Strange Noises
You know how your house makes strange noises sometimes? Well, in addition to the occasional popping or windy creaking of the great room, the soft…
Category: Every Day Things
Today’s Log
Normally I write posts to catch up on the backlog of projects here, but today was such a productive day I figured I’d share what’s…
Up in the Air (video)
Winter mornings at Purgatory often look and sound like this:
Bonus Post: Bird Herding
We have several tools that we employ to help herd the boys when they wander into parts of the house where they really shouldn’t remain…
End of an era
Sadly, over the 2017 holidays our little family of robots lost a much-loved (by some) and much-reviled (by others) member–the little blue Dodge truck I…
Summer Cleanup
In July of last year, we completed the last major cleanup event at Purgatory. We got in another two dumpsters and piled yet more debris…
Post-Fire Wrap-up
A video shot by our drone yesterday that shows post-fire conditions.
Yesterday
Yesterday was meant to be a day spent partly on road committee work (I’ll eventually explain what that means in another post) and crafting posts…
Dead Cows
We really can’t make this sort of stuff up. Two nights ago, some super rude person drove up our road and dumped a dead cow.…
Purgatory Printing
One of the projects finally completed but not written about (until now) is the redecoration of the guest bedroom. Yesterday I finally “finished” the room…
View from the Studio Roof
I’m working in a rather haphazard fashion when it comes to catching up on project posts, and as a result I have a lot of…
People Come and Make Things
Still not back to a regular posting schedule as we’re still smack in the middle of summer projects. But while that is going on, we…
Fires to the North, Fires to the South
Purgatory is in California, and both ends of the state and the Central Valley are currently burning. The comprehensive map can be found here. It has…
Purgatory got an upgrade
The primary inspection Purgatory had to undergo while in escrow was verifying that we could get decent network connectivity living halfway up a mountain. The previous…
How to safely remove a skunk from your cat trap
Step 1: Get to know your skunk. Sit calmly about five to ten feet away and be sure you are in its field of view.…
Third Christmas @Purgatory
Today was our third winter holiday at the ranch. Once again it was a quiet day, and after spending yesterday doing some work outside, we…
Blooms Around Purgatory
It’s been a while since a post with pictures of flowers here at the ranch has gone up:
Tree Removal
In August I started interviewing arborists, as we want to have a certified company come yearly to see to our trees. After meeting with a handful…
Another Appliance Story
Since moving in, we have had issues on and off with the dishwasher. The POs remodeled the kitchen in late 2014/early 2015 to better their…
The End of Jury Duty
Posting here took a back seat these last few weeks, as we were getting ready for winter and the rains it will bring (i.e., finishing…
Dogs gone a tad crazy? (Weekend Bonus Video)
Yesterday the neighbor’s dogs met our new dinosaur for the first time. For five minutes, two of them barked and carried on outside my office window.…
Something Wonderful Arrived
Over the last two years we’ve discussed finding a few dinosaur statues or sculptures to place at Purgatory. Well, to get to the point, our…
Mystery Plaque
In the category of strange and unusual findings at Purgatory, this little plaque was once affixed to one of the lights that ring the driveway.…
A little birdy…
Way back in 2009 when Agent Smith and I were at a garden store in Melbourne, we came across a cute little metal sculpture of…
Now Open: Purgatory Heavy Equipment School
One of the more fun but less-mentioned facets of life at the ranch is that we often get visitors, and said visitors often get to…
More with the Administration
Keeping the backend of this site chugging along usually doesn’t take much, but in the two-plus years we’ve been writing about our activities at PAWDF…
Birds and Windows: New Contest @Purgatory
One of the downsides to living in an MCM house is having a LOT of windows, so we often have birds running into them, and…
Owlets
We have a leak in the stables–or at least that is what it sounds like every time Agent Smith goes in there. The reason is…
The Blooms of Purgatory
Spring flowers.
Sheep Are Very Annoying
A while back we started having issues with livestock from a property down the road. The acreage there is rented out to a guy who…