Monthly Archives: July 2015

Oh, just go read this. But when you go spending $50,000 on something the size of a small travel-trailer and thinking you’re doing Great Work for the environment … when you judge the worth of your possessions by whether or … Continue reading →

Okay, so Claire linked to yet another adoring article about perfectly-groomed tiny houses this morning. Their precious interiors, architecturally-fashionable boxiness and clearly professional construction did not make me in any way hostile. No – I’m far above that. Bastards. But … Continue reading →

I feed them. I water them. I protect them from harm. Okay, sometimes I kill them and eat them, but technically they don’t know that. So why do they all hate me? These are my latest babies. I’m down to … Continue reading →

There’s this corrugated plastic panel, once part of somebody else’s poorly-thought-out garden shed, which became a great prone shooting pad. I noticed yesterday, when I went out to watch the wash running, that it seemed to be gone. Found it… … Continue reading →

…of which there is basically none. The wash did go bank-to-bank surprisingly long for so early in the Monsoon, but it didn’t do anything outlandish. Just have to pull new rocks out of my path. In the wash itself, of … Continue reading →

…called The Real McCoys. And all I remember about it is that Walter Brennan was cast as this Grandpa character, and all he was ever given to do was hobble about in a picturesque manner and say “Heh” a lot. … Continue reading →

Because the wash has been running continuously since around noon. It must have rained hard up on the plateau, through which run a couple of deep canyons that form the headwaters for the wash. It never rained hard here but … Continue reading →

…due to a ‘massive El Niño’ forming out in the ocean, tying on its thousand-stitch headband, spinning up its engine and closing its canopy with an evil, predatory smirk… (ahem) sorry. My mind wandered… What caught my eye – actually … Continue reading →

Doesn’t hurt to keep it in mind. A title of one of Tam’s recent posts got me to thinking of this Monty Python classic…

Or, how to know it’s going to be an interesting day…

To the left of the Lair, as you face it, is the slope of the ridge. Water has to go somewhere and it prefers downhill, demonstrating the major disadvantage of building your cabin in a hollow. There are also advantages. … Continue reading →

She may have been a harridan and her followers frightened, humorless loons, but she wasn’t actually wrong. And it turns out her supposedly fictional villains live. And they write for Spiked Online. From raising taxes, including sales taxes, to slashing … Continue reading →

That makes six states so far, right? I hadn’t heard anything about that.

After 2 or 3 days of my not seeing him at all and thinking maybe he had taken the hint and moved on, Squirrel #5 checked out the trap. In what I take to be his frenzy to get back … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago during the annual June heatwave I happened to step into D&L’s earthbag-and-strawbale extravaganza, which took more than five strenuous years to build, and it was like visiting an air-conditioned library. It was really nice. They have … Continue reading →

They’ve always said it doesn’t matter if you’re all law-abiding and stuff. You still shouldn’t have guns because bad guys will get them and do bad things with them. So…maybe feds shouldn’t have guns? SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The gun … Continue reading →

This is where your money went, contributors! Why, it looks positively frou-frou. Next it’ll be demanding that I wipe my feet before I can come in. Still many details to chase, of course, not the least of which I bought … Continue reading →

One of my Secret Legion of Evil mounted troops has carelessly permitted himself to be photographed. You are hereby required to forget you saw this, but good luck with that…

Cattle came into the yard today around lunch. Ghost charged out from under the Lair to chase them away. Little Bear, much louder, was right behind him. Little Bear had hooked a loop of his cable in the porch while … Continue reading →

So you guys probably heard that there was this lady who was a CNN anchor once upon a time, right? And she and her husband were on the road and crashed in a Motel 6 in Albuquerque. And there, something … Continue reading →