Category Archives: Uncategorized

I suspect anybody who gets electricity from solar panels and who lives in a place with actual winter probably pays a lot of attention to the solstice. I certainly do, and more so this year since Ian’s power system got … Continue reading →

Yesterday we went to town for water and groceries, and at the store I found a pound and a half hunk of pork that clawed at me through the bars and demanded I take it home. I’m not the world’s … Continue reading →

Maybe it’s because I turned 70 this year and I’m officially old: I’ve spent the year tripping over how different old me is from young me. Today’s revelation is about Christmas carols: when I was a child I loved the … Continue reading →

For well over ten years I carried a .44 revolver, eventually upgrading to the pistol of my dreams, a S&W Model 69 .44 Magnum. The M69 is, in my opinion, the (almost) perfect trail gun: Light enough to carry all … Continue reading →

I replaced the front brake pads a couple of months ago but always intended to wait till winter to attack the rear, both because the rear also needed a new tire and because I’ve seldom messed with multi-gear bikes before … Continue reading →

This is the year Uncle Joel officially got too old for this shit. Next year I’m definitely looking into buying wood from those Mexican guys in town. Actually it’s been such an amazingly mild December that I’m not even using … Continue reading →

I always had this image of the Concorde jets – they seemed huge in the pictures available at the time. But then I saw one when I was changing planes at De Gaulle airport… And the subject came up at … Continue reading →

In his defense he was provoked. There’s a heavy-duty carabiner on the end of Tobie’s heavy-duty rope, so that I can clip it to a heavy-duty loop of braided 550 cord that I slide over my heavy-duty belt – all … Continue reading →

Terrapod asked… Hey Joel, how is that Carhart winter coat holding up? Is it time for a new one yet? My nice Redneck Cartier coat came to me in January 2017 after a rather convoluted drama, and I was delighted … Continue reading →

Two mornings ago Tobie woke me, very excited, to announce that something extremely important was happening outdoors and that I should get up immediately and let him out to investigate, defend against and/or consume, as the situation may demand. I … Continue reading →

…and unless you give me some warning my everyday rig is, you know, gonna be what I wear every day… But I didn’t know we were going into town. So I got stuck trying to tuck a low-rise holster under … Continue reading →

…I had to find a source for new cutting chains before I could convert that pile of juniper in my yard into firewood. Oh, I sharpened the one chain but it never went particularly well and I was spending more … Continue reading →

Another ton of wood pellets at D&L’s place. Unlike other times I had to take prior precautions to make sure I had two functional legs for this one. The knee is feeling better but this wasn’t the time to indulge … Continue reading →

Which makes it hard to get your chores done, to say nothing of explaining all those truncated walkies to Tobie the Peripatetic Mutt. But… …my right knee, which is my only intact knee, started going south on me about a … Continue reading →

It’s kinda funny that my most constant seasonal cue is that tree, right across the street from the water vending station Neighbor L and I go to every week. I guess because there’s nothing better to do while waiting for … Continue reading →

In the Spring my redneck water heater’s hoses were so full of loose scale I couldn’t get any pressure out of the spigot at all. Took forever to clear it all out. I swore that this time I’d take the … Continue reading →

This sort of thing has happened before but not for a long time… The dough basically doesn’t rise in the bowl or the bread pan at all. Stuck with the option of throwing it away or baking it and seeing … Continue reading →

Keeping me company while I took laundry off the line… He’s not always so dignified. Last Sunday at a get-together on SurvivalDave’s deck he met two ladies he doesn’t see often – and we’ve never met a female human he … Continue reading →

When I picked the fruit in August I had a lot of trouble with the tall vertical branches in the middle, so I determined that before winter I’d prune them off. I hesitated, of course, because that’s a pretty major … Continue reading →