Author: peterb51

17th February 2026

I didn’t go to John the wood’s barn today, because, there was something we had to do, and I hated it.

Today was the day when we had to pay the property tax. Thieving bastards I call them, maybe not to their face, but I dislike handing over a lot of money, and get no tangible asset in return.

We gritted our teeth and did the deed.

The next thing on my list to hopefully lift my sprit was to remake the twisted door for the combination wardrobe/ dresser.

I looked around for some timber that wasn’t twisted or warped, and finally found some oak in the shed. I ran it through the jointer to flatten it then planed it to the correct thickness.

I managed to machine all the joints, started the reassembly.

We sold a nylon stringed guitar that we bought a few years ago when Kelli had the urge to learn, but that never happened, so we felt it was time to let it go.

She posted it on Marketplace and the response was immediate.

Early evening, Jason turned up, he was a guitar teacher and wanted to get it for one of his students. He liked the feel off the instrument, he quickly tuned it and started playing.

Okay he was better than me, a lot better, well actually light years ahead of me, in fact I was glad when he left, I was intimidated by his skill.

16th February 2026

It was President’s day, a time when every crooked leader of America is celebrated, which just shows how gullible they are. With everything that has been coming out, the satanic worship, pedophilia and fraudulent fortune making activities, you’d think the people would rise up and ignore them, but they carry on as normal.

That what they want, normality, they flaunt it in everyone’s face, code words like pizza, jerky hiding the abuse and torture of children.

It will all come out, people will look more intently at their own children, and just imagine what could happen, IF.

Kelli had an appointment with Brandon, another doctor in the practice, she was not happy with her sleep pattern and wanted to discuss some treatment. We knew what treatment she was talking about, the dreaded stomach push.

This is where downward pressure is applied above the stomach area, then wham! Down it goes. I can’t imagine what that must feel like, but apparently, once the initial discomfort has subsided, it makes a huge difference to how she feels.

Let’s hope the sleeping improves.

It was also shopping day, as usual.

There was more activity over at Larry’s. The lady next door to the property had a go at the builder for peeing up against the barn, this was the same guy we saw do it the other day. We have named him Slash, apparently she threatened him with the police if he did it again. I bet he wished he never took the job on.

15th February 2026

It was a horrible night, for whatever reason, Kelli got three hours of sleep, and I, maybe a bit more, but it wasn’t good.

I can deal with the lack of sleep, Kelli can’t. 

It’s not the case of staying in bed longer, that doesn’t work, and I had arranged a recording session with Chris.

The atmosphere in the house was not great, so it was difficult to hold things together. The dogs sensed the unease, and I did my best to keep them busy.

Chris arrived an hour late, that meant that we only had four hours to create a musical masterpiece.

Recording music is like starting a painting, starting with the rough outline, but importantly keeping to a strict tempo. This might seem easy, but it’s the hardest part, as I often find out working with Chris. It’s important because when it comes to adding more instruments, everything has to sound tight and precise . Some say the music should flow like a stream, speeding up and slowing down in a natural pattern.

That’s okay for a single singer instrumentalist, but when a piece is complex, adhering to beat is crucial.

Well in four hours, we got several guitar tracks down, as well as a cup of tea and a few chocolate biscuits. So success all round.

14th February 2026

The latest situation, by Phoebe

Well the little invader is still here. Every morning, when I think everything is calm and as it was, my peace is interrupted by Winnie getting in my face.

I can’t seem to get away, even at poo time she is alway there dancing around me barking, like some native ritual. It’s getting on my nerves, there is nowhere I can be alone, I even try to tune her out, but she get through that.

I sometimes get separated, and then I have the bed all to myself, the little squirt can’t get to me.

I say little, but she is almost as tall as me, I hate to think how big she will get, I’m not looking forward to that. The only satisfaction I get is getting a bigger treat.

The latest statement from Winnie.

Well I am trying, I’m trying to play with the aloof one, she doesn’t want to join in, I don’t think she knows how to play.

I have this special dance that is supposed to get everyone going, but I just get growls and barks.

Phoebe is so disorganised, she poos all over the place, whereas I have one place where I go, it’s far more civilised. I don’t know if we will ever be friends, but you can’t blame me for trying.

The old git likes to play ball, he thinks it will tire me out, but it does a better job on him. 

He does his best to kick the assortment of balls about, but I get most of them. I like to think that I’m helping him keep busy, and fit.

The annoying thing is he puts me outside every fifteen minutes to have a pee and poop, most of the time it’s most inconvenient. Usually I’m having a nap, then he lifts me up and carries me outside, it’s bloody freezing, he then expects me to place my warm arse on the cold snow, he must think I’m crazy.

I’ve nearly got them trained, I get a treat whether  I’ve done anything or not, mind you, the treat itself is the size of a pea, whilst Phoebe gets a massive biscuit, but, soon I will have the same because I will be bigger than her.

13th February 2026

There is a lot of activity over at Larry’s house. A large U haul truck has been parked, with men loading everything that was in the barn into it.

It goes late into the night, I think there is a ninety day window to remove the contents after the place has sold. Usually there is an estate sale to get rid of stuff, which can bring in some decent cash, but it looks like everything is going somewhere else.

I remember the barn as being a bit of a shit hole, crap everywhere, it’s difficult to imagine what it’s going to look empty.

I had a problem with the door to the combination wardrobe/dresser unit that we have been working on. The door had twisted, so my challenge was to try to correct it. Normally I would have removed the crappy part and replace it with a straight one, but I tried several methods all of which failed. The only solution was to fix a baton on the back, that worked.

Hopefully we will get the piece finished tomorrow.

12th February 2026 

I was back at the Curragh to meet up with Lloyd for a beer. It has been a few weeks, so the bar staff had forgotten us, but we soon got into the swing again.

There were a group of people occupying several tables busy sketching and painting. I was curious and approached who I thought was the leader, she said that they were a group called Urban sketchers, Holland division. Apparently they go round to various locations in the town, cafes, public buildings, pubs and restaurants drawing what they see. I had the honour of taking the group picture. They were a friendly bunch, some of the work was good, far better that I could do. That made an interesting diversion, but soon we got back into the cut and thrust of debate.

Lloyd is a straight down the middle guy, believe everything he hears, and not very flexible to different ideas, I guess that is why we get on. We agree on some things and disagree on a lot more, but that is what’s healthy about it.

There is so much going on in America that is wrong, as I have written often, but if things are true, who is going to be made accountable, and by whom? 

As all governments are liars and frauds,  how can things change.

Lloyd has trouble making the distinction, and I challenged him to step outside the bubble a read  the first twenty pages of a book by Witney Webb called “ One nation under blackmail “, if his mind is not blown, then there is no hope.

Out conversation became so animated, that a young manager came to our table, and joined in. He was from Turkey, so there was a different perspective. 

It’s funny because we came to enjoy a drink together, got so wrapped up in our conversation that the drinks became secondary, maybe talking is much better for us.

11th February 2026 

It was my turn to get manipulated at Kelli’s doctor. I take an appointment twice a year as I have a few aches and I’m interested to see if they can be corrected. Of course I have to accept that I’m bound to have pains in different parts of the body, I’m just curious.

I have had a pain in the neck area for a while, the kind you get if you are exposed to a draught, or slept in an awkward position, that was number one on my list.

Next the ache in my right wrist, which I had treated the last time, still gives me trouble occasionally.

Of course today my wrist didn’t hurt, and I couldn’t locate the area where the pain is centred, but he had a look anyway.

There were many pressure points that are in the wrist, and he found every one of them. The treatment ended with a sharp tug on each of my fingers that I absolutely hate. I have the fear that my finger would pop out, but that didn’t happen.

Then there was attention given to my neck. I remembered the last time when he snapped my neck really hard, so I was a bit apprehensive of the same happening. 

I needn’t have worried, he did it anyway.

The sensation is weird, a crack of the neck and a ringing in my ears. Then there was some muscle massage, that seemed to ease the stiffness, and everything felt better.

Towards the end of the evening, the pain in the neck returned. Kelli assured me that sometimes the corrective work disturbs the area for the next day or two, so let’s see shall we.

10th February 2026

If ever there is an accident waiting to happen it was today.

I was with John at his barn, and was roughing out the new leg for my lounge furniture. I had cut them on a band saw and was then sanding them flat on his vertical belt sander. It was taking a while to do this, and I mentioned to him that the belt was worn out, he then came over with an orange block in his hand. “ I use this to clean the disc and the belt sander. The equipment in question was a combined machine, which in my opinion is a dangerous one. However he then started to rub this block on the disc, and it certainly cleaned it up. Now this disc runs anti-clockwise and he held the block on the left hand side, then, for some apparent reason, he moved it to the right hand side, just as I said the words,” no John..” as the words left my lips the block shot straight from his hand and hit me on the cheek. 

Luckily, it was a hard rubber block so no injury was sustained, but had it been a block of wood, it would have been a different story.

Now he should have known that, and I can see how he had to be supervised to do even the simple things.

I got him to sand the side panels whilst I continued on the legs, he was happy doing that and made a good job of them.

I on the other hand, took a long time to sand the legs with the worn out sanding belt. I decided to take them home to hand finish them.

9th February 2026

Winnie was hyper today, we think it’s the result of the medication for her intestinal parasites.

I bloody hope it’s that, she wears me out, the only game she is getting good at is stopping the balls I kick at her, she might become a famous goalkeeper.

It was shopping day, we haven’t noticed any food prices coming down, so much for Trump’s campaign promises. 

We believe that Larry’s old house has been sold.

There was a strange man wandering about, we saw him take a piss up against an old barrel, of all the places he could have found he had to do it in full view. Anyway this might be the one that’s bought it, and we are told that he plans to renovate it and rent it out. Now, normally property developers buy cheap and then re do it it using cheap materials, but he has probably paid in excess of $250k for it, and I guess he would need to spend $100k to get it up to code, so the rent would have to be high to pay that investment back

8th February  2026

There were some last minute work that needed to be done to the matching dressers before they were being collected later in the afternoon.

It was a great relief that someone jumped in and bought them, I had visions that they would hang around for a while taking up valuable space.

Kelli had arranged the collection time to be 4.30pm, so our time at Kelli’s mums was restricted. 

Two chaps turned up right on time, they lived in Douglas, close to Saugatuck. They were both excited with the pieces saying that they would fit in well with the 1920’s farmhouse they had just bought.

Each of them had brought their own vehicle, and that was just as well.

I was happy that they were happy, and extra happy that they were going to a good home.

There was a bit more snow this morning, that didn’t seem to bother the wild turkeys who strutted down the road and on to our wild patch searching for seeds.