Author: peterb51

22nd July 2025

I had my own pain treatment today. Kelli booked me in with her doctor’s surgery because I had an aching right wrist. I’ve had it about a month, and it has limited my ability to lift things. I cannot pinpoint a time when it happened, other than to say I must have been lifting something heavy.

Anyway I hadn’t done anything about it because if it’s a muscle strain, it will take a long time to heal, however it didn’t seem to be getting less painful, hence Kelli intervention.

For a change I saw Simon, one of the new troop of doctors at the practice. For once I was front and centre, so I explained my condition.

Then for the next thirty minutes he bent and twisted my arm in every direction possible.

Some of the movements bloody hurt, but I was hoping that would lead to a possible cause. He traced the muscles up to my elbow, and hit a point that hurt also, his intension was to get me back the strength in the arm, and the pain should decrease with a bit more time.

The hard bit for me is to try not to lift things or any strenuous motion, that will be hard. 

I will probably strap it up so I can get on to do stuff.

I was due to meet up with Henry, the guy we met a month ago when we picked up a big heavy dresser, come to think of it, that might be the thing that caused my problem. Anyway that didn’t happen, so we will reschedule.

That meant that I could do more work.

Oh, whilst we were in Zeeland, we made a stop at Goodwill, what else would we do?

Well there was a tall dresser there, I hesitated, should I tell Kelli? Certainly after I complained that we have too many projects in the garage, well I had to.

She thought that we could do a flip on it, do we loaded it into the truck and headed home.

On closer inspection we found a few small blemishes that needed attention, including a drawer runner that was missing. A quick part was machined up and fitted, and once the sun stopped making shadows, we took pictures.

Hopefully it will sell fast, now there is very little room in the garage.

21st July 2025

It is often said that things happen when you least expect it, call it fate or destiny, or just good fortune. On the way to the supermarket Kelli took a different route, not sure why, but along that road we came across a dresser on the side of the road, of course I didn’t see it although it was on my side of the road. 

It was heavy, and tall, but it went into the back, and we continued on our way to Aldi.

That was uneventful, but as we were leaving the   Car park, Kelli spotted a small bird on the tarmac, it looked like it couldn’t fly, but rather hopped away as we approached. She managed to pick it up, and I found a small box to put it in.

Now what are we going to do with it? The only person who has any affinity with wild birds is Kelli’s brother Matt. A quick phone call got him interested, so we made our way back to hand it over. On the way Kelli fed it some fresh raspberries which it seemed to like.

As soon as Matt saw the little thing he was able to hold it in his open palm, at no time did the little bird try to fly away. It was wonderful to see, he was fed more berries, and he even went to sleep on Matt’s hand.

I hope the little thing survives, his success rate is high, and I’m sure, as it’s a fledgling, it will.

20th July 2025

It was our day of rest, so typically we had to go and collect furniture. This time it was to Zeeland to collect a small bookcase. The address was on a very posh estate where the grass was green, and well manicured. The houses were large and some even impressive, so when we arrived it must have been like Steptoe and Son’s horse and cart turning up. Not wanting to bring the neighbourhood down we quickly loaded the piece in the back of the truck, and beat a hasty retreat.

I have to admit I was wrong about the headboard, I said last night we might be lucky to sell it, well we did, and the buyer traveled two hours to collect it. Sure we didn’t make a lot of money on it, but it was free, and the customer was overjoyed with it.

We had a new camera delivered, it’s a Nikon P900, it has an amazing zoom and macro lens, so look forward to some interesting pictures of planets and plants.

19th July 2025

We finally sold the secretary, however with a half an hour to go before the lady would arrive, Kelli decided that we should put a liner in the bottom of the drawers. So who was going to do that? Me of course.

So with the clock ticking, I set about measuring, and marking, then cutting the bloody lining paper. I hate doing this job, getting the liner to sit correctly is an art in itself. Many times I’m left with a ridge, or an air pocket that has to be removed, and I hate to work under presser, 

Fortunately it went well, the drawers looked much better, and the lady loved the piece, which was just as well as the price had been lowered for our “ Weekend Sale”, I aware that people watch our posts, and wait for the price to go down, buggers! Anyway it’s gone and it’s on to the next job.

I continue to strip the paint of the door, the stripper only removes one layer at a time, I believe that other states allow the purchase of some really bad stuff that would eat its way to the centre of the earth, now that’s what I call stripper.

The weather was a little cooler, with a few drops of rain, that I didn’t even feel, I realised it only when I saw the drops on the ground.

Kelli came rushing back from some errands she had done mouthing something through the truck’s windscreen, of course I had no idea what she was saying. Once the window was down I heard “head board” immediately my heart sank. 

We’ve had some success with them, but mostly they clog up the place.

She had seen one by the side of the road and needed my help to collect it.

So still covered in sawdust, as I usually am, I climbed aboard and we set off.

There it was in the front of someone’s garden with a large “free” sign attached to it.

Now headboard sizes are very deceptive, It becomes apparent when you try to load it into the back of the truck, it’s okay if the finials are removable, but those that aren’t can be tricky. This was the case, we managed to get the front half in but the back half had to stick out the back, not a big deal as we lived a short distance away.

Once we were back we untangled the piece from the back of the truck, did a clean up and polish, took some pictures, and posted it. Kelli did it again, (that’s if we sell the thing.)

18th July 2025

With the lower temperatures there was a renewed enthusiasm to get stuff done.

We had to collect the furniture piece from the lady up the road who wants us to refinish it.

Then it was off to the garden Center to buy some marigolds that, I hope will keep the beetles from eating the leaves of the plants in the front garden. It is so demoralising to see them in such a sad state.

Then it was back home to do some work. I was jumping around working on three jobs sequentially, it was exhausting, but a quick dip in the pool was great.

It was pleasant not being bombarded with political stuff. Not being hit with the situation in Ukraine or Israel, which is pointless, and the banning of Geo engineering. I just want a quiet life, that I can live with Kelli, eat good food and challenge each other on issues that keep our brains turning.

Kelli found documentaries about all the beautiful buildings that were supposed to have been built by people who could barely cut a piece of wood, this is blowing my mind at the moment.

17th July 2025

A big temperature drop today, and I noticed it the moment I walked out the front door.

The AC in the truck was immediately turned off, not sure if this a downward trend, but it was noticeably different.

Kelli had a doctor’s appointment, so off to Zeeland we went, stopped off at Plato’s with more of Kelli’s clothes to convert into cash.

The appointment was quite low key, she continues to progress, and he was excited to hear that she is using radical acceptance as a way to control her anger when she gets awaken and unable to return to sleep.

It makes a big difference for me also.

There was no pool day, but I did make some progress on the island. The door that is the basis for the structure had been cut down so I could use the bottom section as a return. This left me with an incomplete end, so today I inserted a new piece of timber to make the piece more symmetrical. There is still a lot of structural pieces to build, but now I have more paint to strip off.

16th July 2025

It was another heavy day, the heat was oppressive, I continued removing the paint from the old door. It was not easy, the stripper dried before it had a chance to act on the paint. I made more progress with a sharp chisel, finally finishing one side of the door.

It was a great day for gluing up wood pieces, for the construction of the island.

By the end of that, I was a dripping mess, my eyes were stinging from the sweat oozing from my forehead, a break for lunch gave me the opportunity to change to get in the pool.

That is always a fantastic relief, however my float somehow developed a leak, and slowly I sank beneath the surface.

It gave me the energy to finish off sanding a dresser, and finish machining all my timber.

The weather certainly saps my strength, the ground is crying out for water, lots of it.

15th July 2025

Conspiracy Theories are all around us, it’s so easy to get sucked into them, and they can alienate you from everyone. 

The JFK assassination was a big one,  Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman it was reported. The theory of an organised conspiracy was rejected by the Warren Commission, but what happened? Lo and behold it has been established that there were several assassins involved, and even the CIA were involved. 

I’m sure it can be proved that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t even involved and just a patsy in the whole plot. 

There is another, if will soon be proven that the Covid vaccine will have killed more people than it had saved.

The moon landing is a big one, I had alway believed that to be true, but Neil Armstrong never gave interviews, and Buzz Aldren gets aggressive when asked questions about it.

Some say that technology in 1969 was superior to that of today, but we know that is not true, but it’s interesting that there hasn’t been any return trips there for many years.

So one could say that conspiracy theory only last until they are proven true.

There are times when I agree with Shakespeare, that all the world’s a stage, and everything that happens are staged to divert our attention. Distraction is the important word, watch what is going on, then wait for the distraction. It’s like we’re all living in the Truman Show.

What is not a conspiracy, is the work I completed in the garage. All the drawers in the secretary desk now work perfectly, and I cut up all the reclaimed timber I had for the kitchen Island project. It was hot, and my tee shirt looked like I had an accident breast feeding, or so the neighbour said.

14th July 2025

We get through a lot of bird seed. I am sure that we are providing social security for the feathered community. Instead of allowing the birds to do what they do naturally, we bring the food to them. That is why our birds are so bloody fat!

They don’t fly to the feeding station they waddle, I’m sure they would take a Uber if they could.

At least we have stopped the squirrels, the bird seed contains paprika, and those scrounging bastards don’t like it. It must have been the first time you’ve tasted a vindaloo, it’s slow to start, but then you want to drink a trough full of water.

So that appears to work, saving us a lot of money.

However there is a pest eating leaves off a number of plants in the front garden. We suspected it was Japanese beetles, so we went searching for traps, but two places we tried had sold out. In the end we had to buy a spray that is supposed to kill on contact, I will believe it when I see it.

Once we were back home I spent time making new drawer guides for the secretary. I also starting cutting timber for the kitchen island.

I used a number of old floor joists that we got free last year, these seem to be old pine, the slow grown type, some still have resin seeping out.

A quick splash in the pool to finish the day was fully appreciated.

13th July 2025

I only had one job to do, and the took for ever.

I had to plug the holes in the drawer fronts of the secretary, so that I could fix different handles that had different fixing centres. This had to be done because one was missing.

I marked the position for the new holes and typically they we really close to the old holes. I even fitted my drilling jig, clamping it down so it didn’t move, and started drilling.

Somehow something moved, the dowels that I used to plug the holes resisted the drill, and the centres were out.

I was messing about with this for ages.

In the end a made a jig from a timber block and used a drill to position the first hole and then clamped the block, adding another block to stop any possible rotation. Careful drilling cut a new passage in the front, once I took the jig away I could see how much the hole was out.

There was a wave of relief, the handle covered the old hole, thank goodness.

By now I was a sweating blob, but it was done.

We took pictures and posted it, hoping for a quick sale.