Napa Valley Bee Company

GETTIN' ON WITH THE OVERLANDER

Like our presidency……
In with the new and over the old.

This is exactly what I have been up to over the past few weeks covering the old sub-floor in the Overlander with a new beautiful oak hardwood.
I always seem to have a lot on my bee plate but this winter in my down time I have been working on the installing the oak hardwood floor Peter White gave me for the EMoViTO. It was left over from his house floor installed 10 years ago, so as we travel down the road spreading the good will of bees we’ll have a little bit of Peter’s kitchen with us. Completed just yesterday, the floor looks absolutely amazing! It has really changed the dynamics of the trailer and a big surprise to me is the change in the acoustics. The space is less “tin” sounding with the floor absorbing a lot of the treble. The install took much longer then I had originally thought but well worth the effort. The first day I started with the help of Rhue Bruggeman, well okay, Rhue started with my help at around 10 am and I figured we’d be done by 2 pm and out hitting the hills on our mountain bikes. Yeah Right……. I rented the tongue and grove pneumatic nail gun from Central Valley Builders Supply (up Valley) for a day but ended up keeping it three. They were awesome in the rental department because not only did I waggle dance my way out of an extra day rental fee but when I returned the nailer I forgot to include the mallet needed for its operation. Over the period of the three days I got really good at measuring, cutting, and nailing hardwood floor. Rhue started calling me “Rob the Craftsman” when he’d stop by to check on the progress. Amazing guy, not only does he totally embrace the project, lay out a straight floor plan, but he continually offers encouragement and great suggestions to better the bee-mobile. He also has lent me the chop saw, compressor, and jig saw to complete the flooring. I didn’t think I had the skills to complete a project like this, generally I would have just hired it out. But with Rhue’s continual badgering, obsessive derogatory name calling, and numerous beers I persevered. It is really exciting to me because the project has been stalled for so long, to finally see a major leap forward actually validates the project in some weird way.
As soon as I installed the last two pieces of half inch floor in the rear I immediately covered the new beautiful floor with cardboard and started painting, well priming, the interior walls. I have not decided on the wall treatment but figure at the least the walls would need to be primed before moving forward. Painting would be the easiest however I am toying with the idea of installing bee wallpaper.
The other major progress on the project is I rounded up all my medical stainless steel lab tables and moved them into the trailer. I was hoping they would fit a little better, they feel slightly oversized and I’m nervous that to make the space feel proportionally correct I may have to either cut down the existing tables or have the interior all custom built-in.
Lastly, I visited my metal home boys down at CuFe today and scheduled a meeting where both Andy and Loyd will visit the trailer and help me decide what metal to use for the trim (floorboards, window, and interior panel) and discuss the design of what will hold the 11+ beehives steady as we move the trailer around. Andy definitely suggests spending a little more and trimming the trailer out with aluminum.

The new floor.

Bringing the hardwood home.

Stacking it up.

Laying it out.

Moving along.

Running the show.

Almost there.

Nearly done.

Check out the sides.

Tools

More tools.

Even more tools.

Good nails.

Problem nails.

 bloody nail.

 Sloppy!

Seams

Back to the Bees

 Yesterday the Napa Register picked-up the story about the St Helena Montessori that ran last week in the Star. It's interesting how they do that flip flop article thing between the Register and the Star to keep both Napa and the Upper Valley in the loop. It's great because not only did they run the story twice but it was the cover of the Sunday paper in the Register. I don't think I ever saw the hard copy of the Star - I only read it on-line. It was well written but the image that ran on the web was way too small so it was nice to see it larger in print which I think added to the well written text. They also mixed up the headline between the papers Rolling up their sleeves in Napa and Life on the farm in the city in the Star. BEST of all they ran a picture of me working bees with the kids in the Register that wasn’t in the Star. It was only in the hard copy so if you missed it run to your recycle bin. The print quality isn't Pulitzer Prize winning but the subject matter makes up for the lack of detail. I think it must have been how the ink was laid down on my particular copy because I saw another version of the image today where I looked a lot healthier. The picture is of me and a handful of kids in protective gear around an open colony of bees discussing the Varroa Mite with Jackson Graff. I’m so glad they chose to run a picture of the bees because Peter White and I put a real push on to get the bee aspect of the farm looking good for a photo op. We were also able to get a few of St. Helena’s A-list beekeepers out to talk with Carolyn Younger who wrote the story. My veil is off to Bethany Chamberlain, Shannon Kelly, and Jason Grace who are not only the bomb beekeepers but gave their lunch hour for the team.  Okay,  my veil is generally off, but they know what I mean. Good times had by all……

Original

Detail

Overlander - Over the Break

With the 2 week winter break I have been spending a lot of time working on the Bee-mobile. As mentioned earlier I had a little snag with the Airstream'ers but have worked out a pretty good deal. I traded my 63 Round the world Caravan Safari for a 1966 26' Airstream Overlander. Overlander-all I am pretty happy with the trade however shortly after the deal and the first rain storm I found out there was a lot more work involved with the Overlander than I had originally thought. It started leaking like a sieve and had to tear apart a large section of the rear internal shell to do a hack patch job. I sprayed some black funk trunk liner stuff out of a rattle can on the backside of the exterior areas that were patched, what a mess… However, at this point I think I have the situation under control but I won’t know for sure until the next rain. The frustrating thing is I just want to get this project done and I keep running into hurdles. I’m sure the Creative Work Fund is wondering what the hell and quite honestly my wife wants the trailer out of the front drive. Even if it is much nicer looking then the Safari, It does take up a lot of space. They say that Airstreams are found in both the Smithsonian Institution and the Henry Ford Museum. An Airstream trailer was selected by NASA to house the first astronauts back from the moon but I don’t think Meg really cares where they house Airstreams. I try and tell her “More than 60 percent of all Airstreams ever built -- including some built from the original five-dollar plans -- are still rolling down the highways today”. She doesn’t say anything, but I know what she’s thinking……..
Aside from the leaking issue, a couple of things that needed to be done immediately to the Overlander was to install the two front lower sections of the interior shell  directly below the window. I got a super duper CuFe ( Copper Iron Design Inc.) deal on two 2 pieces 64” x 34”  .032” grade aluminum, Andy even threw in a couple extra small bits he called fall offs. Andy Bradford has been my metal go to guy for ages, he gives me great deals and his guys are always there to help with fabrication. I will enlist Loyd to do the design and installation of the armatures that will hold the beehive in place as not to tumble as we are “rolling down the highway”. The other thing that needed to be done was to add another ½ inch sub-floor before I could lay the unfinished oak hardwood. I completed both those things today so Wednesday Rhue and I can start the hardwood install. It’s exciting to actually see this project moving forward, I say this with a big sigh of Airstream relief.  

AIR-STR-EAM

You can kind of see where the trailer had been leaking. Note to self: before buying next trailer look for water spots.

Major leak was behind the patch of this refigerator vent on the exterior shell.

Spraying the black trunk funk. Gotta love that Bondo......

Laying the first sheet of sub-sub floor. 1/2 inch ply. Check out my new Rigid driver. Orange is the new blue in the case of my drill. My old Makita just wasn't up to the job.

Tools...

Screws....

More screws.....

Power cord....

Cordless....

This is an awful image but it gives an idea of the hive element in the trailer. Directly under the rear vent will fit 10 hive bodies, a screened bottom board cut directly in the camper floor, and a custom top to vent the bees out the roof. Each hive will have alternating plex sides as to experience the colony in the round. The bee tower will also have scanners built in the sides to scan the daily hive activity. Where the bees vent at the top of the trailer will also be monitored by video.