Author: peterb51

3rd July 2026

We finally brought home the upholstery for the new furniture. I drove over to Randy’s about midday, he was at lunch, but after a short wait he reappeared. He apologised because he hadn’t finished two small side cushions, but I wasn’t worried. 

We talked for a long time, I was interested in how he got into the business. I heard about his struggle being gay, and how he was betrayed by people he counted as friends, and how he turned to alcohol, and even reached feeling suicidal. I listened, as he shared his suffering and at times became emotional. We also laughed a lot, he had a good sense of humour.

In the short time I have known him, he is already a friend.

I had to remove the legs of the love seat that had been in his shop for six months, so I could get it out the shop door, but it did make it easy to carry.

Once getting it home we had to move the old pieces out. The sofa was going to Kelli’s mum, and the love seat was going to Kelli’s niece Mandy. She and her fiancée Hunter arrived to transport the pieces to their relative new homes whilst I was faced with refitting the legs to the new love seat and then assembling the sofa from scratch. What didn’t help was a thunderstorm with torrential rain.

I finished the build just before dinner, a bit more adjustments tomorrow, and that should be it.

Being the day before the 4th July celebrations there was a lot of fireworks that frightened Winnie, she sat shaking most of the evening. She vomited twice, which is never pleasant, but this would have been the first time she experienced all this noise.

It effected her badly, her body trembled most of the evening. We stayed up later than usual trying to calm her down, I had not experienced an animal so affected by the noise.

2nd July 2026

There was progress on the furniture, Kelli managed to paint the tall dresser. I had finished preparing the pieces from the lady up the road, now they are ready for finishing. The problem with painting in this heat is the jet clogs up, so had to be cleaned out regularly, but the pool was calling.

The dogs sleep for long periods of time, Winnie having dark hair soaks up the heat quickly, she likes the water, and likes to get sprayed whilst Kelli is watering the garden. We haven’t successfully got her in the pool yet.

Finally we managed to meet up with Lloyd and Nancy for dinner at the Carragh. It had been months since we were able to go out, but with Kelli’s sleeping pattern improving this was definitely a step forward.

However, Kelli did ask what oil they used in their dressing, the reply was soy, this is a big no no for people who value their health.

The industry needs to get smart, as more people understand the dangers of using highly processed seed oils in cooking, they should state the use of olive oils in all their preparations, that’s a good selling point.

1st July 2026

After the drama of yesterday it was dull in comparison.  We needed to get back to the furniture that we needed to finish.

This was easier said than done, the heat was not conducive to outside work.

After a bit of wood repair and more sanding I was done, but there was the pool in the back garden. Climbing into that was heaven, although not cold, it still was a relief to sink below the surface. It was even too hot to carry round the bags of gravel, so they remain stacked on the driveway awaiting a slightly cooler day.

I had a message from Randy to say all the cushions were finished, I replied that I would collect them on Friday, it will be a relief to finish that project.

30th June 2026

I had high hope today, although stonkingly hot, of finishing the repairs to John’s sawmill.

I needed to confirm that I could rotate the motor so that the power tab was on the top. I called Wood Mizer and they confirmed that I could do that. I was anticipating maybe an hours work at the most.

Anyway, I’m getting a little head of myself.

When we both got to John’s barn the thing I dreaded the most happened, he couldn’t find to the key to unlock the door. He fumbled in his pockets and pulled out about twenty keys. On one of them was stamped the words “ Barn” a good indication that this was the one to unlock the door, but no, it didn’t. I was getting a little frustrated. I started to go through every key, whilst John was mumbling to himself. He called his son, asking him to come over, but that couldn’t happen immediately. After about an hour, he turned up. Of course he had a key, but that wasn’t the point, we needed to find where John’s key was. After comparing all the keys we finally found one that would work with a little wiggling. This I kept separate from all the other ones in John’s pocket. Now we could finally do some jobs.

Now back to the saw mill.

I was able to rotate the motor into the correct position, and connected the power tab cable to it, but I wasn’t clear where the ground cable went. Another call to Doug at Wood Mizer left me more confused. He talked about a solenoid, how that had to be fitted and wired up, but I didn’t have a solenoid.

I called to John, I did remember seeing something in a poly bag on the floor, instructing him to go and find it. 

All the time the sun was beating down, I thought I would have finished by now.

Eventually he turned up with the poly bag and solenoid, but no instructions, I expect they were removed and lost among the crap piled up in the office. Another call to Doug, and instructions on how the wiring should go. This I managed to do.

We were unable to test it because all the hydraulic fluid gushed out last week, and the battery was dead, so maybe next week there will be another frantic call to Doug.

By now it was 4.00pm, just enough time to wash the grime from my hands and finish the coffee in the flask.

With my shirt soaked and my eyes stinging I drove back to Holland.

29th June 2026

It was even hotter today, just the job for going shopping. The humidity was high, draining energy and making things uncomfortable.

I was determined to prepare some furniture pieces despite the heat.

There were two dressers and one bench that needed sanding, and at the end I was a dripping mess, my eyes were stinging, and my T-shirt was soaked, but I did do what I set out to do.

The sky was clear, and has been for over a week now, no stripes blocking the sun, the clear blue was there for all to see.

Kelli had read that this geo engineering activity had been halted worldwide, so look up in the skies and check that it’s clear.

28th June 2026

Corr! What a scorcher! Yes we were hit with a hot day, just right for the double birthday party for Kelli’s son and mum. for once it was too hot to work, although I did collect two furniture pieces from a lady up the road who wants them refinished. 

I wanted to cut the grass but all the batteries were dead. I was very angry at myself because I alway put dead ones on charge, so I had to leave the back garden half cut. 

I was planning to get more gravel, but I said “sod that for a game of soldiers” and changed into some lighter clothes.

The family gathering was successful, gifts were received and stories told, as usual I didn’t understand what they were talking about, I sat there getting hotter and hotter. However the cake was great, Kelli made and apple sponge which I devoured enjoying every mouthful.

27th June 2026 

We headed back to the pet store to try a different size harness, although there was some improvement in Winnie’s pulling, there seemed too much slack in the harness.

Now Sod’s Law came into effect because the small pack they had yesterday had been sold, so we returned ours and got a refund. There was another pet store right across the highway, hopefully it would carry the same products.

Well they did, but the small harness was too small. This meant that we had to look at different products that might fit better.

The one we chose was far more robust, a full harness resembling something a fighter pilot would wear to hold his parachute, this must do the job. Of course being a pet shop others brought their dogs into the store, causing Winnie to bark her head off. As the sound reverberated around the building we paid for our purchase and made a hasty retreat.

I was due to have a recording session with Chris in the afternoon. As we only had a limited time, I was hoping he would be on time, but he wasn’t, fifteen minutes late. He wanted to do a vocal recording on a song we worked on a few weeks ago. I set up the microphone, and had several run throughs, he voice was not at its best, but with a cup of camomile tea with honey it improved. In the time, we got something recorded, maybe not the best, but it gave us something to listen to.

Then it was a quick walk with the dogs, and I managed to remove the last of the grass in the area I was planning to lay gravel.

I then levelled out the dirt then laid a landscape membrane over the whole area. I then emptied ten bags of gravel on top. They disappeared and made little impression on the space. I guess I could get another twenty bags to finish the job.

26th June 2026

Over breakfast I made a momentous decision, I watched Winnie ripping clumps of grass from part of the already destroyed back garden.

We were due to hold a duel birthday party for Kelli’s mum  and son on Sunday. That part of the lawn looked shite, and I was embarrassed that anyone should see it.

My decision was to bring forward the plan to replace the patch of grass with gravel and paving. This would mean digging up what grass remained, levelling the soil and put down a landscape quality membrane.

So off I drove to Menards and loaded up ten bags of gravel and a roll of super duper material.  Ten bags is not really enough, but I didn’t want to overload the truck, and it should at least give a base cover. 

As soon as I returned I started on the grass removal. I didn’t about half the area then I had to visit Henry, I should have cancelled, but his wife wanted some work done to some old family history bed frames, and this was my opportunity to check the job out. 

I arrived and saw the new concrete pathway and patio area that had been laid the previous week.

Henry greeted me at the front door. I complemented him on the result, but he wasn’t too happy with it. He identified that there was no slope in a certain part or the patio, and he was trying to get the contractor to return and fix it.

“Oh the trouble with builders” he lamented, “ You put your trust in people you expect to know, and they end up doing a shit job” I nodded, I had my own issue with the corian top in the kitchen.

We retreated to the deck that overlooked Lake Michigan, a breathtaking site, for coffee.

His wife showed me the problem with the beds, not a difficult job, maybe half a days to fix three frames.

I like talking to Henry, I learn more about him each time we meet, and in a lot of ways we are similar. Three hours flew by, he showed me his latest work in his studio. His latest clay work reminded me of Henry Moore’s work,  but a little more edgy, I’m not sure if he took it as a compliment, but he should.

25th June 2026

Finally got round to see Randy, and approve what he did to the cushions. Now all he has to do is finish sewing up the back cushion covers and then the side ones, I’m hoping that will be finished at the weekend.

We then drove to a large pet store, we needed a better collar for Winnie, she is so strong and continuously pulls on the lead, this was getting out of hand. 

We watch some training videos but needed some advice on the best collar to get. 

There are some with spikes on the inside that can jab her neck if she pulled, but that sounded a bit severe, brutal.

We chose a harness that looked better, and couldn’t wait to get home and try it out.

There was a definite improvement, not perfect, but without the face covering she responded better.

We also learnt that taking her on a short walk separated from Phoebe helped as well, but how we handle that going forward has to be thought out.

I did another bit of digging, it was not any easier, my body complained, I listened, and rested for the rest of the day.

 24th June 2026

We had a dresser to deliver to West Olive, and one to collect in Hudsonville, which should I do first?

It was not going to be sunny day according to the weather people, so collecting and delivering was the perfect task.

The West Olive run would allow me the opportunity to drop in to Randy, and check progress of the upholstery

In the time I’ve known him, I have concluded that he is one that over promises and under delivers, but the kind of work he undertakes he has to keep many jobs going at the same time, and if easy jobs come in they get done first, quick money, we know how that works.

So that was the plan until I wheeled out the dresser for West Olive I noticed that one side was a bit rough, some contaminate had got blown on to the wet paint, this needed to be sanded back and re painted, so Hudsonville it was.

The seller of this piece had given us instructions of where this was stored, so armed with this I set off whilst Kelli had the respray job.

Hudsonville covers a large area mainly rural, so that is where I was, amongst the farms.

I found the house number, but I had to drive past that and take an opening to a field, I followed a track that led to a barn, in the doorway was the piece. Not quality furniture, but the type we have seen often.

I removed the drawers, the full extent of why it was cheap revealed itself. Most of the metal guides usually attached to the underside of the drawer were detached with one broken drawer a missing guide, not the quick flip I was hoping.

The rain started just as I was loading it into the truck, and became heavy as I made my way back.

I was hoping that Kelli had pushed the other dresser that needed the respray back into the garage, what I didn’t want was a water logged piece.

I needn’t have worried she had things under control.

Once the rain eased off we loaded the dresser into the truck and set off for West Olive.

We made the mistake of taking Winnie, she wouldn’t settle down despite making several stops to see if she needed to have a poo.

On the third stop she did just that.

The delivery was to a trailer park, not a promising start. The young lady was heavily pregnant, so she couldn’t offer much help as the dresser was a heavy beast. We removed all the drawers making the task of lifting it up some steps and through a doorway, but we did it.

When we got back I decided to do a bit of digging in the new bed. That was bloody hard, although the rain should have softened the ground it was still solid. What didn’t help were the small tree roots, well I managed a couple of feet before my body said “ Hey, take it easy” so I did.