Author: peterb51

23rd August 2021

There was a lot of activity over at Larry’s yard. For several weeks he has been working on a kit car. From a distance it looked sleek and stylish, but up close it suffered from all the hallmarks of a cheaply made pile of crap.

As I was busy in the garage I could see Larry, the car’s owner and a mate all trying to get it going. The continual sound of an engine refusing to start was all I heard.

After about an hour there was progress, it turned over once. There was a explosion of raw noise then silence. The guys continued tinkering until it burst into life, and after reving the guts out of it, they got it ready to move it.

We loaded the big fan into the truck to take it to the person who offered to try to fix it.

We didn’t have to go far, but I felt strange leaving it outside his garage and then leaving.

“ Are you sure he knows where it came from?”

I asked.

“ It will be fine, he was expecting it” Kelli replied.

I will wait and see, we may never see it again.

We unloaded the very large dresser from the truck, it was in the French Provincial style, and really heavy.

It was the first time we had a chance to look at it and discovered two doors were missing.

“Oh no not again!” We both said in unison.

We have had the situation before where vital parts were missing, luckily we’ve got them in the end.

A quick message to the person we got it from resulted in a big fat zero. She acquired it without the doors, so we will have to be creative with our solution for this beauty.

22nd August 2021

The person buying the desk turned up this morning to collect it. She was so excited with it as her job has turned into full time home working. She worked for the city on the protection of endangered species, which was difficult for me to imagine a full time job on doing that, but it sounded pretty cool.

We talked about the shortage of bees around, and how my apple trees didn’t get pollinated this spring. Kelli and I plan to check out their website, we are looking for plants that will attract more insects.

Kelli painted the large dresser that I made a new leg frame for, that is starting to look good.

I have to get on with staining and finishing the top.

I took a look at the free one I picked up from the side of the road. When I opened a drawer there was a tv remote inside, I’m not sure what to do with it, should I take it back and put it next to the stuff that is still outside the house? I could throw it out the window of the truck as we pass, like the paperboys of old.

It was a sad day, the old Brabazon propeller fan that we had in the garage to cool us down finally failed to rotate. It was given to Kelli by her Dad, who had a stash of old things, many of which are now in our procession. I tinkered around with it cleaning it, but I couldn’t find where the brushes were, often the reason for failure.

In desperation Kelli advertised on the neighbourhood web page if anyone could fix it. Very soon she had a response from someone who would take a look at it for free. It would be great if it could be fixed.

21st August 2021

Another bad night for Kelli, it took her a long to get to sleep so it effects her spirits and energy levels.

We had to collect a free dresser from the North side of Holland, actually it was the same house that we picked up a small bookshelf, that we still haven’t sold.

The Marketplace post we answered was for a free dresser that unfortunately went to someone else. Later the seller contacted Kelli to offer another free dresser that in her words “was better than the other one”.

We arrived at the address to find a very large dresser waiting for us.

I was looking forward to having a bit of space in the garage once the desk had gone, but no, now we have another effin’ monster to take its place.

It was bloody heavy, it was too much for Kelli, so the seller helped me load it into the truck, which shuddered under the load. Poor Toyota, we have expected so much, and it hasn’t let us down, keep going.

We left it in the truck, which doubles as our warehouse when there is no room in the garage, and got on with other projects.

Kelli repainted the yellow bookcase white because there was no interest in it at all, she panics when this happens thinking the colour was wrong, hence the repaint.

I worked on the top for the current dresser, brushing on oxalic acid to try to remove some staining, which it did, to a larger extent.

Then the FedEx van turned up delivering the new bed frame. The driver, wasn’t very talkative, I walked over because I knew it might be an awkward shape.

Out of the back to the lorry came a long narrow box of considerable weight, too much for the talkative driver, so I took one end and he took the other. We lowered it on to the ground outside the garage, and he turned and walked back to his lorry, not a word, no “thank you” for my help, just got in the lorry and drove off. I hate to think of what might have happened if I wasn’t there.

20th August 2021

It was a funny old night, neither of us slept very well, and of course it was worse for Kelli as she needs a good nights sleep to help with her recovery.

It didn’t help that we had to deliver the three tables we posted yesterday, and pick up two small side tables for repainting from the same person.

However her eye was as keen as ever as she spotted a dresser at the side of the road, she doubled back and I had the pleasure of loading it into the truck.

All these years on this planet and I’ve achieved the status of rag and bone men, hurrah!

It was unbearably hot, not the best time to be painting anything black which is what I was doing. It was drying almost as soon as I applied it, it might have been easier to trowel it on.

We thought we had a buyer for the large desk that I had repaired. The truck backed up our drive and the lady got out and looked over the piece only to then announce that it was too big.

She had driven down from Grand Haven without checking the size. Kelli had noted on the post that it was big, so a bit of a time waster there.

Slightly deflated, I manhandled it back into the garage with the aid of a trolly supporting one end, whilst I lifted and pushed the other, anyway it was slid safely back in position.

Later in the evening Kelli announced that it had been sold and paid for with collection on Sunday.

19th August 2021

Another humid day to contend with. I had to go to Menards to purchase timber for the base frame of the dresser with the water damaged end panels. Kelli came along to increase the bill with bird food and dog treats.

I needed to get the base frame made so Kelli had something to work on tomorrow, she had already painted the drawer fronts, no pressure then.

With sweat dripping down my brow, and my T-shirt gradually getting wetter and wetter, I finished the frame and fitted it to the carcass.

To be honest I do like the sun, but the humidity really drains me.

On my morning inspection of the garden I saw a mole hill next to the water storage container. I know that property around us had activity but I didn’t think it would dare come into our garden. There were two hills so far, I hope they got put off by the dogs and went somewhere else, I guess I will be checking on google to find of humane ways of getting rid of them.

18th August 2021

I had to be up early because we had someone collecting the dresser and headboard. I was not convinced when Kelli said she wanted to sell them as a set, but once again I was proved wrong.

The were a couple of areas that needed some attention, as well as fitting the metal plates to attach to the bed frame.

I mixed up the “Bondo” and did the repair. I then touched up with paint, drying it with a hot air gun, I just finished when the lady drew up in her van. It was so close the motor of the dryer was still slowing down.

She was excited to see the dresser, she thrust the money into Kelli hand as I pushed the dresser, on a trolley, towards the open tailgate.

A quick lift, and it was inside. Covering it with a duvet cover, I attempted to fit the headboard on top of the dresser. It was a tight fit, and we only managed to get most of it in before we ran out of wiggle room, and had to leave a bit of it sticking out, keeping the back door closed with a bungee.

Straight away we started on the next project, another free dresser that had a bit of water damage to the side panels. My plan was to cut the damaged parts away and make a new leg frame. This will give it a more contemporary look.

We have ordered a new bed and non toxic mattress.

Kelli was ordering the bed frame that we saw on the Pier 1 website, it was on special offer, but there is always the tax that is added on afterwards. Now I don’t understand how this works, but she somehow found a discount code on Google that saved the cost of the tax, unbelievable.

Air conditioning, I don’t get it. Okay it’s humid outside, and Kelli has the ac so cold I have to open the fridge to keep warm, I had to give up my seat to a polar bear. I’m sure it’s a bit extreme, if it was this temperature in the house in winter, we’d have the heating on.

17th August 2021

The news has been exclusively about Afghanistan and the mess the US Government has made of the withdrawal of American personnel and allies.

Each side of the political spectrum blames each other for the mess, as they would, but, this has to be the most difficult decision a President has to take.

I had forgotten that it started twenty years ago, I still had colour to my hair, but over the years I had learnt a bit about the conflict.

I knew I didn’t want to be a soldier in the country not knowing who to trust, and easily understand why those returning had a difficult time re-adjusting to normal life.

I watched Biden last night, I could tell it was a hard speech to make, but the point about building the Afghan military to be able to defend itself, and spending trillions of dollars equipping them with sophisticated weapons wasted if there wasn’t the will to want to defend their own country.

Like most I feel for the ordinary people of that troubled country, and it will settle down eventually. Those who were able to leave will have to start again in a strange country like America, who’s only real concern is “will they take our jobs”.

On a lighter note, we took pictures of our latest dresser and the headboard we picked up at the side of the road.

16th August 2021

It was a continuation of yesterday’s paint spraying marathon with the dresser and three side tables all in line for the finish coat.

Concentrating on the dresser we managed to get the drawer fronts done in situ with masking tape in the gaps to avoid a lot of overspray getting inside the drawers and carcass.

I had the job to make a new drawer front for one of the side tables we picked up yesterday.

It was not an easy task as it had a wave shape, and I don’t have a bandsaw. Somehow I managed to carve out the right shape with a lot of lot of sanding and grinding. After all that I sat in the swing seat listening to the next door neighbour cutting his lawn.

We haven’t used the deck much this summer, because of Kelli’s condition, so when I can I sit out there to justify all the work I put into it.

I am amazed how tall the grasses have grown in the patio bed, they are forming a fine screen.

I have grown to enjoy grasses, they don’t demand attention, blowing gently in the breeze, they are solid, and calming.

I watered the plants in the new prairie garden area, they still look happy, hoping that they all get established before the cold weather gets here.

15th August 2021

We had a day of paint spraying, Kelli is getting good, and most of it landed on the furniture.

We had an early run to collect two free side tables deep in the Waukazoo wood, or where the rich people of Holland live, and just round the corner from Marigold Lodge.

On the way back we came across a free headboard. It was muggins here who had to try to load it on to the roof of the truck and lash it down with bungees. It was only a few hundred yards from our turning, so we only resembled the Beverly Hillbillies for a short time.

With the paint sprayer primed and ready to go Kelli first tackled a dresser followed by a round side table and then the two tables we picked up today. I washed the dirt off the headboard, gave it a quick sanding and Kelli covered that with paint as well.

The new plantings survived the night and looked happy in their new surroundings.

14th August 2021

I have come to the conclusion that motorist in America are not as considerate as drivers in Britain. A case in point happened today. Whilst driving through the town, our lane was blocked by a van making deliveries, meaning we had to get into the next lane to get past it. No one was prepared to let us do it even though it was clear why we needed to. Kelli got a little frustrated but managed to pull out. The big black truck she thought would let her in, didn’t.

As she pulled up behind she stuck both her thumbs up in a sarcastic way to say “ Thanks a lot” the driver of the truck responded by showing us the “finger” and slammed on his brakes causing us to have to shove the anchors on pretty hard.

Kelli then moved into the next lane and drove along side him. I looked across at the man with a big red face most of which was covered with hair, he was mouthing something, I just looked at him as if he wasn’t there.

He eventually accelerated away and we went in a different direction.

It was though he felt he had the right to own the road, an attitude held by many male drivers. With their big trucks and wide wheels this sign of masculinity is the norm.

Honestly, it doesn’t take much to be polite, maybe he will learn that in his next life when he comes back as a dung beetle.

We had a day off from furniture and instead went to Jonkers garden centre to cash in our loyalty dollars. This weekend was the one to do that, so the place was filled with all the oldies of Holland wanting to renew the flowers in their window boxes.

We have some ambitious plans to bring plants of the prairie to the back garden of Holland.

The first part of this master plan was the area in the corner of the garden where I had created a mound using the spoil from the decking build.

It was a sorry site, looking more like a mass grave than a prospective flower bed.

The plan was to buy grasses and flowering plants that attracted insects and bees.

Dragging the trolly around the garden centre we quickly filled with it with two of everything, finally getting to the checkout and handing over our measly vouchers which made a very small dent in the total, but we had a good selection and rushed back to start the planting.

We set them out on the mound and dug them in with a generous amount of chicken shit fertiliser, in the end it was a great start to an ambitious project.