Author Archives: Joel

I guess a chicken farmer gets to know what his chickens’ noises mean. They’ve got “feed me” noises and “I just laid an egg” noises and “it’s apparently just a beautiful morning to make a lot of noise” noises but … Continue reading →

Sanded the second coat of mud first thing this morning. The addition is starting to look like a room in a house!

…dog urine first thing in the morning? He has had what appeared to be momentary partial blockages in the past week or so, as well as one more spell of bloody urine. Neighbors asked if I had checked his urine … Continue reading →

Yes. We sanded drywall today. And then we mudded the walls again. This afternoon we went up the wash and had fun – it turns out my guest is a bit of a rockhound, and this place can make a … Continue reading →

I had a bedroom addition full of drywall dust and scraps. I’m about to have lots more dust where that came from. I needed this… No problem, Ian’s got a nice one at his cave. I brought it to the … Continue reading →

Thanks to the generosity of Big Brother, the Secret Lair has something it lacked for several years… …a staple meat supply. I’ve always kind of liked Spam (the original kind: Flavored Spam is an abomination unto Joel) but didn’t eat … Continue reading →

…I know exactly what I’m doing. This week it’s probably too late to come to my senses. h/t

Scary thing: Build a wall. Do it right. Paint the wall. Give it all the trimmings. Then cut a big hole in the wall. Undoubtedly there are contractors and skilled builders who wouldn’t have thought twice about it. I reconsidered … Continue reading →

Don’t know why I’m doing my own work. The way I’m going I could hire Donald Trump, get him some bigger hands, and put him to work doing my drywall. On my private island. I’m particularly interested to learn that … Continue reading →

It took. All. Day. But unlike yesterday where we worked all day and actually mounted four sheets of drywall, today we worked all day and drywalled the entire bedroom and closet. Unfortunately in the course of that I didn’t take … Continue reading →

And today’s not going to be better. With luck, it’ll be worse. We got the insulation up in a single afternoon, that was pretty easy with two guys… But yesterday we didn’t really accomplish as much as hoped. We did … Continue reading →

Received this email yesterday, which I’m convinced is totally legit… Dear Friend. Good day and God bless you. I feel quite safe and satisfy dealing with you in this charity project. My name is Mrs.Virginia Dumitru a merchant in Romania. … Continue reading →

A friend of the blog traveled a long distance to help me finish the last part of the construction, arriving on the same day the drywall was delivered, along with some other materials a neighbor had ordered. So it was … Continue reading →

Without them, how could disaster survivors ever regain their sense of normalcy? Celso Perez: “We had a lot of trees down in the street and the streets were blocked. We were out here, us and our neighbors, cutting the branches … Continue reading →

Maybe all this nuclear war talk only comes from the fat little freak thinking he needs an excuse to enjoy launching big rockets? I mean, I used to enjoy launching big rockets… …but I was spending my own money. So … Continue reading →

I sort of took a week off from work and worry, contenting myself with the quotidian chores… …and putting construction aside, because this is to be a momentous week if all goes well. Starting sometime late tomorrow I should have … Continue reading →

I’m still learning all the tricks of the magic elf box. I was taking some pictures preparatory to the (belated, I’ve been busy) morning post when I got the picture files all scrambled up by pushing one too many buttons. … Continue reading →

Didn’t expect to be writing an update so soon. I hoped either the filtered water or the course of antibiotics would eventually straighten LB out, but certainly not so soon or so sudden. He appears to have had a urinary … Continue reading →

You’re a very bad person. CLIMATE CHANGE! Your afternoon chocolate bar may be fueling climate change, destroying protected forests and threatening elephants, chimpanzees and hippos in West Africa, research suggests. […] Ivory Coast’s (sic) now has about 2.5 million hectares … Continue reading →

A neighbor gave me a roll of 16″ insulation, so rather than let it lay around until it was officially time to put up insulation I decided to go ahead and stick it between the rafters. Fiberglass insulation never used … Continue reading →