Author: peterb51

26th May 2025

Well the family dinner didn’t happen today, and it wasn’t Kelli who wasn’t feeling up for it, it was her mother.

I could go into all the issue she has, but I won’t, other to say she is spending her day in a gloom of sadness and grief. Some days she’s up, and other days she’s down. ( mmm must run in the family)

Anyway, that didn’t happen so we spent the day working on the garden. It was a little more focused, cutting back invasive stuff from other people’s gardens. I cleared leaves from the side of the garage, that had become a dumping ground, so some bonfires have to be lit to get rid of the pieces of wood that are stacked there.

We also had to go to collect a dresser, the lady was very outgoing and recognised my accent straight away. I made the same excuse that I got lost and ended up in Holland, which I’m sure she believed. The lady was clearing out her house as her children had left home, she needed to de-clutter. We struggled down the steps and loaded the dresser into the truck, and headed home.

I managed to sweep up most of the maple seeds and removed grass from between the raspberry bushes. It was a day well spent.

I did go over to  Larry’s to help him unload a new mattress, the sort that you have to release the seal, and watch as it expands. Consider his health issues it was very optimistic buying a new mattress, but I wouldn’t say that out loud for fear of being insensitive.

25th May 2025

Gardening is a huge distraction, everything about it drives me crazy.

It was time to sort the deck out, it was dirty and needed a good clean. I entered the shed and found the pressure washer, a machine that I enjoy using, except when it’s cold.

After hooking up the water hose, and the electric supply I then connected to hose to the nozzle, I was ready to clean.

I was then distracted for the first time, I decided to get the rake and try to collect all the maple seeds that had landed on the back lawn. That proved difficult, so Kelli suggested using the lawn mower to suck them all up. I got the lawn mower out of the shed and started it up. These seeds were defiant, hardly any were collected. 

At that point I remembered what I was going to do. I started to move the deck furniture about, I thought cleaning the first corner would be the best idea. Then I saw a lot of leaves in the pebbles around the deck, so I started to clear them, picking up dry leaves is not the easiest task, but I persisted, soon that area was cleared.

Now it was time for the press washer to come into its own. The dirt on the decking was blasted away, a satisfying feeling came over me. Gradually the deck was becoming clear of all the grime, and looking like new again.

Kelli was using the strimmer along the edges of the grass, complaining about how heavy it was, “its bloody plastic,” I thought, the heaviest thing about it was the battery, I continued jetting down the deck. 

Then she went over to the shed to pull up the grass that was growing through the wooden steps to the shed.

Often I kept hearing screams coming from my wife as she discovered a spider, I thought she had trodden on a dog, it was that loud.

Finally everything that could be sprayed was clean, and dripping.

Next it was cleaning the leaves from the patio area, there was masses under the holly bush, I swept all that out and scooped it up and emptied it into our yard waste bin. 

By this time it was almost dinner time, so I cleared everything away and moved the bin near the back gate.

Then I noticed there was grass growing amongst the plants in the flower bed, so I got distracted yet again and started to pull it all out. Strangely satisfying, I sat for ages doing this, completely forgetting that Kelli called me in for food. 

I blame the garden for taking over my life, although Kelli left the bread in the toaster forgetting to turn it on, so you see it’s not just me.

24th May 2025

I watched a new product presentation by James Dyson that was held in Japan of a new vacuum cleaner. For a man who has been very successful at sucking and blowing, this was an interesting new concept. 

The product is called the PencilVac, and as its name implies it is very small. What is interesting is that the cleaning head contains four conical rotating heads, two of which are counter rotating. James described the benefit of this design were vacuuming up hair that usually gets wrapped around normal single brushes. Now I can contest to that.

The conical design forces the hair down the to the small end of the cone where it falls off and then is sucked up. All this sounds great, and I am now interested. 

Each cone is driven by an high speed motor, there is a fifth motor housed in the handle that sucks everything into a collection container.

This is where the design hits the buffers, the collection container fits into the handle that is only 38mm in diameter, so unless you live in a postage stamp you will need to keep emptying the darn thing every five minutes. I’m sure the Japanese will love this appliance because their houses are small, and they love technology, but on a practical side, it’s not very practical.

I admire Dyson, I’m sure the concept will evolve into more sensible applications, but with five motors it won’t be cheap.

We did some shopping early as a lot of places will be closed on Monday, then we got on to some serious furniture business.

The rocker was finished and the lady came to collected it, so a bit of space in the garage, I’m sure ready for something else to take up residence.

23rd May 2025

Kelli’s anti personnel fence withstood the night, there were no dead squirrels or confused joggers anywhere. I even confronted the relief postman, and told him I had a footprint in the soil that I would use in evidence if he ever did it again. Of course he had to remove his earbuds which was probably the reason he didn’t hear Kelli shouting at him yesterday. I’m sure that not legal to drive with the ears covered.

We set out with a long list of tasks for the day.

I man-handled the dresser that was in the truck to check if the carcass was okay. Apart from a couple of drawer guides that have to be replaced it was in good condition.

I did some polishing to the dark dresser we got from the basement of the house clearance.

Although from six feet it looks fine, up close you can tell it’s been refinished, there are a few runs that I know is there, but it’s going to be priced really cheap, it we cannot sell it, I might strip it back, but it would be a long job, and there would be no guarantee that we would get our money back. That is always the dilemma, how far do we go? generally we repair any broken parts, and make sure the structure is good, but there will alway be some nicks that we can’t fill.

We did start preparing two dressers that we will run a small production line, these are quick and dirty pieces, but as it will be memorial weekend, we don’t expect much action, but as all the holiday cottages will be opening up, hopefully someone will need new furniture.

22nd May 2025

Another day dawns, the refuse trucks rumble up and down the streets, and the postal truck came down the road. We know the usual posty, a tall beared chap who is cheerful and friendly.

However this was not our man, he was an alternative. He made the fatal mistake of walking over our newly seeded wild flower garden. I heard a thunderous sound from the bathroom, the birds all flew away, the squirrels started digging holes to hide. Kelli saw him, and let him have both barrels, but I think he was too dumb to realise. She was straight on the phone to the post office giving them a piece of her mind, no postal worker is now safe.

Action had to be taken, wishing a shout time a fence of bamboo sticks and twine was erected, a symbol of “don’t you dare effin try it again sunshine”.

On top of that I had another visit from a bug killer person, even when I said I wasn’t interested he still persisted, going though his act, and I didn’t want to be rude, so when he took breath I asked him how much it cost.

$200 if iI signed up today was his answer, saving me 60%.

I told him I wasn’t interested, that went down to $150, I’m sure I would have got it down further, but I was interrupted by my wife telling me about two dressers free by the side of the road.

That was all the excuse I needed.

It was like the pilots during the Battle of Britain running for their planes, but for us, we had to unload what was still in the car from yesterday.

Once that was deposited on to the driveway we set off.

We must have passed the house hundreds of times in the past, it stood out because it had a pro Trump flag outside.

There were two pieces by the roadside, one a mid century style dresser and a tall dresser of a more traditional style.

We made two trips to that place, and now the garage is even more stuffed to the rafters.

However we managed to finish the white storage/ shelf unit that Greer wanted, so she came to collect it, but as one leaves four get added. I’m glad that most of them are in good shape, and will require cleaning and painting.

But it was an exhausting day, Kelli managed to prime the rocking chair, that should be out this week, I just hope there are no more roadside treasures awaiting at the moment, I don’t think I can take any more.

21st May 2025

The wet weather continues. 

Kelli had found a free pair of matching dressers in Allandale, so once our breakfast was finished we set off. Allandale is about half an hour north, with many farms and nurseries on the way.

Kelli showed me pictures last night, one did look a bit rough at the bottom where the paint was flaking off, this was due to water damage she was told. This usually means the side panels are rotten, but when we got there the sides seemed solid and unaffected by any water.

We managed to get both in the back of the truck and headed home. We were expecting the buyer of our latest posting to come to collect, and as always there are some last minute tweaks to do.

Kelli received a call from Larry to ask if someone could take him to the hospital for some tests. I volunteered, and drove over to collect him.

The poor chap is suffering, his face is swollen from all the drugs they are giving him. His lungs are full of mucus, and he’s really in a bad way.

I took him to the front door of the A&E and found a wheelchair for him, fortunately a security man came out and took him inside, hopefully he will come out again.

The lady for the dresser was late, Kelli had gone inside to start the dinner, when she arrived.

Sometimes a buyer will take one look and hand over the money, some almost do a forensic examination of everything before they decide.

There was one drawer that was a bit stiff, I knelt down to take a look. I noticed a nail point sticking through the rail, that was rubbing on the drawer box bottom edge. I took a pair of snips and cut off the point, and filed the rest down flush, job done.

I heard Kelli open the door from the house, she saw what was going on, and quietly slinked back in the house, obviously she didn’t want to get involved, typical!

20th May 2025

The gardens and roads are covered in those bloody maple helicopter seed pods, they are everywhere. Now I have to contend with those hundreds of tiny maple tree springing up in any patch of dirt.

Nature loves to play those tricks with us poor saps trying to keep up with the gardening.

it continues to taunt us, now if nature was more efficient it would bombard us with seeds, blossom and any other delight, at the same time.

We have a tree that smells like a monkey’s ass, but it’s glorious when the blossoms are out.

Now first the blossoms fall and cover everything, the driveway the car, they blow into the garage and get everywhere. They then turn blown, and patch themselves together making it difficult to sweep up, I could fill the garden waste bin with just that. Soon after that the stalks fall, and again cover the same area I have just cleaned up. After filling another bin, I am now faced with the seed pods, these are thin and really difficult to sweep up, and every year I forget, only to be reminded when they appear.

Don’t get me started on dandelions.

My re-turfed lawn still looks a mess, but with all the rain we had today, I hope it will soon start to improve its appearance.

The media is full of the Biden cancer stories. Now it appears that he may have had the condition for over ten years, and with all his medical exams it was not detected, very suspicious. 

There are some very cruel people about, saying nasty and vicious things about him, the man is now fighting for his life, he deserves support not hate. The two camps that exist in America are incapable of compassion and compromise, and this divide will continue on for generations.

What I hear about what’s going on in Britain is also concerning, and it makes me sad to think that things can get so bad, without anyone making a stand against it. 

On a lighter note, Kelli made granola today, all with natural ingredients, I tasted a spoonful and told her “ Wow! This is really good, the best so far, what is different?”

Without hesitation she said “ I didn’t burn it this time”.

19th May 2025

I have to stop the dogs pissing on my new grass, I want to allow the stuff to root, so as soon as I let them out I chase them to the upper part of the garden where the grass is so old it seems to resist the nitrogen the animals deposit.

It was a typical Monday, shopping and returns.

Kelli had bought things yesterday at Goodwill, so they were the first on the list, then on to UPS for Amazon returns, then on to TJ Max.

Once that was finally done, I wanted to get things completed . I’m energised to do more to my project, but my focus has to be on getting product finished so they can be posted.

The lady up the road who wanted Larry’s old rocking chair, came down having decided on a colour, gave us a cheque, so now that has moved up the line for completion.

The nights have been much better the last couple of days which helps with my sanity, and of course with Kelli’s.

18th May 2025

I wanted to do something different today. 

A week ago I attempted to reseed a number of crappy areas of the back lawn, but after looking at it I couldn’t see any positive changes taking place. Normally after this time, with regular watering, I would see something happening.

So today I was going to place new turf on these bad places. I had bought three rolls, each one five foot long by two foot wide, I thought this would be plenty. Rather than cutting the turf into small pieces to fill the spaces I decided to clear a lot of the patchy grass, and lay new strips. This was harder than it looked. Most of the grass had rooted well and resisted my attempts to remove it.  I hated to remove good grass and just throw it away, instead I took it to an area where  have placed other grass that I had removed from the front when I remodelled the flower bed.

That grass had established well, now I was able to add more.

I was surprised where the turf went, I only managed to cover the worst areas, there were still many patches left to do, I might try to use some of the lumps I’ve removed to fill in.

When I’d finished, it looked a bloody mess, I know it takes a bit of time to take root, and blend in, but if it fails, I’ll cover the area with gravel.

Kelli has always expressed concern over the literacy of Americans. She had showed me many examples of bad grammar and sometimes the use of completely incorrect words, but this one on Market place made me laugh.

17th May 2025

We had to collect the last piece of furniture from the house clearance place where we got the two pieces yesterday. The same crew were there again working on the upstairs. What we were there for was still in the garage. It didn’t look any better today than it did yesterday. We removed the drawers first, some of them came apart as we pulled them out. That feeling of “should we bother” came to mind, but we assured the owner that we would transform it back to a desirable piece. 

Carefully we carried the carcass through a narrow gap between the house and the trailer of the removal team. 

Before we could load it into our truck, I had to remove three rolls of turf that I bought to patch in the lawn.

The shape of the drawers made it difficult to add them inside the truck. The only was was to pull the carcass out and refit them back in place.

Once all that was done I repacked my turf and we set off home.

The weather was drastically different today than it was yesterday, it was back on with the flannel shirts, but I still managed to work outside.

Off loading the dresser was hard, the thing now with the drawers was heavy. I grabbed a trolley and with great care managed to fit it on making it easy to move.

I gave the bottom a good clean, there was all sorts of wildlife living under there.

I was keen to see what the top condition was. There was heavy staining in the middle of the top that would not come out, so saving that was not an option. I had a number of small jobs to do, like repairing  drawer from another dresser, staining a leg frame I made for another piece, and trying to unstick something I glued yesterday, unsuccessfully.

The lady from up the road came round to look at colour samples for a rocking chair that we sold her, but she could decide what colour she wanted, she is not the most decisive person.

We had no takers for the free stuff that I carried back to the end of the driveway.