Monday, February 9, 2026

And so it begins!

 Sorry, Got word that construction has begun on our new home.  Well, the demolition part anyhow.  So, I've got two Monday Posts today!

Just got a text from our construction supervisor.  Apparently, demolition has begun. 

 


Yes, it has begun!  Taking down the abandoned house was the first in several clearing requirements. The above video is looking to the North West at the start.  That's the road to get onto the property

The area directly to the right of the picture below will be the spot for the Horse Barn and their grazing pasture.  They'll be taking down the scrub crap and leaving most of the trees.  The dead ones will obviously be taken down also.

  
Looking to the south east in this pic  

This next picture the camera is to the left of the frame.

 Lots of junk to be put in the bin.

 

Lot's of stuff to get rid of, but...It's a start!


 

Pyrenees, OK, not Great!



Well, Campers, another week down the tubes.  A lot of phone calls between the contractor and us.  This was followed by another phone call to one of the "Powers that Be" aka  a desk warming bureaucrat, by us to get it done.  So, nothing to report on the housing project.

But... on to the subject of this week's post.  I don't know if I've properly introduced y'all to our adopted "children". 

A little back ground, when my sister passed away, she left two Great Pyrenees (GP) Dogs that we adopted.  Atticus and Gryndll.  

(L) Atticus, (R) Gryndll

We were still living on our 30+ acre property near Fredericksburg.  They had plenty of room to run around and howl at the cattle, deer or other beasts that got near our property.  Sleep was generally not interfered with.

The only downside we've discovered yet in our move to CStat is the rental house we're in is 1) small. 2) Quite close to the neighbors and 3) Near a highway and a Railroad track.  Did I mention there are a lot of trains going by, many after dark.

All of those actions cause an "equal and opposite" reactions from the GP's.  They are doing an excellent job of keeping the "bad guys" away from the house.   Unfortunately, they are also disturbing our sleep.  Bad enough!

But...it's also disturbing our neighbor's sleep.  Apparently last Friday night, one of them couldn't take it anymore. About 10:30, Gryndyll was scarring off a deadly enemy squirrel or other animal when someone came knocking at the door.  Mrs J and I were in our bed clothes and headed toward the bed.  I turned around and went to the door.  

It was a Police Officer.  He explained that someone had complained.  We explained our predicament with the trains and freeway noise keeping them alert.  He was very nice about it after having been introduced to the twosome.  However, he said we had to keep them inside at night.  We explained the dogs also bark inside the house.  

About this time, one of them kicked off barking, behind the closed door.  The officer was impressed, but said we'd need to find a cure.    Haven't found one yet.  That night, Mrs J slept out in the living room with them.  After a while, they quieted down quite a bit.  We'll have to see how they'll handle it if they're alone in the living room.

Why don't they sleep in our room also?  Well, we also have a cat.  The Cat and Gryndll don't get along.  So our room is the Cat's Kingdom while Gryndll primarily is limited to the rest of the house.   Unfortunately, Atticus is also prohibited from the Master Bedroom.


 
Unfortunately, we're in a conundrum.  When they're in the back yard, the house minimizes the loudness of that barking inside the house (obviously not enough to please the complainant) and Mrs J and I can get some sleep.  The Police Officer ruled that option out. 
 
When they're in the house at night and some sound gets them stirred up and barking, well, sleep is not an option. We're trying to train them.  They don't like to be wet, so we've got a spray bottle with water.  When they bark indoors, they get squirted on the head (no, not the eyes or any other part that could be injured).  The problem is that when they're barking in the house and we're asleep, it involves getting out of bed, finding the squirt bottle, figure out who's barking, squirt him or them, and go back to bed.
 
Two things there.  One, it's difficult to get back to sleep and two, something else will set them off.
 
Oh, and by the way, sleep for them during the day? No problema!!!
 

 
 
The real solution is moving in to the new house.  Nobody is close enough to care about barking in the country.  
 
I wonder if our construction supervisor can be talked into boarding them in his house....
 
House would be moved WAY up on the priority list.
 
But...we'll just have to gut it out.  Now that my Monday post is published,  I think I'll stop B,M,& C-ing and go take a nap!
 
Peace (and quiet) out, all y'all! 

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Snow Day

Saturday, 07 February 2026
OAFS Photo
I am taking a snow day.

Maybe I'll make up for it in the spring with two posts on the same day.

Or maybe I'll just let it go.

The snow is slowing down (around the 5 inch mark is my guesstimate) and the temperature is dropping fast. It's already dropped about 15° since the morning. (We're talking about Saturday here as I write.)

Sunday (today as you read) is supposed to be brutally cold when the wind kicks up.

And I can hear the flap on the bathroom exhaust fan flapping now.

Might get sporty out there.

I'll worry about clearing the snow later.

There's no where we have to go, so ...

Sit inside with a hot cuppa and watch the world go by.

No doubt juvat is roasting in the 80s down Texas way, Tuna is suffering through the 60s and 70s in Sandy Eggo, and Beans?

God only knows what the weather in Florida is going to be like.

In the pool one day, frozen palm trees the next, it's crazy down there!

Stay warm.

Ciao!



Saturday, February 7, 2026

A Battle and A General You May Not Know ...

British and Austrian Infantry Advance on Blindheim Village¹
Source
The Battle of Blenheim (which you may or may not have heard of) was the greatest victory of a British general on the continent since Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt some 300 years earlier. It would be eclipsed by the Battle of Waterloo a little over a hundred years later. Which may be why you've never heard of it.

Sir John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was a member of the family which gave the world Sir Winston Churchill as well as Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. (Whose older brother Charles wrote an excellent account of the Battle of Blenheim which I'm nearly done reading.) He's the general you may or may not have heard of and the victor at Blenheim.

In order to rectify any gaps in your knowledge of European history which might exist, I give you the following, from a fellow on YouTube known as The History Chap². Sorry lads and lassies if I've given ye another way to waste time. But history is important. And sometimes it rhymes ...



So yes, I'll be spending some more time with The History Chap and I'm starting to hear from The Muse that the War of the Spanish Succession might be a great setting for a bit of historical fiction. It's a fascinating period in European history what with Louis XIV³ throwing his weight around.

By the way, the aforementioned war was fought because the King of Spain died without leaving an heir. So Louis XIV volunteered his grandson to take that throne. Other European countries, particularly Austria, objected. So, true to European custom (and truth be told, human custom), they fought a war over it, killing thousands to benefit the few.

The "noble" few.

Sigh, there's an old story there. Which is why we Americans threw off that particular yoke.

Do we ever learn?

Hard to say.




Editor's Note: As I write this, it's snowing, again. Yay, sarcastically, of course. It's pretty, but enough already!

¹ Blindheim is known as Blenheim in English.
² The fellow is a great storyteller, though his pronunciation of Bavaria drives me nuts. Then again, I know it as Bayern, not Bavaria, regardless of that latter name's pronunciation. 🙄
³ The Sun King, surely you've heard of him? (Sorry for calling you Shirley ...)

Friday, February 6, 2026

It Ain't the Air Temp, It's the Wind Chill ...

Source
I recall saying I was done posting about the weather last week.

And yet, here we are, another weather post.

We're in for some more snow, maybe, but not all that much. I will say this, modern weather prediction is far more accurate than back in the day. Knowing the variables helps.

Storm might stay further out to sea, which means we don't get much snow. Might slide right up the coast and give us a mix of rain and snow (argh, the worst thing is when it's freezing rain). Or it could go further inland and miss us completely.

Satellites help the weather guessers and they usually get it right, for certain locations on the earth's surface. I've also noted that weather will sometimes get here later than predicted, or earlier than predicted.

It's that butterfly in Beijing flapping it's wings again!¹

Snow aside, we're getting some really low temperatures this weekend. After a week in the Arctic, then this week where temps were closer to normal, the weekend plunges us back into the Arctic. Might see wind chills² of down to -35°!

That's a killing cold if you're outside and unprepared.

I've been out and about at -30° and it was seriously unpleasant. Like "If I don't get inside soon and get warm, I'm going to die" unpleasant. And I was dressed for it!

Think we'll stay hunkered down this weekend.

Another weather prediction I'll be paying attention to, that's for sure.




¹ It's all Chaos Theory, read more here.
² Wind Chill is a term used to describe what the air temperature feels like to the human skin due to the combination of cold temperatures and winds blowing on exposed skin. In simple terms, the colder the air temperature and the higher the wind speeds the colder it will feel on your skin if you're outside. So even if it remains the same temperature, but the wind speed increases it will actually feel colder to your skin. Source

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Pullo! Formation!

Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus
(Ray Stevenson and Kevin McKidd)

Source
One of my favorite series, ever, is Rome, which came out on HBO, in the US, and BBC2, in the UK. With twenty-two episodes overall, the series began in 2005 and ended after the second season in 2007. I understand there was to be a third season but the cost of the thing was just too high to get anyone to sign off on that. Pity, considering the garbage which comes out of Hollywood these days.

An outstanding cast, a well-told story, and very high production values, I daresay, they just don't make them like this anymore. More's the pity.



If you haven't watched it, you should. It's entertaining and doesn't stray all that far from the historical record.

Caesar commands it!

The superb Irish actor, Ciarán Hinds, as ...
Gaius Julius Caesar

Source
Really, you should make the time to watch this. I've watched all 22 episodes three times and am about to embark upon a fourth viewing. It is really good.

Trust me.



Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Barn Find!

YouTube
Many are the hours I spend looking for, finding, and watching cool videos on YouTube. With all of the crap that is on the internet in these modern times, YouTube still has some good stuff.

The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum has a number of really great videos on YouTube. They restore and display some of the most iconic vehicles of the World Wars. The Grant tank being one of them. If you chase that link under the opening photo you can watch an hour and a half long video of the restoration of a Grant tank.

While working on that vehicle they had teams looking for parts to restore it, amazingly enough, they found another Grant tank.

A barn find!

Their Workshop Wednesday videos are awesome, I learn something every time I watch one.  Here's a taste of those videos ...



Great stuff.

I spend a lot of time on their page, if you like armor and artillery, you should too.

Enjoy!