Catching up with those chickens.

In my last post (more than three months ago already) I touched on how we had decided to get ourselves some laying hens. I also touched on how I was going to have to scramble to get their coop finished before they outgrew their brooder. Well, a scramble it was but I got it done in time and now we're just waiting for them to start laying eggs. While not specifically related to the construction of our house I'll get into some of the details of my scramble "below the fold" anyway - just for fun.

Happy hens.

Cows Around - Corb Lund

Spring is here... sort of.

Spring is here but it has been hard to tell so far. The strength of the sun is making itself felt when it's out, but it hasn't been out much. Despite the weather, I have been outside and busy working on the house among other projects. Spring is a busy time... If you're interested in what I've been up to, I'll get into it "below the fold".

This was the scene at the very end of April. After a week of melting temperatures, a sudden snow storm dumped a solid 18 inches of heavy, wet snow on us in less than 24 hours - it was waist deep in some spots. All this cool weather this spring has triggered a lot of comments in the vein of "Gee, whatever happened to global warming?"... if only it were so simple.

The Truth Comes Out - Corb Lund

Another new year... 2013.

Just a quick hello to start off 2013 (before I get called to the table for pancakes). I hope everyone enjoyed their New Year's Eve celebrations and that nobody is suffering too much from any "after-effects". Personally, as lame as this may sound, I was fast asleep by 23:00 last night.

Anyway, here we are at the start of another new year, and I'd like to say:
Pay attention to and ask questions about the world around you people - all is not as it appears on the surface.

Land of Confusion - Genesis

The "holidays"... yeesh.

I'm done promising to follow any kind of regular posting schedule. Unfortunately, since this blog is just a sort of "hobby" for me, there are times when I just can't get enough time in to adhere to a schedule. Such has been the case for the last few weeks, owing to all the extra commitments that seem to be required at this time of year.

I laugh at myself a little for making these promises in the first place. I know that "real life" will always intervene in my good intentions, yet never has that knowledge stopped me from making promises to post regularly - until now. I do have a number of new posts in the works which I'm hoping to have ready in the new year, but in the meantime...

It's the time of year for building lebkuchen passivhauser.

Into Giants - Patrick Watson

"Coolth" storage.

Here in Northwest Ontario, we've had quite a mild fall. About a week or two ago the temperatures started to dip down to something closer to what would normally be expected for this time of year - daily highs in the vicinity of -5C and nightly lows down to -15C. But now, we're back to mild weather (it's 7C as I write this and our snow is melting fast). The other day, I was out in my barn and noticed something kind of neat (at least in my mind)...

The white stuff on the tire is a thick layer of ice crystals. Any guesses as to what's going on here? It might help to know that the tube inside this tire is filled with a solution of calcium chloride for extra weight. The answer is "below the fold".

Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men

Resurrecting some fun from the past.

I was doing some cleaning up on my computer and I came across a couple of old blog posts that I had written for another blog I had started years ago. I never really did much of anything with the old blog and I am in the process of deleting it, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to delete these posts. I thought I would give them a home on this blog instead.

Image from Wikimedia commons.

I Wanna Rob a Bank - Jason Collet

I'm back.

I haven't posted much to this blog over the last month. In part I was too busy helping to get our garden going while also having to work a lot of overtime at my "day job". I was also away for a couple of weeks visiting my family on the west coast. Now that I'm back and the garden is in and growing, I'm hoping I'll have the time to resume regular posting. Next up, framing the exterior wall trusses - part 3.

Visiting Vancouver... Condos, condos, condos... welcome to Canada's biggest real estate bubble - but wait, it's not really a bubble, Vancouver's different...

Strange, strange weather.

A recurring theme for those posts that have covered the work done during the summer of 2011 has been the extended periods of above average temperatures that really made everything just that much more of a challenge. Well, the heat was really only a fraction of the story. As I looked back over some of the photos I have from last summer, it occurred to me that last summer's weather was a bit of a story in itself.

A somewhat soggy June gave way to a dry July. Raging forest fires further north that forced the evacuation of numerous First Nations communities sent a pall of smoke to obscure this sunrise. After a week of breathing in this smoke, the wind finally turned and gave us some relief.

Spinning my wheels.

Today I received a delivery of materials from the building centre I deal with. The driver and I spent half an hour unloading my stuff and another hour and a half getting his truck un-stuck from the deep and soft snow at the shoulders of the driveway.

My old IH 624, aka "Rusty Ron" - not that it's a very rusty tractor - comes to the rescue. Several times.

The Truck Got Stuck - Corb Lund

Adding some extras - tangents that is.

I've been hammering away at my keyboard for the last couple of weeks trying to get my next post together amid all my other day-to-day responsibilities. I get frustrated because I would like to just keep feeding material into my blog but I can't because sometimes it takes quite a while to organize my thoughts and bring together the photos and graphics - never mind the drawings. Anyway, in the interest of keeping the "material feed" more consistent and to add a bit of flavour, I've decided to incorporate the occasional "off-topic" post.

I've also decided (for flavour) to include a link to a song or other audio that I like at the bottom of each new post. As a reader, you don't have to listen, but if you want just click the link to have some background "ambiance" while you read.

Ah, it feels good to finally hit the "publish" button on something. More on the foundation work coming soon.

Baby, I Won’t Do You No Harm - The Sheepdogs

New year 2012.

2011 was an interesting year no matter which way you look at it.

Here's to hoping that going into 2012, more people start to accept the fact that there's an emergency on planet Earth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_El9jYpbzU
It's way past time to get our shit together.

But the begining of a new year is a thing to celebrate - so happy new year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PXxPQKxggU