Author Archives: Joel

…that has such atavistic people in it. I persist in believing certain types to be extinct, or nearly so. This increasingly proves to be wishful thinkng. First example here, via David Codrea, about which (the example, not Codrea) I truly … Continue reading →

I read this article this morning, but didn’t have time to post. So hopefully I’m not the last person in the blogoverse to point it out. Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national … Continue reading →

We got the roof sheathing done. M build the boxes for the castellated gingerbread on the top, and then we finished sheathing all around except for the top part of the front. We’re stuck on that because of a little … Continue reading →

I spent years going through my first pair of Magnum desert boots back before I actually moved to the desert. Loved them, so when they went south I bought another pair. They also wore okay, though they constantly raised a … Continue reading →

When you’re in the middle of something really finicky and kind of dangerous that requires all your attention, and you start wondering… Whatever happened to Charlie Dore? Half the readers are asking, “Who’s Charlie Dore?” The other half are thinking, … Continue reading →

Due to some really crappy weather that blew in. So we didn’t get all that much done. But what we did do was f**king cool. We mounted the columns and finished the box headers for the front porch, and they … Continue reading →

A new, green helicopter that doesn’t require rapidly rotating airfoils? Why even have rotors? Maybe they’re needed for some other function? Seen at Sharp as a Marble, via Tam. And now to work.

Had a good day today. We got the bulk of the sheathing up. Our good neighbor D took the 12X12 column that Landlady and M picked up, sanded it, cut it to length, and routered it to fit the bracket … Continue reading →

Mayor Richard (Mayor For Life) Daley wants to sic the world court on gunowners now. At a news conference, Daley explained, “This is coming from international mayors. They’re saying, ‘We’re tired of your guns, America. … We don’t want those … Continue reading →

…This I could not do. Will Grigg comes through with another great essay on the walled camp our “small government” activists would love to turn America into: Last week, many (by no means all) adherents of the Tea Party movement … Continue reading →

…to give the blisters time to dry. By Monday evening I was practically dragging myself around on all fours. Landlady and M spent the day on header blocks for the porch and fireblocks everywhere. I spent the day huddling in … Continue reading →

…With apologies to Tam. Work crew was down to three today, though D showed up in the afternoon with a frame for a porch column he’d casually thrown together like a piece of architectural art. We put up all the … Continue reading →

Tired and sunburned, and on schedule. We got the dining room framed in, one interior wall, and all the main roof trusses up.

Do you want freedom, or do you just want to bitch about Obama? Because I really wish you guys would make up your minds. I know this is kind of old, but I just saw it this morning, courtesy of … Continue reading →

…On Landlady’s new house. Had a bunch of people show up today, and worked for almost ten hours. Had a bit of a hurry-up-and-wait start, what with planning and a few disagreements on how to proceed. But once the master … Continue reading →

How to bring chaos to a sleepy little hobby blog: 1. You write one little inflammatory thing. 2. It gets linked to WRSA and Sipsey Street. 3. The server melts.

Get it? Wall done? Huh HAH – I slay me. Hey, I’m tired and punchy. Sue me. Thanks so very much to W, who pitched in on the big stuff, every time another set of hands made the difference between … Continue reading →

…that most of the things that have tried to kill me have been my own damned fault. Stupidity is a capital crime, and it seems like I keep getting one reprieve after another.

Hm…vehement denunciations of someone named Goldstein, blaming him for all the suffering of the oppressed masses, whipping the faithful into a frenzy of hatred… I don’t know – it all seems strangely…familiar. So the last holdout in the Atlantic Yards … Continue reading →

Well, this isn’t the most auspicious building day we’ve had. I went to cut off the excess rebar on the Landlady’s retaining wall. Knew I was nearly out of acetylene, but I didn’t even get the first bar hot when … Continue reading →