Category Archives: Uncategorized

D&L had another series of doctor appointments in the big town about 50 miles away, and got an early start. So… …at about 11:30 Tobie and I had a nice Jeep ride to visit Coal and Doc. The chore was … Continue reading →

How cold is it? It’s so cold… …that not even Tobie wanted to be out in it. Halfway up the first rise he started prancing like a Lippizaner horse, trying to keep at least one paw away from the snow … Continue reading →

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is impatient. A little morning sun has gone under heavy overcast and I’m waiting for the forecast snow to begin again. Tobie had lunch and an EXTREMELY truncated mid-day walkie, which set him … Continue reading →

When I start getting emails from (multiple!) readers, I know it’s time to heave out of my chair and explain myself. We got some variety overnight… A proper snow at last. For the past several days it’s just been cold, … Continue reading →

Due, I presume, to so much of January being so overcast, this hasn’t been a winter for particularly cold nights. In fact… This is the first morning on record we even got into single digits – though a few times … Continue reading →

You start getting lazy about cleaning the stovepipe. I had a chimney fire eleven years ago – very different circumstances, wrong stove, wrong pipe, wrong wood – and it scared the ever loving shit out of me. Understandable, I suppose: … Continue reading →

I think this might be the first time I ever paid over $100 at a time for a load of propane. Almost – almost – makes me wonder if it’s still worth doing. On the other hand… Now that I’ve … Continue reading →

I got the Jeep back with its somewhat-repaired transmission about a year ago, and I guess I should be glad I got that year. The transmission has never been right – and this afternoon it decided it didn’t want to … Continue reading →

The boys know the drill by now, it’s happened so often. As soon as I pulled off the road and got out to unlock the gate they started heading for the barn. But my part of the drill keeps changing. … Continue reading →

Tobie’s having a good week: Since certain properties changed hands a year or so ago and I (untimely, no?) got out of the chicken business, I’ve not been doing as much back-and-forth and so Jeep rides have become a rare … Continue reading →

I went to the Palace of Food with D&L this afternoon, and we happened to get there just as the store was packed with a bunch of armed greybeards hitting it for their monthly storebought-food binge. Like, um, someone you … Continue reading →

Saturday morning I got a call from Neighbor D, who wanted a run to the landfill. D&L are going through one of their now-common periods where they’re simultaneously having mobility issues so (though it wasn’t mentioned) he needed the help, … Continue reading →

It’s really funny. He has expensive toys, like the Kong. He has edible toys, like the leather bones. But his all time favorite toy is a dollar store rubber tire with a rope, second of its name. None of the … Continue reading →

But he doesn’t necessarily care. Uncle Joel has been reading his book most of the frickin’ afternoon. It is now approaching one of the most sacred moments of the day: Evening, with the Giving of the Evening Meal and the … Continue reading →

I’m in the middle of a Neal Stephenson reading festival that may take up all of 2023. Seriously I have only read three Stephenson books and they touch all three of my modes of reaction: One is utterly forgettable, one … Continue reading →

Not as cold as predicted – I’m going to regret these insulated BDU pants – but plenty cold. A dusting of snow overnight and then the sky cleared, so everything’s covered with a carpet of crystals reflecting in my headlamp. … Continue reading →

Welcome to sunrise in the desert… Boy, this has been a gloomy January. I note with hope, though, that the forecast for the week has been revised overnight to ‘not quite so depressing as we thought.’ We’ll see. Meanwhile I’m … Continue reading →

His tractor wouldn’t start, … …and he was convinced that something cataclysmic had happened to the electrical system because when he tried to crank the starter there was a SNAP and everything went dark. To mollify him I checked all … Continue reading →

You know, one of the harder truths a desert hermit needs to really internalize if he ever hopes to achieve a quiet, contented inner life is something Young Joel would have CONSISTENTLY found very hard to accept. And that truth … Continue reading →

I was walking with Tobie at daybreak this morning, and we went up the usual dirt road instead of down because I was feeling better about walking in 15o temperature darkness than I usually do. In that direction we leave … Continue reading →