Author Archives: Joel

Claire and I got the front door roughed in yesterday. Today I…well, failed to completely finish it because it just isn’t sitting in its frame exactly right. But it doesn’t bind any more, so I’m making progress. I don’t have … Continue reading →

I got the short (front) wall done, except for finishing the window frame. Thin knotty cedar tongue-and-groove, and you’d hunt me down wherever I hid if I told you what I paid for it. I had to put up the … Continue reading →

Over at Straight Forward in a Crooked World, there’s a pretty good (by which I mean, plausibly sensible) write-up on what to do after that shooting you spent the past decade training for. Because the sad truth is, once the … Continue reading →

“Of course he has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It’s 1183 and we’re barbarians.”– Eleanor of Aquitaine Only Kathryn Hepburn could have got away with such a precious anachronism, if anyone could. She doesn’t … Continue reading →

Everybody in the gunblogoverse is hopping from foot to foot, waiting to see if the NRA will endorse some politician named Harry Reid. Harry Reid … No, no, I know I shouldn’t casually use such insults on a person I’ve … Continue reading →

So far as I can tell, global war and global warming and the price of rice in China are all just side issues. What we’re all really supposed to pay attention to is what-all’s going on with some blonde bimbo … Continue reading →

Woke up to an unusually gray morning. Here at the leading edge of the monsoon (still haven’t had any rain) the clouds don’t roll in till sometime in the afternoon, complete with wind, lightning, thunder, and showers in the distance … Continue reading →

Yesterday during our trip to town, Claire picked up a package that was waiting for her at the hardware. (Yes, if you live in the boonies and you want a Fedex delivery, you have to go to the hardware to … Continue reading →

The expanding gases move speediest and bangiest in the direction they’re least obstructed. H/T to NJT

With Claire’s invaluable assistance, all the windows are now in The Secret Lair! This is exciting, and also useful. I moved the windows up in the process because it was getting kinda grim working in that dark box – also … Continue reading →

Whom shall we lionize next? Grand Cyclops Byrd? Spiro Agnew? I don’t think Adolf Eichmann has had a opera made of his life yet, but the century is young. Look, I don’t have anything very specific against JFK, except for … Continue reading →

H/T to Uncle

Saturday I cut out the OSB for The Secret Lair’s windows. Sunday – just out of excess caution, not expecting any problem at all – I asked M to help me hoist the one window I have on site into … Continue reading →

“Even among the rulers, only 63 percent — triple the fraction of the general populace but still less than two-thirds of the political class — regard the federal government as legitimate by the standards of America’s founding document. The remainder, … Continue reading →

M came in last night, planning to do some carpentry inside his dome so he needed the generator. There was some synchronicity going on there, because it happens I also needed it at the Lair. It’s time to cut out … Continue reading →

The advantage of living strictly on cash is that there’s no debt. Ever. If you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. The disadvantage of living strictly on cash is that there’s no debt. Ever. If you can’t afford it, … Continue reading →

D&L are behind schedule on their strawbale wall-making, and got tired of looking at the big pile of needs-to-be-split wood I left them last month. So they hired me to split and stack it. Took four hours to split it, … Continue reading →

This afternoon I got a couple of very kind comments about the Shadow stories, which I really appreciated. Somebody wanted to know if there’d be a book. That was the original idea, but the project pretty much died an embryo. … Continue reading →

It’s been kind of a crappy day. Productive, after a fashion, but still…crappy. I think it’s the weather. It’s the leading edge of the Monsoon, and the atmosphere feels heavy somehow. Gloomy, foreboding. Muggy, for sure. Every day it clouds … Continue reading →

“America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, and too early to shoot the bastards.“– Claire Wolfe Via WRSA: There’s an interesting discussion going on at Improved Clinch, titled “Running Out of Options.” Billy … Continue reading →