Author: peterb51

29th July 2020

“ Is it stein night yet?” I shouted as the sweat rolled down my forehead and into my eyes stinging them.

“Is it pool time yet?” Replied Kelli”

“Is it stein in the pool night yet” was the obvious reply to that.

I was determined to get the shed finished even if all my fluids drain out of me leaving me like a luffa.

It was slow job, marking out and drilling each strip was torturous in the heat.

The screws baked in the sun burnt my finger picking them up, and the damn screwdriver bit kept jamming in the screw head leading to the frustration.

I punched the air as the last strip on one side was completed, now was pool time.

It was great just drifting in the water, it was just the right temperature to throw yourself into without having a heart attack.

We both floated for an hour, then got ready to go out to dinner.

On the way we had to deliver the large dresser, that was a great sale, and fortunately it wasn’t that far to go.

Getting it into the truck was a trial, it was a heavy bastard, but with some trolleys under it we managed to manoeuvre out of the garage in into the back of the truck.

Getting it out at the other end was much harder, that meant we had to remove the drawers, but the thought of 200 notes in our hand made the lifting much easier to bare.

We had our table booked outside, in a quiet corner, but that was ruined by a couple on the next table, the guy must have been a comedian, because the girl on his table found everything so funny. Her laugh raised Kelli’s hackles, we tried a different seating arrangement to try to baffle the irritating noise.

In the end we tried to neutralise the situation by drowning them out, with our own conversation.

28th July 2020

“That son of a bitch” that was what I expected to be called by the lady who gave us a couple of pieces free last week, and we sold one of them for $200!!

This was a tall dresser in a mahogany stained finish, that was perfect except for the handles. A quick visit to Habitat for Humanity for some alternatives, and it was ready for posting.

We took a punt, the maker of the piece was a good brand, so we felt justified in listing it high.

Anyway it was snapped up the same day, as we delivered Old Crusty to a MacDonalds car park in Zeeland.

Not the most glamorous location waiting around with the dresser on show to all the

drive through customers waiting in line for their fat burger.

These two sales pushed us up to our target for the week, so we had a few days to relax before it all starts again.

27th July 2020

We finally finished old crusty. It started out as a blue crackle finish that we stripped back to reveal a wonderful oak piece. Kelli had painted the side infill panels in a serious Aqua colour.

I had finished the frame, top and drawer fronts in a clear polyurethane, and together it looked fantastic. Of course Kelli wanted to keep it, but that is not the name of the game.

It was posted on Marketplace at a high price, and within minutes she was getting requests, finally selling it to a person in Zeeland.

There are some pieces you don’t want to loose because of all the hard work that went into it, and it is a hard call, but it is what we do.

Earlier in the day we had to collect a floor lamp that her mother had bought on Marketplace. Kelli had volunteered, being the good daughter she is, but it is not alway as straight forward as it seems.

The address led us to a mobile home park, a place where house numbers do not make any sense. We searched for number 95 for ages, driving up and down the different roads where numbers went in all directions. Running out of patience, we asked a lady who was tending her front garden, she thought for a moment and then suggested that we go out of the park and enter it again by another entrance. This we did, and lo and behold we found it, along with the skeletons of past postmen who had failed to make sense of the number logic.

I put the hideous lamp into the back of the truck, and headed off to our next port of call to collect three galvanised animal troughs.

This was Kelli’s latest plan, I knew she had something in her mind because she started researching stuff last night.

It usually means something will arrive in the post or be left outside the door, however these had to be collected from a supplier in Holland. that we will be putting in place of the diseased bushes on the front berm.

This will give the place a more modern look, but there is a lot of hard work ahead to install them.

26th July 2020

There are rare days when I don’t feel like doing anything, today was one of those.

It was hot and humid, and my clothes were wet within minutes, so a pool day it had to be.

There were some small jobs I could do, but that was it.

We floated around our small watery oasis just resting, no guilt, although our output for July was a little low, we were not desperate.

That’s the reassuring thing, we have most things we need, we are not beholden to anyone, we make enough to pay the bills and feed ourselves, so what’s the hurry.

I saw on Facebook the result of the collaboration between Herman Miller and Logitech to produce the ultimate gaming chair.

Basically it is an Embody with blue details, I was a little underwhelmed it that was the best they could come up with. With a price tag of $1500 it will take some serious gamer to cough up that kind of dosh.

There has been a problem with the hedges at the front of the house, on the berms. They seem to have a disease that causes the leaves to dry up and fall off. At first I thought it was overzealous pruning, but on closer inspection there was infestation on the leaves. We tried spraying with soapy water but that didn’t do any good, so they look a sorry sight.

Last night we discussed what options were open to us. This usually means that Kelli already has a plan for their future, and it doesn’t look bright.

25th July 2020

We drove to Menards to collect a bundle of cedar feather boards that had been there a week. They incorrectly wrote down my email address so we’re unable to contact me.

Kelli had called them and they confirmed it had been delivered.

The pack was twelve foot long that meant it had to go on the roof. Luckily the fork lift driver was on hand to do the honours.

We secured it with bungees, and the ride back was slow and careful, but we managed to get back without encountering any interference from the local police.

As the pack was opened the strong smell of cedar filled my nostrils, it’s one of my favourite.

As we sat down to lunch, I had just taken my first mouthful when Kelli announced that there was some free stuff that had been posted six minutes ago, so like the fire brigade we dropped what we were doing and ran for the truck.

Encountering slow moving traffic is typical when we are out on manoeuvres, Kelli took a short cut, but that was scuppered by someone towing a boat heading down to the city slipway. Once clear, there was a clear road.

We slowed down looking for the freebies, seeing nothing.

“ How could someone have got there before us?” Kelli said despondently, before realising that we were looking on the wrong side of the road.

Then we saw them.

Two furniture pieces and a large wicker basket.

The dresser was a little beaten up, but repairable, the tall dresser was in good condition.

Getting the dresser into the truck was a challenge, but the larger unit was too big and heavy.

The answer was to load the drawers into the truck leaving the carcass for the return trip.

At the end we had some good pieces to work on all with no outlay, which is the best.

Now was the time to start the heavy demolition of the shed side, it was hot and sticky, my t-shirt stuck to my body like a second skin. On top of that there was a squadron of wasps buzzing about.

I stripped off the rotting sides to the shed, then we decided it was pool time.

The water was pleasantly warm, just right to soothe our weary bones.

After nodding off a few times, bobbing in our watery heaven, we emerged, revitalised and ready to attack the new cladding.

The perspiration came back quickly, but we persisted even though Kelli wanted to be somewhere else, preferably with air conditioning.

Most of one side was done before I admitted defeat and finished for the day.

24th July 2020

We held our daily walk around the garden checking what flowers have bloomed. It’s a good start to the day, I have found myself drawn to the weeds in the lawn. I use the word lawn loosely, the grass quality, and quantity is scratchy. In the sun, large areas dry out and die, but the weeds don’t, so as part of my daily ritual is to go round pulling up these buggers.

It might be a hopeless case, but it is therapeutic to me.

It should take most of the summer to clear them, just in time for the cold weather, then next year the whole thing will start again.

We both worked on a couple of pieces in the garage, it was very warm even with the wind machine going at full tilt.

A lady turned up with a small table she wanted painted in the same colour of a table she had bought from us at the beginning of the year. She had the paint mixed from the sample we had given her at the time, so we didn’t have to worry about that.

We cooled off in the pool, both of us feeling drained due to high humidity, I think we both nodded off for a while, like a pair of old farts.

23rd July 2020

I woke up convinced it was Friday, as if the days aren’t going fast enough. Kelli reminded me that it was rubbish collection day, so that grounded me a bit.

It was drain the pool and move it again, day.

Now we are prepared with the pump and hose it’s not a challenging task, it’s just the waiting game.

We managed to use half the water by filling the dog bog, it is very convenient for that.

The area the pool sits is not level in any direction, which means there is a compromise to be made wherever we position it.

Moving it exposed the patch of dead grass, but that will be covered by a new patio that is planned.

Re-locating the pool in a different orientation made the seating area more useful, which was much better for our active social life (joke)

We re-filled the pool with water, but it was really cold when the it touched places that had not yet been exposed.

After dinner we had to go and collect a free dresser from the east side of Holland. (We would go to the ends of the earth for something free)

The house must have been a fun place as there were full size Mario flowers and a Homer Simpson cut-out in the front garden.

22nd July 2020

We drove to Goodwill to collect the entertainment centre. We had help to load it into our truck from two lads who worked there, it was a heavy beast, made from solid wood. This was evident to us when we unloaded it at home and felt the true extent of its mass.

I was a little uncertain of what we could do with it, Kelli felt sure we could tart it up and sell it on.

We got out the cleaner and wax it to see if we could make it presentable, a bit of elbow grease brought it up lovely, but oh, it was a bugger to move it to just take pictures.

I primed the restored project piece which took ages, it was a race against time to get the paint on before the brush dried.

I carried on stripping Old Crusty, this is a solid oak piece that had been refinished with a crackle paint finish that was fashionable in the nineties, but not now.

Kelli’s new floating seat arrived today. She rushed to inflate it, and couldn’t wait to try it in the water.

I squeezed myself into my tyre decorated ring, and we both floated majestically around for a while before getting ready for our dinner out at New Holland.

21st July 2020

We ventured out to visit Goodwill, that mythical place we used to go when we needed old furniture to work on.

First on the list was the one on the south side. Kelli had things to donate, so we did that first, then pulled into the car park next to car adorned with Trump stickers.

That feeling of nausea came over me, why would someone honestly admit that?

It was a nice car, clean and white, suddenly de-valued to nothing more than a rubbish bin.

We tried to identify the owner from the people in the store.

I thought a clue would be someone with their mask on upside down, or over their eyes, but I could not see anyone fitting that description.

The place hadn’t changed much other than counters moved to help protect the workers.

There was still the same only tat, no furniture to bother with.

Next stop was the Goodwill on the north side. Usually a better class of tat, and more of it.

But disappointing there was little to get excited about, apart from a entertainment centre that we grabbed.

At the checkout Kelli was pleased that it was pensioners day, so she got twenty percent discount. I was a little offended because no-one had asked me, they just assumed I was over sixty, which was a bit demoralising as I had trimmed my ears and had a shave.

The last stop of the day was to pick up two large plastic drums that we wanted to use to collect rainwater. The address was along a dirt road out in the wilds of Zeeland. This is corn growing and turkey farming country, the latter upsets Kelli every time. We saw their little heads looking out over the stalls of the massive metal sheds, viewing the fields they will never be free to roam in.

Along the side of the road grew cornflowers and weeds. Kelli wanted to pull up a few to re-plant in our wild area of lawn.

We stopped the truck and I got out to try to get them out of the ground.

I am so used to pulling weeds out of our garden that are so easy because of the sandy soil, but these were not going to give up easily.

I pulled until my knuckles were white, eventually they came away.

This was the first time I have ever saved weeds to re-plant, this is a crazy mixed up time.

Today was Phoebe’s birthday, she was four so Kelli made her a dog birthday cake.

We didn’t have any candles so we improvised with a match. The cake was devoured in seconds, there was no finesse, just bolted down if their lives depended on it.

20th July 2020

I set about trying to modify the furniture piece that needed some radical re-squaring.

I managed to cut through the side panel and detached it from the worktop and rails.

I then removed a section from the front rail which allowed me to clamp the side panel to the shortened rail.

The whole job took me about two hours, but now it looks better, and once all the fixing holes are filled and painted I would be happy to sell it.

Talking of selling something, a lady came to collect the piece we posted yesterday, she was a repeat customer, which are the best kind.

Then it was pool time, however by the time we got in, the clouds rolled in covering the sun.

So that time was cut short.