Author Archives: Joel

This is a wonderful idea. You should get right on this, Mr. Bal, and so should all your friends. Further, I would count it a personal favor if you would consider boycotting my state first. I propose that people like … Continue reading →

Once in a while I get a freelance writing gig. Never mind where or for whom, that’s not important. I get to write something! The bulk of my writing career has been work-for-hire, and I got over the desire for … Continue reading →

Every Spring, just to celebrate, I make a futile attempt at getting food plants to grow. On the rare, pathetic occasions when I momentarily succeed, something comes along and eats it. This time I’m getting a little more serious. I’ve … Continue reading →

If all proceeds as I have foreseen, they’ll be here next weekend along with some Cornish game hens who are not destined for a long life. Also, (and this is one of those ironies of chicken-raising I suppose I’d better … Continue reading →

All righty, then. This is the sort of article my eye would normally slide right past. I read it only because the title mentioned $5 Hanes T-shirts, which they sell at Dollar General and is the absolute apex of cedar … Continue reading →

Dianne Feinstein pushes for semi-automatic rifle import ban The woman needs to get out of the house. See some friends, have a few laughs. I ask you… Is this the face of a happy person? And what’s with “ban this, … Continue reading →

Hey, if you like good fiction, check this place out. I read three short stories here this afternoon, and two of them were fantastic!* Supposedly it’s ideological… Enter Liberty Island Media. Liberty Island’s mission is to find the very best … Continue reading →

Westboro Baptist Church Leader Fred Phelps Dies Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps has died, aged 84, of an as-yet-undisclosed illness… I don’t know either, but I’m gonna go with an excess of bile.

Not too many people who know him well ever let Ian get any momentum in talking about how weird, obscure and/or historic firearms work, because like that train we discussed earlier it can be hard to get him to stop. … Continue reading →

H/T to Mike R.

Joel’s Political Prognostication of the Day: When America becomes a one-party state, all mention of the word “Obamacare” will be punishable by summary execution. Once our masters have the power not to be reminded of this disaster, they will choose … Continue reading →

As far as I know the thing in the foreground is of use only to truckers with flatbed trailers. But I happen to know a cash-strapped trucker with a flatbed who might be happy to have it, so I’ll see. … Continue reading →

You wanna freak a dog right the hell out? When he whines to be let in, come to the door wearing one of these. No, I wasn’t (just) playing Doomsday Prepper. For reasons lost in the foggy mists of time, … Continue reading →

You’ve probably seen this… Have you seen this? No more Mr. Nice Guy.

I got out of the habit of testing my yeast, because it always worked. So two days ago I baked bread and had what could most definitely be termed a failure to rise… I keep the bulk of my yeast … Continue reading →

The eye doctor told me what I already knew, that the left eye is healing up very nicely. Come back in two weeks, and maybe we’ll talk prescription. sigh. D&L always plan their trips to the big town around my … Continue reading →

Gotta go back to the big town about 50 miles away for the one-week checkup on last week’s eye surgery. This one has gone a helluva lot better than the first, so much better I could actually get through life … Continue reading →

I’ve said it before: I have no claim to moral superiority here because I find the act of lying about comically bad performance quite familiar. But when I was a manager I didn’t have a brazillian-dollar staff dedicated to helping … Continue reading →

L went off with H yesterday to look at a used horse trailer (which will be something else for me to clean, but that’s another topic.) Coincidentally I was there when that date was made, so I said to D, … Continue reading →

Several years ago my neighbor J put up the first hoop-shed any of us had seen around here. A hoop-shed is just a bunch of stock fencing bent in a semicircle, held in place with fence rails and covered with … Continue reading →