Author Archives: Joel

I know we’ve had this discussion before, oh ye document mavens, but Uncle Joel’s memory for things that perplex him is…imperfect. I have a first draft for my current book, You Never Completely Lose. But things have changed so very … Continue reading →

He did wonders for this one. 🙂 (CNN) — A children’s book about gun rights has benefited from an unexpected boost in sales after it became the subject of a mocking segment on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week.

Followed a rabbit hole down to this advertisement for a t-shirt* being hawked by the Coalition to Stop Gun Owership. Anyway, get a load of the blurb: In order to pass life-saving gun reforms at the federal and state level, … Continue reading →

Boy, I’m paying for all those free rides to town these days. Good neighbor L got a horse about a month ago, and somehow or other getting a horse means you have to carry a lot of heavy things. Which … Continue reading →

And they wouldn’t if they could. Also, Stephen Colbert is an idiot. Have I said anything yet that you don’t already know? Okay, so there’s this children’s book titled My Parents Open Carry, which was published three years ago but … Continue reading →

Free has a quality all its own, but sometimes allowances must be made. There was an earth-shattering crash from the vicinity of my powershed this afternoon, and I found all the canned goods not already in the cabin scattered all … Continue reading →

I’d like to get off this bus now, please…

If the fish rots from the head first, I think this is evidence we’ve reached at least the base of the tail. First, of course the policeman’s assertion that “Obama just decimated the freakin’ Constitution, so I don’t give a … Continue reading →

Last year I skirted most of the cabin with sandbags, laboriously shoved under the frame. It worked pretty damned well for cutting the wind that sometimes whistles under the floor, but those bags have settled somewhat. Now there’s a gap … Continue reading →

This makes me sad and angry, and I don’t even know who I’m sad for or angry at. On the one hand, all these people were sold a packet of sweet-smelling bullshit in a very determined fashion all their lives, … Continue reading →

So every day for the past few I’ve been scrambling around trying to get stuff done, racing storm clouds. Today I had some things to do outdoors in the morning: Some caulking – because this time of year there’s always … Continue reading →

I actually thought this story was a parody, especially when the first link led me to The Peoples’ Cube. But it turns out this actually happened. In fact I gather the story is all over the Internet and I only … Continue reading →

I actually considered abandoning the whole thing. I’ve been stuck at 41,000 words which is – even with all the crappy photographs – an awfully damn short book. Uncle Joel was beginning to look like he didn’t have anything much … Continue reading →

Does everybody do that, or is it just a Joel thing?

That’s the message I’m trying to send to the latest herd of free-range steers, which have finally made their way this deep into the desert in serious numbers. Yesterday morning I had an errand to run in the Jeep that … Continue reading →

We’re deep into Monsoon now. So far it’s been a breeze compared to last year’s serial deluge, but satellite links clearly don’t like air full of moisture and turbulence and electrical discharges because it has become quite predictable that my … Continue reading →

Ian and I were out at the range this morning, shooting footage for a couple of Forgotten Weapons videos. Regular FW readers know he recently acquired a bunch of new camera equipment, and among this was one of those tiny … Continue reading →

Alert Reader TW kindly sent me a care package with some books, most of which I will definitely read, canned meat and sundries. Also $20 in a sock, which is incredibly timely. I got this new phone but the dollar-store … Continue reading →

It was a quarter after five, which is substantially earlier than I’ve become accustomed to getting up but substantially later than I’ve become accustomed to waking up, and I was refreshed and rested and ready to rise. It wasn’t until … Continue reading →

I figured it was just because you’re control freaks and enjoy pushing people around. But if you’re saving the world, by all means carry on. Agri-terrorism. No, seriously. Their word, not mine. The commissioners were equally flabbergasted by the change … Continue reading →