Author: peterb51

30th April 2022

I had every intention to work on the front garden patch that will be transformed into a wild flower paradise, well anytime will be better.

I have tried to reseed it several times but the ground is not good, and there is shade from a tree.

Whilst I had the ground muncher I went over this area, but now I had to remove all the chunks of weeds, moss and grass.

But, we had to drive to Zeeland to collect three raised bed frames. For what I paid I could not have bought the material and the time to make them myself.

Then the rain came, with all the exposed dirt in the back garden I was dreading letting the dogs out and getting mud everywhere, so I quickly rigged up some barricades out of anything I could find. That confused the little buggers, they just stared across land they would normally chase squirrels.

We got on with some work. Kelli coated the tops for the two side tables, whilst I continued to sand the top for the Red Devil.

Then we both turned our attention to stripping the red monster. Kelli with her heat gun and I with my scraper. Soon the floor was covered in red bits, it looked like a murder scene.

Later in the afternoon a truck turned up with a huge covered trailer in tow.

The buyer of the dresser had come to collect and deliver to us the queen size bed frame that they wanted stripped, stained and refinished.

Now the garage is totally full, and I’m starting to freak myself out.

29th April 2022

Kelli had a doctors appointment this morning. She had her notebook with lists of questions she bombards him with. He checked her over and was delighted that her residence reflex was strong, with no need to change, or add to her supplements.

Next stop was the landscape supplies to order six cubic yards of topsoil, this will be delivered next Tuesday.

No trip out would be complete without collecting furniture of some description, and that’s exactly what we did. We picked up two pieces that barely fitted into the truck. We now have a full garage, and no room for anything else.

We finished a small nightstand and took pictures, this went on Marketplace straight away.

Kelli painted the two side tables that we made from the desk whilst I finished making the tops.

I started scraping the paint off the Red Devil, boy who thought that was a good colour?

28th April Thursday

There was a constant “Beep beep” all day from a house down the road. They were having some landscaping done, but the small digger just made this annoying noise. Normally it only sounds when it goes in reverse, but this did it in all directions.

Fortunately we had to go to Goodwill, they had moved premises, and this was the grand opening day. The car park was full, Holland folk love an event.. They would attend the opening of a crisp packet if they could get any crumbs.

I was disappointed, they didn’t have any furniture, this was the main reason for going. That didn’t stop people from filling their carts to the brim with every piece of tat available.

We left there with a few highly coloured flower pots heading towards the real reason for going out, collecting a dresser.

We pulled up at this house in a tasteful area, and I saw a bright red painted piece of furniture appearing to glow in the dull light of the garage.

Yes, it was bright, but the design was pleasant, that with extensive sanding it could be a lot less red.

A Young lad seemed to be in charge of the sale, he was also selling a classical guitar that Kelli was keen to learn, but that was not red.

We struck a deal and loaded the dresser into the back of the truck and drove back to the wonderful sound of “Beep bloody beep”

There were plenty of things to get on with, Kelli finished a small side table, and I did a bit of repair to the two pedestals from the desk we got yesterday.

I had to do a repair to the screen door that separates the garage from the entry way.

Over the winter, the joints sagged so it didn’t fit in the opening, that was annoying, so I had taken it off a day or so before, but today I knocked it apart and rebuilt it adding adhesive to all the joints and clamping it up.

27th April 2022

Now it is the long rake, removing all the tufts of grass and crap from the churned up garden.

This is a tedious task, but if I want to get turf laid before the weather gets too hot I need to get a move on and get the top soil ordered.

We had to go and collect an old desk from a local address. It used to belong to a former mayor of Holland, but now it is being cleared out by the daughters following the passing of their mother. We showed them some of the other desks we have repurposed into night stands and they were glad we could make something useful.

I was able to strip it down quickly, it was a good quality piece, and with the addition of new tops it will be great.

I checked on the USCIS website this evening not expecting to see any updates, but there it was, notification that my green card was being produced and should be with me soon.

This has been a long two years, at times I thought I had been over looked so often. Covid certainly caused a delay, and there was always doubt that we should have had an attorney, but we didn’t think we had a complicated case and decided to go it alone.

It looks like that paid off for us

26th April 2022

The land muncher was collected from the rental company. A quick tutorial and I was on my own. I had to also rent the towing hitch as the truck has a tow bar but not the ball thing.

I spent quite a while trying to get the part into the receptacle but as it has not been used in ten years it was full of loose rust. I wiggled away trying to achieve full engagement, but no luck. Eventually with squirts of oil and a hammer the docking manoeuvre was complete and I was on my way.

Once I got home I off loaded the muncher and drove it into the back garden.

I was instructed to run it in first gear which was painfully slow, the digging things dug into the sandy soul leaving a trail of dirt and grass tuffs. I really had to think quickly and knock it out of gear to avoid crashing through the fence, then it was the case of a hundred point turn to make the return run. The whole experience was exhausting, made worse by me forcing the diggers deep where I was almost horizontal.

In a relatively short time I had transformed the green of the back garden into a sea of dirt.

Now the next job is to remove all the dead grass and roots then level the site.

I managed to get the machine back to the rental company two hours early giving me a sizeable refund.

I will give myself a bit of a rest and start the raking tomorrow.

25th April 2022

The green is gradually appearing on the trees, and in our garden, the apple, cherry and plum trees are really showing signs of life. In the greenhouse almost every day new green bits appear through the dirt, much to the squealing from Kelli.

After yesterday’s warmth it was much cooler, so back to flannel shirts and coats.

We visited Goodwill for the first time in a long while. The site on our side of town is moving to a new location, so it was closed, only to reopen on Thursday.

Instead we went to the one on the other side of town and picked up a Steampunk inspired table and a dark tatty side table. It was grasping at straws, but we needed some small things to work on.

I called the tool rental company to arrange a heavy duty tiller, I called it a rotovator, and of course they had no idea what I was talking about. I’ve alway associated tiller with sailing, so it seems weird to use that work. Anyway, that is booked for tomorrow.

I start the next stage in the transformation of the back garden, getting rid of the terrible weed infested old lawn and starting again will be exciting, but it is going to look terrible before it looks better.

24th April 2022

“ I’m not going into that garage” was Kelli cry when we pulled up to a place on the north side of town to look at some furniture posted this morning. I must have to admit the place did resemble something out of a hoarders paradise, with crap all over the driveway.

The pieces we were planning to view were a couple of dressers, one was very ornate, the other was a simple design of six drawers and a narrow door, presumably a small wardrobe.

The garage itself was a bloody mess, there was crap everywhere. I opened one of the drawers where there was the remanence of seeds, either left by a mouse or squirrel, I didn’t want to inquire which.

The seller guided us towards two large ornate pieces, they were heavy, but the decorative fronts were plastic mouldings over a wood backer, similar to a piece we have in the garage. The dresser was over six foot long and just plain ugly. The simple unit was made from MDF, and I’ve had a gutful of those recently, so we passed on all of it.

I did inquire if he was clearing the house out (maybe the owners had died or something?) but he replied that he was moving and wanted to get rid of stuff. It was a good job I didn’t say anything about clearing out a hoarders house, I would have been killed.

As soon as we got into the truck Kelli desperately looked for the hand sanitizer, if there was more of it we would have bathed in the stuff just to feel clean.

Around mid afternoon the person arrived to collect the other dresser, and as the thunder rumbled and the rain drew in we closed the garage doors on another day.

23rd April 2022

The hottest day of the year so far, but it won’t last. More little green things were sprouting in the greenhouse. It won’t be long before the place will become the hanging bloody gardens of Babylon.

A lady came to view a dresser (a dresser? what a surprise !) we had one finished and ready to go and another in progress. After some deliberation she decided on the one we have yet to finish, but she also wants us to refinish a queen bed frame which will be a good little earner, and give Kelli more spraying experience. With a fifty percent deposit in our hand, it was the end of a good day.

Kelli also sold the smaller dresser to a repeat customer. You never know how thing will go, it’s feast to famine all the time.

22nd April 2022

I had to drive to install the jewellery drawer into a entertainment unit that a lady had commissioned me to build.

I had carefully taken all the relevant dimensions so I was confident that it should go well.

Thank goodness that I had built it with screws holding it together as the entrance was a lot narrower than the inside so it had to be disassembled first. Then I discovered that the unit got narrower as it got to the top. Dimensionally it was correct where it was positioned, with a total clearence of an eighth of an inch. However that was not enough because I needed to tilt the frame to attach the top.

It was easier to take the top back home and skim off a bit more material from the top panel.

That was a drag, but at least I could do it without trying to bodge a solution. Had I had the unit in the garage I would have taken the back panel off and slid the drawer unit in.

Once I returned I was able to complete the build, fit an inside lamp and get paid.

There is one more job she wants me to do which is not very complicated, so I need to give her a quote for that.

21st April 2022

It was a glorious sunny day today, I was able to work in just a short, it felt so liberating.

We had a person come to collect our latest piece, old frostbite. She had driven over an hour to collect it, and didn’t even open the drawers, we just wheeled it over to her truck and lifted it in,and off she went.

We then drove to Saugatuck to collect a couple of cabinets and a bookcase. These were posted by “a guy I dated in high school“ that Kelli mentioned.

There must be many “ guys I dated in high school” still living in Holland, it makes me smile every time she mentions it.

Anyway we drove down a long drive to a large house that had the furniture waiting for us in front of the garage. It was an impressive place for a “guy I dated in high school”

There were chickens running around that caught her attention, so she tried to get close to them.

Then a lady who was married to the “guy I dated in high school” drove up and both started talking about chickens leading to Kelli being able to stroke one up close, that made her day.

Another thing that amazes me is how often Kelli is recognised, either by people who used to shop in her store or the bookshop in Saugatuck where she worked. The phrase, “ I know you from somewhere” is alway followed by either of the two places, of course it could also include Old Navy or Pier 1 imports.

We managed to load both the cabinets into the truck but not the bookcase.

The lady offered to follow us home with the bookcase which was generous.

She later sent a message to Kelli that “the guy I dated in high school” said hi.