Author: peterb51

10th May 2022

It was hot, thank goodness, we’ve gone straight from heating to air conditioning without a break, a sign that something is changing.

I still had dirt to move, as I head towards the really heavy job to come.

There was a visit from Jim, who I had never met before. He stopped round to talk about a rocking chair he wanted stripping. He was friends with my other customer where I stripped six chairs of theirs. I guess the word is spreading that I am cheap, but little do they know it’s part of my cunning plan to draw them in, then WHAM! “Next year Rodney we’ll be millionaires”.

Well not exactly, but I’m learning about the time it takes to do these jobs, and the rate changes with each project.

Kelli had finished the dresser/baby changer so we took pictures and posted them. Two hours later we had it sold. The couple drove forty minutes from Grand Rapids, and she was heavily pregnant, I think she bought it just in time.

9th May 2022

It was a difficult day for Kelli and therefore a challenging one for me. The lack of sleep sent her into a tailspin which made communication impossible. I don’t know if it’s my lack of knowledge about the menopause, or my lack of empathy that makes a bad day into a disastrous one.

Throughout my life I have stepped away from those around me who are in a “ bad mood” because I didn’t want to hamper them, and allow them to vent the bad day out of them.

I guess that is the wrong thing to do as it signals that I don’t care. I’m not confrontational, I don’t want to be drawn into an argument which, in my opinion can make things worse.

I have to continue to experience Kelli’s good and bad days, and try to go against my instincts and fight along side her in the battles.

It was such a shame as it was a glorious day, the sun shone and it was warm enough for me to get my shorts on.

I started stripping the bed frame, a long and tedious job, that will eventually be stained and finished.

I had to collect a dresser from Saugatuck, and a bag of redimix concrete and ten circular paving blocks.

There were lots of slow drivers from out of state obviously here for the tulip festival, and I thought I drove slow.

I continued to move dirt. At the beginning I thought “ have I ordered enough” now it’s “ did I order too much, but with dirt, there is alway somewhere to use it.

8th May 2022

It was Mother’s Day over here and Kelli had volunteered us to tidy up the flower bed in the front lawn of her mother’s home. Like we haven’t been working on the land enough. I’ve seen more dirt than I’ve experienced in a lifetime. The pile on the front drive doesn’t get any smaller even though I’ve covered half the area of the new lawn.

We finished our duty and were rewarded with a slice, or two of chocolate tart.

We have a gardening ritual that we have to follow for a couple of weeks now, that is to water the front part of garden twice a day to keep all the seeds damp, then, with a bit of luck loads of colourful wild flowers should appear.

I also gave the front lawn its first cut of the year, there was a lot of moss on it which didn’t make me very happy, but I’m expecting a delivery of the next treatment for the grass in a week or so, hopefully that will sort it out.

Something has eaten all the heads off our tulips in the stone circle at the front of the house, all of them.

We are not sure if deer have come down for a midnight feast, but that pissed us off.

7th May 2022

The person selling the pond liner finally replied to Kelli’s message where she inquired about dimensions. A pond was a feature of our new landscape, and at forty dollars it was quite a bargain. Eventually the sizes were revealed and we made arrangements to collect whilst we were out getting supplies.

Of course nothing happens without incident, and this time a free desk was available at the side of the road.

We set off in search of the piece, Kelli’s brain was working overtime calculating the shortest route. We got to the street heading east, she suddenly stopped the truck having seen the desk on the other side of the cross road on the west side. She spun the truck around and zeroed in on her pray. How she saw it by glimpsing in the rear view mirror I’ll never know, I barely see what is directly behind me, when I use it.

We loaded it into the truck, it was too large to be able to get the pond in as well, so we headed back home to unload.

As we approached the address with the pond we saw the tell tell signs of crazy stupid, in other words, a Trump flag. My breakfast nearly came back for a second time, but a bargain was a bargain, so with my hand over my mouth I grabbed the pond and Kelli stuffed the money under a toy, as we made our escape.

I stopped off at Menards to buy some supplies. The traffic was crazy because today is the first day of the tulip time. This is when the town is besieged by people looking at the tulip displays. The locals curse under their breaths at the roads are packed with slow moving cars viewing the flowers planted neatly by the side of the roads.

6th May 2022

It was an unusual day, it rained, which was not unusual, but from a sales perspective there was an unexpected turn.

We were expecting someone to come and collect a small nightstand that we’ve had for longer that we wanted. Kelli had lowered the price quite a bit in order to move it.

When the buyers arrived they were happy with the nightstand, but we’re excited with the bright teal dresser that we had just posted. They weren’t put off by the high price on it, and as we had to do a bit of touching up before we would let it go, they asked to be notified when it was ready.

This was all the incentive we needed to tidy it up.

Kelli called later and offered free delivery, and it was sold. We loaded it in the truck and off we went. We returned with money in our hand and a belief that there are people out there who like striking colours.

Later we had a buyer for the white dresser that we had been holding for several days.

So in one day we sold three items, that doesn’t happen that often.

We had an inquiry from an existing customer to repaint a dresser that they had. They wanted it done in the same colour as the piece they bought from us, which was a light blue.

Hopefully they find the price acceptable.

5th May 2022

Well the Red Devil has been completed and it certainly isn’t red anymore. The bright teal drawers and side panel really standout from the walnut stained carcass, we have certain reservations, but we’re bored with white, and this is very different, time will tell if it sells.

We drove to Hamilton to collect the piece that Kelli found on Marketplace last night. It would have helped if the seller gave us the correct address, but we found it in the end. We were in deep Trump country, very evident when we stopped at a house to get directions.

Eventually we found the place, and there it was, a long white painted mid century record player. It was similar to one we sold last year, but that was just a clean and polish, this will require much more work, but could’ve worth it.

I ordered the turf for the back garden, and I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a pottery with all the clay that was in my top soil, I could make a few pots.

They were apologetic and promised to make up any shortfall if I needed it.

I carried on laying the dirt to level the area for lawn using wooden peg knocked into the ground to give me a level point. Once covered I used a wooden plank to firm it up.

I have divided the ground up into workable/ manageable areas, so it should be finished in time for the turf to arrive.

4th May 2022

I had no idea what six cubic yards of top soil looked like, but I do now. A mountain of black dirt features prominently in the driveway. Dark and menacing it waits patiently to be deposited over the back garden, levelling the ground waiting for the rolls of turf to finish the job.

First I had to cover the area at the front with enough of the black stuff so we could spread the contents of all the packets of wild flowers seeds that we had accumulated.

There is nothing technical about spreading tiny seeds that are nothing more then specs of dust, but not knowing how few, or if any will germinate is frustrating.

Kelli finished painting the transformed Red Devil whilst I started moving dirt into the back garden.

With all this activity we still found time to pick up some free furniture, we can never pass that up.

During the evening Kelli showed me a picture of a mid century style piece on her phone, I thought it looked pleasant, but I also noticed it had “Sold” on the page.

“So you bought it then” I said smiling, “Mmm” she replied. So I guess we have another pick up tomorrow.

Oh the big new is I got my green card in the post, fantastic, I’m no longer an non-resident alien, just an alien.

It’s been a long two years waiting, and then Flash, Bang! It’s all over, now I don’t feel trapped anymore.

3rd May 2022

We had to stop the top soil delivery because it was due to rain all day and I didn’t want it washed away. Kelli made a call and rescheduled it for tomorrow when it will be dry.

We finished a dresser today, took pictures and posted it, and sold it straight away, collection on Thursday, May is getting off to a good start.

The Red Devil is going through a complete metamorphosis, all the red paint has been removed and I’ve stained the frame and top in a Mocha stain whilst Kelli has painted the drawer in a bright aqua, it really pops.

2nd May 2022

I wanted to move the mountain of dirt I had accumulated when I excavated for the decking. I had stored it at the far end of the garden under the pine trees. I wanted to use it to level the area in the front garden that will be turned over to wild flowers.

Each shovel full had to be sifted to remove all the dead grass and roots. It was exhausting work, barrowing from the back to the front and tipping it into heaps then back again. Nine times later it was all done and ready to be mixed into the existing soil, ready for the delivery of top soil tomorrow.

Once settled down in the evening watching a bit of television, Kelli saw the friend of Larry stumbling from his van ( like he often does) but this time he fell to the floor and appeared to flounder trying to get up.

I put my shoes on and rushed over to help him. It was pretty clear that he was drunk, I could smell it across the road. I tried to help him up but he complained that his legs didn’t work, I was pretty sure the rest of him wasn’t either.

I managed to get him to his feet using Larry’s truck to get purchase on, he stood but when he tried to walk his legs buckled under him and he hit the ground, banging his head on the path. So my intervention didn’t help, but rather set him up to get injured. I tried again, finding a spade to act as a support, he wanted to go back to his van to rest. I lifted him up again and we slowly moved one wobbly leg after another getting him to his vehicle, I guess he would stay there until he sobered up.

It was a small insight into someone’s troubled life where alcohol can seem to be the remedy but is often the cause.

1st May 2022

One of the last things I do in the evening is washing up. Even though we have a dishwasher I find hand washing a nice peaceful thing to do.

However it does amaze me the amount of stuff in the sink. There are just two of us, but the number of things to be washed is totally out of proportion. No matter what we eat at mealtime the sink is still full. It appears that every knife, fork and spoon we have is used everyday, including the grotty ones that I avoid. Every measuring cup and spoon along with a large and small whisk finds its way from the drawer to the dirty pile. It’s like deja vu and Groundhog Day everyday. Thank goodness that all the sauce and frying pans don’t follow the same pattern.

As I am busy up to my elbows in suds, the dogs take up positions at my feet looking up with those pleading eyes “any scraps for us master?” It is my fault, of course, I throw them the remains, equally divided that they inhale.

The worse job is removing scrambled egg from the large saucepan. Since we’ve been eating eggs this is the one thing Kelli likes to do. She aims to get closer to the eggs her father used to make. Occasionally I get “ these are very close” but to me they taste great anyway.

But trying to clean the residue is incredibly difficult, I should use it in the garage to glue things together, along with essences of fly that adheres to the trucks windscreen, I wouldn’t have to buy adhesive ever again.