Author Archives: Joel

Regular readers will recall that this spring I helped neighbor D dig and pour the columns for the all-around veranda they planned for their earthbag & strawbale extravaganza. Two years ago they spent all season mudding the strawbales, and last … Continue reading →

Heard about it for years before I found out it was real. When I was a kid I thought it was a gag. But no, the Germans really did build a gadget that let them shoot a rifle around corners. … Continue reading →

So Friday morning the boys and I are over at J&H’s, right? And shit-shoveling was over, except it wasn’t because I still had to fill up the Jeep trailer. That was okay, though, because it didn’t rain all week and … Continue reading →

…but we’re getting there. Yesterday was overcast all day, and that means I should find my entertainment in ways that don’t involve electricity. My nice newish batteries only hold so much magic juice. This morning around five I went out … Continue reading →

Ban this! Ban that! Ban the other thing over there! Gad, you’re boring. And when you’re against everything and for nothing, you will invariably get bitten on the ass by your own oppressive nihilism. Erika Quinn who described herself as … Continue reading →

The administration decided to add one for John Kerry, too. Can you come up with a more plausible explanation for why the Secretary of State for the administrative branch of the federal government of the United States of Frickin’ America … Continue reading →

Six in the morning, watching the sun come up on what looks like it might devolve into a cloudy day. I have some book-related things I’ve put off for three days and really must get to. I’ll blame it on … Continue reading →

Cruise Control, H’s miniature horse, tends to fat and is on an enforced diet. The only way to enforce the diet is to isolate him completely. He is remarkably skilled at getting food from places you wouldn’t think he could. … Continue reading →

Kevin Williamson on how financial deals are made in my hometown, and how they fall apart. So we have: a city council too short-sighted and beef-witted to understand what it was doing, a mayor who was an outright criminal, union … Continue reading →

So Ian told me last evening. He’s in training for some run’n’gun event. I really murderously object to roosters doing their thing at 4:30, but don’t at all mind gunfire at six. I’m already up, or at least awake. Ghost, … Continue reading →

What’s going on with Tam’s site? Sigh. And then, depression set in.

Okay, so everybody knows that a few weeks ago Texas governor Rick Perry was indicted for … um … Okay, nobody here remembers what he was indicted for. One side says he was abusing his power, one says he was … Continue reading →

I saw a man so determined to trim his high Monsoon weeds that he attached his electric trimmer to a “portable” generator. I saw a man squinting at a laptop while standing on the edge of a cliff. In the … Continue reading →

I got laid down yesterday morning with an unexpected migraine. Sudden thing – everything fine, then everything not. Vision closing in, can’t read, didn’t even consider writing. Went to bed early, slept long and deep. We seem to be up … Continue reading →

Ian got a good price on his property, it’s said, because everybody else considered it useless. After all, so much of it is dry riverbed you could never build anything on. Why, there’s one 300 yard stretch with absolutely nothing … Continue reading →

At least not during Monsoon. Just an awfully pretty day.

Ian over at Forgotten Weapons is doing a whole series of videos on rare and/or oddball guns soon to be available at Rock Island Auctions. And today’s is about one of my all-time favorite WTF pistols, the Colbrini 2.7mm. This … Continue reading →

Regular readers know that a few years ago I switched from the beater 1911 I carried for many years to a beater .44 Special revolver. And from that time, the revolver and I have had a roller coaster relationship. Look, … Continue reading →

But here’s a song about it. 🙂

But except for that, everything in this article is bullshit. …sadly the flag’s nobility has been stolen. If you say so, Bubba. But here’s mine… H/T to Codrea.