The Blower Door Test

There are certain things that one takes for granted in life, and for me, one of those things has been paying PG&E for the gas and electricity it takes to keep our house warm in the winter, and presently, to keep the trailer cool here in the heat of the north bay summer.

One of my favorite things is turning up the thermostat when its cold out, but I never really thought about it beyond anticipating how great that burst of warmth is going to feel.  I didn’t wonder about why it was necessary in the first place – it just seemed like a fact of life that if it was cold out, it would get cold inside, and if it was hot out, it would get hot inside. Continue reading

The Barn and the Bees

The activity on the ranch this week has been in the barn and in the various types of life and death around the barn.

Andy has been making huge progress in removing a variety of unnecessary and dubiously constructed shelves, tables, and platforms from the barn, as well as clearing out massive amounts of sawdust, regular dust, and quite a few previously-vacated mud and paper wasp nests. Continue reading