Author Archives: Joel

Facing the prospect of a winter that lies on the rising slope of the frozen-fingers scale, I worked ahead of time to completely fill my woodshed and am now striving to get the hell over my woodstove-related phobia. A neighbor … Continue reading →

The first time I did a Google search on my phone and the autocomplete feature showed searches I’d done that morning on my desktop, I nearly flung the thing across the room. I mean, sure it was just trying to … Continue reading →

“No, he really said that.” “Neither he or I are technology geeks and we assumed it was up and ready to run,” he told HLN. He really is the most entertaining VP since Spiro Agnew. At this point he’s also … Continue reading →

Over at the Travis McGee Reader there’s a picture of New Dog Libby with a big beef bone, and it led to a discussion among the voices in my head on the topic, “Man, Little Bear would think he’d died … Continue reading →

It takes a village to raise a busy-body. (Warning: Contains annoying and really loud autovideo) H/T to Tam.

Wind’s been scouring the tops of the ridges for two days, but yesterday was in the sixties. Today it’s not, and the expression “wind chill” first enters the discussion for the season. In my household, as I’m sure in yours, … Continue reading →

Get a load of this. “Riots always begin typically the same way”: Food stamp shutdown looms Friday Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire Friday. The nationwide cut “is equivalent to … Continue reading →

After writing what I did about primers and tweaking cartridge cases and wax bullets last night, I woke this morning with the thought of something that really shouldn’t have remained unsaid. I used wax bullets for practice in getting off … Continue reading →

For some people, I guess everything is politics. It is a new freedom strategy: liberating the human need for shelter from the state and the cronies called financial institutions. Small (or tiny) house pioneer Jay Shafer considers it to be … Continue reading →

Don’t go there if you’re averse to regular maintenance. Not counting the solar panels, this is the Lair’s whole electric generation system… It’s simple, it’s small, and mostly it takes care of itself. Every month or two it requires an … Continue reading →

Yesterday when I asked about why the primers were backing out of these empty cases, a lot of people told me something I really should have already known or figured out for myself. But the funny thing about it – … Continue reading →

And seriously…You progressives who want to make advocacy videos? What the %#@& is it with repeating the same phrase over and over four times? Do you know how annoying that is? It makes you sound like the miswired kid people … Continue reading →

Ian does a brief review of a Swiss ZfK-55 sniper rifle, a scoped, rebarreled and oddly tweaked K-31. If it were chambered and barreled for .308 ball I would now be drooling on my keyboard.

According to this LA Times article, a Californian actually said that. I assumed at first that it was a snarky paraphrase. Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said the state and insurers agreed that clearing the decks by Jan. … Continue reading →

A TUAK reader sent me some .44 Spl brass he’d sized and reprimed years ago with the warning that he thought most of the primers were bad. (Thanks, BTW) Rather than take the chance of loading a bunch of duds … Continue reading →

I have a recurring dream. It doesn’t show up often – or at least I don’t remember dreaming it often – and it’s not at all unpleasant, which is odd considering the setting. I was born in Detroit, and spent … Continue reading →

When I first saw this I had to do a search to make sure it wasn’t a parody. That happens a lot lately. 🙁 Venezuela Creates ‘Vice Ministry Of Supreme Social Happiness’ To Combat Sadness CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Americans … Continue reading →

Well, then. If it wasn’t an “ideal atmosphere,” I suppose totalfailure.gov is perfectly excusable. How long ago did the progressives shove that law through? Yesterday? Last month? I seem to recall it was back in 2010, which others might be … Continue reading →

Thunderstorms yesterday and all night. The scary stuff passed south of me, mostly. For me, the important thing was that it clouded up in the morning and the sun never shined all day. Which, if you’re off-grid, means you should … Continue reading →

And they suffer so for it, the poor dears. A former University of California-Davis police officer made famous after being filmed pepper-spraying seated activists during a Nov. 2011 protest has been awarded a $38,059 workers’ compensation settlement, The Guardian reports. … Continue reading →