Category Archives: Uncategorized

Post morning walkie. Tobie likes his bed, the more so since we retired the main room’s reading chair almost two years ago and moved the bed next to the desk where I’m most likely to be if I’m sitting. Which, … Continue reading →

I came up with a new personal engineering term this morning during morning walkie! I’m so proud. I’ve been carrying a medium-frame .44 revolver every day for something over 12 years now, with the exception of about six months starting … Continue reading →

Under the bridge to the woodshed that crosses the drainage ditch for the gulley behind the Lair, I lay down a couple of drainpipes and then cover them with a berm of dirt recovered from the many times I’ve had … Continue reading →

Oh, we’re finally getting “that” thunderstorm, even as I type this. Sheeting rain, super close lightning and blasting thunder. The gullies are rising all around the Lair: over half an inch measured in less than half an hour. Tobie is … Continue reading →

I often wake up with odd old songs in my head. Lately they can be so old I don’t even remember the lyrics – just the tune, the tag line, and a vague memory that there were lyrics. In these … Continue reading →

Monday! And the water run has been moved to Friday, which means I blissfully have no social obligations whatsoever. After morning chores and walkie I bag up some ammo, put in my earplugs and go for a sort of walking … Continue reading →

It got positively chilly yesterday. I got home from the water run, changed out of my new pants and gun burka, put on my usual summer ain’t-goin’-nowhere shorts and sleeveless shirt, and pretty much immediately recognized my mistake. It rained … Continue reading →

…because we didn’t get enough rain last night to make the wash run. This is an extremely moderate run, nowhere near even bank-to-bank much less raging torrents that cut new channels through juniper thickets that have been there for centuries … Continue reading →

…that his opinion of my management of the weather is lowering by the day, since Monsoon finally decided to do something. We just had a mighty flash followed by a most disagreeable kaboom, and he sees very little reason to … Continue reading →

Went into Ian’s Cave this morning to check traps. No kills, but there seemed to be a large quantity of miniature mouse shit in the kitchen sink. “How did you get there?” I asked the air, and then looked more … Continue reading →

The gullies ran copiously as the rain crashed down and the thunder rumbled all around. Tobie protected me most closely… “Not to worry, Uncle Joel,” he said, over and over, “As long as you stay close. If we’re separated I … Continue reading →

My old leather holster is too worn out to be tolerable. Even if there were someone around to do the work I could never afford the custom holster a red dot-equipped L-frame kind of needs and I’m really not prepared … Continue reading →

Wow, it finally decided to rain. It rained from before noon till after 3, sometimes in real drenching cloudbursts. According to my rain gauge we got over an inch in two hours. Which of course means… …the wash ran – … Continue reading →

What’s wrong with this picture? Answer: Absolutely nothing, for the first time since sometime in February. The Jeep is backed into its proper parking place. Last winter something very bad happened in the valve body of the Jeep’s newly-rebuilt transmission. … Continue reading →

…is kind of a problem if you live by yourself in the boonies, are vehicle-impaired, and don’t want to just dig a series of holes and bury things that won’t rot in the desert surrounding your place. After seventeen years … Continue reading →

A beautiful cloudless morning for once… The cloudless part probably won’t last but we’re not scheduled for any rain today. Even on days when rain is scheduled we haven’t been getting much. Early August, and so far Monsoon has been … Continue reading →

The Monday morning water run has been moved to Thursday or Friday, details still being worked out, which left me rather at loose ends this morning after morning walkie and chores. I badly needed a hardware infusion, plus Big Brother … Continue reading →

These things… There is a species of big black ant around here – they will suddenly form a big new nest seemingly overnight with seemingly squillions of – well, big black ants which will delight in giving their lives to … Continue reading →

Tobie and I have entirely different approaches to the concept of “walkie.” I’m generally going from one place to another at a determined pace, and regard diversions from the mission with glowering disapproval. Tobie, a big strong young dog, wants … Continue reading →

When you find multiple horrid arthropods cavorting about the drain of a sink that’s done very little besides collect goo since it was installed several years ago, it’s best to assume that what you can see is not the whole … Continue reading →