Author Archives: Joel

Wow, yesterday was not a nice day. Temps in the mid-20’s, howling wind, bundle up like it’s January. Most days in January aren’t that unpleasant. This morning… Cloudless sky. Frosty at first, of course, because of all that new moisture … Continue reading →

First words out of my mouth this morning… Really shoulda checked the forecast before bed yesterday. Regular readers may have noticed a certain trend in my recent posts, which could best be described as “absent,” and they deserve an explanation. … Continue reading →

There are two kinds of charge controller for solar power systems: Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The first kind does exactly what its name implies: It modulates the pulse width of the square wave current … Continue reading →

I like where I live. And every now and then a total stranger will remind me why. Regular readers might know that old Uncle Joel likes his knives. In terms of how much use it gets, this right here is … Continue reading →

For the record: Not out here it isn’t.

It snowed till well after dark but the cold didn’t hold on, so at dawn it was already a soggy, muddy mess outside. There’s so much moisture in the air that it’s foggy… …which of course is not a big … Continue reading →

That would be moderately cold for 2:30am in April. At 2:30pm I think it might be a personal record. And the snow is really starting to come down and stick. The weather’s been miserable all week but this is the … Continue reading →

So precisely on the first of April the weather went all to hell. Days of gale wind, temps that never got out of the thirties, followed by a couple of dustings of snow. Quite seasonal for early April, really – … Continue reading →

I overslept this morning, finally waking at 6:15 from a vivid dream about folding laundry.

My poor engineering strikes again… My new dueling tree started misbehaving. The top target worked okay but the bottom one kept stopping in the middle of its swing. Not super hard to understand why. The weight of the swinging targets … Continue reading →

…and maybe it’s too early to say whether my problem is solved. Honestly with a new leg it’s always too early to say that. There’s “this just isn’t right at all” and then there’s “this is just new, I’ll get … Continue reading →

What can I say? He’s a scratcher. Tobie is working on destroying his second bed – it’s only one year old and he has already clawed holes in it. With the first one I let matters go until he annihilated … Continue reading →

A bedroom heater that goes “foop” on command first thing in the morning… Fresh hot bread in a chilly cabin… The first bike ride of the season… To go get a gift from a Friend of the Blog! My ammo … Continue reading →

Tobie likes to bark at exciting things happening outside the Lair, which I normally encourage. For several days now he has found one particular spot in the Lair’s front yard very interesting, and I finally decided to see if whatever … Continue reading →

In hindsight it shouldn’t have come as any surprise: The compass app could hardly know where north is if I had all location permissions turned off. Truthfully I never really believed turning that feature off did anything – and I’m … Continue reading →

I needed a compass this morning and recalled that there was (supposedly) one on my smartphone. Opened the app, and it was more than 120o out of whack. If there’s a way to recalibrate it to reality, I’m not seeing … Continue reading →

It’s still March, you never know what the weather’s going to do except each day will at least start cold and the wind is probably going to be an adventure. So the old man is mostly staying indoors and reading. … Continue reading →

I had to look it up to remember: Big Brother sent me my current weather station a little over four years ago and to be honest I didn’t really expect it to last as long as it has. But we’re … Continue reading →

So no surprise, I woke this morning to a little snow on top of a lot of frozen rain… And it took a while, since it stayed cold all day, for the ice to let go of my solar panels. … Continue reading →

No thunder, mind you; not a bit. But around here rain usually comes with thunder and Tobie decided there was no need to wait for it before beginning his meltdown. So I put up with him panting and pacing for … Continue reading →