Author Archives: Joel

“I do not think it means what you think it means.” Or maybe I’m just behind the times. That’s not uncommon. I happened to be reviewing the game camera mem card just now. Nothing on it but some rodents hanging … Continue reading →

Rain. Rain since sometime around eleven last night. This is the desert. It’s an arid environment. And I really hate mud*. It hasn’t been cold enough to waste wood and make a big mess running the woodstove. But I’m gonna … Continue reading →

I took the opportunity of this patch of mild weather to finally decide whether I’m done cutting winter wood. Decided I was, which meant changing the oil in the generator, draining it of fuel, and putting it away for the … Continue reading →

Get a load of this nearly irresistible* offer that appeared in my inbox! So lemme get this straight – in exchange for an undetermined amount of theoretical money (this lady) wants to basically take over TUAK. And while the benefits … Continue reading →

Which sounds like TMI, I know. But we got a bit of sun, which means I could use my clothes iron which pulls almost as much power as a powersaw, which means… …I could patch a couple of new holes … Continue reading →

…and in keeping with my observation that “baby Yoda” memes appear to be required by law just lately…

I got a real kick out of this… When I was much younger and competitive “practical” pistol shooting was getting to be a thing, I was as much into tacticool gadgets as my budget allowed – often to what turned … Continue reading →

Never saw that one before. No idea who it belongs to.

Within reason, and if you can avoid shadows, a ground mount is better than a roof mount – especially in snow country. If you do live in snow country, be sure you build the mount high enough to allow for … Continue reading →

Torso Boy got me out of bed at 0-dark thirty with an urgent demand, and left lots of closely-spaced little tracks in the new snow that completely covered my new porch floorboards. Lots of wind and at least some snow … Continue reading →

Alternate title: That Escalated Quickly… I just had a very unpleasant trip to morning chicken chores. And this… …wasn’t like this half an hour ago. And the outdoor temperature… …was fourteen degrees warmer half an hour ago. And my fingers … Continue reading →

These mounds are popping up all over Ian’s turn-around. They don’t really look like mole mounds, there’s no sign of tunneling around them. Just fresh dirt thrown up by something burrowing for warmth – daily – right out in the … Continue reading →

…that these are my favorite winter pants. Maybe I’ve evolved into a deeply spiritual and contemplative savant with no use for fashion or any of the other trappings of materialistic society, and have achieved a state of perfect inner peace? … Continue reading →

As I’ve mentioned before, I like Larry Correia books. I came late to MHI mostly because the publisher is Baen, and I am not generally a Baen fan. But Larry Correia is pretty consistently good. So much so that when … Continue reading →

Woke me up sometime in the dark with lots of wind and rain, then turned to snow. Had to have cleared sometime shortly before daybreak because it never got colder than mid-20’s. Lots of wind, so there’s no way of … Continue reading →

The weather is going to hell here, as I gather it is over the bulk of the continent. D&L decided to take this last dry day to refill their hay room… …and they told me about it this morning before … Continue reading →

…in the drugstore of a small rural town…

…which I would have implemented the moment I became Lord Master of the Universe: Winter is only welcome as long as it’s entertaining. As soon as dressing up in snugglies to go out and shovel the walk stops being fun, … Continue reading →

In our last exciting episode I mentioned that the flour on the new mill’s “bread” setting came out quite gritty. Somebody asked if it might not be possible to run the flour through the mill again. Possible but not optimal. … Continue reading →