Author: peterb51

25th April 2024

What is real friendship? Since I’ve been here, I have noticed that family is more significant than friends, as one would expect. But I’ve noticed that if you don’t put yourself forward, and invite people we know, out for dinner, or generally hang out, no one reciprocates. It’s always us that makes the first move, and it’s bugging me.

We always have a good time with people, plenty of conversation and laughter, all feeling perfectly normal, but at the end we go our separate ways, promising to get together again soon, but nothing happens.

I noticed that when I used to go to the Design Yard for meetings everyone was friendly and helpful, but as soon as I walked out through the door I was forgotten.

Does there have to be an “angle”? Do people use friendship to get advantage? are we only attractive if we have something to offer? That I’m not sure. I have spoken in the past that “ putting the kettle on” over here is an unknown concept, you might get too comfortable, and stay too long.

There are a few that I know here that I believe are genuine up to a point, they live in their bubble of politics and religion and keep others at arms length.

We have started an experiment to see of our “friends” if any will invite us out without prompting, I have suspicions that none will.

And that will prove that there is no soul here, “have a good day” is a hollow saying, in the same way as “take care” doesn’t mean they do.

In the end it’s not the end of the world, I have Kelli, and she has me, that’s all we need.

But it does raise another question, maybe they just don’t like me?

24th April 2024

Another Wednesday in my life, and predicted visit to Aldi. What joy there is finding a coin left in the shopping trolley, but also the guilt of taking it. I established the reason why it was left in the slot, it was jammed. Now it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out how to free it, because I’m not, but using basic engineering knowledge I wiggled it free. Imagine my delight when I found another trolley with the same issue. But rather than getting drunk on my success, I left it for another problem solver to remove it.

Kelli insisted that I leave the coin on the window sill by the trolleys. I reluctantly did on the proviso that if it was still there when I returned the trolly, I would take it.

However guilt took a hand and I left it for someone less fortunate than myself, my good deed for the day.

I was fortunate to visit Starbucks on my own while Kelli took even more old clothes to Plato’s, I think they should rename the place to incorporate the name of its major benefactor.

I had thirty minutes to get to the place have my beverage and return. It gets so serious that I have to set my timer, if I don’t, I run the risk of Kelli finding more clothes to buy, thus defeating the point of going there in the first place.

Fortunately she only found a couple of things, and as they had a seventy percent off sale it wasn’t as expensive as it could have been.

Once that was over we had to collect a large umbrella to for our outdoor dining table. We planned to do it yesterday, but neither of us had the exact money, correction, I didn’t have the correct money.

It always takes us most of the day to do the shopping stuff, so little gets done in the garage.

Kelli had planned to make spaghetti bolognaise, a simple dish, meaning we had some time to put the finishing touches to the two dressers that hopefully will be picked up on Saturday, I say hopefully because we know what the bloody Dutch Hollanders can be like.

23rd April 2024

We finally moved some of the pieces we had been storing for a lady who lived in Florida, but was moving back to Holland. We agreed to meet at a nearby storage facility where they had rented a room. When we got there the lady and her husband let us into the compound, and led us to their rental space. I don’t think you could rent a smaller place, it was like walking into a cupboard. Considering we were delivering a dining table and four chairs, two dressers and two side tables, and a headboard, although we hadn’t started that yet, we would be lucky if we would get it all in. But that wasn’t really our problem, we needed the space and it was a relief to get it out of our hands. The couple were moving back after living in Florida for the last six years, they still had a house to sell there, and somewhere to buy here, not an easy task, as property in Holland is expensive and very difficult to find.

Still we managed to squeeze most of the pieces into the space, with just one more dresser to go.

I managed to strip the second half of the table, and bought the materials to finish it.

It was rather windy, which meant most of the sanding dust blew away, fortunately in a different direction.

22nd April 2024

It was start the table day, first it had to be stripped down, and because it was sunny I could work on it outside.

I was told it was solid maple, so I set about scraping the old finish off.

I was able to remove it very easily, and it was solid, but not solid maple. It was soft and sanded very easily, it was pale, more like poplar.

I managed to strip one half very quickly giving me time to do a bit of weeding in the garden.

Kelli had finished the mid century dresser so we took pictures outside, it wasn’t the best example to begin with, so I hope someone out there likes it.

21st April 2024

Finally I did some garden work. After a long winter time I got the chance to cut down the grasses and sweep up the leaves that we heaped onto the flower beds. Having a large garden area will take quite a time to clear, so I’ll have to dedicate a bit of time each day to the garden. It was a sunny day, but cold, it was definitely coat weather although the top of my head got the sun, ouch! When I got into the shower.

Kelli wanted to paint the mid century dresser, which came out well, the piece wasn’t the best quality, and the original paint finish was terrible, but after a lot of sanding and filling we got it the best we could.

There seems to be more activity over the road. After the guy’s wife was taken away by the police Friday. The guy himself was walking about in shorts and tee shirt, which as it was cold was not the attire to be wearing. Later he walked back, got in his Jeep and went tearing down the road, he arrived back some time later. The house remained in total darkness for the rest of the evening and into the night. This is a family that are never about, their children play outside but we hardly ever see the parents, I know that Kelli is dying to find out what is going on.

20th April 2024

There’s never a dull moment, or so it seems here in Holland. Kelli had bought another dresser that had to be collected today.

As we were running on fumes, we had to get fuel first. After handing over a twenty to a lady with more piercing than a porcupine, I pumped the gas. Then it was off to find the house with the dresser. It looked quite substantial and it took a bit of effort to get it into the truck, but it was yet another long one. Stopping off at Menards for some supplies we headed back.

I, as usual was minding my own business when the sharp eyes of my wife spotted a bench by the side of the road. My only inclination that something was up was the sudden about turn, and sprint back the way we came.

Then I saw it sitting next to the road. The truck suffered to a stop in a driveway next to the piece. Kelli jumped out to talk to a girl working on the front door. I could see how the discussion was going so I got out the car to look over the bench. The paint was chipped around the seat, but otherwise it was in good shape. However there was no room in the back, therefore the only option was the roof. We strapped it down with bungees and drove back looking like the Beverly Hillbillies were back in town.

Once we were back I had to take the desk apart that we got yesterday. Kelli managed to get a sale for the side tables from a lady that bought a dresser from us a couple of days ago, she also possibly sold the bench to the same person, funny how things turned out.

The desk was a bugger to take apart, there were hidden screws and nails holding it together, but it succumbed to my delicate hands, and a large mallet.

A totally unplanned project was the repainting of the bookcase in our living space. Kelli wanted to change the colour because there were to many pieces within the same colour range, so while we were at Menards we chose one, and she couldn’t wait to try it.

Everything had to stop for this, but it turned out well, and now we can concentrate on our real jobs.

19th April 2024

There was drama at Central Bay this evening.

Two police vehicles were parked on the road opposite our house. Kelli was at the window trying to listen to what was being said, even opening the windows slightly for a bit more clarity. The officers were over at the house opposite, but slightly further up talking to the owner. Later the owner’s wife was led in handcuffs to one of the police cars. By now Kelli was going crazy to find out what was happening. We didn’t hear any disturbance, so it remains a mystery.

Normally it’s Larry’s place that get the visit from the constabulary, he must have breathed a sigh of relief on that one.

We drove down to Saugatuck to collect a small desk that we will convert into matching side tables, our usual repurpose.

I went a bit wild and cut in half the large heavy piece we picked up from Hudsonville. We had decided to convert it into just a dresser. We thought this might work for a customer who wanted something for their boys room. When we learned that it wasn’t what they wanted, we decided to repurpose it.

It was a well made piece, but with careful measuring I managed to get both sides the same dimension. I did-assembled what I could, taking off the top, doors and shelf, keeping all the solid oak pieces for other jobs.

Kelli finished the dresser from yesterday, so we took pictures and on to marketplace it went.

We then started on the mid century piece, this needs a lot of love because it was originally painted with a roller, and that really hard to smooth out.

18th April 2024

Well the secret of what was on the micro cassette can be revealed.

Finally I had a machine that could play it, so we wasted no time to insert the tape and press play.

It turned out to be an answering machine tape with a number of short messages on it.

The most interesting was from a lawyer who was mumbling something, but ended with “ and if I don’t hear from you I will pass the information to the authorities”. It’s a shame that we will never know what the information was, but maybe we don’t want to know, but what an anti climax, and why was it hidden?

After that earth shattering revelation we got on with our work.

We worked on a long dresser that hopefully will be finished and posted tomorrow.

Mantesh, the Indian guy from up the road stopped in to ask about the dining table he wanted finishing, I agreed to drive up to collect it later. He was off to California for a few days so wanted it started whilst he was away.

I drove up to his house, and was greeted by him at his front door. There was no sign of his wife, who was probably hiding in the bedroom, she apparently is not very sociable, according to their neighbours.

The table was quite substantial and manufactured by a good company, so I look forward to starting on that one.

Later, when I was closing up and putting the pieces back in the garage, a lady approached me and said that she had bought a piece from up in the past and asked if I could refinish her dining table. Never to turn a job down, I explained our workload and we agreed that I could take it on sometime in May. I guess our reputation is spreading.

The customers came for the piece that they commissioned us to repurpose for them.

And typical I didn’t take a picture of it.

It turned out pretty good, and at least they were delighted with it.

17th April 2024

It’s no surprise that life is a routine thing, there are days that merge into each other, and slip away without any significant differences.

I try to observe differences when we do the shopping, I smile when my accent is noticed, after all it’s the only one I have. I sometimes forget where I am, only brought back to reality by the throaty sound of the V8 trucks.

I have been trying to connect with my friend Chris who I had done a lot of recording with before I moved over here. It’s funny, I seemed to have more time when my visits were short. Now that I have my local phone we have started messaging trying to find this elusive time when we can meet.

We did finally get the large and very heavy furniture piece out of the truck. We think we can repurpose it as a child’s wardrobe and dresser, I bloody hope so. It’s not something I would like to keep moving around.

We made a bit of progress in the garage, finishing off a piece that is due to be picked up tomorrow, and if the weather stays dry we could have another ready by the end of the week.

16th April 2024

There was an early start to the day, and the sun was still shining.

I worked on the top finish for the commissioned piece, and there was a lot of sanding to another dresser we collected recently.

Kelli was still suffering from a head cold she must have caught from me. I deny it of course because it’s been a couple of weeks since I had mine.

However that had slowed her down, but production hasn’t been bad.

Spring is a time to take stock and plan, the trees are starting to have a green tint, so in a couple more weeks the season will move into top gear.

It will be soon time to get the e-bike out of hibernation, get the batteries charged and tyres pumped up, this I’m looking forward the most.

There are lots of plans for the garden, these will be tackled as finance allows.