Author: peterb51

4th June 2021

I did another furniture collection today. I ventured into God’s town, Zeeland to get a cabinet that Kelli had found. Cheap furniture is difficult to find at the moment, so when something that is promising comes up, she’s on it.

With Kelli out of commission we haven’t even been to Goodwill, the people there must think we’ve moved.

I have somethings to work on in the garage as well as the additions to the patio.

Digging out the walkway was nearly the death of me, it was only six foot by four foot, so not exactly a football pitch.

All I had to do was remove four inches of turf and dirt. The term “turf” was not strictly true, there were a few tufts of grass held together with dirt.

That was exhausting, just doing that, and I still have the main area twelve by twelve to do. I might just dig it a bit deeper and throw myself into it.

I had ordered the crushed concrete and paving on my way back from collecting the furniture, so that should be delivered next week.

We carried our latest creation into the house, this was a piece were got free because some of the drawers were missing. It was re-purposed as a low entertainment unit, these are quite popular because they could support a flat screen,

Carrying this into the house was about the limit of Kelli’s energy, afterwards she crawled back to the sofa in the sunroom to recover.

We had someone on it straight away, another triumph.

3rd June 2021

I do not see many flies about normally, but as soon as the dog poops there are dozens of them. Where do they come from? Do they circle the house at ten thousand feet waiting for the shit to hit the grass? That is one of the many question that go through my mind every day.

It’s like when I drop a crumb or morsel of food on the floor, the dogs appear from out of nowhere, I swear they hear, or sense it hitting the floor, they are more effective than a Dyson.

When I fill the bird or the squirrel feeders, the critters must be watching my every move, because within an hour or so they are empty again. I have to ration the food or they would eat us out of house and home.

I finally assembled the chair and set it next to its mate.

We had a lady turn up to pick up the maple cabinet, but not at the price we had listed.

What is it with people? Why does everything negotiable, it really pisses me off.

We had it listed at $150 she offered $100, but Kelli turned that down, eventually settled at $125.

The lady turned up in a smart truck, so not short of a few bob I bet.

The only consolation I take, is we hadn’t done anything to it apart from cleaning and polishing it.

2nd June 2021

This is more like it, well into the seventies, just right to sweat like a pig doing the most trivial things, but I like it.

I screwed together the frame for the walkway that will connects the deck to the pool area, now comes the difficult bit, digging down and levelling the woodwork. This would entail removing two cubic yards of dirt and grass, but in this heat?

I decided that was for a different day, and got on finishing the painted parts for the Adirondack chair ready for re-assembly.

1st June 2021

Loaded with three old televisions I headed off to Best Buy the US equivalent of PC World, where I had been assured they would take them to be recycled.

I walked in and found the customer service desk without being accosted by an eager sales associate trying to sell me a smart TV.

Half expecting a “ sorry we don’t do that anymore” response, I was delighted, and relieved that I wouldn’t be carrying them in the back of the truck till the end of time.

The only down side was the cost, thirty dollars each “to do a real recycle” as apposed to “dumping them into the lake”. She took my money and called for an assistant to collect them from the truck.

I parked in front of the main doors, and a young chap with a cart came to meet me.

We loaded all the TVs, it was then that I noticed the PC base unit that I forgot to mention. I asked the lad if there was room on the cart, a little sheepishly.

“Yea throw it on there’s room” which is exactly what I did.

I was in the truck, and down the road before he was through the front door.

I felt that I had spent enough money, and I was giving them a gift, anyway I don’t think they would notice.

If I write that I have two broken legs, then they did, and they found me.

I bought the last fifteen gallons of rocks to fill the bed on the deck, then headed off to Menards for more timber.

I have noticed that a lot of young men walk leaning back on their heels, they do that to counterbalance their enormous fat gut. I saw one today with his wife a son in tow, I wanted to say to the kid, “take note, get reinforced heels in your shoes for when you grow up”.

Poo man chew turned up this afternoon to suck out the dog muck. I had stirred it up earlier to make it a little easier to suck it up. It didn’t take long, but because of the sandy soil, he probably took a couple of cubic yards of soil with it, although it didn’t make much difference to the capacity, about a years worth.

“See you next spring”

31st May 2021

Something ate my strawberry!

I went to check the plants, and the one that was ripening had disappeared, what a bummer, I need to read up on how to avoid it happening again. I already supply food to all the birds and squirrels of the neighbourhood, they’re not going to have my strawberries as well.

I built up, and positioned the frame for the pool area, it looks bigger than I imagined, but it is in the best place to get most of the sun during the summer, the rest of the time it will be another seating area with a fire pit.

What lies ahead is more digging, levelling and paving, but I hope Kelli will be in a fit state to use it.

30th May 2021

Finished the floor in the shed, and filled it up again. Well, there is now plenty of room, as I did not put back the televisions, they are in the back of the truck for disposal.

That is not easy, I think there is several reclaim places in Holland, but it will cost us twenty five dollars each. I also moved the tandem into the garage forcing me to make a start stripping it down and repaint it.

To complete the decking I dug up the Japanese blood grass from the front of the house and transplanted them into the bed set into the deck, they should get more sun now.

Kelli seems to have gotten over her vertigo issue, although she is weary of making sudden head movements, she can now put all her energy into getting fit again.

I was excited to see a strawberry growing, I didn’t really expect to get any fruit in the first year, but it is ripening and ready for my strawberry and cream.

29th May 2021

I don’t often have bloody good ideas, but today takes the biscuit, or rather the digestive.

Since finishing the deck I had a number of sixteen foot lengths of the composite planks. Some were damaged and a few surplus. I had been thinking how I could use them, and every time I walk round the side of the garage there they are, all stacked together.

Well today is the day when they will have a new purpose.

I decided that I would use the material to lay a new floor in the shed. Over the years the squirrels have stored their nuts in there. Last year I re-sided the shed with feather-edge boards, and that stopped the little buggers getting in, but there were places where the floor had got wet and rotted which limited where we could store stuff.

The decking material would be ideal to tidy the shed up.

Of course I had to clear out all the crap that was in there. Out came three bicycles, and a tandem (must get round to renovate that) three old CRT televisions ( must dispose of those) numerous plastic plant pots, plus a few bits of old furniture that we used before we had the deck ( those definitely won’t go on there). Oh yes, not forgetting the two push lawn mowers that are now consigned to history.

I made a good start full of enthusiasm, the sun was shining and I was making good progress.

It didn’t dawn on me to check if I had enough decking to complete the job, I guess I went with my instinct.

Laying the strips was playing havoc with my knees, getting up and down, forgetting tools, walking back to get them, it was exhausting.

I hit a brick wall mid afternoon. I worked out I would just have enough pieces to finish the floor, so I was happy.

I needed to hydrate, so endless glasses of iced water were poured down my throat, but I just couldn’t finish the flooring. The dogs needed feeding, and I began to prepare dinner, that was the excuse I needed to call it a day.

For the rest of the evening my body complained that all my joints ached, and I would have to do it again tomorrow.

28th May 2021

This is the start of Memorial Day weekend where Americans hit the road, and the air to get away. People were leaving work early to get a heads start, I know because I was stuck at a junctions waiting to pull out.

Kelli needed some supplies from Nature’s Market, a natural food store. There was a tub of green powder that I had collected a few days ago that Kelli did not like, she was concerned that it contributed to her non-sleeping problem.

This has happened before where we have returned something that had been opened, and they still gave us a full refund. I can’t understand how they can do it, they can’t re-sell it, so apparently it get returned to the supplier. How can a company have a policy like that? I’m blowed if I know.

The temperature dropped today, off went the air conditioner and on with the heat.

The wind dislodged a clump of old leaves that had been trapped in the cleft high up in one of our trees. It had been there for a as long as we have lived here, it looked like an Eagle’s nest.

I started painting the parts for the second Adirondack a tedious task, I need to focus on getting it finished quickly, or I might lose interest and it will gather dust somewhere.

27th May 2021

I was expecting a number of purchases from online vendors today. One was a dovetail cutting jig that I saw on a YouTube video. It wasn’t expensive, and it had small magnets that caught the saw blade to keep it straight.

I thought it was a good idea, so I thought I’d give it a shot. The next purchase was a small dowel jig that would be ideal for small door construction. I have another jig, but that is better for panels.

I was waiting patiently for them to arrive, in the mean time I had a lot of wood priming to do, as well as starting on a chair repair where I had to replace two spindles.

My phone showed that I had an email that showed that the dowel jig had been delivered by UPS. I rushed to the front door but there was nothing there. I looked in the post box, nothing inside, I checked under the truck, between the wheely bins, everywhere possible, but not package.

“Could it have been delivered to someone else?” I thought, if so, the person would see my name and address and maybe drop it round. I waited until early evening, in case they had been at work all day, but nobody came, so I contacted EBay and registered that I hadn’t received it.

Later, they emailed me to refund my money, stating there had been “Vendor irregularities”

Mmm, not sure what that meant, but I ended up ordering it direct from the manufacturer.

26th May 2021

I was slightly energised today, only slightly, but I was able to get out of the house to do some man stuff.

First on the list was getting my packet of digestive biscuits from Meijers.

There has been extensive building work carried out on the exterior, that also meant lots of disruption to the interior as a consequence.

The last time the isle for the International cuisine was where it had always been, but now it had moved.

I then embarked on a search for the illusive section. Back and forth I walked looking at each shelf, and each marker. Eventually I found it well away from the rest of the food section.

This is bloody typical of the American attitude, “we’ll move it to some obscure location just to piss them off” and piss me off it did. I expect Mr and Mrs Patel with their children and parents couldn’t find the curry paste either. There could have been an international incident at the International isle.

They made sure the Mexican food was in a convenient place, and there is a lot of that stuff.

I cannot understand why the Americans have such sweet shitty biscuits, the should adopt the digestive as a sign of refinement.