Author Archives: Joel

And now for something completely humbling. D&L have been working on their own post and beam house all summer, having finished the foundation pour late last year. L’s been sick with food poisoning, so some neighbors came over to help … Continue reading →

While we wait for the building permit on M’s structure to come through, (and we got good news on that today) and while I’m stuck on lumber for the Secret Lair, we’ve been working on his powershed/pantry. Rather than spend … Continue reading →

“You want this inside?” “Yeah.” “Hey, now there’s an inside to take it to!” “Yup. The inside isn’t just more outside anymore.” “Heeheehee!”

Hey! I note in passing that TUAK has gone over 10,000 clean hits, as of sometime last night. Thanks for the interest, guys! I know I’ve been gone the past couple of days, but interesting things have been happening. I’ll … Continue reading →

I woke this morning, a little after four, not to the crunching noises that would otherwise have roused me, but to Ghost’s clamor to get out and give something in the meadow a good barking. But having been roused, and … Continue reading →

Not long ago, as I posted here, Fritz tried his darnedest to take a chunk out of our neighbor cop. The cop’s visit was entirely friendly, and he arguably didn’t deserve that kind of treatment at the time. I’ve since … Continue reading →

The guy’s an animal. I hate him. I just flat overslept, not going vertical until after 6:30 and not feeling like doing a damned useful thing except spreading the hoses out where they can do some good on the property … Continue reading →

My left hand is pretty much back to normal, but the right swelled up again overnight so I can’t make a fist. It’s better than yesterday, but I was still bleeding all over the wool just from trying to pull … Continue reading →

Yesterday Ghost was looking pretty rough, but by evening the swelling was on its way down. He has a real hard time letting me near the bits that he’s hurt, though he’s the very opposite of a drama queen, so … Continue reading →

This video of my favorite “constitutional law” hypocrite, John “enhanced interrogation” Yoo, getting set up and utterly pwned during a Berkeley lecture, should be run on one of those big Times Square screens. This is beautiful. Short and sweet. H/T … Continue reading →

Yesterday evening the boys didn’t get their meds, because I couldn’t stand the thought of using a can opener with my raw-meat hands. So I went to make amends this morning. I expected it to hurt. I’m an amputee; I … Continue reading →

Surfing around in lieu of work… Washington DC, like many/most/all cities, has installed many cameras in an effort to squeeze money from city motorists save lives by issuing tickets for speeding and ignoring traffic signals. Get caught by one of … Continue reading →

Fingers…swollen…like…sausages. No…skin…on…fingertips. Typing…with…my…nose… Even using a mouse hurts. Air molecules hurt. But my back’s in good shape. I doubt M can say the same; it’s after six in the morning and I haven’t detected his presence, nor do I expect … Continue reading →

We got an early start this morning, so as to finish the concrete work on M’s structure before it got too hot. M and I brought the generator, cement mixer and a few other things over in his pickup, and … Continue reading →

Gad, that’s a couple of days gone by that make these old bones creak. This morning was supposed to be the hard one, and when I mentioned that yesterday was worse than this morning, M gave me a really, really … Continue reading →

…For surviving construction projects in the boonies… Have a neighbor who owns a backhoe.

Interesting day. Very busy. Put in damned near a conventional day’s hard work today. Yeah. Uh…No, I can’t tell you about it. Not for any sinister reasons. Really! Ignore anything you may have heard on the news; they just make … Continue reading →

We needed to paint the wellhouse, cut a hole in the center of the casing cap, take all the wiring apart, thread everything through the hole, and put it all back together again. For proper insanity creds, it was essential … Continue reading →

While M and I were moving lumber out of the barn’s attic, the boys went on a nice walky with uncle W. Uncle W went up the small canyon, as far as the first water hole which is of course … Continue reading →

Pig polish? So many people polish pigs…that there’s actually a product for it? It’s true what they say, you know. The universe is not just stranger than we imagine. It’s stranger than we CAN imagine.