Container homes are a fast-growing trend within the tiny and small homes sector.  Attracted by shipping containers’ eco-friendly credentials, many people are embracing the chance to design a unique and modern home from these by-products of the world economy.  Shipping containers offer a quick and simple skeleton shell for a long lasting and affordable designer home.  In this blog, we explore some of the important considerations involved in building your very own dream container home.   Location, Location, Location. Your dream container home sta ..read more

We're moving along, one day at a time. I suppose with our lifestyle, we're facing it all well enough. The only places we tend to go are the grocery store, the hardware store, the lumber yard, and the post office. We are missing eating out once in a while, though. I suspect that will be our first 'shelter in place'-free activity. I originally thought that business would slow down on the beehives, but it's kept t up- nice and steady. Maybe folks are looking to get back to the land and take on something where they feel there's a little control. I don't know, so I guess I should start ..read more

The Governor of New Hampshire just extended our stay at home status until May 4th. To be honest, we haven't seen too much change in our daily activities aside from the kids being around and doing their school work. They're pretty quiet, so we sometimes forget they are there... The errands we tend to go out and complete are all at what you might consider essential establishments. Hardware store. Lumber yard. Grocery store. Gas station. So there's that. Orders have dried up since the lock-down went into effect, but I'm not sure that will hold for long. Folks tend to be thinking mor ..read more

WELCOME to the March 2020 "You're the Star" Blog Hop! This nation-wide quarantine really isn't affecting us too much. The hardware store remains open, as does our lumber yard. Now, orders and inquiries have slowed a bit, but we're not concerned. Things will be back up to speed before we know it. On that note, if you're not local to Northwood, NH, you can still build one of our beehives. To date, we have put out a DIY ebook on Langstroth builds, and one on Warres. Both are simple top construct, leaving you the extra cash to buy your first bee packages. If you want to know more, or si ..read more

So we're sheltered in place. Well, for the most part. We still are running to the grocery store for our usual supplies and groceries, and of course the lumber yard and hardware store for the woodshop orders. We're also hitting up the feed store when the chickens need food, and for gardening supplies to keep up with spring. But other than that, we're hunkered down. Sammy is not working because the bowling alley has closed down, and the girls are getting into the swing of their distance learning courses. Their school already uses Google Classroom, so there's no major learning curve ..read more

Welcome to week#3 of the March 2020 "You're the Star" Blog Hop! We're in the golden week for maple sugaring- the nights are definitely resting below freezing, while the days are comfortably above. The sap flows, and so far, we've put up about 2 gallons of maple syrup. Wee expect to double or triple that this week. Now, that might not sound like a lot, but considering it takes about forty gallons of sap to make one good gallon of syrup, you can begin to see what the picture looks like around here.  In other news, our woodworking business has expended. Our local feed store chain h ..read more

Spring has certainly hit- though the mud hasn't taken complete control yet, the lake is quickly melting away the top ice and the song birds are out in force.  It's a great time to be a homesteader.  We have one boil of maple sugaring under our belts, canning up just over a gallon. Tonight, the kids and I will pull buckets again, and if the weather acts the way it is suppose to, we should have another gallon put away by tomorrow afternoon. Our beehive business is booming, with at least one order in the works since February. This took off better than we expected, and seeing as no one ..read more

___________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the second week of the March 2020 blog hop called "You're the Star"! This past weekend, we collected sap and moved a few buckets around that weren't producing that well. Boy, did that make a difference. Sammy tapped into a big sugar maple down near the marsh, and when he did, it was like a faucet had been turned on. I've never seen a tree let loose that much sap before. Our boil is on, and I'm home today to finish up this batch and complete some client orders in the workshop afterwards. I can't multi-ta ..read more

I'm still reveling in the fact that spring is on the way. March for us means mud, but we made some adjustments last year that has minimized that situation, to an extent. The drive way is our only real dirt-exposed surface, so we pulled in 3 yards of 1/4" granite to spread out. It worked. Around the yard, we have good drainage, and with raised beds, we don't have to wait for them to drain out in order to plant. That, I suppose, is a good thing. Today, our plans involve running power out to the potting shed and moving the seedlings out there with a heating mat. Just about when th ..read more

Our first seeds have sprouted today- or rather, our seven day germination seeds are sprouting. We have a few perennial herbs that can take up to a month to pop out, but these little sprouts of green that have appeared so far have brought a nice sense of spring into our kitchen. We're chomping at the bit these days- the bees will be poking out soon, and there are more coming in April to help grow our bee yard. The swarm traps are nearly completed, and I'm spending a lot of time on Youtube looking at best practices for catching swarms and then more videos on how to spilt hives when the t ..read more