Author Archives: Joel

…out my bedroom window. He knew I was there, he looked right at me when I shifted. And to my shock he hung around long enough for me to go get the camera. He wasn’t in a hurry to end … Continue reading →

Immortality, here I come.

We had a nice neighborhood get-together at Ian’s range on Saturday… …and that always leaves Uncle Joel with repairs and adjustments. Only had one broken chain on the gongs, and that chicken wire on the paper target rack has turned … Continue reading →

Storms have drama. Danger. At least a threat of property damage. This was just two days of sudden wet winter. The forecast says no more clouds and that tomorrow will touch 60o. So say hello to mud. I just got … Continue reading →

All summer it rained one time with any real enthusiasm. This sudden spell of weather has hung on for more than 24 hours. It couldn’t really have snowed all night or we’d have more of a blanket – there’s not … Continue reading →

There’s almost nothing I hate more than the official start of winter here at the Secret Lair. Everything above it – and quite a few things below it – on the list of things I dislike involves physical pain. Still… … Continue reading →

I woke up briefly to hard rain on the roof in the middle of the night. Temperature has dropped more than 20 degrees since Midnight, and… Yesterday was blustery with in and out clouds, very typical “weather’s gonna change” weather, … Continue reading →

This should prove how ubiquitous the AR15 has become – my very not ‘Tactical Tod’ neighbor got one. It needed zeroing but neither he nor I could figure out elevation adjustment on the MBUS ‘iron’ sights. I took it home … Continue reading →

Ian came for a visit yesterday, and brought a fun gift… Available here. The Republic of Elbonia became a FW running joke early this year with a theoretical question on one of Ian’s Q&A’s… …and it kind of went on … Continue reading →

Must be migration season: I’ve had no less than five small birds blunder down the stovepipe in the past 24 hours. Two yesterday, and this morning I opened the stove when it was rustling only to find three at a … Continue reading →

So yesterday morning I met D&L to unload a pallet of alfalfa pellets for their horses. We have this down to a science by now; D and I do the hauling while L pulls the sacks off the pallet and … Continue reading →

Some things get bagged up and taken to mouseproof storage. Some bags get taken out of mouseproof storage… I assume all those people with those trendy ‘tiny houses‘ also have big storage units somewhere, because suburban closets are bigger than … Continue reading →

I was in a race with the generator, because if it ran out of gas before I ran out of wood to be cut to stove lengths I’d not only have to add more – only to pour it out … Continue reading →

I had the coolest conversation with Landlady a week ago. You know, I’m getting to a certain age. I feel it in my joints. Yeah, I know I’m not all that old, 60 is the new 50 and all that. … Continue reading →

Tomorrow or Tuesday I’ll cut and stack that pile, and we’ll see what we end up with.

Here’s Oddball Girl in an unusually social moment.

I got a lot of woodcutting done yesterday but was super tired for the whole rest of the day which told me I was rushing a bit fast and asking to hurt myself again. So even though I rolled out … Continue reading →

We have one Araucana (or possibly Ameraucana, not sure) hen that came as an oddball with the dozen Leghorns Neighbor S bought two years ago. I call her Oddball Girl because she’s definitely the odd chicken out and spends a … Continue reading →

This unexpectedly turned into a good morning for woodcutting. I got all the loose pallet parts and all the old lumber I collected from that cleanup gig chopped to stove lengths… …and it made a surprising pile in the trailer. … Continue reading →

Sorry about the blank spot. It’s not that nothing’s going on, it’s just that the things that are going on are just like the things that went on before them. I’ve been demolishing pallets and then chopping the pieces to … Continue reading →