Author: peterb51

29th September 2022

We were awoken by the sound of tree branches being fed into a chipper. It is a horrible noise that signals the death of a tree. It was a sunny morning, I hurriedly got dressed and rushed outside to put the bins out.

The wild turkeys were out in force pecking furiously at seeds in our wild flower garden.

They didn’t seemed bothered by the workers chewing up the poor tree as they gathered in larry’s front yard.

I continued working on my few projects, the kitchen cabinet, and a small oak dresser that I had stripped back to raw wood.

I had another distraction that I wanted to pursue. Dhama has began to dig in the asparagus bed, and since I removed the temporary fence there has been nothing to stop her.

It came to me in a dream, for some reason I was building a low fence out of some scrap timber. To most people it doesn’t sound very exciting or challenging, but I had to pursue it.

I found the timber around the side of the house. Funnily enough it was from a fence I removed a couple of years ago that was in the same area as the new one will go. So one could say “you should have left it there”.

I checked the quantity of wood pieces, and devised the cutting list, and it might be just enough.

So I set about cutting, notching and assembling a sample, and as far as I can remember it was pretty close to the one in my dream, now another three sections to make.

28th September 2022

It was another chilly day, the smell of autumn is strong, I miss the summer with its disregard of thick clothes, now it’s a case of searching frantically for them.

We spend the evening planning where to move the plants now that there is a larger bed area. Although there is still a bit of life left in them it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead.

We had a sale of the latest dresser that will be collected at the week end.

I was looking at the state of my new lawn. Some areas of turf just didn’t knit into the soil and I can’t understand why. It was well watered, but some of the dead patches could still be lifted, and even with all the recent rain the subsoil was dry, that was so depressing. I have started to reseed by cutting through the turf and adding new top soil mixed with the anti dog seed. Some places have grown, and looks healthy and strong, but let’s see what a harsh Michigan winter will do to it.

27th September 2022

After another bad nights sleep, the day was rather sober, it took a lot to get going.

I had received answers to some questions that I had poised to the guy I was building the kitchen cabinet for. I wanted to match his original kitchen units as best I could.

I had to leave a hole in the kick plate to allow the AC to vent into the room, but as it is only three inches high I couldn’t find a small grill in any of the DIY stores.

So I will cut a hole, and let him source one himself.

Kelli finished a dresser that had to be photographed. We decided todo it outside as the light is better. Once that was done she posted it, and almost at once she had a scammer.

These are a pest because all they want is your phone number that they use to scam others. Kelli is very wise to it now, and tries to piss them off as best she can.

We decided to get a takeaway delivered, it wasn’t the day to cook dinner, and Take out Tuesday has become the norm.

26th September 2022

Back to Plato’s with another three bags of unwanted clothes, this time the autumn collection. Kelli dropped me off at Harbour Freight a man’s tool shop where they sell low price tools. It’s the equivalent of IKEA for furniture. Some of it is rubbish and some is good, a lot of the power tools are good and reliable, and with the kind of work I do they are adequate.

I walked over to Plato’s to meet Kelli, that is when I noticed how chilly it was, by the time I got there I was numb with the cold.

There was plenty of things to do back at the garage, Kelli went off to collect a dresser from our storage facility whilst I stripped a top of its bubbled veneer. It was curious piece, apart from a terrible grain paint effect, the veneer had torn across the grain. Once I stripped everything off I could see how the substrate was constructed. There was a frame around the perimeter made from oak and beech, this allowed the oak veneer to be overlaid and blended into the frame. The middle was filled with pieces of beech, all glued together. My theory about the torn veneer must be down to expansion of these middle pieces,and an adhesive that wasn’t elastic enough to cope.

In the good old days it would have been cross banded, now I have to decide what to do with it.

25th September 2022

Autumn is a wonderful time of year, the tree change their colours and so does Kelli.

All through the summer her hair was getting lighter, but now it was due for a change.

At different times she considered letting her grey (what little she has) take over, however now she decided to tint it dark.

What then happens bottles and packets arrive in the post, but today was the day.

She locked herself in the bathroom, as I , and the dogs amused ourselves.

I first realised something was wrong when she rushed out shouting “ it’s too dark, it’s too dark!”

“It’s not that dark” was my

Meagre response.

“ It’s black! I look like a witch” she shrieked.

“Well Halloween is next month” was just something I must not say without succumbing to major injury.

She was now in panic mode, I remembered this happening once before, and the drastic action that had to be taken.

How do you reverse the colour that you have just added? The answer is simple, a colour reversal kit.

An order was placed with the home shopping team, and thirty minutes later it was delivered to our door.

A minute later it was applied, and she had to rinse her hair for twenty minutes. Poor girl she emerged like a wrinkled prune, with her hair, maybe not so dark, but still not right.

Then it was vinegar and lemon, her hair did not know what hit it. Several hours earlier it was growing happily on her head, then it was hit by a combination of organic compounds, it’s a wonder it didn’t fall out.

The rest of the day was a disaster, Kelli was annoyed about her hair, I constantly tried to reassure her that it looked the same as her natural colour, but that was no consolation, now it’s down to time, and a few multiple washes until it fades.

Who’d be a woman eh?

◦

24th September 2022

We drove to the garden centre to buy something to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The idea was to find an appropriate plant or object that would be a reminder of our forth year. It would then become a annual event to get something new for the garden.

As it is close to the end of the season things were sparse, but we stumbled through the foliage looking for something different.

We decided that a tree would be nice, but Kelli wanted an object, so we compromised and got both.

The tree was a weeping Norway spruce which is a bizarre looking object with a curvy trunk and droopy tails.

The other piece looks like a pile of pebbles, about three feet tall. It has a steel bar running though the middle of each pebble, it looks cool, and I’m sure we’ll find a good place for it.

Getting both things into the truck was a task in itself because they were both heavy. The tree was over five foot tall and it was almost at the limit of both of us, but we did managed it.

The worst bit was to come. Once we got back the challenge was to get it out of the truck, into a small barrow and wheel it round to the back gate and through to the new flower bed.

We chose the position, and I dug a hole so deep we should have struck oil, then I filled it in again. Finally it was lowered into the hole and bedded in.

The pebble pile was the next trial, one of them was broken and needed repair. A blob of epoxy solved that problem.

We stuck it in a temporary place, mainly became my bones ached and I had enough of carrying heavy loads for the day.

23rd September 2023

Well my rocks turned up and were dumped on the driveway.

I expect the neighbours must think we are building a road with all the hardcore, dirt and now boulders that have been piled up on the drive, I now have to move the bloody stuff.

Kelli went off to collect something she had found on Marketplace last night. I had some drawer fronts to cut for the kitchen cabinet , another reason why I need a track saw.

My shorts have now been retired for another year. There is a noticeable drop in temperature, a harsh reminder of what is to come, I even need to wear a work coat to keep warm.

There was a dresser that needed to be picked up on the south side of Holland. When we got there I was surprised by how small it was, from the picture I was prepared for something much bigger, so it was easy to load.

22nd September 2022

It was wedding anniversary day, four years, and boy has it flown. There has been Covid and Kelli’s health issues that had marred two years, so it is hoping that it’s uphill from here.

We first had to take Dhama to the Vets because her back leg had not healed, even though she had been on anti-inflammatory tablets for a number of weeks now. This visit was the time for an X-ray to check her bones.

We had to leave her there whilst we went off to do our business.

First was a drive to Saugatuck to deliver the three tables that I refinished. They turned out good, there were faults that I couldn’t remove and I got most of the stains out. The guy was happy with the result which is alway a relief.

We had lunch at the Saugatuck brewing company, then a mooch around the town before driving back to collect Dhama.

There was nothing conclusive about her problem, they think it is nothing more than a strained muscle or ligament, she has to stay on the anti-inflammatory for the time being, and some muscle relaxations tablets. Bang! Went the money for the tables, I think I need some relaxation for my muscles.

21st September 2022

Off we drove to Zeeland to collect a mid century style dresser, then on to Hudsonville to pick up a low TV unit. To say it was heavy was an understatement, for something so small to weigh so much there must be lead in it somewhere.

On the was we passed the Herman Miller main site with the new MillerKnoll signage, it felt strange to see it and to not the old logo, it was sad, soon all the trucks and trailers will follow, then the big red trucks will also be consigned to history.

We dropped off the new pieces at Georgia’s storage facility (Kelli’s mum’s garage) then drove back home.

I finished the last coats on the small table tops, and cleaned and waxed the legs ready for the delivery tomorrow.

I also managed to finish and fit the drawer in the kitchen cabinet, and also dug a bit more of the restyled top garden, a good day.

Since the pandemic we have had our groceries delivered, this has been really convenient and not that expensive. We have had our share of missing items, or things we didn’t order, but tonight there was the ultimate. Both of us were not around when the delivery was made, I was suspicious when I saw a large pizza on top of a pack of fizzy drinks. Kelli took one look, announcing that everything was wrong, we had someone else’s order.

She was straight on the phone to the home shopping delivery service. They told us that we could keep the order or give it away, and we would be credited for the order we didn’t get.

What we had delivered was not small, it must have been fifty dollars or more, and some poor sod would have had ours.

We gave it all to the family across the road, they have four kids , most of it would have been devoured by the time we got to the bottom of the path.

20th September 2022

Thunder storms were expected, which curtailed our outside working. Kelli had the finishing touches to do to the twin headboards, but we decided to take pictures ahead of the rain.

As the storm started we moved all the pieces inside the garage including the bed frames themselves. I was struggling with them, no matter how I stood them up they kept falling over, at one point I thought they were going to hit me. I shouted oaths, Kelli heard them and came to the rescue. She just placed them in the same place as I did, and they stayed there.

She posted them on Marketplace and they were soon snapped up, not bad for a roadside find and a bit of paint.

I drove the the landscape suppliers to order some rocks, but first stopped at the bank to draw out some cash. I needed petrol so I pulled in to the pump, handed my money over and started to dispense the fuel. Suddenly this car pulled up on the other side of the pump with music blasting out.

Yes it was a tall black dude, and the music, or should I say, sound, was aggressive rap. He left his car, and the noise, as he strutted into the kiosk. Now I like music, but not this type, I tried to pump the fuel faster just to get finished and away before my ears started bleeding.

I’m not sure why he believed the world deserved to hear his playlist, but Kelli remarked that it was stereotypical of the black community, therefore it was accepted.

I drove off from the petrol station and made my way to the landscaping supplier.

I ordered a cubic yard of river rocks, large enough not to fall through the holes in the gabions, that’s being delivered on Friday.

Later the buyer for the headboards turned up just as another storm hit. It didn’t deter the loading, with good humour, both headboards fitted perfectly into their truck. This was a quick turnaround, from free to finish was three days.

We also packed the pool away. As we still have the original box it came it, I can’t believe it could ever have fitted in it. It must have taken some well trained children and an elephant to packed it. We ended up putting it into a large plastic crate, but it’s gone for another year, and the space looks empty without it.