Author: peterb51

1st November 2021

“ Quick, get in the car there are some free chairs by the road lakeside”.

I was just finishing the first leaf mulching exercise of the autumn.

“Mum saw them as she was driving back from the post office” Kelli was all excited, and was waiting by the truck, like a Battle of Britain pilot ready to into action.

I jumped into the passenger side, and we set off.

About a mile down the road I could see them.

Now to decode what “ lakeside” meant you have to know what the properties are like on the lakeshore. They are often enormous, they have more rooms than are acceptable to the normal human with manicured lawns to die for.

So it would be expected to find an old piece of Chippendale that someone had got fed up with, but no, the sight ahead was nothing that desirable.

There were five chairs, all different and in various stages of disintegration. I would have been embarrassed to place them outside my house.

“ We could sell them as project pieces and get ten bucks a piece”.

“No one with normal eyesight would give you a cent for any of them.” I muttered.

Needless to say we did not get them.

It was time for my hair cut. Kelli put on he glasses, always a good sign, meaning less blood spilt.

It was funny to note that when I was much younger, I could easily tell how much hair was cut because of the piles of dark hair on the ground. Now, because I am so grey it blends with the floor.

Also it doesn’t take half as long.

31st October 2021

Sure as the setting sun, Kelli decided to change the colour of the storage cupboard. Although only listed a couple of days she was nervous that teal was the reason that there was little interest.

There is never any pattern to sales, mostly they go very quick, and if they don’t she gets panicky.

We went out early to collect a free island unit on the north side of the town. It wasn’t a brilliant piece but we could give it a quick clean and just sell it on.

As soon as we got back Kelli grabbed the paintbrush and started work transforming the cupboard.

I continued sanding anything in sight getting two tops for a couple of dressers that are work in progress.

We had a couple of young children turn up expecting treats. The dogs went crazy, so I was trying to control them, and find the bowl of treats we keep on the kitchen worktop.

They made their choice, and ran off without a word to an awaiting car.

I smiled to myself because what they chose were healthy nut bars and not the sickly sweets they might have expected, I guess they will remember, and give us a wide birth next year.

30th October 2021

There is nothing finer than putting my feet up at the end of the day with a cup of coffee, and looking forward to eating leftovers for dinner.

Kelli had spray painted the two side tables, and I had finished laying up the tops.

Typically, she also made a start on the dresser we picked up yesterday. I stripped the top, and she primed and painted a first coat on the drawers and the carcass. This now puts me under pressure to finish the top.

We have been tearing through the sandpaper, because that’s all I seem to be doing lately.

Kelli rifled through the snack bin to find some things for the trick or treaters. All we had were vegan suitable snack bars. She set two bowls on a wicker table in the driveway with a sign inviting the kids to help themselves. To help them notice it, a candle was left flickering.

I’m not sure of the reaction, two groups of witches stopped by and helped themselves, but were they disappointed by the lack of sweets?

Apparently all the trick or treating had to be completed 8.00pm, so I brought in the remnants and blew out the candle, Halloween over for another year.

29th October 2021

The time of pumpkins and trick or bloody treat is drawing near, we will not be participating at all. My last attempts carving a pumpkin resulted in a total collapse of my vegetable. I vowed that the shame and embarrassment would not be repeated.

We might sit in the house with the lights off in case the hordes of children dressed in their crazy costumes come knocking.

Kelli found another free dresser that we went to collect. It was a decent piece covered in children’s pictures. These were well stuck down, no doubt with kiddies spit and puke.

It took a lot to strip them off.

We finally finished the next teal coloured piece, and got it posted on Marketplace, the tension is high whether we get it into this month’s sales figures.

Kelli continues to sell items from her slimmed down wardrobe, and other objects that have been filling up the cupboards. One day I will get to all my recording equipment that is hidden behind all the stuff.

Our dinner tonight was a vegan Lasagna, made with lentils, it is a masterpiece, equal to anything on master chief.

28th October 2021

By our standards we were on the road early, that is 10.00am. We had to deliver the desk and chair to a mobile home site in Saugatuck.

It was a pleasant drive down, the trees are beginning to turn, which is a wonderful sight.

The site was in a forested area, some homes looked rough, as do a lot of them on these sites, but the guy was happy with his purchases, and we were happy with his money, so win win.

It’s pleasant to watch the leaves sprinkle down, the gold against the green, but what spoils it is when the entire tree deposits every thing at once with a thud.

I want to use the leaves this year. Instead of raking them into piles by the side of the road I want to mulch them and cover the flower beds to help protect the plants from the cold. We watched a number of TV gardening programs on this, so it is worth a try.

I made a start on the new tops for the side tables. I had cut up the large panel into the pieces I needed, and added the offcuts to the underside to give the top extra thickness, this meant that there was nothing left, so excellent utilisation.

27th October 2021

A drive to Zeeland to deliver a dresser. The lady was delighted, and in a very loud voice told us it would go very well in her “cottage”.

This was another good sell, we then set off to look at a free dresser close by. The warning bell started ringing as we pulled into a mobile home park. That is not to say all mobile home parks are “dodgy” but this was. Everything looked a bit tired and well past it’s sell by date. We found the dresser outside, and looking at it from a distance it seemed okay. But looking at it closely there were bumps and blisters all over it, some of the drawers were missing bottom panels, so on my advice we left it there.

Arriving back home there was lots to do. First was giving a clear coat to the chair that went with the desk that we are delivering tomorrow.

We loaded the desk into the truck to give us a bit more space and reduce the risk of me tripping over things.

26th October 2021

This is the time of year to treat the lawn ready for winter. I applied a nutrient that should give a good feed and is part of a program that sends me the organic supplements at regular periods to keep the grass in good condition.

We poster the first dresser of the week, this was painted in a dark teal, which is a little outside our comfort zone. We found the paint on the “cheap” shelf at Menards. This is where customers return paint that had been mixed and was the wrong shade, anyway we have a tin of this colour now, so get ready to see more furniture in teal

The dresser was sold in a few hours which was brilliant, I wasn’t sure it would go that fast, but I was proved wrong again.

25th October 2021

I finally have a date for my dental appointment. Kelli called to arranged a session to have my teeth prepared for a double crown.

This is something I am not looking forward to, I would far rather beat myself over the head with a stick. I have made sure there is nothing happening to my gums since I had a flare up soon after I had the root canal.

Kelli had a big clear out of all the packaging materials she had collected from all the deliveries she gets. It got to the point where the incoming was greater than the outgoings.

She posted on Marketplace as a freebie, and sure enough someone came and took it all.

There were jobs to do in the garage, we are aiming to get two pieces finished and posted this week, so the pressure is on.

24th October 2021

Once there is a paintbrush in her hand Kelli becomes a painting machine. Two carcasses were subject to her activity. I was struggling with a top for one of the dressers. I had to replace the front with a new piece of oak salvaged from another piece we had earlier in the year.

This meant setting up my skill saw to zip it off.

Things were going well until “Zing!” I hit a staple, bugger. Fortunately there was only one, the rest of the cut was uneventful.

I laid up the new front strip to the top and left it to dry, which takes an age in the new cold temperature.

The garage is in a mess, there is paint scrapings over the floor, I try to clean up as I go, but because I flit around from piece to piece I end up depositing crap everywhere I go.

23rd October 2021

All finished and collected, the chairs have gone back to their home. I did a final check, and then Kelli did the final final check.

The owners came down as soon as they knew they were finished, and gave me more cash than I was asking for. They loved the result, and I was glad they were happy.

But there is no time to sit around, (the chairs were no longer around) there are three dressers ready to be worked on, and plenty more things to be sanded, so I won’t get bored.

Today was the first day working in the garage with the door closed with the heaters on, all downhill to winter now.

Later we went up to Kelli’s mums to celebrate Matt’s (Kelli’s brother)birthday. It was time for a slice of cake and ice cream.