Author Archives: Joel

Clearly neglected to rod it down when I ran out of concrete. But what the hell. It’s still better than Soviet or Detroit cementwork, and their buildings almost never fall down. Unless acted on by outside forces, you know, like … Continue reading →

Well, except for taking the forms apart… But not that one. That one’ll be easy. When you’re rodding down the concrete and the level starts dropping dramatically, that’s when you really wish you’d been able to buy Sonotube. And when, … Continue reading →

…so as far as he’s concerned the best part of the morning is already over. For me it’s only begun. I wrapped my stump most carefully; don’t want anything loose this morning, nor yet too tight. Today’s the day… …we … Continue reading →

Seems innocent enough… The nice man’s just baking biscuits for his dog, right? Innocuous. But if we follow the process back… Ah! Contact PETA! I keep telling them, they’re here to provide food. Preferably eggs. So best keep laying eggs, … Continue reading →

Because I was in the Jeep this morning, and I’d have sworn I heard the until-recently director of the frickin’ FBI admit in front of a bunch of senators and my radio speaker that he leaked a CYA memo himself … Continue reading →

Got my scheduled work done this morning. My new expanded battery bank does a helluva lot better than the old two-battery bank did, but cutting a bunch of 3/4″ rebar with an angle grinder will make itself known. It’s a … Continue reading →

First bunch of storm cells slouched off to the east and left us alone. But around 3:30 black clouds started building and building, with distant ominous rumbles, just growing and growing, lightning flashing and thunder banging, getting darker and meaner … Continue reading →

🙂 Always have a Plan B. I no sooner began trying to cut off the excess rebar than the cutting torch oxygen bottle ran dry. 🙁 It was starting to rain anyway, but I really wanted to be ready to … Continue reading →

Pretty good so far. I wanted to do everything required to pour the least important pier, just to take the first one slow and make sure I knew where all the mines were hidden. And it did go pretty well. … Continue reading →

So I’m off early doing concrete-related things. If the morning doesn’t end with me hiding away in shame forever, I’ll be back. Checkin’ my pockets…

Wasn’t planning to drink it, that’s for sure. I’ve got six level points in space I need to determine, all by myself. The only way I know how to do that is with a water level. So I bought 20′ … Continue reading →

Uncle Joel is boring, so our morning walky is normally a slog around the same old loop, day after day. Up the ridge on the beaten path to Ian’s place, hang a left at the driveway, go out the utility … Continue reading →

They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Bernie. And they did sort of plug the book, so… Bernie Sanders Made More Than $858k in Book Royalties Last Year, And He’s Keeping the Money I’m going to rush right … Continue reading →

So I went to town this morning on the regular Monday water run. I get my drinking water at a big filtering machine plugged into the town’s tap water – I take their word for the filtering, but this water … Continue reading →

Clearly it’s time to do this the old-fashioned way. I established this morning that there actually is enough material to build pier forms, including one rat-befouled full sheet of underlayment it will be my pleasure to bury under the ground … Continue reading →

Okay, I’ve known since last Saturday that I was in trouble with the pier forms, because… …for some reason the only size the store had available was YUUUGE. I’m adding a lean-to bedroom to a cabin, not rebuilding the World … Continue reading →

LB and I were out the door by 6:30 for walkies and a nice Jeep ride to Landlady’s where I fed the chickens and then loaded up concrete and what little rebar I had. Boy, I should have bought lots … Continue reading →

The morning was spent in holes in the ground, bending rebar, cutting forms, or running around trying to figure out why those things weren’t going according to plan. I was concerned that I don’t have enough concrete, and I still … Continue reading →

😀 ‘Our streets are made for people’: San Francisco mulls ban on delivery robots The feeling, compassionate, dare I say “woke” elites of San Francisco have priced low-skill jobs out of existence, yet those job still need to get done. … Continue reading →

I got my neighbor’s tractor back home this morning, fueled up and in excellent running condition. Yesterday’s main chores included an irrigation trench at Landlady’s place… We always ran flexible pipe overground and it worked fine for years. But now … Continue reading →