Author: peterb51

13th July 2026

Pretty warm as I walked to the mail box to stuff in a couple of Kelli’s packages that will go to new owners.

I am having some trouble with my old Dell laptop. It started to slow right down, and this morning it didn’t want to boot up at all. I read up some troubleshooting information, but it took all day to resolve itself, but it’s not very healthy. 

The splash in the pool was nice, I covered my red chest, there was no point in getting more pain.

It was a funny day, I did a bit of work on Elaine’s job and did some machining of a new leg for the side tables that have been converted from an old desk.

Kelli did a bit of a clean up, getting rid of old paint pots and clearing crap from the floor.

The plants in the new front bed are liking their new home, but the bloody squirrels are already digging holes in it, I must get the catapult out.

12th July 2026

I gave the new plantings a good soak first thing this morning, I think they enjoyed it. I told them to make the best of it as it will be another scorcher today.

I had a video call with Tim Wallace whilst Kelli worked outside pulling up grass that had invaded everything. Once that was over it was pool time. Now I’ve been trying to condition by body to get a tan, I’m fed up with my arms and legs turning  brown and my body staying lilly white, so I had been exposing myself a little at a time. There had been a bit of colour occurring which gave me hope that this was working.

I should note that I had been unable to have any colour other than bright red, so any improvement would have been welcomed.

So I floated in the pool for maybe less than an hour as we had to go up to Kelli mums for the usual ice cream feast.

It wasn’t until we returned, and it was a little cooler, that I felt a little scratchy.

I lifted my T-shirt to reveal a bright red body.

Fortunately it’s is not really sore, but it was a punch to my confidence.

Kelli was having an issue with Larry’s old house. It was supposed to be a rental, but it appears that it is being used as an Airbnb, which is against the zoning from the city. She will not let this issue alone, I expect her to be on the phone tomorrow, watch this space.

11th July 2026

We changed our shopping day. This is an experiment to see if moving it from Monday will make us more productive. Now as every day feels the same anyway, I’m not sure we will find any difference, but we shall see.

I finished moving the soil into the new bed, and, we planted everything we had in it. Now it looks like a pile of dirt with some poor sickly green things stuck in it. At least there is plenty of new deep soil for the roots to grow into.

10th July 2026

Winnie had an appointment at the vets, so Kelli and I went along. She was down to have a rabies jab, but we were not sure about it. Like human vaccine there are added preservatives like mercury and aluminium  that act as an immune system amplifier that allow the live microbe to enter the system. Now that is what we’ve been told, but there is research that shows that both mercury and aluminium stays in the brain and could be a cause of dementia. 

Although the rabies vaccine used by the vet was mercury free it did contain aluminium dioxide, so we were still hesitant. We left there to do a bit more research, mainly if that element is flushed out of the system in a short period afterwards.

Why do we care about our pet? Because animals suffer the same as humans with all the chemicals that we take at the word of the “doctors”. Over here most are just drug dealers, getting bonuses from the pharmaceutical companies prescribing medications that keep the patients coming back for more. It is more often the pharmacist that actually knows if the medication is correct for the person.

So yes, since Covid I do not trust any doctor, some got phenomenally rich administering the vaccine at up to $200 per shot.

Many knew the risks, but the lure of the money overtook the care they should have given to their patients, more of this is gradually seeping out.

I moved a lot of soil into the new bed area, it is back breaking work, I hoping we can start planting many of the plants we’ve had over a week now.

9th July Thursday

I had to get on with it, it had been waiting for a couple of weeks, and hot weather or not, I had to get stuck in. I’m talking about finishing the digging out of the new flower bed between the trees on the front garden.

I continued where I left off, digging row after row of turf and turning it over. I would complete about a couple of feet then stop to drink water and cool down. Thank goodness it wasn’t as hot as it has been, but removing turf is an exhausting job. Bit by bit I made progress, I carefully removed the grass from around the trees, and to my delight I finished that task. 

But I wasn’t finished, I then had to move the soil that had been living on the driveway. Filling a barrow, piling them dirt into the new bed area.

That was a task, equally as hot and exhausted, after many return trips, the pile didn’t seem to get smaller, but at least there are lots of places the dirt can be used for.

8th July 2026

We took a bike ride to the cemetery to check on the flowers on Dave’s grave. Although in the shade, the flowers were full. Considering he liked the sun, and tanned easily, to be placed in a shady spot would not have been his choice.

The ride itself was fun, Kelli’s speed leaves a lot to be desired, she defies the laws of centrifugal forces, it’s a wonder the bike stands up. I do my best to set a pace, but often she is far behind, I have suggested that she uses my slipstream to keep up, but she likes to nose at everyone’s gardens, well that’s her excuse.

In the afternoon I drove down to Elaine’s to look at a couple of jobs she needed done. 

One, she decided not to do, but the other was to fit some shutters into a window that was slightly wider. However, the shutters themselves needed some work, so I loaded them into the truck and headed back. Not before we looked through her barn for some old pine. That place is filled with all sorts of things, her late husband collected everything, there was a box full of aluminium castings that looked like art deco style pieces for a staircase or a balustrade. To an artist, which she is, it is a plethora of endless possibilities, but she is in her eighties, so she better get a move on.

I spent an hour in the pool when I got back, a nice refreshing drift about.

7th July 2026

Yet another drama at the barn, last week we had the debacle with the keys, this week it was getting the machines to work. 

It started when I asked John to turn on the extraction. Off he went to the breaker box, muttering as he went. Ten minutes had gone by and still it wasn’t working. I walked round and looked inside the box to see if I could make sense of it. Each breaker has an odd description, known only to him. In the end it was easier to turn all the breakers on and check if the extractor worked. This took about an hour to resolve, it was like he was learning it all over again. Finally he remembered he had to push another button that activated the system.

So now we had power, and could start to do stuff. I had many ideas, but decided to help John with some wooden platters for his church.

There was some panels left over from the massive elevator structure that he helped with last year, so I cut them up into strips. Then they had to be thickness down to a quarter inch.

This was tricky because if it was fed in against the grain it tore out. It was important to make fine cuts. I was careful to place the panels that I had just machined in a separate pile, but John somehow mixed them up, and introduced a much thicker piece into the sequence. As that went through the machine stuck tripping a circuit breaker. I had to back the adjustment a long way back to remove the panel. I then resumed taking small cuts to get back to the original thickness.

John then decided to help again by adjusting the cut, then the same thing happened again. By now I was a bit pissed off, we had made little progress, I was regretting even using this material, but once upon a time and running again we finished.

We had a guy round who wanted some timber, I agreed to message him with a quote, now I have to find out how to price lumber.

It had felt like a long day, although we had done very little, that included not being able to test the sawmill because John had forgotten to buy hydraulic fluid and a new battery even though it was in his book. 

But that’s John, slowly descending into his small world, although he has memories of long ago everything else remains disjointed and lost.

Well it didn’t take long, Winnie decided to christen one of the sofa cushions. It is not common for her to wee in her sleep, but she’s done it in a few places. To try to reduce the seepage through the covers Kelli bought a waterproof blanket, but since we got rid of the old furniture we can’t find it. We now have to let Winnie out more frequently to hopefully not let it happen again.

6th July 2026

To add another piece to our usual routine, Kelli had a doctor’s appointment.  The last visit resulted in a significant reduction in her supplements, there was high hopes, (on my side) that even more would bite the dust, and to some extent there was. A reduction from six capsules to two was another milestone in Kelli’s journey.

It’s been an extraordinary five years, sometimes difficult to navigate, first with covid and then with the menopausal issues, but with light at the end of the tunnel we take every win we can.

Activity in the garage has continued, we worked on the two refinish jobs for the lady up the road.

I really didn’t have the energy to do more digging on the front garden, but I want to get that done so I can move the pile of dirt that has taken root on the driveway.

5th July 2026

I had every intention to do more digging on the new flower bed in the front garden, in fact I managed to dig another two feet before the rain hit, and stopped play.

Now what would I do? I played ball with Winnie until she got a bit cocky and planted her teeth close to my hand. She is not vicious, just excitable, and I have learnt to move fast.

After an exhausting period, we rested.

As the rain continued, we decided to visit Kelli’s mum for ice cream. 

There were more fireworks, but generally it was a more tame year, maybe the high prices have forced people to prioritise.

4th July 2026

Winnie was not herself when I let her out. Instead of rushing out like her ass was on fire, it was slow almost dreamlike, and completely opposite to how she greets the day.

Kelli called the emergency vet asking for advice.

We were concerned that she might have eaten a plant from the garden that made her vomit last night. I had the job of going through it, and I found that she had eaten grass. 

She was quiet, although she ate all her food it wasn’t the Winnie we knew.

She slept most of the morning, we needed something for her because as it was the big day, the firework activity tonight would be worse.

We headed off to the pet store to return a harness that we thought would help her constantly pulling, that didn’t do much.

Kelli had mentioned a Thunder shirt, a garment that wraps around the animal making it feel safe.

We tried a few of the different sizes to get the best fit, plus a bottle of chews that would also help to calm her.

It seemed to do something, very soon she began to be like her old self, she even played ball with enthusiasm, she was coming back to normal.

Of course the proof would be how she handled the fireworks.

She fell asleep next to Kelli, and even though there was a lot of noise, she wasn’t disturbed, and slept through it all. She even went outside for a pee even with the distant booming sounds in the distance.

We took pictures of the latest dresser, the total result of the day’s effort, even having time for a splash in the pool. 

Well that was the 4th of July activity at 593 Central Bay.