Author Archives: Joel

Actually the backstop is fine. That spot hasn’t washed out since I’ve lived here. The 25-yard range marker even survived. I tried a number of shooting stations here and they all washed away. Finally I just pounded some rebar really … Continue reading →

Told you that last piece would be the work of minutes. I raced the storm down to the last possible bit of working time yesterday, putting tools away while cringing at thunderclaps. Yesterday I was supposed to have finished the … Continue reading →

LB and I were out the door by 5:15 to go belatedly take care of Ghost. He’s a very old dog and there’s no way he held it for seventeen hours, plus he missed supper. I did go out at … Continue reading →

It’s a little after four and I should have been on my way to tend Ghost and the chickens some time ago. But as the rain tapered off I heard that peculiar rushing noise that only happens when… It didn’t … Continue reading →

I got a solid six hours in today before the storm. Between baking, building and running over to S&L’s to tend to Ghost’s excretory needs, I almost but not quite finished the rough work on the addition’s south side. Yeah, … Continue reading →

Because I don’t have a license. 😀 Pet lovers are barking mad over a little-known city rule that makes dog-sitting illegal in New York. Apparently there’s a new dog-sitting app that’s gotten popular, and somebody in the city gov dusted … Continue reading →

…you couldn’t testify you’d ever experienced? I had a weird childhood. Much of it is lost to me, I just blanked it out. In general I know why I’m such a maladjusted mess, but the details are mostly gone. And … Continue reading →

I really wanted to get the long wall done, but… You know what I didn’t do? (Long-time readers will be shocked! to hear this) I didn’t do my homework. Clearly there are different grades of plywood and pressboard siding, and … Continue reading →

…intentionally trying to mislead people? That sounds really bad. Things like that aren’t supposed to happen. Right? A person might get to wondering, though, what happened between that first thing and that second thing. America’s courts aren’t above imposing the … Continue reading →

…how things work in this strange new world. If I walk into a Starbucks, say, and it’s a little dark, and everybody there is holding something but I can’t quite see what they’re holding… How many of them is it … Continue reading →

So yesterday around five I fed Little Bear, then went out the front door and around the new addition to the chicken yard to tend the ladies. I opened the back door where I’ve been stashing the sunflower seed bin … Continue reading →

For some months I’ve had this weird thing with Paypal: Any time I try to log on it not only crashes Firefox, it crashes the whole damn computer. I don’t know what that’s all about. But what it means is … Continue reading →

Obviously a lot of trim work* before the doorway is complete, but there is an official doorway where the window used to be. I have violated Little Bear’s safe space in a major and tragic way, and he’ll need some … Continue reading →

But not for long. Everything went amazingly, suspiciously smoothly this morning. Took a long time, of course, and now I’m sore and tired and covered with sawdust. But also very excited. The addition is enclosed! And after lunch and a … Continue reading →

Here’s a brief, sad, only slightly exaggerated view of the world from an aging man who has fallen out of the habit of carrying a pocket knife. Times Change Out From Under Us And maybe I only see it as … Continue reading →

I gather numerous people have pointed out the, er, problematic nature of the flick Dunkirk, with its triggering lack of women and people of some color other than white. I’ve a feeling the British troops waiting to be slaughtered on … Continue reading →

Got a late start because of the Monday morning water run falling on Tuesday this week. Also I questioned the wisdom of starting at all because it looked as if I’d be racing storm clouds. But the clouds held off … Continue reading →

Remember when Al Gore said the ice caps would be gone by 2013? You do? Well, forget all that. What the hell is wrong with you people? Aren’t you paying attention? Science! No. Now you should panic over this… Earth … Continue reading →

Having installed a new window on the windward side of the cabin, and seeing a big rainstorm coming, you might consider closing the damn window. Wow, we got an early gullywasher. For about 20 minutes beginning around 12:30 it came … Continue reading →

And it’s a cautionary tale. It took two and a half tense, sweaty hours and this was the easy one. The other two will require another set of hands. They’re just too heavy and too high off the ground to … Continue reading →