Author: peterb51

3rd December 2023

We were supposed to drive to Hudsonville to collect a couple of free dressers, but the person got confused and gave them to someone else.

Kelli was not impressed, but she managed to find one close by, but it cost ten bucks.

However, she also managed to sell the four chairs on our weekend sale, meaning we didn’t make as much on them that we should have.

I did more scraping on the table top, and set about trying to repair a drawer from the “side of the road” dresser. Unfortunately the front was twisted, and I’ve run into those issues before.

The drawer never sits correctly in the dresser, so now I have three drawers to make.

We had to Kelli’s mum to move her autumn stuff upstairs and bring down her Christmas stuff.

This included the tree that I set up in front of the window, plugging it in only to discover that only have the lights were working. I expect I will be back to check then one by one to find the faulty one.

Kelli found another dresser for eight buck at a town called Dorr.

We collected the dresser from a mobile home park out in the wilderness, we had intended to drive on the collect the other piece, but the chairs were being collected at a specific time so we had to return home to get them ready.

A lady had driven for an hour to buy these, and she did like them, fortunately. I helped to load them into her truck and off she went.

Now we had to remove the dresser from our vehicle and set off, to collect our next furniture piece, you could say we were going door to Dorr.

It took us forty minutes to get there, longer than we thought, but the piece had potential, so the trip was worthwhile.

Driving down I could see most houses had Christmas decorations up and shining bright.

Most people start straight after thanksgiving, everywhere it looks wonderful, if nothing else it brightens up the gloomy places at least once a year.

2nd December 2023

We were determined to finish the mid century dresser today. It needed more finish to the top and two drawer fronts. This meant bringing them into the house to dry, but we did it.

We got pictures of it and it was posted on Marketplace.

We now have two dressers purchased by the same person that we have to keep until March.

The only place to store them is the room off the garage that had to be cleared out.

There were all the drawers and doors from the old kitchen that we had been saving, for what reason? Not sure.

With the two dressers safely stored, I had to make two guides for drawers for the mid century piece. I dragged the saw outside, which was getting much colder, and cut up some oak to make them.

For some reason sawdust was going everywhere although I had a bag that is supposed to collect the dust. I think I will have to connect a vacuum to it, otherwise I will continue to get covered in the stuff.

1st December 2023

We paid a second visit to the local humane society to take a look at another dog. Freddy, our first choice, was not suitable to hang out with our other dogs, as it was a bit highly strung.

We saw another one whose name was Peter, now if that’s not a potential opportunity for confusion, then nothing is.

We checked him out, and his profile mentioned that he would be good around other animals. We did view a pit bull mix, who was lovely, and also very strong, just a bit too lively for our home.

We learnt later in the evening that Peter had been adopted, that was disappointing, So we will foster a different pooch, but act much quicker.

I had to go to Kelli’s mums to wait for a repair man to arrive to look at her walking machine.

I had tried to look at it a few days ago, but didn’t have the knowledge or the test equipment to see what was wrong.

I was there just in case the machine had to be moved, so while I was waiting I removed the screw holding the plastic covers in place.

Once I removed them I could see all the components that worked the appliance.

I plugged it in, and switched it on. There was a red neon that lit up, proving that the switch and power supply were okay.

I was still confused, and tried to chase the cable from the electronics to the display on the top of the treadmill. I noticed there was a slot at the base of the display and then noticed the safety line hanging over one of the handles. This had a black plastic clip and an orange piece at the other end of a piece of cord. Then the penny dropped, the orange end should fit into the slot, which it did.

At that point the display burst into life, everything was working as it should.

I called out to Georgia, and showed her the working treadmill, explaining the purpose of the safety line.

“I’ve never used that line” she said indignantly.

“ It won’t work without it” I argued.

And so the discussion went on, she wouldn’t accept what I was telling her, and she swore that line was never fitted.

I left triumphant that I solved the problem, and Kelli messaged the guy not to bother to call.

That was that, we did get a call from her later to say that I was correct, and that the cord must have got pulled out by her grandchildren.

Anyway she is now able to do her daily exercise however long that lasts.

30th November 2023

There is a lot of talk on the independent media about the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its plans for “the great reset”. This is all about the world post Covid, and how the future of the world would look like. I won’t go into detail on this blog, but urge my reader to do their own research because the implications, should they be accepted by all world leaders could affect everyone.

Since I reeducated myself and done so much reading, both Kelli and myself are far more sceptical of what is newsworthy. With that in mind, we take most things we hear with a very large pinch of salt.

As long as it doesn’t stop me getting on a plane when I want to, I don’t care anymore.

The snow has gone, the slightly warmer weather has done its job, the garage door was open with the sun shining through.

I looked out towards Kelli’s wild garden and noticed that the bird bath had suffered a terrible accident. Half of the ceramic bath had broken off leaving the other half attached to the base column. Normally that should have fallen as well but it was held in balance by a block of ice.

I pointed it out to Kelli who immediately went over to investigate. She was horrified at what had happened, but she made the mistake of touching the ice with the lightest of touch.

It was just enough to disturb the balance and send the remaining part of the bird bath plummeting to earth breaking into many pieces.

She was now doubly horrified, but for me it was the funniest thing I had seen in ages, and I ribbed her all night long.

29th November 2023

We finally got to The Butler to have my birthday burger, it was delicious, I can’t wait for the next one in another fifteen years.

We got to the place early, it was so early we gave the chef a lift. That of course is not true, but we did get a parking space outside the main entrance. Inside, it was just how we remembered it, all white and grey, well that was the hair colours of the customers, so I fitted in well, Kelli, on the other hand stuck out like a sore thumb.

We had a table overlooking the water and the sun setting over the trees.

I managed to drink two pints of a wonderful amber ale, so by the end of the meal I was a bit merry, we carried out our doggie boxes with my tomorrows lunch the three feet to where the car was parked.

Saugatuck has its Christmas lights up already, making the high Street look like the main runway at Chicago airport.

Earlier in the day we did our shopping instead of Thursday. Magically it had everything that it had run out last week, no doubt a bout of panic buying.

We did a bit of work in the garage working on the mid century piece. The top that I stained a couple of days ago is taking an age to dry, a real drag.

28th November 2023

Today is my grandson’s eighth birthday so I gave him a FaceTime call. He’d had a good day with lots of his friends leaving him tired. It was good to see him again and reminded me of the birthdays with my boys. Maybe they weren’t as extravagant as Ethan’s but in our own way they were as fun.

There was more snow today, but it’s supposed to get a bit warmer over the next few days.

Working in the garage is hard because things take so long to dry. I had veneer work to do to two drawer fronts and a bit of sanding, and that was it, I’d had enough.

We took the dogs for a walk in the park, we are trying to do that every day so we don’t fester away, along with our hand weight training, it not exactly Rocky, but it’s good for us.

With all this cold weather we have the regular weekday starting of the neighbourhood car, and then leave them running for half an hour, which disturbs Kelli’s sleep. She really can hear a flea fart, it’s uncanny.

27th November 2023

We paid a visit to a local animal humane society because Kelli was tipped off about a poor dog that was up for adoption. Now we already have two dogs, and as one of them is getting on a bit we had agreed some time back that we would get a “cross over” animal to take its place.

Freddy is a boxer/bulldog/whippet cross(god knows how that happened) who had a rough life, which is always a sob story that Kelli falls for.

I agreed to go and see what was involved in the adoption process. Of course once we got there she found out that we should apply on line, but we did get a chance to see the poor beast.

Once we got back Kelli made the application, so now we wait.

We did manage to finish another dresser and get pictures outside in the cold.

The snow continued to flutter down all day, but it didn’t stop us taking the dogs for a walk. Both of us dressed appropriately in thick coats and scarves, a look that will be continued for the next few months.

It also heralded the breaking out of the fleece lined work trousers, these are so warm it keeps my legs nice and toasty unlike the rest of my body that feels like an iceberg.

26th November 2023

Snow was forecast today, I looked out of the window for warning signs, but the sky was grey but not threatening.

I had wood to cut up so I dragged the saw outside just as a few flakes of snow fluttered down.

We finished the chairs by reupholstering them in a black and white fabric. We had a lot of it left from a previous project, and we felt it looked good. We now hope they will sell quickly.

Kelli’s sleeping pattern has improved, she now averages seven hours a night, even when I have to get up to “splash me boots” she is able to get to sleep again.

It has taken us two years to get to this point, and I had no idea what a lack of sleep can do. I did not understand the healing qualities of sleep the body needs, and I had no idea that eating meat again could make such a difference. All I know is Kelli is back from her hell, there is still a way to go on her journey, but we now see progress.

25th November 2023

I finally got around to changing the cistern on the laundry room toilet. I had exhausted all excuses, and rather than antagonise Kelli any more, I rolled up my sleeves and set about the job.

I laid the instruction sheet out and followed it to the letter, even though I thought I didn’t need it.

At least over here there is alway a tap on the water supply line which makes maintenance very easy. I proceeded to take the old bits apart, getting covered in a black substance that stained my fingers.

It took about an hour to do the job, including the adjustments to optimise the water flow.

Triumphantly I carried the old cistern parts out to the rubbish bin and threw them in.

Once that was done I lightly sanded the chairs ready for another finish coat. These were originally from Asia so the timber was a strange combination of grains and colours, but once the seat pads are recovered from the brown vinyl they will look wonderful.

I collected all the drawer parts from the dresser we found on the street in Grand Rapids.

It had one complete drawer, two without fronts and one drawer missing, so this one will take some time to finish.

I also had some veneer repairs to a drawer front from the mid century piece to work on.

24th November 2023

Everything is back to normal, the fridge is full of leftovers and the city collected the rubbish.

It was time to get back to doing stuff in the garage.

It is now noticeably cold with the garage door open, cold enough for me to wear a hat, although the shape of my head causes the hat to slide up, making me look like an elf. This is amusing to Kelli who keeps motioning me to pull it down.

I had three drawers to make new floors for, so out came the table saw to cut up the large sheet of plywood. I had removed the old ones by knocking out the back piece of the drawer box. These were in a bad state and needed a bit of repair.

Kelli sprayed a coat of finish on the four chairs that I had stripped, and started work on yet another dresser.

Lunchtime meant a plate of leftover turkey, stuffing balls and red cabbage, yum yum.

Then back out in the cold to do more stuff.

Kelli put new knobs on the previous dresser we’d finished so we took new pictures and reposted it.

We got a bite straight away from a lady living in Florida who plans to move back to Holland in March, it would mean storing it until then, but hey ho! a sale is a sale.