Holy smokes, this is an amazing video. The introduction text reads:

I installed an ant colony inside my scanner. I scanned the nest each week during the last five years.

ANTS in my scanner > a five years time-lapse! from françois vautier on Vimeo.

What an amazing project.

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I've made two more shelves (one in my wife's garage, and two in mine), and I'm really starting to get the hang of it. In fact, with as many new houses as there are in my neighborhood, I'm thinking about going door to door and seeing if people want to buy my services to build custom shelves. Of course, doing it in this 3-digit heat doesn't sound like too much fun.



I also decided to try my hand at wall-mounted shelves. I'm using an old bookshelf that we didn't end up assembling after our move, and I like the way it's turning out. I can put regular shelves on the far side of my garage, but the near side has a wall that's nearly flush with the garage door opening, which means I don't have room for shelves to stick out at ground level. The solution is to hang the shelves above the height of my car.

Once this first one is done, I'll post more pictures.

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Back in 2002, I pulled together a bunch of 2x4s and OSB sheeting and constructed some garage shelves. Lots of them. Unfortunately, I had to leave them in Washington when we moved down to California, because they took up so much room. On the bright side, I had fun building them, so making new ones sounded like a fun project.

I chatted with my father-in-law (former home-builder), and he advised against the 2x4 construction on account of it costing more and taking up too much room. Instead, he suggested simply using plywood and cleats.



It took me a while to make the first one. It's more work, and it requires a lot of cutting. I used a circular saw to cut the shelves (16"x4') and the side wall (16"x7'), as well as the 16" and 46.5" 1x2 cleats. Normally, it wouldn't have been too bad, but it got up to 101 degrees today. Painful.

In any event, I'm impressed with how well it holds up. I was originally concerned that the shelves wouldn't be strong enough to hold much weight, but it looks like they'll work.

I'm also impressed with the price. That shelf in the picture ended up costing about $11, total. I've got plans to line my whole garage with these.

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Saw this on boingboing and couldn't resist reposting. Ants and all that.



I love the way the ant appears to lounge on the water drop at the very end of it.

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FINALLY.

I moved my family down to central California after living in Washington for seven years, and we had to leave our wonderful 1/4 acre garden behind. It's been over half a year since I've been able to get into a new house (we were living with my in-laws while our house was being built), and my wife and I finally got some plants for our back yard...




Seedless "Flame" grapes. I have confirmed that they are delicious. I plan to have four of these vines planted at the four corners of my garden to serve as an edible wall. Yum.




Lemon (top) and lime (bottom). My wife goes through a lot of citrus in her cooking, so we may end up having to buy another one of each of these.

Visible in this picture is a PVC pipe sticking out of the ground. The dirt around here is pure clay, so it's difficult for the water to penetrate deep, which is no good for trees. I took a piece of PVC pipe, drilled some holes into the bottom of it, capped it, and have an irrigation valve running inside of it to water the dirt at and below the roots. Cheap, easy.


Raspberry. You probably never need to buy more than a single stalk. They tend to spread.


Sad little basil plant. We go through quite a bit of basil, so I may need to start a patch from seed instead of spending lots of money on adult plants.

That's all we've got so far. It's a little late to start from seed around here, where it's 95+ degrees all summer long... but I might try some indoor herbs and see if I can get some traction that way. I'm still trying to get used to the growing seasons around here... it's very different compared to western Washington.

Also, it rains in Washington. Not so much in the central valley of California. Irrigation systems are a must, and this is the first time I've worked with one. The whole thing about drip lines and running small 1/4" lines to mini-sprinkler heads and all that... fun! I went to an irrigation shop today and they have all kinds of neat irrigation components to play with. Fun fun fun.

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This is Big Daddy from the video game Bioshock.

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A parakeet on a branch.

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