Migration... Geese... Get it? If you’ve noticed some chaos on these pages of late, most was from a migration to another server. Nothing to worry about. I’m still out here in the wilds of the interwebs. Just had to move the pages to something that fit better. I THINK I’ve restored all the important bits but don’t quote me … Read More →
Nice hat, sister. The last of the herd is finally fixed and chipped. No future kittens, no lost souls. If you haven’t microchipped your pets, please consider it for their sake and your sanity. In some places, it’s even becoming mandatory. The managing body varies by country but the Canadian version (run by EIADP) has an easy-to-navigate web … Read More →
Ten Seconds Of Testing At the height of the global pandemic, Canada started giving away clever testing devices called pulse oximeters. Anything cheap enough for them to dish out like penny candy couldn’t be that useful, right? Turns out these little gizmos can be life savers for a lot more than pesky global viruses. Modern day canaries in healthcare … Read More →
Happy Birthday to the Twins It’s been six months since the new family additions arrived so thought it time for a photo op. They grow up quick. The headline photo is a little misleading. Like Peter Jackson shooting Lord of the Rings, it’s a camera perspective trick. Al the boy in back is double the size of Pico in front. … Read More →
Brother on the left, Sister on the right This is apparently my life for the foreseeable future. Presented here with bonus internal dialogue.
An Attempt From Pillow Peak We’re slowly figuring out how legs work. Day 21 and counting with both nicely above the weight danger zone after what now seems like 4-5 days premature. Here “Bigger Brother” gives it his best shot. Wobble, wobble, wobble. More Spork Here
New arrivals less than 12 hours into their first day. This back story begins with grief and despair but fear not for it has a good deal of hope and joy towards the end. Seems to be a lot of that in this pandemic year. Regular viewers will remember two of my dear sweet girls (cats) from some of my videos. The sisters literally dropped … Read More →
If I can figure out how to work the blasted software I’ve been busy this year. I shall soon be slightly less so and thus a return to writing here, videos over there, and even streaming live elsewhere is a possibility. You have been warned. First snows came just last night so I’m in for the winter (mostly) and feel like cooking steaming pots of dumplings … Read More →
Plenty Of Wind On My Most Recent Epic Across Alberta Hey Internet! You’ve likely noticed my absence of late in here but I’ve been pushing digits around behind the scenes aplenty and wanted to let everyone know that A) I’m still out here typing like a madman and B) things will look a bit different on these pages shortly. My ‘real world’ is getting slightly … Read More →
With Cheese & Data You're Ready For Anything The encroaching weather this time of year always puts me in a disaster recovery mindset. I’ve got charcoal and gas for cookery, jugs of water reserve if power to the well pump goes out, a pantry full of beans and rice, candles galore, and an ever rotating stack of good books. I’m good for two … Read More →
New Year, New Blooms Another year has passed and I’m still in limbo to some extent but I can always count on my faithful orchids to come through. This little fellow bloomed recently for the first time just to brighten up the holidays. Bit of a grab bag colour-wise since it was from the lot of pots I literally … Read More →
A Kitchen Bouquet That Doesn't Need Watering If you’re gearing up for holiday cooking, baking, and feasting, taking an hour to rethink your kitchen organization beforehand is a very a wise idea. Kitchens by their very nature are places of mayhem. Ingredients flying about and pots bubbling over with a circus sideshow of hot pan juggling out of the oven. Simplify and … Read More →
Like Trying To Find Waldo-Data in a Meadow Full of Internet Noise Warning: Techno-babble ahead this time. If you get to this site with a good old-fashioned bookmark in your browser, nothing should change for you and you’ve got no need to panic. If you’re one of the handful of readers using the RSS feed feature, either directly in your browser or via a separate RSS reader … Read More →
Far Too Many Hands In a fit of reorganization, I finally got round to sorting out my kitchen space to accommodate better video shooting. I’ve been trying to make more visual fodder for the YouTube crowd since that’s what pays me a few desperately needed pennies but the ‘plan, shoot, edit, write, & post’ cycle is no small feat … Read More →
A Couch Surfing Feast I don’t watch much broadcast television. My homemade antenna gets me three channels for the occasional half hour of local news and a bit of background noise for the cats on rainy days. Yes, one of my girls actually watches characters on the screen like stalking a mouse, not that she’d know what to do … Read More →
Sharing Too Much Of Your World... For Someone Else's Profit Back in the day, someone who rode into the stretch of river where you had been panning gold for months and started digging rock for themselves was called a ‘claim-jumper’. Second only to horse thieves and bank robbers all of which deserved to be shot by the legal standards of the day. Fast forward a … Read More →
Clean, Scoopable, & They Smell Good Too If you don’t know any cats, this could be the least interesting thing you watch all week. If you do have little paws in your world, here’s a video followup to my wood pellet discovery that can save you big bucks on your litter budget and how to make a quick DIY “reverse sifter” for … Read More →
Cat Scooping Serendipity * Here’s the video update of my homemade sifter that shows pellets in action… and it only costs a buck! Some shopping links to less DIY sifters coming soon. We have a lot of trees in Canada. They’re all over the place. Because of that we end up with a lot of tree-based manufacture from … Read More →
Beware Tiny Invisible Bite-y Things While making my Waldorf salad the other day I noticed in reading that three of the four main ingredients regularly pop up on the ‘dirtiest vegetables’ list. I’m not just talking about farm soil and legged pests but the toxic chemicals used to inflate the harvest of many commercial crops. Not being an alarmist on … Read More →
Subscribe And Waste Time Watching My Hands It seems that after 700 or so subscribers, YouTube ‘upgrades’ a channel to have it’s own unique address. I’m spending some time trying to be more consistent in developing that particular media outlet so if you haven’t visited for a while, head over there and watch some of my hand theatre. I often revisit articles … Read More →
A Favourite Christmas Orchid Now Two Years Old Not much to report this Christmas Eve. Or Hakuna Matata or Festivus or Midwinter Pagan Day or whatever else you’re supposed to say this time of year to avoid a kerfuffle. As if I’ve ever been politically correct. The weather is unseasonably warm, around +5C, so much of the snow is gone and it’s raining … Read More →
Me. When I Have a Sore Throat. I’m not a fan of most modern over-the-counter medication. It seems these days many reach for a factory-made pill or potion at the drop of a slightly uncomfortable hat. I’m not talking about serious conditions here but rather the little signals that your body gives you for run-of-the-mill ailments, aches, and pains that crop up, … Read More →
Hide it behind the toaster and tell everyone it's modern art The windstorm left me reading a bit more about homemade antennas. Some real world experimentation has shown that in our particular reception area a different design worked slightly better than the Gray-Hoverman and was easier to build. In other words cheaper and smaller, about the size of an average saute pan. The GH still worked … Read More →
I might attach decorative spatulas next I haven’t had a subscription service for mass-market television in more than a decade. Some of the cable and satellite bills people pay every month astound me and I laugh quietly to myself when I read that ‘cord cutting’ is all the new rage. Who knew one of the pillars of my hermit lifestyle would … Read More →
