s first fires. I love this easy do-it-yourself flue cleaning tool. Just send the orange sputnik look-alike up the flue on these fiberglass rods that connect together, attach … Continue reading Flues, Booze, Ooze, Store & Door

Conventional wisdom says that when a new honeybee colony is established, the steward should not expect them to make enough honey to harvest in their first year. There are good reasons for this. First, the bees need honeycomb to store and process nectar. The bees need to actually make this honeycomb before they can use … Continue reading How Sweet It Is

I always knew that this HomeBox project was going to be a perpetual work-in-progress. In this way, it is no different than the rest of my life to-date. Anyone who’s known me for any length of time has observed that I am always adjusting myself and my environment in an effort to converge on a … Continue reading Filter, Frogs, Flower, Bees, Nature

I got out my thermal camera today to see how the beehives were doing in the infrared domain. These are composite pictures from the thermal imager, which combines the IR and visible images. The imager is relatively low-res by modern standards, with 320×200 pixels. That’s plenty to do inspections looking for hot/cold spots, but doesn’t … Continue reading Thermals