Sounds of Purgatory
Most evenings here at Purgatory are quiet, but since we live in the hills, sound carries quite a bit, and when some of our neighbors have…
Category: Every Day Things
The amazingly scary bits
The road to Purgatory is pretty narrow. While it is technically two lanes wide, care must be made when passing oncoming traffic as there are…
The Visitors
One of the things we did not have during the 8-odd years we lived in San Francisco was an actual spare room in which guests…
Tiny Fun
We do have some silly fun here at Purgatory.
Cat update | more
We’ve had a few people ask if we still have feral cats here at Purgatory. While we have had few sightings compared to the early…
More Blooms @ Purgatory
A selection of flowers from the last few weeks here at Purgatory.
Savings at the pumps
Slightly unrelated to work and projects here at PAWDF, but still somewhat interesting, is a purchase we made several years ago that has since saved…
Other people’s trash is OUR trash
One of the unfortunate aspects of living outside the normal bounds of civilization is that some rather stupid and inconsiderate people drive up our roads…
Old things are new again
When I first moved to California from Ohio, I lived not too far from Purgatory. If you have binoculars and know where to look, you…
Sunday Drives
When we lived in SF, there were two grocery stores on our street, so I would just pop next door or half a block down when…
Another Expansive View
Continuing the theme of the previous post, here’s a more current shot of the view from Purgatory. As you can see, things have become pretty brown…
Valley Fires
One of unexpected things that comes with having such expansive views of the Santa Clara Valley is that sometimes we see the smoke of fires…
One day in the barn
One morning Agent Smith and I went for a ride in the mini-truck to take some before pictures prior to the mowing man’s imminent arrival.…
The merits of Craigslist
Since taking ownership of Purgatory, we have used Craigslist to rid ourselves of many things left by the previous owners or things we didn’t need.…
Expanding Borrowed Time
Our wireless network here was adequate but not ideal. Reception in some areas was spotty, so we picked up a few more Ubiquity access points…
Of Mice and Hoarding
A few months back I opened a drawer on my desk and discovered a large pile of bird food. (Think dried dog food, as the boys…
Always something in bloom
One of the things we enjoy about Purgatory–and that we should actually thank the POs for–is that the exterior landscaping immediately around the house is…
Purgatory Feral Kitten Update
We made a couple of quick, unscheduled posts last night regarding the feral kittens we apprehended. One of the BDR guys here to work on the…
Success! We have the whole family.
A bit of salami, and we got the mother in the trap. The brood is now safely sequestered in the studio. Mother ate all the luncheon…
Water, Water Everywhere, Part 2: Softening the Water
Because our water comes from a hole in the ground, it is very hard–specifically, our calcium hardness rating on regular pool water tests puts us at…
Preparedness: We now have it.
When we lived in San Francisco, we had a small collection of items put together as our “just in case/disaster preparedness kit.” Basically it was…
Water, Water Everywhere, Part 1: The Well
One of the critical inspections we had done prior to buying Purgatory was a test of the well. We’re up high enough on the hillside…
The small pile of random junk
Our Nearest Neighbor told me a while back that when the POs were getting ready to move out, they had a garage/yard sale to lighten their…
So Many Birds
One fun thing about Purgatory is that we have a lot of wild birds. And I mean a lot. So far I have seen: Turkey Vultures…
Living with two large parrots means…
1. Living in a house with no attic but transom windows throughout means sometimes this happens. 2. Living in a house with windowed french doors…
Yes, it can get windy
Since we live halfway up a mountain, it can get a bit windy up here. Per the weather station we run, the biggest gusts we’ve…
A monthly update not mentioned often
As part of maintaining this site, we regularly go through and update the static sections to fill in details or fix silly auto-correct-induced spelling mistakes.…
A better lock
Our kitchen has two doors to the exterior, side by side–one a sliding door, the other a standard door with an auto-closing arm put in…
The View, Part 4 of 4
Last week, as the latest storm system started to seep in to the valley, the sun was just setting. Here’s is the last of the four pictures…
Weeds: We have them.
One of the side effects of the recent rain has been an explosion of growth, from barren, horse-trampled, crumbling hillsides to…I have no idea what,…
The View, Part 3 of 4
Last week, as the latest storm system started to seep in to the valley, the sun was just setting. Here’s is the third of four pictures I…
The View, Part 1 of 4
Last week, as the latest storm system started to seep in to the valley, the sun was just setting. Here’s is the first of four pictures…