Author: peterb51

17th November 2020

I looked out the bedroom window at the sprinkling of snow upon the decking frame.

The light dusting came as a surprise, and reminded me of the surface of a mince pie.

God I miss mince pies, these are treats that never made it here, much to my disappointment. I tried to explain the concept to Kelli who was confused by the term “mince” meaning meat here. The more I tried to describe it, the more my mouth salivated at the thought.

I knew I was casting wheat on to rough ground, so I disappeared into my own memories “one day, one bloody day I’ll find one”

I let the dogs out into the back garden, a shaft of cold air shocked me out of my day dream, as the dogs were begging to be let back in almost straight away.

Hash browns were off the breakfast menu due to a shortage at the supermarket. It’s like March all over again with panic buying frenzy ahead of further restrictions due to be enforced on Wednesday. The state has spiked with high levels of infections again, and the only language these thicko’s understand is a partial shutdown of restaurants and un-essential shops, so bang goes my Stein night.

We still get our shopping delivered, so we are at the mercy of the person picking our supplies if they can find stuff.

There was an interview with a nurse on the radio who told of people sick with the virus, and on their death beds still not understanding they have Covid, they still believe it’s a made up hoax, what tragic deniers they are.

We planned out our day, there were several pieces in progress, including the quirky dresser that needed some attention to the drawers to make them close better.

I also wanted to finish the repair to the buffet that Kelli got yesterday. I had set in a new piece of wood and had to shape it and blend it in.

The piece is obviously quite old, it had a partial label on the back panel. The details that could be deciphered was “ Harley Smith Furniture of Grand Rapids” I tried to get some information on the company that appeared to have disappeared in 1950, but little is known about them.

Kelli went off to take some returns to be collected, and returned with four chairs, more bloody chairs!!, we have so many chairs we could stage a concert. She says that we should be able to sell them on quickly, famous last words.

16th November 2020

There was a furniture piece we had to collect from Zeeland, that Kelli found last night. It looked to be Mid century buffet that had seen better days. The top was a little scratched and a door had been torn off, this will require some sensitive repair.

It was a weighty beast that was almost at Kelli’s limit, but with sheer determination we loaded it into the truck, then off to Menards to subject the Toyota to even more heavy loads.

I needed another twelve eight foot joists to complete the side section of the decking frame.

I lashed them to the roof rack and we drove them steadily home.

I unloaded the timber, and Kelli made a start stripping the paint from a large dresser that we were given for free back when the weather was warm.

I started scraping the old finish from our new arrival. It is a satisfying feeling to drag a scraper across the top and hear the crunchy sound of the old finish becoming a powder. Within half an hour it was done, then I could turn my attention to the damage area around one of the doors. My only option was to cut out the old area and set in a new block of wood. I chipped away until i had made a niche to fit in a new piece of wood.

For dinner Kelli used up the rest of our harvested potatoes, now they are just a distant memory in my tummy.

15th November 2020

The wind was fierce, it was just the day to stay in the warm.

We had a customer coming to collect the white dresser, so as usual there was the frantic rush to make sure it was perfect.

Whilst we were waiting we made a start on the quirky dresser Kelli had found yesterday.

I brushed on a coat of sealer on to the stripped top whilst Kelli painted the drawer fronts.

When the people arrived to collect the dresser, one of them was interested in the quirky piece, so a sale looked promising.

We decided to take the dogs to the beach, it would be gale force down there, but we just had to go and experience it.

I have never seen the lake so rough, the wind was blowing sand into our faces, the forces of nature were certainly going crazy.

Getting back into the warm was a relief, the hot meal that Kelli made certainly warmed the cold bits.

What was wonderful was she used some of the potatoes from our grow bags. That made it really special, and the tasted great. Considering the cost of the growing mixture they were the most expensive potatoes on the planet.

14th November 2020

We managed to photograph two completed dressers, and make a start on the quirky piece.

It appears to be made of plywood, the top has overlapping sections of veneer making an interesting pattern. The whole design inspires us to go a little crazy with the finish.

I cleaned up the back garden of old leaves and the old plants, and managed to concrete in two of the piles of the new section of the decking, I need to make another five to complete the support.

I have started to remove some of the turf from the new decking area, and move it to the bottom of the garden where we want to have a wild flower meadow. This will be a raised hillock to give it a bit of interest by adding height, its not exactly Capability Brown, but its a start, the ornamental lakes may take some time.

Today, in a few large cities, was the Trump March. This is some feeble effort to save Trump’s presidency. Thousands of mindless saps have wasted their time by trying to overturn the election results.

These fanatics can be spotted a mile away, they rarely wear masks, because it infringes their constitutional rights.

These people are the reason why the virus can spread. They ignore all the warnings, because they are protected by God.

Don’t get me started on that one. The comments on Facebook go on about praying for Trump and his family, like he deserves it.

But these mindless zombies are incapable of thinking sensibly.

The typical Trump profile consists of women who look like men, and men that look like bears. They deck their trucks with stickers and flags. They proudly wear their tacky MEGA caps, courtesy of a Chinese sweatshops.

They don’t understand the principle of a

Universal healthcare system, they don’t understand The Green New Deal. They have been told that there will be oil, so no cars or aircraft flying, houses will be torn down and rebuilt with better insulation, and there will be no more hamburgers, because there will be no more cows. Windmill will cause cancer, and they will have to give up their guns.

I cannot listen anymore to all their bleating, and I’m not even an American.

All I know is that Trump has been making it difficult for me to get my residency, new parts of the process are added all the time.

He has mucked up the Covid response, and I am scared, fortunately we have a robust procedure that we follow, but that’s not the point, I do not want to die in America, I have a lot of things still to do (finish the decking for one).

I do not know what the following year has in store, I would like to think that everyone accepts the new president and gets down to build a better America.

13th November 2020

It was bloody cold today, my nose was leaking pretty bad until the garage warmed up, thank goodness for insulation and draught-proofing.

I continued adding more finish to drawer fronts and the dresser top whilst Kelli repainted the green dresser into a white one.

I managed to burn most of my scrap wood using a little mineral spirit as a starter. I like to watch the five foot flame shoot skyward. I thought about burning leaves, but the thick smoke that I created made me chicken out.

Kelli popped out to get some provisions, and of course had to visit Goodwill on the way. She found this strange dresser for $5. Under most circumstances it was a bargain, it was covered in black paint, but I was curious to find out what was underneath. I scratched around for a while getting nowhere, this will be an interesting piece if I can find the energy to strip it.

12th November 2020

We drove to Lowes to buy some drawer guides for the dresser that was ready for sale.

This is the only place that stock these plastic moulded parts that attach to the back of the drawer body guiding it along a track and keeping it parallel.

They were soon fitted and the dresser was finished and ready to post.

There was quite a lot of activity on Marketplace as potential buyers were making offers. Some came into the arena only to disappear, but we finally picked on a couple from the North side, who came straight over money in hand.

I still had the veneer drawer fronts and a top to finish on another dresser that I’m hoping will be ready by the weekend.

I moved the other decking frame into position, and clamping it ready for the final attachment.

Kelli then decided to repaint the other dresser, as it hadn’t sold quickly enough for her.

11th November 2020

I admire the efficiency of the Japanese, the leaves on our Red Maple all dropped in one night and landed in two large clumps.

The airwaves are still filled with Trump refusing to concede. This action only continues the friction between his base and the Democrats, and makes it difficult to try to think straight.

The damage this man can do in his remaining days can’t be imagined.

It is interesting to note that he has asked donators to contribute to a fund to help him try to overturn the election, but in reality most of it is needed to pay for the huge overspend of his campaign, he can’t even be straight with that, what a conman.

The temperature dropped into the forties and boy you could feel it. I had a couple of jobs to do outside, one was sweeping up leaves, again, and building the third frame for the decking.

We are working on two dressers at the moment. I’ve stripped the top and fronts of one and stained them, the other is a paint job which, at the speed Kelli works will be done tomorrow.

Tonight was Stein night at New Holland, and to my horror I discovered they had stopped brewing Full Circle, the mild beer that was my favourite, which left me no option but to choose the Mad Hatter a beer so strong I never knew what day it was.

Kelli knows the signs, the giggling, the miss- pronunciation of every word that comes out of my mouth, and the rubbish that follows.

I do egg it on a bit, but the strength of the beer is pretty significant, and the result is evident.

I have never been a big drinker, even in the days when of the number of pints signified how much a man you were.

My point is, when I am merry, I am happy, there is nothing serious clogging my mind, for once in the week I can clear my mind.

Kelli was all excited that we were able to harvest some of the potatoes that we had grown. She managed to pull out a few the size of a dwarft’s testicles, it didn’t matter, it was the first grown at 593 Central Bay, and that was pretty important.

10th November 2020

Kelli lit so many candles this evening, it must effect global warming. The neighbours must think our house is really a church, or we can’t afford the electric.

It was a funny day, the temperature was into the sixties but it was grey and threatened to rain, but I did more to the decking and stripped the old finish off a dresser.

The build up of leaves is a constant frustration. There are two spots near the front door that attract them. It is alway in the same place, one by the front door, the other behind a wooden chair that Kelli has placed outside as a decoration. In the time I have been here, I haven’t sat in it once, and no wonder it’s buried in bloody leaves. Anyway the wind hits the house in such a way the leaves are sucked up and dropped in the two places.

I patiently collected the piles of leaves, and pushed them firmly into a plastic bag, I didn’t how heavy compressed leaves weigh, I had to drag the bag to the bin, and almost strained my greens lifting it in.

I’m fed up with brushing them to the road only to have them blowing back the next day.

9th November 2020

It was such a good day that I continued work on the back garden, fixing noggins into the decking frame and starting to landscape the ground.

There is little of interest at the bottom end of the garden, so I want to use the soil that I have dug out of the decking area to build some raised soil banks these will become the wild flower section and bring a bit of colour to the space.

The whole area will be reseeded anyway so it will look crappy for a few months,

I did a bit of leaf blowing but my two additional batteries I bought from Amazon have failed, I guess I should have known. I sent off a message to the supplier/manufacturer requesting replacements or my money back, I will await what response I get.

The election saga continues, the republicans are claiming voter fraud and have issued many law suites trying to overturn the results.

This is a sad reflection of America today. Seventy four million Americans voted for Biden, but more alarmingly seventy million voted for Trump.

After four years of miss-management, lying, and of screwing up the Coronavirus response, there are that many people still think he’s the best, they are dumber than rocks.

8th November 2020

We woke up to a number of wild turkeys in the front garden. Usually they walk up the other side of the road and not touch our property, but today it was all change.

I don’t know where they live, they seem to come and go as they please, but it’s great to see the little critters doing their own thing.

The temperature was remarkably warm, up into the seventies. I had put on a flannel shirt thinking it was cooler, and sweated like a pig fixing the joists into the second part of the deck frame. Luckily Kelli saw my mistake and brought out a tee shirt for me to change into. She is amazing, she anticipates all my failings and is alway there with a glass of water to refresh my parched throat.

I managed to finish laying the joists just in time to deliver the dresser that we sold yesterday.

We had watched Joe Biden and Karmala Harris make their acceptance speech’s last night, for once there were words of encouragement and optimism, subjects that have been missing from this country for the past four years. I hope they can deliver on the promises.