Author: peterb51

21st August 2025

The highlight of the day was meeting up with Lloyd for our beer and chat session.

He lost one of his friends last Friday, which did put today’s event in doubt, but with just a change of time we made it work.

He invited the son of his deceased friend Nathan, to joins us, he was in town dealing with the legal stuff. 

This created a slight out of balance situation.

Our normal routine would be we bought one round each, that was just enough, anything more and I would fall off the stool.

Well we made that work, although Lloyd was going to buy him a drink, and then conveniently forgot, what is this about old people forgetting things?

It was an interesting time, Nathan is a lawyer, and once worked for the pharmaceutical industry, he was very open about their immoral practices.

I held my tongue about Lawyers being money grabbing vultures, under the circumstances I felt it wasn’t a good time.

We finished a lot earlier than usual, meaning that I could do a bit of work when I got back home.

20th August 2025

It was my turn to undergo pain and discomfort courtesy of Kelli’s doctor.

This time I did have an issue that has been troubling me for about a month now. I did see another doctor from the practice a couple of weeks ago, and that regained some strength in my right arm, but I still had pain in my wrist.

So this time I was seeing the head honcho.

He started at the place where the pain was prominent, but then worked his way up to my neck. At each point there was pain, even the smallest point delivered a sharp stab. There were a few tugs and twists, and a lot of cracking.

I do not like my joints to make a noise, I could not bare the sound of knuckles cracking, and never could do it myself, so I just let him get on with it. With each crack there was celebration, that was what he wanted to hear, and I had the privilege of paying for it, but I admit it did feel better afterwards. 

Now will it last, he did say that my wrist was out of line, and my neck needed adjustment, so I’m hoping that will do the trick.

Next it was Kelli’s turn, just a few minor adjustments and a continuation of her supplements. She is so sensitive to any wrong ingredients, especially wheat and oats, which seem to give her headaches which she had had most mornings.

 Food can trigger all types of responses at her stage of change, and the list keeps growing, soon she will be on a hot bowl of steam every day.

19th August 2025

I called John the wood just to make sure he was up for today at his barn, but his wife answered.

She told me John was already there at there had been a problem with his dust extraction. She suggested that I called him to check if he was able to do any work today.

Well I got through to him, and we arranged that I would drive straight to the barn, that was good as it saved me thirty minutes on the journey.

As I had finished his chair, I loaded it into the truck and set off.

When I arrived John was looking more bewildered than usual, there were piles of wood chips and sawdust everywhere.

Apparently, and this is typical John, he has a trailer outside that stores all the extraction material, but because he has machined three tree fulls of timber, the stuff backed up into the large bags he has in the barn, and as he was trying to force more into them, they burst.

There was crap everywhere. He had fill every available barrel that he had, but there was plenty still piled high.

Normally he gives all this spoil to a local farmer who uses it as bedding for his cattle, but John had forgotten to tell him about the latest load.

He got on the phone and arranged for the trailer and barrels to be collected, but I decided to help clean the place up. I found a couple of large bins that I could use, filling them quickly. I pounded the chips down hard to get as much room in the bins as I could, that was a good day workout. I was sweating heavily just doing cleaning, what was wrong with me?. 

Finally all the stuff was collected, all that was left was a good sweep round with the brush. Kelli has given me a packed lunch, I took some time to enjoy that, remembering to drink plenty of water to replace what I had lost. 

Eating over, it was down to what I was there for, the worktop.

This was the final sanding and to machine a radius on all the edges, so technically it is now finished. I put off bring it back, one, I had John’s chair in the back, and two, I haven’t made space back home yet.

He was really happy with his chair, I took a picture of him sitting in it, he looked pleased anyway.

18th August 2025

We are all curious people, some of us more than others. Since Covid I have opened my mind to many things that I took for granted.

I used to believe you could trust your doctor, that  politicians acted for the goodness of your country, and truth was alway spoken.

I have reached an age when I can complain when I want to, and I don’t feel bad about doing it. I still crave knowledge, but I no longer believe what is told to me. 

History is being rewritten every day, right in front of our eyes, and we’re too blind to notice, or happy to turn the other way.

There are so many clues given to us that we ignore, because we have been conditioned from birth not to question, but to obey.

I have been watching a series called My lunch break which looks at architecture from the old age, and it is fascinating to watch. I was shocked to hear that the Empire State Building only took just over one year to build, that has to be impossible. America was going through the Great Depression, and there wasn’t the money about to fund such a project. First they had to demolish the old Waldorf Astoria hotel, clear the site, get all the drawings done, get the permits, order the materials, and build something that has never been done before, and we are told it took such a short time. People in California will have to wait that length of time just to get their permits. 

That is just one of the stories of huge buildings that were built in impossible timescales.

There are so many other things I am discovering, some so controversial no one would believe them. 

I urge my reader to stop, and maybe choose one subject that has been misunderstood, misrepresented and do some digging, forget the preconceived ideas and come at it from a different direction, it will amaze you.

17th August 2025

I really didn’t want to do anything today, but there was the chance that the dresser which was seen and bought by the customer of the blue bed, was coming to collect today.

There was a drawer that wouldn’t close easily, that needed to be attended to.

Reluctantly I went out into the searing heat to analyse what the problem was. It turned out that the rail in the carcass was not fitted square causing to drawer to jam at a certain point. This happens often, and a slight reposition of the guide will normally put it right.

So as I was out there I stripped the mirror frame that went with the dresser and bed frame project. That has a bit of damage that will have to be repaired by setting a new piece of wood.

I also reassembled John the Woods chair. That was a bit of a job because the slots in the screws were a bit chewed up. Overcoming that problem I discovered there was a slight rocking on the base, that might be solved by placing a couple of washers under the offending caster.

I brought it into the house to do the final coat of finish ready to return it to John on Tuesday, he should be pleased with it.

16th August 2025

Adding more finish to John the woods chair, although the humidity was high, making it difficult to cure properly.

We did a bike ride to the cemetery to check on Dave’s grave. The flowers looked a bit tired, but at least they survived. On the way back we passed a young girl who had set up a stall outside her house. She was selling home baked biscuits, or cookies as they call them over here, and scones and jam. Yes she labelled it as jam, and not jelly. We had to stop and buy some. I complimented her on the correct use for the preserve, adding that clotted cream and a cup of tea would be perfect. That was a fun thing, and I could wait to get back home to eat it, and it was very good, I had a cup of tea to go with it.

Larry had the first responders around again today, it it’s difficult for us to breath properly, it must be hell for him.

I changed the blade on my big saw at last, I should have done it a while ago, but normally I’m only cutting small stuff. Now the cuts are like butter, and I have a few projects I can test it out on.

15th August 2025

We made a trip to the range after a long break, and it showed. Our consistency was off, but any invaders would have had bits shot off, which, I suppose is the point.

It did get incredibly hot out in the open, which did limit our stay, the pool was beckoning when we got home, so in the water we went.

I think it’s just the thought of the water feels good, we tend to lay or sit on floats, with just some bits actually in the water.

14th August 2025

There are still things about the US that I don’t understand, and after six years, I still don’t.

For example, why are coffee tables littered with books, piles of them? They take up so much room, there’s no room for a cup of coffee.

Also, and this is a pet peeve of mine, why is empty cans and plastic bags thrown in the sink?

Why? They have to be fished out, all wet and yucky, and thrown in the rubbish bin.

Another one, but this is a question that nobody can answer, why are satellite dishes angled at forty five degrees, and not straight up where the satellites should be?

These are the things that I think about whilst I’m doing boring things like scraping and sanding.

I did some sanding on the chair that John the wood gave me to finish, it was nice to work on a decent timber piece.

Kelli started working on a dresser she picked up a few days ago, it was supposed to be a quick flip, but the paint job wasn’t up to much, so she decided to repaint it.

As she is in her blue period, well we have a large pot of blue, that was her choice.

The bed frame finally was collected today.

A couple drove up from South Haven, they saw the stickers on the truck about banning property tax, and could wait to share the same sentiment.

Mmm, looks like we could have new friends.

Whilst they were with us they saw the dresser that Kelli was working on, and bought it there and then.

Artificial Intelligence is gaining momentum, adverts on the media spouting the benefits of how it can improve businesses.

All that it does is make talent redundant, it soaks up information and replicates everything.

Journalists and writers will not be needed, musicians and songwriters will go to. Art and artists will be irrelevant, and people don’t care.

I have no need for it, I enjoy writing my blog for my one reader, spelling mistakes and all.

AI makes us lazy, Kelli has noticed that sellers on Marketplace are using it to describe the thing they are selling. Soon we won’t be able to believe what we see, and we are letting it happen.

13th August 2025

Kelli managed to sell both the bed frame and the headboard. The headboard went to Debs, a lady who lives close by, she intends to paint it red and use it in her garden. She has quite an interesting plot that has all kinds of things in it to display all her plants, including an old boat that will never see the water again.

I had the arduous task of scraping and sanding the footboard on the refinishing commission.

I worked on it for three ours, and that’s just one side. The timber used was not the best, and stripping it back to raw showed a few imperfections. Some of the stain had soaked deeper into the grain leaving a series of red blotches. I wasn’t sure that it would be acceptable to put a clear finish on it. Kelli called the customer, and they came over to view progress. They didn’t seemed concerned about the blotching and were happy to finish it as intended.

All this put me back a bit, but tomorrow is another day.

12th August 2025

Yet another trip to John the wood’s workshop, I picked him up at the usual time from his home.

The jobs today consisted of taking all the clamps off and sanding the bottom surface, then cutting it to size. I thought that would be the last day needed to finish the top.

Of course I underestimated the task, although I did establish just how heavy it was, even though I had tried to save weight by not having material in the centre area, but it was heavy.

Both of us carried it over to the saw, and ran it through once, so far so good. We spun it round to get the width, and through the saw it went.

I noticed that the dowels ends we visible, I had forgotten that one side had a narrow strip.

That was annoying. 

Next was the cutting to length, that went without incident, but the issue with the visible dowels was staring me in the face. 

The only answer was to add a thick edge band to both long edges, this would be the hidden when the radius was machined all around the top edge.

What timber that I had left was not good, which was why I rejected it in the first place. John went down into the basement and later emerged with another plank. 

We machined that to the correct sizes and glued that to the top. Again I must have used every long clamp he had, but finally it was done.

On the next visit, hopefully we will get to finish the damn thing.

I think our relationship is growing, I’m able to make him laugh, but I have been pushing him harder than he pushes himself. He said that I have even taught him a few things, probably not to work with me again.

But he remembers my name now, and has started showing me al the old tools he has.

I feel I have entered his world, he agrees that tools are never owned, just borrowed, then passed on. I have chisels that have names or initials stamped on them, you feel the legacy that you are continuing.

His passion for timber, is why he does what he does, it’s what keeps him going, even in his sometimes confused state of mind.

I brought his chair back that he asked me to finish, it’s made from walnut, and it will look beautiful when it’s done, I’m looking forward to doing that for him.